The best reincarnation stories not only entertain us, but offer examples of how reincarnation may impact our own lives, and keys to see our own past-life influences.

Here is a reincarnation story that does all three. It has to do with an experience I had many years ago.

"I was a tourist in England at the time and my friend and I decided to visit where the Battle of Hastings took place.

The site is located some ten or twenty miles north and inland from the town of Hastings. It is called Battle Abbey-named after the church built on the spot where Harold of England fell in battle to the forces of William the Conqueror.

My friend and I were walking through the town of Battle on our way to the abbey. We hadn't seen each other in years and were catching up. We were walking along an old stone wall, and my friend had just told me a joke.

I was laughing and enjoying my friend's company when, all of a sudden, I felt as if someone had pulled the rug out from under me. From one moment to the next, my mood shifted 180 degrees. I felt as if there were an invisible cloud over my head-like that character in the Little Abner cartoons.

I could hardly speak. Somehow I managed to ask my friend if we could split up for the battlefield tour. He graciously agreed.

The battlefield is now a sheep pasture. The original church built on the site is in ruins. There is a standard tour that most people take, walking along a path that circles the battlefield and stopping to study dioramas that depict key moments in the day long conflict.

I skipped all of that and walked to the heart of the battlefield where the fighting had taken place. There, on a gentle hill, I seated myself in the midst of a flock of sheep.

What happened next was very unusual. I haven't experienced anything like it before or since.

As I gazed at that sheep pasture I saw, superimposed on it, a moving line drawing of soldiers hacking at each other with swords, of horses rearing and spears being raised and shields going up. My eyes seemed to focus on one particular soldier, and I watched as he died.

As the sheep gently nudged me, I wept with abandon for about 45 minutes. I felt that I was releasing something I had held deep inside for nearly a thousand years-which, if I had been in that battle, would have been true.

I am spiritually sensitive, and I've experienced battlefields before and the residue of sorrow and pain that often lingers there from what others have gone through. But this was different. It was very clear to me that what I was experiencing had to do with no one else but me. It was very real, very personal, and very powerful.

At the end of it, I felt a deep healing and inner freedom. It was partially because of this experience that I decided to share what I was learning about past lives with others."

Now, what can you gain from this reincarnation story?

First, that visiting someplace we've never been before in this life can trigger past-life memories-and those memories can be sudden and dramatic.

Also, if a past-life memory is powerful enough it can interfere with our living in the here and now.

And finally, even the most painful recalled memories can bring about a deep healing and a new understanding.