What's Your Opinion on Past Lives Influencing You, if At All?

[Stephanie47]

My wife and I were watching the NBC Nightly News this past week. As most of you probably know or have seen it mentioned in the media section of this site, NBC covered over two nights in separate segments a transgender very young boy and girl. It was very well done and very informative.

My wife blurted out that she believes those children were of the opposite sex in a past life. She has watched those shows on cable television showing young children who have memories of past persons. I am not totally in agreement with my wife. I really don't know if this concept is in contradiction with religious beliefs. My wife is a firm believer in the afterlife. She has a younger sister who had some of those experiences as a young child.

I really wonder if there is any possibility that there has been some imprint made due to a past life experience. I grew up all boy. I had an older brother. I had only male cousins. Nobody dressed me as a girl. There were very few girls in the neighborhood that I even talked to as a kid. I played sports from 7:30 AM to darkness. I got in trouble all the time. I did military service as required. I've done all the male things I should have done over the years without any regret. I thoroughly enjoyed them (except for the military service).

So, why do I like wearing women's clothing? I wonder sometimes about my wife's statement concerning transgender kids. Of course, the kids get older. Some continue on. Some "out grow" wanting to be the opposite sex. Under this past life theory the imprint fades away.

Adhering to this theory may be my wife's way of handling my cross dressing. I'm not going to disagree with her. There is a certain benefit I derive from her theory. I would really like to believe there was a beautiful woman of a past life who left an imprint on me. It would answer a lot of questions.

Any thoughts?

[Halestorm]

I've never thought of that, not even a passing thought. I'm not necessarily religious, and I don't necessarily believe in a past or before life, but i'm not sure there isn't one either. It would be totally cool if they did exist. I guess its something we really can't speculate on, in this life at least. It would definitely make sense out of some things. And would make for some interesting fantasy.

[Tracii G]

I get feelings that I have been thru a few other lives so I guess its possible.
As a kid I used to have dreams I was around during the Civil War,very vivid dreams.
One dream I am in a Confederate uniform walking back up a pathway leading up to a house I apparently had family in.
Rifle in hand and all the gear a soldier of that time would be wearing.
Fast forward to 2003 I had a paper route which was a motor route out in a rural area.I always got a strange feeling at one place where I would stop and fold/bag more papers before continuing.
It was always dark so I couldn't really see the house way back up in the driveway of the house I was in front of.
One morning about 4:00am the moon was really bright and I got a chilling feeling as I was getting papers out of the back of my pick up.I looked around and I felt someone was around me. I looked to my left and I saw a figure walking away from me in a long grey wool coat walking up the drive towards the house.
Tall leather boots, the short boxy looking hat soldiers wore.
The drive and the lay of the land,trees, small creek and house were extremely close to the one in my dream as a kid years ago.
I got spooked which doesn't happen too often and got back in my truck and moved to a different location.
Too close in all aspects so there has to be something to it.
Having the dream more than once as a kid and then that happening later in life is a sign to me that I have been in a past life.

[VtVicky]

Thanks for bringing this topic up. During my training as a Hypnotherapist there was a lot of talk about past life regression. In my early years, I didn't give it much thought. But, as I got more experience with my patients, I began to pay closer attention to my own experiences. One of which seems to be of a young (maybe 11 or 12 year old) girl. I seem to be walking on a country road, near an empty field on a nice day. Given my own experiences, (another involving a bunker encounter in WW II), I suspect the most vibrant past life memories may be those just before that life ended. This is just my own experience, I don't recall any research on this topic.

In my own case, since I identify more as a transvestic fetishists, I wonder how being a young girl just begining to experience her budding femininity would have imprinted on what ever it is that passes on to the next life.

Since this is one of the areas I considered doing research in, (before real life caught up with me), I would really like hearing any other experiences our members may have had.

[Jenniferathome]

That idea is complete nonsense. There is no Bigfoot, ghosts, or psychics who talk to our dear departed. This kind of nonsense just kills me

[avant1465]

If you'd like to see what happens when someone returns from a past life.... check Youtube for "Amira Willighagen"... and/or
"Netherland's Got Talent," and see what can happen when someone "comes back"!!!! It's delightful!!!...

