Talking about past lives in first or third person?
- Thread starter melon04
- Start date
Usually third person. I kind of respect boundaries and the specific individuality of the other persons.
Mostly third person. I have sometimes identified a little too much with some past-life persona, and it isn't something that goes well for me.
One very practical reason for using the third person is that there could be some mistake or misunderstanding. For example when I first started looking seriously for my own history, I mistakenly identified with one person, then with another, and so on. I prefer to regard the place where I settled as a temporary, provisional identification. Something which might be subject to adjustment, modification, in the light of new evidence or findings.
There are other reasons for not associating too closely with the past-life self. Imagine for example that one had been very rich in the past. It would not make much sense to step forward and attempt to claim one's rightful inheritance. Or maybe one was sentenced to imprisonment in the past. Should one now step forward and ask to return to the cell, be imprisoned again?
There are lots of reasons why it feels right to me that each life is valid in its own right, rather than existing only as a shadow of someone else. A matter of spiritual and mental well-being I think. Though the past has also helped with my well-being, in that it explained all the things about myself which made no sense, had no connection with my present-life family or upbringing. It was a great relief and a release, it brought me peace to find an explanation for things which made no sense otherwise. But that kind of release was also a letting-go, a setting down of a burden or baggage which was being carried. The natural consequence of releasing oneself from such past-life burdens is to become more free, to be able to engage fully with the present.
Lastly I suppose my view is that we don't just have a single past life (presumably we refer to the most recent one, though not always). The way I see things is that we have many, some unknown but large number of past lives. If one adopts the habit of associating with a past-self, then presumably one would have to reel off a whole list of names and lives every time one said "I". That is simply unmanageable. So what is the alternative? Well sometimes I'm closer to considering that I am none of them, not even the present self who is typing this. Instead I consider myself to be a timeless being existing throughout, but not having any name as such. My identity in that case is not any human, but something from a non-physical realm.
One very practical reason for using the third person is that there could be some mistake or misunderstanding. For example when I first started looking seriously for my own history, I mistakenly identified with one person, then with another, and so on. I prefer to regard the place where I settled as a temporary, provisional identification. Something which might be subject to adjustment, modification, in the light of new evidence or findings.
There are other reasons for not associating too closely with the past-life self. Imagine for example that one had been very rich in the past. It would not make much sense to step forward and attempt to claim one's rightful inheritance. Or maybe one was sentenced to imprisonment in the past. Should one now step forward and ask to return to the cell, be imprisoned again?
There are lots of reasons why it feels right to me that each life is valid in its own right, rather than existing only as a shadow of someone else. A matter of spiritual and mental well-being I think. Though the past has also helped with my well-being, in that it explained all the things about myself which made no sense, had no connection with my present-life family or upbringing. It was a great relief and a release, it brought me peace to find an explanation for things which made no sense otherwise. But that kind of release was also a letting-go, a setting down of a burden or baggage which was being carried. The natural consequence of releasing oneself from such past-life burdens is to become more free, to be able to engage fully with the present.
Lastly I suppose my view is that we don't just have a single past life (presumably we refer to the most recent one, though not always). The way I see things is that we have many, some unknown but large number of past lives. If one adopts the habit of associating with a past-self, then presumably one would have to reel off a whole list of names and lives every time one said "I". That is simply unmanageable. So what is the alternative? Well sometimes I'm closer to considering that I am none of them, not even the present self who is typing this. Instead I consider myself to be a timeless being existing throughout, but not having any name as such. My identity in that case is not any human, but something from a non-physical realm.
Cyrus
Senior Registered
Hi, everybody.
Some writers use 3-rd person singular even in their autobiographical novels if there are some scenes with a sexual content, or, in general, episodes that might be ambiguously interpreted.
I'm not a writer, neither am I someone capable of considering myself a timeless being living lives one at a time as if it were a maskerade. I exist, and I live my existence as a whole and an indivisible macro-life. When I recover long-lost memories in a regression or some déjà-vu, I recognize them at once as MY memories, and though I cannot live those situatons again, I can replay those memories and feel again what I felt when I lived them for the first time. It was ME, always exactly the same as I am now, only I have forgotten those pieces of my whole macro-life for some reason, but that was temporary, and now I recover my memories, and I move by my memories like a train moves by rails, and I know it was ME at every micro-instant I've just recovered remembrance of....
IMHO.
Best regards.
Some writers use 3-rd person singular even in their autobiographical novels if there are some scenes with a sexual content, or, in general, episodes that might be ambiguously interpreted.
I'm not a writer, neither am I someone capable of considering myself a timeless being living lives one at a time as if it were a maskerade. I exist, and I live my existence as a whole and an indivisible macro-life. When I recover long-lost memories in a regression or some déjà-vu, I recognize them at once as MY memories, and though I cannot live those situatons again, I can replay those memories and feel again what I felt when I lived them for the first time. It was ME, always exactly the same as I am now, only I have forgotten those pieces of my whole macro-life for some reason, but that was temporary, and now I recover my memories, and I move by my memories like a train moves by rails, and I know it was ME at every micro-instant I've just recovered remembrance of....
IMHO.
Best regards.
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melon04
Senior Member
I am 100% able to separate "was" from "is". Which is why I always use past tense to refer to past lives, both mine and other people's (in contrast to using present tense to refer to current incarnations).
Unfortunately there are some people who are completely unable to separate their present selves from their past lives. There was somebody on Discord who told me that he has had experiences in WWII-related reincarnation spaces and said that there were some people that blurred the lines between being reincarnated Nazis and actually promoting said ideas.
