Tonight, I was thinking about reincarnation, our inner selves, and what our purpose might be. I’ve heard the idea that we keep reincarnating until we break the cycle and reach enlightenment, but I’ve always wondered what that actually means.
One thought I had was that maybe enlightenment is the point where reincarnation ends, and we remain somewhere beyond physical life. Maybe we even help guide what comes next, continuing to evolve in some way.
I also wonder if reincarnation allows us to experience different periods of time. For example, someone who lived as a caveman could die and eventually be reincarnated in the modern world, continuing their journey until they reach enlightenment. This could explain why we might be here to learn, grow, and evolve through different lifetimes.
I’m not religious, and I don’t claim to know what happens after death or what we truly are. These are just thoughts I’ve been exploring.
What if reincarnation is a cycle of spiritual evolution, and enlightenment is how we finally break free from it? What do you think happens to us when we do?

Again, I am new here, and this will only be my second post. So, here goes…

I have seen several posts questioning the existence of reincarnation, and others that are totally convinced.

Folks, trust me. It is difficult to convinced anyone of it until they have their own experience. Even I questioned it at first. But, I have had weird things happen to me since childhood.

My first was about age 8. At that age, who knew about reincarnation? Hell, I probably couldn’t even spell it then! But I heard a sound in a movie that sent chills down my spine, and had no idea why.

A few years later, my older sister said something at the dinner table, and instead of saying “Ewww, yuck!”, I started to scream. In my head, I am thinking, “Why the hell am I screaming?” My father, sitting next to me finally got me calmed down, but I was pretty shaken.

(I’ll get to the why...stay with me…)

Life goes on. I got married, he joined the Army, went through training, and he got orders for Germany. (Okay, now you may start to see where this is going…) I was terrified of going, but go I did. There was a constant smell there. Nothing I could put a name to, but I never got ‘nose-blind” to it. We did a 3 year tour, and had our first child. I learned to love the country, its language, and its people.

Back in the states, I had 3 more children before we again got orders for Germany. But by this time, I started to explore my spirituality. I was raised Catholic – even have an older sister that became a nun. That faith just didn’t feel right to me. I got into metaphysics, crystals, rune stones… searching for something that made sense to me. Then I took a “fun class” at the local university about past lives and meditation to possibly tap into buried memories.

I had died at Dachau.

I was a Jewish woman. Dachau was a men’s camp. Women were only brought there for extermination. I stood in rows with other women and their children. As we were all still filing in through the main gate and lining up, I heard a baby cry. I turned to look, and saw another woman also looking. Hawkish nose and braids circling her head like a halo. I saw a building up on blocks near the gate. If I could run and hide under it, maybe I could sneak out of the gate…

I got shot for my efforts.

During our second tour in Germany, I got the courage to go to Dachau. I found the spot where I stood that day. But the building wasn’t there. What? Was what I saw wrong? Did I imagine it? Then, in a building full of artifacts, was an aerial photograph of the camp taken shortly after it was built. Germany’s first concentration camp. The building was there. It had been torn down for safety reasons, but there it was. I wasn’t crazy.

My friends, I cannot convince anyone that what I experienced was real. It was real to me, and that’s all that matters. Your experience is all that matters. If it touches you in a way that gives you solace, gives you faith in a higher power, that is all that matters. Don’t worry if you can’t convince others. Grab you convictions and hold them tight.

Now, to fill you in on things I said earlier… The sound I heard in that movie? The sounds of the Gestapo coming for the family of Anne Frank. What did my sister say that evening made me start screaming? “I wonder if, when lamp shades were made from human skin, they could see the little cells…”

Yeah, I’m convinced. And that’s all that matters.

My cat was put to sleep today and I am devastated. Could he come back into my life as a differnet animal or person?

Since I am new here, I am not sure if this subject has been discussed yet, so here is my 2 cents.

I think phobias may be a “bleed over” from a past life.

Phobias are defined as “an irrational fear of something”. Nothing that you are aware of in this life would cause you to fear whatever it is. But the fear is absolutely real for you. What if something happened in a past life and that fear is being remembered in this one?

Mine? Spiders! When I see one, no matter the size, the terror is debilitating! Especially if it is near an exit from the situation. I scream, cry, shake, my heart races (which is really frightening since I have a heart condition). And one word keeps repeating in my head – ESCAPE. I believe I must have been locked up somewhere, and spiders were either on me, or at least infesting wherever I was.

Nothing ever happened to me to create this fear in this life. I also don’t fear other bugs – roaches, scorpions, nothing. I either just step on them, or am fascinated by its uniqueness. My daughter once had a rock scorpion as a pet. It was as big as my hand and I loved watching it. The same daughter now has a tiny jumping spider as a pet, and I refuse to even step foot in her house. It is safely housed in a small habitat, it can’t get out, and it is as small as my fingernail. It doesn’t matter. I know it is there, and that’s enough for me. Luckily, she keeps it at her office, so visiting her home is no longer an issue for me.

I would love to hear anyone’s thoughts about this – agree or disagree?

Lucas from southern Brazil.

Think of the experience of reincarnation as the experiencing of other’s lives as they would have lived them.

