Free Remembering Past Lives by Carl Llewellyn Weschcke, Ph.D. Page A

belief is personal and not based on the number of other believers. Yes, I’ve read several thousand books on different religions, philosophy, and esoteric principles that support the belief, but it is my own conviction that reincarnation makes sense and that my own Higher Self says it is so.
    In other words, “belief” is mostly a personal point of view arrived at through education, personal experience and observation, and thinking things through. Reincarnation is also a common element to most esoteric teachings, both Western and Eastern. When your head tells you that it is logical and your heart confirms it, you become a believer.
    We want to provide the information here to describe those common elements making up the reincarnation philosophy and how it is being researched in current paranormal studies so that you can make your own judgment.
    Who, and What, Reincarnates?
    This gets right to the reason that most of us do not remember past lives until we are introduced to specific techniques for remembering past lives. The reason is that you are not who you think you are!
    Who you think you are is your personality ,mostly experienced through your conscious mind—but that is just a single lifetime manifestation of your soul. The personality that incarnates is unique to your current lifetime and you’ve had as many different personalities as you’ve had lifetimes—and that’s a lot. Your current personality does not substantially include much in the way of conscious memories from even your most immediate past life, and far less of any of the hundreds or thousands, or more , lives before that.
    To make it easier, think about masks.
    If you put on a theatrical mask, you appear as, and to varying degrees, assume and become another personality just as an actor does. In theater we call that assumed personality a “character role.” It’s a real role, but it isn’t the real you.
    Realize, however, that you have worn many masks over the years and still do wear masks by which you represent yourself to the world. We call these unconsciously adopted different masks “personas.” Watch a child growing up: they first are themselves, and then begin to relate in different ways to others—first to parents and siblings, then to their friends and school teachers, later to other kids and adults outside of school, and then—still growing—to various service people, to lovers, employer and fellow employees, professional associates, and so on.
    In every relationship you assume a different mask, a different persona just as specific as any theatrical mask. As adults we have many different personas, but are only one personality—except in those rare instances of multiple personalities. But that one personality does contain all those mask-personas of which many do submerge into the subconsciousness as we grow and mature, finding less need for them.
    Most people don’t realize that they have these different personas unless they engage in some kind of self-analysis through which they discover and understand them as different aspects of their current lifetime personality, not unlike virtual avatars in online game playing. Each persona is a particular means to expression and learning during a lifetime. During life, your various experiences and lessons become memories that sink into the subconscious mind.
    In the same way, each personality is a means to expression and learning over many lifetimes. Just as there is a single personality with many personas, so there is a soul with many personalities. At the end of each lifetime, the lessons and experiences of the personality are abstracted and their essence is absorbed and retained by the soul.
    In addition to your own lessons and memories, those of others are retained in the Universal Consciousness at a level known as the Akashic Records. Those records also contain the entire history of the world and may be accessed through procedures