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Reincarnation and Your Past Lives
"How many times have you been reborn?" I asked. "Have all of them been here in this environment, the earth or elsewhere as well?"
"No," she answered, "not all here."
"What other planes, what other places, do you go to?"
"I have not finished what I have to do here. I cannot move on until I have experienced all of life, and I have not. There will be many lifetimes…to fulfill all of the agreements and all of the debts that are owed.
~ Brian L. Weiss, M.D.

Many Lives, Many Masters
The karma-reincarnation cycle is a fair and just way for us to regain our God-centeredness, balance and realign ourselves, remember who we really are, and return to the Light. In order to do so, our lost souls have to take responsibility for the lesser choices we've made in the physical world. All past transgressions incurred during our current and previous lives will have to be reconciled and healed with forgiveness and unconditional love.
In order for reincarnation to work, our fallen spirits have to be, experience, and feel all things over the course of many lifetimes. What this means is that we have the opportunity to play different roles during each incarnation. In the process, we would experience being wealthy, poor, male, female, beautiful, not so glamorous, addicted, a gifted artist, a humble shoemaker, politician, thief, prostitute, beggar, king, and so much more. Just take a look at the world around us to see the many different roles we can chose to live through. And there is great wisdom behind this approach.
God knew that the feelings derived from these different life experiences would ultimately lead to greater understanding. Our new-found understanding paves the way for compassion, which in turn brings out the forgiveness in us. Once we are able to forgive, unconditional love begins to unfold in out hearts. Slowly but surely, our divine awareness and natural state of God-centeredness is restored over the course of many lifetimes.
Here is a brief example of how this works. How could we not develop understanding and compassion for someone who is addicted to smoking unless we also went through the same experience? I understand this principle first hand. I was heavily addicted to cigarettes for much of my adult life. Then, in 1995, I walked away from them and never looked back. Today, when I see someone smoking, I truly understand what he or she is going through. And I have nothing but understanding, compassion, and love for what each is experiencing.
One of the most important aspects of reincarnation is that we are the ones who choose the role we want to play during each of our incarnations. Nothing is forced upon us and it is never a form of punishment. Sometimes we choose challenging roles so that we have the opportunity to grow and evolve at a quicker pace. Other times we might decide to take a rest and have a smoother set of circumstances in life. There are also those who make lesser choices and go on to experience and feel that way of life. And no matter what we choose, Father/Mother God loves us unconditionally. There is no right or wrong in Their universe; only learning, growing, and becoming a grander version of who we are.
The next time you see an individual with one arm, or is following the guidance of a seeing-eye dog, it may very well be that he chose to experience a lifetime missing that limb or eyesight. Why? Because in a previous lifetime he may have taken someone else's arm or sight in a fit of rage and anger. Now, with great courage, this same individual has chosen to balance that karma by experiencing and feeling what it is like to have a missing limb, or go through life without the benefit of sight, in order to heal a past transgression.
The great Wheel of Life is where we find ourselves today. We are lost. We have forgotten who we really are. Many births, lives, deaths, and in-between lives have come and gone for us over the ages. Through it all we have always been given the opportunity to make choices that are based upon love or those that are rooted in fear. Although many have made considerable progress over the ages, relatively few in our fallen soul group have made the kinds of choices required to leave the three-dimensional world. And we will continue with this reincarnational drama until each of us is ready to graduate to the next plane of existence and adventure.
Today, two thirds of all the people living on planet Earth believe in the concept of past lives. Those who feel they have one life to live now find themselves in a steadily declining minority, as the Eastern-based view of reincarnation continues to make more and more of its presence felt throughout the Western world. If one brings an open mind and unbiased interpretation to its simple principles, it will not take long to appreciate the reasons for its growing popularity. And for your journey as a soul, it means you have had other family members, friends, and lovers in previous lifetimes who may very well be with you now.
When I first started reading about reincarnation, I discovered that the concept of past lives was centuries older than the Christian religion I was raised on. To briefly understand its place in history, one has to begin with Hinduism, the world's oldest religion, whose roots can be traced back several thousands of years before the Bible was written.
Over the ages, various teachings were blended into the ancient Hindu religious beliefs, especially those of the Vedas, which occurred about thirty-five hundred years ago. Then, approximately six-hundred years before the birth of Christ, the traditional concept of reincarnation surfaced in India with the divinely inspired Upanishad writings. These sacred works of wisdom on the nature of reality and the soul continued to mold and define the Hindu religion and philosophy. Over the centuries, a blend of these beliefs has evolved into a spiritual philosophy and way of life for the Indian people of today.
