PAST LIVES

Meditation.

 

'Daddy, I've had a past life!' Parents share stories of children who claim they've been reincarnated - from a boy who says he was a soldier to a girl who claims she died in a car crash - comments

Twisticles, Wales, United Kingdom

One of my earliest "memories" is being livid, screaming and protesting very strongly to someone that I didn't want to be born "to go through all that again..." The next thing I remembered was clearly seeing the slate roof of a grey stone Edwardian looking building coming towards me and years later I found out that the hospital maternity wing where I was born had a beautiful slate roof.

JohnFF, Northampton, United Kingdom

If you consider that the sum total of our bodies are assembled from just two cells with a genetic code inplanted within them, it does not surprise me that memories are passed on at the same time. For me, I have an encycopediac knowledge of medicine and although I have never studied medicine, I have a "picture in my head" of how the entire body works. I have always put it down to the fact that my grandfather was a doctor.

Good ol gal, Leicester, United Kingdom

When I was 20 I had two vivid dreams on consecutive nights...  I have researched the clothing, furnishings, etc I saw in the dreams and I think it was about 1900. That was nearly 50 years ago and I am still convinced they were past life memories.

M Haymar, Oxford, United Kingdom

"God wants us to know something, but if we don't do it, we have to do our life again. . You have to live a lot of lives before you get it right."  - Elhadji - seven year old boy.

klp86, Devon, United Kingdom

My little girl (2nd born) said to me when she was around 2.5 - "Mummy when I was a boy...

My son (1st born) I feel like I have known forever it's the weirdest thing. From the moment he was born I have felt we have been together before and are together again. I don't get that feeling with my other kids. He is the soul of someone I have previously loved. 

TW, Cornwall, United Kingdom

My daughter is now 5 and I swear she's been here before. 

Last year we were listening to a random playlist on Spotify, and a song came on that I know that she'd never heard before (Bad Moon Rising by Creedance Clearwater Revival). She stopped what she was doing and sat intently listening to the song with a strange look on her face. When it finished, she asked to listen to it again, which I obliged. Then again... And again. 

I asked her why she liked it so much, and she replied that she remembered dancing to it at her 21st birthday party. My daughter doesn't know anyone that has ever turned 21, so would have no idea that 21 is a special birthday. She's said other things too, but this is the one that really sticks out for me.

ellamy, St Helens , United Kingdom

Bit sad really if we are reincarnated. I was hoping to reunite with my parents up there (if there is an up there as who really knows?!), but they'll both be busy living their next lives so we will never meet up again. Then by the time my kids pass I'll be in my next life too. :D

Try_me, local, Australia, 24 hours ago

Actually your soul can be in more places than just one. So whilst they are living another life, they can also be waiting for you when you die. They can live many lives at once, like we all are now.

OhEngland, Bournemouth Dorset, United Kingdom

I had a little four years old friend when I was six and she suddenly popped up out of long grass across the road from my house. I played hide and seek with her for a while and then my gran came outside and called me back in for tea. She was puzzled by my movements in the grass and asked me what I was doing. 

When I told her I'd been playing with this girl, she was shocked because she had died two days ago suddenly. I didn't really understand death then and it wasn't until a few years later that I realised why it was strange. If that was a ghost, she was very happy and I wish I had been able to tell her mother she was ok on the other side.

Nevermind, United Kingdom

I remember when I was about 8/9 I was in the local youth club in the summer waiting on the grass for my turn to play on the trampoline when a man dressed in 60s clothing and 60s kind of sunglasses appeared next to me sitting down and asked me how my family was.

This was in the 1998 so he definitely was out of character but I wasn't scared, I said they're fine thanks and he said, but how's your dad? I remember saying he's ok, and he said will you tell him I was asking about him, I just nodded then it was my turn on the trampoline. 

Fast forward about five years ago my dad pulled out this picture & my jaw hit the floor. It was his brother, my uncle mick. He was ran over when he was 20 something, before I was born, his hair exactly how I remembered, wearing the same sunglasses and clothes. 

