I. Introduction
Have you ever had an experience in which you were looking for something and could not find it? You searched and searched. You even looked in places you had looked before, All to no avail! Then you went on to other things and, quite suddenly, you discovered the very thing you were seeking earlier. Memories are sometimes like that; you cannot force your memory; you just allow it to happen. Perhaps you have found that if you give your mind a break, your relaxation will do the work for you.

II. Childhood Memories
While watching children at play, it’s so easy to say, “They’re imagining things!” Perhaps they are imagining things, or are they reliving memories? Where do such memories come from?

Do you remember playing as a child---making up things? Of course, you do; however, it you think back, you might realize that some of those made-up playtimes seemed as real
as the life you were living every day. *

Children’s play is a type of trance state. As you played and acted your parts, alone or with other children, who were you? What were you doing? Were you cooking a meal or rocking a child? Were you a queen on a throne or a cowboy on a horse? Did you live in a castle, in a cabin, or in a thatched hut? Were you young or old? Was your skin dark or fair? Were you happy or sad? Perhaps, sometimes, you might have acted the part of a boy or a man; at other times, you might have played the role of a girl or a woman. It is common for children to switch roles as they play. It seemed real, didn’t it? Perhaps, just perhaps, it once was.

Children, particularly those under five years of age, are able to recall past lives easily. Could the childhood creative imagination have been what was happening? Many people have dreams and flashes of memory about other times and other places. Such activity is normal and can be very helpful. If you are recalling a past life, you can learn from it. The experience you had at that time can teach you a lesson now, if you will let it happen.

III. Learning from Memories
If you accept the idea that you just might have had past lives, then it makes sense that those lives, the life you are living now, and future lives are all one very long life. You awake (are born), sleep (die), and awake again to learn and to grow. All of your lifetimes are connected as part of a greater life.

If you allow yourself to remember those past lives--or, segments of the whole journey of the soul--, and if you take from them the lessons, skills, talents, and gifts which they contain, each separate life will be enriched. Then, each life will be more fulfilling and more
useful both to yourself and to others. Past, present, and future are all interconnected. They are ONE. If you choose not to learn your lessons, you might have to face them over and over again--in this life and in others--until you learn. Life seems to be about learning, changing, and growing.

IV. Using Two Types of Memory
Since, as a child, you might have been remembering and re-enacting past lives during play, you might begin to think that memory is strong. There are two kinds of memory. Your short-term memory tells you what is happening to you in your current life. (Over the long journey of the soul, a single lifetime can be called short-term memory.). Moment by moment, you have to use it. Long-term memory reminds you about things you learned long ago--even thousands of years ago. From short-term (current life) memory, you can learn lessons now. Long-term memory reminds you of events and feelings from the past and you can grow through learning the lessons.

From an exploration of the past, you can find talents and special skills which you can bring forward to use now. It is like being an explorer. You are exploring one or more of your lives as an adventure in time! When you explore .past lives, you can use a professional guide to help you to find your way and to help you to appreciate what you find.

There are two ways to use what you find in past-life exploration.

One way is to take what you see and to use it as a form of spiritual discovery for personal development. That method would be called personal exploration. You might find special knowledge or talents that you can use now to help you to become a better person and to add more joy to your life. People around you might benefit from your personal exploration because what you learned from the past allows you to discover new ways of expression. You influence friends, family, and acquaintances because you become a happier, healthier, more successful individual. Your prosperity increases and your relationships blossom because you are able to bring forward your beautiful parts which were hidden in the past.

A second way to use what you find in your long-term memory is your ability to look deeply for healing lessons. Time is a great teacher and a great healer. Everything you have learned and stored is waiting to be rediscovered. The answers to problems you are experiencing now could be found by exploring your past-life memories for the wisdom you once had in consciousness but, now, it is stored, seemingly forgotten. Painful issues, anxiety, and confusion--lack of harmony--in the present life can be readjusted or eliminated by remembering a lesson from a past life. The way you handle things now will depend upon how much you are willing to learn from the past and how deeply you are willing to go to discover those answers.

V. Recalling Past Lives
At birth, you had the gift of two types of memory, current life and past life. You also had the gift of having a veil dropped over the past. That veil can be lifted, should you choose to do so.

Perhaps it is easy for children to recall past lives because their minds are not cluttered by confronting the lessons and challenges of their current lives. By the time children reach adulthood, they will have experienced many things that might cloud past-life memories, including admonishment by some adults that it is only creative imagination. A wise parent who realizes that a child is recalling past life memories can provide encouragement by asking the child to make up a bedtime story. The child’s reaction can be surprisingly straightforward. Sometimes, a child might ask, “Do you remember when I was the mommy (or daddy) and you were little like me?” In a playful way, a child might describe a past-life event as a personal story. By talking with the child just before sleep, parents can learn much about the past-life experiences that went into the making of that soul’s character--their little child.