These same spiritual teachings spread into what is now China and became a part of their Taoism. Over time the belief in reincarnation reached the Middle East and then flourished in southern Europe where it became an important part of Greek theology. Many seekers of truth in that country found themselves drawn to its honest possibilities, including Socrates, Plato, and his student, Aristotle, all of whom spoke of its virtues hundreds of years before Jesus was born.
The Roman dictator, Julius Caesar, who died 44 years before the arrival of the great teacher, Jesus, is known to have stated: "Souls do not become extinct, but pass after death from one body to another." Even the Jewish sects of the Pharisees and the Essenes, who played an important role in Jesus' life, continued to be firm believers in reincarnation more than a hundred years after he passed on.
None of this historical information is based upon speculation. A few hours of research in any decent library will tell you the same things.
In that same library, one can also discover how the belief of reincarnation was eventually banned approximately 500 years after Jesus' death. When he left us, there was no Roman Catholic Church in place. All that existed was a scattered collection of his followers and the simple teachings he left behind. Over the next two to three centuries, early Christianity constantly struggled to define itself and the beliefs it would stand for. In spite of it all, reincarnation was still widely accepted by many of
the respected Church fathers such as St. Clement of Alexandria, Origen, St. Gregory, and St. Augustine. During this same period of time, the Christian dogma of "one life" did not exist. Nor is there any evidence that Jesus taught this belief while he walked among us.
How did the one-life dogma originate? It happened towards the end of the fourth century when it was brought into existence by powerful and influential politicians and men of the cloth. During those days, popes came into control through political appointment by the Roman emperors. The rulers wanted to keep peace among their oppressed, over-taxed citizens, and they saw how this could be accomplished through the emerging Christian religion. The popes sided with these rulers because it gave them more influence and power. As a result, a religious-political marriage was formed for purposes of control, which, in turn, insured the existence of the church-state union. But there was a problem. Christianity, and the teachings it was based upon, was highly fragmented at that time.
During the end of the fourth century there was a great deal of disagreement among the different Christian sects and factions, with little of it reflecting the purity of Jesus' message of love for us. Many warring camps existed with different ideas about what this new religion should be. And, when many of the Christian church leaders lost their spiritual rudder, the original scriptures and the teachings of Jesus they contained became more and more distorted.
In order to remedy these problems, the Roman Emperor, Constantine, his successor, Theodosious, and some of the less desirable church leaders of that time decided to band together and create new religious teachings. The purpose was to take all of the loosely organized religious and historic beliefs that existed and consolidate them. Over the years, new doctrines were issued. They claimed that we were separate from God, we had just one life to live, when we died we went to heaven or hell, and that the only way to save ourselves was through the church. One can easily see how self-serving these man-made laws were and they continue on through today.
In the Catholic Encyclopedia, one can also learn that during the year 553 A.D. the Roman Emperor, Justinian, called the Fifth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople into order, with the express purpose of condemning reincarnation. This is how it was done. A total of 15 anathemas were created. Think of them as condemnations that could result in persecution or death. The first anathema was "if anyone assert the fabulous pre-existence of the souls (reincarnation), and shall assert monstrous restoration which follows from it, let him be anathema."
From that point forward the belief in reincarnation was forbidden. Individuals who refused to abide by this new law were persecuted or killed. The Vatican's subsequent campaign of terror and slaughter lasted until the 13th century when the last vestige of reincarnation was finally wiped out. And they have done a good job of keeping it that way…until recently.
Through my readings, I was amazed to discover that a strong foundation of credible, scientific evidence for reincarnation already exists. This body of support has been carefully woven together through many years of painstaking investigation by a noted American psychiatrist, Dr. Ian Stevenson. Few realize that the first of his many books, Cases of the Reincarnation Type, Volume I: Ten Cases in India, received favorable reviews by the American Medical Association for the quality of research that was conducted and the conclusions reached by Dr. Stevenson. Their formal statement was "In regard to reincarnation he [Stevenson] has painstakingly and unemotionally collected a detailed series of cases from India, cases in which the evidence is difficult to explain on any other grounds"—Journal of the American Medical Association.
What would you do if your 4-year old child came up to you and spontaneously spoke a foreign language? What if that language was Indian, which the child was never exposed to? What if that same child provided many details about a previous life he or she had experienced in India and was strongly drawn to the events being described?
Imagine that out of concern you made an appointment to discuss your child's unusual behavior with a psychiatrist at the University of Virginia Medical School, whose name was Dr. Ian Stevenson. You discover while chatting with his assistant that in 1943 Dr. Stevenson graduated at the head of his medical class from the prestigious McGill University in Montreal. Years later, when 39 years of age, he became Head of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia Medical School where he eventually gave up his distinguished administrative career to do full time research.
