A Reincarnational Reality
by Josephine Laing
I live in a reincarnational reality. In other words, I know reincarnation to be true. And I'm not alone, early Christian texts, before the King James version of the bible, refer to it. Ancient Cabalistic Jewish traditional teachings refer to it, the Asian religions of Hinduism and Buddhism along with the Nature religions of the world all understand the cycles of life and death and rebirth. But more important then any of these is my own personal experience.
My father was a reincarnational child. When a child is just old enough to speak and they talk of a recent past life experience they are considered to be a reincarnational child. Beginning at the age of two, my father told his mother of his death, having been smothered and crushed with his family under the timbers and beams of their home in India. As a young child, he used words from the East Indian language and named his first cat using the East Indian word for cat. He spoke of his imaginary playmate from the Blue Mountains, referring to that range in India. And this was a boy who grew up in relative isolation in the Arizona desert. His mother, a Britisher, knew enough about India, being as it was a British colony at the time, to recognize his word choice and explanations.
But this was only my first experience with the concept and reality of reincarnation. As it turns out, remembering our past lives is easier then remembering our dreams. Early on in my exploration of reincarnation, in the sanctuary of my home and garden and using my intention, I would enter into a relaxed meditative state and simply let myself remember anything of significance to me in this lifetime from a former lifetime that I've had. I did this with my intention alone. As they say, "Intention with attention brings manifestation."
And the results were very fruitful. They explained random fears that I had, or some of my personality tendencies. But mostly they put me at ease for understanding the cycles of life, and helped me to see that I don't have to get it all done in this lifetime. Our time is well spent learning how to love everyone more fully and I believe that our greatest human desire is for peace, and whatever forward progress we can make in this regard is indeed in alignment with our purpose here on earth. But, as I like to say, "in this or another lifetime." Meaning, if we don't get it all done in this lifetime, we will have other opportunities, so what's the rush. I think it's okay to relax a little bit, to not always be so serious and to take time for joy.
During my early investigations into my past lives, I just winged it and followed my own inclinations. But then I decided to delve a little deeper and took a look at how other people have explored this topic. Roger Woolger is one of the renowned contemporary authorities on past life regression therapy and I had the good fortune of meeting him some years back and working with him a little. He taught me a wonderful and very simple exercise for remembering past lives and I'll share the basics of it with you now.
Imagine that you are circling the earth, looking down at the world below. Let yourself notice any area of land, it could be an island or a continent, whichever appeals to you. And then pop on down there on the ground, in your imagination.
Now, intention is everything and some of our past life experiences have been less then pretty. So, when I'm working on my own, I often like to set the intention for a positive past life experience such as recognizing a current loved one in a former lifetime that was also shared. Or, finding out when I may have originally learned a natural skill or talent that I came in with, in this life. It's been my experience that we are in the driver's seat here and can ask for what we want.
But back to Roger's meditation. Once we have landed, in our mind's eye, in a particular locale on the globe, he would have us look at our feet and notice what they look like. Are they bare or are we wearing shoes? Move up the legs, what do our clothes look like? Are we a man or a woman? What are we doing? Are there other people around? What are they doing? Trust whatever the first impressions are. Use the imagination. The intention to recall a past life will direct it there.
Now often, in our past lifetimes, there have been events that were intense, events that carry a highly charged emotional volume, and it can be these events that are the easiest to recall. This is why so often past life recollections are dramatic like my father's childhood memory of his most recent past death. So, that's why I encourage setting the intention for something pleasant while getting started if you choose to work on your own. And one can always skip ahead to a time when a difficult event was resolved. This may be a time later in that same lifetime, or a time in what Roger referred to as the Bardos state, in between lives, when our highest self, our loving and wise spirit essence can access the deeper insights and lessons of our human experiences.
