Most of us are curious about reincarnation and whether we have come to this planet “before.”
“Who was I in my past life?” is a common question asked these days and there’s no shortage of answers available.
Do a quick Google search and you’ll find a handful of fun pop quizzes that narrow down what gender you were, what country you came from, what you did, and how you died.
While these are fun ways to explore the topic, they are limited and shallow in their ability to really help us understand who we were in our past lives, and how we can use this knowledge to become more healed and whole people.
If you’re not that serious about answering the question, “Who was I in my past life?” I recommend taking the Past Life Regression Test I created instead of reading this article.
But if you’re serious about becoming a happier and more balanced person, keep reading.
First, we’ll explore what reincarnation really is.
Table of contents
Reincarnation Is Not What You Think It Is … Here’s Why
A few years ago I came to conclude that we are all divine fragments of God, Divinity, the Tao, Consciousness, or whatever you would like to call it.
I came to this life-changing realization via these 6 questions.
What Jesus, Buddha, Eckhart Tolle, Mooji, Adyashanti, Gangaji, Ramana Maharshi, and every wise “enlightened” man and woman through the ages have pointed to and spoken about is that the mind is limited. The self is an illusion. We are all One and the same at our very core.
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Therefore, if our identity is an illusion, how is it possible to reincarnate? As Sol wrote in a previous article, “Reincarnation of an ‘individual self’ is only as possible to the extent of believing that your sense of ‘self’ – your ego – is real.”
If you believe that you are your personality and are separate from everything and everyone else, you will believe what people traditionally say about reincarnation: that your identity will be reborn into a new body and circumstance.
Personally, I don’t at all believe that this is the case.
How is it possible for “you” to reincarnate, if there is no you (other than in your mind) in the first place?
This is yet another illusion innocently perpetrated by an ego that is obsessed with its survival. After all, why is reincarnation so appealing to many of us? Perhaps because it reassures us that our egos will live on after we die.
But if you’ve come to realize that the self is a dreamlike fantasy, you will realize that this isn’t the case.
So what exactly is reincarnation?
In my understanding, reincarnation is the process of recycling energy.
The Buddhists represent this in the Wheel of Dharma which reflects the repeating cycle of birth, life, and death (called “Samsara”).
From what I have learned, the conscious essence that animates us leaves the physical body after death and is “reborn” or remade into a new creation.
All of the memories, experiences, lessons, and wounds we develop during our lives are then left in a non-physical layer which Carl Jung referred to as the “Collective Unconscious” and others refer to as the “Akashic Records.”
Although this new being starts off with a “fresh slate” when it is born, as it matures its job is to heal the inherited core wounds of its predecessors.
Who Was I in My Past Life? (5 Ways to Find Out)
I’ve asked and searched for the answers to this question before too, but somehow always intuitively felt that I wasn’t asking the “right” question or looking in the right place. Have you felt this before?
While I don’t believe that our identities reincarnate, I do believe that we can discover who we were in past lives (because we are all One and share the same underlying consciousness).
More precisely, we have been every person that has ever existed, but for practical reasons, we each carry a unique imprint of inherited strengths and weaknesses.
Similar to transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (big words that describe the process of inheriting physical, mental, and emotional information from your ancestors that doesn’t influence your DNA), it is also possible for us to inherit spiritual maladies of many kinds.
As life itself is about evolving, advancing, and maturing, it can also be said that our emotional and spiritual lives are maturing as well.
Collectively, we are all evolving, and discovering what inherited core wounds we have is vital in order to become happier and more fulfilled people.
In discovering our transgenerational wounds, we also work to “raise the vibrations” of the world for this generation and future generations.
What is it that your ancestors suffered from in the past that you can heal in the present?
You may find that in the process of discovering who you were in your past life, you are linked to one specific person in a single era.
On the other hand, you may have many flashbacks from many lives that all possess the same theme.
Finally, you may not have any flashbacks at all, but instead, have an overwhelming sensation that you must learn to “resolve” a certain issue.
Here are some recommendations that will help you to discover who you were in your past life:
1. Examine what attracts, interests, or creates a sense of nostalgia in you
For example, you may carry a long-time interest in South American shamanism, you may be intensely attracted to ancient Asian culture, or you may feel a deep sense of longing and inexplicable nostalgia towards the English countryside.
Make sure you record your thoughts in a journal to keep track of the signs and synchronicities you find.
2. Pay attention to repetition in your dreams
Also, learn to distinguish between dreams that feel dreamlike, and dreams that feel distinctly life-like – these dreams may present doorways into the collective unconscious.
Repetitive dreams, in particular, carry important messages for they reveal what our minds on a subconscious level are fixated with.
For instance, if you frequently dream about being abandoned for no particular reason (i.e., no childhood abandonment issues), you may be carrying the inherited core wound of betrayal or the fear of aloneness.