When I told my dad that's the man I told you about when I was a kid, he was dumbfounded.

Sunny-3UK, Garden of England, United Kingdom

When my dad died, a few months later whilst sat watching tv a light was flying round the room. I turned off the tv, turned my ring over and turned my phone over. The light would come around my shoulders and glide around the room again. No hadn't been drinking and do believe the was a visit from my dad. The same thing happened to my sister who hadn't spoken to my dad for 20 years. It was scary at the time and I just watched the light in silence. It hasn't happened since but I truly believe it was a spiritual orb. There's no other explanation.

'Daddy, I've had a past life!' Parents share stories of children who claim they've been reincarnated - from a boy who says he was a soldier to a girl who claims she died in a car crash - comments

CURE - MIND OVER MATTER

A fake and harmless pill, a placebo pill, can actually cause healing endorphins and dopamine to be released in the body.

Fake surgery can heal some patients.

A good doctor or shaman can heal some patients simply with comforting words.

"kissing it better" seems to work.

Jo Marchant 

Doctor Jo Marchant has written CURE, a Journey into the Science of Mind over Body.

According to the research quoted by Jo Marchant:

In Parkinson's patients, a placebo can help the patient, because 'motor neurons then fire more slowly'.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome can be successfully treated with the use of placebos.

With altitude sickness, if somebody takes fake oxygen, there is a physical change in the body and the symptoms of the sickness are reduced.

smh.com.au/

Jo Marchant 

According to the research quoted by Jo Marchant:

Patients can be healed by hypnosis, behavioral therapy (changing unhelpful thinking and behaviour) and the use of 'virtual reality'.

Jo Marchant took part in a virtual reality experiment.

She put her foot in a box of unbearably hot water. 

She felt her foot burning and removed her foot.

Then she put on noise-canceling headphones and began to play a snow-and-ice-themed video game. 

When she returned her foot to the hot water, she barely noticed the heat.

Jo Marchant explains the ways we can rewire our brains and improve our health.

According to Jo marchant: "believing in an angry or judgmental God seems to make people more stressed".

Inflamations can be removed by removing stress.

Jo Marchant refers to the health benefits of friendship, social connections and meditation.

The ft points out that in one part of the UK it was discovered that just 4% of local people were between them consuming up to 50% of the health and social care budget.

One of the 4% is Jennie Woolmington who suffers from lupus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, osteoporosis and diabetes.

To help keep Jennie Woolmington and others like her out of hospital, the local health authority has created 'health coaches'. 



Research shows that in a typical town just a small handful of families cause most of the serious problems for the police, for the schools and for the health system.

Town where boy of 11 is 'behind a fifth of all crime' - Telegraph.

These families would benefit from receiving intensive care from 'coaches'.

The Guardian refers to Mr Hutchens.

Cure: A Journey Into the Science of Mind Over Body.

Mr Hutchens has been depressed for many years.

He lost his job because of his apparent chronic back pain, the result of an apparently minor road accident. 

Immobility has caused him to put on weight, and then develop type-two diabetes.

His heavy doses of prescribed narcotics and sedatives, and his lack of exercise, may be the problem.

Recent research has shown that our brain structure is very flexible, and continually changing.

Practicing certain habits or behaviours brings real physical changes to the part of the brain associated with that activity.

For example, if you decide to learn to play the piano, you will develop more neural connections (and perhaps even more brain cells) in the parts of the brain associated with motor activity and musical ability.

If you meditate regularly for years, you will develop more ‘gray matter’ in the areas associated with attention, concentration and compassion.

So in that sense, rather than being completely controlled by our brains, we have control over them.



Research shows that the genetic structures we inherit from our parents don't remain fixed throughout our lives.

Our genetic structures are altered by the life experiences we undergo, so that the genes we pass on to our children will be different to those we inherited.

Studies of twins show that, when twins are exposed to very different environments and life experiences, in their later life they show striking differences in their DNA.

It could be said that we have the capacity to control our genes, rather than them just controlling us.

