Past Life?

**AmicusSomniatus** · 05-29-2017 02:05 AM

As a long time lucid dreamer I have always looked for different things to do in dreams. Past life regressions was something I had never thought about, in fact I was always a skeptic, until I had very interesting experiences a few years ago. First of all, I consider myself a scientist. I am in my mid 50’s and 35 years I ago I studied physics in University and then switched to engineering, which is the field I have been working in since. I have always had a fascination with the fabric of reality (i.e Quantum Physics), which led to my interest in lucid dreaming (being an alternate reality). So you can imagine my surprise when I had success attempting a past life regression in a lucid dream. At first I brushed it off to being my imagination, but too much detail was there to simply dismiss it.

One night I was looking for something different to do while lucid and so I said “When I turn around, I will be in a past life”. I then proceeded to turn around and found myself in the Napoleonic army in the early 1800’s. There was some kind of guide with me who was showing me around (it kind of felt like Dickens' "A Christmas Carol”). He then pointed to rows upon rows of soldiers, and one soldier in particular in the middle one row. This soldier was in his late teens or early 20’s, he looked a bit malnourished, was not necessarily tall or handsome. He wore the French uniform with the white cross belt. I remember all the details of the uniform, which I was able to confirm afterwards online. I just knew that the soldier that was pointed to was me from a past life. This lucid dream was very clear and vivid, in fact one of the most clear lucid dreams I have ever had. Unfortunately it did not last long and I woke up after that scene.

That dream really got my attention and made me wonder if it was in fact my imagination or if I had actually tapped into a past life. I have often gone to my childhood in dreams but never once have I ever experienced a dream outside of my current life span (lucid on non -Lucid). I was so taken by th experience that I tried to replicate it again soon after but without much success. I therefore tried self-hypnosis and was surprised at the images that came to me in the form of hypnagogic dreams. In one regression I was very wet in a battlefield and solders were stuck in the mud. We were trying to get cannons in place but they too were stuck in the mud. In the next set of images I saw dead horses and soldiers on the field and simply lots of mud and blood and I had a great sense of fear. I knew nothing of Napoleon (in fact I have never had an interest in history) but after doing a bit of research I discovered that this could have been the battle of waterloo, which was a mud bath (and where I died in that life as a simple soldier). I have since tried to have other lucid dreams of past lives because the information was so vivid and detailed. I have had a bit of luck, but more than anything I have been frustrated. I am therefore curious if anyone else out there has tried this (with an open mind ) and has had any success. Many will say that my imagination was working hard here, but there is too much detail from the lucid dream and the regression, information that I have never come across.

**Voldmer** · 05-29-2017 02:59 PM

Interesting experience! I have thought about trying the same, but so far I have never remembered to do so while dreaming.

You mentioned that this experience was particularly vivid. To me this indicates an astral projection (the possibility of which is of course denied by many people). The transition from dream to astral projection is always remarkable for me (a feeling of being lifted up on a rush of tiny bubbles); do you recall whether there was any special transition effect just prior to when the past-life experience began?

**AmicusSomniatus** · 05-31-2017 12:46 AM

I never thought of Astral projection, but I should perhaps look into it some more. You asked it there was a special transition, but to be honest it was not different than some of the strong WILDs I have had. I have read about OBE’s and Astral projection and from what I can tell, the experiences is different than a typical lucid dream. This felt like a typical lucid dream, just a higher level lucid dream (high awareness and clarity). Another interesting thing is that I have now had three high level lucid dreams in which I encountered a guide. This past life dream had a guide in it.