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I agree with all of the above. I slip back and forth between first and third person all the time. I tend to use first person when I'm describing first hand experiences. Through what I've seen and also through still having been reincarnated with my family and still carrying on centuries old relationships with the same and evolving issues, I still feel very much the same person and very rooted in who I am.
I tend to use 3rd person though as a sort of "wall" because I want to be careful and not claim some of my past live's accomplishments as my own. I know I was there and I did those things, but I feel comfortable having sort of a buffer between me and them simply because I don't want to be seen as riding on my own coat tails, if there is such a thing lol.
At the beginning I always used 3rd person, but as time and research went on and I realized more and more I was looking at my own personal reality that went as a straight line that went into the past, I became more comfortable using 1st person.
I tend to use 3rd person though as a sort of "wall" because I want to be careful and not claim some of my past live's accomplishments as my own. I know I was there and I did those things, but I feel comfortable having sort of a buffer between me and them simply because I don't want to be seen as riding on my own coat tails, if there is such a thing lol.
At the beginning I always used 3rd person, but as time and research went on and I realized more and more I was looking at my own personal reality that went as a straight line that went into the past, I became more comfortable using 1st person.
Cyrus
Senior Registered
Hi, everybody.
I see it highly unlikely that somebody could mix/combine his/her PL with the present life. It would be very difficult if at all possible, even if somebody tried to do this.
So, there's no need to separate 'was' from 'is' - they are already safely separated. And you can't use Present or Future tenses when referring to your past life just as you cannot do this when relating how you passed your last weekend.
To a certain degree even the ancient Roman Republic was quite a nazi state. Mussolini - the creator of fascism - only wanted to restore Italy to her glorious Roman past.
In this sense, I daresay, the nazi germ lurks somewhere deep inside the European culture, if not the human nature itself. One doesn't have to have a nazi PL to become a nazi nowadays, it can happen due a lot of God knows what factors. Some left-wing theoretics after the WWII even contended that nazism comes - somehow - from the Christianity itself, thus expressing themselves strongly in favour of a muslim immigration into Europe, hoping this could somehow neutralize the nazi germ, preventing from a new Holocaust occurring again.
IMHO
Best regards.
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@Cyrus I'm an extension of the things that have happened in my past life. Much like how things in my childhood have shaped me here and now, so has each previous life's experience contributed to the next. I think that's true of us all and once someone "evolves", so to speak, you can't and most likely don't want to go backwards so the point is itself moot.
Also, how is European fascism tied into this? That's a hard segue, when I think the point of the conversation was 1st and 3rd person usage in a casual conversation.
Also, how is European fascism tied into this? That's a hard segue, when I think the point of the conversation was 1st and 3rd person usage in a casual conversation.
Cyrus
Senior Registered
Hi, Totoro:
Quite agree on the 'extension', though I don't understand its mechanism, especially in the view of our ubiquitous amnesia.
Anyways, it's not my case, as I never used 3-rd person, don't even imagine how this could be possible. It's like if I told you about my last birthday party using 3-rd person singular. Ufff.
The piece on the Eurofascism was only a remark on what another user had posted. The idea was that PLs hardly have anything to do with it in the present lives.
Please erase it from my post, if it's too off-topic.
Best regards.
Emma66
Once a Marine, always a Marine
Both but mostly first person.
When I describe my past life regression it is with 1st person because " I" was feeling, "I" was talking..." I" had the emotions....When I talked about my past lives, it depends on the people. If I know they believe in reincarnation I feel free to use first person but often add "in my past life" or when I was xxx.
When I wrote 60 pages about my last past life I used third person. I don't want to hurt my friends or family who read it and don't believe in reincarnation. I keep a distance with what he did.
I know who I am and I didn't do what he did but I still have the emotions and feelings sometimes.
It is easier for me to use first person for my last past life and third for the others. Memories are more vivid for my LPL.
When I describe my past life regression it is with 1st person because " I" was feeling, "I" was talking..." I" had the emotions....When I talked about my past lives, it depends on the people. If I know they believe in reincarnation I feel free to use first person but often add "in my past life" or when I was xxx.
When I wrote 60 pages about my last past life I used third person. I don't want to hurt my friends or family who read it and don't believe in reincarnation. I keep a distance with what he did.
I know who I am and I didn't do what he did but I still have the emotions and feelings sometimes.
It is easier for me to use first person for my last past life and third for the others. Memories are more vivid for my LPL.
melon04
Senior Member
Wait a moment! Did you ever tell your family about your past life? Or actually I should be asking if you told anybody about it in real life?
Also would you mind posting the thing you wrote about your most recent past life?
Emma66
Once a Marine, always a Marine
Hi Melon,
Thank you for your interest but it's too personal and I wrote in French.
I wrote about reincarnation, my memories as a child, déjà-vu, what I saw with regressions and then all the evidences, my photo, pictures of my house as a kid, Marines archives with sketches of the operation where I was wounded that show exactly what I saw under hypnosis, photos of Vietnam or you tube links with my Unit. My feelings (his and mine). You see I use first person
.First, I think it was good for me to write everything and the second purpose was to give all the elements to my friends or family members interested or curious so they can make up their mind.
I ask if they are interested but don't want to make them read it. Only two of my friends who are "reincarnation friendly" and a cousin who is officer in the Air Force already read it and they loved it.
But to get back to the subject of this thread I would add I am careful when I write comments. I follow Facebook groups about Nam, Marines ou New Jersey and in my enthusiasm I would write "I was there, I did that. I remember... "
Regards,
Emma