Hi reddit :) I have been thinking about this for a little bit now that my grandma, who I never met, sent me my cat. For context, I am referring to my dads mom who passed a few years before I was born. My grandpa, his dad, passed when I was 6 months old, so I guess I met him. Anyway I’ve been told by multiple people, that either knew my dad as a kid and/or knew my dads mom, that have told me I remind them of her. Which first of all that makes me emotional like all the time because obviously I don’t know her and like wdym tell me more please, but I never really get to hear the more part of it. I honestly don’t know much about her except for like general information and I have NOT seen many pictures at all. Maybe a handful in all my 20-something years, so I think about it often. Over the summer I went through my family tree and I realized that the day I adopted my cat was the day she passed away, but 28 years later. Since I realized that and listening to reddit stories about reincarnation (from podcasts) I’m wondering if that’s a sign. please tell me your thoughts <3 thanks y’all

I have tried doing the memory regression therapy on my own and I was almost successful I saw a portion of my past life (long story short it wasn't pretty) it is repetitive and constant though .

I tried it today and the experience was strange I felt my body turning to someone else and my limbs were growing and .y brain was changing like im becoming the person of such memory .

I just need a therapist to help guide me through it .

Is it possible to deeply miss a soulmate in a romantic sense, even if you've never met them? I know this might sound strange, but I've been wondering about it for a long time, and I'm curious if anyone else has experienced something similar.

I'm 25F, and ever since I was little, I've had this persistent feeling that I've been waiting for someone. It's hard to explain, but it's almost as if the absence of my future life partner has always been a shadow following me.

What's strange is that when I think about this person, I don't experience him as just an abstract idea of a future partner. I have this feeling that he's a specific person somewhere in the world, living his own life, even though I have no idea who he is or what he's like. And I can really feel he is missing, like a part of myself.

Sometimes, the thought that we're not together makes me feel deeply sad, in a way that goes beyond ordinary loneliness. I find myself wondering whether he's okay and what his life is like.

I don't know if this is simply a result of longing for a deep romantic connection, or if there's a spiritual explanation for it. I've wondered about reincarnation and whether it's possible to feel a sense of longing for someone you've supposedly known in a past life, but I don't necessarily believe that's what this is.

Has anyone ever experienced something similar? I've always felt like I'm in a state of waiting, a constant search for a person I haven't met yet. I don't know how to explain this feeling or where it comes from. Could it be related to reincarnation or a past-life connection, or is it simply a deep longing for a romantic connection?

I can remember about 7 or 8 past lives. I have reason to believe that i recently come across a past life love (soul mate, partner, etc) at my job. She stayed for about 2 years, but I experienced all the typical feelings if you have a bit of psychic ability, eg, feeling of seeing her before, inexplicable attraction, a deep bond. etc.

I often think about her when in my basement, where there's a TV, laptop, stereo, etc, basically where I usually stay. There is a sold dark brown door--that's in my view when I lie down to relax--and whenever I think of and mentally focus on this former coworker, I start to get emotional because I see a woman wearing a long flowing skirt, hair tied bac, and smiling at me, a woman straight from the 1800s.

Anyone have a similar experience when "scrying" defined as a "practice where a person gazes into a reflective or translucent medium to receive intuitive messages, visions, or spiritual guidance.". Sometimes it gets so emotional to the point my eyes start tearing up. I can feel the love we had for each other.

I’ve tried a bunch of YouTube guided past life regression meditations and I can get myself relaxed I guess but I can never visualize the things they ask me to properly and every time they count down and say that I’m getting more and more relaxed until I can’t open my eyes it lowkey doesn’t work. I just try to gaslight myself that it’s working but nothing happens. When it gets to the part where they say I should be in the body of my past life and look around and stuff I genuinely just make shit up and I know that it doesn’t really feel right. I’m wondering if you guys know any other ways which would make it easier for me to see my past life or access my akashic records, or literally anything spiritual. Thanks!

What is your take on the whole idea that we can exist in multiple lives at once? Even more, that the concept of "time doesn't exist" which could lead to multiples of your soul existing at the same time within the 3D.

Lastly, could you contact another you at a different point in your reincarnation journey, and why would a future incarnation try to do this?

Hello could this be a past life when I was about 3 years old I had this dream where I was a Chinese 11 year old girl and my family in the dream dad mom and 3 brothers were walking into this indoor playground with big red dragon lunar structure thing and a few minutes a shooter came and shot me but shit couple of my brothers first and I remember my father yelling for me but he wasn’t mad rather worried and frantic and then right after I got shot on they head and woke up from the dream. I also always believed in recantation where if your good person you rebirth but if your a bad person you just stay in a dark abyss forever with nothing and no one despite the fact being raised in a Christian household. Family didn’t look like current family like black hair dark eye color. But weirdly enough my hair wasn’t black but warm auburn brown color and dark eye color that matched them I also remember the sidewalk was like a granite dark grey type. I also have a birthmark on my head. For some reason when learned about Buddhism I felt connected and familiar with it like I knew it before. I never necessarily told my family but it just stocked with me and I always believed that dream was a past life like a gut feeling but I was just wondering there’s evidence that it is.

Also when I was 8-9 I had a phase where with friends I pretend my name was lily when it’s not.