Dreams & Medieval Past Lives

 

 

Understanding and Interpreting Dreams

Have you had a dream about a certain period of history? Could this be a memory of a past life?

Discover a deeper insight into your dreams in this answer from Sri Harold Klemp.

Dreaming about Medieval Times

Q: I haven’t been having any dreams that I can remember for the past month. This is unusual for me; I usually have dreams all the time. Is it karma? I would like to know, if possible, because I learn from my dreams.

Another thing I would like to know is, are there knights on the higher planes? I am attracted to medieval wars and battles.

A: In answer to your first question: By the time you read this, you will have started to dream again. There are times when Soul shifts gears; this is when we don’t always remember our dreams. But it is a passing thing.

About your attraction to knights and medieval wars and battles: Your interest in that period of history is due to your many past lives there.

It was a time of great adventure, chivalry, and heroics. The forces of darkness and light were in a hotly contested battle for centuries, and you played a part in those unsettled, but interesting, times.

History can teach us much about how mankind’s unlearned lessons repeat themselves. This allows us to use our knowledge to avoid unnecessary problems, because we can sidestep a lot of them.

People make history. You might enjoy the historical novels by Mary Stewart that bring to life the times of King Arthur at the beginning of the Middle Ages: The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment, and The Wicked Day.

You’ll find many spiritual insights in these books, for the author is adept at looking at past-life records on the Causal Plane.

A Modern Prophet Answers Your Key Questions about Life, Book 1

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Why Do We Have Bad Dreams?

By Sri Harold Klemp

A good dream is one that helps you grow stronger, wiser, and more full of love.

So what are bad dreams for?

Children often have nightmares until the age of six or eight, and sometimes longer. Grown-ups do too, though not so often as a rule. But why scary dreams for good people?

A negative dream is generally a memory of a past life.

It may include experiences of mistreatment, suffering, and even death. Some of us even have dreams of being born, which can give a feeling of suffocation.

These experiences are part of everyone. Children still remember bits and pieces of past lives, and these bad dreams are a part of them.

Bad dreams are old fears.

Having a disturbing dream is like airing out a musty room in spring. You need to face that old fear until it loses its grip, for only then can you be free to live this life to its fullest.

So good and bad dreams both hold spiritual lessons.

From ECK Wisdom on Karma and Reincarnation

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What Does It Mean to Dream About an Old Friend?

As spiritual leader of Eckankar, Sri Harold Klemp receives thousands of letters from truth seekers around the world. All want direct and useful answers about how to travel the road to God. He replies personally to many of these letters.

Here is a question he was asked about the meaning of dreams and reincarnation.

Q: In my dreams, I am often with friends from the past whom I no longer see in the physical. These people had a big influence in my life at one time, but why are they in my dreams so often today?

A: Your question deals with the very broad sweep of reincarnation. The family you live with today is only a small part of the extended family from your past.

Each person’s past link with other people in this life is more like being a member of a farflung clan, which goes well beyond the close members of today’s family. So in this life, other members of your extended family come as schoolmates, childhood friends, teachers, and the like.

They remain in your dreams because they are a very real part of your world. For this lifetime, though, they have chosen a different mission and lifestyle, so you go along your separate paths.

But your inner bond spans time.

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Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

By Sri Harold Klemp

What do you suppose makes people unhappy?  A survey would probably list a hundred reasons, both real and imagined.

Now how many of those people do you think would like to hear the true reason for their unhappiness?  Just a guess—very few.

The choices you’ve made in the past are the direct cause of all your unhappiness today.

If this answer doesn’t suit you, don’t read another word.  You have better things to do.  But maybe you’re one of the few people who doesn’t absolutely reject the above explanation for your unhappiness.  Then keep reading.  Perhaps you’ll see how and why individuals make bad choices.

Most important, you may learn how to stop making them.

How We Get Here

Soul enters this world to pursue a series of tasks, for each is an exercise in spiritual purification.  Taken as a whole, these assignments make up one’s destiny.  To set the tone for Its mission, Soul enters a new lifetime with a body of strength or weakness, of great intellect or a simple mind, in a popular shade of skin or not, either as a male or a female, into wealth or poverty.

