Past Life Regression and Reincarnation - Is it Real?

We live in accordance with our deep, driving desire.

It is this desire at the time of death

that determines what our next life is to be.

We will come back to earth to work

out the satisfaction of that desire.

The Upanishads

Past life regression is when a regression therapist uses hypnosis on a person to help them remember past lives. Past life readings on the other hand is done by someone who has a gift of reading people's past lives. Thus a person who receives a past life reading remains awake. Sometimes the reality of the ego is too strong, in which case a person cannot be hypnotized. In this case it is better for a person can get a past life reading.

Past life regression and readings can help people deal with unresolved emotional issues which are carried over from one lifetime to the next. These issues can either be an obstruction to personal growth or a guidepost. Whether it is an obstruction or a guidepost depends on the level of awareness and open mindedness of the individual.

Brian Weiss had a traditional education as a psychotherapist. He was a scientist and had no belief in such things as past lives or reincarnation. At one point he had a patient called Catherine who suffered from anxiety attacks and nightmares, and psychotherapy was not improving her situation. Out of desperation Weiss tried hypnosis on her, and she started recalling past life traumas that held the key to her recovery. Weiss' scepticism was ended when Catherine started channelling messages from the 'space between lives' about his family and dead son.

Using past life regression, Weiss was not only able to cure Catherine but also transform his own life, and he went on to become a leading expert on past life regression and reincarnation. In his first book Many Lives, Many Masters, he describes his journey with Catherine which lead to his own transformation. He has also written six other books about the subject of reincarnation, including One Love is Real which was a bestseller on USA Today.

Karma in Sanskrit means action. According to the Buddha's teachings one's life circumstances at birth, positive or negative, is a direct result of one's actions in previous lives. Every good or bad deed is at some point reflected back as either positive or negative karma. The karma of action carries more weight than the karma of thought. It is also a person's attitude and sincerity which plays an important role in karma. For instance if a deed is done out of compassion instead of a sense of duty, more good karma is created. Or if a bad deed was premeditated more bad karma would be created, as opposed to a bad deed which was done impulsively in the moment.

Karma does not follow a linear path, it can take many lifetimes to ripen. Therefore you could be experiencing karma in your current life which was created several lifetimes ago, which can be verified by past life regression. To cease the effects of negative karma, one has to stop blaming and acting negatively towards bad events that seem to happen randomly. This is bad karma carried over from past lives, and by reacting negatively towards it, you create more negative karma. The more conscious reaction would be to be open to what negative karma teaches. A positive reaction transcends negative karma and creates positive karma in the future.The most positive karma one can create is to relieve other beings from suffering.

And the best way to do this is to go beyond karma oneself. This is done by dissolving the ego and becoming one with God or Universal Consciousness. Then one can help others to do the same. In Buddhism the beings who have been liberated from the ego are called Bodhisattvas. These beings are free of the cycle of birth and rebirth, but sometimes they choose rebirth out of deep compassion to wake up those who are still stuck in the illusion of ego. If we are not motivated to become one with God or Universal consciousness, we should at least try to do good deeds to help relieve others from suffering. Every good deed creates positive karma. Even a smile or good thought towards someone else creates good karma.

Now we come to the most important question. Is all of this real? In past life regressions done with people they often remembered living in different countries and recalled certain things about the places where they lived, which they could not have known without having had a past life. These things get verified which to me is proof enough. Also, people are born with certain abilities, for instance being able to speak a certain language which they never learned. Then during past life regression they go back to the place where they learned that language. There are just too many examples like this for me to believe that reincarnation does not exist.

Or does it? If what wisdom traditions tells us, which is that the ego personality is an illusion and that in truth we are all part of the One reality, then how can reincarnation exist? Reincarnation as viewed from the ego personality does exist. But almost all the wisdom traditions tell us that ultimately the ego is an illusion. It is not real. As individual souls we are all part of God or Universal Consciousness. Even the individual soul is a kind of illusion, because there is only one universal soul or consciousness. This being has always been and it always will be. We can't grasp this because we think in terms of time. Yet time is an illusion too. We 'created' time so we can experience events unfolding in a linear fashion from past to present, and into the future.

But in truth there is only one eternal Now, and time is nothing but quantified eternity. Experience actually happens in consciousness, and not in time. Time is not an absolute and neither is space. Einstein has already disproved the existence of absolute time with his theory of relativity. Einstein also made the following quote:

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

The whole idea of reincarnation is to become free of this illusion, and past life regression can assist us with this. But it is not a necessity. The issues that are left over from past lives can also be dealt with in the present. Anything can be dealt with in the present, and living in the Now is the best way we can live our lives. Being one with the Now is the same as being one with God, because God dwells in the Now. As human beings we are always trying to avoid suffering and striving for happiness. This constant aversion and craving takes us out of the present moment, where true happiness and peace lies.

This is also why certain religions and wisdom traditions denounce desire, because desire is associated with the future. It is important to therefore realize that everything is the way it should be, that we are exactly where we are supposed to be and that we have a purpose. This leads to an inner peace and self acceptance which makes it easier to extend loving kindness to our fellow beings. So what am I really trying to say? The truth is that reincarnation does not truly exist, and that it would be irrelevant once we are identified with the Self. If past, present and future are not real, then how can reincarnation and past life regression be real?

The most important mission one can therefore take on in this life is to become self realized.

It (the self) is not born, and It does not die; nor is it ever that this One having been nonexistent becomes existent again. This One is birthless, eternal, undecaying, ancient; It is not killed when the body is killed.

- Bhagavad Gita

Source: http://www.pastlifereadings.com/