Past lives affect us in many ways. They could affect us with phobias, habits, or soul contracts with those we knew in a previous time. Many of our personality traits and talents are the result of a past life where we were once good at something or did something often. Often our passions as well as our fears travel with us throughout lifetimes as we gather more of them to help our souls grow and learn.
Young children often tell remarkable stories of lives, places, and people that they could not possibly know of in their current life. There is growing research in this field of study, however many people do not take it serious unless they experience it first hand. Nearly every culture and religion in the world has at one point believed in reincarnation, including Hindus, Pagans, Buddhists, Egyptians, Native Americans and early Christians. Many of these cultures had no exposure to each other, yet they all adapted the belief of many lives nonetheless. As ancient and wide spread as the idea of reincarnation is, along with the growing scientific evidence, there are many reasons to believe it is a fact.
I personally have experienced memories of past lives, many of which took place for me at a very young age. At the time I didn’t realize 
what I was experiencing, but when I got older I was astounded at the implications of my early “day dreams”. I would often have visions of people and places that I had never been exposed to, along with obsessions over certain places and various things. The strongest memories for me were those of the American south west, a place I have never visited in my current life and which I became hypnotized by at a very early age.
This obsession over the south west has lasted my entire life. Along with the early visions and memories of these places came other insights, all of which have served to help me piece together my previous life. I have always felt a very strong calling to return there, sometimes it is almost too strong to resist. I feel that there is a great need for me to return in order to put together the missing pieces of my current life and to better understand my personal journey.
There are many ways to reconnect with previous lives, from meditation and hypnosis to oracle card readings and dream work. When working in meditation, get in touch with your higher consciousness or guides to help you find answers from previous lives. The answers usually will not come all at once as a full story, but instead as flashes or pieces that you will be able to use to better understand things as they are now. Ask your guides to show you the things from previous lives that are most important for understanding your personal journey, they will be more than happy to assist you. You can also work with past lives through dream work. With lucid dreaming you access your higher consciousness and are able to learn things which are normally hidden from your waking conscious.
There are many oracle card spreads available which you can use to gain insights into previous lives. You can use any type of deck along with any of the various spreads to gain valuable information about your soul record. When reading the cards, make sure to read them not only individually but as a collective group, in order to get the whole story. Remember that the cards carry many different meanings and that what matters most is what they mean to you personally. Below is a simple past life spread which may be helpful:
Card 1. You in your current life (personality and energies in your current life)
Card 2. Energies surrounding your birth into current life (Cosmic energies, conditions of birth, why your soul chose to be born into your current body)
Card 3. Conditions of your death in previous life (how you died in the last lifetime, feelings around the time of death in previous life)
Card 4. Soul journey (why you are here, what you are meant to do)
Card 5. Energies surrounding your previous life (personality and energies in the previous life)
Card 6. Strengths and weaknesses in current life
Card 7. Strengths and weaknesses in previous life
Card 8. What your higher consciousness needs you to know
Card 9. Soul contracts and connection to twin flames (soul mates, twin flames, and people to whom we are connected through various lives)
Primordial EarthSky 