You only live once....or do you?

When grappling with whether or not to do something we may want to do, we are often encouraged to YOLO - the millennial catchphrase encouraging us to do all the things, as after all, 'you only live once'!!

But the ever growing body of scientific evidence surrounding the concept of reincarnation is painting a very different picture. It suggests that not only do we not live once, our essence gets to live many, many lives.

In this week's episode I explore this notion and discuss some of the available evidence and the implications it poses for our understanding of our spiritual essence and how we navigate our current lives.

For those of you who are curious to know more about the available research, I encourage you to explore the journal articles and resources that can be found in the DOPS website (Department of Perceptual Studies) of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Virginia:

https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/our-research/

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Intro and Outro music: Inspiring Morning by Playsound

You can also find me on Instagram @integrated_wisdom

Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be treated as psychological treatment or to replace the need for psychological treatment.

Transcript

Tatiana: 0:00

Welcome to the Integrated Wisdom Podcast. I am your host, Tatiana Da Silva. Join me as we discuss what it means to live an integrated life, explore ways for you to create a life filled with greater meaning, peace, and connection by integrating the wisdom of spirituality, psychology, neuro for science, epigenetics, and energy psychology. I hope to empower you to create deeper and more loving connections for yourself and others whilst also paving the way for humanity at large to be reimagined and inspired to become the very best version of hello and welcome to the integrated wisdom podcast. I'm so excited to have you join me for yet another episode this week. We've all heard the term. You only live once. It's a, became a catchphrase of millennials. We were all frequently encouraged to do whatever our hearts desired. With the idea that. Life is short. We only live once and we should make the most of every experience that we want to have. But what if that was a lie? What if we don't. Just have one life. What if we get to keep coming back. Again, and again, In different roles, different circumstances. Time and time again. if you knew that to be true. If you believe that wholeheartedly, if you had proof. That this one life you're living right now is not the only life you've lived and it's not the only life you will live. Would that change? The way that you go about your life now. Would it change what you prioritize? Would it change how you choose to spend your time? So that's what I want us to talk about today. I wanted to start the conversation about. The concept of reincarnation. I feel alluded to a previously in other episodes. But today I wanted to do a bit of a deeper dive. Into what the research is showing us in that area. And I guess the implications that it has for how we go about living our lives today. Reincarnation. Isn't a new concept. It's been around for millennia. But more recently, probably in the last. 60 odd years. The. scientific focus has been put over the concept of reincarnation in some people around the world. Have started to really. Look into it. More deeply. Start collating data. And cases. Around the world. Where reports were being made of reincarnational memories. The vast majority of the data that's been collated has been collated from children. Scientists Having read about this concept in predominantly Eastern texts. But curious to explore that a little bit more. Have started to put a bit of a scientific framework. Around, how can we study something like this? Now the scientific method is limited in its ability to study something like reincarnation. Because the method itself requires that. a phenomenon needs to be able to be replicated under independent conditions. In order to be considered. factual or for the evidence to be. Considered as relevant. And what's complicated about trying to apply the scientific method. To reincarnational memories. Whether it'd be of children or of adults. Is that each experience is unique to an individual. You can't replicate having memories. You can't force people to have memories that they, they can't attain themselves. And. Most of the time. Even when people are able to recall memories either through. Hypnotic regression. Or some spontaneous. Memory that may come to them. Being able to then find. Corroborating evidence. For those memories is extremely difficult. And so for the most part, I think a lot of S. Scientifically minded researchers or people in the scientific community. Tend to just discount. Reincarnation as a concept completely and believe that it's unprovable and anyone who tries to talk about it in scientific terms. is. Basically. Presenting pseudoscience. For that reason because the scientific method as it's designed. Can't be applied neatly to this concept. But that hasn't deterred many people. In fact, I mentioned the research, the Western research in this area. Started being conducted about 60 odd years ago. By a professor at the university of Virginia. Named Ian Stevenson. And his studies did begin in Eastern countries. He went to Asia in particular. Where a lot of reports or incarnational memories from children were being made. Particularly in countries like India. Thailand. Sri Lanka, places like that. And in many of those cultures, reincarnational. Concepts. We're part of the accepted. Cultural norm the religious doctrines. That some of these cultures follow. But what was remarkable in the information that Dr. Stevenson was able to amass, even back in those days? With very limited technology. He was still able to collate several examples of reports from children. Who could provide such specific details that were then able to be corroborated? Independently. And he amassed many cases of, children remembering being married and having families. In other parts of the country. Where some of those family members were still alive. Professor Stevenson was able to find those people and. Corroborate a lot of the information that the child had provided. And so it began, he became his, the focus of his professional