[Amy Lynn3]

I'm not sure I buy into the idea I have come back from another life, but I will say this, because I have found it odd and it does attach itself to what your wife said. I have been places or would be doing something and for some reason I know I had been there before or had already done something in the past. I am sure it was my first time doing whatever it might have been, but the feeling was I knew about it or already did it. Never really thought about it, but to me it was an odd feeling.

[Dawn cd]

Like Jennifer, I don't believe in "past lives." Our imagination can play tricks on us. We all dream, and sometimes we remember fragments of those dreams. Psychologists have also studied the phenomenon of "deja vu"--the sense of having had certain experiences before. There's a rational explanation for it. But past lives? No.

[Allisa]

When ever I take pictures in my house in femme mode there are "orbs" around me, but never in my guy mode. I lost my sister years ago, she used to be the one that worked on my hair, not knowing about my duality but now maybe she knows and visits when I'm being femme? She would have been the one I would have come out to because I believe she would have more acceptance of me and my expressing of my femme self and maybe even showed me the ways of women. And I do have many incidents of Deja-vu that are very real to where I have to stop and gather myself. I do believe in astral plains for what others call our "souls" so maybe a life on a parallel plain can explain "past" lives.

[Confucius]

I've tried past life regression hypnosis and got no useless information. I don't believe I've had any past lives.

However, if there is such a thing, then you'd expect that everyone would have been both men and women in various past lives, and everyone would be transgendered to some degree, and the whole world would be a whole lot more tolerant of it.

[Lorileah]

That idea is complete nonsense. There is no Bigfoot, ghosts, or psychics who talk to our dear departed. This kind of nonsense just kills me

Are you certain? You know we didn't believe in sound through the air or that you could call someone on a hand held phone. But it brings up a point, your opinion may hold about as much weight as anyone else's. Can you be so sure?
Like Jennifer, I don't believe in "past lives." Our imagination can play tricks on us. We all dream, and sometimes we remember fragments of those dreams. Psychologists have also studied the phenomenon of "deja vu"--the sense of having had certain experiences before. There's a rational explanation for it. But past lives? No. so what is the rational explanation? I have seen many opinions about why but nothing conclusive.

So explain why, one day as a writer I "knew" everything about the local and landmarks of a place I had never been? Now it could be dismissed that the story and the characters were made up. That will never be known for sure, however. I knew the exact address, the exact location of a building and the exact vision of said building. I looked it up after I wrote the story. A story I "knew" I lived.

Personally I never say never. Why couldn't past lives exist? I mean is it all just random primordial oooze that somehow grew into intelligence? Seems sort of elitist or the biggest lotto in the history of the universe.

I believe I have had past lives. Two I am very cognizant about with dates and locations and in one case an event that can be corroborated (this event is documented but not common history). So maybe I heard it one day on the radio? :idontknow: The past lives I "Know" I was female. Some say you get to try some lives...so maybe I thought being a guy would be easier or better? In that case...I was wrong.

“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” ― William Shakespeare, Hamlet. If we knew everything, then science would be a dead study...right?



However, if there is such a thing, then you'd expect that everyone would have been both men and women in various past lives, and everyone would be transgendered to some degree, and the whole world would be a whole lot more tolerant of it.

faulty logic. You stated yourself that you didn't believe you had past lives. So by extension, you if you did and don't remember, then you would not remember what it was like being that gender. Yet others have those vivid memories. I can't agree that you remember everything about a past life. That would be awesome! You would know the day you were born not to stick your hand in a fire or play with a rattlesnake. But often people know things they have not experienced in their current lives. Some say fear of water may be a past experience of drowning. Why not? And just because you were something doesn't mean you liked it or thus would be "tolerant" now. That would be like saying "so many had past lives as soldiers, and they died in battle. So shouldn't we be less likely to fight?" Geez we can't even learn that lesson in consecutive generations....and we KNOW we experienced that.

What I cannot believe though is the number of people who were "famous" before. How many Napoleons could there be? But what about shared concision?

This is something we will never know.

[Jenniferathome]

Are you certain? You know we didn't believe in sound through the air or that you could call someone on a hand held phone. But it brings up a point, your opinion may hold about as much weight as anyone else's. Can you be so sure? so what is the rational explanation? I have seen many opinions about why but nothing conclusive...

