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How did everyone start believing in reincarnation?

Hi Tinkerman


Thanks for sharing that you "feel" the same way ! It is just very frustrating to explain that sometimes to the "christian" sitting opposite you !!!


I have decided that as long as I feel comfortable with it--that is actually what counts in the end!!!


No trying to convince the rest of the world any more!!!


Hendrina grove
 
I was raised in the Catholic faith. I remember finding it difficult to make sense of the view that we only live one life, especially when this life is terminated before it really begins (due to abortion or miscarriage). What I’ve read about reincarnation at the time made more sense to me. This was incorporated into a comprehensive worldview by the Conversations with God books, which I find to be the most meaningful explanation of existence that I’ve come across. It was further solidified by evidence of reincarnation – past life memories, matching birthmarks and birth defects, xenoglossy, and the like – that I’ve subsequently read about.


The funny thing is that I bought the first Conversations with God book because I needed material to use in a parody on automatic writing.
 
Meeting someone


I began believing in reincarnation after meeting someone that awoke past life memories.


First it was a soul recognition that was so astounding that I did not know what it was, and gradually it all began unveiling slowly...and along with this unveiling I started doing research which led me to this forum.


I was not raised in a religion that taught reincarnation. But always felt deep in my heart that there was something to it...but knew I was not ready for it yet.....then the experience that happened to me is what made me start believing in it.


I feel if a person wasn't taught reincarnation within their religion...


that most people begin believing in it out of an "experience". I think a lot of people are "curious" and wonder....and think it "could" be...but it takes an experience that makes people beginning to believe in it. And once you embrace it and understand it...it makes complete and total sense and it gives you an immense understanding of the souls purpose...and then you can't ever imagine not having the belief.


Peace,


Saber
 
Does anyone else have anything to add to this old thread? I find this question surprisingly difficult to answer as there never was a time in my life that I didn't believe in reincarnation. I just never paid any attention to the topic as a whole, even though I've been having past life experiences for nearly all of my life. It wasn't until much later that I began to realize that many more people were having the same kind of experiences that I was having. Even though I've always believed the events that I've remembered in my nightmares actually happened to me, I guess it wasn't until I had my first regression and the ensuing research and validations that I became 100% convinced.
 
Most significant thing for me was reading Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects Volumes 1 and 2 by Ian Stevenson.


I'm now 29. Since a small child to about 18 years old I have been materialist and quite militant atheist. During last ten years I have read many books about reincarnation, NDEs, psi etc. I have also read all sceptical arguments (that I could find) against survival and found them to be inadequate, or full of distortions and even lies. I have also had many paranormal experiences and thus I knew that these things happen. That Stevenson's excellent book was final thing which convinced me of reality of reincarnation.
 
I grew up as a Jehovah's Witness so I was taught that reincarnation was a false and "pagan" belief. My mom was the JW but my father wasn't. However, I rejected that religion at about the age of 14 and listed to my father who always taught me to keep an open mind.


I had always thought that if I would ever want to believe in something, it would be reincarnation. It was the only thing that really made sense to me. But I always kept that belief in the very back of my mind, especially in the beginning.


After I rejected the JW's, I became a complete atheist and then slowly gravitated to believing in some kind of higher power. I knew it wasn't Jehovah or Jesus, or any other specific deity, but I also knew that atheism wasn't right either. By the age of 22, I began to pray again, though I never knew who I was praying to so I always said "to whomever is listening". I would pray that I would be shown the truth of who we really are and why we're here.


Then one day, when listening to Oprah's Soul Series on XM radio, I listed to an interview with Dr. Brian Weiss. What he was saying about reincarnation went off like alarm bells in my mind. I read his book Many Lives, Many Masters and it was while I was reading that book that I really began to believe in reincarnation. I had the shivers and goosebumps and a feeling of awe and wonderment while reading that book that I'd never had before. It was amazing. After that epiphany, it's been all down-hill from there... so to speak. :laugh:
 
Ariannel, life is not downhill, but uphill, and the struggle is a hard one...


