There are many who would believe that past lives and rebirths exist and, many who don’t. I am not here to convince you of either because it is a matter of one’s faith and belief and I am no-one to question them, but I am here to narrate a first-hand experience, and how it may assist in healing.
A client reached out to me to assist her with an unexplained feeling of suffocation, coughing, and anxiety. She had been through multiple modes of treatment, but none brought her any relief. I discussed her complaints in detail and scheduled a session.
During the session, the client started describing, in regression, that her hands and feet were tied; her mouth was stuffed with a piece of a cloth, and she has been thrown into a deep pit, in a cemetery behind a church. She could see and feel the dirt being thrown upon her living body; her heart pounding as she struggled to breathe.
She tried to scream but no one could hear her; tried to escape but could barely move. As she watched the dirt been thrown upon her live body, tears kept rolling down her cheeks, forcing her to close her eyes. The dust found its way through her nose into her lungs and eventually she lay paralysed under the huge mountain of dirt. Within a few moments, she stopped struggling and her last breath left her body. There was a sense of relief on her face.
She mentioned that she was out of her body and saw the priest and a woman visited the burial site. They left a flower on her grave. The priest said a prayer and then left with the woman carrying a huge smile. She realised that the priest had been her husband in that past life, and the woman was his mistress whom he had been having an affair with. My client had suspected the affair for some time, then one day walked in on them in a compromising position, after which they quickly grabbed her, tied her down, and dumped her into a pit.
While her mind was watching this story and narrating it to me, her physical body was simultaneously experiencing the symptoms of coughing, suffocation, and anxiety. Tears didn’t stop and she kept shivering. She opened her eyes and looked at my face, “What is this? Is this true – what I saw? Did I make up a story?”
I calmed her anxiety and put her back into hypnosis, to ensure that she was brought out of the hypnotised state correctly. After the session, I offered her some water to drink, and she felt better. Then the list of questions began, which were as below:
Was that really my past life? Is this true? Past life is a matter of faith and belief. If you believe in the past life, this is your truth. Truth is very subjective.
Did I makeup this story or did it actually happen? It doesn’t matter, if this helps you to heal from your chronic suffering, who cares.
“Where did this story come from?” I explained to her the Theory of Mind and the concept of past lives, where and how they are stored, etc.
“The husband in my past life and the woman with whom he had an affair, are they real?” I don’t know. We don’t need to know. So far, they help you heal, it doesn’t matter.
“Why do you say that?” Let’s schedule a follow up session and you can let me know if you still feel anxiety, have the cough, and the sense of suffocation.
She consulted me for a follow up session and was surprised and shocked to tell me that her symptoms had reduced drastically. She wondered if the story was real and if the husband from her past life is her husband in this life. I couldn’t answer that question for her, but I did tell her that the aatman usually incarnates within a known group to experience and complete the karmas.
Her next question was, “Is aatman the soul?
I said, no, we need to understand and differentiate between the soul and the aatman. They are fundamentally different. Both are NOT the same. Also, these are human beliefs, which are a matter of faith and not science, which is based on having proof. Years ago, Aura was also a concept of metaphysics, and some people frowned on people who said they saw them. Now we have Aura scanners. Science has lot of things to discover yet!
What is the difference then?
Soul finds its reference in the Abrahamic philosophies (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) while, Aatman finds its mention in the Hindu philosophies (Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, and Jain).
Conceptually the soul can be sinned, corrupted, or killed. An aatman is the in-dwelling spirit (also called the embodied one), which cannot be sinned, corrupted or killed.
“I wish to know more about aatman? Can you tell me more about it?”
These are deep philosophical concepts and would require many sessions for me to explain these to you but, I can explain it to you in simple words.
“Sure, tell me.”
Do you know the Law of Conservation of Energy?
“Yes, I do.”
Energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it merely changes from one form to another. The total amount of energy in the universe is always constant.
“Excellent! Straight A to you!” I continued. Let me explain this law to you in application to your question. Apply this law to the aatman, like I said before it cannot be created or destroyed. But it takes various forms (rebirths, this includes being born as animals or plants) to experience and complete their karmic debts. Once these karmic debts are fulfilled, you no longer choose to be reborn.
“Is that when the judgement day arrives?”
No, there is no concept of judgement day in any of the Hindu based philosophies. For God is not seen as a judge but, as an accountant. You only settle the karma.
“So, if I do good, then good things happen to me?”
Who decides? What is good or what is right. There is no such thing. The philosophy talks about cause and consequences – which is karma. “As you sow, so shall you reap”, is the line from the Bible, not from the philosophies that gives the doctrine of karma.
“This makes some sense now. I’d like to understand more.”
I responded, “Perhaps in the next session, or next lifetime!” and we laughed.
For if you believe in rebirth then there is no rush, you have been given plenty of opportunity to learn and move on or learn and repeat.
The information and views expressed in the article are individual and inspired from the writer’s experience and study in Mental Health & Hypnotherapy.
Picture courtesy: Google images
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