Yes, I can be, and am, certain. Mysticism only requires belief or wishful thinking; ever a plausible explanation, let alone proof. Occam's razor.

[pamela7]

i've worked with 100's of clients in the process of developing a complete theory of the self and group, and I have reliable ways of distinguishing a projected past life (fantasy) from a real one. While there are lives as the opposite sex, it is rare, probably as rare as CD-ing. Now how about that for a coincidence.

I once was an atheist and poo-poo'd psychobabble as a scientist. I see the error of my prejudiced ways of back then. The world is far more interesting, and no-one, I mean no-one, can explain sight using science - who the hell is watching, huh?

[Dana44]

There are reports all over the world that remember past lives. One thing to tell on those kids are. If their aura is blue, then they came back soon and may in fact remember who they were. I can see the auras on many people plants and even inanimate objects. One just has to practice. They say we are in the spirit land some people call the summer land for two hundred years, yet the world population has grown so fast that many come back sooner. They have blue auras and if the kids auras are read then that might be true. It is true that visitor's may come back and be with you if there was a good connection between them and they come into the astral plane to express themselves. Now cross dressing? We all have a different story and that may not be connected to past lives. My brain is processing 50/50 because my mom had synthetic estrogen that they put in the women to stop miscarriages in the early 1950's so I was born a male with both sides of me working. I do struggle with it, yet was a male so long that I know where I'll be when i pass. I have no urge to be a female. Yet I do process female thoughts along with my male thoughts. Yeah that was pretty fun growing up. I was different than all of the males and beat to my own drum. It has given me the gift of creativity though.

[Sarah-RT]

Ive recently been thinking myself about ''two spirits'' i think the term is. Im mostly and used to be all ''guy'' until I started accepting myself but I feel a bit like a different person when I dress and the idea of two spirits sharing one body sounds interesting to me. food for thought

sarah

[Lorileah]

Yes, I can be, and am, certain. Mysticism only requires belief or wishful thinking; ever a plausible explanation, let alone proof. Occam's razor.

Not seeing this.
Occam's razor is often cited in stronger forms than Occam intended, as in the following statements. . .

"If you have two theories that both explain the observed facts, then you should use the simplest until more evidence comes along"

"The simplest explanation for some phenomenon is more likely to be accurate than more complicated explanations."

"If you have two equally likely solutions to a problem, choose the simplest."

"The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct."

. . .or in the only form that takes its own advice. . .
"Keep things simple!"[/quote] in fact Occam's razor states
"Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily." it doesn't preclude that there may be things you don't know. It just states to go with the easiest way out...

Again, things get proven and disproved as fact all the time. Even Einstein's theory has flaws now. The razor is used for physics to try and dispel things which are not known at that time. It isn't meant to cause people to totally ignore possibilities. Why could not past lives be the simplest explanation? Makes it easier for me than trying to decipher large mathematical equations. In many cases science takes most difficult explanation. If we used Occam's razor then we would believe the simplest explanation is what people believed hundreds of years ago. That we live in a shell with holes punched in it for stars. Just because someone makes a quote, doesn't set it in concrete. The nature of science is to destroy other's findings


i've worked with 100's of clients in the process of developing a complete theory of the self and group, and I have reliable ways of distinguishing a projected past life (fantasy) from a real one. While there are lives as the opposite sex, it is rare, probably as rare as CD-ing. Now how about that for a coincidence.


This is fascinating to me. And it fits my experience.

[Nikkilovesdresses]

I would really like to believe there was a beautiful woman of a past life who left an imprint on me. It would answer a lot of questions.

That's a lovely, haunting image. I can see how it would appeal to you.

You mention all sorts of masculine qualities as a youngster and a young adult, but you don't mention your family background. Most boys are raised to be men, men in the traditional sense of the word. We are raised to fit society's notion of what makes a man, and even if you had nice, kind parents, it's likely that they followed that traditional parenting model. You may have felt quite comfortable with this, seen nothing wrong with it. But it's also possible that in raising a fine, decent young man, they raised the masculine part of you and neglected the feminine part. I'm speculating of course, but it's possible that your more feminine aspects got left behind, submerged by the ball-throwing, parade-ground stomping, red-blooded part- and finally, decades later, Stephanie bubbled to the surface.

It's a less romantic theory, but it does have the advantage of multiple precedents- plenty of ex-military on this forum.

