It’s one thing to be open to the concept of past lives and to believe in reincarnation, but it’s something else entirely to be sitting around the kitchen table with your son and to hear him start telling you about a past life or when he lived before. But for many parents who discover that their children have past life memories, that is exactly the type of situation they find themselves in. So what should they do?
While it can be quite shocking to hear your child start going on about things he sees or knows that you don’t understand, the most important thing is to make sure you don’t shut off the conversation. The worst thing you can do is to ridicule the child or tell the child that what he or she is talking about doesn’t make sense. Some people accuse their children of making stories up and tell them to stop. If a child is truly having a past life memory, he or she will shut that ability down, as well as other psychic abilities, if you teach him or her that such feelings and memories displease you. Your child may also stop confiding in you entirely — you don’t want to cause your child to stop trusting you, do you?
Just because you don’t understand what your child is talking about doesn’t mean that your child isn’t really experiencing a past life memory. Instead you want to get more information, and you do that by keeping the conversation going.
Ask gentle questions the way you would question someone about a topic you are curious about. After all, you should be curious about what your child believes, and the thoughts that are in his or her head. Ask the child to describe the past life. Who is around? What is happening? Ask if others in your family were also a part of that past life. Often the same souls tend to be drawn to one another in life after life. Your child may even be able to tell you that you or other family members were a part of the life he or she is describing.
Pay attention to your child’s emotional state as he or she shares this information. If he or she feels comfortable, that’s great. If he or she is fearful, gently ask what the biggest concern is.
One of the best ways to learn about this is to hear about how other parents dealt with the issue. Consider reading about the phenomenon through the books Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives and Children’s Past Lives: How Past Life Memories Affect Your Child. Children are actually more likely to spontaneously remember a past life than adults, perhaps because children haven’t been taught to over-rely on logic, as adults are. Children are often open enough to things they don’t understand, whereas an adult may have a past-life memory and dismiss it as a random thought or a fantasy.
Embrace a conversation with your child about past lives if your child brings it up. You may learn something.
