Reincarnation - On Becoming Plant Food and Past Lives

What happens when we die? Do we simply return to the earth, or do our souls return for another life?

This week, Xander & Stone explore the fascinating concept of reincarnation. We look at the religions, cultures, and belief systems that embrace the idea of rebirth, examine whether reincarnation can coexist with a growing global population, and discuss intriguing questions about identity, memory, and even gender across multiple lifetimes.

Join us as we dive into one of humanity's oldest and most enduring mysteries.

Listen now and let us know: do you believe we've lived before?

IG: xspodcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:16

A hearty warm welcome to all of you during this spooky season, and thank you for joining us today for what promises to be a fantastic episode. If you're joining for the first time, this is Xander and Stone Podcast, the Science and Supernatural podcast, where we cover everything from exorcisms and possessions to hauntings, ghosts, crypto creatures, UFOs, and everything in between. If it's out there and it's weird, we're gonna talk about it. Of course, it wouldn't be the Xander and Stone Podcast if I wasn't joined by the seductive vocal stylings of Hot Air Balloon Enthusiast and part-time advisor to the Dalai Lama, the unconquerable stone.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Beautiful and incredibly accurate. And we have with us Xander, who is actually considered a comedian in some cultures. I mean, not this one, but some.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

You know, I think all the cultures that I'm not a comedian in are probably the ones that don't speak any English, or maybe the deaf d the deaf community. They probably find me hilariously funny. Uh, but enough about that. Nice. The topic today, it couldn't be more engaging or thought-provoking than it already is, and I mean that most sincerely. And one of the perks of doing a podcast is that you find yourself exploring and researching some of the most fascinating topics, and today is certainly no exception. Today we are talking about past lives and reincarnation, and it is a topic that honestly I could could possibly explore for a good few lifetimes.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Or at least several episodes. At least.

SPEAKER_03 1:51

Or at least three takes of one of one recording. What the listeners don't know is this is actually recording number three of this particular episode. The gremlins have been at work. Um, but you know, you we do it because we love it. We do. So, Stone, tell us what have you discovered in your research about past lives and reincarnation?

SPEAKER_01 2:12

In my research, which is science, is that we are all going to end up as plant food. The end.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

Okay, so that's that's thank you for joining in on this episode. That's it. Thank you for listening. Tune in next time. You're gonna be plant food, plant food, end of story.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Science says false. Although I I I was able to dig up something. So I started out with the science of what happens when we die, according to the majority of the science community. So, Dr. Sam Parnia, who is a director of critical care and resuscitation research at NYU Langon School of Medicine in New York City, describes death like this. The heart stops, we have a deduction of oxygen that gets inside the brain, we shut down and become unconscious to the outside world. All life processes begin to shut down because there is no blood getting to the brain, kidney, or liver. We become lifeless and motionless, and that is the time that the doctors use to give us a time of death.

SPEAKER_03 3:23

I think you very much described my last date, actually. Completely lifeless, completely emotionless, didn't do anything. I was I suspected there wasn't much blood going to the brain. Um obviously, I'm not talking about my current partner, I'm talking about any dates that I had before my current partner.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Hashtag relatable. However, some scientists assert that our brains can operate up to 10 minutes after our hearts stop eating, which is very interesting.

SPEAKER_03 3:54

That is absolutely fascinating. And I remember seeing something online, it might have been on YouTube or something that I'd read that there was a serial killer in America because all serial killers come from America. What is with you guys? Why do you guys have so many serial killers? Um, no, okay, in your defense, in your defense, I think your media just um highlights your serial killers more than the rest of the world does. Um, but there was there was a serial killer in America, and he was given the death sentence. And what he requested was that instead of getting lethal injection or the electric chair, what he requested for his death sentence, obviously they didn't do it, was that they decapitate him and then hold his head up so that he he could see the blood gushing from his body, and he described it as something like the most delicious ending, or something equally freaky like that. Um, yeah, okay, that's a lot. That's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

That that is a lot. I I feel like they should reopen the case because clearly he was innocent. Absolutely, no doubt. That's my take.

SPEAKER_03 4:53

That's the request of an innocent man.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Obviously. Um, so following that, Rigamortis sets in. 12 hours later, that reverses, everything gets soft again, and the tissues begin to deteriorate. Your cells die, and then bacteria, animals, and even the body itself digests your organs and tissues, which means, in effect, we are all cannibals, which sometimes it happens after we die.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

What a charming thought.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

You're welcome. Um thank you, science. Science continues to discover new things about what happens when we die, including that it isn't random. Your body goes through a regimented process to dispose of your body. We become energy and food for plant and wildlife. And upon death, many people who are brought back say they were aware of every moment and had an out-of-body experience. And often people say they saw a bright light and did not want to return to their body. And Dr. Parnia tells of a story of one child who died and he came back, and he said he saw a bright light of a lamp and that dying was the cord being cut.

SPEAKER_03 6:07

That's very interesting because we know like people who've experienced overdoses, things like heroin overdoses or crack coke, or whatever it is people are overdosing on these days. Um, what's the new one called? Bath salts or something like that. Um, they all they all report getting something called tunnel vision. And that's essentially where they see, you know, your field of vision is reduced to just a very small dot. And I wonder if that maybe has something similar to what's happening in, you know, as you're dying, is that your your field of vision starts to get narrower and narrower, and there's what feels like the light at the end of a tunnel, just a small dot of light within this very small, restricted uh field of vision. Um, so there's, you know, I think I think that has a lot of credit, credit to it.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Yeah, because with drugs, you're deprived of oxygen in the brain. So that actually makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

And and and of course, while the thought of the lamp and the cord being cut, just like an umbilical cord to life, is is a beautiful thought. And and I love the way it was described by a child. Of course, scientists say the light phenomenon is is a result of a lack of oxygen, and it creates a lucid dreaming scenario like you described with heroin.

SPEAKER_03 7:12

Not that I have any personal experience with heroin. I only do heroin on a Tuesday. No, I'm kidding. I'm joking.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

I was just writing a note, schedule intervention before Sanders. So I'll just go ahead and mark that one off. Whatever the case, this seems to be the common theme of most experiences like that. And Dr. Parney has said as long as the death is natural, he insists that the process is comfortable and peaceful. And while most of the science community believes we become plant food, not all of them do. Jim Tucker, who is a professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral science at the University of Virginia, has been testing claims of reincarnation, especially those made by children. And he started his research in the late 90s, but the University of Virginia has studied over 2,500 cases in 50 years. And he actually documented these cases in a book called Return to Life. Some of the cases that were discounted is if uh family members or the child had any sort of mental illness or ailment. And if it seemed like the statements were uh either programmed by the family because they missed a loved one and they kept saying, you know, the child reminded them of, you know, Uncle Sam or Aunt Joe or whatever. One of the cases he documented was of Ryan Hammonds, and his mom took him to the doctor because she was really worried about his night terrors. And of course, the doctor said this is something he will grow out of. But part of his night terrors were that he was a person in Hollywood and he was really distraught that he couldn't remember the name of his three children. And so, and and she didn't really know what to do with this because she had no history and reincarnation. And so one day they were looking through books of Hollywood and he pointed to a picture and said, That's my friend George. And uh, and then he pointed to another scowling man who had a trench coat on and said, That's me. And so the mom was able to figure out that he got the name right with George. It was George Raft, and he's an all-but forgotten film star from the 1930s and 40s. And so she got a hold of Tucker because he's, of course, doing all of these studies. So they were able to track down uh his own name in in the picture. And then that person did have three kids and a wife. And so they arranged a meeting with his former wife, and he he ended up hiding for most of the visit behind his mom and said that her energy had changed, and he was really happy to be living in the family he was living in now and not to be in Hollywood again.

SPEAKER_03 9:58

I wonder that so that's a very interesting little uh bit of information at the end there that her energy had changed. So even though he remembers the past life and being that person and that this person was his wife, something about her energy changed, and he didn't want to engage with her. He wanted to hide behind his mom. I would tell the police to go and reopen that case and look for any in like life insurance policies or anything, anything a little bit strange going on there. Um, but it is true in my research as well. I also found that, you know, uh a lot of the the cases that have been most investigated are when young children are talking about lives that they'd previously had. Um, but that's something I'll get into a bit later when I talk. You you can carry on going, Stone.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Oh I am very much looking forward to that. Uh the statistical patterns he uncovered is that in this specific study is that the median age of time when someone died is 28. 60% of children who claim past lives are male. 70% of children claim they died of violent or unnatural death. And in those cases, 70% of the deceased individuals were male, which is the same ratio as the general population. 90% say they were the same sex previously as they are now. And the median time lapse between death and birth in this study was 16 months. Uh, 20% of children claim memories of the time between death and birth. Some alleged they were in God's house, while others claim that they waited near where they died before going inside their mother. Um, generally, they had above average IQs. Most cases were reported in cultures that believed in reincarnation and had a religious background, but that wasn't the case for all of them. And then most of the children who reported these were from age two to six. Usually at age seven, all of those stories began closing.

