Past Life Influences:

[Kern]

While contemplating about past lives the other day,I began to wonder how much influence does those past lives have on one today?

For example,Lets say that a person lived in ancient Ireland and had a very long life,and in another life they lived in Wales and had a long life also but not as long as the one in Ireland,then in another life they lived in Anglo Saxon times in Britian but that life was shorter than the ones in Ireland,and Wales.Could this be the reason why that person today is drawn to one area more than another?

Then I began to think,Well some would say, what about the reason why we dont have interest in other areas or some never have any interest at all. Well maybe this is because during those past lives we died in the womb or during infancy or at a young age.

And what about the people who have interests that are not religious,but do culturally,maybe in those past lives they were not religious people,but just simple folk.

Summory:
This could explain why some are more interested in ancient Egypt religiously or otherwise even though they have no Egyptian blood in them.

This would imply if true,that ones spirit and spiritual past lives are more important than bloodlines.Where our spirit has been links us to our past lives human or otherwise,and would also explain why we are drawn to certain areas,animals,plants,trees,etc.over others. And where the lack of interest resides could mean an early death at that time or that our spirit didnt dwell there,And the greater the interest the longer that our spirit lived there.

This could also explain why some people have past life memories, of being someone or at a certain place,even though they are of no relation to them or never been to that place.

[DraoinanDuanaire]

This would imply if true,that ones spirit and spiritual past lives are more important than bloodlines.

Could be. There's that pesky idea that lives flow through bloodlines, rather than independent of them, though.

[Kern]

Could be. There's that pesky idea that lives flow through bloodlines, rather than independent of them, though.

True,but that wouldnt explain why some people have past life memories, of being someone or at a certain place,even though they are of no relation to them or never been to that place.

[DraoinanDuanaire]

It would if they've been raised in an environment whose ideas of reincarnation come from more eastern, rather than western, sources.

[Kern]

Hmmm,I dont understand how if A Person has a past life memory of being a painter in New Orleans,La. has anything to do with whether you heard of eastern beliefs or western.And especiallt if at the time you didnt believe in either one.The memory would still be there.
Please explain.........

[DraoinanDuanaire]

Quite simply, the common idea of reincarnation in modern culture is largely drawn from Asia, rather than our own roots. It's a very Hinduesque sort of thing, save dumbed down. Most people aren't aware of the men of Ulster urging Cú Chullain to have a child so "his strength could come again", or the lay of Helgi Hundingsbane, they're aware of a pop-culture interpretation of eastern reincarnation ideas. This seeped into neopaganism through a similar process...ignorance of western thought and a veneer of the exotic on the east.

[DraoinanDuanaire]

To be more blunt, I think a lot of people make it up.

[Kern]

Understood....Yeah I believe some make it up also...I have never had past life experiences meself...And I dont believe in Eastern Philosphies.But some examples seem to be real.Or atleast the ones I seen on this topic on TV specials.

[Morgandria]

Dunno about reincarnation. I certainly think my ancestors share their experiences and memories with me, though.

[Daernius]

Hmm... very interesting thread... definitely something to think about.

[skilly-nilly]

Quite simply, the common idea of reincarnation in modern culture is largely drawn from Asia, rather than our own roots.

Even if one's past life experiences are going to come from our "bloodlines", all of our bloodlines come from the same place at the start. Saying that our known ethnic heritage is all that applies is just like the poster on another thread who identified her family as "ancient"---we're all ancient and we're all from elsewhere. :twitch:

What slight ideation I had about reincarnation came from Ceasar (I believe) writing about how the Irish Warriors were not inhibited by fear of Death because they believed that they would be born again. Until I started having past-life dreams.

I believe that what anyone believes has to be, on one level, experiential. I can research what other people's beliefs are, I can post here and get opinions, but it is my own experiences that (imo) must be the foundation of my beliefs. So I had reserved my opinion ("IT seems likely...") until I had actual experiences to refer to. In those experiences, I was Irish, but that doesn't mean that's all there is by any means---each ancestor who is a part of my past trails behind them a loooooong line of their own ancestors who may also affect me.

In the end, we're all Lucy anyway.

[DraoinanDuanaire]

Even if one's past life experiences are going to come from our "bloodlines", all of our bloodlines come from the same place at the start.

Do not. :)

Saying that our known ethnic heritage is all that applies is just like the poster on another thread who identified her family as "ancient"---we're all ancient and we're all from elsewhere.

Actually, it's a bit different. Bear with my explanation.

In many pre-Christian Celtic and Germanic beliefs, one's "bloodline" is more than a scientific line of lineal descent. It's a mingling of ádh or hamingja, a spiritual binding of common blood and all that comes with it. The bloodline is not all who came before, the bloodline is is the gestalt of dúthchas. That's not necessarily shared with all people one might be distantly related to at all, anymore than brotherhood is shared with apes because we have common ancestors.

That said, I know it's no longer a common belief, so it doesn't bother me or anything when people feel otherwise...I just know how I'll be going. Everyone else's mileage is going to vary, it would appear.

[Morgaine_cla]

Hmmm... Let me throw another wrench into the works.

Our form of Druidry recognises both "Bloodlines" (hereditary through the mother's line) and "Motherlines" (passed down from teacher to student through attunement, as has been documents amongst Scottish and Irish Seers). The hereditary families use these terms almots interchangeably (though the rest of us don't). I've only ever walked this spiritual path, and we're an oral tradition, so my knowledge of other forms of paganism and Druidry are (as yet) limited, but...

From this perspective one might have "Bloodlines" with physical and spiritual ancestors... and thus memberies from both -- for what comes into the aura eventually comes into the body... and the blood.

Thoughts anyone?

