Common Questions about Reincarnation (and the Answers that May Surprise You)

No nonsense answers to your questions about reincarnation

Photo from Unsplash / Kamila Maciejewska

While answering the most common questions about reincarnation, I realized during my very first draft, I was going to have to make this a 5-part series. There’s just so much effing info. Click here for Part II.

Additionally, I intend to make individual posts about each question to more thoroughly answer all of them, so you’ll notice quick links attached to some of them. What I’m really saying is prepare yourself to go down a lot of rabbit holes, ha.

The goal here is to give you the short answer to whatever your burning question may be, but don’t be surprised if you find yourself coming out of an information stupor 6 hours from now.

That’s basically how I got here myself, a writer of reincarnation — something I didn’t even believe in a mere 4-5 years ago. I watched one freaking documentary on Netflix… which led me to a couple of articles on the Internet… which led me to reading (and rereading) about a hundred billion books and watching a million more documentaries… which led to creating social media accounts and a website where people started reaching out to me about their own experiences.

While I don’t consider myself an expert per se, I have spent a great deal of researching the subject in recent years. I am thrilled to share the information I’ve gathered. More specifically, I hope to answer questions about reincarnation in an honest, easy-to-understand way with no religious overtones.

Without further ado, here are my answers...

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The Most Common Questions about Reincarnation Part I:

Read about: Man Born with Bleeding Birthmark that Matches His Past Life

If reincarnation is real, why don’t we all remember our past lives?

Actually, we do — at first. This is why we spend the first year or more of our lives not speaking. It’s a transitionary time where we adapt from our previous life and try to merge from our nonphysical experience back into the physical world. Sometimes this takes longer for others, which is why it’s most common for young children, usually around age 2 or 3 to talk about their past lives (and then forget about them again by age 10).

But to answer the real question here, what is the point of us forgetting about our past lives at all or “going under the veil” as some call it? As humans, we’re supposedly to get fully immersed in the experience — think of it as the ultimate virtual reality where you forget you’re just a character. Another comparison might be the way some actors use method acting as a way to commit themselves to an important role.

This allows us to focus on our current goals for this lifetime and not get distracted or overwhelmed by previous relationships or situations of the past. You'll notice in Dr. Ian Stevenson's book, in his research he saw over and over again the struggles children faced when they remembered their past lives and longed for previous family members or lifestyles.

(Click here to see the full post I wrote on about this question.)

Is reincarnation instant? If not, how long does it take to come back?

One of the most interesting cases I read about involved a guy who was severely injured and during his NDE (near death experience), he also experienced nearly being reborn into his new (baby) body. When he recovered, he learned that the woman he was nearly born to lost her child that same day. I’ll do a full post on this one soon. In the meantime, you could read about in the book Reincarnation by Paul Roland.

That said, no, reincarnation is not usually instant. Most souls need a break in between lives and they use that time to thoughtfully plan the next life. They may wait a few months or a full decade or even a century.

Buuuut, alsooooo, time isn’t… real. It’s a human/Earth thing. So your next life might actually happen in the “past.” But… the past isn’t really a thing at all, because technically everything is happening simultaneously. Still with me? I’ll keep using the term “past lives” just for the sake of convenience when answering questions about reincarnation.

(Click here to see the full post I wrote on about this question about reincarnation.)

How can a person remember their past lives?

There are many techniques for remembering your past lives, and it might be helpful to experiment with a few different ones. My main advice is to be patient and to be openminded. The experience my end up being much different from what you anticipated. (This question about reincarnation definitely deserves a full post.)

Meditation and/or hypnotherapy are probably the most common avenues. You can see a past life regressionist for a one-on-one hypnosis session. I personally saw someone for a QHHT session, which is the Dolores Cannon method. (Yet another thing I should write about.)

Or you can do a group session (they’re usually less expensive but the results may not be as great because the therapist isn’t exclusively focused on you). Dr. Helen Wambach had massive success with group sessions. For her research, she specifically wanted to gather data on a large population rather than just delve deeply into just a few individuals. Click here to check out her book about it.

Some people opt to do their session online, whether as an individual or as a group. I know Michael Armstrong hosts events, but I have no personal experience with any of his sessions or with attempting it via a live online setting. (Though I've seen Tyler Henry have plenty of success with his psychic readings on Instagram live, so I feel fairly confident that online past life sessions are just as valid.)