SPEAKER_03 11:45

That's that's very interesting. Um, you know, I know you you might know this as well, being a teacher as well, but um I when I was involved in early childhood education, one of the things that we learn about um a child childhood development is that at certain ages uh there are certain developmental milestones. And between the ages of three and six is where children start to separate or understand the difference between fantasy and reality. Um so it's interesting that you say that these cases seem to drop off by the age of seven because that's when that cog that that milestone is really set in. Um, you know, young children when they watch something like Barney the Dinosaur on TV, they don't necessarily recognize that Barney the Dinosaur is a man in a costume. They see the character as a real life-living being. They cannot separate the fantasy from the reality. So it's interesting that you said at seven years old these cases take a very big dive. Um, that is interesting. It's a separation of fantasy and reality.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Of course. And again, that's why science leans to it. It's just their imagination. And you know, they also depend on scientific method. Do you recall that from school?

SPEAKER_03 12:51

I remember once somebody saying the words, we're going to learn scientific method, but I think that's about as much as I remember. In my defense, high school was a long time ago, and I wasn't terribly science inclined. Um, so help me remember what is the scientific method stuff.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Here here is the here's the short, short answer. So it depends on systematic observation, measurement, experiment, formulation, testing, and modification of hypothesis.

SPEAKER_04 13:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

And the good part about that is that scientific method can be applied to such taboo topics, such as past lives. Um, but the big issue is that with scientific study, it demands materialism. And obviously, it's difficult to prove something like reincarnation without having physical evidence. Sure, sure. That said, Max Planck, who is the father of quantum theory, said that he viewed consciousness as fundamental and that matter was derived from it. This would mean that the consciousness isn't necessarily dependent on the physical self to survive. So theoretically, consciousness could attach itself to a new brain. Quantum physics indicates that our physical world may grow out of consciousness, Tucker says. That's a view held not just by me, but by a number of physicists as well.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

And of course, there's that ever-famous quantum experiment with the observation of particles, and I think it's called the slit experiment, uh, where if they're observing the particles passing through the slits, they behave differently as to when the particles are not being observed. If I remember correctly, and please don't quote me on this, the Xander and Stone podcast, where you get all the wrong science information from Xander. Um but if I remember correctly, when when they are not being observed, they behave like uh light waveforms. When they are being observed, they behave as independent particles. Um so what it implies there is that the conscious act of observing the particles influences the behavior of the particles. So it's interesting that you say that uh, you know, consciousness might be linked to the you know how matter behaves and how things behave.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Right. And and actually that was uh Tucker sort of based a lot of his conclusions on that as well. So well done you for predicting that.

SPEAKER_03 15:10

I've watched a lot of YouTube, watched a lot of YouTube and Big Bang and Big Bang Theory.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

Shout out to Big Bang Theory and Joe. Tucker suspects that consciousness does not require a body and that the brain operates as a conduit for consciousness. And having studied these cases for years, Tucker believes that the afterlife may have numerous potentials beyond reincarnation, and that reincarnation is just one option. So that is my science.

SPEAKER_03 15:42

Well, that is all very good food for thought. And, you know, again, it's it comes back to that idea that it might just be as human beings, we struggle with the idea of our own mortality, right? Um so they think like, you know, this the idea that we go to an afterlife, that we see family members when we pass away, when we see the tunnel of light, or that we reincarnate as another being. That might just be our own human need to understand that we ex we we do continue to exist and we struggle with the idea that one day we will just die and we will cease to exist, everything will stop. It might not be as romantic as the idea of going to heaven or reincarnating as another soul. Um, but for all we know, it might very well just be the truth. One day you just stop and you become plant food. End of story.

unknown 16:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

And and a cannibal.

SPEAKER_03 16:30

And a cannibal, you start to eat yourself, which is a little bit masturbatory if you ask me, but you know, whatever. Whatever. Um well, we know that you're enjoying the podcast because you've already made it this far. So why don't you go ahead and share that love with your tribe? Tell your friends, tell your family, hell, even tell your frenemies about the Xander and Stone podcast. And do us a solid, help to get our podcast into the ear holes of more delicious weirdos. And while you're at it, go hit that subscribe button or the follow button, depending on your podcast app, and leave us a comment and a rating. Show us some love, and we will keep bringing you all the weird and the wonderful week after week. Now, Stone, one of the ways that they measure or look into or study past lives is with something called past life regression. And I've got a rather sad little tale to tell you. I was very keen to do, I was very keen to do a past life regression as part of my research for this podcast episode. So I went onto Google, I typed in past life regressionists online because you know COVID and you can't really go and hang out, hang out somewhere else at the moment. Um, and I I approached two different people. And can you believe that I was actually turned down? I was rejected by two past life regressionists. Like, on what and what plane of existence do you get rejected to go and explore your past lives? You know, okay, so in their defense, uh the first one was um past life regression therapy, which has got more to do with helping you with trauma in this lifetime. And it also includes things like cognitive-based therapy and neurolinguistic programming. So their reply to me was that they don't really think it's very suitable for what I'm asking for. Um, and a weird way that they signed off that email was that maybe I should go and ask Simon Cowell. I'm not trying to get onto American Idol. I don't know why Simon Cowell would be assistance in this type of a thing, but okay, it's Simon Cowell. And they also said, be sure to ask Simon, not Paula. What why would I be asking Paula Abdul about this? But anyway, I know that they're huge fans of the show. I know Paula's listening right now. I know Simon's listening right now. Um so sorry I didn't ask you guys about the past life regression. So I was rejected by that one, but I thought, okay, you know, that's very much therapy-based. It's supposed to be for healing, not just out of interest. The second one that I approached, who also rejected me, I think my pitch for this one was a little bit wrong because I said that I would like to use it as part of my research for the podcast, and I think maybe that made them uncomfortable. But who, who gets rejected for past life regression? What the hell? What the hell? Um, but I know that I know that you've done past life regression. So do you mind do you mind sharing your experience of that with us?

SPEAKER_01 19:12

I I do, but I I want to, I'm I'm happy to, but I want to also reiterate the idea that during our episodes, you have requested to have cult members knock on your door. You've wanted UFOs to come pick you up, you want to visit a ghost, and now even the very human regressionists have rejected you.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

What is happening? Like, what is going on? Can I not be can I please be included in something paranormal? I'm starting to feel very left out here. I'm starting to feel very left out. No cults, no alien abductions, no ghosts, no hauntings, no possessions, nothing. Nothing. Why am I even on a podcast? Hashtag needy. And like big question, Mark, over why are you even doing a paranormal podcast, Xander?

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Um it is curious. So uh my regression's an interesting story because I wasn't seeking it out, not needy.

SPEAKER_02 20:09

Um thanks, thanks for saying just a nail in the coffin there. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Strategy is to not want it and it shows up. So I was at my friend's house who was always late, always. And let me stress uh former friend. Let me just go ahead and clarify former friend based on that. And so while I was there, waiting, waiting, waiting, she's getting dressed and she said, Oh, I forgot. I have a reader coming over who is going to give me a reading. And of course, you know, that's 30 or 40 minutes on a good day. And and here I am waiting to go out. So I I I'm livid at this point. And uh, this guy named Rich shows up at the door, and as soon as he sees me, knowing he's scheduled with her, as soon as he says, sees me, he says, you. And then he starts like telling me the most specific things, things that no one knew, including her. She was shocked by some of them. And uh one of the things he said was, I see you in Greece, and you're naked, leaning against a column, and you're surrounded by men, and you have your head thrown back and you're laughing. And so I wasn't Cleopatra, you know, like you'd want to be. I was a prostitute.

SPEAKER_03 21:22

Just a common whore. I mean, like, but it's exactly like you say. Like, if you think about wanting a past life, like who was I in a past life? I was Napoleon Bonaparte, I was King Richard, I was Cleopatra, I was a pharaoh. Nope, just a common whore. Um, that's why that's hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Apparently, I had a really good sense of humor because I had everyone's attention and laughing. You know, granted, I didn't have any clothes on, maybe that was part of it.

