Why can't we remember past lives (some can, I know)?

reply to post by droid56


Maybe it's not all that complicated. Maybe you just forget over time. I mean if I've had past lives I don't remember them. But I don't remember being a baby in this life either. The older I get the more stuff I forget about the past. Even in the life I'm still currently living. There's nothing super natural about it or anything. It's just it was so long ago I don't remember a lot of stuff.

Maybe past lives work the same way. Some people remember more than others but it was a long time ago so we forgot.

Just to add something more,
Theres a word in Arabic - "insan", common translation - "human", but it have another meaning- different root word, - "forgetful".
Its commonly used in Islam religion, however, Islam reject reincarnation. It is a bit weird isnt it ? You are "forgetful" but you only live once, so, forgot of what ?.

For those who mentioned about biological limitation of brain to reconstruct past event, how about souls ?
To make matter more complex (from Islam perspective), you not only have a soul, it actually from at least 3 different "soul" type.

This is one of the reasons I view Abrahamic religions from a very critical view. Evidence of reincarnation is there, but all Abrahamic religion cannot explain that. I dont know whether to discuss this here on ATS or not, it is a very deep subject.

It challenges one belief, including atheists. The questions are pages long, and on ATS its hard to say anything at all without being interrupted.

I don't know why, but I sure would like to remember them. I have so many vivid dreams of what looks like the past in the early US and possibly China. I remember the scenery well, but nothing else.

I hate the thought of forgetting who I am now once this life is done.

NullVoid
Evidence of reincarnation is there, but all Abrahamic religion cannot explain that.

There's not really a reason to explain the evidence away. Most people are unaware but contrary to popular belief Judaism actually does accept the concept of reincarnation. They have a limited view of it though. Like most people aren't reincarnated. It's the exception not the rule. One is only reincarnated if there's a reason behind it. Also the new person isn't really you. It's a new person that contains part of you or your energy but it's not really you. It's a new independent person.

And their concept of reincarnation is not fully fleshed out. While they accept the view of reincarnation it is not the major focus of the religion and it's more of a side concept. In other words the religion acknowledges that the concept exists but doesn't have a complete explanation of how it works or the details.

I got a bit more interested in the topic when on another site I talked about when I was a kid, if I got attacked or got In a fight, I would go into some kind of berserk rage. I would apparently become very powerful, fast, and dangerous and lose almost all self control. Someone asked me out of the blue if I was aware of being a solder in a past life saying he had met others like that. I said I wasn't aware but didn't rule it out.

What I never told the guy was that I often had dreams of being a solder in combat in various places and times. I had dreams of fighting in a hot swampy jungle. I had dreams of fighting in other places. I often enjoyed the killing in my dreams. In one dream I was enjoying the killing so much and it seemed so real, I was disgusted when I woke up that I even had that dream. This was before I played any computer game. I had a strong desire to stay out of the service. I do not know why I had such a strong desire to avoid the military. It's like there is a program in my mind that keeps saying avoid the military. A past life of killing might be in my past. Maybe I was supposed to avoid getting back in that rut. If that was at least one of my past lives, maybe what I remember was to help me avoid going down the same path in this life.

I was thinking at one time if the whole world believed your soul could come back in any person on this planet, the world would change dramatically. We might actually share global resources and try to feed the poor across the whole planet and stop fighting so much in various places. Of course many do not believe it. Maybe it's not in our nature to share with everyone.

Can anyone remember all the dreams they had last night?
It is assumed that life is happening because of the body you are in but really you are not in a body.
Dreaming is happening.

reply to post by NullVoid

NullVoid
Just to add something more,
Theres a word in Arabic - "insan", common translation - "human", but it have another meaning- different root word, - "forgetful".
Its commonly used in Islam religion, however, Islam reject reincarnation. It is a bit weird isnt it ? You are "forgetful" but you only live once, so, forgot of what ?.

That is really interesting.
'Human' being means 'forgotten' being.
Being has been forgotten in favour of 'becoming'.

Being is trying to become and that is the insanity.

Being is. Becoming is in time and when timeless being is found to already be the case then one has remembered.
I once was lost but now AM found - was blind but NOW I see.

If you don't remember anything from your past life, aren't you in a sense dead. I mean if I don't remember who I was before, and this life seems all new to me, then my next one will too. I have always wondered this same thought about past lives and its a great question to think about and share thoughts on it. I really don't want to forget who I was and the great people around me in my life, just as you all don't either. I think that's what scares me is losing all the memories and people we know and forgetting who we are in this life. If our memory is wiped clean n the next life, then aren't we dead in a sense.

in my spiritual seeking days I did a guided meditation call a passed life regression. I was a roman architect. Could see the sand at my feet AND saw myself in mirror it was really real . it could be true or it could be a product of my imagination it was fun to think about it .

reply to post by droid56


Why do we have no memory?

I have two theories.

[1]Remember the rush of learning something or doing something that first time? We enjoy everything once again. It also keeps you from cheating in this life.
[2]Past lives are like dreams. Even when you first wake up you can't always remember the dream you just had, and when you do it is rare that you remember the entire dream. With practice you get better but the same thing could hold for past lives.

My question is what is the wisdom behind deleting our memories of past lives?

What would be the wisdom in bogging down the mind with memories of your deaths and births? People can barely handle the short years of life they have now, what to do with such traumatic memories?

A computer, when it is booted up, refreshes its memory to insure proper and efficient operation. That's a wise design. So to, with human birth.