Perhaps because I was raised by an ultra-feminine mother and with no father or siblings, my femme side was never fully submerged- Nikki has been around since my teens, though for some reason I was 52 when she more fully emerged.

This is starting to sound like multiple personality disorder so I'll stop there... but thanks for starting an intriguing thread.

xxNikki

[Rhanda]

I love being a man and it is the only life I will ever have. I also love wearing beautiful clothes and I wear makeup anyway because it looks good on me.

However, if I were to come back I would rather be a woman, because the world allows women to dress any way that is decent. Sometimes not so decent.

Rhanda

[Rachelakld]

For me, past lives are about as possible as man being able to fly, or as possible as invisible rays cooking food or 8 year olds who can play violin better than an 60 year old expert.

My gut feel, is that for most of mine, I was a male, that life was hard, not fun and death was on occasions violent (I survived my last death, the experience was amazing but I had my ar*e dragged back with the explaination "your job not yet finished").

My return this time, because I'm spiritually connected to 3 women, I had to be in their life again, while my mother lost a baby, it put the 3 out of sequence so I got the next body, which was male. I don't mind, it's a good strong body with military combat rating, performs well and achieves the goals I want to achieve.

For me, I feel like the body got jumped with 2 souls, although several psychics tell me I have a split soul (which would point more to past lives genders)

[celeste26]

I've been on both sides of this issue. Now I just suggest tossing a coin and leaving it at that.

[Isabella Ross]

I would really like to believe there was a beautiful woman of a past life who left an imprint on me. It would answer a lot of questions.

Any thoughts?

And I believe I was Tinker Bell and perhaps several other Disney fairies in a past life.

Seriously...can we get back to reality?

[justmetoo]

I agree with Jenniferathome. But no one is going to change anyone's opinion here.

[Tracii G]

I would just say never say never or that can't possibly happen because odd unexplainable things do happen.
I never asked to have the dream and never was into civil war stuff at the age I had the dreams.I remember the smells in the dream too, the musty wet wool coat, the morning dew and the dirt road.
All those smells came rushing back as saw the figure walking away from me in the morning fog.
That I guess is what spooked me so much,it wasn't a pleasant feeling I will say that.
I wanted out of there in a hurry.

[kimdl93]

There are more people living at this moment than have ever lived in the entire existence of the planet. Consequently, there are not enough past lives to provide even one additional life for any of us.

[Sometimes Steffi]

As a scientist, I don't believe it, but ...

There was a massage therapist who I went to wh was kind of "new age"

When she tried to massage the front of my neck, I would always jump or stiffen up.

Once she asked me, "What's the first thing that comes into your mind when I start to massage your neck?"

And I told her, "It's really weird, but I visualize a scene with a pretty young woman with a black page boy hair cut, and someone comes up behind her, grabs her around the neck from the right side, and strangles her to death."

I don't know what it means, or if it means anything at all. But, it's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

There was a movie about this theme called "Chances are", with Cybill Shepard. She sees her husband die right in front of her. He is reborn, and is dating her daughter. Slowly recollections come back to him that makes him realize that he was married to his girl friend's mother in a previous life.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097044/?ref_=fn_al_tt_5

[Robin777]

I don't know if we have had past lives,but I cannot think of any other explanation as to the reason I love wearing women's clothes as much as I do. Maybe I was a woman in a past life and my soul from that life was recycled into this life. Who knows for sure?

[Katey888]

There are more people living at this moment than have ever lived in the entire existence of the planet. Consequently, there are not enough past lives to provide even one additional life for any of us.

Cor! There's a light bulb moment if ever there was one... :cheer:

Let me get my head around that after only one coffee... that means: birth rate exceeds expiry rate (makes sense) and: not enough 'pre-owned souls' to go around... Hmmm... But that does logically fit with why only some people experience previous lives... :clap:

If anyone from science can explain life, personalities, existence... being... in all it's inexplicable richness and mystery, then I might fall towards the non-mystical side of things... but I don't think it does, so I'll keep my options open with Billie on this one: "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." :)

Katey x

[LaurenS]

That idea is complete nonsense. There is no Bigfoot, ghosts, or psychics who talk to our dear departed. This kind of nonsense just kills me

I think you are my new best friend!

