23-10-2014, 03:28 PM
CHILDREN’S PAST LIFE
MEMORIES AND HEALING
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ABSTRACT
Young children all over the world have spontaneous memories of previous lives, regardless of the religious beliefs of the parents. It’s a natural
phenomenon. Children usually begin speaking of “when they were big before” or “when they died” around the age of three, and may
speak of their memories for a period of a few years. Many of the memories children recall are of traumatic deaths, which may continue
to affect a child in their present life as phobias and other emotional problems. By combining what I’ve learned from collecting my own
cases of children’s past life memories for more than twenty years, and from the large body of research of spontaneous past life memories
from Dr. Ian Stevenson, with the healing model of past life therapy with adults, I derive a method of healing traumatic past life memories
as they emerge spontaneously in early childhood. By studying the cases of children who speak with conviction of their other lives, we
also observe that many aspects of the child’s present personality have carried forward intact from the past life: behaviors, emotions,
phobias, talents, knowledge, the quality of relationships, and even physical symptoms. The fact that these personality traits carry forward
suggests a new way of looking at personality formation and a theory of personality that spans lifetimes. The children’s cases also add an
important piece to the metaphysical discussion of the survival of consciousness after death, because it is clear from the cases that some form
of personal consciousness continues from one life to another.
Young children have spontaneous memories of
their previous lives. It is a natural phenomenon
observed in children all over the world, regardless of
their parents’ beliefs. Some young children start
talking about their other families, spouses, children,
what they did before, and how they died soon after they
begin talking. These matter-of-fact statements made
by such young children can be quite shocking to an
adult who knows the child. Even if a child doesn’t
speak directly about a previous life, the memories can
manifest as behaviors, phobias, unlearned abilities,
talents, wisdom – almost any aspect of a child’s
personality. The explicit memories and statements
generally fade by the age of seven.
There are many advantages to be gained from studying
these memories. As you read each of the cases here, I
invite you to keep three ideas in mind and reflect on
their implications. First, these memories offer us the
purest evidence for the continuation of a personal
consciousness after death. This is empirical evidence
that can be validated and examined. Second, we can
see that many types of personality traits carry over
intact from one lifetime to another. This offers an
expanded explanation for the origins of personality that
stretches beyond the limits of heredity and
environmental conditioning. And, when you see it, it’s
logical and makes sense.
Third – and this is where my work diverges from others
in this small field – when children talk about traumatic
past life memories, especially their deaths, it is a
precious opportunity for healing past life wounds to
the soul. It is the time early in life when patterns or
issues brought forward from past lives can be healed,
resolved, and corrected so they are not carried into
adulthood – or into future lives.
DISCOVERING PAST LIVES
Until I experienced this phenomenon in my own
children in 1988, I had no idea that children could
remember their previous lives. I was a believer in
reincarnation. My belief came from a direct experience
of heightened awareness that I experienced as a college
student in Boston in the late 1960’s. I realized that we don’t die, that some part of our consciousness continues
after death. I wasn’t sure how this affected me in my
present, personal, day-to-day existence, though. It
wasn’t until I became very ill that this question took on
real and immediate significance
I developed chronic lung problems – pneumonia,
pleurisy, asthma – in my mid-thirties. During the
height of my illness, I had a lucid waking vision: I saw
myself as an adult male in his mid-thirties, lying in bed,
coughing up blood. I knew it was “I” who was dying
of consumption. In my vision I even saw a procession
of mourners and a horse-drawn carriage from a vantage
point above the treetops, and I knew I was witnessing
my own funeral from above and out of that body. The
vision was so real, and its message so meaningful, it
scared me. I wondered if I were destined to again die
young from the same lung ailments, leaving a husband
and young children behind.
PAST LIFE HEALING
Because I had my own physical and emotional healing
as the result of a past life regression before my children’s
memories emerged, I recognized the healing potential
of past life memories for children. But I wondered,
why were none of the professionals in the field of past
life therapy writing about this? I read all of the best
books on regression therapy with adults. In many
published case studies, psychiatrists and psychologists
demonstrated how current emotional and physical
problems could be resolved by accessing past life
memories and processing them with the patient. Some
of these memories emerged spontaneously, some
through hypnosis during the course of therapy.
BLAKE’S TRAUMATIC DEATH
As I delved more deeply into the cases, I merged my
observations of how past lives of adults and children can
heal with Dr. Stevenson’s findings of the patterns in
children’s spontaneous memories, especially the
preponderance of memories of traumatic death. I realized
that it might be possible to heal children’s spontaneous
memories of traumatic past life deaths. But in the first
few years of my research, I had no way to test my ideas.
Then in 1992 I got a call from a mother in Chicago,
Colleen Hocken, whoseson was having what she believed
were past life memories that were deeply troubling him.
Colleen, a mother of three, saw my classified ad in
Mothering Magazine and hoped that Icould give her the
help she needed. She told me her story.
When her middle son, Blake, had just turned three,
(Figure 7) he told her he had been hit by a truck, after
seeing a garbage truck passing their house. Colleen
assumed he was confused and meant a child had hit
him with a toy truck in pre-school. When she
questioned him, he said, “No, a real truck. The truck
hurt me.” Then he started holding his left ear.
It just so happened that the previous day Colleen had
seen Dr. Brian Weiss on Oprah, and Brian made one
statement saying that sometimes children remember
previous lives. This was just the day before. Recalling
this remark, Colleen opened her mind, listened
carefully, and asked Blake questions. She asked him
what had happened.
He told her he went under the wheels of the truck,
indicating with a wave of his hand down the left side of
his body, that’s where he had been struck. She asked,
“Then what happened?” He said, “They took me to
this big building.” When she asked again, “What
happened?” He said, “I died.”