2: My Own Experience
"The only source of knowledge is experience" - Albert Einstein
I am prompted to make this page because, as one with memories of several past lives, the idea of reincarnation is forced upon me. It is, however, not easy to talk publicly of it, because of the high level of scepticism, and often ridicule, that comes to anybody who talks of such things.
I am reminded of the comment about Joan Grant, the author of several past-life recollections, from the Joan Grant website.
One of them was writer H.G. Wells who Joan met when she was sixteen years old. Joan felt comfortable enough with Wells to tell him some of her "secrets." Sympathising with the young girl, Wells told her, "It is important that you become a writer." He further told her that she should continue to keep her secrets to herself until she was, "... strong enough to bear being laughed at by fools."
My own memories do not afford me enough details, such as exact names, addresses and dates, to pinpoint them accurately down to officially identifying who I was, but they are real enough to me, and extend back from 100 years ago to several thousand years ago. I also recognise a few people in this life as being people I knew in earlier lives,
These memories, therefore, are convincing to me, but insufficient to be convincing to anybody else. There are, however, others who have been able to provide more specific details, and to identify the exact person that they were in a recent past life.
I have also had other experiences that indicate that this is not just a materialist universe, or one to be described within the limitations of any one religious viewpoint. For example, there have been three occasions when a friend or person well known to me has died, but the first I knew of the deaths came from the persons themselves. They told me they had died but were still alive. In two of the cases, I would not have found out in time to attend the funeral if they had not directly communicated with me.
Another experience I have had is that of astral projection. This is a phenomenon in which the consciousness leaves the physical body (usually lying on one’s bed), and travelled to another location and observed whatever was going on there. I have had this experience only once, and the location I moved to was only halfway across the city I was living in, but nevertheless I did accurately observe events that were actually happening about 20km from where my physical body was located.
However, none of these phenomena is particularly convincing to anyone has has experienced none of them. Other people’s experiences can be more convincing to those who have not experienced them than mine are. There are other people who have been able to provide persuasive evidence of reincarnation. The following pages in this set are an attempt to summarise the various sources of evidence that are currently available.