I never believed any "past lives / reincarnation" stories until I started hearing them from children. I don't know if everyone has "past lives" but some do, and all the ones I've heard of died young and or traumatic deaths. I've never heard a story about some little kid who said they died when they were 73 years old in a bed.

And for what its worth one day I was sitting at work (computer/office) and the guy next to me says out of the blue "in a past life you were a captain on a slave ship"... he was black, me white and I never gave him any reason to say that. I have some memories/snapshots of what I think were dreams in my youth which stick with me as out of place, somebody elses life... sometime I wish I knew someone I could trust to do a past life regression.

reply to post by droid56


Supposedly there are techniques to remember your past lives:

1. Scrying
   
2. Chakra meditation/healing
   

I think it, remembering past lives, is like anything else that the mind does. It depends on what one is aware of or sensitive to.

Some people are sensitive to sound so much so that they can be great musicians. We all have ears and minds but we don't have the awareness and sensitivity these people have.

Remembering past lives is a skill that is acquired by practice, I think, over many lives. One aspect of it relates to the mind's "carrying capacity" for pain. I think in most cases, forgetting a past life is the equivalent of expressing aversion to pain.

We forget past lives because we don't like to be in pain, don't like intense grief, can't bear the thought of irrevocable loss.

Remembering a past life is also remembering a past terminal illness, complete loss of capability and death. Most people would rather forget that sort of experience.

Remembering a past life, or many of them, depends upon increasing the mind's "carrying capacity" and this depends on lifetimes of spiritual discipline.

I am conivinced I have lived before as are many.

There is a great book of a story of group reincarnation called "we are one another" which has plenty of evidence to back up the claims, to the point of one of the reincarnated had details of period dress that historians had got wrong until proof emerged later.

I searched the term we are one another randomly after a realisation.

Also I am convinced I have been to the place we go when we die, although its hard to remember all the details, and I can't elaborate to much for fear of violating the t & c's but I had an overwhelming feeling of humor when it dawned on me that was the true reality and life had been a dream or a game, and it was so funny because I realised how silly it was to have worried so much about it.

Sounds strange but when you feel it you will understand.

I think if we are kept here against our will, the soul recycling area is controlled by the same entities but I don't know if I believe it because all who go there are comfortable and get that eureka moment where it all makes sense.

If you think that some entities are not using this place as a power source, it is because you are wiped.

Many souls actually BELIEVE they are reincarnating for a purpose, that ended long ago, and was NEVER the case here.

Fighting through the incredible fields around the planet, will get you wiped period, either way most everything is taken from the fractured grids placed all around.

Trying to believe there is an actual purpose of some kind of good things here, ALL come from sources that are not HUMAN.

They love it that we forget here, and that we also are fooled in the other realms.

Get ready for a prison break, or not , but be realized that one is coming.

reply to post by ParasuvO


Good reply.

reply to post by droid56


Personally I have enough trouble remembering where I put my wallet. Have you considered it is just really hard to do? It took millions of years for life on Earth to form any memory at all. You'd have to have an evolutionary advantage given to people who do remember past lives in order for most people to remember past lives. The only good way of remembering past lives would be for those who do to breed with the others who also do, creating a class of people who can remember past lives. It seems like there are people out there who can remember past lives.

Think about being a fish. The apex of your memory is being able to recall where you find the most food or possibly remembering what your wife looks like. If you have fish also remembering their past lives like say as a dog or something, that takes up their whole memory and nothing is left. Not the best idea. It also takes the magic out of living. Its fun to discover, and if you remember a past life the fact is you are going to have less fun because you've already been there and done that. I feel confident I don't want to know what I was doing in my past lives.

If you want your future life to remember your current one, you can write a book. Thats what I'm doing although I'm not really sure I believe in re-incarnation in the sense that this thread seems to suggest. Isn't that more efficient than having to lug around all your memories after death? Talk about emotional baggage, wow.

Think of yourself as the author of your life scribing in your actions. While a book series is fun, it can also be fun to start fresh on a blank slate. Perhaps before we live our life, our personality is based on past lives. Or perhaps most people in existence have never lived past lives, and only some of them have. Having a quasi scientific mindset, I'm all in favor of getting the people who remember past lives to breed with each other.

I think people don't understand the difference between the natural and the supernatural. The difference is there is no difference. Supernatural is just parts of nature we do not yet understand.

ragsntatters
I reckon our 'spirits' come from one source and are made up of many different 'spirits'. When we die, we get put back into the blender and combine with other spirits and little cookie cutter bits are spat back out into physical forms. Some people don't get blended well enough and therefore hold onto the big chunk of their past life whereas others don't.

edit on 17-1-2014 by ragsntatters because: (no reason given)

You never get blended with anyone else. You are an infinite part of infinity, an infinite fractal spiralling out of other infinite fractals, and even your own universe, in the end, but all at once, since there is no time. Each moment of your life is an infinite photo snapshot and that makes this all an old, already done, in the no time scenario, yet always occurring, dvd on the shelf.

You are not the illusionary matter, of the universe. That is just the movie you enter, without memories, like a practicum after lessons.

Honesty I think people who recall past lives may actually be either sensitive to a spiritual entity or are being influenced by a spiritual entity that may have in a way attached themselves to a person (if it's not a false recollection which is common in regressions). In my research I've come across different accounts of such things from time to time; While the concept of past life recollection being a product of outside spiritual influence or sensitivity it isn't as pleasant for some, as the idea of reincarnation for some reason is for them it seems to me every bit as possible.