SPEAKER_03 21:48

Um a lot like what's happening right now.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Um I'm only funny when I'm naked. So that should have deterred me. But actually I I had dreamt actually in the past about Greece, like very specific places. And I had written it down and told friends. And then when I had visited Greece, I it was exactly as I had dreamed it. So that was compelling enough to buy into his request to have a session of regression with me. So uh that day I went there and laid down on a couch. He took me into uh deep hypnosis. And the first I went through three lifetimes. The first lifetime, it was sort of, I guess I'm not that fantastic at history, I'll admit that. But it would appear to be colonial times. And I was in a yellow prairie dress, I suppose. And I was hiding my children under the floorboard because I knew something bad was about to happen. And I ran outside and I was near, there was a creek running by me. And they asked me where my husband was and said he was a traitor. And I said that I had no idea where I was at, and I didn't. And the soldier stabbed me. And so blood was floating in the water. And I was, I remember looking at that as it was streaming through the water. And then I turned my head to the other side and saw that they had caught my house on fire. And I knew my kids were in there, but of course they didn't know.

SPEAKER_03 23:22

Wow, that is crazy. That is crazy. I mean, is that something that you can go and research? Can you research traitors from the colonial period and you know, a news report where the kids all died in a fire because they were under the floorboards? I would be googling, I'd be googling the shit out of that. I would be googling.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Actually, I mean, even during that time, I was crying so hard. And I was, I mean, it was it's not like watching a movie because you're the main character. And so it was such a personal experience that he had to pull me out of it. And I mean, probably for a couple weeks after, I was probably longer than that, I was still very shaken by that memory. And then life happened in between. But but now that you mention it, I should go back and do some research on that.

SPEAKER_03 24:05

Yeah, I definitely would.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Yeah. But what what's interesting too is that my mom also, and at the time that I had the regression, I wasn't sure how that would be received by my family. So I hadn't shared it with any of them. And uh she told me she had a regression, and she said, guess who was my mom? And I said, Me, because even when I was little, my mom would accidentally slip up and call me mom. And uh, and we had had other people say, you know, that you're her mother in a previous life, and we would just laugh about it. And then she started describing the place that she had gone into, and it sounded so strikingly similar to mine. I asked her to draw it, and she did, and it matched like precisely the place. So if that's the case, then she would have been one of the people on the floorboard. And what's interesting about that is that she's always been freakishly concerned about fire, so much so that she would check the stove four times. And now, of course, all of her daughters check their stove four times on the rare occasions that I cook. You know, I'm always just checking to make sure. And none of us have had experience in this lifetime with fire. So it is interesting that that's, you know, really a strong issue for her.

SPEAKER_03 25:16

Like your story really is touching on a lot of points that I'm going to cover as well, because they do say that phobias are traumatic experiences from previous lifetimes that have followed you into this lifetime. And another interesting thing is that um they say that the roles swap. So if you were an oppressor, you would then be reincarnated into the community or the culture of the people who you oppressed before. Or if you were like you have this case, uh like a mother and child or a parent and child role reversal in the reincarnated life. So that is very, very interesting because those stories, according to the the research of Dr. Ian Stevenson, who was a mentor to your Dr. Tucker, um, they they it very much mirrors a lot of the the information that they've gathered through their research. Um that's really interesting. You said you had three though. What's the other one? What's the other one?

SPEAKER_01 26:06

I d I do. So uh well, the next life, of course, when it's a happy one, it's just a glimpse. Um, but the next life, I was an eight or nine-year-old boy and I was in an Asian country. Um, I'm not I I have some hunches, but I'm I'm not exactly sure. But it was an Asian country and I was running to my grandfather who had what appeared to be a news kiosk in the middle of the road, and I was very happy and he would he had uh wrinkles in all the right places, the the grandfather. So he just he was uh you could tell he was so happy to see me, I was so happy to see him. And then um, then I floated above again and came out of that lifetime. Wow. And then the third life is where it gets really crazy because uh Rich was freaking out, and there is an audio recording somewhere that I'm gonna have to dig out of this whole experience. But uh the third life, I wasn't human. So I became this big blue light in space, and uh a larger blue light was communicating with me, but in energy, not in words. And it was just super peaceful and calm. And I can assure you, in you know, if I were out in space, I'd be freaking out. But in this instance, I was just at calm. So he wasn't sure if it was another planet, it was an in-between space, if he had progressed me. And uh, he wanted to do several more sessions, but after that one, I didn't actually go back. But but it was a very interesting experience.

SPEAKER_03 27:33

Yeah, that would that that is um, well, you you kind of answered the question I was going to ask as to whether or not you were like a different form of life. You know, like we we look for life on other planets, but we don't necessarily know what the form of life would look like. It might not look like us, skin and bones, and you know, that flesh and that sort of a thing. Um, or they're just kind of more energy beings, maybe another dimension, because we often talk about energy beings crossing dimensions, or whether you were in this cosmic waiting room waiting to be reincarnated as another living terrestrial being. That's really interesting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

So I was I was, yes, so I was a massive blue orb. And uh the other thing that happened was really which was really interesting is because I was raised uh, of course, you know, in a in a religious home and and reincarnation was never spoken of. So my son was three years old, and we never did baby talk, but he did call me Mimi. And he was sitting next to me, and I was trying to get him on a site, and he was getting frustrated. So he pushed my hands away and he said, Let me Mimi. And uh, so I was looking at him the way moms look at their sons, very, you know, he's the smartest kid in the entire universe. Look at how he's working on this computer and with such admiration. And I said, You know, when I was a little girl, we didn't have computers. And he said, When I was a grown man, we didn't have computers either. And I said, and I was stunned. And I said, When were you a grown man? And he said, Before I came into your belly. And I said, Why did you come back? And he took my face and his little hands and he turned it toward him and he said, Because I miss you so much.

SPEAKER_03 29:10

Oh my goodness. Like that has actually just made like it's given me ghost bumps that is absolutely adorable.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Yes, it was it was a beautiful thing. And so then I started researching and I read a lot about what not to do with kids who are talking about past lives, which is to feed them information and you know, um, certainly not to ask them a bunch of questions. So I just let those things come out naturally. And so the two big other things he said was that he was a pilot, and the other one was that he had been uh killed by a bear. And when he woke up, he thought he was gonna wake up in the belly of the bear. And instead, he woke up in my belly. And um, what's interesting is that a couple of years ago, I went to my dad's house who lives out in the middle of nowhere, and we said we're gonna go look for bears, not thinking we'd really run across one. And uh we we ran across a bear that had been killed by a hunter. And um, my son was really obsessed with getting the claw and turning it into a necklace, which could just be a teenage boy thing. Sure. But uh we naturally talked him out of it and told him it was gross and he'd probably get some weird disease. And but my sister brought up the fact, she said, didn't he say when he was little that he was killed by a bear? And I thought that I totally spaced that he had said that.

SPEAKER_03 30:25

So like maybe that's maybe that's the comic payback in this lifetime. Like he knows he was killed by a bear in a past lifetime. So this time he's like, I'm getting that claw. Like that is that is the bear. I'm wearing that claw. It's like a trophy, you know what I mean? That is absolutely you shut it down. You shut it down.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

We shut it down.

SPEAKER_03 30:43

But that is that is really, really fascinating. Thank you for sharing those stories with us because I know something like a past life regression can be a very personal thing to talk about. And it's one thing that I've noticed, like you said, it's a the experiences that you had, like it's not like watching a movie because you're experiencing it firsthand. You're experiencing the emotion, the trauma. You're actually going through all of the the motions of that. And it's something that I discovered in talking to other people about past lives as well, is that they they come out of it with a very, very visceral, like an emotion there, and it takes them a while to recover from that. It's not just something that you you observe by in your mind's eye, and it's you know, it's it's done. It's maybe like you know, like you describe it as like a very lucid dream or like a very, very intense emotional dream that sits with you for a few days afterwards. Um, really fascinating stuff. So thank you for sharing that story with us, Stone.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 31:34

