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The past life thread by MistressSiobhan got me thinking about something that I've been hearing for several years now.

People say that things that happened in our past lives influence our hopes and fears in this life. An example might be that you drowned in a previous life and are now terrified of water.

I was just wondering what others thought about this and whether it applies to anyone here.

i get flash backs of a past life of mine where im walking in a huge castle in the dark alone...an so now i cant stand been in the quite or been alone. I surround myself with family an friends always. An i refuse to move out byself. If i cant be around people i have my animals...at one stage it got out hand, i ended up with a mini zoo in the garden.

Every much in a way the ''fear'' rules my governing of life

If I take what I said/believe about past lives, then it really doesn't influence my life now. I was the same person, so what extra benefits do I have? Nothing really, but I am okay with that.

Strigocia,

from what you say about not relly having any extra benefits, i belive you do. As no past life experiance influences your current life..you are able to tackkle things with a all ready developed fear.

i hope that makes sense? im terriable at getting my view across at times

i defintaly think they do.. i mean why would some people be so scared of water even though they have not had a bad experience in their life with water? i think the cause may be because they drowned in a previous life or something like that.

many things are unexplained but i think this one is easy to explain.

How can I go into this deeper?

When I say I have been myself, I mean just that. I have had the same fears or fondness for the things that bring me joy. I have had the same allergies or vulnerability for certain illnesses. I have had the same attractions and emotions. This is what I truly believe in my heart, so I can't see any life of mine could bring anything different.

I think you are trying to get at the fact that I have lived during different time periods, having lived through historical event. Lets say I lived through or experienced the plague. Thats all well and good, but I have no knowledge of it or, for if I did I would be working on some project to fully eradicate it (Yes, people still suffer from it.) I don't think any period events leave lasting memories on a person, just the sort of character that person was.

It seems to me they do. it would explain phobias quite well. also the general fear of spiders.

Well I believe that Past Life Experiences to Influence our lives that we are living right now. For instance I am afraid of the ocean ( Mainly because of Sharks). My be I had a bad experience with them once.

Aziel: I also believe that many of the things that we fear, or phobias, can be directly linked to a past experience.

But, I also believe that some them can be linked to present life, also. If at 2, you were bit by a dog, chances are that you will fear dogs most of your life.

Again, if you were burned at the stake in a previous life, you would more than likely have a fear of fire.

How would you distinguish the two?

I don't know what it is, but I feel like I'm being punished in this life. Every day normal things can be hard for me, I'd rather not talk about it, untill I am diagnosed with something, or untill I know what it is..but untill then, I will never know what is happening to me, and I can't help but think that I'm being punished.

It maybe something in another lifetime that you are being punished for.

Or, it could just as easily be that life is very hard for most of us right now.

I dont know, I know some people who have memories of things they have never done.
I can see how it might affect the present since you are defined by your actions, but are they truly your actions now?

All One's lives are inter-related on many different levels...Anything from lesson to be learned, Karmic punishments, personal challenges, mostly the physical experience in general....The list goes on and on...They all are an important piece of One's Totality...

I have dreams that I was Burnt Alive and I am allergic to the sun and can't stand high heat. Yet I am extremely drawn to fire, Go figure.

Pleasent Nightmares, Rose (Blade)

i do agree that the past affects the present. i feel that if you did horrible things in a past life youll suffer in the present

I must agree with the lot. I am sure that on some level it would be hard to distinguish whether your fears or attractions came from your present life or a past life but all in all, they are all intertwined with each other. Mayhap you are afraid of water because you drowned in a previous but maybe it was because you were too young when you started watching the Jaws movies in this life.

Maybe you are attracted to the darkness because you were never exposed to it in a past life or maybe it's because all you have is light in your present life.

Perhaps it is a mixture of both..

BelovedTwight:

I believe that was the point I was also trying to get across. That your present live can be effected by a previous one, we know this to be true.

We also know it to be true, that a traumatic incident in your childhood can have the same results.

My question would be:

How do you tell the difference? You would receive nightmares or dreams of both type of incidents.

Which is from a previous life and which would be from a childhood trauma?

For me, its true, i think that my past actions make the way to my future thinks, the kharma i guess...

