Past Life Analysis

BY

Donna Ciaciarella

What exactly is a past life reading?
How does it differ from past life regression work?

A past life reading is when a person gifted with the ability to see the past looks into your past lives for you and relates that information to you. Past life regression is unmediated revelation through hypnosis usually assisted by a regression therapist. However, past life regression is not always accessible to those who cannot be hypnotized because the interpretive reality of the ego is too strong. Past life readings may be attractive to those that prefer a less subjective experience, or for those that mistrust their abiltity to see.

The revelation of past life readings depends only on the reader’s gifts. The amount of details seen vary among readers. When I see a past life, I see it rather like a video. I am able to fast forward through the years and decades, pausing at certain time frames and focusing on important events. The key, however, is my ability to perceive the emotional content of the people involved. This is important because unresolved emotional issues that are carried from one life to another can be either impediments or guideposts on our individual paths. Whether an issue is a guidepost or an impediment depends only on the level of awareness and open-mindedness with which it is approached.

If you prefer to try past life regression with a past life regression therapist, it’s best to have the session in person. Some people have powerful results, however, using past life regression audios to guide them to past life experiences. The more relaxed one is, the better the results. If you choose to try regressing yourself with an audio guide, I suggest Dr. Brian Weiss, one of the world’s leading experts in the field of past life regression.

What is the purpose of reincarnation or rebirth?

It’s premise is that we will continue to take form as long as we live in the ignorance or delusion that we are separate from God. There are many different paths to end the idea of the ego’s separation; the three main paths are: surrender or devotion, also called bhakti yoga; the path of knowledge, called jnana yoga; and the path of service or work called karma yoga. In the end all of these paths arrive at the same place, which is union with God. But until we merge, we come back to continually work on perfecting our path.

The second noble truth of Buddhism is that desire causes suffering. If we look at our thinking – our opinions and preconceptions, and our feelings, we see that there isn’t one moment that we are not continually wishing for something or pushing something away. This constant state of craving and aversion doesn’t allow us to be present in the moment. We are so afraid that we will experience unhappiness by not getting what we want, that we go to great lengths trying to make sure the world provides for us what we think we need to be happy – whether it is the need for love, security, money, sex, recognition, etc. Our egos drive us continuously in the search for happiness from the outside world. We create alot of drama and pain in this journey! A turning point comes when we no longer look for the outside world to give us happiness and turn inward on our paths to find God.

Whatever the path to God (or Universal Consciousness) that we choose, we see that it’s the opinions and judgements in our minds that define and limit us (and, thus, our experiences) and that keep us separate from God. And we see that by finally accepting what God has presented as our life work, whatever role that may be, we learn to trust God and we learn to trust our process or path. This feeling of trust, knowing we are just where we should be at any given moment and that we are being given exactly what we need at every moment, leads to self-acceptance, and is the beginning of feeling peace in our hearts. As we feel this peace, our desire for others’ happiness increases and we find that we have a much deeper capacity to extend loving-kindness to others.

Why is the practice of self-kindness, or self-acceptance important on one’s path?
How does it help us in this life and in future lives?

Why is the practice of self-kindness, or self-acceptance important? How does it help us in this life and in future lives?

Since I began giving readings in 1994, I found many people bringing questions to the reading around the topic of what was wrong with them – what they may have done in a previous life to warrant having the problems that they were experiencing in their present life. It is a powerful question to ask and speaks of the possibility of having enough awareness to take responsibility of being the creator of one’s circumstances. In viewing the past lives, there were events that they did not forgive themsevles for. As such, the mind was imprinted with guilt or criticism at the time of death. Their unforgiving mind, toward themselves or toward another, attracted another life with either an overtly critical parent, whose message was, “There is something wrong with you”. Or they may have attracted a parent who had high expectations of them, which is another form, though very subtle, of criticism. In effect, the message is, “Don’t fail in life”. They go through life thinking something is wrong with them, or they are on a driven path to succeed at something, and as such, experience constant discontent. They could also attract a partner who they are discontented with and critical of, or a partner who is discontented with them. Any of those scenarios played out don’t produce a calm mind, or very much happiness, and can be quite emotionally and mentally exhausting.

It is not necessary to know what the events in a past life were that we did not forgive ourselves for. We can work in our current lives with practicing self-acceptance or self-kindness with each moment that arises. We can use our developing awareness to listen to our thoughts to see if they are harsh or critical toward ourselves. If our minds are judging negatively what we are doing, what we are feeling – judging all the ways we, or the way that our lives are not OK, we can assume we are not accepting ourselves with the energy and intention of compassion.

It is very difficult to be truly compassionate toward anyone else, if we have not learned how to be compassionate toward ourselves. In the Bible, Jesus states, “Love your neighbor as yourself”. So the question to ask is, how can we love our neighbors, if we don’t love or accept ourselves? In fact, if we are can’t accept ourselves or our lives, we aren’t even able to be present in the moment, as the moment is just too painful.