Magical, paradigm-shifting, terrifying, and awe-inspiring, the spiritual awakening process is at the core of every human’s quest for freedom, love, and happiness.
Learn more about how to understand the meaning of your dreams.
3. Set an intention – repeat
You may like to set an intention before attempting to revisit your past life. Do this before going to sleep, meditating, or practicing self-hypnosis.
For instance, your intention may be “Who was I in my past life? Please be revealed” or simply, “I want to know who I was.”
Finally, it helps to repeat your intention several times before you settle into a sleep, meditation, or hypnosis state.
4. Reflect on the people you have attracted into your life
What harsh, but powerful lessons have your friends, family members, and/or romantic relationships taught you?
Can you sense any particular theme running through your life that has seemed to be there from the very start?
It is said that we all enter this life with a soul family which is a group of beings that collectively work to resolve accumulated karma.
5. Stare into a mirror or body of water
Use your reflection as a focal point to enter into an altered state of consciousness. Get into a comfortable position, and if possible, dim the lights. Keep your intention in mind, relax your eyes and gaze at your reflection. Hold gentle but solid eye contact.
You can do this for up to ten minutes to half an hour or more. As the minutes pass by, you will find that your face begins to morph and subtly change its appearance. What can you see?
Learn more about mirror work.
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Use a combination of all the practices above to explore your past life and inherited core wounds. Please keep in mind that there are many other techniques out there, but these five are basic and easy for anyone to try out.
This Is What I Discovered …
As a result of putting into practice the above recommendations, I discovered that I have memories from Medieval Ireland, Persia/Middle East, Rome, and Greece. My most vivid and recurring memories appear to be of a great gothic castle, a home near the cliffs and ocean, grassy paddocks, and a ragged tent in a desert. The main core wound I seem to struggle with involves a loss of control which has helped me to resolve an immense number of issues in my life.
What about you? Have you discovered what your transgenerational wound is? What are your thoughts on reincarnation? I’d love to hear below.
Hmm, in my experience, my past life memories seem to have a lot to deal with adventurer lives. Traveling around an area as traveling traders, going on ships to explore the seas, and hanging around bustling urban yet ancient towns/cities to cause some trouble. And basically being caught in the most random unrelated places in the world. My past life issues seem to involve a trauma for a life of danger (if not in protecting others in war), accidental deaths in the ocean such as a storm on sea, and having to learn how to use stealth, wit, and cunning to constantly hide open-minded stuff you would be executed for, so I am an extremely secretive person unable to tell my secrets to anyone except the internet, har har har.
I was here once before, I feel most people are fake and faking it.I don’t know why people hurt people. I feel like I don’t fit in anywhere, I feel like God is Bigger and brighter than any Religion. And love is unconditional, unimaginable and unbelievable Beautiful. Truth is destroying make believe people.
Looking for help and a few answers to some questions. Also there are some unexplainable things happening in my life for the past few years that I can not explain. I would love to hear back from someone who may can help. Thank you.
i will love to know who am i
because my life is a mess right now
one thing I can say is that I have visioned my own flash backs of my past life since I was just a little boy. I like to approach reincarnation much differently. and the way I see it is simple, a voice will speak to me in my sleep. I used to be afraid as a child a lot. I was very hypersensitive, and these voices would keep me calm. I was told it was my conscious speaking to me. however, I find it hardly the case. later in life, I discovered new things about me in deep meditations. I would just touch certain things and have an instant flash back. may it be a certain taste, a sound, the things someone would say. I would see everything clearly. reincarnation for me is essential for facing our struggles. that is until we reach our magnum opus. I am told that is the most important thing to follow. it would take lifetimes just to reach it. the reason for reincarnation for me is a reassignment, that way we have no limitations for us. if we all did that the vibrations of the earth will change greatly. i have much more to… Read more »
Hullo There.. I once had a very profound experience while meditating…and this image has always stayed with me ever since. I saw that I was dressed in a coat of a seafarer like being part of a Naval Officer aboard Napoleon’s Navy. Cos, I seem to have some kind of affinity to him.?
hello I am unsure where i am on my journey but this is my second awakening this second one is a kundalini one that was triggered by finding my twin flame…
I need to know what more i can expect on this journey because i think i might be Ascending rather fast … i need guidance … i think my next step might be healing my inner child… what advice do u give?
I’m not really sure what I’m doing on this even…I guess I have alot of questions and curiousity on if this reincarnation really is a thing and if everyone really does have a past life and that’s what makes them who they are today…not sure how else to word it. I guess I’ve always had this feeling like I might have a past but I find interest in things like the medical field and I knew how to hook up oxygen without being taught and take blood pressures without being shown or changing out a breathing tube in my sister’s throat years back without the know how but I already knew what I was doing. I have connections with certain people in my life that I feel as if I already knew them even when I have no idea who they are. I would love the answers I have interests to music from the 70s to 90s. It’s strange.