Guest Post: Past Lives: A Return To Our Roots by Michelle Brock

Since the dawn of time, we human beings have pondered our existence. We sat gazing up at the starry night sky, marveling at its vastness, discovering order in its seemingly chaotic patterns, and even realizing our own personal connection to it.

Archeologists have found evidence that even the earliest of our species wondered who we are, why we are here, and what happens to us after we die. So then, to question our state of being could be an integral part of being human, as well as the quest to experience a realm of spirit and that which lies beyond our physicality.

This belief in spirit is nearly as old as history itself. Our ancient ancestors pan-globally believed that there was a part of us not connected to our physical form, which contained our consciousness that survived death. These people also, nearly universally, came to the conclusion that we would subsequently be reborn after death. Early humans did believe in reincarnation. How did they formulate this idea? Well, all they had to do was look around them.

Because ancient people lived in a way that was deeply connected to the natural world, they recognized and honored the cycles of life that turn continually all around us. Before we humans took ourselves out of nature and moved into our studio apartments, we understood that we were not separate from nature. And so, because we recognized that we were also a part of these life cycles we could therefore conclude that what we saw happening around us in nature would happen within us as well.

The constant patterns of life, death and rebirth that we saw in the plant and animal world, as well as the daily miracle of the return of the sun in the morning after its’ light was extinguished from the sky the night before, meant that we would do the same. Because our ancestors knew that we were inexorably linked to every living thing, that after we died our life cycle would continue and we would eventually return in a new form; restored, refreshed and renewed. To them, the concept of reincarnation made much more sense than the idea that death was an abrupt ending, rather than a transformation and a continuation.

In the modern world, however, the notion of reincarnation has been relegated to something we call “new age-y”. We associate it with certain religions, gurus, crystals, and coffee-after-yoga-class philosophical talk. In our Western culture, many of us dismiss belief in past lives as something Eastern, esoteric, and therefore not having anything at all to do with us. Perhaps we have just been living out of the forest for way too long and have therefore forgotten this connection we have with all of nature.

The idea here is to return to our roots, and to uncover our past and remember the lessons that we have already been presented with over many lifetimes. I believe that who we are is a cumulative of our experience, and that we are incredibly complex beings who have grown old and wise as many times as we have had our lives cut tragically short. I feel that we are born in order to learn, and maybe one of the many things we need to learn is how to remember. Because, we can never really know where it is that we are going without first understanding where we have been.

Michelle Brock was featured here in the ATG Blog as one of our Inspiring Women, and will be one of our November/December cover girls this year. You can find her on the web at: Past Life Spiritual Practice, or either her professional or personal blogs.