Most people like to do this sort of exploration with a partner, someone who can listen to and witness the story of a given lifetime. Someone who can help to advance the action through gentle verbal suggestion to another time in that lifetime when the circumstances have changed. Someone who can help to glean the wisdoms and deeper messages and understandings of the events that have unfolded. This can be done with a friend who is a similarly adventuresome internal explorer or it can be done with a counselor who is trained in past life regression therapy. If you like the idea of the extra security of using an experienced guide, pick up the yellow pages and call around. You'll find one. There are a number of gifted therapists in our county who are well trained and who enjoy doing this work with their clients.
And the study of reincarnation is no soft science. There are numerous well documented cases of past life recall. During the 1960's and 1970's, Ian Stevenson, M.D. and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia collected more than three thousand cases of children with reincarnation memories like my father's and in many of those cases, the children also exhibited xenoglossy, the ability to know words or speak in another language to which one has had no prior exposure. Many other researchers have explored this topic with conclusive results as well. And one of the most thoroughly verified examples is of a young boy, James Leininger, born in 1998, who not only remembered specific details of his former life as a young fighter pilot, named James Huston, who was shot down and killed in World War Two, but also remembered and was reunited in this lifetime with the now elderly surviving members of his former life's family.
Cases like these make it easier to expand our awareness and see our true nature as humans more clearly. They help us to see the limitations our beliefs can confine us with and how to free ourselves from those unnecessary boundaries. As Louise Hay says, "Our beliefs are only thoughts and thoughts can be changed."
The ancient teaching, later attributed to Christ, carved in stone over the gates of the pre-Christian city of Delphi said, "Know Thyself." When we know what is in our past, we can more appropriately embrace the present and guide our future.
Remembering past lives is not about finding excuses for current behaviors like, "Oh, I don't like to swim because I drowned once in a past life." It's about freeing our self from the confines of past experiences that we most likely are not even aware of which may be responsible for anxieties or attitudes that hold us back from our full and true human potential in this lifetime. So, I invite you to explore these ideas if they call to you. Read some books on the subject, investigate a little bit with a friend or a therapist if you like, or do some on your own as I did. Because understanding and knowing who we truly are helps us to engage more honestly and fully with others. And when we do so, we are more capable of bringing our unique gifts forward to share and thus help to make the world a better place for us all.
© 2011 Josephine Laing
I live in a reincarnational reality. In other words, I know reincarnation to be true. And I'm not alone, early Christian texts, before the King James version of the bible, refer to it. Ancient Cabalistic Jewish traditional teachings refer to it, the Asian religions of Hinduism and Buddhism along with the Nature religions of the world all understand the cycles of life and death and rebirth. But more important then any of these is my own personal experience.
My father was a reincarnational child. When a child is just old enough to speak and they talk of a recent past life experience they are considered to be a reincarnational child. Beginning at the age of two, my father told his mother of his death, having been smothered and crushed with his family under the timbers and beams of their home in India. As a young child, he used words from the East Indian language and named his first cat using the East Indian word for cat. He spoke of his imaginary playmate from the Blue Mountains, referring to that range in India. And this was a boy who grew up in relative isolation in the Arizona desert. His mother, a Britisher, knew enough about India, being as it was a British colony at the time, to recognize his word choice and explanations.
But this was only my first experience with the concept and reality of reincarnation. As it turns out, remembering our past lives is easier then remembering our dreams. Early on in my exploration of reincarnation, in the sanctuary of my home and garden and using my intention, I would enter into a relaxed meditative state and simply let myself remember anything of significance to me in this lifetime from a former lifetime that I've had. I did this with my intention alone. As they say, "Intention with attention brings manifestation."
And the results were very fruitful. They explained random fears that I had, or some of my personality tendencies. But mostly they put me at ease for understanding the cycles of life, and helped me to see that I don't have to get it all done in this lifetime. Our time is well spent learning how to love everyone more fully and I believe that our greatest human desire is for peace, and whatever forward progress we can make in this regard is indeed in alignment with our purpose here on earth. But, as I like to say, "in this or another lifetime." Meaning, if we don't get it all done in this lifetime, we will have other opportunities, so what's the rush. I think it's okay to relax a little bit, to not always be so serious and to take time for joy.
