Discovering past lives through meditation

“I am sure that there really is such a thing as coming back to life, that the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the dead exist.” Socrates

Under the powerful and persistent influence of our ordinary human consciousness, we naturally experience ourselves as a single individual living only within our physical body. From that experience, we can feel that our human self began with our birth in our current physical body, and that it will end with the death of that body.

Such sentiment is reinforced by the observation that throughout history, countless numbers of people have been born, have lived their lives, and then apparently disappeared at death. All the billions of human beings who lived on earth in the past have died and seem to no longer exist. Therefore, with a normal human point of view that is rooted in such an experience, it is not surprising that many people find it difficult to believe that they will continue to exist after the death of their physical body.

Through many years of research on human consciousness and numerous experiences in deep meditation, I have come to perceive directly that our ordinary human experience is simply one aspect of our existence in general. As many spiritual seekers have discovered for themselves, woven into the very fabric of the physical world is an extraordinary non-physical spiritual realm. It is in that spiritual realm that your soul exists, and it is in that realm that you can discover your continued existence that is not limited by physical reality. However, your perception of that realm is obscured by your ordinary awareness.

Through your ordinary consciousness you experience your daily thoughts, feelings, memories, and other internal experiences, as well as your perceptions of the external physical world. However, you do not become aware of the spiritual realm through your ordinary perception.

Since the normal human outlook on life influences us to identify our human being with our physical body, many people find it difficult to experience a larger reality because they cannot break the tight hold their bodily experience has on their consciousness. Under the dominating influence of their bodily experience, they come to believe that what they experience in their life within their human body is the totality of reality.

If you want to clear the way for establishing a conscious perception of the spiritual realm, it is wise to look at some confusing perceptions that arise from the normal human perspective on life: the perspective of a human being living inside a physical body. If you can understand how you are influenced by seeing his life from that ordinary perspective, then you can make some adjustments to overcome the inherent limitations of that point of view.

One of the confusions that arises from the ordinary view of life is that some people become so convinced that they are their body that they see all their subjective experience as a product of the body. Often it takes many years to move beyond such a limited perspective. Dr. Wilder Penfield is one of those people who made breakthroughs.

Penfield, who is recognized as the father of modern neurosurgery, did extensive mapping of the human brain in the 1930s and 1940s. By probing the brains of patients on the operating table, he discovered specific areas of the brain that trigger certain human responses. From that research, Penfield came to believe that human consciousness is nothing more than a product of the brain, caused by the activity of neurons in the brain. Throughout his long career, he was convinced that human consciousness cannot exist apart from the brain.

However, after more than fifty years of research, he wrote in his last book, The Mystery of the Mind: “I came to take seriously, even to believe, that man’s consciousness, the mind, is not something that can be reduced to brain mechanism”. He added: “What a thrill it is to discover that the scientist can also legitimately believe in the existence of the spirit.”

Another misunderstanding related to our ordinary consciousness comes from creating the belief that our life in our physical body is our only reality. This can lead to great discouragement because we can feel that what we do in this life will be wasted when we die.

In my early twenties, under the influence of a narrow scientific intellectualism I had adopted, I was convinced that my own personal existence would end with my death. I thought it would just disappear from existence. The idea of ​​a soul, and of continued life beyond the physical world, seemed absurd to my rigid intellect. As a result of adopting such a limited attitude, I became very discouraged about life. I struggled with the feeling that life was meaningless because everything I had achieved in this life would be lost in death. Sometimes, under the influence of my bleak outlook, I got so discouraged that I felt like there was really nothing important to base my life on.

When I finally came to a direct experience of my loving soul through a deep meditation practice, I was able to break out of that oppressive and hopeless vision to see through to a larger reality. My awakening to my soul allowed me to clearly experience the wonderful spiritual aspect of me that will pass through the door of my physical death onto the next leg of my journey. Through numerous spiritual experiences in an expanded state of consciousness, I learned about my continued existence over many lifetimes on earth, and this gave me a deep sense of purpose and meaning in my life today. I was able to understand how my current achievements are important in the ongoing purposes that I have been pursuing through many lifetimes.