[Marcelle]

Hi Stephanie,

I can't say I believe in an afterlife or past lives but then again . . . irrespective of those who think they have it all figured out . . . who really knows. To be honest, if someone came up to me on the street on said, "I understand your being TG because you lived a past life as woman and are just living that out . . . good for you", I would be grateful for one more person who accepted me for who am regardless of the reasoning. That is what really counts in my book.

Hugs

Isha

[MissTee]

I'm in the skeptic's camp on this one. For certain I don't think I CD because of a past life. Your mileage may vary.

[Teresa]

Most of us know that some religions believe in reincarnation , mainly to come back at the next class level if you haven't sinned !

Oh dear I'm going back down the pile if that's true ! What I didn't discover is if you come back as the same gender or if you remember your previous life ?

I believe that when you're gone that's it ! It would be nice to think there's a CDing heaven somewhere where DADT is a sin !!

Lorileah does raise an interesting point Deja vu it is scary some times and takes some explaining, I know there are out of body theories about this ! If I do drift off on my travels in my sleep I hope I'm wearing a clean nightie !!

[Dianne S]

I have to say I'm with Jenniferathome on this one. Our brains are very good at playing tricks on us.

[Marguarite]

My past life is what happened last week, by next week that will be even more difficult to get right. What won't change is the way I feel and who i want to become.

My wife strongly believes in past lives, I don't argue with her or rain on her parade. What she believes has made her who she is, and I love that person. I believe I have reached this point in my life by the accumulation of choices I have made over the years.

I am me. I choose to be me. I am responsible for me. I am happy being me. 'Nough said.

Maguarite

[Tina_gm]

My wife believes that my past lives have been heavily tilted female, as a possible explanation of me. Eh, who am I to disagree... It could be possible that I have a lot of female imprinting. I am not convinced of any of it, but like some have said, what we knew for sure centuries ago is not longer the truth, it was only the truth as we knew it then, so who knows.

[Tracii G]

There is just too much in the spirit world that science doesn't know about.
Science tends to poo poo anything they can't explain.Doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Intuition is hard to explain too.
The brain is a powerful machine and can do amazing things.

[JayeLefaye]

I must admit that I'm in the Hamlet Camp on this one. I want a Universe that is just a little bit out of my ability to understand. Some of my best friends are Horatio's, and I love 'em dearly, but they often remind me of the Apostle Thomas, he of the "I won't believe it unless I can put my finger through the holes in his hand" quote...I'm NOT bringing "religion" into the equation here. I'm jut pointing out the similarities 'tween Horatio and Thomas.

On the totally serious side: Stephanie, please feel free to send me a PM regarding this. My wife is a psychotherapist, also trained and licensed as a "hypnotherapist" with "current and past lives regression"...In other words, she's not a psycic(sp?) with connections to "the other side" who will charge you $35 to tell you that you were once the Virgin Mary.

But toss me a PM, and even though it may take a day or two for me to respond, I'll be glad to tell you a few things from her very real experiences, while not breaking any client/therapist confidentiality...I'm not even sure it's not all a bunch of hooey....But you asked a legitimate question, and it deserves a legitimate answer...Not that I HAVE any answers, but I've had access to some experiences that were way short of hooey in their results.

Just sayin'....

Jaye

[Tina_gm]

Traci, even though I can be skeptical of a lot of it, and I definitely feel there are a lot of scammers and fakes out there, there are sooo many unexplained phenomenons that go on that science cannot explain. Twins separated by thousands of miles know when something is wrong with the other. There was a mother whose son was executed, Just before the call came through that it had been done, she burst into tears because she knew it had, she felt it.

I have had a few unexplained moments in my life. The one that gets me the most was when I was driving on icy roads as a teenager. I hit a real bad spot and lost control. I would like to say that I was that good of a driver and I pulled out of it by my ability, but no, that wasn't the case. A large truck was bearing straight down on me. I did what I could at that moment as I was just skating sideways. I thought I was going to die, knew I was going to die. Suddenly the car just grabbed and I veered away from the truck just in time. I went back to find the lucky bare spot and there was no spot. So bad it was hard to walk on. How did my car grab like that? Something was guiding me to safety that day. It wasn't my day to die.