That's the good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

My pleasure.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

Well, you know, the the belief that the soul survives past death, um, it's uh it's actually a very ancient one, and it's also known as metempsychosis or transmigration, and it's the concept that past lives and reincarnation have actually existed for millennia, going back as far as like the ancient Egyptians or the Celtics, the Greeks, the Asians, the Hindu traditions, and obviously we all know it is part of the Buddhist, uh, you know, the Buddhist belief system. Um, but they say that uh today about 51% of the world's population believe in some form of an afterlife, and about 7% believe that we are ultimately reincarnated. So it really is one of the most inherent beliefs that a lot of us have lived lives before, and you know, we we cycle through these different lifetimes. So, what the listeners don't know is that I actually just took a break because I guzzled for energy drinks and I had to go and pee mid-recording. Um, so I'm gonna try and pick up where I left off. Um, I was talking about the fact that in some cases we can actually recall these past lives and that sometimes it happens through dreams, past life regressions, a sense of deja vu. But there are actually a lot more religions globally that believe in reincarnation, and I was surprised to find that there are many more religions in the world that have reincarnation as the core of their belief system. And admittedly, there are very uh specific cultures that believe in them, and they're from very specific places or very specific tribes in the world. But before doing the research, I was only aware of Buddhism and Hinduism as really incorporating reincarnation as part of their beliefs. And then I went and had a rummage around on Google, and I found a North American, a Native American um traditional people called the Talingit. And the Talingit people, Native Americans who settled in the Northwest area, um, which is basically Alaska and Canada. And there are estimated to be about 16,000 of them today. So when you compare that to the global population, it is a very small percent of the global population. Um, but they describe their belief in uh the afterlife as something that goes like this, and I quote, Spirits went to an afterlife in accordance with their morality throughout their life, similar to heaven and hell in other religions. Those who withheld a high standard of morals were sent to kiwawa, and those others were sent to Ketel Kiwa. Ketel Kiwa, K-E-T-L-K-I-W A, Ketel Kiwa. However, this afterlife only lasted for a very short duration. Individuals would eventually return as reincarnation of deceased maternal relatives, and I found that very interesting. You're born back into the same family, but on your mother's side. Um, and I I find that very interesting. You know, we live in a patriarchy and we always bitch about the patriarchy, but here when you start looking back over time at cultures, actually it was it was more of the maternal, you know, the feminine was more celebrated. So it's only really the past few hundred years or so, 200 to 300 years, that we've had this very patriarchal society. And as soon as you start looking a little bit further back in time, it was very much based on sacred feminine or maternal or you know, whatever it might be. So I have a feeling that society is going to start heading back in that direction because I think we fucking need it. Men have proven men have proven that we are not terribly good at running the world, let's be honest. Um, the other, yay, feminism. Um, the other, the other cultures that I explored as well, there were two from Nigeria, and this surprised me being from Africa. Um, I know that a lot of the cultures are rooted in like um worshiping and and contacting the ancestors, um, but I'd never heard of reincarnation as part of an African culture before. So this one particularly interested me, and this was from the Igbo people, and the modern Igbo people of Nigeria, even when they adhere to a Christian religion, because obviously we were colonized by a lot of European countries and they brought Christianity with them, even though they adhered to a Christian religion, many of them have preserved features of their traditional Igbo religions. And the belief in reincarnation seems to be one that is particularly strong with these people. The Igbo believe that the reincarnation usually occurs within the same or immediate or their extended family. So again, it's a tie that you reincarnate back into the same bloodline, into the same family tree. Um, and that's also very interesting. They try to identify the reincarnated ancestor by means of birthmarks, statements that the child makes when they become able to speak, or behavioral resemblances that the child has with the deceased person from whom they're presumed to be reincarnated. And it's interesting that they they talk about behavioral resemblances, so it's like quirks and habits that the deceased relative had that the child has now adopted as well, and there may be no reasonable explanation because the child's never seen them exhibit that because obviously they're dead. They've never seen that them exhibit that behavior. Um I I find that very interesting. Um, oracles are then brought in and they are consulted to confirm the identification that the in the the incarnated soul that is in this child is the reincarnated soul of your deceased relative and they identify which relative it was. The Eggbor believe that the deceased persons inhabit a discarnate realm. So they go to that big cosmic waiting room and flick through old old uh editions of cosmo or something like that, and probably watch like reruns of the Big Bang Theory. But they conceive this as an undesirable limbo uh from which the discarnate souls are eager to return to a new terrestrial life. The Ig Ball concept of reincarnation includes belief in a group of souls called the Obanje, who are born and who are born and die early in life. So the same as you had mentioned about, you know, they usually die by the age of 28. They're born and they are they die early in life and then are reborn into the same family, often repeatedly. So they'll repeat the cycle over and over and over again. And I find that quite charming. You know, it's a nice way to, it's a nice way, you know, if somebody, if a young member of the family kind of passes away or dies kind of tragically, you can be like, oh, it's okay. That's their role in life, and they will reincarnate back into the family.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

As long as they like their family. That's the key. Imagine getting it. So it'd be a punishment.

SPEAKER_03 37:36

Being born into the same family. Keep coming back into the same family. Over and over, and all you're trying to do is escape. Right, exactly. Well noted. The other one that I find particularly interesting is with the Edo or the Benin people from Nigeria. The newborn infant is critically studied by the parents and other relatives to ascertain his or her resemblance to a deceased relative who is then said to have come back in this child. And I don't find that terribly shocking because we tend to look a lot like our relatives. Um, so I don't know if that's got a much much weight to it. Um, their judgment finds expression in the naming ceremony for the child, which customarily takes place seven days after the child was born. Or if you're from the royal family of this tribe, it you're allowed an extra seven days, so two weeks. Um, and everyone is believed to come back or to be reincarnated as another person 14 times. So that's quite interesting. They've got a 14, like a 14 reincarnation life cycle.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

What happens after the 14th time?

SPEAKER_03 38:32

I have absolutely no idea. I wish I did know. I did try and find out like what happens after the 14th uh incarnation, um, but I couldn't find anything specific. Maybe, and this is again just going on my own understanding of African cultures and you know uh other religions that have reincarnation as part of their belief structure. I know with Buddhism the ultimate goal is to reach enlightenment and to become a Buddha vista, and you will be reborn and reincarnated until you've reached a point of Buddha Vista, until you've reached ultimate enlightenment and gone to nirvana. Um, so I know in a lot of the African cultures, the ancestors are essentially what are the spirit guides. So during uh traditional ceremonies and you know, uh using talismans, they will communicate with their ancestors to get guidance and to receive guidance from the spirit guides, the ancestors. So what I can only assume is that it's something related to that, that maybe on after the 14th life, 15th and beyond, you have become one of the ancestors, and you maybe go to the ancestral plane and you become rather than a terrestrial guide and a terrestrial elder or leader, you become a spirit guide or a spirit elder who then communicates from the spirit realm with whoever it is that's doing the ceremonies. This is just my assumption.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

That may that makes sense because you've had training for 14 lifetimes. That's plenty of hair.

SPEAKER_03 39:49

So you should be ready by now. If you're not if you're not ready after 14 lifetimes, I don't know what happens. Like maybe you maybe you've just wasted all 14. Maybe I don't uh in that case, maybe you go to some sort of uh African traditional version of hell, or you just disintegrate and become plant food. I'm I'm not quite sure what happens there.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

There's science as plant food.

SPEAKER_03 40:09

Science as plant food. We'll go with science on that one. But you know, one of the other questions that kept coming up when we were talking with you know general folks on social media about uh reincarnation is a few people pointed out that reincarnation cannot reconcile with population growth. And honestly, it's it's a pretty good question. How can there be a certain number of people? How can all these souls be reincarnating? And if there's more people, are there less souls to fill those people? Which kind of implies that there are a lot of soulless beings wandering around the planet.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

Quite possible. That's actually logical, quite possible.

SPEAKER_03 40:42

Um, so it is a pretty good question, but there is this very misguided meme or this misguided fact, uh, and I think just a very misinterpreted fact on the internet that says that there are more people alive today than have ever lived before. And I think it's it is that I can see where the basis of that idea comes from, but it it's slightly misguided or slightly misinterpreted. There are more people alive on planet Earth right now than have ever been alive in a single time on planet Earth before. Um so our population density today is more dense than it's ever been in the past. Um, but the fact is that you know the there are seven billion on the seven seven billion people on the planet at the moment. But according to people who study such things, and I'm gonna get I'm gonna impress the crap out of you now with numbers and statistics, which is usually beyond my realm. It's usually beyond my realm. But of the uh, you know, the people who study such things, they say that the total population of the world from the the year that they started to measure was in 1 AD up until today, they think that they've been about 105 billion people on the planet in all existence of the human species. Um, or you know, where where they've started keeping track of it. So compared to that, the 7 billion that are alive now is actually only about 5% of the total number of people who have ever lived on the planet. Um and they so assuming a constant growth rate and constant birth rates, uh 80 per 1,000 from the year 1 AD, 60 per 1000 from 2 AD up into the year 1750, and the low 30s per 1000 in modern times basically brings you to a number of 105 billion people who have lived on Earth since 1 AD. And that means that the population of 7 billion alive today is about 5.5% of the total numbers of humans to ever have walked on the planet. But aside from all that mathy stuff, what we're also assuming, what we're also assuming if we're talking about um population growth versus reincarnation, is that it's a kind of one-in, one-out kind of a policy. If you die, you're immediately reincarnated. So there's only one soul for every one body. And that might not be the case because the total number of souls in existence might actually far exceed the number of incarnated souls that are alive on the planet at the moment. So just as an example, and more numbers, and I don't know why I'm doing this to myself, there could, let's say, for example, there could be a hundred billion souls that are in a life-death cycle, but only 7 billion of those souls are now currently living on planet Earth. So again, this is something where we say, okay, they've gone to that, you know, cosmic waiting room and they're flicking through old issues of the TV guide and doing crossword puzzles until it's their turn to come back again. But it's also not accounting for spirits on the planet who aren't inhabiting a you know a physical form at the moment. So it might explain things like ghosts and hauntings and shadow people. Those are souls wandering around aimlessly on the planet. And as you had mentioned as well, that some of them wait at their location where they died to go and inhabit a new body. Also, be sure to check out episode seven on hauntings where we talk about ghosts. Quick plug there.

