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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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.
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This helps. I’ve been on a deep spiritual journey. And I think I just found out who I was in the previous life. And her life when I’ve done research is filled of coincidences with mine.. first her time of death being just over 50 days before my Birthday. Based on my natural talents in dance and makeup and acting I always knew that I was more than this body. I’ve always felt trapped, the style of music that I like. If this is true.. I believe we need to look at names. What names ring a bell to you? I have found that is possible we plan our birthdays with our soul mate but go through amnesia before birth. So happens I was born in Trinidad. My best friend who is the first best friend I’ve had, we at the same height, like the same things, one male and one female, but personalities are switched, both our parents live in the same village . Both our mothers First name is Lynn. We some how always reconnect through life and we can communicate without speaking. We get eachother. Names of people you gravitate to in this life.. and certain frequencies… Read more »
Okey … let’s assume this is actually right. That reincarnation exists without carrying our current identity to our next life. Our ego is also affraid to die and be forgotten for an eternity, true. So we accept the fact that we are conciousness itself and coming from the same source etc. But please, it’s still something which was claimed by our minds. So basicly the one who declare that our souls are the ones we truly are and not our egos are actually our egos or minds. Do you get it? So death is death for everyone of us since without our egos we can’t identify that conciousness of ours. Maybe it stays in the same place but the ego dissapear, that part which contain all the informations and emotions about ourselves. Let’s ask a question: How can you declare that there is an “you”? by knowing about your own existence with your ego and mind. But what if there is no ego or mind? The only answer would be that there is actually a transcendant ego which see and remember all of our lives together while we are experiencing just a part of our current ego. Many people say… Read more »
I am on a spiritual journey and I had a weird experience with what I think was energy I asked it to gently sit me down and it did it forced me down gently I could feel the energy but couldn’t see anthing I am desperate for the truth
I have always jnown the ‘oneness’ *from an early age, always known the journey, i see souls, i feel them, animals connect easily to me, but people are usually nervous, i have been told many times by people tbey feel they know me, i connect most to the contestable times in our english history, feel great injustice and poverty, and yet inherently know the most beautiful poetry, i have also connection to the oceans, and feel great pain and great overwhelming beauty.. I dont fear death, i feel i am observing..
I really am considering this perspective, it fits better than others… but it still doesn’t answer my longest held question, WHY? Why any of this. Why expansion? Why life? Why reincarnation? Why existence? If there is no end and no beginning, just “I am”, “Consciousness” and “Oneness”, then why? I honestly feel like I have been restarting a game I freaking hate for way too long.
After you answer the general WHY? Take a smash at this one too, please: If I don’t have a personal identity, then why?
Normally, I’m quite skeptic with the concept of reincarnation. However, recently I’ve discovered a person who I felt a deep connection with even when we’ve never known each other. I really can’t understand this feeling I’ve felt, I’ve become a bit impulsive with my feelings and decisions whenever I think of them. It’s like we’re supposed to be together for a purpose and I’m deeply affected by their every words and actions. This made me curious if I really had a previous life with this person. Honestly, I’ve been having nostalgic feelings in some particular situations where I never really experienced. Subconsciously, I know I am prone to addiction, and even if I’m not a smoker, I have this strong urge to do it even when I don’t like to smoke. It’s like an old habit that couldn’t be removed. There are even times when I drive past old worn-out buildings, and feel a strange familiarity then my mind would immediately imagine someone being in a small room with a single bed and seemed like to be waiting for someone. Regarding dreams, my dreams are definitely random but the most common theme in some of my dreams involves me being… Read more »
What is with is everday? I need to know why I am here.
I tried this and it turns out I was a dung farmer in Austria 1700s! This made me sad :(
I’m from Kolkata, India. While meditating with a self-hypnotic trance audio, a year back, I saw in a brief flash myself in a castle, the sea wind stroking my face, and myself as a little kid running playfully. Suddenly I felt a blow from my right and woke up palpitating. Taking clues from the texture and design of the walls , pathway, and surroundings, I later discovered stunning similarity with a medieval european castle. Today, browsing through the internet, I came accross your article and I am taken aback by the similarity with your description on trans-generation memory. Besides following the above steps, can I connect to you in this regard ? It would be a great help.
Interesting article! Personally, I believe past lives are not to be believedin—they’re pretty logical enough, I think. I feel relieved that we don’t die with just one life, but that just makes our existences all the more serious in a karmic sense. Unless you don’t have any bad karma, then life’s an easy bed of flowers for you! Anyway, I feel an affinity with Europe, England especially—even in my clothing I gravitate toward dated, stiff things. Yes, the land feels nostalgic and I feel at ease with the culture. France also feels familiar, but not as much—I like it; also Russia, maybe Mexico, and possibly South Asia. I’m an artist, and I think I’ve been one for quite a few lifetimes before this one, considering how I could draw relatively well as a child (I think talent in anything is what’s been developed/practiced in past lives—how else would it be fair?). When I was young, I considered old master paintings very boring, as if I had already seen the life out of them before—maybe! The Italian painters, such as Raphael in particular, seem very familiar to me. I know someone who is extremely into indigenous and especially Native Amerian history,… Read more »