I'm searching for my love, maybe, i lost her centuries ago...

yea its true whtever you do in your prent makes your future as like the same as what you have done in your past made your present.

Mine is the same as RedButrfli's. I have a huge fear of the ocean and sharks.... actually I have a fear of water altogether (minus the shower or bath).

I do beleive that the past can influence our present. I have yet to experience this myself though lol

I also believe that the past plays a part in our present. While some people cannot remember them I am of the opinion that most people had past lives. So it's logical to say that you would retain something from that even if you do not retain it on a conscience level. The example about water is a good one. If you drowned in a past life a present life phobia of water makes perfectly good sense.

does this mean that since i totally afraid of snakes, i was eaten by one in a past life?

Wow, what a touchy subject. I am glad to see thinking going on.

Of course this topic is about reincarnation and Karma, in reality. One thing that most are unfamiliar with is that upon the death of the physical body, the soul (or Astral body, is that part of you that is your consciousness or that part that you indentify as you) and the spirit (or mental body, is that part of you that is superconsciousness) contiues on in the Beyond (astral world). The soul is what houses your character traits, and this part is mortal just as the physical body. The spirit is the true you and during the astral death contiues on to be reincarnated. The reason we cannto remember our past lives in our consciousness is that that part is dead. Upon reincarnation we acquire a new soul and therefore a new consciousness.

Memeries croping up from past lives depends in the fist place upon ones development in the grand scheme of things. Because as the mental body or spirit is eternal some are able to gather glimpses into the superconsciousness and therefore experience de jah vou, etc. Also, we must recall that the Akashic Records hold all things; and is therefore available to look at and sometimes people do inadvertantly catch glimpses of their past lives in this way.

Karma plays its role in all this as well. But is not always as simple as: fear of water=drowned in prior life. In order to truly explore these things we must ask: is the person truly afraid of the actual water or is it something else? It could be that they are afraid of not being able to breathe or see or even afraid of the unknown in and of itself.

Much more could be said here but I'll leave that for another time.

As I have said before, time is a malleable substance. Regardless of lives, one can use the past to influence the present, much in the same way that one can manipulate the present to control the future, and control the future to influence the past.

I think it makes sense. The mind is a ver complex thing. I feel that if something happened in a past life or in your mother womb or even as a baby it can affect your senses or strengths as well as your weaknesses.

I do understand this concept. I am terrified of heights. I do not know what I was in my past life, who I was, or where I was. But it's very awkward. It would explain a lot though

I believe that if you go through something traumatizing in a past life you will be fearful of it in the present. Or is something happens in a past life it will influence how you feel about it in your present life.

I still think that it is a combination of past and present, that shape who and what you become in any lifetime.

Reincarnation through your worst fear? Very interesting theory I must say :)

I don't believe in reincarnation......

You dont HAVE to believe...its a theory...and a very possible one. I'm sure you can agree to that. Nobody really KNOWS what happens when you die. Im not even sure that those who have died know what happens after you die. Maybe nothing happens. Maybe our lives just drift away and live in the memories of those who knew us...and are soon forgotten after they have perished as well. But reincarnation is a possibily and is not to be ruled out :)

Past lives influencing today? Only if you let them. I have seen far too many people get hung up on what was… “Ah to live again in the day”.

So I ask, what are you doing today, here and now?

This is the only time that matters, as it is the only time that you have a choice to make; to act or react. Learn from your ideas of a past life if it is truly important to you, but live in the now. Do anything else and you risk missing some of those defining moments that create nostalgia for your future.

That was a very good post and I agree 100%. Cant be bothered worrying about past ideas and occurances...there are too many things happening right now and a lot of future events to worry about. Im concerned with THIS life...and the past needs to be forgotten, or allowed to co-exist with some kind of peace.

Diabloss, I agree with you. It is a very possible theory that does have somethings to support it.

What did or did not happen in a past life or genetic memory does not perticularly effect this life although you may still feel the fear etc. of what happened back
then.Unless you were the cause of it, then by the 3 fold law, Karma and so on it most asuredly will affect your life.

I would not consider them theories, but common sense.