I have had many dreams where I visit my childhood home and I am always surprised at the recall I have during those dreams. I remember seeing a large bookshelf in the house and being able to recall most of the titles on the shelves. I also recall intricate details from the décor of various rooms; things that I cannot even come close to remembering in waking reality. In one dream, I remember opening a drawer just to have it crash onto the ground. I had completely forgotten that this particular drawer always did that, but my subconscious remembered it. I laughed and laughed in that dream. Now, these are actual memories from my current life, but what about past lives. This means that if I did indeed recall a past life, then the memories are stored elsewhere (at the soul level I guess). But if it was indeed an astral projection, then could a person visit the past? I use to be a skeptic about past life regressions, but I have had too many interesting experiences both in the dream state and in the trance state to remain a skeptic. I guess there is no way to know for sure, but I have now opened up a new experimental avenue that make lucid dreaming that much more interesting.

**gab** · 05-31-2017 02:42 AM

Well, they say that there is no time. No past or future. It's all non-linear, everything happening at the same time. So I do believe we can visit any event.

And WOW, awesome past life experience. I'm not going to claim that's what it was, but I'm not going to dispute it either. I have a very opened mind and I think that pretty much anything is possible. I mean what we don't know now is only what we have not discovered yet. That's how it was when the Earth was flat.

I was always interested in alternate realities and past lives. It never occurred to me to try it out in a lucid. Now it's on my list as priority #1, haha. I love that kind of stuff.

I have so many non lucids about being a freedom fighter, I will not be surprised if I turn out in the army. Which is quite possible, with so many conflicts all over the world all the time. I better don't turn out to be a house wife, haha.

**gab** · 05-31-2017 08:52 PM

I just tried this in my morning lucid.

5. Past life regression

I read this thread http://www.dreamviews.com/dreamviews...ml#post2216488 and since I'm interested in the topic, I tried it out in hopes that I will get something.

I practiced saying "When I turn around I am in my past life" , then did it couple of times in the lucid. All I saw were some dark buildings while I was turning, never really saw what was behind me. But I aborted every time, thinking NOPE to dark buildings. That is NOT where I want to go, haha. Gotta prepare better and try again. This is now one of my permanent personal goals
http://www.dreamviews.com/dreamviews...l-goals-81381/

.

Gonna definitely try it it again. How did you auto-suggest, or did the auto-hypnosis? Do you mind sharing?

**AmicusSomniatus** · 05-31-2017 11:12 PM

There are three methods I use to get past life information. The first of course in the lucid dream because it provides the most vivid and detailed imagery, but as I have noted, it is also the most difficult for me to succeed at. For a successful past life lucid dream, the dream has to be very vivid with high awareness. For that I always use the WILD technique since it provides me with the best lucid dreams. I also use a cocktail of Galantamine and Choline since it prolongs the dream and increases my awareness. Once I become lucid I simply state out loud that when I turn around, I will be in a past life. This is what I used for the Napoleonic war past life. I have also tried stating that when I turn around, there will be a door that will lead to a past life. I have had maybe a 25% success rate with lucid dream methods because, like your example, I have often turned around to a blank scene or to something different. Once, knowing that I had a WWII past life, I stated that when I turn around I will be in the WWII past life. I ended up in my home town in the 1940’s instead of in France, where the past life took place. I then tried again and found myself in the middle of a bombing scene with building in rubble, but it only lasted a minute. I am trying to find a way to make this method more stable and to have a higher success rate.

The second and best method is the self-regression technique, but don’t be fooled by all these people stating that wonderful vivid scenes develop in their mind. The trick is to calm the mind and to leave our ego in the background. I have used regression self-hypnosis tracks found on youtube and surprisingly enough they worked quite well (I have made my own since). I found the trick was to disengage the mind and allow hypnagogic imagery to form. What is interesting, is that the hypnagogic imagery was always about the past life topic and very detailed (not random like typical hypnagogic images). I would then hang on to the image and see how it developed (about 5 to 10 seconds). By then my conscious mind was engaged again and so I returned to counting backwards to allow my conscious mind to drift to the background again and start to process all over. This could go on for 30 minutes to an hour. I used this method for the Napoleonic life and after about 20 sessions I had enough pieces of information to put the story together.