MATTHIEU RICARD ON HAPPINESS

...

Matthieu Ricard is a French genetecist and the son of the late Jean-François Revel (born Ricard), a French philosopher.

Matthieu has become a Buddhist monk.

Matthieu has been in New York for a week, staying at a Manhattan townhouse belonging to the daughter of billionaire investor George Soros.

Matthieu says that when he looks at the expensively decorated mansion he does not regret his life living in a simple room in a monastery.

He says: "Every time I look at these things, I feel, wow, imagine the responsibility of taking care of this place.

"My teacher used to say if you have a horse, you have the suffering of having a horse. If you have a house, you have the suffering of having a house. So much trouble to fix the tap, the electricity..."

dailymail

Back at the monastery in Nepal, he gets up each day at 4am, meditates, studies Tibetan texts and writes books.

...

When Matthieu was 18, his parents separated.

In 1972, aged 26, he travelled to India to study under Kangyur Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist.

He remained in Darjeeling for seven years and claims that he was very happy there.

dailymail

Neuroscientist Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied Matthiu and other Buddhists.

He found that compassion and meditation increased levels of happiness.

Matthiu says that just two weeks of showing kindness reduces activity in the area of the brain associated with fear.

dailymail



Richard Davidson wired up Matthiu's skull with 256 sensors.

The scans showed that when meditating on compassion, there was excessive activity in Matthiu's brain's left prefrontal cortex compared to its right counterpart, giving him an abnormally large capacity for happiness and a reduced propensity towards negativity, researchers believe.

dailymail.

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Matthieu believes that a culture greater altruism and compassion can improve the world.

He says: "individuals change culture, culture changes the individuals..." – and the next generation will change it again,’ he says.

He says: "I sometimes feel sad when sadness is the appropriate response, for a disaster in Nepal or a massacre – how can you not feel sad?

"But sadness is not mutually exclusive with a genuine sense of flourishing, because it gives rise to compassion; it gives rise to the determination to do something."

"Happiness shouldn't always be pleasant."

Read more: dailymail

...

According to Buddha:

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. It is founded on our thoughts. It is made up of our thoughts. 

If one speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows one, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the wagon.

If one speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows one, like a shadow that never leaves.

According to Matthieu Ricard:

We should not be a slave to negative thoughts.

We should not let negative thoughts stick to our mind.

We should cultivate qualities such as kindness.

"You can look at your experience like a fire that burns. 

"If you are aware of anger you are not angry you are aware. 

"Being aware of anxiety is not being anxious it is being aware."

By being aware of these emotions you are no longer adding fuel to their fire and they will burn down.

dailymail

Some Indonesians look happy?

Voltaire, like Buddha, could see that there is suffering in this world.

"Imagine the situation of a Pope's daughter aged fifteen, who in three months had undergone poverty and slavery, had been raped nearly every day, had seen her mother cut into four pieces, had undergone hunger and war, and was now dying of the plague in Algiers." (Voltaire, Candide, Chapter 12)

"Do you believe," said Candide, "that men have always massacred each other as they do to-day, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?"

"Do you believe," said Martin, "that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?"

Voltaire appears to be pessimistic about human nature; he might suggest that there will always be spooks and generals carrying out atrocities.


Indonesia was Buddhist for longer than it has been Moslem.

But, if hawks may not be capable of fast change, what about humans?

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875-1961) said in Memories, Dreams, Reflections:

"Natural history tells us of a haphazard and casual transformation of species over hundreds of millions of years of devouring and being devoured...

"But the history of the mind offers a different picture.

"Here the miracle of reflecting consciousness intervenes."

Physicist David Bohm believes that life and consciousness are present in varying degrees in all matter, including supposedly inanimate matter such as electrons or plasmas.

He suggests that evolutionary developments do not emerge in a random fashion.

("David Bohm and the Implicate Order" by David Pratt)

Happiness is about forgetting your own happiness and being part of a happy team?

Standford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram believes in the holographic nature of reality.

Every part of a hologram contains all the information possessed by the whole.