His assistant also tells you that over the past 40 years he devoted his professional life to the study of reincarnation. During that time he scientifically documented past life memories in more than three thousand cases from all over the world, many of whom were children.
During your visit with Dr. Stevenson, you learn that your child's behavior is nothing to be concerned about. He describes how he has investigated many hundreds of such experiences and that the young eventually grow out of their past life memories. He also tells you that he has worked with a large number of children who spontaneously remember where they lived during their past life, what town their house was in, the names of their parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, friends, and so on. They also often remember when and how they died.

You continue to listen with amazement as Dr. Stevenson describes his trips to India, Lebanon, Brazil, Alaska, Turkey, Syria, Europe, the United States, Thailand, Ceylon, Burma, and Canada to verify the statements of these children. He explains that this is typically accomplished by examining past medical records, death certificates, and other public documents of the deceased individuals the children claimed they were. This public information is then supplemented through interviews with family members and friends of the departed souls.
Dr. Stevenson goes on to say that, in general, there is usually a period of approximately five years before a deceased individual passes on and is re-born again. Calmly, he tells you that most of the past life stories can be verified, often down to the tiniest detail. You are shocked to discover that although some discrepancies are associated with these cases they only occur with a frequency of just ten percent. In other words, the children's statements about their past lives are accurate ninety percent of the time!
Then, Dr. Stevenson tells you something that raises your eyebrows even further. While sitting at the edge of your chair, he describes his work with children who not only remember their past lives quite accurately, but have prominent, pigmented birthmarks or birth defects on their bodies. He then mentions that this research was published during 1997 under the title, Reincarnation and Biology, Vol.1: Birthmarks and Vol. 2: Birth Defects and Other Anomalies.
The strangely birth-marked children told Dr. Stevenson that the defects were caused by wounds suffered during their previous lives. Forty-nine such cases were studied in detail. Common to all was a near perfect match in past life details given by the young child for the deceased person each recalled being. In ninety-six percent of these cases, a very close correspondence could be found between the birthmarks or birth defects on each child and the wounds on the departed individual. All of this was verified by a review of medical documents such as post-mortem reports for each past life case as well as through other sources.
You are surprised to discover that aside from the positive review the American Medical Association gave to Dr. Stevenson's findings there has been little reaction to his research from the scientific and public community of the Western World. You ask him why. He tells you that he suspects his discoveries fly in the face of the one-life Christian belief, which is a so ingrained in our religious culture.
You thank Dr. Stevenson for his time. While walking to your car, you realize in your heart that that he is a courageous seeker of the truth who is providing humanity with information that can have a profound effect on how they view the world.

On the way home from the doctor's office you stop at a local New Age, metaphysical bookstore. While glancing through the shelves, you see a book called, Only Love is Real. The author is Dr. Brian Weiss, who received his psychiatric training at Yale University School of Medicine. Like Dr. Stevenson, he also served many years as a departmental Chairman of Psychiatry, his being at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami, Florida. You don't realize it at the time, but Dr. Weiss is the author of many scientific articles, and is a nationally recognized expert in substance abuse, brain chemistry and Alzheimer's disease.
After glancing at the back cover and thumbing through the pages, you discover that Dr. Weiss wrote an earlier book titled Many Lives, Many Masters. Reading on you learn that it has been translated into more than 20 languages and read by more than 2 million people throughout the world. It was a very powerful, true to life story about a physician and his patient that took place during the early 1980s.
This remarkable experience involved a twenty-seven year old woman named "Catherine," who started describing past lives to Dr. Weiss while using hypnosis as a last resort to cure her fears, phobias, panic attacks, and depression. Much to his amazement she described her former lives while in trance, several of which included severe, traumatic events. It turned out that the memories of those terrible experiences led to the serious fears she brought forth into this lifetime. Dr. Weiss eventually discovered that Catherine's phobias could be cured if she relived those terrifying experiences while regressed. Remarkably, none of this healing therapy required medication.
It took many years for Dr. Weiss to go public with this story. Understandably, he was concerned about its effects on his professional career. As a solid scientist, he realized that a single case history does not add up to meaningful data in the scientific world. And, needless to say, the subject matter was highly controversial.
However, an astonishing event occurred during one of Catherine's sessions that stunned Dr. Weiss. It convinced him that a very profound experience and defining moment in his career and personal life was taking place in his office. And it was something that would irreversibly turn his world upside down and forever change the way he looked at things.
