The concept of having a past life or perhaps several is reincarnation. It is an ancient concept in various cultures the world over. Some of these include Africa, Japan, Australian aborigines as well as some New Age religions and modern Wicca. They believe we have lived past lives and that those past lives influence us today.

What you are now and who you believed you are now is an influence of your past life including your health, your mental well being, and your social interactions are all influenced by your past life. This is why it is important to know yourself, who you are and what you are in the past, to be able to make yourself better and stronger in this current life.

How do you know if you have a past life? You may never know, however, in many cases disturbing memories or dreams that do not belong to you may visit you while you are awake. Reincarnation is a very popular belief among many individuals. However, when doing the math, it makes a great deal of sense that there are some new souls. Other indications include:

* When you saw or learned about a particular culture or arts, you already had a deep connection or attraction to that thing. Based on reincarnation idea, this may be because you were from that region or from that era. To be fully sure of this, you may want to learn some more culture or arts and discover your reactions and the effect it gives you; it may be linked to your origin in your past life.

* Abnormally strong emotions about some incident in history if, for instance, you tear up when you look at Washington Crossing the Delaware but not at any other revolutionary art, you may have been involved in that incident in a past life.

* Allergies or irrational fears that are not triggered by a childhood incident may be an indicator. There are particular physical and psychological issues may indicate a past life experience.

This is of course, not an extensive list. Having such indicators does not mean that you are actually remembering a past life. Observe the patterns of your life, the range of things that you find attractive for some reason. You may be able to tune into some of the likenesses that can aid you in piecing the idea of what your past life or lives may have been like to live.

It is possible to access your past life or lives with self-hypnosis or by being hypnotized by someone else. There are specialists past life regression therapists who are well worth a visit to. A past life regression is a form of deep hypnotic remembering that can get to those memories of past lives that subconsciously are there.

When you made decision regarding this, go for the process that gives you a deep relaxation method. This is the first technique that you should get before the therapist proceed to the past life regression.

In terms of safety there is nothing significant to worry about. What should happen is that you experience a past life vividly as if you were actually back in time. Although it may not be this intense you should still be able to experience shadows and feelings of a past life.

Pleasant memories trigger pleasant feeling; while past life memories that are bad generally trigger the same type of feelings, such as having a bad dream. You wake up feeling uncomfortable, similar to having a nightmare. Keep in mind, however that if there are any bad memories, they are an essential aspect of the past life regression experience.

It is the remembering of this past life, which is important; and once you have remembered, you can start to move on. It is only the subconscious suppression of these memories which causes problems. By understanding and accepting what happened in the past you can start to experience this present life with a totally different outlook.

There is a theory of Karma which says that, if we were good people in one life, and committed kind and positive acts, then we will have good Karma and subsequently, we will receive good in all future lives – unless we change and become bad people! If that happens, personal Karma changes and negative events will hound us throughout future lives until we have suffered enough to atone and revert back to being a good soul.

However, there is often confusion by people over this interpretation. We are not destined to be bad or deserve to suffer because of a past life. With each new life we are literally born anew and it is our own choice to do the things you do. Once you realize that a certain memory is from a previous life, and you are not a bad person now, then you can go on to have a good life in the present.