During my early investigations into my past lives, I just winged it and followed my own inclinations. But then I decided to delve a little deeper and took a look at how other people have explored this topic. Roger Woolger is one of the renowned contemporary authorities on past life regression therapy and I had the good fortune of meeting him some years back and working with him a little. He taught me a wonderful and very simple exercise for remembering past lives and I'll share the basics of it with you now.
Imagine that you are circling the earth, looking down at the world below. Let yourself notice any area of land, it could be an island or a continent, whichever appeals to you. And then pop on down there on the ground, in your imagination.
Now, intention is everything and some of our past life experiences have been less then pretty. So, when I'm working on my own, I often like to set the intention for a positive past life experience such as recognizing a current loved one in a former lifetime that was also shared. Or, finding out when I may have originally learned a natural skill or talent that I came in with, in this life. It's been my experience that we are in the driver's seat here and can ask for what we want.
But back to Roger's meditation. Once we have landed, in our mind's eye, in a particular locale on the globe, he would have us look at our feet and notice what they look like. Are they bare or are we wearing shoes? Move up the legs, what do our clothes look like? Are we a man or a woman? What are we doing? Are there other people around? What are they doing? Trust whatever the first impressions are. Use the imagination. The intention to recall a past life will direct it there.
Now often, in our past lifetimes, there have been events that were intense, events that carry a highly charged emotional volume, and it can be these events that are the easiest to recall. This is why so often past life recollections are dramatic like my father's childhood memory of his most recent past death. So, that's why I encourage setting the intention for something pleasant while getting started if you choose to work on your own. And one can always skip ahead to a time when a difficult event was resolved. This may be a time later in that same lifetime, or a time in what Roger referred to as the Bardos state, in between lives, when our highest self, our loving and wise spirit essence can access the deeper insights and lessons of our human experiences.
Most people like to do this sort of exploration with a partner, someone who can listen to and witness the story of a given lifetime. Someone who can help to advance the action through gentle verbal suggestion to another time in that lifetime when the circumstances have changed. Someone who can help to glean the wisdoms and deeper messages and understandings of the events that have unfolded. This can be done with a friend who is a similarly adventuresome internal explorer or it can be done with a counselor who is trained in past life regression therapy. If you like the idea of the extra security of using an experienced guide, pick up the yellow pages and call around. You'll find one. There are a number of gifted therapists in our county who are well trained and who enjoy doing this work with their clients.
And the study of reincarnation is no soft science. There are numerous well documented cases of past life recall. During the 1960's and 1970's, Ian Stevenson, M.D. and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia collected more than three thousand cases of children with reincarnation memories like my father's and in many of those cases, the children also exhibited xenoglossy, the ability to know words or speak in another language to which one has had no prior exposure. Many other researchers have explored this topic with conclusive results as well. And one of the most thoroughly verified examples is of a young boy, James Leininger, born in 1998, who not only remembered specific details of his former life as a young fighter pilot, named James Huston, who was shot down and killed in World War Two, but also remembered and was reunited in this lifetime with the now elderly surviving members of his former life's family.
Cases like these make it easier to expand our awareness and see our true nature as humans more clearly. They help us to see the limitations our beliefs can confine us with and how to free ourselves from those unnecessary boundaries. As Louise Hay says, "Our beliefs are only thoughts and thoughts can be changed."
The ancient teaching, later attributed to Christ, carved in stone over the gates of the pre-Christian city of Delphi said, "Know Thyself." When we know what is in our past, we can more appropriately embrace the present and guide our future.
Remembering past lives is not about finding excuses for current behaviors like, "Oh, I don't like to swim because I drowned once in a past life." It's about freeing our self from the confines of past experiences that we most likely are not even aware of which may be responsible for anxieties or attitudes that hold us back from our full and true human potential in this lifetime. So, I invite you to explore these ideas if they call to you. Read some books on the subject, investigate a little bit with a friend or a therapist if you like, or do some on your own as I did. Because understanding and knowing who we truly are helps us to engage more honestly and fully with others. And when we do so, we are more capable of bringing our unique gifts forward to share and thus help to make the world a better place for us all.
© 2011 Josephine Laing