life. Uh, he was a psychiatrist. And the head of the faculty of medicine at the time. At the university of Virginia. And through his interest in this field. He was able to get the university to support him in his desire to research. These concepts more readily. And created what became known as the department of perceptual studies. Which now has several professionals working. In that department. And they study everything from. Reincarnational memories of children, medium ship. They re near death experiences. Remote viewing. It all these things that, Uh, still sadly considered. Paranormal pseudoscience. But here are very serious scientists. Some of them doctors. And they're studying these things very actively. once professor Stevenson. Was ready to retire his protege, Dr. Jim Taka then took over. The research, but also the department, he's not the head of that department. And he's been able to start studying. Reincarnational memories of children in Western countries. where these concepts are much less. Integrated into the collective. Uh, identity. Of the culture, the, a lot of our Western religions don't consider reincarnation to be. possible. And so it was thought that perhaps. In Western countries, we wouldn't find. These sorts of reports for that reason because culturally we're not primed. For those beliefs. But it turned out that there were in fact, quite a few children who were reporting these things to their parents. And as. Dr. Jim Tucker became more. Visible. in the Western media, talking about some of the research that had been done in the university of Virginia. People started coming forward to him. To talk about the experiences that they were having with their children. And. He and the research that he's being doing as is so comprehensive and. Quite remarkable in what he's been able to collate. There's over 2000. Validated cases in their records. There may be more. Now that was the last statistic that I read. But over 2000 cases that were objectively. Verified. So that means that he was able to find for 2000 of those cases. Independent evidence. That the people, these children reported to have been existed. That the events that they described happened. And many of these cases, some of the cases that are most prominent. Came to the surface before the internet. Was widely available and people had the ability to research these things. Online. So that took away a lot of those questions. Of people just researching information and feeding it to their children. One of the cases that probably stands out the most. And has had a lot of media attention. There's been documentaries made about him multiple times. But he stands out. in particular because the volume of evidence. I have objective evidence that was able to be collated. Was astounding. And that was a young man in the us named Ryan Hammons, who from a very early age, around four or five years old started of reporting memories of having lived. In Hollywood of having been an actor and dancer. And having lived this. Incredible. Life. And. The parents not really knowing what to do. Started doing some research into Hollywood itself. Trying to find. Information. That might be. It might be helpful because Ryan was so agitated when he talked about this life, you wanted to go back to his family. You talked about having children. And. One day his mom was flipping through. A book of old Hollywood movies. So black and white photo stills from sets. In all Hollywood movies and. They came across a photo and Ron got really excited and pointed to one of the extras in the photo. And said, I know this person that's so insider named them and then pointed to somebody else in the photo and said, and that's me. And this person was just an extra in the film. There was hardly any credits about him. It wasn't, it was someone who had a. A successful career as an agent. BUt it wasn't someone that was widely known in the public arena, more, mostly known within hollywood circles of, that era. And eventually his mom, not knowing how to help Ryan through. Some of the anxieties that he was feeling, he. He had panic attacks frequently in the middle of the night. I worry that he was going to die. And. She reached out to Dr. Tucker. Who then interviewed her and Ryan. And Ryan was able to provide several memories, identifying data points. About his life as Marty Martin. He was right about having been an agent. He was right about having danced on Broadway. He was right about having had two sisters. One of whom had died very young. In fact. Uh, so it wasn't. Even alive. When Marty himself died. He was right about having a daughter. He was right about living in Hollywood. He was right about having a particular type of car. and total out of all the statements. That Ryan made about his life as Marty Martin. Over 50%. We're factually correct. And we're able to be verified. Partially through research that Dr. Tucker did himself, but also he was able to locate his living relatives. So his daughter was still alive and one of his sisters was still alive. And he was able to speak to them and verify Several of the facts that Ryan reported. As Marty. In one of the most remarkable correct facts that he provided actually. Was that. Ryan was adamant that Marty was 61 years old. When he passed away. But on the death certificate. That Dr. Tucker found for Marty. At listed his age is 59. So in a face value, that seemed to be, uh, an incorrect fact. But after some additional research that Dr. Tucker conducted. He was able to verify on some of some other records. That Marty was in fact 61. When he passed away So that's one example that was just remarkable. In the level of detail that he was able to verify. The facts that we're able to be proven in the fact that Ryan knew things. About. Marty Martin. that weren't even known on the public record. In addition to having memories of being Marty Martin. Something else that was actually quite remarkable. Is that Ryan also reported. Memories of in-between live state. And a lot of the. The cases that have been collated by the department of perceptual studies. A large proportion of cases. Over 20% of cases, children were reporting. Memories of this in-between live states or have been in the spiritual realm. Which of course can't be scientifically verified, but one fifth of cases were reporting this state. So that's no small statistic, right? It's definitely