Soul Arcanum

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Dear Soul Arcanum:

I’ve been watching a show called Taboo on the National Geographic Channel, which is about people who are strange in ways that society finds unacceptable. While there are experts on the show who explain the sociological and psychological issues involved, every time I watch it, I think there must be some past life stuff going on. Are you familiar with this show? If so, do you agree with me?

Tammy

Dear Tammy:

While I wasn’t familiar with this show, it was easy enough to look it up and record an episode. When watching it, I had the exact same reaction you did. In fact, every case on the program could easily be explained by past life issues. I’ll go through three of the cases featured on the episode I watched to explain how past lives could be involved.

The most shocking case involved a woman who is for the most part able-bodied who has a desire to become a paraplegic. This desire is so strong that her biggest dream in life is to have surgery to sever her spinal cord. When she is around other people, she confines herself to a wheelchair, so all of her coworkers apparently assume that she is actually a paraplegic. When she is by herself, however, one of her favorite activities is hiking in the woods.

How can we possibly explain someone who can walk wishing that they could lose that ability? Given all the disabled people in the world who wish with all of their hearts that they were able-bodied, I was shocked to discover that there are many able-bodied people who wish they were paralyzed, had limbs amputated, were blind or otherwise suffered from some disability. Most explain that this is not so much a desire as an intrinsic part of who they are and how they feel about themselves. In other words, it’s not that they wish they were disabled – they already feel disabled. They are conflicted because part of them knows they are able-bodied, yet part of them feels this is wrong – that they really are disabled or “should” be, for that is what feels right and natural to them.

This has been labeled Body Integrity Identity Disorder, or BIID, by scientists who are exploring biological problems in the brain to explain it. To me, however, it makes far more sense to at least begin by looking to past lives for an explanation. For example, as I watched the section of the show about the woman who wants to be a paraplegic, I kept seeing her in a past life in India. She was a little girl who had suffered a birth defect and had to pull herself along by her arms.

I can only imagine how it would be to be unable to walk, how much time such an individual may spend thinking about their disability, and the deep mark this would make on one’s self-image. It is possible for our past life self-image to leak through into future lives just like other issues do. This would certainly explain someone who can walk who feels like this is somehow wrong or untrue.

Some people suffering from BIID state that they would do anything to be free of it. I strongly urge anyone who feels this way to find a competent hypnotherapist and give regression therapy a try, for if the cause of such torment really is a past life, the problem could easily be healed and released.

It is important to avoid assuming that whatever is going on must go back to a past life, however, for it could just as easily be rooted in earlier experiences in this lifetime. It is also possible for both to be involved. For example, the woman who wants to be a paraplegic did explain that when she was a child, she was fascinated by her aunt’s wheelchair, and remembers wishing she could have one herself. It is possible that there was something about her aunt’s situation that appealed to her, and that this gave birth to her strange desire to be a paraplegic herself. She may have deeply loved or admired this aunt or been envious of the aunt because she was receiving an abundance of love and attention due to her condition.

To complicate matters further, it often happens that the first conscious memory we have of an issue is actually a memory of a trigger. In this case, if the woman had been disabled in a past life, then being around her aunt could have brought the energies and memories of that past life experience back to life for her. If she did indeed have to drag herself along the ground in a past life, her desire for a wheel chair of her own would make sense. Once past life energy is triggered in some way, it comes back to life instead of remaining dormant, which can cause all sorts of problems until it is healed and released.

The episode I watched also featured a millionaire who has a secret life as a hobo. Though he has a successful business and a beautiful home and family, twice a year, he hits the road with no money in his pockets and wanders the countryside, stealing rides on trains just like hobos did in America’s past.

To me, this case had past lives written all over it. Though he explained that he fell in love with the freedom of the hobo lifestyle many years ago when his first wife broke his heart and he struck out to leave his former life behind, we must keep in mind that many people suffer broken hearts but almost none of them abandon their lives and society by becoming hobos.

As I was watching this man, I could see him in a past life as a hobo around the 1930s. While most of us may think this would be a terrible way to live, it was clear that there were some unparalleled highs he regularly experienced in that lifetime, and that he tasted a level of freedom that few of us ever know. It was clear to me that in his past life as a hobo, he both relished his freedom and developed a strong desire to be rich and successful. He has found a way to fulfill both of those desires in this lifetime.

The last taboo featured on the episode I watched involved “Furries” – people who like to dress up and act like animals. This naturally made me wonder if these individuals were animals in past lives. While this is a matter of some controversy, there are some spiritual traditions that believe we can reincarnate as plants or animals, or that we all evolve through a series of life forms, from mineral to plant to animal to human.

Personally, I do believe that we can incarnate in non-human form, for I have had vivid, visceral memories and dreams of being a dolphin. If someone had been an animal in past lives and this was their first human life, it would make sense that they may feel more comfortable in animal than human form.

I think it would be powerful to study the effects of regression therapy on individuals who have extremely unusual desires and habits, for it could lead to much greater understanding of various “disorders” and true healing for many who have been unable to find relief via conventional therapies. In closing, please keep in mind that the above ideas are mere speculation; as every case is unique, it is important to assume nothing and allow the subconscious mind to reveal the true cause of an issue as well as what is needed in order to affect healing.

– Soul Arcanum