The third method is one I like because there is no interference from my conscious mind, but the message is in the form of a metaphor. If there is something that I do not understand or something I need more information on, I simply meditate before bed and ask the question. I then hold on to that question while falling asleep. I always wake up with the answer after a few hours and after a very vivid dream. The answer is in the form of a metaphor and it is often a story from my current life, but it is very clear and obvious. I also know I had the answer if the dream is so clear that I can recall it in detail the next morning without having taken down notes during mid sleep. If I wake up and have to struggle to recall the dream, I know it did not work.

So there you have it, this is the way I do it. The trick is to not allow the ego to take over the regression and I guess that is what's difficult to do in a lucid dream without waking or drifting in a non lucid dream. In my first such lucid dream, I had a guide with me and I simply followed him and allowed him to lead me. This may have allowed my conscious ego to take a back seat and made for a more successful past life experience . Who knows, you may want to try asking for a guide to help you.

**fogelbise** · 06-01-2017 12:17 AM

I am very interested in this topic and revived an old thread on the same topic with the OP's permission about 6 months ago. Here was the post from that thread:

http://www.dreamviews.com/deep-dream...ml#post2206466

2 posts later (in that thread) I posted the result of an experiment I did on this topic in a lucid dream.

At some point I found a study that seems to lend some scientific support to memories being passed down over generations, but the assumed mechanism seems to point more towards memories from ancestors that may have an evolutionary "survival" basis. Interestingly, many of the past life regression sessions I saw featured in the TV show I mentioned in that other thread involved traumatic memories which makes evolutionary sense in terms of survival. Following that line of thinking, your experience of a period of war could also have been inspired by traumatic memories from a war in an ancestor's life, but I certainly hold out hope for indisputable proof of reincarnation along with the ability to access memories of our own potential past lives.

*You can find a Scientific American article (and many articles) about the study by googling: fearful memories passed down to mouse descendants

You've inspired me to experiment more with this in future lucids.

And great response there in your latest post explaining your methods!

**AmicusSomniatus** · 06-01-2017 01:45 AM

Gab and Fogelbise, thank you for the links but for some reason I can't access them. gab's link give and Error and Fogelbise's tells me that I do not have permission

Interesting concepts regardless and something I will have to look into so more. I could see traumatic memories being a theory, especially since I read something about an experience on rats some time ago. The only problem in the Napoloeonic past life is that I did not have children in that life (I was about 19 or 20 when I died). The death scenes by the way are always important in a regression and I see them very well in a self hypnosis regression, but I have yet to see one in a lucid dream. I wonder how I would react because the lucid dream is so vivid. In a regression, the traumatic scenes are always seen from a third person viewpoint and not from the person itself. I recall one regression where I am being brought to the gallows and I can feel the anxiety and fear, but suddenly I am in the crowd looking at the execution. This was the same in the Napoleonic war. I was running from the battle (yes I was a coward in that life

) and was ambushed by three English soldiers. They cut my throat and I die (it happened very fast). I was the soldier in the regression until I meet the English soldiers. At that point I become an outside observer. Imagine living one's death in a Lucid dream! Not sure I want to experience that.

**gab** · 06-01-2017 05:31 AM

Originally Posted by AmicusSomniatus

Gab and Fogelbise, thank you for the links but for some reason I can't access them. gab's link give and Error and Fogelbise's tells me that I do not have permission

First link in my quote gave me page not found error as well. Funnyly enough, it's link to this very thread, which I'm referencing in my dream journal. : (

Second is to my DJ.

Fogelbise's link doesn't work for you, because it's in Deep dreaming part of the forum, which is members only. Please feel free to request membership to it via your Control panel > permission groups.

I'm yet to read both your detailed replies here in this thread, Amicus, and I'm looking forward to them. Thank you for this topic though, I was always interesting in.

Would you like me to move this thread to Deep dreaming for more relevant audience?

