Since my first past-life regression over thirty years ago, I’ve experienced many disbelievers. You cannot prove reincarnation with physical evidence, so some doubt is understandable. However, extreme skeptics refuse to consider the vast body of evidence. I’ve noticed three main reasons why people reject reincarnation, and it’s helpful to understand their position, especially when it’s someone close to you.
First, they haven’t looked into the evidence due to lack of interest or time. Most don’t know about Dr. Ian Stevenson’s work. His cases—there are more than three thousand of them—give the most compelling evidence yet for reincarnation. Dr. Stevenson was a medical doctor, head of the Department of Psychiatry and a Director of the Division of Personality Studies at the University of Virginia, and wrote many scholarly papers before beginning paranormal research.
Second, they side with the majority, without questioning. Perhaps their religion taught them to reject reincarnation, and that the soul has only one life and then goes to heaven (if you follow all the religion’s rules, repent, and reject your sins) or hell (if you don’t). They may not know some claim there to be evidence that reincarnation was once in the Bible, but edited out for political reasons around 553 A.D.
Others are afraid of appearing gullible for believing in reincarnation, since it’s popular to mock or reject it.
Many believe the myths about past lives. One common myth I hear often is, “Everyone who claims they’ve had past lives always says they were Cleopatra or some other famous person. Why don’t they say they were homeless or a thief? It’s just fantasy.”
In reality, most people who believe they were famous in a past life rarely base it on past-life regression experience. If you experience past-life regression with an expert enough times, you’ll see yourself in lifetimes as different races, genders, levels of attractiveness and intelligence, and of various levels of status and wealth or poverty, and probably none of them will be as a famous historical figure.
The third main reason people reject reincarnation is because they don’t want it to be true. Maybe they have a fear of death, or had terrible experiences with religion or spirituality. Perhaps they incorrectly assume karma is about punishment. Or the idea of having to return to this difficult place is too much to stomach. I don’t blame them!
Some reject it for other reasons, no matter the evidence. That’s ok, because everyone is different and has the right to their own opinions.
It’s probably not worth trying to convince extreme skeptics. But for those who are more open-minded, you might find it helpful to share some of this information.
I understand the skepticism, and some is good because it can encourage understanding. But I’ve found on my spiritual journey I learn the most when I abstain from judgment and objectively do my own research before coming to a conclusion. Bias blocks intuition, and remaining objective allows intuition to shine through.Past-life regression, for me, was the best way to research reincarnation. I’ve also found it to be a valuable key to knowing myself, self-empowerment, shedding light on the big questions about my life, and helping me understand, accept, and forgive.
Past-life regression is an exploration of the subconscious (and possibly superconscious) mind. It’s not proof of reincarnation, but whether or not they are real lifetimes my soul lived is beside the point. How do we know any memory or thought or even love is real? We can debate past-life regression forever, but then we miss how it’s an effective way to identify, deal with, and find peace about (the potential root causes of) stressful issues, and sometimes in far less time than traditional therapy takes. Healing is the goal with past-life regression, not proving past lives are real.
This blog post was adapted from the beta version of my book Your Soul Knows, available free for limited time. https://dl.bookfunnel.com/sy4znbr1pc
Copyright © 2023 Stephen Petullo
Image by Rilson S. Avelar from Pixabay