something that's calling to our attention. But Ryan himself actually did. Report memories of before he was alive. Uh, of being in his mother's womb. And one day he spontaneously asked her, why did she want him to be a girl? And in fact, she had very much wanted to go. And he actually elaborated and said that he saw her cry. When she learned that. He was going to be a boy. And he told her this, in his own words, the Dr. Guy did a test and told you that I was a boy. You got mad and said he was wrong. You just knew that I was going to be a girl. Mommy. It was daddy's birthday. You went to a restaurant afterwards to eat and you cried for a very long time. And very embarrassed. The mother. She recalled these facts, these examples to, to be. How things transpired. And regretted very much the fact that was her response because she was mortified. That he had this awareness of how she felt. But she admitted. To the fact that this was true. This had been how she felt. And there are many cases. That Dr. Jim Tucker professor Ian Stevenson have been able to collate over these years. Of children making these remarkable recollections. And being able to verify a lot of the information that's being shown. Some of the more. Interesting facts that have stood out from the research. Is that a lot of these children had died traumatic. Deaths that's tended to be. A contributing factor to why they remembered. Their previous existence. They had reincarnated in a very short timeframe. So on average, there were eight reincarnating within 18 months of their previous life ceasing. And many hand. Birthmarks or birth defects that corresponded. With the mode of death they experienced and. In a large portion of the cases as well. These children reported being of a different gender to what they were in this lifetime. When you look at the evidence that's been amassed, it's very remarkable. Because it's been able to be verified. But also because it has so many implications. For. Some of the things that we experienced in our life now. We some of the phobias and fears that we experience but I think when you saw factoring in. That we carry these latent memories of things we've lived before. It makes sense that we will have some irrational fears about things that in this lifetime we can't explain. But that may be accounted for. In some other way or in some other experience that we've had. At a soul level. In fact. Dr. Brian Weiss has become widely known for his. past life regression work. That's what he has found. He's work down that pathway. Began. When working with them with a female patient who had severe phobias and after trying every traditional method that he could. When he instructed her under hypnosis to go back to the original source of that phobia, she spontaneously went back to a previous lifetime. And what astounded him was that she not only was able to recollect that experience and the mode of. Death that she had experienced. That kind of explained. Or that correlated with a fear that she was experiencing in this lifetime. But what was really astounding to him is that just that experience alone was able to resolve for symptoms. And that's when he knew somethings something special is going on here because imagination alone. Shouldn't have. Cause that spontaneous remission or for symptoms. And then he became his lifelong work. He also then became completely dedicated to working with past life regression therapy and studying. And collating these cases. He. The same scientific framework that professor Stevenson and Dr. Tucker have. He was quite contented to just collate these case studies and report on them. But nevertheless. There's multiple bodies. That have been amassing over these decades than is showing people do have. The memories of these experiences. And in many of these cases, we can actually find factual evidence. That what's being reported is true. And I think that if. We're able to find. Reports of lifetimes having happened. Or able to scientifically and independently. Prove that some of these reports have actually taken place. Even though we can't yet explain how that's possible, why it's happening. I think it's undeniable that there's enough evidence out there right now. That. Implies or suggests. That. Our soul. Is eternal and does experience multiple lifetimes. Our identity is not tied to our bodies. But transfers. From body to body lifetime to lifetime. And if that's the case and I wholeheartedly believe that it is, and I believe the science that's available to date is telling us that's true. That has implications for us, this idea that we only live once. H it doesn't stack up. And as implications about how do we want to live so much of the anxiety we feel. Whilst we're here. Stems from this idea, this one life that I have, I need to maximize everything and I need you to do all the things and I need to have all the things. And really, if we didn't have that anxiety. If we knew that we were able to live. Multiple times. We were able to have so many different experiences. How much would that alleviate these anxiety? How much would that allow me to just. let go of some of the angsty and surrender. Too. What this particular. Lifetime is here to show me and teach me. I believe wholeheartedly that. Every lifetime that we have. We have a set purpose for being here as this version of ourselves. So today I am Tatiana. I haven't always been Tatiana. And I certainly won't be Tatiana once I leave. But these version of me has a purpose. I believe that purpose is to be talking about these things. It's to be highlighting. How spirituality and science and not. Enemies, but they're actually natural friends. And in fact, they're intrinsically linked because all the phenomenon, the science observes. has a spiritual basis to it because I believe life is spiritual. The basis of life. Everything that we see and experience the spiritual. That's the purpose that I have in this lifetime. If I spend all of my time. Worrying about trying to do other things that aren't aligned with my purpose. Because I fear. Not having all the experiences that I need to have or having all the things. That I want to have. I think it sets me up for a life of suffering. It sets me up for a life of angst. It pulls me away from my authentic self and he pulls me away from why I'm here. There's a lesson in our life. In the life that we've created or the life that