Are you an old soul?

ON OLD SOULS, SERENDIPITY, MANY LIVES, AND REINCARNATION

There are many puzzling concepts that I wonder about. You have heard, for example, people saying that “This child (or somebody) is such an old soul.” What does it mean? The obvious explanation is that the child or person acts or shows insight beyond their age.

According to www.healthline.com “some use the term to literally describe a soul that’s been born many times before. Not everybody believes in reincarnation, but you can’t talk about old souls without bringing past lives into the conversation.”

Supposedly you are an old soul if:

· Material possessions don’t matter to you

· You focus on meaningful connections

· You need a lot of time alone

· You have high empathy

· You spend a lot of time thinking about how to make a difference

Are these personality traits necessarily signs of an old soul or could they be part of your make-up for a different reason? Research has shown that childhood trauma may result in a child aging emotionally faster than other children. Highly sensitive people may also show these traits.

The Oxford dictionary explains serendipity as “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.” There are people who believe that there are no coincidences, lucky or not; and that everything happens for a reason. Is there a plan set in stone for each of us that we cannot escape? Do we have the fatalistic belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable?

Similarly, “determinism” is the theory that the entire path of our life is decided by earlier events and actions. www.mytutor.co.uk In Indian religions (Hinduism, Buddhism. Jainism, and Sikhism) as well as Taoism, “karma” refers to a principle of cause and effect. Good intent and good deeds contribute to good karma and happier rebirths, while bad intent and bad deeds contribute to bad karma and bad rebirths. www.wikipedia.org

Authors like Sylvia Browne wrote numerous books on the phenomena of past lives and communicating with souls in a different realm. In her books like “The other side and back”, “Life on the other side” and “Insight”, Browne writes about “real-life” stories of other people as well as her own experiences. Montell Williams wrote in a review: “I’ve personally witnessed her bringing closure to distraught families, helping the police close cases, and open people’s hearts to help them see the good within themselves.”

In Sylvia’s own words, “God is essential” to her readings which means she does not have a problem being a psychic as well as religious.

Dr Brian Weiss, a psychiatrist, wrote the international bestsellers “Through time into healing”, “Only love is real” and “Many lives, many masters”.

He wrote in the introduction of his book “Many lives, many masters”, “I know that there is a reason for everything. Perhaps at the moment that an event occurs we have neither the insight nor the foresight to comprehend the reason, but with time and patience, it will come to light,”

Dr. Weiss was a brilliant student who studied at Columbia University where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude, Yale University School of Medicine, and New York University-Bellevue Medical Centre. He distrusted anything that could not be proved by traditional scientific methods. That is until he met Catherine.

One of his patients, 27-year-old Catherine, was suffering from recurring nightmares and chronic anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias. These symptoms had been with her since childhood but had become worse in her recent past. Dr. Weiss tried to help Catherine overcome her symptoms through traditional therapy for eighteen months.

When nothing seemed to work, he tried hypnosis. “Catherine recalled “past life” memories that proved to be the causative factors of her symptoms. In just a few short months, her symptoms disappeared, and she resumed her life, happier and more at peace than ever.” This encounter changed both their lives, Catherine’s to a more peaceful existence and the doctor from an Atheist to a Believer.

“Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death.” www.wikipedia.org

The whole thrust of the Bible opposes the concept of reincarnation. Christians believe that God created man in His image with a material body and an immaterial soul and spirit. When the body dies, the soul and spirit live on in heaven or hell. At the end of the world, all bodies will be resurrected; those who died in Christ to eternal life with a glorified body (John 5:25-29) and the others to eternal judgment. (Heb.9:27) Info from “A Handbook of Christian Apologetics” by Peter Kreeft & Ronald Traleu.

These are some of the questions that some people declare are answered and some (Christians) dispute. I am not an authority on these topics, but I do have many questions. I also cannot believe that we are being manipulated like puppets because we have free will. Our lives surely must be the sum of our own life decisions? Where is our responsibility? Christians pray that God's will be done and then what happens in your life is God's will for sure. But if you follow your own will and make stupid decisions, is that God's will?

Can anybody without direct experience answer these questions convincingly? There is so much information at our fingertips today and I have read many books, but nothing is absolute.

All I know for sure is that there are many unanswered questions and unexplained phenomena in our world. Having faith is of course one way to live, asking God for guidance and for His will to be done in your life, and accepting that one day all will be made clear to us.

Wishing you the best of life.

Till we chat again.

Shirley Rose