SPEAKER_06 43:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:44

Um but it might be that there are just, you know, um disembodied souls waiting for their opportunity to be a terrestrial being again, and that this process might transpire over millions and millions of years. So they say that, you know, in this waiting room, there might not any there might not be any time like time is not measurable so they don't necessarily know that they've been waiting for a thousand years um it just might be one of those you know physics things where time and space no longer matter because you're a disembodied soul just hanging around waiting to come back um but the other thing that they the other thing that they say is that we also assume that souls only come from this planet and this obviously lends to your idea of being a blue orb if you're if we're only from this planet then yes okay population growth and density might come into play but there might be other planets where life forms are waiting to reincarnate and maybe coming to this planet or from a different dimension or from a multiverse or anything else. So there might be uh an excessive abundance of souls out there that we're just not aware of because egotistically we think we're the only living beings with souls on the planet. And then the other thing might be that souls might upgrade um or maybe possibly downgrade. But you know who my dog is a very good dog so he might he might upgrade into human form. I don't well I don't know if that's an upgrade or a downgrade to be honest. But you know we might upgrade into human form we might downgrade into animal form. If you've been a real dick in this lifetime you might be a rock in the next lifetime. So be careful. But the the the the whole belief system or the whole answer to this seems to be really rooted in your belief system. So religions like Christianity Islam and Judaism they don't really buy into reincarnation even though they do have some stories in their biblical canons or their different religions can religious canons that lend the idea of reincarnation. The book of Enoch for example that that might have been a situation of reincarnation but they tend to believe that when we die we go somewhere else for all eternity so how you lived your life here determines where you're going to go in the afterlife for the rest of eternity. Whereas there's a lot of these other kind of subculture or subreligions that do still hold on to the idea of reincarnation. But be that as it may there are thousands and thousands of records of children talking about reincarnation and they come from different religions different backgrounds and different cultures. And the fact that children talk about these and often in a lot of detail which is as we said beyond their cognitive development it's you know it it might give some evidence of reincarnation. It's an unusual thing for a three-year-old to talk about being an adult with a different family and remembering details of a different place in a different life. And that is a very smooth segue if I say it myself into the first one into the first one that I explored and this is the story of a three year old from Syria from a region called the Golan Heights and this young boy kept telling his parents that he remembered a previous life but also that he remembered that somebody had murdered him somebody had killed him in his previous life. And at the time there was a a doctor by the name of Dr. Eli Lush who had a bit of an interest in the idea of reincarnation and he had heard about the young boy's claims and he approached the parents and said that he would like to investigate further. So the parents got on board with the idea of this scientist, this doctor investigating with them and they decided one of the things that they would do is they would try track down the evidence that the boy was talking about. And so they started taking the boy to different places because he he said he remembered living in a different city in a different village outside of a different city. So they went to a couple of cities and at first the boy didn't recognize anything he didn't say anything. And then they got to this third city and the boy suddenly started saying that he was he remembered the details and he even led the parents and the doctor to the village which you know again that that's that's an interesting fact like a three year old not terribly good at giving directions I know that from I know that from working in kindergartens that it's very difficult to give a three year old directions. Never mind get directions from a three year old so this three year old led the doctor and his parents to this village on the outskirts of a city and once they were there he started recalling a whole lot more information. So it's like the environment almost started triggering a lot more memories in this this young boy to the point that he actually remembered what his name and last name had been in his previous life. And as he was telling the parents and the doctor about this one of the people who lived in the village overheard him talking about it and approached them and said that four years ago remember the boy is three four years ago a young boy had gone missing and nobody had seen or heard from him ever since and his name is the same name as what this young man had just said. And that is absolutely kind of like mind-boggling stuff. This little boy said that he remembered a name a passing by villager said hang on I've heard that name before that little boy by that name used to live in this village and no one's seen or heard from him in four years. And the story only gets progressively weirder so once they were there the boy then led them to a certain neighborhood within that village and he said and he pointed out a house and he said this is the house that I used to live in and you know again just like weirdly specific details. And while they were walking around in that area where he had used where he used to live um there was a stranger coming down the street and the boy walked right up to the stranger and called him by his name and of course you know that again how how how is that even possible this boy has never been to this city in his lifetime he has never been to this village in his lifetime here he is talking to a stranger and calling them by name. So you know the parents and the doctors are obviously becoming increasingly more convinced about this once he had started speaking to this man and calling him by his name he then said I used to be your neighbour you and I we had a fight and you killed me with an axe I mean oh my god you killed me with an axe and you buried my body so of course the stranger the stranger went completely white he was noticeably rattled by this which I think is quite reasonable but then the boy took them around the back of the house and he pointed to a certain area of the ground and he said this is where you buried my body with the axe oh my god so the parents and the doctor they go they dig there and guess what they find they find the dead remains of a young boy with an axe wound in his head along with the axe in the hole as well and what's even more weirder is that the the area of his skull where he had the axe wound from being killed by the neighbor matched where the boy in this lifetime had a birthmark on his head. So that is just absolutely like uncanny that is some uncanny shit right there. And on hearing all of this apparently what happened is that the man there accused the stranger whose whose name the boy knew apparently on hearing all of this he completely broke down and he confessed to murdering the boy and burying him there. So that is some pretty mind blowing shit right there. That's crazy. Mind blowing shit but and I hate to put a little spoiler right at the end of this in 2009 the only witness and you know unbiased impartial witness to this this Dr. Eli Lush he died in 2009. And you know I've tried to research on the internet whether or not there were any court cases involving this or whether or not you know a man was accused of murdering a boy with an axe in an unusual little village in you know Syria somewhere and the story pretty much stops there. So whether or not it's a true story I do not know but it's a damn good story nonetheless.

SPEAKER_01 51:09

It is well done.