The idea of destiny as a concept is out of fashion in much of today’s Western society.  People want to be captains of their own lives.  They wish to run their own fate.  They will shape their own tomorrows.  Yet how can they do so without a knowledge of and an appreciation for the meticulous Law of Karma?

Or especially, of the Law of Love?

In spite of all fictions about who is the master of their own fate, they cannot even set the conditions of their birth.  So the rules of karma and reincarnation remain a mystery, and they find a great deal of sorrow and disappointment in the outcome of their plans.

How could the stiff rules of karma include them?

Many would like to think they don’t, sure of being above the common pool of humanity and thus exempt from these rules.

The Lords of Karma

By and large, though, the Lords of Karma—not the individual—select a family for each Soul.  They are responsible for the distribution of karma from the time each Soul first enters this world.

The Lord of Karma is like a minor’s guardian.  He administers a trust on behalf of a spiritual infant, arranging for him or her to join a family with the best prospect for that Soul’s unfoldment.  In selecting the time and place of reincarnation, the Lord of Karma is the sole judge.  He is the sole arbiter in the choice of a body, health, family, or future.  The Lord of Karma alone sets the conditions of most people’s fate.

Placement is a simple karmic detail.  The Law of Karma governs all such placements, and he is only its agent.

The primal seed for each incarnation exists under the umbrella of destiny, which we also call past-life karma.  On a practical level, genetic, cultural, and social elements combine to decide Soul’s place in this world.  For people on the lower end of the survival scale, the Lord of Karma alone chooses the time and place of rebirth.

Soul Follows the Script

Soul then follows the script of destiny and enters a physical body.

After birth, the name of the game is survival.  The survival scale, by definition, is a measure of one’s can-do instincts.

But karmic placement does set other standards for individuals on the high end of the spiritual scale.  Most of them enjoy a voice in the choice of a human body or place of birth.  They sense the need for spiritual freedom, a view gained from many past lives, and the self-responsibility that goes along with the package.  So these Souls demonstrate creative ideas and inventiveness in their incarnations.  For the most part they are cheerful, upbeat people.

Spiritual gains in past lives have given them a voice in choosing some of the conditions in their present incarnation.

They have earned the right.

Think of destiny as the equipment, talents, or gifts that one brings to this life.  They carry a divine mandate to use them for the good of all life.  It’s our responsibility to do so, with wisdom.

The idea of destiny, or fate, is poked fun at in many Western circles.  Yet it is an age-old principle of the spiritual life.

What is the basis for a cultural bias against fate?

People are in a state of confusion about it.  They wonder, How can fate and free will exist side by side?  Destiny controls the conditions at birth.  Much of what an individual does after birth is an open book, an exercise in free will.

To sum up, fate governs the conditions at birth; free will allows a choice as to how to move beyond them.

Free will can offset or even overcome the drawbacks of destiny, but only through the awakening of one’s consciousness.  One may thus reshape both his material and spiritual life.

—Excerpted from ECK Wisdom on Karma and Reincarnation


The Gift of Awareness

By Karen, California

When I was fourteen years old, my father arranged a family outing. My sister and I spent one Saturday cruising with him on a naval aircraft carrier. There were hundreds of other civilians like us on board, but the ship was so massive that no one felt crowded.

For a large portion of the day I wandered around the ship alone. I felt confident and wonderfully free. Being an awkward teenage girl, it surprised me to find that the order and precision (which is so much a part of military life) gave me a familiar sense of stability and security.

That entire day, I also felt unusually connected to my father, as if we were two sailors sharing a sacred moment. I wanted to stay forever.

Twenty years later, at the age of thirty-four, I found myself facing problems in my family life. I noticed myself getting unreasonably impatient with my children, who were eight and ten years old at the time, for small things like not cleaning their rooms in the exact way I’d insisted upon or not setting the table exactly right. If my husband didn’t put the newspaper away where it belonged just after reading it, I became irritated and let him know it.

It suddenly became obvious that life didn’t flow for me unless my family followed my demanding and inflexible rules.

What was this rigidity that I was trying to impose on my family? How much longer could they live with my need to control everything they did? Why did I have such an inner need to discipline life in every tiny detail? I knew I had to release myself from something, but I was afraid to face what that something was.