**Daniele** · 06-01-2017 09:02 AM

Originally Posted by AmicusSomniatus

Once, knowing that I had a WWII past life, I stated that when I turn around I will be in the WWII past life. I ended up in my home town in the 1940’s instead of in France, where the past life took place. I then tried again and found myself in the middle of a bombing scene with building in rubble, but it only lasted a minute.

How did you already know this?

I have always intended to try this but knowing that expectation will influence your experience you have to be careful about intention and wording. Just using the words 'past life' when stating your intention or asking the dream plants the idea for the subconscious to run with. Someone who already has an interest in a particular period of history and knows everything about it may unconsciously pre-determine their experience because they already know the details well and have a fondness for that period of time. Therefore I would carefully plan the method of inquiry in the most objective way possible.

**AmicusSomniatus** · 06-01-2017 05:04 PM

Originally Posted by gab

First link in my quote gave me page not found error as well. Funnyly enough, it's link to this very thread, which I'm referencing in my dream journal. : (

Second is to my DJ.

Fogelbise's link doesn't work for you, because it's in Deep dreaming part of the forum, which is members only. Please feel free to request membership to it via your Control panel > permission groups.

I'm yet to read both your detailed replies here in this thread, Amicus, and I'm looking forward to them. Thank you for this topic though, I was always interesting in.

Would you like me to move this thread to Deep dreaming for more relevant audience?

Hi Gab. I just requested joining the Deep dream forum, so when I get accepted I will let you know and then by all means, please move this threat there.

**AmicusSomniatus** · 06-01-2017 05:11 PM

Originally Posted by Daniele

How did you already know this?

I have always intended to try this but knowing that expectation will influence your experience you have to be careful about intention and wording. Just using the words 'past life' when stating your intention or asking the dream plants the idea for the subconscious to run with. Someone who already has an interest in a particular period of history and knows everything about it may unconsciously pre-determine their experience because they already know the details well and have a fondness for that period of time. Therefore I would carefully plan the method of inquiry in the most objective way possible.

Daniele, you bring up a very important point and one that I have been struggling with all along. Contamination of a regression is a very real issue and something that is not that easy to eliminate. Although a lucid dream can provide a very vivid image, it is still a conscious state of mind and therefore easily influenced. I have the same problem with self regressions because I am the one asking the questions and the one receiving the answers. My solution is to allow myself to drift into a deep trance state after asking the question as to not guide the answer, but even then there is a tendency to want to analyze the image after receiving it.

You asked how I knew about WWII. I had obtained that information during a self-regression but I had a lot of problems with that particular past life because of contamination. Upon analysing the self regression, I was sure that I was a young woman from Northern France who was shot by German soldiers around the time of the Dunkirk invasion. I was so sure of that story line that I started daydreaming about possible things in that life, which then led to false information during regressions (i.e. I started believing that I was part of the French resistance) I was no longer getting hypnagogic imagery but instead I was getting clear daydream type imagery that I took as being true (and wanted to be true). What is interesting here, is that when I tried to go to this life in my lucid dreams I ran into roadblocks. I could not get there and so I started thinking that perhaps this was a false regression. I therefore did a few more self regressions only to get information that did not fit (The name Dusseldorf kept being repeated loudly and images of windmills kept flashing in my mind via hypnagogic imagery).

I was now quite confused and so I turned to my dreams for answers and I was quite surprised. I will explain how the dreams metaphors worked in a anther post because it would be another long entry

. Needless to say, I ended up discovering that I was in fact a young Jewish woman who escaped Germany before the start of the war. I moved with my Family to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, not far from Dusseldorf. After the Rotterdam invasion in 1940, my sister and I escaped south into France where we would have been eventually caught and killed along with other refugees.

So far this story seems to fit better and the fact that strong dream metaphors helped decipher it give me a bit more confidence. I have yet to try going back to this life in a lucid dream now that I have new information but I will try soon to see if I can get actually find out more without contaminating the dream.