SPEAKER_03 51:11

Now one of the other the the doctor that you had mentioned earlier Dr. Tucker he is a he was mentored by the by Dr. Ian Stevenson who was a psychiatrist who worked for the University of Virginia and he worked uh in the School of Medicine and he was the founder and the director of the university's division of perceptual studies and his division basically investigated the paranormal um which I find very interesting that there was a you know an institute of formal education that had a department that investigates the paranormal so I think that is very awesome and I'd be very keen to join that. But possibly me just being needy again, they'll never invite me. But Dr. Stevenson he became very well known for his research into cases which he considered to be suggestive of reincarnation and the idea that emotions and memories and even physical bodily features like birthmarks can travel from one lifetime into another lifetime. And one of the research one of the cases that Dr. Stevenson researched was the case of a girl in Burma which is the modern day Myanmar. And what is interesting about this case is that the you know the it it calls into question things like gender identity and sexuality and the idea that a soul can live in its let's say a male gender for many lifetimes and then suddenly find itself being reborn female and this might cause a lot of gender issues and make people question their gender or question their sexuality or identify in this lifetime even though being born as a girl I feel that they identify as male and it because it could be because the soul the soul is trying to reconcile its new gender in this lifetime. So this very interesting story happened around the time of World War II and it was when the Japanese occupied uh Burma and particularly this village called Natul and there was a Japanese soldier who lived there and he was the army's cook and he befriended a woman in this village her name was Door D-I D-A-W her full name was Door Aitin but for the sake of not having my mouth full of this lady's name I'm gonna call her Door through the story um the Japanese soldier befriended one of the villagers her name was Door and they basically they basically formed a bond over cooking and the Japanese soldier would teach her all about Japanese cuisine and how to cook Japanese dishes and she would do the same teaching him these Burmese dishes and what would happen is that the Allied forces they used to bomb Burma obviously in an attempt to get to the Japanese who had occupied this this village. So during the morning all the local Burmese people would scatter out into the fields and the forests and they would go and take cover because they knew that twice a day the Allied forces were flying their planes over and bombing and machine gun strafing the ground in an attempt to get the Japanese soldiers. One day Daw came back and her Japanese soldier friend was just gone and they'd formed this bond like I'd said over cooking and she said she remembered him always cooking without his shirt on and only wearing his shorts and his belt because obviously it's very hot in Burma and if you're standing over a big you know flame cooking all day it's gonna get a little bit sweaty. But one day they one day they came back and the Japanese soldier he was just gone. Now what happened a few years later is that Daw fell pregnant and she started getting this very weird reoccurring dream of a Japanese soldier following her around saying that I'm going to come and live with you. And it kind of scared her you know the dream and it it happened frequently and she would always tell this Japanese soldier just leave us alone, leave us alone leave me alone during the dream. Then on December 26 1953 and this is well after the Japanese um occupation of Burma had ended on the December the 26th 1953 Daw gave birth to a another daughter who they named Ma Ting Ang Miao so I'm just going to call her Ma from now on. And Ma was born Ma was born with a birthmark on her groin about the size of a thumb and described as a dark patch and through her life this birthmark always kind of troubled her it was always itchy or a little bit sore and kind of gave her a little bit of grief. And as a as a child Ma showed a very severe phobia of aircraft and it was not really you know it wasn't during a time of war so she had no real reason to be scared of aircrafts but when she was four years old she was walking with her father and a plane flew overhead and she became absolutely deathly frightened and she began to cry. And when her father asked her what was wrong she explained that she was afraid of planes because the planes would shoot them and she kept saying she wanted to go home. But of course her father explained to her that planes don't shoot people that only happened before you were born in the past so there's nothing for you to worry about. But again you know this it really really upset her and every attempt that her father made to try and reassure her was it just failed and she would always get all worked up and cry and and very freaked out by planes. And it was she was also described as a child as being very depressed and often would sit by herself and cry and when people would ask her what was wrong she would say that she misses Japan and she's pining for Japan. And that was weird because it's a place she's never had experience of and as I said the Japanese occupation of Burma had ended long before she she was born. In fact I think it ended in 1947 and she was only born in 1953. So she'd never even met any Japanese people but over time uh her memories of uh having a a different having a previous life again they just started to grow more and more detailed rather than subsiding they actually started to increase and she said and she started to claim that she remembered being a Japanese soldier who came from northern Japan that she had been married in a previous life and that she had five children with her wife from the previous lifetime and she said that she also remembered being stationed in the village that she lives in now she remembers being stationed in Natul and that she was a cook in her previous lifetime and she said that she remembered that she was by a pile of firewood and was about to start cooking a meal when she started to hear the noise of an aeroplane approaching. Remember this is all in her previous life she remembered that she heard an aeroplane approaching and she recalled that this pile of firewood was very close to an acacia tree that was only about 75 meters away from the the the house that her family in this lifetime lived in. And she said that during this incident the soldier that she was was wearing short pants no shirt and a very big belt around his waist and she recalled that when the flip the plane flew over that she tried to escape and go and hide behind the firewood but a bullet struck the soldier struck him in his groin and that's what was that that's what killed him and remember that she had a birthmark in this lifetime that really troubled her. Now as I said before the family returned from hiding in the forest in the fields and the Japanese soldier was just gone. So what we can only assume is that when the planes flew over and the Japanese soldier got hit and died that the Japanese army came and retrieved his body so that explains how he just suddenly went missing. But through Dr. Stevenson talking to this to Ma, he found that you know many cases of like birthmarks being in the sight of a traumatic wound where they'd you know been hit by a bullet or been stabbed or something like that, that it was an indicator in this lifetime as to the trauma that you had had in the past lifetime. And this idea that she was very phobic of planes even even though never having seen any planes in this lifetime or been under the threat of an aeroplane again it was a a phobia is something that that transpires in this lifetime from trauma in a previous lifetime. And she would describe the plane uh the plane that Ma was describing from the previous lifetime that killed her she said that it has two tails and that's obviously not a standard feature on most airplanes. Most airplanes have one. But the plane that Ma was referring to it had to have been um something called a Lockheed P38 lightning. And that was a US built fighter plane used by the Allies in the Pacific theater and very specifically used in Burma to bomb and machine gun at Burma so it's a very unusual detail that you know you wouldn't see on most modern day planes that she could recall. Now after sharing these memories every time an aircraft flew over that would frighten Ma, she would be told by her relatives that her you know it was silly to be scared of them. And her response to that was always what would you know? I was shot and killed by these then in 1963 when Ma was nine years old a helicopter landed in the field in Atoll and most of the villagers they'd never seen a helicopter before so they all wanted to gather around and have a look at this amazing machine but again Ma just went into a total meltdown and she you know she she kind of ran away from it. She was doing the opposite to what everybody else was doing they're running towards it she's running away from it she's absolutely petrified of these things. And she would tell her family that she wanted to go back to Japan and that she missed her children from a previous lifetime. And she would often say that when she grows up she's going to move back to Japan. She's going to buy herself a big belt like she'd had in her previous lifetime to protect her stomach from getting cold. And it was it's just very interesting that she would identify with Japan because obviously the Japanese having been uh having occupied Burma the Burmese people don't have a terribly fond memory of the occupying soldiers right I mean obviously terrible atrocities had happened um so it was just very unusual that she would have this affiliation to Japan and wanting to be in Japan and having memories of being Japanese um even so much that the the rest of the family kind of started to to pick on her a little and actually started calling her the little Japanese man. So they weren't terribly terribly nice about it. But her they also noticed that she would talk to herself a lot or she had talked to other children a lot using words that the Burmese people didn't understand. So what they eventually thought is that she was speaking Japanese in this lifetime. And if so that means that she was exhibiting something called xenoglossy and xenoglossy is a paranormal phenomenon in which a person is able to speak or write in a language that they could not have naturally acquired. So there were a lot of very unusual things about Ma that suggested that she had a very deep understanding of Japanese culture and places and you know identified as Japanese identified as male and could also speak Japanese. And a lot of the the um traits that she showed were very masculine as well and she insisted on wearing boys' clothing absolutely refused to wear girls' clothing to the point that she actually had to drop out of school because she refused to wear the the standard you know girls' school uniform for for attending the school which was a problem with administration and rather than conform to it she was so adamant in her belief that she was not a girl she was a boy that she chose to rather drop out of school rather than put on the girls' clothes and then one of the other things is that when she started to have a first menstrual period she hated it so much and she said that it was unbecoming of a man to have a menstruation which you know what it's unbecoming of a woman too right there are women well here's our un here's here's our unwarranted medical advice that we give in every episode to all the men out there if you start having a menstrual period go and see a fucking doctor because that's just uh that's just not normal. But in 1972 when Ma was 19 she told Dr. Ian Stevenson that she had no desire to be with men and that she wanted to be a woman and she wanted to have a wife and she said that she already had a steady girlfriend at the time and by 1981 when she was 28 years old she had a girlfriend who she was living with it's such an interesting thing that your gender identity in this lifetime could actually be linked to your past lifetimes. And I, you know, as as controversial as that statement might be to some people I get to have the disclaimer that I am gay. Maybe maybe nobody had noticed but I am shock and horror. But uh you know it's it's one of those controversial statements that you get to talk about if you are gay. I think that maybe the reason I am this way is because in a previous lifetime I'd lived as a different gender. Not that I feel that I identify as a woman in this lifetime I am most certainly male and I identify as a man. But it might be where the it might be you know one of the roots of gender identity. So I just found it a very interesting for that for that specific reason I found it to be a very interesting story of this Burmese girl who is a reincarnated Japanese soldier. And again you know the birthmark ticks the box um having a phobia it ticks the box but also what I'd mentioned earlier about roles reversing how what sweet poetic justice is it that a Japanese soldier who was at the time seen as the oppressor is then reincarnated into the culture into the very village where the people who were being oppressed by them lived and resided um there's a lot of poetic justice in that there is absolutely so one of the nice things that we we did as well is that we asked uh listeners to please send in our their stories if they've got any uh past life regression stories and one of my favorite people from Instagram by the name of Mel who also hosts a podcast called Sideshow hashtag go check it out um Mel was very generous and she sent in her experience of having a past life regression uh so I'm gonna play that for you now and uh Stone and Xander have not heard this yet we haven't listened to this in its entirety yet so our our reactions are going to be authentic and so we can all listen for the first time hello my name is Mel and I am half of the podcast sideshow with Mel and Shanna.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:27