Maybe Try it by yourself first?

Many people have success by using a recording at home instead of seeing a professional. As a matter of fact, Dr. Brian Weiss gives his clients a recording and requests that they practice at home so that they are better prepared for the in-person sessions. I had some luck with his downloads and they’re very inexpensive if you want to check them out yourself. There are also plenty of free options on Youtube (I have had no personal success with any of them but others have.)

Side note, Dr. Weiss is most famous for his book Many Lives, Many Masters but he has many other books that I found to be more informative, personally. See the list at the end of this post.

Another option is to pay more attention to your dreams, as it’s very common for past lives to naturally pop up in your sleep. The first step is to keep a dream journal and to write them down as soon as you wake up, literally while you’re still in bed. I use an app, but other people prefer keeping a physical notebook on their nightstand.

Read: Dreams and Memories: How Past Lives Show up in Your Sleep

Is it important to remember past lives?

While it’s interesting as fuck to me to learn about reincarnation (obviously) I don’t think it’s necessary for anyone to remember their past lives. To me it’s more important to know about/believe in past lives than to remember your own previous lives specifically.

Believing in reincarnation has helped cured my anxiety because it took the pressure off of me to accomplish so much in one lifetime and it got rid of my fear of death. We live in a society that is so obsessed with “accomplishing” things and “leaving your mark” blah blah blah. Reincarnation shifts your perspective on a lot of these things.

There is healing potential...

That said, I think there can be a lot of healing via remembering a past life. In her book Legacy from the Stars, Dolores Cannon references a woman who had experienced a huge number of miscarriages. After a hypnotherapy session, she recalled a past life where she died during childbirth. The theory is that she needed to heal the subconscious part of herself that was afraid of dying that way again.

In her book Children's Past Lives, Carol Bowman shares how her son had a bad case of Eczema from birth. It was only on one arm but no doctor or medication had been able to heal it. It bothered him so much that she had to keep it bandaged to limit the scratching and bleeding. Once her son recalled a past life where he was shot through the wrist and he faced the trauma of that lifetime, his skin condition immediately went away — and never returned.

Many lifelong phobias have been cured in a similar way. So yes, I do believe in the healing aspects of remembering a past life. But I would caution against becoming consumed with a previous life instead of focusing on the one you’re currently living.

Are soulmates real?

Yes, absolutely. But this may mean something different from what you initially think. Most people think of soulmates in a purely romantic way. (This is a post I wrote that is a perfect example of romantic soulmates connecting through multiple lifetimes.)

Actually soulmates, soul families, and soul groups are basically all the same thing. In each lifetime, you encounter the same core group of souls and you work out your karma and learn/grow/have fun by trying out different roles with those people. (Pssst, karma probably isn’t exactly what you think it is either.)

Click here to see a more elaborate post on soulmates.

Do we reincarnate as animals?

While some religious beliefs may state otherwise, I do not believe that a person gets “punished” or “demoted” for bad behavior by being turned into a slug in the next lifetime.

Animals have souls but they’re a different type of soul, more of a group consciousness. Their exposure to humans helps them evolve into a more individualistic consciousness, which is why it’s so important for us to be loving and kind to the animals we encounter (and no, that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to eat them).

So, basically, we were all animals (and plants…) at some point, but we won’t go back to being a creature. It’s not a perfect analogy but it’s kinda how once you grow out of being a kid in this lifetime, you don’t go back to being that same child, because you’ve evolved beyond it. In a similar fashion, we will eventually evolve beyond being human. (I know that brings a lot of relief to those of who you who dread the idea of having to return to this dumpster fire of planet forever and ever amen.)

Also it should be noted that while we won’t go back to being animals, there are ways to still connect with and experience being an animal or a tree — think of Native Americans and how connected they were to other life forms on the planet without actually being those life forms.

Do animals have souls?

See above reincarnation question and answer. Additionally, I suggest you check out the Seth books by Jane Roberts. He talks in great depth about animals (among many other complicated matters) but the information is scattered among many different books in the series. For a more simplistic approach, Dolores Cannon briefly explores the topic in her book Between Death and Life.

Common Questions about Reincarnation (and the Answers that May Surprise You)

No nonsense answers to your questions about reincarnation