Morgaine

[Myrddyn Emrys]

I honestly wish that there was a way that I could express in words as to what it is truly like to have the memories from previous incarnations, and to be able to have tangible proof to back up those words.

All I can say is that it does happen, and can happen. One set of memories is nice, gives you a sense of the true aspect of time, and a feeling of having a place in the cosmos. Having numerous sets of memories is like trying to bail out the Titanic with a teaspoon...overwhelming.

Take my words with a grain of salt, or for fact, it is up to you.

[Meadhbh]

Perhaps its a little of both. If your soul has a deep connection for a certain group of people it only makes sense that you would choose to recarnate amoung those same people. It could be assumed then that by living amoung one group of people for so long and serving whatever gods/ spirits they believe in you become attuned to a certain way of doing things. Hence the concept of the bloodlines and the attachments people feel for certain cultures.

[Ladyvi]

i remember some things. cant prove it as Myrddyn said. i know to the core of my being. how do you rconcile this?.

[Tabbykitty]

Hi Kern,

I guess my reply might be a little late now that everyone has posted here. But since you have asked this question, I'll try to help ya answer this by sharing the experience I have so far had with my past life.

While contemplating about past lives the other day,I began to wonder how much influence does those past lives have on one today?

Well, I don't really know the Western philosophical view about reincarnation, so I won't comment on it. However, as a person who lives in the Far East, I'll share my own experience regarding what I hhave seen and heard.

I do believe past lives exert a very strong influence on who we are today, our interests, likes, dislikes, even the people we attract into our lives. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. As you read through the following, you'll see why.

For me, spiritual lineage or ancestry is much more important than bloodlines. Although I am born in Asia, I have never felt a strong interest or connection in the culture, history or religion of the region. I have since I was very young, had read as much as I could on history, culture and religion in Egypt, the middle east, south america and europe.

I never really understood my interest in things non-asian until I stepped onto a spiritual path to find out about myself. I discovered that although I had past lives in asia, they were not as significant as my lives in places like europe, the middle east and egypt.

Now, I was a great skeptic, still am. Since I started my spiritual journey, I had the opportunity to examine the idea of past lives. I have so far identified 4 and have some measure of proof that one of them is indeed very very real.

Sometime last year, I had memory flashbacks of a lifetime in Europe at the turn of the century eg. 18something - 19something. I uncovered these chunks of memory while I was meditating. Initially, I ignored the memories, because they seemed too crazy to be true. However, when my own body started hurting like mad and the doctors couldn't find any medical reason for the pain, it was brought to my attention that I had done something to accumulate a lot of bad karma during that time.

Well, it was then that I started examining the memories very very carefully and decided to challenge them by doing some research to see if the places I had seen really exist and that the people could really be identified. Well, to my surprise, they were all real!

Still, unable to believe what I had dug up, I put it to another test. I got a psychic, a tarot card reader and another diviner to do separate divinations to see if they all came up with the same thing. Well, surprise surprise, separately, they all came up with similar answers to my questions.

Right about this point in time, when I was still debating the reality of this past life, many strange people entered my life. (eg. witchdoctors, medicine men and other occultists) I didn't ask to bump into them, nor went to seek them out, but they came. One of them even wrote to me out of the blue without knowing why he did it. At that time, I was not really involved in my local new age community, and I couldn't really figure out why I was meeting all these people.

I asked my meditation instructor about why I was attacting all these people and was told that the bad karma I had accumulated in my past life not only caused the pain I was feeling, but the dark energy associated with the karma also attracted people who had an interest in them.

Well, I pooh poohed her explanation and decided to wait a few months and see, but within the space of a week, the amount of unexplained co-incidences got so bad I decided that the best thing to do was to get rid of this karma once and for all.

The thing about receiving back past life memories is that I also received knowledge of things that I had never learned in this lifetime. I found myself recalling pictures, symbols, pieces of foreign languages, and spells that I had never read a word of previously. One of the things I remembered as a result of my past lives, was a spell that could help me release, complete and balance the karma I had accumulated, but it was dangerous and despite advice from friends and even my meditation instructor, I decided to carry it out without their knowledge or consent.

Now, here was the ultimate test as to whether my past life memories really were true. If the spell worked, I would then know that my remembered knowledge is real and my pain would be gone. I then choose a date, time and place to cast this spell, according to the parameters that I remembered for this spell and made my preparations.

The day on which I cast my spell, was the strangest day in my life. En route to my planned destination I met a lot of people who were trying their best to delay me from reaching my destination on time. You won't believe the amount of offers, hinderences and obstacles I had to face to get to the place I had planned.

I have very little expectation regarding spells. I don't expect to see the flashy explosions and lights that they show on TV. It would be enough for me to just get rid of the pain I was feeling. Now, standing on the small hill that I had picked, I did the spell as I remembered it, drew a circle with symbols I don't understand and said stuff I didn't know would work. HOWEVER, believe it or not, the sky above and wind started manifesting really strange weather conditions that er..... accompanied my incantations!

It was a really long spell that took close to an hour or so (probably this isn't long for some ceremonialists, but it sure was long for a newbie like me), but as soon as it was done, I sat down to catch my breath and then when I got up again, all of my bodily pain was gone, like it had never existed!

What was weirder was the fact that when I met my meditation instructor again for my lessons, she asked me, "Did you do something on <the day I did the spell> cos we felt something big happening in the energy flow (of the country) on that day...."

I er.... sat her down before explainnig stuff to her. Funny thing was, she wasn't the least bit surprised.


Well Kern, I hope that answers a bit of your question about past lives and how much influence they can have on your present life. I'd say, if you decide to unlock them completely and challenge their authenticity, you might find yourself confronting some really strange stuff. You might even remember things that you have no reason to know.

Hope this answers your questions a bit.

My two cents.