During one of her many therapeutic sessions, Catherine was regressed to an in-between-life state of mind. While there, she announced that two members of Dr. Weiss' family, both of whom had passed on during his current lifetime, were present. She went on to say that:

"Your father is here, and your son, who is a small child. Your father says you will know him because his name is Avrom and your daughter is named after him. Also, his death was due to his heart. Your son's heart was also important, for it was backward, like a chicken's. He made a great sacrifice for you out of his love. His soul is very advanced…his death satisfied his parent's debts. Also, he wanted to show you that medicine could only go so far, that its scope is very limited."
Dr. Weiss was totally dumbfounded after hearing those words because there was no possible way for his patient to know these facts. This was especially true for the unexpected death of his first-born son who died when he was twenty-three days old. His tragic death resulted from complications suffered as a result of a rare birth defect when he was born with reversed blood vessels to the heart, because of its backwards orientation similar to the heart of a chicken.
Losing his child was the greatest tragedy in Dr. Weiss's life. And, in a fatherly way, I can relate to his grief and profound agony because I almost lost my infant son due to a serious illness. He asked Catherine, "Who tells you these things?" She whispered, "The Masters… the Master Spirits tell me."
Years later this courageous physician would go on to perform more than one thousand past life regressions on other patients. Because of its great success as a therapeutic tool for troubled souls, he eventually founded the Weiss Institute, which provides therapeutic regression analysis for outpatients and hosts regular seminars for the lay public and medical professionals alike.
While all of that was going on, Dr. Weiss could not anticipate another extraordinary event that would make its way into his life many years after his first experience with Catherine. His belief in past lives would be expanded by a highly unusual soulmate reunion that took place while practicing therapy on two of his patients. And it formed the basis of his third book, Only Love is Real.
It all began one day when an attractive young woman named Elizabeth visited Dr. Weiss' office seeking professional help. She was very distressed because grief, anxiety, and sleep disorder problems were preventing her from leading a normal life. After reading Many Lives, Many Masters she believed that past life regression analysis could help resolve her medical issues. She also hoped a review of her past lives might improve the quality of her relationships with men. As she began to relive her former lives while under Dr. Weiss's hypnotic guidance, he recorded the details of the many events she revealed week after week in his office.
At the same time, another patient named Pedro was suffering from medical problems similar to Elizabeth's. He too was undergoing past life regression therapy with Dr.

Weiss. While this was taking place, both patients had never met before and their weekly appointments were always on different days. Like Elizabeth, Pedro also shared the detailed experiences of his many lives with Dr. Weiss.
As he delved deeper and deeper into their past life experiences, Dr. Weiss began to notice something very peculiar. Even though he had treated family members over the years who recalled sharing former lives together, never did he have a case where two unrelated patients found themselves together during former pastimes.
Over time, Dr. Weiss began to notice a number of stunning similarities in the lives that Elizabeth and Pedro were describing. Each was remarkably consistent in detail, including lifetimes as childhood sweethearts, father and daughter, and husband and wife. As he began to thread the pieces of their earlier times together, he soon realized that these two souls had been lovers during their previous lives and had lost one another over the ages. He was both astonished and dumbfounded by this discovery.
Dr. Weiss wondered what to do with this incredible information. Here were two perfect strangers who had been on and off lovers for as long as two thousand years! Should he tell them? Should he introduce them to one another? Would it be professionally appropriate to do so?
While struggling with this dilemma, he came up with a brilliant solution to test their possible past life connection. He arranged to have Elizabeth finish one of her future appointments while Pedro was waiting in Dr. Weiss' outer office for his session to begin. When they passed one another the first time, nothing unusual happened. The second time this occurred there appeared to be noticeable exchange of energy through eye contact and friendly smiles. But that was as far as it went.
At the time, Dr. Weiss didn't realize that all soul mate reunions, regardless of circumstances, are predestined to happen. Both partners plan their meeting prior to incarnating as part of their life drama. When in body, our angelic spirit guides and the effects of synchronous events in our lives assure that our plans fall into place, as if by magic.
Soon after their initial contact in Dr. Weiss' office, both Elizabeth and Pedro arranged to make business trips to Boston, never realizing the other was doing the same thing. While at the airport, Elizabeth's Boston-bound plane was delayed because of mechanical problems. In order to keep to her busy schedule, she was switched to another flight; the same plane Pedro was to take.
