Example: ‘I dream of living in China, a long time ago. I was married to a man with whom I had two children. He began to tire of me and brought concubines into our household. I hated him. When I woke I realised I had dreamt about a past life’ (Patricia L). Patricia had in fact been married to a man in this life who, after her two children were born, began to bring other women home. This broke up their marriage. From Patricia’s point of view, this happened because in a past life her husband and she had not resolved their difficulties, so had to meet them again in this lifetime—whatsoever ye sow, so shall ye reap. Where such dreams have been thoroughly explored, I have found that their imagery arises from emotions and trauma which the dreamer finds difficult to meet. Placing it in a past life enables one to avoid the difficulty of experiencing present life pain. Patricia says she hated her Chinese husband.
The dream process can create a drama to represent our present situation using any form of structure. It is, after all, the master dramatist. This function of the unconscious explains many ‘past life’ memories elicited by hypnotic regression. Most of them are explainable in terms of present life trauma or situation.
See also: hallucination, hallucinogens. [1]
An attempt by the subconscious mind to review, remember, explore your feelings about, or make sense of past events.
An opportunity to reconcile, resolve, or heal an issue within yourself regarding something in your past (such as grieving, reaching closure, forgiving, coming to terms, letting go of, or reaching inner peace with your past).
See also: Before, After, Time Passing, Time Frame, Life, Dates on a Calendar [2]
It is time to move on and forget what cannot be changed. [3]