A Past Life Remembered

"I could feel the gravel crunching under my leather sandals as I walked beside the Celtic village. My long skirt swished slightly as I walked, and the gold jewelry I wore made a familiar clinking sound. It was a festival day, a joyful day for my people," Carol remembers. "I can still smell the roast pig, see children playing, and hear the women laughing as they prepare the food." The memory, right down to sounds, smells and bright colors was incredibly vivid and complete. It was a past life memory, of one day in a lifetime as chieftain's wife and Celtic lady, sometime before the birth of Christ.

Carol first went to a hypnotherapist to see if she could understand why there had always been so much conflict and competition between she and her brother. The explanation she discovered, in a regression, was this past life in which her brother had been her rival-and her murderer. After this revelation, Carol began to forgive her brother and let go of the fear she had always felt around him. Though they live in different cities, she and her brother now enjoy friendly communication.

Did Carol really experience a past life? Or was it simply a construction in her mind that allowed her to explain something she could not understand? As a psychic, I have seen and experienced many past life memories-my own and those of people I read. Some of these experiences have been very profound, and they have shaped my personal beliefs. Many people have very strong beliefs in favor of or opposing reincarnation, mainly because it is an element of religious dogma. Some faiths embrace reincarnation, while others have opposed it, sometimes with anger and violence. Luckily today, we have freedom of religion, and the autonomy to decide for ourselves based on our own inner guidance.

How Does Reincarnation Work?

Three quarters of the world's population believes in reincarnation of the spirit into another body. This concept is based on the idea that we are made of energy--indeed that all matter is really just energy waves which are attracted together. As beings of pure energy, we may change form, but we are never destroyed. As an immortal soul, you vibrate at pure light energy. You are multidimensional -existing on many different frequencies of energy, or wavelengths, at the same time. The most dense of these levels is the physical body, followed by energy bodies of lighter and lighter density, which many clairvoyants also see as layers of the aura.

The highest level is you as a Spirit--your pure essence which never grows old, and never dies. As immortal beings, we first began creating physical bodies to experience something new, to learn and grow and create in different ways. While our bodies die and disintegrate, the molecules eventually becoming part of another life, we live on as spirit. As an immortal being, you have the choice to incarnate in a body or to remain completely in spirit. You choose your next steps, both for your growth and your creative process.

Your spiritual energy is much larger than any one physical body could contain, so there is a big part of you that does not "incarnate," or come into a physical body. Many people call this part the Higher Self. A spirit may choose to incarnate in one body at a time, or several bodies at the same time if there is a need to experience a particular time frame from multiple perspectives. Sometimes, a spirit may choose to remain bodiless for a time as well. There is no sense of time or space for spirit-time is really fluid waves of energy-so our concept of one lifetime placed directly after another on a calendar time-line is somewhat limiting.

Why would you want to come back again and again? According to Conversations with God (Neale Donald Walsch, 1996), we come back because life is exciting, fun, dramatic. In short, we love it. We also choose it for our own growth and creative experience. After all, think about what it would be like to be in the same place for all eternity. It might get a little boring, no matter how perfect that place might be. Immortality in the same physical body could get boring after a time, too! Experiencing life from different bodies, different viewpoints, and a multitude of time periods can be exciting and stimulating for spiritual evolution.

Remembering Your Past Lives

Why don't we remember all of our past lives clearly? It would be very confusing if we did. Think about it: if your son this lifetime happened to be your sister in the last life, things might get pretty odd in your family if you could remember everything (s)he did to you back then! There is simply too much information for your body to handle.

Instead, we get past life memories in tiny snippets-those "deja vu" experiences. Often, our Higher Selves allow only certain past life memories to come into the body. For instance, perhaps you are trying to resolve a difficult decision in your life. You may choose to bring in memories of other lifetimes when you made a successful decision in the same circumstances. You might not necessarily remember the past life-instead you may find yourself eating at Japanese restaurants for a while, or fascinated by Brazilian culture. Surrounding yourself by the culture helps to stimulate unconscious memories of the lifetime, and the piece of information you need to bring in.