Take whatever lesson you deem worthy from your idea of your past and implement them into changes in how you live today.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm being punished too, but somethings are influenced by todays problems. After all, there are many things today that didnt exsist 100 years ago. I'm sure insomnia is on the rise with all the fast-paced lifestyles we are forced to lead. With Insomnia our fears become phobias and normal healthy people can become skiztoids and have to live on medicine for the rest of their lives. The day the world learns to relax and take a breather is the day we sign a world peace treaty that even a jihad can't break.

I believe that, and i must say i have some dreams that make me feal i have lived other lifes and some places that i go make me feal at home, i dont know but i wondered it some times...

I personally have had no experiance with this, however I do beleive it possible.

Great posts in this thread! I do feel that parts of the past do influence each life thereafter. I also have the feeling that I am paying karma back with a few issues in this life and I sure hope it is over with after this one and before I start the next!

I also feel that certain people/souls are drawn back to others each lifetime to either finish what is to be accomplished, to right a wrong, or that they are so entwined, they seek each other out in some capacity.

Yes..I do myself believe in Karma..and if this life is over with negative karma...you will pay for it in the next. You can always make it right, but its up to you to do so :)

I believe in Karma. As my mother says "what goes around will come back around"

But I make or break what happens in this life. have I previouos ones yes. I don't remember them but I know that I have.

Do they influence me? no
do they change who I am today. no

so I beileve that you have your life live it....if there was something you had to do that you just didn't get to.. you will......Eventually.

Once I read that all the people who are meaningful to us at this moment, the most probable is they were close to us in other time, but in another shape...for example...your mother could be your sister in this time and such.
I read something about the karmic thing and i agree, and specially I am sure that people when approaches to you have a purpose for being there...

I do believe that people in your life will always gravitate to you, If you were close in another life.

I believe in Karma, all though I don't understand it all the time. It always seems like when I do something bad, I don't get punished for it. but when I do something good, I get punished for it. The karma is being reversed. What makes sense out of that?

I would like to say that my past lives expierences have if anything emboldened me to not fear these modern times, I draw trength from the past to aid me in the present. I guess I am fortunate enough to not fear, I have never understood it but I know that it is the embedded memory of the past that allows me to fuel the fire of today

I do belive in the existance of multiple lives. This is why I know everything happends for a reason. There is no way that life can be so simple: born, live, die.. it is unacceptable.
Past lifes do influence the present one in that i you have unfulfilled emotions or you have dues from the past life, you have to resolve them in the present one, if not, they will be transferred to the next one and so on.
This i why I try to live without hurting or going crazy like "why is this happening to me?"...you know why... because it is surposed to!

I agree that alot of your fears come from a past life.. The fear of water, the fear of loss, heights, that sort of thing... I also believe that nothing comes as a natural talent, if something comes to you naturally it is because you learned it in a past life... Learn from your past or you will be destined to repeat it.

Thank you all so very much for your thoughts.

Now if I could only figure out what happened to make me hate rollercoasters so much...

Fyrestrike:

I think a natural talent is just that, A natural talent. I believe that we are given gifts.

Regardless of what lifetime I would think that you will always carry a gift.

As far as learning from your mistakes, that is as true in the present as it is in the past.

I am afraid of spiders because I died from a spider bite in a past life... That`s about All I know so far. I have been looking in to my past lives.....

Well i also feel that our past lives and present are all intertwined together, yet I also think that we will return within new lives until we have got it right on whatever had gone wrong in our first life.. may sound crazy yet I feel we are stuck to walk over and over till we have found our true selves or destiny or to right what may had gone wrong in the first place.

Well...to be able to answer that question, you must know who you were...

I didnt find yet, who i was...

I agree with Demon on this I truely believe that our past lives in some way overlap into our present lives "IF" you are not a new soul then well you would be yourself.

If you look throughout history you can see how the past has influenced the present situation in the world today. So it only makes sense that a person's past life would also infuence their present life.

I believe the past does influence the present. I also believe that those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it

Not sure about my past lives, I would like to believe that I've had some, but I don't remember them. I'm terrified of death by fire......... maybe I was burned at the stake in a pastlife.... not really sure. But I do believe in the possibility of past lives.

i agree that the past has a bearing on present life although i have no personal experience of this

I'm afraid to be in water where I can't see the bottom. I've never had any incidents where I've fallen out of a boat or almost drowned nor has anyone close to me so there is nothing in this life that has happened to cause this fear.

