How Past Lives Effect You Today

Have you ever had a familiar feeling that you've been to a place before, even though it's your first time there?

This familiar feeling is often accompanied by an inner calm or a heart-felt sense that you love being there. It's home. It's a place you know and love. You may even know how to navigate the streets or know what's around the next corner. And yet, it's your first time there.

We all don't have such a strong memory and yet many of us are drawn to places and countries where we have lived before. This is one way in which past life memories seep into your everyday life. On a Soul level, you remember places you've lived. There is a "knowing" within you that feels at home there, yet you may not have any logical or rational basis for this knowing or feeling.

In fact, if you have a strong analytical mind, you may begin to question and doubt that you've been there before. You can override your inner knowing and talk yourself out of feeling that somehow you know this place. You may call it your imagination or discount the feeling.  Sometimes, many times actually, we dismiss physical or emotional sensations without giving them attention for a moment.

Eras in History
Have you ever thought about why you like, or dislike, certain eras? Perhaps you have a strong interest in a certain time period, such as the early Pilgrims, the Revolutionary War, French Versailles. On the other hand, you may refuse to see movies or read books about an era, such as Elizabethan England or the Holocaust. Your strong reactions for, or against, an era may be more than just a coincidence.  It may be that you have "been there, done that."

Numerous people have told me that when they visited a museum or special exhibit, such as Pompeii or King Tut, they had strong physical and/or emotional reactions.  One woman had to leave the room while another woman reported she was drawn to an exhibit, as though some of the artifacts were very familiar or even belonged to her. For myself, I had to sit down and do some deep breathing when I was in a museum in Germany and saw the display of the tools used to catch witches.  Such reactions are a strong clue that you have a connection to that era.

Fears and Phobias
We all have fears of some sort or another and obviously not all fears are based in past lives. However, fears (known as phobias) that are irrational, feel very real and powerful, but, which don't make sense are more likely to be past-life related. They can often be traced back to a prior death. We can carry the consciousness of a violent death with us into other lifetimes, and it can show up in many ways.

Let's say you have issues with your neck and you always wear clothing to cover your neck, or the opposite, you never wear anything tight around your throat. Not to get gruesome, but... if you have been beheaded, hung, lynched or broken your neck in a fall, that past life death memory can cause you to protect your neck in this life.

Phobias impact and limit you in very negative ways, making it torturous for you to: fly (killed in a plane accident, especially during wartime); go in the water (drowned); be in a closed space such as an elevator (buried alive, caught in a cave or mine); or be up high (fell to death).

People
We tend to travel together through lives as friends, family, lovers, and adversaries. If you have a sense of having known someone for a long time, although you just met, it's likely that you have known each other before, perhaps for many lifetimes.  We play different roles with each other in different lifetimes. One life we may be siblings, another life we come in as parent and child, and in yet another life one person may betray the other.  

People who are in a "can't live with him/her, can't live without him/her" situation are often trying to resolve past life interactions and unfinished business. You may see that person through "past life glasses," subconsciously remembering how he or she was in a former life. You keep hoping and believing they will change into the person you know they “really” are… but that's not who they are in this life.

In each lifetime, we are learning lessons and growing on a soul level, carrying our knowledge and experiences with us, so a past life regression can help make sense of your current life.  It can help release you from relationships in which you feel trapped or unable to let go, assist you in moving beyond a feeling of being stuck, or bring you relief from phobias and other limitations.

Nancy Canning is a certified clinical hypnotherapist with a Masters Degree in counseling psychology. Nancy has a private practice in Cape Cod in which she helps clients release limiting belief systems, as well as experience past life and between-lives regression. She has been featured on Fox TV and several New England cable, radio and internet shows on past lives. For more information: www.TransformBeliefs.com . To receive a free email series on this subject, go to Nancy's website http://www.SpiritualRegression.com