WHY I KNOW REINCARNATION IS REAL

Robert M. Stone, M.S.

Reincarnation is an ancient philosophy that states the soul is not perfect, physical life is the classroom and the soul must return, be reincarnated, time and time again until it learns the lessons of life and breaks free of the cycle.

The concept of Reincarnation has existed for thousands of years. Most ancient religions included this philosophy. Even the Christian religion included Reincarnation until a policy change in Rome decided to delete it in the 13th century. Arthur Guirdham's, We Are One Another talks about the last major group of Catholics who supported the concept of reincarnation that were eliminated in the mid 1200s.

However, Western religious dictates aside, the concept of Reincarnation spans the globe and is found in many diverse cultures that have no contact with each other.

I did not learn about the philosophy of Reincarnation until I was twenty years old. Yet, my spontaneous recalls of previous lifetimes started when I was a child. I don't remember all the recall incidents after all these years but there are several that are still vivid for me that I will relate to you.

When I was seven years of age, I developed pneumonia. By the time I was taken to the doctor, it was serious enough where I was hospitalized. I was in the hospital, an old structure built in Gothic style around 1919, for close to a week. The first three or four days, I didn't even notice the painful IM penicillin shots going into my rear. When I finally started to get better, I began to notice and soon protested. I got out of the hospital shortly after that, thank goodness, but I had a weakness in my lungs that persisted for years; it manifested itself as a difficulty in getting a deep breath.

Apparently this experience with being very sick and taken to a very old hospital triggered my first past life memory although it was just a fragment. As a child, I would say the Lord's prayer before going to bed. After my illness, when I got to the, "If I should die before I wake.." part, a vivid scene would always come clearly into mind. I didn't understand what it was but it happened every time for as long as I said the Lord's prayer before bed.

When I got to that passage of the prayer, a hospital room would flash to mind. It was an old room with furnishings like the old hospital I had been to with my pneumonia. The scene was the end of a bed with adult feet observable under the sheet. The occupant of the bed was obscured by a screen which was a pleated white fabric attached to a metal frame so that is could be moved. I was facing the bed and could only see the screen and the feet under the sheet as well as a chrome or shiny metal light in the corner.

As a child, I wondered what this was but also, WHY? Since it happened every time I said the prayer before bed, I had plenty of experiences to analyze. First, it couldn't have been me in the bed because at seven, I was not that tall. It obviously was an adult. Second, I had been to a hospital before to see my great grandfather but it was a more modern building, not this old style as in this memory scene. I quickly learned that, "If I should die before I wake..." triggered the scene. I could mentally repeat it out of context and it would bring the scene to mind. So I knew what triggered it but had no conceptual framework for reincarnation and did not find out what the scene was until I was 23.

After this started, I had at least two memorable dreams that were obvious past life memories although I did not realize them as such.

Once, when I was 8 or 9, I was having a very vivid dream. There were three men being attacked by a group of four Indians. The Indians were in buckskins and war paint. The men were in buckskins also. One of the men, a tall fellow with a brown beard riveted my attention. He had brown hair and blue eyes. This scene was sometime in the 1700s. The men were using single shot muskets. I noticed in the dream that I was watching the scene but also seeing the scene from the tall man with the beard. At this time in my young life, my hair was very light brown; actually blond. Anyway, as I begin to see through this man's eyes, the seriousness of the situation began to impact me. Everyone of the men had fired their single shot muskets and there were still four screaming Indians rushing towards them with tomahawks and knives. One of the men was frantically reloading, another had pulled his hunting knife and the tall man, obviously me, was reaching for a flintlock pistol in his belt.

When his left hand went to close around the pistol, my left hand closed also but when I fingers hit my palm with NO pistol, I woke up like turning on a switch. It was as if I were in shock to NOT find that pistol which was obviously needed in the situation.

I KNEW as a child that this tall man with the dark brown hair and beard was me. He was obviously left-handed. Although I started out trying to be left-handed, it was socially unacceptable in the 1950s and my mother discouraged it. How did I know it was me? Well, I could feel it and see the situation through his eyes. What triggered such a scene? Well, I was probably prone to it after the pneumonia and my favorite shows were Davy Crocket, Daniel Boone and Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox. All from that era. Even though the shows triggered the recall, the person I dreamed about was not an 8 or 9 year old kid, but a full grown adult with a beard. Again, I had no conceptual framework for the situation.

The last spontaneous recall I will relate happened when I was 16 and in the 10th grade. When I entered high school, it was necessary to take a language. The only one that appealed to me was German and I was very good at it. This was my first year of the language and of course, I did not have a vocabulary to speak of but nonetheless, I had the following dream one night.

The scene was a train station right out of the 1920s. Again, the dream started with me watching as an observer. There was a young man there, probably in his early 20s, of average height. There was an obese woman with two young boys, one on either side, sitting on the bench waiting on the train. The young man apparently knew this woman because he was asking to borrow enough money for a train ticket back to the city where they both lived. The woman was chiding the young man for spending all his money at the Oktoberfest and being irresponsible. The young man was diplomatically sidestepping the chiding and working on borrowing the train fair.

As the conversation progressed, I merged more with the young man. The conversation was taking place in GERMAN. As I was looking on, I was aware of what was being said but as I began to merge with the young man, my current self tripped me up. I didn't have this extensive a German vocabulary. I didn't know what I was saying; was it right? These thoughts quickly ended the dream and woke me up.

Again, no conceptual framework for the experience. I was not looking for Reincarnation experiences because I didn't know they existed. However, they found me. When I STARTED looking for them, I found all sorts of interesting things from the distant past.

Critics of Reincarnation have many silly rationalizations to explain away people's past life memories. In a future article I will address them. Basically though, the system of Reincarnation exists. A person ignoring it is simply not taking control of their destiny and benefiting from experiences in the distant past.