Despite my skepticism, I followed those tips and wrote everything that I could not explain from this life experiences and could be related to my past lives. Only months, even years later, I could see it was true: many of my fears, attitudes, personality traits, some thoughts... had clearly originated in events of the remote past. And it wasn’t until I began researching in deep the bibliography on reincarnation, when I found that this relation between childhood play and past lives was not something someone had made up or a simple observation of people who remember past lives and/or research reincarnation at a personal level. On the contrary, there was even a published scientific article about it. Dr. Ian Stevenson had studied hundreds of children who claimed to remember their past lives, and he had realized that many times their childhood plays had a direct relation with the experiences in those lives.
Of 278 cases of children who claimed to remember past lives, it was found that 66 (23.7%) of these children played games that were unusual in their families and accorded with memories from their other lives. Sometimes these games were the first indication that made the parents think they were remembering a past life. In 22 cases the games reflected specific events of the life of the deceased person, such as their profession, hobbies or the mode they died.
It is especially interesting to me Stevenson’s reflection at the beginning of the article. Though many researchers have wondered about the function of play in children, few have wondered why a particular theme is chosen. Those who did observed:
- Children usually imitate a parent or an older sibling. For example, a young girl will play at “keeping house” if she sees her mother doing so.
- Between one and two years of age, there seem to be preferences on the objects of play depending on the child’s gender. But, even more interesting: children with gender identity disorder will show preference for plays that are more appropriate of the opposite gender.
- Children that have suffered some kind of trauma seem to reenact the stressing experience in their play.
Personally I can state that there must be something true in point 3. My plays often involved some type of reenactment, especially when I was alone in my bedroom (I always was a very shy girl). Some of these reenactments were particularly violent scenes, not appropriate at all of a child that age, and also very specific. Then I didn’t have any kind of past life memory, at least not consciously, but now I know that type of scenes, with very similar details, did happen, at least, in two of my past lives.
In regards to point 2, I am aware of many people who can also assert that is true. I have never had a gender identity disorder, but I have always felt more affinity towards the male gender. An instance of this kind of behavior is that I was the only one of my siblings, all boys, who really enjoyed playing Meccano, assembling vehicles and tightening screws... which seems to be related to my Cold War life, when I was an engineer and airplane mechanic.
Next I describe the cases that seemed most interesting to me.
1. PLAY CORRESPONDING TO VOCATIONS OF THE PREVIOUS LIFE.
- Shopkeeper: P.S., a child from northern India, remembered the life of a prosperous businessman who had owned shops, the most important of which was one where biscuits and soda were manufactured. At the age of two and a half, P.S. began making models of what appeared to be shops. He also made biscuits from mud and served them with “tea”, that was actually water. He began talking of soda water. He would become so absorbed in his plays that he barely played with other kids, and according to his mother, that was the cause he had fallen behind at school.
- Schoolteacher: L.A. was a young girl from Sri Lanka who began speaking of the past life of a housewife and schoolteacher at the age of two and a half. When she was three she started to play at being a schoolteacher, before she saw any adult teaching (her father was an instructor in a carpentry school). She would wrap herself in a garment to imitate a teacher’s sari, and then, using a cane as a pointer and a door for the blackboard, she would teach an imaginary class. She would ask the members of the class to give her their copybooks. This behavior was continuing at the age of five and a half, when she had begun school herself.
- Nightclub owner: E.K. remembered the life of a man who owned a nightclub in Istanbul, and as a young child he regularly played at managing a nightclub. He arranged boxes to represent a bar, placing bottles on them. He assigned roles in the club to neighborhood girls and gave one a stick to represent the microphone of a singer. He also put out two chairs for the wives of the club’s owner.
- Operator of a flour mill: V., a young boy from northern India, remembered the life of a prosperous owner of a flour mill. When he was two years old, he was playing with sand and erected what looked like a flour mill. He told his grandmother: “Bring some grain for grinding”.
- Physician: V.R., also from northern India, remembered the life of a physician. Like many physicians in India, this doctor had a shop where he examined patients and sold medicines that he prescribed. As a child, V.R. played at being a doctor. He set up a clinic shop with bottles and a thermometer. He would take temperature with a stick and then shake it down as one shakes a medical thermometer to lower the level of mercury. He examined his classmates as patients. One day that Dr. Stevenson interviewed him, many years later, he remembered that a woman he knew had a high fever, and he mixed salt and pepper into water and “prescribed” this for his patient.
- Mechanic: D.J., a young boy from Lebanon, remembered the life of an automobile mechanic. At the age of two and a half, he began to speak some names that his parents did not recognize. During the next year he began to say he was from a place called Kfermatta, and he spoke about a car accident near the sea. One day they observed him lying under furniture, such as a sofa, and seeming to be unscrewing something. His family did not understand this behavior and became concerned that he would damage the furniture. When they told him to stop, he replied: “I’m working”. They didn’t understand until the child gave enough information to know he had been a mechanic in Beirut in his past life.
- Tonga driver: V.M., a young boy from northern India, began to speak of a life of a tonga driver named Kallu. He would put a towel on his shoulder, as tonga drivers in India do, take a piece of cord to serve as reins, and act as if he were guiding a horse. While he was playing he would say “Tic, tic” repeatedly, in imitation of the sound the tonga drivers do when they wish to signal to pedestrians that they are coming. They do this by letting their whip strike against the spokes of the tonga’s wheels. V.M. would also say “I am a tonga driver”, and once he remarked: “I used to charge half a rupee; now I will charge a rupee”. (Probably this is referred to the charge for taking passengers from the railway station to their homes, as Kalllu had done with his tonga).
- Bandit: C.F., a young boy from Turkey, remembered the life of a bandit, Cemil Hayik, who had committed suicide rather than be captured (and possibly executed) by the police. He played with a stick as if it were a rifle.
- Soldier:
- B.B., a young boy from India, was born in 1918 with diminished pigmentation of the skin and hair, to the extent that he should be considered an albino. He claimed to have been a soldier named Arthur and have been killed in the “German War” (World War I). He had numerous Western behavioral traits. From the age of three, he played at being a soldier. He would give military commands, such as “Left, right” and “March”. He would pretend that a stick was a rifle, and he asked to have a gun.
- Stevenson also cites the case of C.E. (Carl Edon, one of the best existing reincarnation cases), born in England. As soon as he could speak, he said he had been the pilot of a Messerschmitt and had been on a bombing mission. When he was between two and three years old he began to draw insignias and badges of military uniforms. He drew an airplane with a swastika on it. He demonstrated the Nazi salute with his arm straight and raised and the German goose-step march.
Dr. Stevenson claims that playing at being a soldier is so common among children of all countries that it shouldn’t be considered unusual. I slightly differ in this interpretation. It is very common that people remember a military past life, as war is present in the daily life of many people, regardless of the era or geographical region. So I would say that playing at being a soldier is so common because it is very likely the great majority of us have been soldiers in some of our past lives. The really unusual thing is to have conscious memories of having been a soldier, and above all, to be able to validate them.
- S.G., a young girl from India, remembered the life of a woman who had died leaving an infant daughter called Minu. Her last words before dying were: “Who will look after Minu?” Her aunt, a witness to these words, said that she would look after her. When S.G. was a year and a half and barely able to speak, she was observed cradling a block of wood or a pillow and addressing it as “Minu”. Someone asked her who Minu was and she replied: “My daughter”.
- I.A., a young girl from Lebanon, remembered the life of a woman, Selma, whose husband had shot her five days after she had given birth to a boy called Gandi. As a young child, I.A. used to hold a doll to her breast as if the doll was suckling milk from her. She called the doll Leyla, which was the name of one of Selma’s daughters. One day her family found her in a neighbor’s home, where there was a boy who happened to be called Gandi. I.A. said that she wanted to feed Gandi from her breasts.
3. PLAY APPROPRIATE FOR THE SEX OF THE PREVIOUS LIFE.
- R.K. was a young girl from Sri Lanka who remembered the life of a boy who drowned in a well when he was a little more than seven years old. As a young child, R.K. showed a preference for boy’s activities such as kite-flying or cadju, a game similar to marbles. She would also join boys to play cricket. She rode a bicycle and climbed trees.
- A.P. was a young girl from Thailand who remembered the life of a boy who had drowned. As a young child, she liked boy’s games and sports such as boxing.
4. PLAY REENACTING THE MODE OF DEATH IN A PREVIOUS LIFE.
- M.S., a young boy from Burma, remembered the life of man who had drowned when a ferry sank. Between two and three years old, he would enact in his play a scene of a man trying to escape from a sinking ship. He would shout: “The boat is sinking. Help! Help!”
- R.S., a young boy from Lebanon, remembered the life of a man, Sami Abutin, who had killed himself holding the muzzle of a gun under his chin and somehow activating the trigger. He was alone when he did it and left no note behind. He had quarreled with his brother and was also frustrated because his wish to marry a woman he loved had been thwarted when she became interested in another man. When R.S. was about three years old, he put a stick under his chin as if it were a gun and told his brothers: “Do not do this”. He continued this behavior for more than a year. When he was about five and playing this way again, his father asked him what he was doing. He said that he had done this to himself. He explained: “I did this for my cousin. They promised to give her to me, but they didn’t”.
References:
Stevenson, I (2000). Unusual Play in Young Children Who Claim to Remember Previous Lives. Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 557–570.