How Do Past Lives Influence This Life?

In previous posts, we have learned how reincarnation works from the perspective of the Higher Self, and how souls justify their incarnation, and how some souls choose to have more accelerated lives to try to evolve faster. What we haven’t looked at is whether our lifetimes may be linked in some way. That’s exactly what Gordon Phinn’s book, “You Are History” does to answer my question: How do past lives influence this life?

Who is Gordon Phinn?

Gordon Phinn is a prolific writer for a good reason. This is not the first or the only life he has led as a writer and a poet. That becomes crystal clear to anybody who reads any of his two dozen books published thusfar!!! I just finished reading his book called “You Are History: The Soul, The Higher Self and Our Share of Divinity,” which is the third installment in the Eternal Life Trilogy of books. It was fantastic!

You may be familiar with his work through my posts on his Afterlife books and Anotherwordofgord’s blog posts that I have shared with my readers earlier. I’ve also cited a lot of his work in my book, “Spiritual Guide To the Afterlife,” because he gives us the most vivid and complete description of the astral levels from the human and higher perspective bar none.
Much of the popular past life or interlife literature comes from therapists who are not experiencers themselves. They get their material from clients under hypnosis. This is in contrast to Gordon Phinn, whose work is based on his own experiential knowledge. He is an expert consciousness explorer.

His vast experience comes from years of past life regressions, spontaneous recollections, lucid dreaming, meditations and recollected out-of-body experiences as well as his numerous astral travels to connect with departed souls of all kinds. He is in full communion with his Higher Self and guide, which is why he is the real deal and why I highly recommend his books and services to everybody.

How do past lives influence this life?

In “You Are History,” his guide explained that all of Gordon’s lives are indissolubly linked, not only to each other but also to the evolution of the planet itself and all the life-forms on it. Gordon loves to study history with its subtle complexities of class, culture, religion, diplomacy, and militarism that illustrate the behavior patterns of individuals and societies repeated in infinite variations. He wrote:

“He is seeing himself, this current version of his Higher Self’s mutability, as an actor in the unfolding costume drama of history, and all the ‘past’ as other roles in earlier acts. As he focuses, from time to contemplative time, on these other roles, and feels their psychic influences on his own patterns, he feels he is a living part of history; that history as well as something you study, is something that you are.

In deep meditation, when he can sink into the fears, joys, anxieties, stresses, puzzlements, and fevered pursuits of those others, he can see they are all one; one audacious experiment in humanity, one miniscule thread in the tapestry, one magical theme with many variations all of which were admirable efforts under the circumstances, strained this way and that by the desires and fears of others…sometimes attaining results and occasionally resolutions.”

Gordon said it’s like a cast of characters, all of which can be seen as archetypes as well as incarnations. In the book, he describes 25 of his past lives in more detail to show the links or common themes among them — the contemplative monk, the secretly pagan priest, the heretical philosopher, the courtesan, the grieving widow, the anxious young mother, the rich and carefree playgirl, the vain bisexual playboy, the ruthless warrior, the passionate freedom fighter, the scholar king, the orphaned peasant girl, and so on.

He identified at least six lives focused on writing or the ordering of thoughts into written language. All these writers learn from each other unconsciously, so they are not working alone, but influence each other. Some past lives seem closer to Gordon than others, but each is an archetype of behavior worthy of study:

“Every neighborhood and town has its ‘characters,’ some of them strangers, some of them acquaintances, some of them friends. Examine them all, slowly, carefully, empathetically; see what motivates their behaviors, both neurotic and much approved, their concept of citizenship, their habits and affectations, their unconscious assumptions and expectations. As you observe and take note, watch your reactions, for they will reveal much of your own issues…in one or more past lives.

Most of us have been here many thousands of years, each time thinking we were just us doing our bit and then dying. Now we know that we were not merely one person but many, and each with equal value regardless of contemporary societal status. And don’t forget, after the chess game both the king and the pawn go back in the box.”

In my experience, our soul blueprint often reflects a particular archetype and past life patterns with certain issues that are carried over to the current lifetime. Gordon calls them “experiments in character formation” that represent a small clan within a larger soul group. He said when all the Higher Self’s projections are put together, they look like a “mini-society” with every character type and ethnic trait represented. However, the Higher Self’s reality is many, many stories unfolding simultaneously [in Nowness], as explained:

“The ‘I’ that I am can observe the many little ‘I’s’ at any stage of their evolvement, should I so choose…The final surrender of self-importance is, of course, merely a blending of the little ‘I’ with the big ‘I’, in which nothing is lost and everything is gained, but it sure doesn’t look like that to the soul still mired in pride of accomplishment.

When you as individuals speak with whom you assume is God, you are actually talking with your Higher Self. You are to us as we are to God. As above, so below. The best way, and indeed the only way to talk with God is to merge with his/her being…Feel the life all about you and beyond you…and know that it is all God.”

Final Thoughts

This wonderful book has a chapter called “Resting in Peace,” which is quite hilarious. It summarizes the astral realms from the point of view of astral residents, who can choose to interact with people they knew from their most recent incarnation or from five hundred years ago or longer. Gordon wrote:

“Even historical personalities are real, live sentient beings, who will communicate the essence of their character and epoch. They can be experienced as holographic data files, movies come to life as soon as you enter their aura, or otherwise plead at the door of their being…

It’s quite peaceful here, but perhaps not quite as peaceful as folks would wish for their dear departed….We all slide all too easily into the amazing breadth of activity here in the post-mortem world. It’s you on Earth that want us to rest in peace; we, here, tend to play in varying degrees of gratification, pleasure, and joy. But as the divide between our worlds is still large enough to support these traditional illusions, we forgive you!”

R.I.P.? Not a chance! 😉