You’re standing in a city you’ve never visited. Suddenly, you know exactly what’s around the corner. It’s a bakery with a blue door. You turn the corner. There it is. Your heart skips because this makes zero sense. This phenomenon, often called "déjà visité," is one of the many reasons people find themselves obsessively searching for who were you in your past life.
It's a weirdly universal itch.
Roughly 25% of American adults believe in reincarnation according to Pew Research data. This isn't just a New Age trend or something restricted to Eastern religions like Hinduism or Buddhism. It’s a deeply human curiosity about continuity. We want to know if this 80-year stint on Earth is the whole story or just a single chapter in a much longer, weirder book.
Let's be real: most "past life" talk is fluff. You’ve probably seen the online quizzes that tell you that you were a Victorian princess because you like tea. Honestly? That’s not how this works. If reincarnation is real, the odds of you being royalty are statistically microscopic. You were probably a farmer. Or a cobbler. Or a soldier who died of dysentery in a trench.
The University of Virginia’s 60-Year Study
If you want to talk about who were you in your past life without sounding like a tinfoil-hat theorist, you have to talk about Dr. Ian Stevenson. He wasn’t a psychic. He was a psychiatrist at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
He spent decades investigating "Cases of the Reincarnation Type" (CORT). He didn't just listen to stories; he looked for physical evidence. We’re talking about birthmarks that matched the fatal wounds of the deceased person the child claimed to be. Stevenson documented over 2,500 cases.
One of the most famous involvements was the case of James Leininger. This kid, barely out of diapers, started having night terrors about a plane crash. He knew specific technical details about a Corsair aircraft. He remembered the name of the ship—the Natoma Bay. He even identified a fellow pilot from a photograph. His parents were skeptical Christians who didn't even believe in this stuff. They tried to find every other explanation, but the facts held up.
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It’s cases like Leininger’s that move the needle from "cool story" to "wait, what?"
Why Your Brain Invents Lives
Psychology offers a different lens.
Believing in a past life can be a coping mechanism for trauma or a way to explain personality quirks that don’t fit your upbringing. Dr. Chris French, a psychologist who specializes in paranormal beliefs, often points toward "False Memory Syndrome."
Our brains are essentially giant association machines.
You see a movie, read a book, and visit a museum. Years later, your subconscious stitches these fragments together into a narrative. During a "past life regression" session using hypnosis, you are in a highly suggestible state. If a practitioner asks, "Where are you?" your brain feels pressured to provide an answer. It digs into the "junk drawer" of your memory and builds a persona.
- Source: Cryptomnesia. This is when a forgotten memory returns but the person doesn't recognize it as a memory. They think it's a new, original thought or a vision from a past life.
- The Social Element: We want to feel special. Being a "healer" in 14th-century France feels a lot better than being a middle-manager in 2024.
How to Actually Investigate Who You Were in Your Past Life
If you’re serious about digging into this, skip the 10-question clickbait quizzes. They’re designed for ad revenue, not soul-searching. Instead, look for patterns that actually exist in your current life.
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1. Phobias Without Origins
Do you have an intense, paralyzing fear of drowning despite being a strong swimmer? Or maybe you can't stand things around your neck, even though you’ve never had a choking incident? Researchers like Stevenson noted that many children who claim to remember past lives have phobias related to the way "they" died.
2. The "At Home" Feeling
Some people travel to a foreign country and feel an immediate, bone-deep sense of belonging. This isn't just liking the food. It’s a familiarity with the layout of streets or the cadence of a language you’ve never studied.
3. Physical Marks
This is the most controversial part of the research. Some believe that significant trauma can leave a "trace" on the biological body. A large, unusual birthmark might correlate with a specific injury from a previous life.
The Trouble With Hypnosis
Past life regression (PLR) is the most popular way people try to answer the question of who were you in your past life. But you need to be careful.
The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis warns that hypnosis is not a "truth serum." It’s an imagination enhancer. While it can be a great therapeutic tool for exploring the subconscious, it is notoriously unreliable for historical accuracy.
If you do go the regression route, find a practitioner who doesn't "lead" the witness. If they say, "Tell me about the castle you see," they’ve already messed up. They’ve planted the idea of a castle. A good practitioner asks open-ended questions like, "What do you see when you look at your feet?"
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That's a big one. The shoes tell the story. People often imagine themselves in gowns, but in a real memory, they might describe simple, worn-out leather sandals or being barefoot in the dirt.
Practical Steps for Exploring Your History
You don't need to spend thousands of dollars on "soul clearing" sessions. Start with self-observation. It's cheaper and honestly more revealing.
- Keep a Dream Journal: Write down recurring themes. Pay attention to the clothes and the technology in the dreams. Are you using a smartphone, or are you lighting a candle?
- Identify Natural Talents: Some people call it "prodigy" status. If a child sits at a piano and understands the math of music without a lesson, where did that come from? Look at your own "easy" skills.
- Research Your Lineage: Sometimes what we think is a past life is actually "epigenetic memory." Recent studies in Nature Neuroscience suggest that trauma can be passed down through DNA. You might not be remembering your life; you might be feeling your great-grandfather’s experiences.
- Visit Historical Sites: If you feel a "pull" toward a certain era, go to a museum or a historical battlefield. See if any objects trigger a physical reaction. A heavy feeling in the chest or sudden nausea can be more telling than a visual image.
Beyond the Fantasy
Whether reincarnation is a biological reality or a psychological phenomenon doesn't actually change the impact it has on you. If exploring who were you in your past life helps you understand your current anxieties or passions, it has value.
Just keep one foot on the ground.
Most people throughout history were ordinary. They struggled with taxes, bad weather, and toothaches. If your "memories" involve you being Nefertiti or Napoleon, take a step back and ask why your ego chose those specific figures.
The most compelling cases are the boring ones. The man who remembers being a village clerk in a town that actually exists, with names of neighbors that show up in old census records. That is where the real mystery lies.
Actionable Next Steps
- Map Your Patterns: Write down three irrational fears and three inexplicable "pulls" you have toward certain cultures or time periods.
- Verify the Details: If you have a specific "memory" of a name or location, use digital archives like Ancestry.com or Find A Grave to see if those people actually existed in that timeframe.
- Check Your Media Diet: Before assuming a memory is from a past life, verify that you haven't recently watched a movie or read a book set in that specific era.
- Practice Mindfulness: Use quiet meditation to observe thoughts without forcing a narrative. Let images arise naturally rather than trying to "hunt" for a past identity.