All lines of religion contain their parcels of truth. It is up to each one of us to decipher that which is true and coherent from that which is not.


Don't let yourself be too influenced by others, but trust in your own judgement. If Dr Brian Weiss' book gave you the goose bumps, pause and ponder as to why it did so...
 
Hello and welcome Ariannel.


I'm with Charles, each of us must take our own personal experiences and journey as unique, it is our own calling to decipher the "truths" laid before us. That is a very basic belief of mine...that we each are given the information specific to our own journey. You walked away from JW, I would see that as you discerning your soul's direction...and that's a good thing. I would encourage you, just as your father did, to keep an open and a curious mind. There's no need to jump on any one band wagon. Instead read, study, and participate in the things you feel drawn to. I am like you...reincarnation called to me...I didn't go "looking" for it. And like Charles said the journey is surely full of challenges....but that's life. I personally am a Christian...I'm drawn to it. BUT I am also called to the Buddhist philosophy and methods of meditation and "prayer."


Again welcome. I look for ward to more of your thoughts.


Tinkerman
 
:)


Similarly to Tinkerman, I am also a Christian because I do believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the predicted Messiah, and that he is our Supreme Spiritual Master. And I mean "master" as in "teacher". But in my case I tended to be drawn to the philosophy of Christian Spiritism, which englobes the concept of reincarnation to Christian teachings in a surprisingly coherent manner.


Jesus himself did, in fact, make several clear references to reincarnation, but these affirmations were either misunderstood or distorted by the early Catholic Church, and remained in practice until this day.


Also like Tinkerman, reincarnation and spiritism far more "came to me" than were a resultant of very much effort on my part to go looking for them; and like Ariannel, I also got the goose bumps when I first read Allan Kardec's "The Spirits' Book" when I was just 15, because it "ringed true". :thumbsup:


But when I discovered them, then indeed I "went looking", because I wanted to better understand; so I began to read, investigate, take part, such as here on this forum...


There is A LOT here on the forum that is valuable knowledge from many contributors, and a wonderful place to get started by reading of others' experiences and what they have come to learn.
 
Charles Stuart said:
Ariannel, life is not downhill, but uphill, and the struggle is a hard one...
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Hmm... I can see that I used the wrong word. I didn't mean "downhill" like it's all over and I have nothing more to learn. I just meant that I finally found a path that made sense to me and the conflict I had been feeling all my life about whether I mean anything to the universe or not no longer plagues me.

Don't let yourself be too influenced by others, but trust in your own judgement. If Dr Brian Weiss' book gave you the goose bumps, pause and ponder as to why it did so...
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I know why it did. It gave me goosebumps because something inside me said "Yes! This is it! This is what makes sense!". I also received goosebumps because when you come to the understanding that you do actually survive death and there is something bigger out there than what you can perceive, it can leave you with a sense of awe and wonderment.


Dr. Brian Weiss' book was just a stepping stone for me. After that I've pretty much been reading anything I can including Carol Bowman's book and books by Dr. Michael Newton, Raymond Moody, and many others. I take part in discussions with skeptics and believers to get both perspectives.


You're right, it is a constant learning process. It's just that the anxiety is no longer with me. Now, it's just a voracious appetite for knowledge! :laugh:
 
Since I was about two or three years old I occaisionally got visions of walking through a sandy desert with a group of people wearing white robes. I couldn't see myself personally, I just had a sense that I was there. Bright stars and firelight have always made me feel secure, safe, and mystical.


Like another poster stated, my father believed in reincarnation, but he never really talked about it much until we reached our teenage years. And my mom was not very religious. She was more christian science than anything else, but she, and dad both had very open minds, so we were encouraged to explore different beliefs and find our own paths.


My dad gave me a book about Edgar cayce's life when I was about 13. He just said keep the book around and read it whenever you feel like it. About a year and a half later I finally picked up the book and read it in one night. It was that book that cemented my belief in reincarnation.
 
I always believed that I had lived before from very young. However, the belief was knocked out of me somewhat from an early age when my mother dismissed a remark I made about people coming back again when they die. She was a Catholic (later Christian), and that was the background under which I was raised. Even so, my belief in reincarnation never disappeared, it was just drowned out by all the Christian teaching which I never thought (or was rather too scared) to question.


Around 10 years ago or so, I became disillusioned with the religion I grew up with and it was then I allowed myself to start thinking outside of the box and started questioning things. From that, the belief in reincarnation I always had slowly came back to the forefront, and upon closer reflection and inspection, seemed to make sense.


A few years ago, I shared my thoughts on reincarnation one drunken evening with a friend who invited me back to hers and shoved a stack of books by Carl Jung under my nose! And no, he does not speak of reincarnation at all, but his writings inspired me to follow my natural curiosity about dreams and such and also further opened my mind to other things.


Reincarnation cemented itself about 2 or 3 years ago, when I series of "coincidences" lead me to investigate it further (culminating in me joining this forum). As other have said, reincarnation has always made the most sense and is, to me as plain as the sun in the sky. It also answered many of the questions religion silently brushes over.


I've also had a few "visions" and "flashbacks" (I don't call these dreams, because they feel very different) since then, which I know are past-life related.
 
Since I was a kid, I questioned a lot of things. Why some have better lives than others, why one is born in a certain family, why certain things happen in one's life more than others and...


The idea of living one life just did not feel right to me. I would think about my classmates, one had abusive parents, the other was from a wealthy family, one had physical problems, and myself watching my parent's lives and my own problems, physical and life problems just did not make any sense to me that God, that is all great and has justice will bring us to earth once, but for some reason one has much better life than the others.


One day my dad broght home Only love is real by Brian Weiss and it just clicked with me and took my breath away and then I read Embraced by the light and from there I just went on reading.


Learning something new everyday. :)
 
Rainbowseahorse said:
Since I was a kid, I questioned a lot of things. Why some have better lives than others, why one is born in a certain family, why certain things happen in one's life more than others and...
The idea of living one life just did not feel right to me. I would think about my classmates, one had abusive parents, the other was from a wealthy family, one had physical problems, and myself watching my parent's lives and my own problems, physical and life problems just did not make any sense to me that God, that is all great and has justice will bring us to earth once, but for some reason one has much better life than the others.
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I am the same way. It just didn't make sense to me way there was such a wide range of advantages and disadvantages if people only had one shot at life to decide their eternal fate. It makes much more sense that a just and loving God would give us more than one chance to get it right. Besides, the world is too big and too complex to fully understand and appreciate in one lifetime.
 
I have always believed in a life after death and ghosts, but as a child I never really think about reincarnation. But when I was 14 years old I began to remember a past life and since then I am a "believer". When I was a little child I had always stories in my head about 2 boys, and later I discovered these boys were past life personalities. But when I was so young I never explained it with reincarnation or something else. I never thought about it.
 
The turning point for me happened on a psychotherapy training course. As part of the training, I underwent a birth regression exercise. The exercise went well - I had a definite sense of myself struggling to be born - even checked out details with my mother! But what REALLY struck me was a feeling of “Oh-oh, here I go again.” I had a strong sense that being born was something I had undergone not just once but many times. It was this that first lead me to take the possibility of reincarnation seriously.


A few years later, one Sunday morning while dozing in bed, I had a “dream” which had all the hallmarks of a past life revisited. I was a soldier guarding the mountain road which lead to a castle, and I somehow knew that I was in the Pyrenees in the 12th or 13th century, on what is now the French-Spanish border. I was approached by a suspicious looking traveller on the road. On challenging him, he raised an axe and then brought it down into my skull. Rather gruesomely, I could actually taste the metal of the axe blade as it went through my tongue. My dying thought was that exposing myself to violence was a waste of life and I should henceforth avoid it. (I had the sense that this was the last of a series of lives to end violently.)