we've chosen for us. We're here to grow and to learn and to evolve. And. I think sometimes understanding. That we have been here before that we have had these experiences before we can even help us understand some of the challenges that we are experiencing. Because our lesson plan is often informed by things we've already lived through. Ryan things that we got wrong, that we'd like an opportunity to try again. With. Or relationships that still. Cause a lot of conflict and pain that we would like an opportunity to try to repair. There's lessons in the past for us. Absolutely. And sometimes having that acknowledgement or having that awareness. Can make it so much easier and lighter to carry the challenges that we face right now. And as I say that you might be asking yourselves. Then why don't we all remember? The things that we've lived through before, why don't all of us have memories of previous lives? And that's because we're not supposed to remember. Right there in anomalies. When. People are able to report these things. Because. When we come into this new experience or this new existence, we have this. It's not quite a blank slate, but we start with this slate Hoff. Not carrying the burdens of the past. We have lived many things. We haven't always been good kind people. We have done some things. And if we were to remember now, We might be. So horrified with who we are, it would paralyze us. From moving forward in who we're trying to become now. Or if we are remembering some of those traumatic. Horrendous experiences that we had before. The pain would be. Similarly paralyzing. So to be able to come in with the perception of a blank slate. It gives us freedom. Too. To navigate. Things as they come to us. With more lightness with more discernment. With less baggage. You're not a hundred percent detached from some of that, because we do carry some of these imprints. Any for able to connect with some of that. We might find some of the answers for what we're searching for. But for the most part. I think like we should be holding all of that lightly. I know there's many, there's a lot of fascination with trying to go back and do past life regression work and understand, know about the lives you've had and who you've been. And that's sure. It's interesting to a point. But none of that should ever detract. From who we're meant to be right now. There might be some interesting insights. In those memories. That help us navigate how current lifetime with a little bit more ease. But first and foremost, we need to be embody who we are right now. Who were here to be. Because our life lesson, our life plan. Is now tied to who I am today. It's not about who I used to be. And so I encourage you to think about those questions. I started the episode today with. Firstly, I'll ask you how much evidence would it take for you to feel like? Yes. Okay. I believe that this is the case. And if you're leaning more towards, okay. Maybe that's maybe that is what's going on. Maybe we do have multiple lives. Maybe you may have done some regression of your own. I encourage you to reflect on these questions again. How would this knowledge. Change the way that you go about your life right now. If, That this isn't your one and only existence. How would that change the way you navigate your life now? How would it change what you prioritize? What you spend your time on? What you value? But also, how would it change? You want a relationship to some of the things that you struggle with? That you find really challenging. So much of our suffering also comes from this fairly rigid attachment. To being. Who we think we are right now. You have both ends of the extreme. How does it not serve you to hold so tightly to this idea of where you are right now? What you look like? People think of you. I wonder if having this awareness. That this is a character that you're playing one of many characters that you'll ever, that you'll come to play. In the eternity, that is your existence. What would start to take precedence? And what would cease to be important? I know this week's been a little bit more of a contemplating. Question, but I want to encourage you all to reflect on these things. No, we spend a lot of our time. So heavily attached. To the sufferings of now. And when we can take that bird's eye perspective and recognize that. It's all transient. It also has a purpose, but not a purpose of pain. The purpose of growth. You can connect with that knowledge. Would that perspective? Everything can become so much lighter. Life can become so much easier to navigate. Even the more challenging people in our lives. Can start to take a different shape. Or significance. For the part they're playing. And in our individual process. So I would love to hear your thoughts on this. You know what you've resonated with, but equally what maybe feels to you. Too confronting too jarring that you really disagree with. I welcome these conversations. You can always find me on Instagram at integrated underscore wisdom. Feel free to DM me. Reach out. Let's have a chat. I love these conversations. Uh, and if you feel like some of the things that I'm talking about today, it would be of help to anyone. In your life. I invite you to share the episode with them, the podcast with them. Invite them to subscribe to the podcast. If they haven't already. And please do leave me a review and a rating. I welcome the feedback. It's important for me that I'm adding value. And I'd like to know. What you'd like to know more of or what you'd like to me too, to be discussing here. But also what's working for your. And also when you give a rating and a review, It tells the algorithm to push it out to more people. So I'll be very grateful for your support with that one. And I guess that's all we have for this week and it's a long one again. But I hope you all have a lovely week and I will see you all next time. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of integrated wisdom. It is my sincere wish that today's episode um episode deeper into what it means to live an integrated life. So if it feels aligned to you, I invite you to hit subscribe and share it with others who you feel may benefit too. You may also find me on Instagram at integrated underscore wisdom. Remember, each moment is an opportunity to embrace your divine potential and create a world that is more frequently inspired. Um