| One of the truths perceived when we awaken | | | | religion, in every economic condition. We encounter the |
| spiritually is that we have lived before. It may not dawn | | | | full gamut of human experience on our journey through |
| on us instantly. In fact, the realization may occur only | | | | life: power and powerlessness, wealth and poverty, |
| after we experience a string of incidents, each of | | | | sickliness and health, suffering and joy. Near the |
| which appears relatively insignificant. We visit a place | | | | journey's end, when the soul awakens, the realization |
| ostensibly for the first time, but know we've been | | | | dawns on us that we are not our bodies and |
| there before. We find ourselves inexplicably fascinated | | | | possessions but are inherently spiritual beings, and we |
| by a particular culture, historical period, or figure. We | | | | have lived before. |
| meet someone for the first time and know, beyond | | | | Then why, we may well wonder, if this is so, do most |
| the shadow of a doubt, that this is not our first | | | | of us have little or no recall of the details of previous |
| encounter. | | | | lifetimes? The answer, according to the wisest of |
| Until recently, a typical Westerner might have said of | | | | beings, has to do with the soul's readiness to |
| such occurences, "It's just coincidence," or "It's a case | | | | remember. Despite the glamour surrounding the |
| of déjà vu." But déjà vu literally means "already | | | | subject of past lives, and the multitudes who believe |
| seen." And for those who have a true déjà-vu | | | | that they were Joan of Arc or Alexander the Great, a |
| experience, there is an inner certainty of already | | | | modicum of wisdom is required to handle the truth |
| having seen certain people and places before-a | | | | about reincarnation. |
| certainty that grows as such experiences accumulate | | | | Remembering the past is inevitably sobering, despite |
| and intensify. To the awakening soul, the fact that | | | | the thrill of first recollections, since none of us now in |
| other lifetimes have preceded this one, and that we | | | | human form is perfect.To understand the workings of |
| are not born as blank slates, becomes increasingly | | | | the law of rebirth, we also have to accept the law of |
| undeniable. | | | | karma, according to which we inevitably reap what we |
| In recent years, the notion of having lived before has | | | | have sown in previous existences. Accepting this |
| been percolating into mainstream culture in varied | | | | fundamental reality, not as an adage but as a fact of |
| forms. There is, for example, a new facet of past life | | | | life, means confronting the most difficult truth of all: that |
| research that features "matches" found between | | | | each of us is ultimately responsible for our own life |
| historical personalities and their contemporary | | | | experience. |
| incarnations. Photographic comparisons between past | | | | When the soul first awakens to its spiritual nature, and |
| and present lives often show uncanny physical | | | | glimmerings of past lives begin to appear, there is often |
| resemblances; other documentation reveals a striking | | | | a fascination with finding clues to the past. There is a |
| similarity of talents, abilities, and personality patterns | | | | hope that tracing our footsteps back in time will help to |
| that are passed forward. So convincing are the | | | | explain particular talents, or proclivities, or simply |
| likenesses that one researcher has concluded that the | | | | reaffirm our deepest sense of selfhood. But genuine |
| soul-despite outer differences in physical conditions and | | | | awakening leads eventually to the path of spiritual |
| circumstances-continuously repeats physical, emotional, | | | | transformation, and transformation pivots on the |
| and mental patterns. | | | | realization that we ourselves have created our own |
| At the same time a relatively new specialty in | | | | reality. We are not victims. |
| psychology, designed to help people break patterns | | | | Acceptance of this truth marks a crucial turning-point in |
| carried over from the past, has been burgeoning. In the | | | | the soul's long evolutionary journey and leads to a new |
| field of past-life therapy, clients are helped to identify | | | | way of perceiving. Individuals once seen as oppressors |
| the origins of intractable problems by re-visiting, under | | | | or persecutors become teachers who appear in our |
| hypnosis, past-life conditions. Pioneering | | | | lives to reflect back something about ourselves. |
| psychotherapists with conventional degrees are | | | | Whatever it is, however deeply lodged in the past, |
| increasingly finding merit in this approach to relieving | | | | accepting what life is showing us opens the way to |
| deep-seated phobias and dysfunctional behaviors. | | | | healing. By embracing an experience as "self-created," |
| The search to discover the cause of personal | | | | we are able to forgive, and even thank those who |
| problems in patterns established prior to this lifetime is | | | | provided the challenge our soul needed to advance on |
| complimentary to what the Ageless Wisdom tells us | | | | the path. |
| about the laws of rebirth and karma. According to | | | | To know that we've lived before is to know that we |
| esoteric teachings, we live many lifetimes on this earth. | | | | will live again, and again, and again until we finally reach |
| The soul reincarnates in a long succession of human | | | | enlightenment and attain perfection. Perfection is the |
| personalities for the purpose of learning and growing. | | | | goal of the spiritual path, but the wisdom teachings |
| Life on earth is, in essence, a schoolhouse. All souls are | | | | define it differently from the idealistic perfection of the |
| enrolled in the curriculum, though not consciously so until | | | | visionary mystic. It is a state of spiritual being in which |
| reaching the higher grades. Progress in this school is | | | | the soul, or higher Self, is fully awakened, in control of |
| measured in ever-increasing expansions of | | | | its personality, responsible for creating its own reality, |
| consciousness. Graduation occurs upon finding | | | | and also for co-creating the collective reality |
| enlightenment. | | | | experienced by all incarnate souls on Earth. Imagine |
| While progressing through the grades of this school, | | | | what our world will become as more and more of us |
| we are born male and female, in every race and | | | | come to know, as fact, that we have lived before. |