YouTube: Have We Lived Before?

I’ve met many people in Unity who believe in past lives. While I don’t remember any of my own, it feels spiritually plausible that we’ve all lived before. If you accept that the soul continues after death, then the idea of pre-existence isn’t a huge stretch. I won’t try to prove whether we’ve lived before, but rather, simply consider the possibility.

The late Dr. Ian Stevenson, a leading researcher on children who recall past lives, shared the story of Maria, from Brazil, whose father drove away her young lover, leading him to suicide. Distraught, Maria lost her will to live, intentionally exposing herself to the cold and dying from tuberculosis. Before her death, she told her friend, Ida, that she would return as her daughter. Months later, Ida gave birth to a girl, Marta, whom she and her teacher husband raised. As Marta began to talk, she recounted numerous details from her previous life, which her father documented and verified.

The credibility of this case is what initially interested Dr. Stevenson. Stevenson, and now Dr. Jim Tucker, have documented thousands of similar cases, making it hard for even skeptics to dismiss reincarnation entirely. In Maria’s case, what fascinates me is that she chose to return as her friend’s daughter, purely out of her own desire.

I suspect this applies to all of us: we’re here because we chose to be. I also believe we don’t fully know what our lives will hold. We set our canoe in the river, unaware of the rapids or calm waters ahead.

Consider the many phases of your own life that have begun and ended. You were “born” into that role and “died” to it. It’s now just a memory, a past phase, a past life. Yet, you remain you. You launched your canoe at one point in the river and landed at another. How many times does this happen in a single lifetime? Often. It seems like a microcosm of the larger picture.

I have no wish to revisit any former period of this life, nor do I feel compelled to explore past lives. What truly inspires me is the power of choice, the knowledge that I’m not driven by a need to be anything other than who I am. It’s all mine to shape as I desire.