Is there really a past life?

Question

And if there is, when we die, do we relive a new life? Because my half sisters cousin passed away of a brain tumor, and a year later, my sister swore that she saw her cousin at church... it freaked her out so much she started crying. And I think that maybe its her cousin living her new life. Not really too sure, explain please.

Answer 1

When you reincarnate, you come back as a new born and the only thing you carry over with you is your eyes.

Is she sure she saw a live person? I was standing at the train station when I saw my father, who I hadn't seen in over a year. I was very angry with him because he didn't say anything to me, even though he looked me right in the eye. The next day I saw him again, which made me angrier because he said nothing. I know I should have said something, I was stupid and stubborn.

4 years later I found out on the Internet that my father died. I called his wife to find out why she didn't inform me.... long story that doesn't pertain to this story. The time I saw my father is when he died. I think he realized his wife wouldn't tell me, so he was coming to tell me himself.

Answer 2

IMPORTANT NOTE: THE INFORMATION IN THIS ANSWER IS WHAT I HAVE GLEANED FROM STUDYING PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS BY CLINICAL HYPNOTHERAPISTS WHO PRACTICE PAST-LIFE REGRESSION THERAPY AND SPIRIT RELEASEMENT THERAPY, AND DEAL WITH THIS AS A PART OF THEIR EVERYDAY VOCATION. It is NOT the product of my own imagination or speculation.

You don't mention whether your half-sister was referring to an adult who bore a physical resemblence to her cousin or if she saw an infant she thought was the deceased cousin. If it was an adult, the answer is DEFINITELY NO. If it was an infant, it is remotely possible, but highly unlikely.

According to past-life regression studies, we definitely DO reincarnate.
The case you cite here does not exactly fit the bill, though, and here are some reasons why:
1. A between-lives interval of no more than one year is highly unlikely. The span between lives is normally spent in recovering from the traumatic effects of the immediate past death and resting up, regaining one's spiritual strength. This period of recuperation is followed by intense study of the last life. What was done wrong, what was done right, what still needs to be done, etc.? Then the person begins planning their next life. What circumstances will they be born into, who will be their parents, spouse(s), children, other significant contacts in the upcoming life, etc.? What do they wish to accomplish, how will they accomplish it, what kind of experiences in the upcoming life will help them achieve their desired goals, etc.?
It is a very involved process and most incarnations are spaced at least a couple of decades apart. Usually they range from about 40 years to a few hundred years. (One hypnotherapist said the longest between-lives period he had ever found in one of his patients was about 800 years.)
Even when the next life is chosen, that is not to say it is set to begin immediately. Someone might decide on a life that is not due to start for another 60 years from the time the decision was made.
So you see why I say that a 1-year interval is highly unlikely - not totally unheard-of, but highly unlikely.

2. The returning person is not usually recognizable to those who knew his/her past identity. In those cases where a young child has remembered a recent past life with relatives who are still alive, the instantaneous recognition seems to exist only for the reincarnated entity. The surviving relatives do not seem to share this psychic bond, and it takes some intensive questioning about the details of the past life to convince them - if they ever DO become convinced.

There ARE, however, a couple of other possible explanations, but they are even LESS likely. I am mentioning them just because they DO represent remote possibilities if the person your half-sister was referring to was an adult:
1. A walk-in. If a spirit wants to back out of it's "life contract" without destroying the body (committing suicide), on rare occasions it will make a sort of deal with a spirit who wants to reenter life without going through birth and childhood again. There will be an accident, illness or other situation that sauses a period of unconsciousness. The body's original inhabitant goes on into the afterlife and the incoming entity wakes with the body when it resumes consciousness. As with traditional reincarnation, though, a 1-year interval is not very probable.

2. An attached entity. If your half-sister's cousin was confused and disoriented enough at the time of her death, she may have not made the full and proper transition into the afterlife, but instead attached herself to the energy field of a living human being. This is the least desirable explanation.

Yet, in either of these cases, the recognition would normally be one-sided, too, and it would be the other person recognizing your half-sister, not the other way around.

Answer 3

Only your spirit in the pre - existence. We only get one chance on this planet. The purpose of our birth is to attain an earthly body! Experience all the things life has to offer and learn to control our natural desires and become spiritually like God.
There are millions of spirits waiting for their turn to receive an earthly body and be born into this world. Maybe, Your sisters cousin stopped by for a visit. Sort of a "I can't talk to you but I can let you see me so you know that I'm o.k. and keep doing all the right things so we can be together again"! Departed spirits come back to visit all the time. We just aren't aware that they are here!!

Answer 4

OK, re-incarnation works on the basis that nobody, no matter how smart or whatever they are could possible learn everything there is to know in one lifetime, so our soul splits itself (first in two - ourselves and our soul-mate, then into multiple timeframes and dimensions) in order to learn a particular spiritual lesson from each life-time. It is possible therefore for a soul to split into two re-incarnation within the same time-frame, in order to gather information, learn lessons, twice as quick, although this would be rare.
The other thing to note about re-incarnation is that physical traits are not always carried through into the next life, they can be, but typically speaking a person is more likely to recognise the other person's soul than their body. If those relatives are part of your soul-group (essentially all your kindred souls) then you are most likely to encounter their souls in every lifetime you have, and possibly more than once in some or all of them.
Here is a link to some more info on the topic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation

Answer 5

Yes there, is each and everyday that you awake is a past life. what your sister saw, was the closeness and the bond she had with her cousin before she passed away. her cousin is living a new life but it's called paradise which is
up in heaven and we will all be with your her cousin and mine too one day.

Answer 6

The Bible (which I'm assuming your sister believes, if she was at church) says that "it is appointed for man once to die." Basically, you get one life, one chance, and that's it. When you die, you are in a deep sleep (Ecclesiates 9), and the next thing you will be aware of is the second coming of Christ at the Resurrection.

Of course, this is according to the Christian beliefs.

Answer 7

Yes i believe in multiple lives....one soul many times reborn.
I believe the purpose for this is to allow us to evolve.
Terry is right in saying that dejavu is a sign that this is true, i believe that in each life we have lessons to learn, but we forget them, and dejavu is a sign that you should stop and consider the situation you are in at that time and make sure you are making the right choices...
Have you ever heard a child tell you about when they were big?
Children can still vaguely remember the details of their past lives...
I BELIEVE this because of two things that have happened with my 3yr old daughter...
1. She told me that when she was big she had to put petrol in her fridge...that statement did not mean much to me untill i heard about the fridges before electricity, they were run on kerosene!
2. At a cemetery one day she was insistant on going into the old section...saying "mummy i want to go over there..where i was when i was big.." Well i went and she led me directly to the grave of my great grandmother...i did not know she was in that cemetery!
So yes i believe and my belief fits my religion too.Wiccan.
Blessed Be
)o(

Answer 8

I do believe in reincarnation. But I believe we come in as a new baby, to new parents, etc. She wouldn't be the same age as now. Although I've read about such things as step-ins, but I don't know much about that.

Answer 9

I'd like to think so...that our souls are recycled and "you" live life after life...your consciousness just goes on.

I don't necessarily think it's someone who looked like you. You could come back as someone of the opposite sex, or a different ethnicity.

Answer 10

think of it this way the sole never die,s when we pass do you think that god would want us to know what was befor so we are reborn to a new world a new life i know in my case yes i have walked this earth befor becuse i have found several people who i know i have know befor sloe,s tend to travle in pack,s and if we are forcanet we find those who have walked the same path with us befor