How does the three-level model of the self explain past-life memories?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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The yogic model of the self offers us a coherent explanation of past life memories the soul which is the source of consciousness is surrounded by the mind which is the subtle interface between the body and the soul and when we die all that essentially happens is the body as a viable mechanism for functioning is destroyed and the soul along with the mind go from one body to another body and normally when the soul and the mind go to another body the soul and the mind get integrated into that body and they identify with that body but in some cases and especially in cases when there is sudden violent death at that time the soul, the conscious being does not fully process the event of death properly and that’s why just as when we travel from one country to another country across time zones then the body sometimes has a jet lag where the body’s clock still functions according to the previous area where we were in although the body is physically in a new area like that the soul sometimes has a lag in its memories whereas rather than identifying with the person whom they are now the soul which has the mind with it and the mind is where the memories are stored so the memories of the past are there but normally they get buried below the memories of the present but in some cases when there is a lag because of sudden death or other such events and there is not adequate identification with the present body then some people remember their past lives usually these children remember their past lives most intensely in their early childhood as they age as the identification with this body increases more and more then their past life memories recede into the background many of them forget those memories entirely so now when so if we consider from the material perspective if this person who lived and died at a particular point that is set x and this child who is living at another time is y from the material perspective there is no intersection between the two and therefore y should not have any knowledge about x but yet y has significant knowledge about x and the intersection point between the two is the soul mind complex which was present in x and which has now transmigrated into y which has gone from that old body to the new body so because the mind is the same and the mind contains the impressions from the past that’s how there are recognitions there are recollections and recognitions and what about behaviours because this person still identifies with that person who lived as whom they lived in the past therefore they often exhibit emotions like let’s say exhibit the emotion of jealousy towards his previous towards his previous wife’s new husband or he exhibit affection towards his children from the previous life so these behaviours come because of the past life memories being there in the mind and through hypnotic regression sometimes it has been found that people say who have hydrophobia tremendous fear of water if by hypnotic regression they are taken back to their previous lives and they recollect in my previous life I died in drowning and that event is over now it was traumatic but it is over it cannot hurt me now and they process that memory then their hydrophobia goes down Dr. Brian Weiss has done extensive research and remedy for people’s fears and phobias through hypnotic regression hypnotic regression itself is not the soundest of proofs for the reality of past life memories spontaneous past life memories are much stronger evidence but how hypnotic regression works can be explained through the yogic model of the self and further what about birth marks and birth defects that some children have medically speaking scientists know three primary causes only three causes for birth marks and birth defects first is genetic sometimes in some families generation after generation people have certain birth marks the second is that during pregnancy if the mother has some disease because of which the child in their womb gets marked or third is again during pregnancy if the mother injects certain substances if she drinks alcohol or takes smokes or other such substances these may harm the child’s body and that may create some marks and yet with all these three explanations researchers have been able to explain only 50% of birth marks and birth defect cases 50% cases which are not explained what could be the explanation from the yogic model of the self when the person dies especially if it is because of a sudden death in a violent way and as a fatal wound that traumatic impression is embedded into the mind oh I was wounded here, I was stabbed here I was shot here and that impression which stays deeply embedded in the mind when the soul goes into a new body that impression which is there in the mind that creates a mark on the body so Dr. J.L. Stevenson in his book where reincarnation and biology intersect has a whole chapter on the paranormal modification of biological form and he describes how impressions in the mind can shape can manifest as marks on the body so the precise correlation of birth marks and birth defects happens because that location of the birth mark or birth defect has been impressed on the mind so the wound happens on the previous life’s body that gets impressed on the mind that mind goes into a new body and from that mind that impression is projected on to this new body and that’s how the children who from the biological medical perspective have no reason to have any birth mark or birth defect have birth marks and birth defects and these birth marks and birth defects correlate precisely with the location of the previous life’s fatal wounds thus the whole gamut of phenomena associated past life memories which elude any explanation within the materialistic framework I have a coherent explanation through the yogic model of the self