Past lives
It’s not just adults who believe in reincarnation. So what should we do when a child says this isn’t their first life on Earth?
We’ve all seen films or read stories in which a child tells his mother he’s been here before. Or he knows things he couldn’t possibly know about another era or even another country.
Many might scoff at the idea of a person having lived before, but it is being taken seriously.
In fact, in a paper published recently by the National Library of Medicine, researchers discovered that some patients who reported certain violent deaths in a past life were then found to have scars on their bodies or birthmarks that imitated the wounds obtained in their previous life.
Many cultures around the world believe in some kind of reincarnation.
Hindus, for example, believe that a person is reincarnated in a different body depending on their karma — or good acts — from their previous life.
But how do you know when a child is indulging in makebelieve, and when it’s real?
Elaine Claire is a psychic and past-life therapist who has regressed many clients.
She says: ‘I find people can often be quite obsessed with a particular period in history and relive certain events. This is the most common reason people would come for a regression.’
Elaine says that every case is different, but often people ‘feel they are in the wrong body’.
She says: ‘Some people feel they just don’t belong to their current life. Some have come to me and said they are convinced they’re from a different dimension altogether.
‘Some folk feel they are from a different planet, are an animal, or relate to a famous person in history.’
Deborah Monshin, past-life regression expert and author of Past Lives, Present Healing, says: ‘It tends to be young children in particular who remember their past lives, because it’s just a natural thing for them up until the age of four, when they get into the school system and become more “rational”.
‘There’s no real allowance for spirituality in education. I’ve spoken to people whose children have said “when I was big” when referring to a past life.
‘Other signs are kids who have regular dreams or nightmares for no reason. I once saw a little boy draw a picture of a plane with red all over it, and he said: “This is when I died in an airplane”.
‘There are things kids say or dream about which can all be indicators of past lives and they will talk about it perfectly normally unless the parents dismiss them.’
Some experts believe we have all lived before — some of us many times. And yet why do some of us remember and others not?
Elaine says: ‘We are all different. Some folk work more with the creative side of their brain. I can only liken it