In essence, there is nothing wrong with you, and there never was. It is just negative thinking directed toward the self, and then sometimes, outwards towards others. Our minds (and we are not our minds) are nothing but a bundle of thoughts – good thoughts, bad thoughts, and neutral thoughts. So, changing our thoughts to become kind thoughts about ourselves is a practice of mental reprogramming, and the energy that fuels the practice comes from the heart. The loving heart produces a loving mind. This is the beginning of unveiling the compassion that was always within us; it was just clouded over by negative thinking. The practice always begins towards ourselves. If one practices sincerely enough, then at the time of death, there won’t be an iota of negativity in the mind, and as such, we will attract a fortunate rebirth.

Cheri Huber, a Zen teacher in California, uses a method of Compassionate Awareness for non-meditators to lead and open them into self-acceptance. She guides the listener to reawakening lost emotions with compassionate awareness through revisiting suppressed childhood events and memories to be able to connect fully in the moment with one’s authentic emotional and feeling state.

It is an intense and powerful experience – a 6 hour guidance that effects to open the heart and expand awareness and kindness toward oneself.

Being kind to ourselves is the beginning of feeling peace and happiness in our hearts so that we can be more fully present in the moment, whatever that moment may be.

Why doesn’t Christianity accept reincarnation?

Although Eastern religions accept reincarnation as part of their doctrine, Christianity has rejected it since 553 AD, when it was dropped from their doctrine at the Fifth Ecumenical Council at Constantinople. At that time, the Roman Empire was divided into two parts: the Eastern Empire at Constantinople and the Western Empire at Rome. It has been noted historically that the rejection of reincarnation, with the possibility of past and future lives, was personally motivated by Justinian, the Emperor of the Eastern Empire, and his wife, Theodora. Although the vote of reincarnation at the Council relied on bishops from both the Eastern and Western Empire, only two bishops from Rome came to Constantinople to vote. As two previous popes had been murdered after they denounced the dropping of the belief of reincarnation of the Bible, many of the Roman bishops were afraid to vote against the wishes of Justinian. After the vote, all Bibles were confiscated throughout both empires, burned and rewritten.

Below is an excerpt from the Fifth Ecumenical Council denouncing reincarnation.

THE ANATHEMAS AGAINST ORIGEN

I.

IF anyone asserts the fabulous pre-existence of souls, and shall assert the monstrous restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema.

II.

IF anyone shall say that the creation (thu paragwghn) of all reasonable things includes only intelligences (noas) without bodies and altogether immaterial, having neither number nor name, so that there is unity between them all by identity of substance, force and energy, and by their union with and knowledge of God the Word; but that no longer desiring the sight of God, they gave themselves over to worse things, each one following his own inclinations, and that they have taken bodies more or less subtile, and have received names, for among the heavenly Powers there is a difference of names as there is also a difference of bodies; and thence some became and are called Cherubims, others Seraphims, and Principalities, and Powers, and Dominations, and Thrones, and Angels, and as many other heavenly orders as there may be: let him be anathema.

III.

IF anyone shall say that the sun, the moon and the stars are also reasonable beings, and that they have only become what they are because they turned towards evil: let him be anathema.

IV.

IF anyone shall say that the reasonable creatures in whom the divine love had grown cold have been hidden in gross bodies such as ours, and have been called men, while those who have attained the lowest degree of wickedness have shared cold and obscure bodies and are become and called demons and evil spirits: let him be anathema.

Can anyone remember all of their past lives?

I have never heard of anyone able to do this, except of the Buddha, who it is said remembered all of his past lives when he fully Awakened. Some texts say he remembered 500 of them, others report that he remembered several thousand past lives. It is known that as one progresses on the spiritual path, a side effect is having siddhas or powers that can take the form of telepathy, psychic powers, materialization of objects, etc. It is possible that one of these siddhas would be to see past lives. All great saints and sages have advised not to pay attention to them, as they are a distraction from the true path, and can reinforce the ego, if one is not careful. Therefore we may never know how many people have actually seen all of their past lives. I don’t think trying to think about our past lives in this way would be helpful, as the information could be overwhelming and confusing for most of us.

However, I receive letters from people that can remember either part of a past life, or one or several in vivid detail. As our past lives are stored in our subconscious, it’s possible that some of these memories surface as visions or dreams in those people that have “thinner veils” to the subconscious. I suspect that most of the time these memories surface because there is something from the past that is unresolved and still has a deep effect on that person’s emotional being. It is also possible that some memories can surface randomly. One can measure the importance of such a past life memory, vision or dream, by the emotional feeling that accompanies it.

The Buddhists have a chant or prayer asking one be forgiven for all past life deeds that were harmful or destructive and to be released from the effects that these deeds have caused. Yet, they don’t focus on past life therapy as a means of healing. I think, though, that the intention to heal the past through asking for forgiveness is something that we can all incorporate in our daily lives, even though we may not remember any of our actions from past lives. Having this kind of intention is beneficial as we can also apply it to letting go – forgiving ourselves, and forgiving others more easily in our present lives. When we forgive and let go, we feel much more expansive and compassionate, and we have more available attention to be directly present in the moment. Our minds become more calm and stable, which allows for more contentment, and for deeper meditative states.