To ask if you believe in past lives?

[Sayhellolikethis]

Name changed, as I’ve told MIL and DSis about this already…

Putting my little boy (just turned 4) to bed and he told me “I built 60 bridges during the war and I also built a bomb”. I asked him why he built a bomb and he said “I put 2 bombs on each of my bridges to protect them”. He also said “the factories were covered in camouflage”.

He then added “and a fighter jet plane falled to the ground”.

It was such a ramble of words and then he just wanted to snuggle down and go to sleep.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with their little ones? He won’t talk about it any further. Puzzled!!

Look at the specifics of the names, death details and places she claimed she lived in - they are very specific.

No need to be patronising to get your point across BTW, even if you are hiding behind the anonymity of a moniker.

What? A woman called Mary who lived in Ireland, had lots of children and died in childbirth? Really? You think that’s specific? You’re kidding me now right? She only named a place after looking at a map, which might explain how she also knew some of the features of the town. Do you think having a priest at a deathbed in 19th century Ireland is so unusual that it’s “proof” or that the description of the cottage is do do specific that it could only refer to one specific building. Honestly, this is a classic case of trying to desperately twist things to fit the narrative you want to believe. It’s not “evidence”.

for context, my great grandmother was called Mary. She lived in Ireland. She had 8 children and lived in a cottage. Those three facts apply to about 25% of people in the uk and possibly 100% of people with Irish roots like me.

I do think that Jenny Cockell's account is pretty vague. A first born son who is confident and outgoing, a daughter who is gentle and caring. Another daughter who had a much loved doll. A violent husband and a priest at her early deathbed and guilt at leaving her children. All sadly generic.

@PlinkPlonkFizz Thank you so much for the link to Jenny Cockell - I have ordered her first book and I am really looking forward to reading it. In the meantime, I have just watched an interview with her - absolutely fascinating -
@BitOutOfPractice Evidence clearly takes many forms - I don't think that the evidence that I could present to a court, say about my life before the age of six, would necessarily be viewed as convincing a jury beyond reasonable doubt that I was that person! And I know that my recollection of the same events can differ from accounts given by different close family members. Memories and personal experiences are, by their very nature, subjective, personal interpretations. It would perhaps be worth you watching the interview with Jenny Cockell that I have linked to above. 🙂

Surely, everyone's experiences will be a mix of the personal and the generic - the generic, by its very nature, is a cumulative layering of individual lives, within a particular shared cultural context. Nobody who had been alive in rural Ireland at that time could not have experienced the 'generic' aspects of the Catholic Church, for example. Yet she also remembered specific aspects like a cut through that had since been blocked up - filled in with a house - that would have been a route she would have taken to visit her sister.

I fully believe in the paranormal but I am on the fence about past lives.I don't know anything is possible their is a lot we don't understand as clever as the human race is so I am not discounting it totally .

Now this we do have proof to scientifically reject. We now know that many environmental and genetic issues can cause disabilities, etc., and often these can be related to identifiable environmental causes like pollution or ingestion of chemicals during pregnancy etc etc.

Many of the bad things you are probably talking about are also clearly linkable to known and preventable phenomena (e.g., oppressive political systems, weather disasters caused by climate change, being a victim of crime in a high crime area where the local council hasn't invested effectively in social initiatives), depression caused by overuse of social media, death of a family member that may have been partly caused by preventable comorbidities) and so on.

It's impossible (and hurtful) to claim past lives on that one.

We CHOOSE to come back to a life that's different to ones we've had before as it's a learning process.
#Waits to be ripped to bits by folk who are so sure that they are right that they won't entertain any other views.. don't care.

I beg to differ whilst I am no way a medium I am very sensitive and pick up lots as soon as I walk in a room .I not so long ago had to names just pop into my head ,not common names but unusual ones you don't really hear very old fashioned .I met a friend the next day and mentioned I kept getting these names pop into my head .It turned out they were two people she was friendly with and they had both past away quite close together and she had only walked past their house recently and had said out loud I hope you are both doing ok up there .

I have also when speaking to a close family friend described a person they knew name and even to what they looked like Bear in mind I have never met this person and said why are they driving you mad at the moment they keep ringing and they keep turning up uninvited and stay for hours .They were that shocked that they rung my DH to say how accurate I was and he is a sceptic and even he was like how the heck you do that .I don't know I just can sometimes it is a burden rather than a blessing especially when you pick up bad things have happened previously .

Really? So not only do we reincarnate, just before we do we can see the future and pick a life that's going to be different to the last one? So people have chosen to come back as children that die of cancer after a few months? Or a short life full of horrific abuse? That's even more fucked up than believing in random reincarnation!

@KrisAkabusi Exactly. Because it's a different way of living. We need to experience harsh lives as well as happy ones to GROW. Then return to Heaven after our lives, as a well rounded knowledgeable being.

@mamabear715 If you have been through a terrible time, then I can just about understand believing in reincarnation and wanting to think that next time round will be better. And if this is you, then I hope you believe me when I say I'm not being glib and I'm not trying to upset anyone. But I think your projection into a terrible life being a choice is horrific, and even worse than those who think being disabled is a punishment for something done in a previous life. You're victim-blaming on a cosmic scale!

@KrisAkabusi It's the truth. I don't expect others to believe. I didn't mention punishment - it's experience.

Just watched Cameron and his Barra family... Just wow. What a fab little boy and a great dm! Norma you showed amazing support to your little boy! So glad he is settled in his Glasgow family now!

OH @mamabear715 you do see the irony of deriding people who are "sure they are right" then being so so very sure yourself that you are right! 😂

I think your view of life and the world is horrific by the way. Not just ridiculous, horrific.

How absurd in this day and age to still believe this nonsense

#shrugs shoulders. Not interested if I'm not believed.

We CHOOSE to come back to a life that's different to ones we've had before as it's a learning process.

Can you tell us what reason you have for believing that is true (other than the fact that you want it to be true, or just like the idea of it)?

@Fairislefandango No. I'd love to, but not prepared to be ripped apart on MN, apologies! As before, I don't mind if people believe or disbelieve. It's up to the individual.

How can it be possible?
No I don't believe in it or an after life

I'd love to, but not prepared to be ripped apart on MN, apologies!

Ok, fair enough. If by 'ripped apart' you mean that people would point out that your reasons aren't proof, then you are no doubt right - they would.

A bit different but when my son was 3/4 year-old we took him to visit my gran, my grandad had passed maybe 12 years earlier so he had never met him. When he saw his picture on the side he excitedly told me he'd met him a long time ago. I told him he hadn't met his great grandad as he'd passed on before he was born but he told me yes, he'd met him in baby heaven when he was waiting for me. I asked him what and where baby heaven was and he said very matter of factly it's the place where he waited for me to go in my tummy and that his great grandad was really nice to him and waited with him.

I've asked him a few times over the years but he had no memory of it from about 5, he'd occasionally bring it up unprompted before then, strangely enough when he saw photos of another grandparent who'd passed before he was born!

Beautiful, @Wheresthesundude although I'm waiting for someone here to say it couldn't possibly have happened.. sigh!

The thing is- this thread is not called "If you believe in past lives, come here and share your heartwarming stories." It asks if people believe in past lives. Which means it's OK to say no. And why.

So what happens to all those waiting to go in someone’s tummy who never manages to conceive them? Do they go to someone else?

I think it’s perfectly possible for an imaginative four year old to make this sort of thing up.