Children who Remember :: A personal experience with reincarnation

 

Painting depicting Reincarnation
 

"I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living again, that the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the dead are in existence." - Socrates

There have been numerous cases of children remembering another life. From the moment they can talk, they begin to describe people, places or dead relatives of whom they had not known in this life. They insist they were someone else, some going so far as to recall their death.

Children who remember their past lives without any prompting are very matter of fact when talking about it.  Past-life memories, particularly those in children, are a phenomena with far-reaching implications for every person who is curious about the truth of reincarnation.

 

I've experienced this phenomenon myself: One day whilst driving home, my son, who was about 3 years old at the time, blurted out, “Mummy? You are Breena”. I looked at him in the rear-view mirror as he was looking out the window. He continued: “You were Bree-nah. But you had long dark hair. Why did you cut it? Can we go back? I miss our dog. Do you remember him mummy?” I replied, “I am not Breena. My name is Laura", but this made him a little agitated, reiterating: “No, Mummy. You were Breena before, not now!”. He went on to describe in detail, a round dwelling where we lived and what we wore, what we ate and a dog we owned. He never described a father figure or any siblings.

I was shocked, to say the least. I had to pull the car over to compose myself as it dawned on me his descriptions mirrored a dream I had had, many years prior.

Initially, I thought my son had called me "Breanna", as I had not heard the name "Breena" before. It was only later that, upon investigation, I discovered that the name Breena is a real one, old Irish Celtic in origin, and means “dark haired” (my son had said I had had dark hair), or “Fairy Palace”. My son made a point of correcting me, pronouncing it “Bree-nah”.

 

Roundhouse Dwelling
 

Then not that long ago, our family visited a Neolithic site, which consisted of roundhouse dwellings and a museum devoted to this period in history. My son, who is now 7, was absolutely fascinated by it. Whilst he has never mentioned Breena again, on this occasion he made note of "remembering" certain artefacts that he was being shown, and commented that “it was different; not that exactly”. When  queried about what he had meant, he shrugged his shoulders and replied, “You wouldn’t understand”.

Roundhouses, such as the one in the picture above, were built from the Bronze Age, throughout the Iron Age, and into the sub-Roman period. How is it possible that a child the age of seven can identify and familiarise with them, and other artefacts from a period in history he couldn't possibly know anything about?

There seems to be a growing number of cases in the public sphere these days of children that seem to recall, in astonishing detail, the lives of people who have lived before. Some are able to recall these events well into adulthood, whilst for others the details fade with time. It makes me wonder if this is something we all can do in childhood - if, perhaps, those fears, fascinations, and wild fancies have less to do with imagination than, as adults, we'd like to believe.

Of course, I’m sure many children (especially as they grow older) are influenced by what they read and see on television. But when your child describes in detail a life they couldn’t have possibly made up, you do have to wonder…

 

 

For anyone interested in reading about the past lives of children, I suggest a visit to Carol Bowman’s Forum where you can share your own experiences, and read those of others.

Laura  

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