

Unless under unusual initiatory conditions, no one will ever tell you your past lives. Such an individual would typically be on a spiritual path and have sufficient detachment not to allow past life memories to interfere in a negative way with their current life, as outlined above. If an individual can see what they have done and experienced prior to this incarnation, they can use the knowledge of these experiences to make better choices in this life. What is the point of knowing our past lives?

One of these will be the ability to know their own past lives, and the past lives of others. Ultimately, through the lives, the aspirant will have a wide range of psychic abilities. How quickly this happens depends on the individual on the path they have chosen and on how much effort they put into it. Sometimes people who may not be very spiritually advanced, and lead quite ordinary lives, have spontaneous memories of past lives, and there is a considerable body of evidence for reincarnation based on the testimonies of these people, including children.Īs the spiritual aspirant advances on their chosen path, they will develop psychic abilities and their intuition, even if they are not seeking to do so. In short, remembering past lives is fraught with potential for emotional distress and confusion. Imagine if you, having passed away in your forties in your last life, then, as a teenager in your next life, could recognize your former wife, who was still incarnate, now in her late nineties – and imagine if she could recognize you and expected you to stay with her as if nothing had happened! Imagine if you remembered being very rich and powerful in a previous life, you would find it all the more difficult to adapt to a more modest way of living. You would then have to cope with the guilt of that act in this life.

Imagine, for example, if you had a past life memory of doing something very bad. However, this can be taken partly as a blessing in disguise and allows us to start each new life seemingly afresh. Why can’t we remember our past lives?Īll knowledge is stored deep in our subconscious mind but because we have not sufficiently developed our brain we are only able to access a very small part of our memory. All of us have been reincarnating for millions of years and in truth, there is no “death”, only that of the body. Seemingly analytical statements are often symbolic, such as the assessment that arthritic clients’ stiff joints result from “the tightness they hold in their attitude toward life.” Structural issues aside, the book offers possible karmic explanations and some hope for those with chronic health issues, and presents an interesting catalogue of approaches to life. Yet even though DiMaggio and all her volunteers did soul writing in each case, some studies only include DiMaggio’s soul writing or only the volunteer’s, while others have both. DiMaggio states that her work is set apart by the inclusion of “soul writing,” a kind of automatic writing believed to come directly from one’s higher self, to provide extra insight on the past-life regression. The collection includes some harrowing past-life accounts-opium addiction, sex work, and even death by crucifixion-but is weakened by some unexplained holes. Therapist and past-life researcher DiMaggio ( Your Soul Remembers) offers a collection of brief case studies intending to prove that ailments in this life such as arthritis, diabetes, and depression are the result of “physical karma” from a previous life, and that spontaneous healings can occur if patients discover the source of their present-life maladies through past-life regression therapy.