Something about this dream felt very “me”. I have always avoided violence in this life, and I have a feeling that my desire to neither inflict nor receive harm stems from that dying wish.


- barry
 
Hi Barry,


With my own past lives as a Roman soldier, Crusader, Bonnie Prince Charlie and my last one as a German soldier in WWII, I am 100% certain that I have also made the same decision regarding violence as you.


In the research I have been making about my ancestors, I have also come across several passages of our past history. It is amazing just quite how much blood has been shed throughout the centuries...


Charles
 
I always remembered my last life, but I was raised in a family that never questioned the religions they were raised in (Catholic and Lutheran) so no one ever said the word reincarnation in our house.


The first I heard of it was when I was a teenager and my sister was reading "Audrey Rose" and she gave it to me to read afterwards. That's when I first had a word to give to my memories.


Before that they were just memories, I didn't question that they happened, they were as clear as any other memory then, I just didn't know when they happened.
 
SundayAtDusk said:
Barry, you underwent birth regression, but never have tried past life regression? Or are you holding out on us? :)
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Well, the question was about how we first came to believe in reincarnation. But for the record, I have had only one "formal" PL regression. I experienced 2 or 3 or maybe 4 lives, all male.


One was in the 18th century, in what appeared to be Amsterdam. I was in some kind of legal profession, a tall, lean man with a very sullen personality - no fun there at all. I had a glimpse of myself walking through the city carrying a bag of papers, crossing over a little arched bridge over a canal or river (Ive since been to Amsterdam and it looked very familiar). I then moved straight to the death scene. Basically I died of old age in my bed with two women attending me. I believe one was my sister and one was my servant. The feeling was of being very alone because I had not reached out to people in life, emotionally. The women next to me were like strangers to me yet for no reason other than my reserve.


I was then a boy on a farm in what felt like England. I was watching the chief farm labourer, a big man, whipping a black African kid who had somehow ended up on the farm. For the man it was a "fun" thing to do. I was watching this from a hiding place behind a haystack. I got a sense that the man was my mother in this life. Now, she would never do such a thing, but I can imagine things being very different a couple of hundred years ago.


Next, I was around 20 years old, studying or working at a little desk in a tiny attic room. The regressionist asked me how I like to spend my free time and I replied "I like to go to the inn, have some ale." No change there then.


Then I was standing on a ship as it left port in England. It was the era of the British empire, so 19th century I guess. I described myself as a man of the cloth. Apparently I was heading for the colonies in Africa. I had taken up a post there.


I don't have specific images of then being in Africa, but what I do have is a strong, rather horrible feeling of not fitting in with the white colonial aristocracy there. I was looked down upon for not being "top drawer".


That was my regression. I have also been told that I was a certain famous architect in my previous life (le Corbusier) and we do have similar interests and similar drawing styles, but apart from that ihave no resonance. I can't tell if we look similar or not. I was born before he died, so I'm not sure how that would work.


I've also had a few other spontaneous memories in meditation. In one I was a female, a concubine in a Chinese palace. I believe I was very good at my job !


- barry
 
Thanks for sharing, Barry! Very interesting memories. :thumbsup:


If you're willing to discuss them or one/some of them further, feel free to start your own thread in the Memories section. :)


Karoliina
 
Yes, I was hoping you might start a thread, if you had past life regression. And I figured you probably did have at least one PL regression, since you had a regression to take you back to birth. If you do start a thread, please include who did your PL regression, and your feelings about such regressions, if you would. :)
 
Barry, thanks for sharing about your regression and your memories. I know sometimes it's hard to put such personal things out for everyone to see. You've had such varied lives, and still seen connections to some of the same souls.


I'd love to hear about them, whatever details you feel comfortable sharing with us. :thumbsup:
 
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