Sometimes we immerse ourselves in things from our past lives as a way to complete them. A few years ago, the "Tonight Show" had a young guest who collected vacuum cleaners. Not very unusual you might say, but wait: this little boy asked for vacuum cleaners as soon as he could talk. He got a Dustbuster for his fourth birthday, and by age twelve, had a collection of antique and modern vacuum cleaners that would be the envy of any adult vacuum enthusiast. It was clear to me that the boy's most recent past life was still "open" and unresolved. It looked like he had invented the vacuum in that life, but he hadn't finished his invention before his death. It is likely that this young man will grow up and make more contributions to this kind of technology.

Past Life Symbols

As a psychic, I often see energy symbols for past lives or past life experiences in someone's aura. Usually, these are for lifetimes that the individual does not want to forget this time around. They may be for lifetimes which are particularly fantastic (high lives), or for a lifetime which offered a tremendous lesson. Sometimes these symbols serve as markers, to identify you to other individuals who have also had that common experience. For instance, perhaps you had a lifetime as a Knight Templar, and now carry the Templar symbol in your aura. Other former Templars would recognize and trust you based on that symbol.

A symbol can also represent a past life experience. Last year, I participated in a Medicine Buddha Empowerment ceremony at Sonoma State University, conducted by the Abbott of the monastery in Dharamsala, India. This ceremony is normally given to those who have experienced years of Buddhist meditative study, but it was realized that we Westerners needed to awaken our healing energy, and an exception was made. An electric blue healing symbol was activated in the auras of all who participated in the ceremony.

Past Lives and Relationships

Often, we are drawn to someone we have known before in another lifetime, to resolve and heal old karma, or to enjoy another life with a spirit we love. In one reading of a relationship troubled by guilt and pain, I noticed that energy from past lifetimes seemed to play a big role. I saw that the couple had been mother and son in a previous lifetime. One day, while the mother was engrossed in her chores, the son played precariously close to an old dry well. The boy fell in and despite many rescue attempts, his family was unable to save him. Helpless, his mother heard his cries for days, until he finally died. For the remainder of her life, she held onto guilt and a feeling that she should have watched her only son more closely. This lifetime, the woman kept trying to make amends to him, remaining in a state of guilt rather than making healthy choices in the relationship.

Releasing Past Life Energy

Recognizing and releasing past life emotions is one way to help change a stuck pattern in your life. Sometimes, we unconsciously cling to past ways of doing things because they have worked for us before, or just because that is all we know how to do. This is why many psychics read past lives-and why the past life reading is an integral part of clairvoyant training. It is a way to let go of old energy and create new and wonderful things in your life.

There are many ways to recognize and release a past lifetime. Sometimes, simply remembering why this lifetime was important gives you information that explains something in your life now. One woman, on vacation in Turkey, saw a symbol on the wall of the Library of Celsus in Ephesus that looked strangely familiar. Years before, she had found a picture of this symbol and placed it in her book shop. At the time, the symbol seemed to belong in the book shop, but she didn't know its origins. Now, staring up at the ruined wall in Turkey, she realized that she had been one of the librarians at Celsus, thousands of years before. She had chosen the symbol unconsciously to remind herself of her past life experience there.

If you find yourself drawn to a particular culture, language, or symbol, stop and ask yourself if you have ever experienced a lifetime there. Close your eyes. If you did happen to experience a life there, ask for pictures of it to appear in your mind's eye. Just notice what you notice, and ask simple questions to stimulate more images. Don't try to make it perfect: we all experience images in different ways. You may be someone who notices textures or feelings more than colors. You may not be able to place the time or the exact location. Do ask yourself why the lifetime was important: what do you need to know right now about it? If you don't get an answer right away, postulate that it will come to you in some way when the time is right.

Copyright 1998 by Jennifer Baltz. All rights reserved. For comments, questions or permission to use any part of this article in any form, please click here: