Open and Clear, Academy | Rev. Devan Jesse Byrne

Past life recollection can be thought of as your deeper consciousness turning a page in a very large book of identity. On the surface you know yourself as this name, this body, this life story. Yet beneath that, there is a continuity of awareness that does not begin at birth or end at death. Past life recollection happens when that deeper continuity briefly shines through the “current chapter” and you receive images, feelings, or storylines that seem to belong to another time, another place, another body. It feels different from ordinary fantasy not because it is always perfectly accurate in detail, but because it carries a weight, a familiarity, and an emotional charge that touches you at the core.

Energetically, you can imagine that every significant experience leaves a kind of imprint in your field. Not just the obvious events, but the unexpressed grief, the clinging guilt, the vows, the sudden moments of love or terror, the decisions you never fully owned. When similar situations arise in this life, those imprints can be stirred, like sediment rising from the bottom of a lake when the water is disturbed. Past life recollection is the mind’s way of showing you the picture that goes with that sediment. Rather than only feeling a mysterious anxiety or pull, you see it wrapped in a story  a battlefield, a monastery, a lost child, a betrayal, a healing. The story itself is a vehicle through which your deeper Self says “This pattern has been here for a long time. Are you willing to see it now and choose differently.”

From a spiritual perspective, your soul does not move randomly through incarnations. It explores themes. It stretches across different roles on the same stage until it extracts the wisdom it came for. In one life you may be the “victim,” in another the “perpetrator,” in another the “healer,” in another the “witness.” Past life recollection lets you see that these roles are costumes worn by the same underlying awareness. This can be profoundly humbling and profoundly liberating. Instead of clinging to the idea that you are only the wounded one or only the righteous one, you begin to feel “I have played many parts. What matters now is how I choose to respond as the deeper Self behind them all.”

Psychologically, this process also serves a very practical function. Your unconscious mind communicates in symbols, images, and stories. A “past life” scene can be understood as a dream that rises into waking awareness  blending genuine soul memory, archetypal imagery, and your own emotional landscape. Whether or not every detail of the scene is historically literal is less important than how precisely it mirrors something you are working through now. If you see yourself in a life where you abandoned your calling out of fear, chances are there is a place in your current life where you are tempted to do the same. If you see yourself misusing power, there is likely a present fear of repeating that mistake, or a current situation calling you to use power more consciously.

Past life recollection can also dramatically change how you view relationships. Those intense “instant” connections  love at first sight, deep aversion, inexplicable loyalty, or strange tension with someone you just met  often point to intertwined histories of the soul. A recollection may reveal scenes of shared lifetimes where roles were reversed  the one you care for now may once have been your parent, your child, your teacher, your rival. Seeing this does not obligate you to stay in any relationship that is unhealthy, but it can soften your judgments. You recognize patterns instead of seeing monsters and saints. You begin to feel that you are dancing with the same souls across time, each encounter offering another chance to choose love, boundaries, forgiveness, or honesty where before there was fear, control, or attachment.

At a deeper level still, past life recollection can nudge you toward a non-dual understanding of identity. As you glimpse multiple lives, it becomes harder to believe that you are only this one. The sense of “me” starts to stretch. Then something more radical becomes possible  the recognition that all of these lives are movements within one vast consciousness. In that realization, “my past life” and “your past life” are simply different windows in the same infinite house of awareness. Recollection then is not about proving who you were, but about remembering what you are  the timeless awareness that can wear any form, learn through any story, and ultimately is not confined by any of them.

When approached this way, past life recollection is not a spiritual novelty or a way to feel special. It is a tool of integration. It helps you understand why certain patterns feel so stubborn, why some gifts feel so natural, and why certain lessons keep appearing. It invites you to bring compassion to the long arc of your own becoming. You see that nothing was truly wasted  every life, every mistake, every triumph was a step in the same direction  toward greater love, clarity, and remembrance of your true Self.

Past life recollection is the experience of remembering what feels like another lifetime you have lived, usually in a different body, time, or culture than the one you know now. It can arise as vivid images, emotions, body sensations, or whole storylines that feel strangely familiar, as if you are remembering rather than imagining.

Different traditions and perspectives explain it in different ways, so I will walk through a few of the main ones and how the process tends to work.

What past life recollection is

At the simplest level, “past life recollection” refers to:

• Memories or impressions that seem to belong to a life other than your current one

• Often accessed through dreams, deep meditation, spontaneous flashbacks, or guided sessions such as hypnosis or regression

• Usually connected to strong emotions, repeating patterns, or unexplainable fears, attractions, or “instant familiarity” with people or places

People who work with this regularly tend to see these recollections not just as stories, but as doors into deeper healing, self-understanding, and spiritual awakening.

Spiritual view  The soul and continuous existence

From a spiritual perspective, the basic idea is

• You are more than this one lifetime and this one body

• The “soul” or essence moves through many experiences across time

• Each life leaves energetic imprints  lessons  and unfinished themes

In this view, past life recollection happens when

• Your current challenges resonate with an old pattern

• That pattern is still held in your energetic field or “soul memory”

• A trigger  such as a relationship, trauma, or spiritual practice  opens the file

So the “memory” surfaces not to entertain you but to complete something
forgiveness, compassion, courage, or a new choice you could not make then.

Some spiritual traditions also speak of a kind of universal memory field
sometimes called Akashic Records  where every experience of every being is stored
Past life recollection would then be your consciousness tuning into a particular strand of this universal memory, like selecting a chapter in an infinite library.

Psychological view  Deep mind and symbolic stories

From a psychological perspective, you do not need to assume literal past lives to see that these experiences can be meaningful and real for the person having them

Here, past life recollection can be understood as

• The unconscious mind expressing itself through narrative and imagery

• A symbolic way of revealing deep fears, desires, or wounds

• A story that organizes emotional energy into a form you can work with

For example

• A “past life” where you were abandoned might mirror an early childhood wound

• A “past life” where you misused power might mirror guilt or shame you carry now

The value is not whether the life is historically provable but that it reveals patterns you can face, feel, and transform.

Non-dual / unity view  All lives as one mind

In a non-dual frame, all time and all lifetimes exist in one vast consciousness

From this perspective

• There is only one Mind appearing as many beings in many eras

• A “past life” recollection is your current focus opening to another angle of that one Mind

• What you call “my past life” may actually be another expression of the same universal Self

The important shift here is

• Instead of “I was this person and then that person”

• It becomes “The same consciousness is experiencing itself through many stories, and I am touching one of them right now.”

This makes past life recollection less about personal specialness and more about participation in a greater tapestry of shared Being.

How past life recollection usually happens

People report it arising in a few common ways

1. Spontaneous memories

   • Sudden images or emotions when visiting a place or meeting someone

   • Strong “I have been here before” or “I know you from somewhere” sensations

2. Dreams and altered states

   • Vivid recurring dreams set in other time periods

   • Meditative states where you slip into another storyline that feels more like recall than fantasy

3. Guided past life regression
   Often facilitated by a practitioner using relaxation or hypnotic techniques. Typical elements

   • Deep relaxation and focused breathing

   • Suggestions to “go back” to the origin of a pattern or emotion

   • Allowing images, scenes, and sensations to arise without forcing them

   • Exploring what happens in that life and how it ends

   • Integrating it  through reflection, emotional release, and re-framing

Most people notice that the emotional charge is the most important part. Whether or not every detail is literally “historical,” the feelings are real and often linked to issues in this life.

What it is for  Healing and integration

When it is approached carefully, past life recollection can help with

• Unexplained fears or blocks
  A phobia or resistance that never made sense in this life may soften when its deeper story is seen and felt through.

• Relationship patterns
  Intense connections or conflicts can be explored through the lens of “soul agreements” or repeated dynamics across lifetimes.

• Spiritual orientation
  Seeing yourself as more than one lifetime expands your sense of identity and can deepen your commitment to growth, compassion, and responsibility.

• Forgiveness and release
  Whether you view it literally or symbolically, witnessing another life’s mistakes and suffering often opens the heart to forgiveness and a new choice now.

A few important cautions

Even from a spiritual perspective, healthy discernment is important

• Past life recollections can be mixed with imagination, influence from books and movies, or emotional projections.

• They should not be used as “proof” to control others, claim superiority, or make drastic life decisions on their own.

• If someone is very distressed or unstable, intense regression work is best done with trauma-informed support, not alone.

A grounded approach is

• Treat the experience as real in its effect

• Focus on what it reveals about your patterns, needs, and possibilities for healing now

• Hold the historical question lightly  “Maybe it was literally another life, maybe it is the soul talking in symbols either way, it is giving me something I can work with today.”

This service is designed as a bridge for all ways of seeing who you are. Spiritually; on one side is the view that a soul travels from body to body, living many lives across time, gathering experience and wisdom. On the other is the view that there is only one vast consciousness, and what you call a soul is a thread of attention moving through many stories in a way that feels linear. Instead of asking you to choose one belief over the other, this work welcomes both and treats them as different languages pointing to the same doorway of remembrance.

In a guided and held space, we invite your awareness to widen beyond this single lifetime while still feeling grounded and safe in the present moment. Whether you imagine yourself as a soul returning again and again, or as one consciousness watching many selves unfold, the inner process is the same. You relax, you listen within, and you allow images, feelings, and knowings to surface that do not belong only to your current story. These may appear as memories of a past life, glimpses of a possible future, or a sense of several existences happening side by side with this one. The emphasis is not on proving the model but on receiving whatever your deeper Self offers for healing and insight now.

Because this service honors both frameworks, the results are naturally inclusive. A client who believes in reincarnation can understand the experience as traveling back and forth along their soul journey, while a client who leans toward non dual oneness can recognize it as consciousness touching different points in its own infinite field. In both cases, the recollections reveal patterns, gifts, and lessons that are ready to be integrated. The outcome is the same regardless of belief  a clearer sense of who you are beyond this single body, a softer relationship with your history across time, and a deeper permission to live this present life with more wisdom, freedom, and love.