Oracle 20-20 April 2007 Article, Past Life Dreams

There is good reason we don’t remember the millions of stimuli our brains receive and process everyday. Scientists estimate that we also have around sixty thousand thoughts each day. Trying to process this inundation would be counterproductive, not to mention overwhelming. There’s a mechanism in our brain-consciousness called the Reticular Activating System which sorts those stimuli which merit remembering based on criteria of their potential threat or likely benefit to us. This mechanism allows us to focus on what seems important and allow literally millions of items of input to be ignored by our conscious minds.

We have to train ourselves to override this mechanism in specific instances. For example, as you go about your daily routine you may pass by dozens of white cars. Unless there is something unusual or striking, you don’t notice. If someone tells you that tomorrow you will receive one hundred dollars for every white car you see, they suddenly pop up everywhere. We “train” our subconscious minds to pay attention by suggesting that this stimulus is now important.

Likewise, every dream is not worthy of intense scrutiny and interpretation. Most dream activity seems to be a fairly routine filing and processing of the day’s events. The goal of dream work is first to remember dreams which are significant and instructive and second to learn to interpret the symbols. The real objective is to cultivate a dialog with the wise and eternal part of ourselves. Learning discernment and drawing meaning from symbols which present themselves to either our waking or sleeping consciousness is part of the spiritual path.

I believe the majority of people who are consciously walking this path either believe in reincarnation or are at least open to the idea. We’re taught that most relationships, except perhaps the most casual, may well be reconnections with people we have been associated with in past lives. For deep and intimate relationships such as family it seems we come back together repeatedly out of both love and karmic necessity.

There is a special category of dreams which are in fact past life memories or night time reliving of scenes from earlier times which are permanently recorded in the Akashic Records. These dreams have a unique quality and tend to stand out in our mind when we wake. These dreams have a different quality of intensity and some researchers believe they are actually memories of past life experiences, existing outside of time. These dreams are characterized by a vividness of detail and sensation that does not fade over time. These dream experiences can be recalled and described years later in all their Technicolor intensity.

Dream memories of past lives are also accompanied by sensations different from other dreams. The dreamer is often aware that they are seeing one or more of their past lives. These dreams can change the dreamer’s attitude toward death and dying as there is a certainty that the person has lived before and the life and death are a continuum.

Details such as the landscape or locale are intensified so that we remember the setting more easily. Frequently a language is spoken which we don’t know in this lifetime but which we understand perfectly in the past life dream. We may hear ourselves speaking French or Latin and it doesn’t seem at all strange in the dream. Likewise the clothes we wear and notice on others would seem like period costumes except they fit perfectly within the temporal context of the dream.

When a past life dream occurs it usually relates to a karmic issue being dealt with in waking life. The same players will appear in the dream although relationships may be different. For example, your mother in this lifetime may have been your daughter in another time. In this example the dream dynamics would be played out between you as mother with your earlier daughter.

Past life dreams usually pack an emotional punch. They are typically triggered by an event in the present which has the same karmic pattern and reveals the need to heal a recurring theme which has been reverberating through centuries or millennia. When these dreams occur there is a chance to see the dynamic and pull the plug once and for all. Watch for these unusual dreams and take advantage of the profound opportunity.

Julie Gillentine is the award-winning author of TAROT & DREAM INTERPRETATION and other books and articles. Each year she leads a sacred journey to Egypt. Julie can be reached through her web site www.queenofcups.com or in Colorado at 970-264-7474.