Many people have gone through a similar process to break through the boundaries of ordinary consciousness. The famous automobile manufacturer, Henry Ford, described his personal awakening in a newspaper interview in 1938. Ford said:

“When I was young, like so many others, I was puzzled. I found myself asking the question: ‘What are we here for?’ I didn’t find an answer. Without some answer to that question, life is empty, useless. Then one day a friend handed me a book on reincarnation. That little book gave me the answer I was looking for. He changed my whole life. Of emptiness and uselessness. , changed my perspective on life to purpose and meaning. I think we’re here now and we’ll be back again. Of this I am sure: that we are here with a purpose. And that we continue The mind and memory-they are the eternal ones.”

Ford further clarified his point in another newspaper interview when he told the reporter:

“Work is useless if we cannot use the experience we accumulate in one life in the next. When I discovered reincarnation, it was as if I had found a universal plan. I realized that there was a chance to develop my ideas. Time did not it was limited, it was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock.

If you keep a record of this conversation, write it down so it will reassure the men. I would like to communicate to others the peace of mind that a long-term vision of life gives us. Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or a talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lifetimes.”

To further clarify the relationship between you and your physical body, a simple image can be helpful. Imagine that you want to train dogs. You ask a friend who raises dogs to help you learn how to train a dog. Your friend lends you a beautiful puppy so you can practice for a while. Every day you work training the dog, treating it very tenderly. As the dog grows, you become very fond of it. Eventually, you come to love that dog.

Then after a while your friend comes back and says, “You did a good job training that dog. Now I can take it back to the person who bought it.” He is surprised that he should give up the dog. You became so caught up in your connection to the dog that you mistakenly came to believe that the dog’s purpose was simply to give you pleasure. You forgot that the dog was yours only temporarily, that you were simply using it to learn certain lessons, and that you would eventually have to give it up.

In this imagination, the dog represents your physical body. Sometimes he can get so attached to his body that he feels like the whole purpose of life is just to care for and enjoy his body, to raise his dog purely for the hell of it. With that attitude, you can come to believe that there is no greater purpose in your life beyond living pleasantly in your physical body. You never see that the real purpose of living in your body, like working with the dog, is to learn. You do not understand that you must eventually give up your body through death, just as you gave up the dog when you fulfilled your purpose with him.

As you discover more about your true existence, you will realize that your physical body is not an end in itself. It is simply a vehicle that is temporarily useful for one leg of an extraordinary journey you have embarked on, a journey that extends far beyond a human lifetime.

Through a deep meditation practice, you can learn to gain a broader experience of life that will allow you to go beyond the limits of your ordinary human consciousness. As your inner vision expands, you will be able to discover the following very important truths about your existence. Like many spiritual seekers, I have verified these truths through my ongoing spiritual experiences over the years.

An inspiring way to work with these truths is to say them to yourself as positive affirmations every day. Although you may not yet be able to directly experience the reality of these truths, telling yourself these affirmations will begin to loosen your beliefs, which is the first step in expanding your ordinary outlook on life that limits your vision.

1. My current human experience of life on earth is temporary. My existence as a soul is permanent.

2. While temporarily experiencing myself as a human being on earth, I simultaneously exist as a soul in a vast, perfect non-physical spiritual realm that is filled with extraordinary love.

3. As a soul, I have projected a human self into many lifetimes on earth through the ages.

You can work with these statements for a few minutes each day. That will help you use your thoughts as building blocks for growth as you establish a deep meditation practice. Developing your meditative practice on these types of beliefs will be a solid foundation for your movement toward a conscious awareness of the spiritual realm, toward a loving soul experience, and ultimately toward an awareness of your past lives. In time, you will be able to directly experience the truth of these beliefs through your own inner experience.

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