[Stephanie47]

Jennifer, for someone who resides in the Pacific Northwest (Idaho) you haven't run into someone who has had a Bigfoot experience? Wow! I have a friend who resides in the foothills of Mt. Rainier and has made casts of the tracks of this creature, and, has encountered one as recently as this year. You have to be more open minded.


That idea is complete nonsense. There is no Bigfoot, ghosts, or psychics who talk to our dear departed. This kind of nonsense just kills me

As to someone's comment concerning the number of people who have lived and the number currently living, the concept of past lives does not mean everyone has had a past life. Considering the number of religions that profess a life prior to birth and after death, one cannot easily dismiss past lives. The vast majority of people believe in some higher being based purely on faith alone. For some it is necessary to preclude certain ideas of others because it conflicts or refutes their own.

Just on the subject I posted I found my wife's idea interesting solely because it makes the most sense out of a situation that makes absolutely no sense at all- "Why do I like to wear women's clothing on occasion?"

Some of this confusion is timing. I've read many many postings of members who have had the urge to dress at a very early age. Some were dressed up by mothers, aunts, sisters and others.

So, take a rough and tumble boy who really did not care if girls existed. he had no sisters. He was never attired in girls clothing. He hits puberty and all of a sudden there is a sexual awareness that somehow includes dressing up. Can I explain this? No. I can readily say I am a model husband, father, grandfather and member of the community.

So, it really interests me as to "What influenced me to dress as a person of the opposite sex?"

Just wondering!

[Dianne S]

There is just too much in the spirit world that science doesn't know about.

I don't believe science takes a position on unprovable phenomena, other than the default position of "If it can't be proven, even in principle, then you're going to have a really hard time convincing me of it."


The brain is a powerful machine and can do amazing things.

Oh, absolutely, including giving you hallucinations, false memories, and an absolutely convincing feeling you had a past life. Heck, as transgender people, we're all keenly aware of the power the brain has over you... if you have a female brain, you'll never get rid of the desire to present as female no matter how hard you try.

I really think that belief in supernatural phenomena is nothing more than an unintended consequence of the software we have running our brain. I'm also fully aware that the awesome power of the brain to create its own reality means that whatever I say will make no difference to those who do believe in the supernatural, so I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

[Kate Simmons]

I have been both and have been given past life awareness for my two previous to this one. In the last one, I was a woman, in the one before that a man. I have names and dates for those. Even so I know that my essence is female and always has been. We have some input when we come back as to the lessons we want to learn from. The previous knowledge is there but is tightly compacted so as not to interfere with what we want to accomplish presently. :)

[freeindress]

Science tends to poo poo anything they can't explain.Doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Scientists, especially in physics, exhibit a lot of resistance to change when it comes to new ways of understanding concepts like matter, mass, energy, light, life, biological matter, emotions... and often prefer sticking to assumptions from yesteryears than risking their job and letters to put in from of their names. That is why peer reviewing has been made, to lock too new ideas out of the mainstream papers.
Instead of newage sewage concepts of past lives, one has to think about evolution, how to rethink DNA not only as firmware but also as a dynamic memory where every motion is stored 24/7, then if behavior is keeping different from previous generation for enough years, changes are committed to the next generation.

[NicoleScott]

Science tends to poo poo anything they can't explain. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist.


I agree with this, but I would change "poo poo" to "refuse to accept". That's how the science works. The "believers" (in past lives, Bigfoot, mermaids, alien visitors, etc...) have an advantage over the "non-believers". It can't be proved that such things don't exist, so nothing can be done to change the minds of the believers. The non-believers CAN be convinced that such things exist, but first we need the goods, the evidence, the solid proof. Fuzzy jerky videos of guys in ape suits are not convincing. Millions of hunters in the woods with cell phones and cameras, and not one good photo or video of Bigfoot. Nor one dead body. All we have are testimonials. You can believe that they exist but science requires more. Otherwise, Elvis is alive, because people SAY they saw him at Quik-E-Mart.
Watch Ancient Aliens. An observation is made (good). They can't explain its existence (no problem). What follows: "The only logical explanation is that ancient aliens .....". Please. (But I have to credit them for turning absurd ideas into money. Well done.)
I have to accept that what goes in someone's brain actually goes on in someone's brain. But that falls well short of proof that past lives exist. Jennifer and others are right, by default. Such things don't exist until they are proven to exist.