I assume it comes from something that happened to me in a past life.

.I think that until you are able to remember your past lives or even if you have any, it is useless spectulation.

I don't know of anything that has happened to me in a past life or if I ever had one. Yes I have fears but I don't know where they came from and it doesn't really matter to me because I am happy and still would be if I didn't have the fears that I do.

This has been talked about before.

But yes i believe it is true. i know it is. i've been a servant/slave in every past life and tend to act that way now. i have many other expieriances as well. so yes i believe it is true.

I believe it depends on the person...You can learn from it or ignor it.As far as the fears...Well if you died by fire wouldn't you be afraid of it.

I believe this is possible that the past can influence the present, i have no experance of it myself. i do think that people tend to learn from things in there past if they can remeber, some people know they have had past life but can't remeber so it can work both ways.

I believe that everything that has heappened to you in past may it be a previous life or just a few minutes ago influinces a person's actions, what they do with the life that they have it is all pre-determened from when you were a baby to right now at this veary minute.

the can influence the present only if you let it. I think that it is possible that your past lives can have a bearing on what you do today, but it doesn't have to. same as you past as in childhood. If there was something in your past/past lives that was traumatic you might be affect then again you might choose to not let it affect your judgement.

In the end, I think you always have a choice.

yes i dose i have had a fear of spidrs all my life and i have had dreams about dieing with a millon spidr bites

I think this is a very valid point of view. It makes perfect sense to me. I have panic attacks, sometimes for no apparent reason...maybe something in a past life is affecting me in this particular way and causing a reaction that I just don't recognize as having a connection to this current lifetime because it happened in a previous incarnation.

I believe that what we knew in our past lives carry over to the one we are living next. So past lives can influnce our present lives based on what we once knew and acted.

Maybe having "another chance at life" is how we are to overcome those fears of past lives.
Say for instance you drowned in a past life and in this one are terrified of the water. Maybe its the universe, or whatever you believe ins, opportunity to overcome that fear and move on. If you do not over come that fear, it will continue to follow you through your next life until its resolved.

I think that happening is very possible. Especially if you died and then immediately moved on to a different life.

Of course the past influences the present. And it doesn't matter if you are talking about past lives or this life. The experiences we have is what shapes us to be the person we are. The age old question, if you had all to do over again, what would you change? Nothing because then I wouldn't be the person I am today.

As for past lives, we are given certain trials each lifetime to learn from. If we do not learn the lesson we carry it over into the next life until it is learned. We continue with these lessons until we have learned all there is to learn on this plane of exsistance and move on to the next.

People do have phobias that have no rational explanation from this lifetime. They also have curiosities and fascinations that do not fit in with their experiences this time around. So are these residuals left from past lives, most likely. We each have karmic debt to pay from past lives, it is part of the lesson plan. How we deal with that karmic debt is how the lesson is either learned or ignored.

I'm not sure. I have dreams of my past life but in my waking hours I don't think anything connects. But everyone is differant.

I've had many past lives and they've contrivuted to me knowing what paths I should be on and why.

It's strange to know what has happened to you before. Very scary.

I don't think anyone should look back into their lives unless they are willing to accept and get over anything they might see. Like getting rapes and murdered for what amounted to say a few cents.

I do get glimpses of my past life, being places I have not been before but yet still very capable of finding my way and stuff like that.

Whether or not it influences the life I have now I am not sure. Drowning in a past life and in this life you are terrified of water could be an explanation of fear that just occurs for no reason at all.

But still, lack of evidence that, that is really the case makes me back away from it at the same time.

A reall good question you posted here.

I do very much believe your past influences who you are now, I mean I think everyone's soul stays the same in every life we have and that soul remembers everything it has been through and emits certain energy telling the body you are in how to react.

i don't know.. it seems like life must have been brutal to me in my past lives... cuz gawd i'm a brutal bastard now.. lol

lol your soul probably didn't let some things go ^

the past does have the tendency to repeat itself.
unfortunatley so, in some cases.

I do believe that that past lives influence the present, but I never personaly have experienced it.