And I am here to talk to you about a past life regression that I had oh well it's it's in two parts. The first part happened when I was probably oh late teens early twenties I was still living at my parents' house and I had a dream that was very vivid and I remember it very very very very well I was a man I was in the trenches in what I can only imagine was World War I and there was a man next to me and clearly he and I had a relationship that was more than just friends. So hi I was queer even back then so anyway he gets up and gets out of the trench and then he starts running towards the front line and he steps on a what I can what I guess was a landmine and proceeded to just completely blow himself the smithereens and I was absolutely devastated heartbroken like you would be like you would feel those feelings like you just lost your partner. And I remember waking up just bawling I mean I was just bawling and I it took me a good couple of days to shake that feeling of like loss and sadness And so let's fast forward about 15 years and I had lost my job and I was feeling really lost and I didn't know what to do. So I was like, you know, I think I'm gonna go ahead and take up trying to meditate. So I tried to meditate and I looked it up on Google how to meditate. And it said close your eyes and try to empty your mind and all of the things that you would think of when you are trying to meditate. So I did that, and eventually it worked. I cleared my mind and all of a sudden I hear this voice. And let me here's a caveat. I'm not crazy. I had a therapist for a good six months. She was like, Why are you even coming to me? You're fine. Get out of here. I have other patients to attend to. Okay. She didn't actually say that, but that's the gist. Anyway, that's my disclaimer. I swear I'm not crazy. I'm not hearing things. I'm not I don't have schizophrenia. I don't have any any sort of mental issues. So I hear this voice. And it's a man's voice. And he's telling me, hey, I'm I am your spirit guide. And I was like, okay, sure. Okay. Alright. So tell me all about me, spirit guide. And so he proceeds to tell me, he's like, hey, do you remember that one dream that you had when you were in World War One in the trenches? And I was like, sure. Yeah, I do remember that. And he's like, Do you know who that guy was that got blown up? I was like, let me guess. Was it you? And he was like, Yep, sure was. I was your spirit guide. I came down in human form. And there you have it. So that was that was kind of an eye-opening experience for me. And ever since that day, I have been listening to audiobooks and reading books about past lives and lives between lives, and it has just been very, very eye-opening and very interesting. So there you have it. Oh, also, just a little side note. Now I uh ever since then I have also taken classes on mediumship and things like that, and also how to do past life regressions. So here's a second little story about my partner who just happens to be Shanna. I did a past life regression for her, and she, and this is not a surprise because this girl is a fucking mermaid, she was some sort of sea creature in a past life. So that was pretty cool. She can tell you all about that though. That's her story to tell, not mine. But just a little caveat I can actually hypnosis to an extent for past life regression. So that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Thanks for having me on. And check out my podcast. It is called Sideshow with Mel and Shanna. Thank you so much for having me on. We have a regressionist for you.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:20

We have Oh my god, that is like next level exciting. Mel, Mel, I'm gonna ask you to do a past life regression for me at some point. Please don't reject me. Um I don't think I could take a third rejection. Um, but that's very exciting.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:36

Yeah, I I would like to, we should we should have one together.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:40

Group regression, group regression on the show. How awesome would that be? But like a super huge big thank you to Mel for sharing that story with us because, you know, as we said, that and as she said as well, it's a very traumatic experience, and there's a lot of emotion around getting a past life regression and recalling all of these memories. Um, so massive shout out to Mel and also be damn sure to go and check out Mel's podcast. It's called Sideshow. I have listened to it, it is quirky, it is hilarious. They are fantastic hosts and they tell fabulous stories, so totally worth checking out. One of the things I loved about her story as well is how she was so skeptical when the when the spirit guide first spoke to her. She was like, say what? Say who are you? Like, wait, don't tell me. You're the guy. I think that is fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:24

I think she's too sassy, a little sassy. Sassy with the spirit guides, getting sassy with the spirit guides. Um, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:33

Thank you so much to Mel for sending that. What the listeners again, what they don't know is that actually Mel had sent through a previous version of that as well, and then the file was corrupted. I'm telling, let me tell the listeners, and I think you're gonna agree with me on this stone. This episode has been somewhat cursed. Um, and we had a weird time anomaly. So, what we had done is we had recorded this on uh two days ago, and the sound, the sound quality was for whatever reason absolutely shocking. I won't mention the platform that we used because their branding is supposed to be quite good. I wasn't happy with it. Then we re-recorded it today, and what is now a recording that is sitting on one hour and 13 minutes before editing, the previous recording we did of this, four hours went missing. How did it it is some sort of a weird time in the weird mystery? You're the one who pointed it out. We started recording in my time at 9 a.m. and we finished at 1 p.m., but we only had two hours of content. So where those other two hours went is yes, shocking bizarre. Maybe, maybe this is, you know, I I keep saying, Oh, I want to have a paranormal experience. I want to have maybe, maybe this is it.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:40

And the other weird time thing was that the email you sent me right before the show said tomorrow on it. I've never had that happen.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:49

It literally said tomorrow, and I sent you the screenshot. And then uh my computer for no apparent reason has the wrong time even now. So there were all these weird time things to very, very weird, very weird indeed.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:01

Um, and where those other two hours of missing time went while we were recording the podcast is absolutely beyond me. Um, but this is take three. Aliens.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:10

Aliens.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:11

Um, but this is take three of this podcast as well. And it's also the second time that Mel sent that story through to us. So a huge, big thank you to Mel for sharing the story. And I'm gonna say it again, folks, go and check out the Sideshow podcast. It is absolutely worth listening to, I promise. One of the other things that we did this week is we did an Ask Us Anything on Instagram, and I think anybody will know that that could always go in any direction. You never know what you're gonna get back. But I think that we got some pretty good questions. And the first question that we got, I'm gonna hand over to Stone, because it is most certainly a science-y type question. And Stone, you're the science-y half of this equation. And this question came from Rachel, and it's a very succinct two-word question that goes, string theory.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:55

Well, as always, I would like to remind our listeners that I've had no formal training in science or and as much medical advice as we dispense, we're also not doctors. Um, so as far as string theory goes, uh probably Big Bang Theory, the television show, has already busted up some of it. So I think with the little copper, some aluminum foil, some twine, and a few little tweaks like that, string theory, yes, we're totally on board with string theory. What do you think?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:28

Well, first thing I I want to I want to correct you on that because I am a doctor. I do have a PhD. Um, it's just I'm not a medical doctor, and my PhD is in ufology, believe it or not. And I'm I'm being completely serious. I'm not joking. I do have a PhD in ufology, so I am technically doctor Xander. Um, I'm not going to claim that it's the most credible university in existence, but it's a PhD nonetheless. So you will call me doctor. Um for string theory, you know, I mean, that's a massive question, but uh I think it's a it's a very beautiful concept. Um, this idea of like quantum entanglement and particle entanglement and how you manipulate a particle here will affect how a particle on the other side of the galaxy um, you know, it it affects that particle too. And that is about the limit of my knowledge of uh string theory. Uh I've watched So you also agree, copper wire, copper wire, some triple A batteries just to get the whole thing going, um, and then we're good to go.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:27

And an electric eel.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:28

And an electric eel, of course. But I thought the electric ill was implied. I mean, like everybody's fair enough. Everybody knows that. Um then the other question we got again, people are very good at two-word questions because the other question we got was from another podcast who we've engaged with quite a lot. I believe he's based in Spain, and it's the podcast name is Awakening the Unawakened, which is a very cool name. And this is another two-way question, and it goes, demonic possession. Um, do you like my upward infliction there, implying the question mark? Demonic demonic possession. Um, so I'm gonna handle this one. Um, and you know, as far as demonic possession goes, again, it's not something I can give a yes or a no answer to. I'm on I'm a bit on the fence about demonic possession. The reason I am on the fence, the reason I would lean towards a yes is because if it is part of your spiritual belief and it's it's how you construct your your belief system, and you believe that you are possessed or can be possessed by a demon, and that the solution to that is to have an exorcism. And to you, that is your reality. To you, it is very, very real. So in that case, I I would never con I would never say that you're wrong. Go get the go get the exorcism if that's what you need. If you feel that that's going to bring you salvation or relief from being possessed by a demon, then who am I to say that you're wrong? What I lean on the no side is that I do not think that I could be possessed by a demon because I quite simply don't believe that that's for from my belief structure that that sort of a thing happens. Um, and you know, I might be basing this on the hours and hours of TV shows that I've watched or the hours and hours of the travel channel that I've watched, where there's that dude from the paranormal investigating show that gets like possessed on every single episode to the point that it is no longer credible. And even, you know, having having studied film and drama and and all these sorts of things, and and thinking myself to have a little bit of working knowledge on what a good performance might look like, his are not terribly good. Um he's not gonna be getting any Academy Awards this season. Um, so I you know, I I don't believe that I would ever be possessed by a demon because it's not part of my core belief system. With that said, I think I've invited the demons, I've invited the aliens, I've invited the cults, I've tried to get a past life regression. So who knows? There might come a day when these sorts of things uh I'm proven wrong. But as it stands right now, um, as far as demonic possession goes, I agree with it if it's part of your belief structure and your belief system. Me personally, I do not feel that's any risk of ever being possessed by a demon.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:57