[DebbieL]

I have memories of past lives, but most of them are pretty ordinary. I remember my last life pretty well, including the moments just before and during my death (murder). I also remember dozens of lifetimes as a boy, fighting with wooden swords, looking forward to my first battle, and being killed during the first minutes of my first battle. I also have many memories as a woman, in arranged marriages to men who were often brutal and rough, having babies, and eventually dying in childbirth.

There are a few highlights, memorable lifetimes, like being crucified, along with so many others it was like an assembly line with racks for the cross-beams, hundreds spending days in agony, hoping for their final breath, even as birds pecked out our eyes, snacked on the blood of our wounds (wrists). And there were a few times of being burned as a witch after the death of a husband, so that the church or the witness could take my land.

And there were memories of trying to make it past barbed wire fences as the machine guns hacked us down.

I do believe that we may have a choice when we die. We can linger and wait for loved ones, we can go to "heaven" (whatever that is), or we can come back and live another life.

The Hindus, a huge population of a billion people, believe in reincarnation, as do Buddhists. Most have a general belief that how you live your current life will have an impact on the kind of life you get next.

This belief in past lives has often made suicide seem more like "changing clothes" than endless oblivion. At the same time, I began to realize that suicide could mean that my next life could be worse,
I could be the daughter of an abusive father, or have physical disabilities, or have children who committed suicide.

I'll just do the best I can with the life I have today and see what happens next.

[rachael.davis]

I'm not sure about past lives one way or another - theology is hard to prove or disprove. I do believe in "chi", I don't know if it's hoodoo, or the result of diligent training in a martial discipline.
On the other hand there is research on trauma & DNA http://www.bbc.com/news/health-25156510 creating personality traits.

[Katey888]

I would remind everybody of the rule that prohibits:


• Ridiculing members/non-members, or the manner in which they express themselves. This includes any complaint about the way females, males, transgendered, or any other cross-section of the membership dress, the way they express themselves (such as spelling and language skills, and any mention of religious beliefs, political preferences and affiliations, sexual preference, etc.)

I'm including anything somewhat spiritual in the 'etc.' part of that.

If you have something relevant and new to add to the OP, please feel free. You can have an opinion one way or another but that's ALL it is.

Reiterating what you have already said as if saying it more times makes it more real or more proven... :) will not be acceptable.

This is NOT about winning an argument, so please keep it civil, have your say but no flaming...

Or else.... :hwac:

Katey
Moderator

[Tracii G]

The comment that was made about not changing any ones mind either way is true.
If you have never experienced it you will never believe it, if you have experienced it you know what happened and it changes everything.
Its a very interesting subject to say the least and everyone has their opinion and thats fine.

[Krisi]

I was a female in my previous life. I was killed in Germany at the beginning of WW II when I was about nineteen years old and was reborn as a male in the USA a few years later. I remember it well.

Off course I don't believe in reincarnation, but for some reason this is imprinted on my mind.

[Andy66]

Goodness, some of you must have been skeptics in your past lives. :devil:

I too have a few memories that science cant explain. I feel like I was a shaman, healer or witch many times (a good one, not a wicked one) in many countries, and I have been a few other things.
I dont remember any deaths, except that I think a jellyfish sting may have done me in the last time. Kind of a freak occurrence.


This belief in past lives has often made suicide seem more like "changing clothes" than endless oblivion. At the same time, I began to realize that suicide could mean that my next life could be worse,


Oh no, dont commit suicide... if nothing else, then for the pragmatic reason that the decades of work and learning you have done in this life will be wasted, like a project you put a huge amount of work into that gets scrapped. :(

[Krisi]

The comment about the next life could be worse is very true. As much as some people post about how bad their lives are, should have been born a woman, etc., all of us here have pretty good lives when seen in perspective. We can all read and write, we all have access to the Internet and the freedom to read and write what we want to and we don't live in countries where women are viewed as property. Would anyone here want to be a woman in a country where you are forced to wear a sack and cover your face and hair? Where your family could have you stoned to death for some infraction?

Would you want to be a woman in a country where there was no education for women and you had to forage for food in the jungle and watch your babies die of malnutrition?

Not all of us are going to be reborn as "hot chicks".