In a holographic universe there are no limits to the extent to which we can alter reality.

What we see as reality is a canvas where we can draw any picture we want.

Some people manage to be happy in spite of poverty.

The Buddhists believe that what we are thinking now, is what we will become.

Research has suggested that Buddhists are able to get their brains to feel happiness.

According to Owen Flanagan, professor of philosophy at Duke University in North Carolina, Buddhists appear to be able to stimulate a part of their brain which produces positive emotions and a feeling of well being.

Writing in New Scientist, Professor Flanagan referred to findings of a study by Richard Davidson, of the University of Wisconsin, who used scanners to analyse regions of a Buddhist's brain.

Parts of Buddhists brains, linked to happiness, appear to "light up" consistently.

"The most reasonable hypothesis is there is something about conscientious Buddhist practice that results in the kind of happiness we all seek," Davidson writes.

(Happiness. A Buddhist perspective)

Happy lepers.

Helping unhappy people to be happy brings happiness.

A good doctor entering a ward full of sick children does not allow himself to feel depressed.

The good doctor gets on with trying to make the children happy.

Tibetan Bodhisattva Langri Tangpa wrote:

Whenever I see unfortunate beings

Oppressed by evil and violent suffering,

May I cherish them as I had found

A rare and precious treasure.

The good Buddhist empties himself (or herself) of egotism, and is therefore not going to be offended by insults.

When others out of jealousy

Harm me or insult me,

May I take defeat upon myself

And offer them the victory

(The Buddhist Way To Happiness )

Strive for the happiness of the team, and not for your own happiness, and that will make you happy.

The happy person is the one who forgets about his own individual happiness and concentrates on making others happy.

(Buddhism - Jodo Shinsu - What Is Happiness?)


Thai people - are they happier than Americans? Photo by Tevaprapas Makklay 

Christmas Humphreys, 1901-83, formerly a judge in London, listed the Twelve Principles of Buddhism.

(Twelve Principles of Buddhism By Christmas Humphreys)

1. Learn how to save yourself by using direct and personal experience.

2. There is continual change, a continual cycle involving birth and death.

Consciousness is continuous.

It is forever looking for new kinds of self-expression.

Life is a continous flow.

If you know there is a tsunami coming, don't stay on the beach guarding your possessions.

If you cling on to things, you will suffer, because you are resisting the flow.

3. There is only one 'ultimate reality'.

It does not change.

It is beyond our understanding.

We are all linked to it.

We are all part of the one team.

4. What we are now is the result of our past thoughts.

We are the creator of our circumstances.

By right thought and right action we can gradually purify ourselves and eventually reach enlightenment and Nirvana and beyond.

5. We are happiest as a happy team.

We are all inter-linked and should feel compassion for everything from trees to Thais and from jaguars to Jews.

Compassion is the "Law of laws".

6. Imagine we have an urge to win at golf by cheating.

Imagine we have an urge to be the hero of the football match, by monopolising the ball.

Suffering is caused by such wrong urges.

...

7. To end suffering, we should have

(1) Right Views,

(2) Right Aims or Motives,

(3) Right Speech,

(4) Right Acts,

(5) Right Livelihood,

(6) Right Effort,

(7) Right Concentration or mind-development,

(8) "Cease to do evil, learn to do good, cleanse your own heart: this is the Teaching of the Buddhas".

8. Nirvana, the extinction of the limitations of selfhood, is attainable on earth.

"Look within; thou art Buddha".

9. Follow the path between the opposites, avoiding all extremes.

10. Meditation helps us to refrain from mental and emotional attachment to "the passing show".

11. The Buddha said: "Work out your own salvation" using your intuition.

Each man suffers the consequences of his own acts, and learns thereby, while helping his fellow man to the same deliverance.

12. Buddhism does not deny the existence of God or soul, though it places its own meaning on these terms. Buddhism has no dogmas, and points to man alone as the creator of his present life and sole designer of his destiny.

aangirfan: GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS

aangirfan: How sane, balanced, and happy are the people of the USA?.