While both were waiting to board the plane, Pedro caught sight of Elizabeth and this time he could not take his eyes from her. He was swept away with an overpowering

sense of soul recognition that was beyond his control. As his eyes met Elizabeth's, spontaneous memories were unleashed from their past lives together, and a rush of profound "knowingness" awakened in both of them that was instantaneous, overwhelming, and unmistakable. He walked up to Elizabeth and introduced himself. She smiled. Within moments, the hearts and souls of these two lovers from former lives had touched once again.
How does the drama of past lives work? Moments after passing on, the real you, the eternal you, "pops" out of your physical body. To your amazement, you'll find yourself inside a lighter form similar to the one just shed, but as you looked during your prime. You'll be as conscious as you were prior to death, but with far greater awareness. After passing through a tunnel of exquisite light deceased family members and friends will greet you on the other side. And the grandest reunion of all will be with your spirit guide who has been with you for many lifetimes.
In that place, you begin your between-life stay in a realm that has a higher vibration than 3-dimensional reality. Think of it as Earth heaven, which has different levels that a departed soul can go to depending upon one's degree of evolution at the time of physical death. Within each level are individuals who have the same mindset, perspectives, opinions, and viewpoints. In essence, each level contains souls that think and act alike.
While in "heaven" you'll have an opportunity to review the effects of all the choices made during your most recent life, and other lifetimes if necessary. The life review takes place in your mind, which can be likened to a video tape of everything that took place during your previous lifetime down to the tiniest detail. As you watch, you will feel all the emotions that were created through your higher or lesser choices. If a person, animal, or other living thing was hurt by a non-loving choice, you get to feel that hurt. If love was the basis of a choice that was made, you feel that love.
After the life review is completed, you serve as your own judge and jury prior to creating your next life plan. All of this is done with unconditional love and support from your angelic spirit guide and other Master spirits. Then, without any scolding from God, you are the one who chooses the kinds of solutions for healing, and the opportunities for learning and growth to be accomplished during your next lifetime.
As you prepare for your upcoming incarnation, you pick your parents, siblings, lovers, friends, and other members of your soul family, just as they choose you for their needs. For the most part, you will continue to repeat your incarnations with many of the same people, especially those closest to you. The choice of who you wish to be with and what you want to do is blended and tempered with the decisions made by all the others who will play key roles in the combined drama. Overall, a
general palette of everyone's upcoming life takes shape that is agreeable to all. Importantly, you will come into your next incarnation at exactly the same level of vibration and conscious mindset as the one just completed.
While making your choices, you may decide to work out negative karma, be in the company and friendship of another because of the joy that she or he brought to you in previous lifetimes, or both. If you feel ready for the challenge and want to speed up your evolution, you may elect to experience a difficult life.
On the other hand, if you've just finished a demanding life, a relatively easy one may be next on your agenda, realizing that a smoother "ride" with fewer difficulties is not as conducive to growth. Or you may decide not to evolve very much at all by making lesser choices to shape your upcoming life plan. As always, the final decision is up to you, and it is plain to see the countless array of choices others have made by simply observing the world around you.
Finally, the more advanced we are, the less time we need to spend resolving unsettled karma in a physical body. Those less evolved are in and out of body very quickly since there are more lessons to be learned and many knots of karma to untangle and heal.
At birth a veil of forgetfulness is cast over the details of your life plan. But that drama is guaranteed to unfold. On-going help is always available from God and your spirit guide. As you pass through life, unplanned synchronous events that come into your life in the form of unexpected people, circumstances, or compelling thoughts will change its direction and play a major role in keeping you on track. It is important to realize and trust that you are not here in body randomly or accidently and that there are guiding forces in your life at all times. Some are big and easy to spot, while others may be more subtle. The trick is to listen and watch for them.
While in body, your life plan guarantees that a pre-arranged drama will occur, such as a long-term partnership with someone and the children that could come from it. However, once that relationship falls into place, you will find yourself continually confronted with free-will choices that can help you, your partner, and your children learn and grow because of them.
Needless to say you have lived through and experienced many reincarnational dramas before this lifetime, but this cosmic system of justice does work. Eventually, the negative karmic energy and dross accumulated from the past is balanced out with forgiveness and unconditional love. Over time you will learn all of life's lessons that are possible in the flesh. At that point, you are ready to graduate into greater opportunities and adventures that are unimaginable. And you will discover that the
countless lives experienced here on planet Earth is just the beginning of a very long journey of Self-discovery.
During your current lifetime, it helps to be aware of the fact that God gifted you with the most effective way to grow and learn while here on this planet. It is through your relationships with others. And the second most compelling relationships you can have in body are with those soulmates who are most endearing to you, especially the long-term partner who may be in your life this very moment.