[Donna June]

I don't believe in reincarnation. I have religious / scriptural reasons. I'll just leave it at that

[sometimes_miss]

Past lives, future lives, after lives, probably all just wishful thinking. I'll stick with my own theory of thought energy waves affecting impulse receptors in our brains as to why we feel/hear/see things that someone else did in the past. It goes like this: each thought generates a certain amount of energy, a wave, which you can measure with an eeg machine. The amount of energy exists at a certain frequency, and like radio waves, continue on past the receptors infinitely; however they are affected to some extent by oh, perhaps gravity and other engergy fields on the planet. So You have all these 'waves' flowing through us all the time; you just don't have receptors that can receive all of them, much the same way that a table top radio doesn't have the right tuners for every radio frequency signal reception. However, once in a great while, a person's receptors WILL momentarily match up exactly with the frequencies generated by a person who lived in the past, at which point they will experience whatever it was in that thought, in effect a momentary sight, sound or feeling exactly the same as someone who may have existed centuries (more, or less) ago. Much as we didn't have eeg machines two hundred years ago so that we didn't even know or could measure THOSE energy waves, at this point in time we are unable to measure the minute amount of energy going through the air around us which is generated with each thought. Doesn't mean that it isn't there; we just don't have the technology that can do it yet. This would also explain many of the sightings or hearing of what we believe to be ghosts.
Just one of my many wacky theories.

[Rachelakld]

Like time - you can't see it, touch it, feel it, taste it, therefore......... not only does it not exist, but also it doesn't exist at different rates depending on gravitational wave density, which also don't exist (until an apple hits you on the head).
It's convenient for me to believe in time, gravity and previous lives, it brings understanding of how I know stuff, when I shouldn't know stuff. :)

[Jazzy Jaz]

In Native American culture which has hundreds of unique nations, there are some world views that are fairly universal among us. Prior to outside influence we didn't refer to god (creator/great spirit) as he, we saw it as being either both male and female or niether. I see it as a mix of both male and female. We also believe in reincarnation and believe every spirit to be a mix of both male and female energy. When a spirit comes into a body at conception, often times the person will have a dominant energy. A straight non transgendered person will usually have a dominant energy that aligns with thier sex "male body/male dominant energy". Gender is definately viewed as a spectrum in our culture.
A transsexual is the opposite end of the spectrum. Thier dominant spiritual energy is completely the opposite of thier sex "male body/female dominant energy". Us transgendered, gay, lesbian, and bisexual folks fit at varying degrees within this spectrum and even straight non transgendered people can vary abit but closer to thier respective ends of the spectrum. When someone passes on thier spirit becomes more fluid again and they can go from a past life in a male body to a new life in a female body and thier placement on the spectrum can be completely different from thier past life. Also, reincarnation includes plants, animals etc. I hope this gives some insight. We are respectful of all cultures and i am open to any question or comments. Thanks! Jasmine

[VtVicky]

I recall one of my favorite cartoons which may be relevent to this discusion. (I think it was either in Playboy or the New Yorker)

These 2 catpillers are crawling along when they notice a butterfly fly over head. One catapiller turns to the other one and says: "You'll never get me up in one of those things."

[ShelbyDawn]

For what it's worth, I have done some past life regression therapy with a licensed therapist. The results were very interesting.
On more than none occasion, I had vivid memories of being both a small girl and a young woman. Based on the clothing, we placed these events in the late 1800's early 1900's.
Obviously I wasn't around then in this life. :)
The memories were very strong and accompanied by very intense feelings of love, happiness, acceptance and safety; feelings I have not commonly had in this life.
Whether you believe in past lives or not, there is something in my subconscious that equates being female with those strong positive emotions
and it makes sense to me that Crossdressing could be a manifestation of my subconscious effort to attain/regain those feelings.
Other factors, most likely, but based on my experience, I cannot discount past lives as having and influence.

Just my two cents...

[Beverley Sims]

If your wife swallows the theory put by the program "accept it".

It's all probably bunkum anyway, so live with the lie whilst you can. :)

[irene9999]

Sometimes it does feel like I was a girly girl in another life, dressing girly just feels right! More than likely it's just that that's just how I was born in this life

[Jazzy Jaz]

It could be either or, or it could be both. Either way you're exactly who you're supposed to be this time around, at least thats what I think.