I'm surprised that this thread is still open but it's been wonderful to read people's opinions on this. There is something I'd like to share, an occurence from just this evening which, in my mind, seems relevant.

I was walking back to my flat from the university stableyard. There are no lights along the road and the moon was giving off only enough light to show the outline of the trees. Suddenly I had a really vivid memory of walking along another road in another time, tripping and falling into a ditch. The memory was that clear that I stopped for a few moments. Just then several cars drove past and I saw a tree's root that I probably would have tripped over and a rusted metal pipe in the narrow ditch that I would, most likely, have landed on and injured myself.

Was this just my mind creating an elaborate senario based on things I had not consciously noticed in the daylight or was it past experience coming through time to prevent an accident? I guess we'll never know.

What you do in the past will impact your choices in the future and everything that you do, you may think more about if it has happened before and you know what happens if you do it again.

When I was younger id occasionally have dreams of me getting hurt in any variety of ways and now i cant stand physical pain or even the idea of it really

Whether it is a complete past life or simply an old portion of the current incarnation, it is almost impossible to escape. Each of us seems to carry around our own personal "Pandora's Box" and the lid was torn off mine a long time ago.
The Demon's did not escape but cluster around me almost daily.

Well come to think of it In a past life I was attaced by wolfs and killed. Now I have a small fear of bigger dogs.

I think the past lives do partially affect what we fear or feel towards things. Nightmares that we have in childhood could simply be things from a past life coming back to us. Therefore we develop fears of them early on and it's hard to distinguish whether they came from this life or the last.

Many psychiatrists who used forms of hypnosis to bring patients back to the roots of their fears stumbled across these fears coming from a different time and place. There is enough evidence in my mind for me to believe highly that our reincarnations will be affected by what we've done previously.

Perhaps a person were to have drown previously. They may come back feeling "haunted" by the experience, without any knowledge that it's already happened, especially if it was a highly traumatic experience. Perhaps being drown by someone they trusted.

There's a lot in this topic that we don't yet know, but I feel that a lot of things about me I don't understand have their roots in my past.

I very much agree with this!
I have heard much about people who have their souls imprinted with their final moments in life, and carry it on to their next one.

Sounds a little like the song "Gallileo" by the Indigo Girls...

Honestly I can't say that I've had any experience that feels indicative of a past life for me - so that counts me out of buying into this hypothesis from the outset.

Having said that, however, I believe that a fair portion of our personality has a genetic component - I share traits and interests with my grandfather and especially great-grandfather on my mom's side. My great grandfather died when I was 3, my Grandfather when I was 7. I spent a fair amount of time around my Grandfather, but only had very limited contact with my Great Grandfather.

Human nature certainly seems to be fairly constant as well. No matter how far we evolve as a society - history tends to repeat itself - and every time it does there's a whole pack of people ready to go through the mental gymnasitics of apology to explain how it's "different" this time.

I've heard this too. For example, if you drown in a past life your present life might have a fear of water or swimming. I don't know that this is true (I've never seen proof), but at the same time, I don't see why it couldn't be.

i agree. I personally can remember several lives one of which i was shot in the chest, i still have pain there at times and i have not done anything in this life to cause that reaction.

I agree with fyrestrike

Everything is connected...but I don't believe the answer is so simple.

I don't have any past lives, but I do believe history is just one great pattern repeating itsself constantly. The pattern can only be broken by sheer determination.

~♥~

I remember some of my past lives and I do believe it has affected how I am today. THrough those experiences I have become a better person I believe considering I was a really bad person in a few of them

yes the past, can deifine who we are if we let it.

My flash backs are pretty violent. I could be in the store talking on the phone, then I fucken space out, and have one.

They consist of meh being shot in the head, and brutally beaten to death. I was a child, and even in this lifetime when someone lifts a hand at me, I bring myself into defence.~NFA

In response to those who do not remember their past lives, I would argue we all tend to have cycles of behaviour that is often attributed to lessons in the karmic cycle that we have to break.

Do you find yourself dating the same type of person, or in the same job situation time and again? That would be where some would argue your past is influencing your present.

It could even be baggage from this life getting in your way. So it seems to me the best way to break cycles is to be aware that you are doing them, and when the time is right walk away from that behaviour.

This thread has been automatically closed for length.