Unfinished Business

I'm reading a very good book about reincarnation. I've been aware of reincarnation since I first read about Bridey Murphy in the 1980's. While the case of Bridey Murphy remains unproven, there have been many cases since her, and much research done in this area.

This research has found that most people do not remember lives as famous people, but as ordinary ones. The statistical percentage of people who have been regressed and taken through multiple lifetimes through out history match the statistical probabilities. Dr. Wambach (Living Past Lives) found that subjects reported lives split evenly between the two sexes (50.3% male and 49.7% female) across all time periods. Also, the spread of rich, poor, and middle class matched the percentages for the time periods described. You can read more about this book by clicking the title of this post.

There are interesting parallels between the reasons why some people spontaneously remember a past life or feel the need to visit a psychotherapist and experience hypnotic regression to help them deal with problems they have as a result of past lives and why some spirits linger on our plane as ghosts.

Researchers who have studied the narratives of people who have been regressed back to prior lives have found that the moment of death is critically important in whether they transition smoothly from one plane of existence to the next and whether they carry emotional baggage into their next life. The trauma of a painful death or one that caught the person by surprise may manifest in the next life as an irrational fear or avoidance of particular situation associated with the death. They may even experience physical ailments that disappear after they are regressed and allowed to remember their death. Some find comfort in completing unfinished business, such as saying goodbye to their loved ones or telling someone they are sorry for past wrongs. For these people, memory of the past brings healing.

But, these are the ones who, although surprised by death or suffering through a painful death, have moved on and are dealing with the issues of a new life, with its opportunities for growth and development. They, at least, are moving forward. Ghosts, on the other hand, are also frequently found to have been surprised by death, suffered a painful, perhaps brutal death, or have unfinished business that they will now never complete. But, they are not moving forward. They are stuck in place, out of phase with their lives then and life now. I find it sad that there are so many spirits who have lingered for many years unable or unwilling to move on.

There is, of course, no simple cure for this, but if you go on a ghost tour or investigation, keep in mind that the spirits you seek were once living, breathing personalities such as yourself and remember to keep the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And if you get the chance to help one of them pass over, I hope you will take it.

FYI: The photo is of my dad who died last April (07), and the flooding river is the mighty Missouri during the great flood of 1993.