Whenever I encounter a spiritual stumbling block like this, I like to do one of the Spiritual Exercises of ECK. I sit quietly, close my eyes, and sing HU, an ancient name for God. This particular evening I asked Wah Z (the spiritual name of Sri Harold Klemp, the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ, the Living ECK Master) for help and insight into my problem. Shortly after, I had a dream.

In the dream I was back on the deck of an aircraft carrier, with the brisk sea air caressing my face. I felt the same peace and contentment I had felt that wonderful day on the ship when I was fourteen.

Then I looked down at myself and discovered that I was a man. A Japanese man standing on the deck of a Japanese ship! I realized that in a previous lifetime, I had been a sailor in the Japanese navy.

I had the memory of loving that life. I loved the freedom, the travel, and my distinguished military career. In that lifetime, I felt successful and was content with myself. The love I experienced in that life explained why I had felt so strong, free, and connected on the aircraft carrier in this lifetime.

I also saw in the dream that I had carried some habits and attitudes from that incarnation into this one—characteristics that were not helpful now.

I was trying to impose the rules and regulations, which had made my past military life comfortable, on my present family. How could I expect my loved ones to live life on a military schedule or to make beds so tight a dime could bounce off them?

Somehow I had connected my memories of freedom and contentment with regimentation and discipline. I had been afraid to trust that I could be free and content without my inflexible rules.

We so often hold on to past-life habits and ideas no longer useful to us in our present state of consciousness. With the help of the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ, I am learning to work with the rhythm of life. I am learning that letting go of old, worn-out ideas doesn’t mean losing other things, like security or happiness. I have everything I need right here and now.


Healing a Broken Trust

 

By Abraham, Nigeria

When I was a student, I was short on food and money to last through the semester. I asked my parents to help me out, and they agreed. A short time later, a family member was on the way to deliver everything I needed.

I was so happy. With my parents’ generous gift, not only would I have food for the rest of the semester, I would still have enough money left over to attend an upcoming Eckankar seminar.

The next morning, my family member left my hometown to bring me the food and money. Usually, the drive only takes a few hours. But the person didn’t show up until late in the evening.

When she finally arrived, I asked why she was so late. She said she’d been robbed and had only half the food and money left to give me.

I was upset and suspicious. What kind of robbers leave the victim with half the money and food? When I made further inquiries, I discovered that she had given away the other half of the food and money to a friend.

I was so angry. Why would she do this to me? Now I would have to go hungry for part of the semester. My plan to attend the ECK seminar also evaporated.

Then I heard the inner voice of the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ.

“As an ECKist, you should know by now that everything that happens to you has a cause,” the Inner Master said.

I began to calm down as I realized the truth of the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ’s words. Everything happens for a reason and is in its rightful place.

I reconsidered the circumstances and began to sing HU, an ancient name for God. Singing HU is a spiritual exercise that opens the heart to more love. It helped me release my anger so I could listen more carefully to the Holy Spirit’s insights. Then I went about my day, putting aside my disappointment with the situation.

Before going to bed that night, I did another spiritual exercise. Inwardly I told the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ, the Inner Master, that I was not happy with what my family member did, especially since it affected my plan to attend the ECK seminar. I needed more help and guidance on why this happened to me. That night, I had a dream of a past life.

In the dream, my family member and I were brother and sister. She had several children but was having difficulty raising them. She asked me to help her by taking some of the children into my home. I agreed. But in my heart I knew I didn’t have the capacity to give them the care they needed.

One day a horse trader visited our village. I seized the opportunity to reduce my responsibility for the children by giving him one of my sister’s sons. This was a breach of trust, but it was something I felt I had to do. My sister was devastated.

Later on, war came to our village, and I was killed.

When I woke up, I was shaken by the dream. It took me some time, but gradually I saw the connection between my actions in that past life and my situation today. I had broken the trust with my family member first. In this life, the roles were reversed, and she had broken a trust with me.

Although I had forgotten my past misdeed, the ECK had not. This was a lesson for me in understanding the role of karma, or cause and effect.

Immediately, my attitude changed from anger to love. I forgave my family member completely and put the incident behind me. With my new understanding, we restored the harmony between us.

I now understand the entire situation was actually a gift of love from the ECK, the Holy Spirit. It was a chance to recognize and accept the value of this karmic lesson to gain a greater level of spiritual freedom for myself. For that, I am very grateful.

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