by Stephen Wagner; ThoughtCo.
The concept of being born again and again — that each of us has experienced previous existences — goes back at least three millennia. References to this idea appear in ancient Indian, Greek, and Celtic Druid traditions, and reincarnation remains a popular topic in New Age thinking.
Proponents of reincarnation argue that hints about our former lives can surface in our dreams, on our bodies, and deep within our souls.
The following psychological, emotional, and physical occurrences may all offer glimpses into who we once were.
Déjà Vu
Nearly everyone has felt that sudden, startling sense that a current event has happened exactly the same way before. Psychologist Arthur Funkhouser from the C.G. Jung Institute divides this experience into three types:
- Déjà vécu: an event already experienced or lived through
- Déjà senti: already felt, often set off by a voice or piece of music
- Déjà visité: a place so familiar it seems you have been there previously
Although scientists and psychiatrists point to neurological causes for these sensations, others interpret them as faint, fleeting recollections of earlier lives.
Unusual Memories
A child recalls events from her early years that her parents know never occurred. Is this simply a child’s imagination, or could she be remembering something that happened before she was born into this life?
Human memory is full of errors and inconsistencies. So the question becomes: Is this faulty recall, or is it a genuine memory of a past existence? When examining such memories, look for concrete details like addresses or landmarks that you can verify during your waking hours. These real-world clues may lead to insights about a former life.
Dreams and Nightmares
Believers say that memories of past lives can also appear as recurring dreams and nightmares. Dreams featuring everyday or ordinary activities might point to a specific place you inhabited in a previous life. People who show up often in your dreams may have shared a meaningful bond with you in another existence. Similarly, nightmares could reflect traumas from a past life that have stuck with your spirit and disturbed your sleep.
Fears and Phobias
Fear of spiders, snakes, and heights seems built into the human mind as part of our evolved survival instincts. Yet many people suffer from completely irrational phobias. Fear of water, birds, numbers, mirrors, plants, particular colors — the list goes on. For those who accept reincarnation, these fears may be carryovers from an earlier lifetime. A dread of water, for instance, might indicate past-life trauma — perhaps you drowned in a previous incarnation.
Affinity for Unfamiliar Cultures
You likely know someone born and raised in the United States who is a devoted Anglophile, or a person who can think of little else than dressing up and playing a role at the next Renaissance fair.
Some of these interests may simply be historical. But they can also hint at a past life spent in a distant land. Such fascinations can be explored further through travel, language, literature, and academic research.
Passions
Just like cultural affinities, intense passions can serve as evidence of a past life. To be clear, this goes beyond a casual hobby like gardening or photography — nearly everyone has those kinds of interests. To qualify as a sign of reincarnation, these passions must be so powerful they feel nearly irresistible. Think of the woodworker who spends hours every day in the workshop, or the map collector driven to obtain every last map of a single location. Such behaviors may reflect lives lived long ago.
Uncontrollable Habits
The darker side of passions includes uncontrolled habits and obsessions that can take over people’s lives and even push them to the margins of society.
Obsessive-compulsives and hoarders fit this category — a man who must flip the light switch off and on ten times before leaving a room, a woman who piles newspapers six feet high throughout her house because she cannot bear to discard them. Psychological explanations exist for these uncontrolled behaviors, yet reincarnation believers argue they may have roots in past lives.
Inexplicable Pain
Do you have aches and pains that doctors cannot quite identify or explain medically? You might be labeled a hypochondriac. Alternatively, those sensations could be manifestations of suffering you endured in a previous existence.
Birthmarks
Birthmarks have been promoted as proof of reincarnation. One frequently mentioned case was studied in the 1960s by University of Virginia psychiatrist Ian Stevenson. An Indian boy claimed to remember the life of a man named Maha Ram, who was killed by a shotgun fired at close range. The boy had a cluster of birthmarks in the center of his chest that appeared to correspond to a shotgun blast. Stevenson verified that a man named Maha Ram had indeed been killed by a shotgun blast to the chest. An autopsy report documented the man’s chest wounds, which matched the boy’s birthmarks exactly. Some would call this mere coincidence, but for believers, it served as evidence of reincarnation.
Is It Real?
There are proven medical, psychological, and societal explanations for each of the phenomena above, and your experience with any of them does not necessarily mean they can be attributed to a past life.
But for those who believe in reincarnation, these experiences may carry deeper significance.
