Just My Thoughts
 

By: Christina M. Meide

The subject of reincarnation has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. I go through phases where I read every book on the subject I can get my hands on until the pickings for new books gets slim. I'll give it a rest for awhile then. After awhile, new books come out and I'm off again, devouring as much information as I can again. It seems to be a never ending cycle.

You're probably wondering at this point, if by reading, if I'm actually learning anything new. After all, the basis of reincarnation is proof of living other lives before our current one, so what new information could possibly be offered? You are right if this is what you are thinking. The books offer many different stories of people learning in various ways about the lives they've lived before and, in many cases, these lives seem to give clues as to why they are who they are today. At least that's the theory.

Many believe that remembered past lives under hypnosis are make believe fantasy. When faced with a problem needing to be solved, it is said that it's much easier for the mind to create a fantasy life to explain the current life's problems rather than come to the basis of what is truly causing the problem. What hypnotherapists cannot explain or understand is why many patients, after regressing into "a past life" and reliving an event that corresponds to their current life problem (fear of heights, drowning, etc), why suddenly the patient is cured when no other conventional form of therapy helped.

The fact is, what is required and never seems to surface, is proof. If a person gives a name, a date, and a location, with today's genealogical resources, this information should be able to be proved true or false, shouldn't it? Maybe not all of it, but at least some of it, I think. I've been able to go back in my oldest children's lineage through their father's side to the early 1700's in Germany. Much of this information was deemed lost due to war, but the information was found in a small village parish in Germany. It was so small, in fact, that the priest had to ride twenty miles in an old buckboard just to make photocopies of the requested records. It often took months to receive any information as he would wait until he had accumulated a large amount of requests, then make the trip. My search came to a halt when the priest accidentally ate poison mushrooms and passed on. I have not pursued the lineage any further since that time.

In the regression story Angie shares in this issue of the magazine, she states that she did do some follow up research on her son's regression. She was able to find the name of the Sergeant her son had named while under hypnosis, but could not find the name he had given for himself in that Sergeant's regiment. Of course, she didn't have a lot of time and might have found more if time had allowed, but what she did prove was that the Sergeant did, indeed, exist in the area her son had laid out in his regression. Many would argue that her son had read something somewhere and that what he'd read came forward in his regression. I don't buy this one little bit, but I'm just one person and can offer no proof of my own.

Sandra also shared what she felt was a past life dream in this magazine issue. She took the time to check the passenger ship lists for the name she remembered herself being in her dream. Sandra found what she was looking for, but it scared her so badly that she did not look any further. However, she has never forgotten the dream, nor the emotion that came with finding the name.

Fascinating to me are the studies of Dr. Ian Stevenson who spent 40 years of his life researching cases of reincarnation around the world. He investigated over 2,500 cases with amazing findings. Much of his investigation involved children, especially in countries like India where reincarnation is not just a belief, but part of every day life.

Dr. Stevenson documented cases of children, as soon as they were able to talk, negating (much to the dismay of the parents) that the parents they currently had were their parents at all. In many cases, these children were able to give the names of the people that they believed were their "real" parents, their village, siblings, etc. Dr. Stevenson would travel to these locations to determine if the child was correct, and indeed, found the parents the child had spoken of. These parents would have, at some point, lost a child in some type of accident. The child, upon rebirth, often had a corresponding birth mark to match how the parents described their child passing on. For instance, a child who had been shot in the head was reborn to another set of parents later on and had a deformed ear and a scar on the opposite side of his head as though showing where a bullet entered and exited.

Dr. Stevenson had photographs, recordings and credible witnesses to document his findings, but still there are many who cannot bring themselves to believe it's possible.

My belief is quite simple, and yes, it validates reincarnation for me. The Bible states that we are to strive to be Godlike. Well, let me ask you two questions here. What is Godlike and can we possibly reach that Godlike status living only the life we are currently living?

Godlike, to me, encompasses all knowing and all loving - perfect in every way. In looking at my own life in just 42 years, I have been far from perfect and certainly am no where near Godlike! I've made many mistakes, some of which I've learned from and some that I just can't seem to make myself stop repeating. Though, the older I get, the smarter I seem to get in some areas, or so it seems.