THE NARRATIVE ARC
Reincarnation and the Two Past Lives I Remembered
Reality may be more fluid than we know
When people say “in a past life I…” it can mean one of two things.
The most common and disappointing possibility is that they’re referring to some earlier employment or pastime marginally different from whatever they’re doing now — “I sell insurance these days but in a past life I sold mostly annuities. Life can be crazy sometimes.”
The far more compelling usage is the one I’m about to share. Here, the speaker claims they’ve lived as an entirely different person in some past historical epoch before being catapulted squalling and resentful from a fresh womb into their current incarnation.
And why not?
The idea that humans live multiple lives is common in many religious traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and even some Christian sects (the last only until they were all slaughtered for heretics as Jesus requires). And while I claim no unique knowledge about what happens once we exit the mortal stage, reincarnation seems at least as plausible as some sort of harp and halo scenario.
With that open-minded if unscientific attitude, I have on two separate occasions essayed past-life regression.
