What’s Your (Past-Life) Story?
I’m looking for your stories — those moments or events that caused you to think differently about how we exist. Maybe it was something your child said. Or something odd you “remembered.” A dream you had, or some unusual, intense connection with a stranger.
Share them here.
Because we don’t talk enough about these things.
I was at a family event recently, chatting with a distant “in-law” relative I didn’t know very well. We were talking about our kids, their interests and talents, how they were doing at school. What we ourselves were up to. The usual. I mentioned my recently-published novel, half-apologetically alluding to the topic: it’s inspired by some research into children who seem to remember past lives, but you don’t have to believe in reincarnation to enjoy the book —
“Oh, I believe in reincarnation,” she said.
I knew she was a fairly religious Christian, so I was startled.
What followed was a fascinating discussion of early memories, unusual experiences and attractions, and what makes us feel connected to the divine.
This has been happening a lot to me lately. I’ve been on book tour for my novel, The Forgetting Time. I always start by talking a bit about the research that inspired the book: how Dr. Ian Stevenson and Dr. Jim Tucker at the University of Virginia Division of Perceptual Studies spent decades compiling the 2500 or so fascinating cases of children who have distinct memories of being other (identified) people in previous lifetimes. (Here’s Dr. Tucker and one of his cases on NBC News.)
On tour, I mention how amazing these cases are, and afterwards people come up to me and tell me their stories. Things their children said or did (“My daughter kept asking me about her other mother, from when she was big.”) (“Remember when I lived in the black house and I was a shepherd, like my other father?”) Or extraordinary events from their own lives, like meeting a stranger in an airport who feels as close as one’s own sibling, and staying in contact forever.
So many of us — all of us? — have moments like these, when a door seems to crack open, just a little. Sharing these moments changes our sense of each other, connects us, and makes us see that we’re all interconnected — which sounds corny, but it’s also true.
So I’m trying to crack the door open, a tiny bit.
Share your stories in the responses here. (Or email me at sharon@sharonguskin.com, if you prefer, and I’ll post your response for you.) Read the stories other people share. You will be amazed. I guarantee it.
My debut novel, The Forgetting Time, has been sold in over 15 countries. It is published in the U.S. by Flatiron Books/Macmillan and available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, BAM!, or your local independent bookstore.