I imagine the demons made you say that. That would be my take on it.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:02

Somehow, somehow I knew you were gonna say that. Um it might be, it might be. And then our last question, and I think this one is for both of us, um, is from Dina in Canada. And this one is how did you get interested in the paranormal? So, ladies first, Stone, how did you get interested in the paranormal?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:20

Uh well, I again, I hope this podcast goes huge because I'll never get hired after all of these episodes. But uh I've had so many strange things happen throughout the years that have been unable to have an explanation by by normal, by scientific method, um, including having ball lightning in my room when I was 16 and UFO experience and ghosts and shadow people. And and you'll hear all about it throughout these episodes if you haven't already. Um, so I think that was my interest is just trying to figure out my own personal experiences because we they weren't talking, things like that weren't talked about in my home. And so when they would happen, then you know, the a afterwards I would have to research them as opposed to I would hear about them and then it would happen. It was always an after effect. So that probably drove me into this field to some degree.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:15

I just realized something interesting. So I've I've said it before on a couple of episodes that I've not had anything that I consider to be a without question paranormal experience. And you and I have discussed this, and it might be that I try and explain away things. But what I find quite interesting is that you have had paranormal experiences and you explore the science part for our podcast. I have not had any paranormal experiences, and I tend to explore the paranormal part. So that's a little bit of an interesting dynamic that I saw. Yeah, we just stumbled across. Um, you know, the the answer for me um on how did I get interested in the paranormal, again, it's it's not something that I can tie down to a single event or a single occurrence that says, okay, this is why I started getting interested in the paranormal. I remember being very young and being at uh I was raised as a Roman Catholic and being in a church and thinking and and knowing all the the the um you know, like the book of Revelation saying that the devil would come and deceive us and say that he is the Christ and people would follow him when in fact it's the antichrist. And I remember being, I'm gonna get I'm gonna piss off so many people right now. I remember being in a church and thinking, and I must have been about seven, eight, nine years old, thinking that if the devil was really going to convince people to follow the wrong, uh, you know, the to follow the antichrist or whatever it might be, that what better place to do it than to pretend to be something like a church and pretend to be good when in fact you're being evil. Um so you know, I've I've always had uh an inclination towards this sort of a thing. But I can't tell you why I'm interested in the paranormal. It's just something that I've always explored. I've I've always had an interest in it. I've had an interest in occult, I've had an interest in paranormal. Obviously, with a PhD in ufology, I've gone and done a lot of exploring on that as well. Um, so it's just something that I I guess maybe I have a dark side to my personality that really likes to explore the unknown. Uh so that would have to be my answer.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:03

And because we're on video, I while I'm listening to your answer for our listeners who can't see you, Xander has a big poster behind him that says, I want to believe. I do.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:15

Yes, I do. I do, I do.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:18

So he wants to.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:19

He really wants to. Look, I won't, I won't deny that um I've I've had some experiences, but again, you know, I don't know if maybe it's just me needing to stop trying to find explanations for things. Maybe that's what it is. Maybe I just have to have a bit more faith in what has happened. Um, so I have had experiences of what I would describe as mediumship where I've received messages to go to other people, and those messages have meant something to other people. Um in my early teen year, or in my teen years and into my early 20s, um, I was quite involved in what people might describe as their cult. Um, so things like Wicca and witchcraft and what is essentially alternative religions. Um, I don't like describing them as a cult because a cult kind of has a dark foreboding feeling to it. Whereas, you know, alternative religions should be seen as just exactly that, as an alternative religion. Um, and I I've had experiences in that. But I'm I've got this other half of my brain that is just such a skeptic. And it's, you know, it's it's just saying, oh, but that's because you want to believe that that's what it is. If you think that you received a message, you want to believe that you'd received a message, or if you think you experienced uh, you know, like an angelic being during a ritual that you want to believe you experienced that being. Um, so I guess maybe it's my own mind is torn between wanting to believe, but being a little bit apprehensive about just fully investing with blind faith into what I've seen. So, you know, call me, call me uh an optimistic skeptic, I suppose.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:47

Yeah, I I think healthy skepticism is a good thing, actually.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:51

And I think it, you know, is especially doing the research for this this type of a podcast, it allows us to look at things a little bit more objectively. Um, so you know, like while the story of the three-year-old boy was fantastic, there are no credible witnesses who can back up that story. Um, so you know, it's I'm not going to buy into that story 100% and tell people that a boy was reincarnated in Syria, because there's a little bit of credible witness and evidence lacking from that. Um, but you know, go ahead, prove me wrong, and I'll I'll give that as our call to action for our listeners this week. If you'd like to prove Xander wrong, um, or if you would if you would like to share your paranormal experiences with us, or if you would like to share experiences of past life regressions, or pretty much any paranormal experience that fits in with what we talk about on the show, please do go ahead and contact us. And you can do that by sending an email, constact contacting us on Instagram, or getting hold of us on Twitter. Um, our email address is Xander with an X, Xanderstonepodcast at gmail.com. Our Instagram account is Xanderstone Podcast, and our Twitter account is Xanderstone10. And you'll be able to find all the links and the email addresses in the show notes below. Now on to the last little bit, and we're going to do a quick bit of uh dusting and housekeeping. Uh I think by the time this episode airs, I think folks will notice that we've got some very sexy new cover art. And for that, I just want to I want to thank Stone, who's been working tirelessly behind the scenes and getting that sexy new uh cover art together for us. So thank you very much, Stone. I absolutely love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:25

And and also thank you for that. And also to our listeners on several platforms who voted between two covers, and that's how we arrived there. Thank you for your input because we were really torn between the two.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:39

Absolutely, yeah. And I think I think they voted on a great one. I think it is really sexy. And what what you might know is I've actually already uploaded it. So it is actually live now before the episode has gone live because you know me, I can't wait. I can't wait. Um, the other little bit of housekeeping is that next week we will be joining the I Did Not Sign Up for This Podcast, and we will be joining them for their spooky Halloween episode. So definitely go and subscribe to their podcast as well and have a listen because it's the first time we'll be guest speakers on another podcast. So that is super fucking exciting. Um we're gonna make it. And then my last is my last is a shout out to the Mystified Podcast. And this is a particularly special shout out because um one of the hosts of Mystified, her name is Tasha, and she has been super supportive, super encouraging, and just really sharing her knowledge and her expertise with me over the past few weeks. And um, you know, she's helped to elevate our podcast, to get our podcast, to tell other people about our podcast. Um and obviously we're doing the same for her as well. But it's one of the things that I've really enjoyed about being on social media, which I've got a bit of an aversion to social media. But then I started joining all these pod these podcast communities on social media, and they are just such amazing people. And all the listeners that we've engaged with, all the other podcasters that we've engaged with have made it such an awesome experience. And one of the people who stands out for me this week is Tasha from the Mystified Podcast. So, Tasha, you are fucking awesome. Keep rocking on, and everybody out there, listen to the Mystified Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:11

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:12

And who are your shout-outs to this week, Ms. Stone?

SPEAKER_01 1:25:17

My shout-outs are going to V and Henry in South Africa, uh, Ken Anderson in Texas, and Dorothy Johnson in West Virginia.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:27

Fantastic. So hello to all those listeners as well. And what we will eventually do as well is we will spend a bit more time getting our Facebook page and our Facebook group up and running properly. And I noticed that we've had an awful long list of people joining our Facebook page. And I apologize for not being able to give them all a shout out today, but it is something that we will get to. Um, it is a super, super long list. I don't know. I think I think Stone, again, I think that's all your work, is getting lots and lots of people onto our Facebook page. Um, but I promise we'll give them a shout-out in the very near future.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:57

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:58

And so from us today for the past lives in reincarnation episode, thank you so much for joining us. And remember to continue to live your life in excess. From me, Xander, it's a goodbye.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:12

And from me, Stone, thank you so much for listening.