Parents who punish their child for play-acting what~the child believes to be realistic could hamper the emotional and spiritual life of that child who is simply remembering the past. Such an unwise approach on the part of the parents could cause serious problems to develop later as the child develops and must deal with issues rooted in a past life. The freedom to remember is essential.

VI Traveling through Time: Three Steps
Since the work of memory involves collection and distribution, you should use what you have collected. As an adult, you might have difficulty in recalling scenes because your mind is occupied with many current issues. Somehow, you recall and use the feelings but the precise events seem to escape you. With the help of a trained professional, significant experiences from past lives can be brought to conscious memory. There are three steps involved in looking back at the journey.

The first step guides you back to any age in the current life. It is called age regression. Regression means examining past behavior to determine its influence on current issues. Perhaps the facilitator will ask you to select any age and to recall a memory from that time period. Usually, when working with a specific issue, the facilitator will ask you to select a time when a similar event occurred or to recall the earliest memory.

Should the source of the issue not be located, you will be guided to go to the second step. After examining the birth process for possible trauma, pre-natal memory, the womb experience is reviewed. Often, you need to go back beyond the womb and to look for a memory of something which happened before that time. What is recalled at that stage is past-life memory.

Regression guides, facilitators, encourage you, the traveler, to speak without thinking. Such spontaneously uttered memories can be clues which will take you deeper into pastlife memory. The results of the experiences in time travel can be amazing. The healing memories which you discover can make your life more meaningful.

At first, when you begin to reach back into the past, you (as many other people do) might believe that you are just imagining things. It seems so because the conscious mind claims to know nothing except that which it has gathered as sensory information in the current life. Sometimes current-life memories seem unreal or unclear. The inner mind always remembers. You might have to start with creative imagination because it can serve as a doorway to deep memory. Start with whatever pops into your mind and then let the story tell itself.

VII. Analyzing the Data
Many people wonder if they were famous in a past life. Only occasionally do we find famous personalities who made significant contributions to society. Past-life work has been criticized by people who say that everybody reports being Cleopatra, Napoleon, Jesus, or Mary. Perhaps the people who report the experiences actually believe that they have had true memories. Much depends upon the way in which the session is guided. If you are told to go to a past life in which a certain feeling was experienced, then, you might go to any past life, not necessarily your own. Lately, hearing so many past-life stories of people who report a sense of having been Mary, the mother of Jesus, has led facilitators to be more specific in guiding clients through their own souls’ journeys.

Your journey is important in understanding your spiritual development. You have the right to learn about your past and to use the knowledge in a positive, helpful way in your current life, When you explore your past lives, you often find that you have reconnected with someone in the present life. Sometimes the roles are reversed; sometimes they are the same. You might recognize friends or relatives. Past-life regression can lead to many happy and interesting discoveries. There can be surprises, too, The soul, the part of us which lives and journeys on after the close of each earthly life, might travel form country to country and from continent to continent.

In past lives, you have had other roles, other professions, and other relationships. You might have been involved in activities other than your current interests. You might have done hurtful things; you might have harmed other people. If so, perhaps your role now is to heal that relationship. A soldier in a past life might return as a doctor who saves lives. Enemies in past lives might become friends. You might have attained a high level of spiritual development; if so, perhaps your role now is to help other people by your example of the positive human attributes. It is all part of the rich adventure of soul learning and soul growth.

VIII. Conclusion
When exploring past lives, it is encouraging to know that you can build upon past accomplishments and you can make amends to reconcile past negative behavior and attitudes. You can rekindle past friendships and you can heal old wounds. All possibilities work together to create a more harmonious and fulfilling lifetime.

Nothing is lost. All that you have learned or have gained from past lives travels with you through time to make each lifetime the best you want it to be. Memories can be triggered by what you see, hear, taste, feel, and smell. The sense of smell seems to be one of the strongest doorways. Memories, the records of your experiences, are available to you and they serve to remind you of your past thoughts, words, and actions. Memory is eternal.

(The above article may be published freely.)

Henry Leo Bolduc, P.O. Box 88, Independence, Va. 24348
Marjorie V. Reynolds, 202-237 Wellington Cres. Winnipeg, Mb. R3M OA1 mvreynol@mb.sympatico.ca