In our society it's considered inappropriate to vocalize your opinion to a stranger on topics such as politics, religion, sex, money, racial issues, and abortion, just to name a few.

Everyone has an opinion, and some become very emotional, even angry if you don't agree with theirs. Their strong beliefs are sometimes linked to their childhood or other miscellaneous defining moments in their lives.

But let's not forget about the impact of past lives. If you want to find the cause of something in your life, whether it be your fondness for a certain nation or group of people, or your fear of flying or snakes, it can almost always be traced back to past lives.

Side note: As we've frequently said, it doesn't matter if reincarnation exists or not. What is important is that exploring one's past lives can be very healing, even if it turns out that the perceptions may be metaphorical, linked to your subconscious mind.

Do you know someone who spends a lot of their time campaigning for a cause or political candidate? They may simply believe strongly in the purpose and truly want to help others, but there could be other reasons too. For a person who is consumed by anger against the opposition, our findings indicate that a strong past life link is often likely: whoever is screaming the loudest (anti-whatever) could easily have been on the other side in a past life. Perhaps their actions in a past life as an 1800s shipping tycoon, for example, were often very dishonest, racist, unfair, and selfish. Consciously they don't remember this, of course, but subconsciously it triggers a response. Guess why they're spending so much energy on the cause now? Answer: they project their former nefarious self (or selves) onto others who may or may not (often times not) be creating the negative karma that they did in the past. Until they get to know themselves better (spiritually speaking) and recognize their projections for what they are, they'll continue exclusively seeing the world as they are or were (instead of how it really is), spinning around like a dog chasing its tail.

How about a certain internationally famous pop star who, in the 1980s and 1990s, caused a lot of controversy through her sexual and (some would say) anti-religious images and lyrics? Is it possible that she lived one or more lives as a powerful religious figure who, by his or her actions, caused the populations of entire countries to be more shameful and fearful about sex? Absolutely. Could this pop star have been destined to attempt to reverse some of that through her (legal and mostly harmless) provocative and sexual public image and behavior in this life, and be ridiculed repeatedly in the press as a result? Yes.

Do you know someone who despises the wealthy? Do they insist that most rich people are greedy, mean, and had to be ruthless and cheat others to gain their wealth? Guess who very possibly acted in such a way in a previous life and created negative karma for themselves? Even if someone does obtain wealth unfairly by hurting others, try not to let it bother you too much. Have compassion for them and know that they will ultimately have to pay for it in other ways, even if it is not until a future life.

It's important to note that your karmic circumstances in life are not about reward or punishment, but learning and growth. For example, being born rich or poor, straight or gay, black, white, brown, or red, attractive or not, fit or not, is not simply because you were "good" or "bad" in past lives.

However, if you are forced to deal with steep and stressful challenges in this life related to your family, s.exual orientation, race, appearance or something else you cannot change, it's possible your soul choose them for you to experience the other side of things. Or, sometimes it may be that your soul volunteered to be an example in some way for those around you, ultimately to help progress human understanding and compassion, for instance. You may or may not have been, for example, a rich, straight, handsome womanizer who used and abused females in a past life (and may or may not have already balanced the energy in successive past lives). Even if you were, everyone has been "good" and "bad" in past lives, so go easy on yourself; it's much more important to focus on doing the right thing now in all situations than to feel guilty about how you were in past lives.

If you would like to overcome or at least be better able to deal with burdensome personal issues, past life regression can shed new light on the situation, help you to detach from it, and in some cases overcome it. If you just want to explore past lives out of curiosity, going back in time can be an eye-opening experience and help you realize the deeper reasons for why you are who you are and how you knew the people in your life.

Copyright © Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo