Tuesday, October 7, 2008

How Past Lives Affect Present Life

Many people are intrigued by the concept of past lives, while others think it is a foolish waste of time. The books of Brian Weiss, M.D. are an excellent resource on this topic. He himself was trained in Yale Medical School and raised in a religion that did not have reincarnation as one of its tenets. It was through working with clients that he discovered that when they recalled past lives that their problems would be relieved. It seems to be that the root cause, once reviewed, allows the person to see how a certain pain or phobia came to manifest in this lifetime. Then once those stories were recalled, they seemed to help release the energy connected to that problem with the psychic burden lifted, physical healing could also ensue. Of course, no one is saying that all physical problems have a psychic cause. Some problems are simply physical and respond to surgery and medicine.

Dr. Weiss began as a skeptic, and used traditional methods of talk therapy and psychotropic drugs to try and help his breakthrough patient get relief for her problems. Finally, after failing to make progress with any other technique, he tried hypnosis and suddenly she was recalling past lives. Suddenly, she was also showing signs of improvement.

Another way of understanding this concept is in reference to a technique called reframing. In other words, when we take a look at a problem from a different point of view, it is possible to get a different answer. If we like the concept of parallel universes and simultaneous lifetimes, this would be one way to explain why it works.Another would be that even within the context of a single lifetime, looking at the problem from a whole different story perspective allows us to experience it differently.

Sometimes people have an easier time recognizing the important points in a story when it is contained within another narrative. Think of the parallels. A person has a few marriages or a few career changes in this lifetime, but they don't see the pattern to it all. Then they relax and recall some stories of a farmer and his wife, or the troubadour and his lady or the hunter and the hunted or the noble and their servants. Being a step removed from the story can add clarity.In some cases, past life recall may cause you to want to do something different with this life. In other cases, it can be helpful in confirming the path we are already on. In my own case, I had a medical problem at birth. I always wondered why. Later on, I also discovered that certain abilities came to me naturally. And I wondered why this was so.

A past life story answered these questions for me. That did not make me do anything differently, but it gave me satisfaction to see that there was some sense to my circumstance. This experience strengthened my resolve to continue doing the things I have been doing, so it was useful in that sense.

Past lives can be useful in our present life. And who doesn't like a good story, especially one that you are in yourself?

1 comment:

SisterJ0 said...

What was the past life story that helped you understand your medical problem at birth? How many past lives have you been able to recall that you found helpful?