Where were you - your soul, your spirit - before you were born? If the soul is immortal, did it have a "life" before your birth?

Much has been written, and many anecdotes recorded, of the near-death experience (NDE). People who have been declared dead and then revived sometimes report an experience of being on another plane of existence, often meeting deceased relatives and beings of light.

Rarer, but no less intriguing, are stories from people who recall an existence shortly before their births into this world - the pre-birth experience (PBE).


These recollections differ from past-life recall in that past-life recall are memories of previous lives on earth as humans, sometimes recently and sometimes from hundreds or even thousands of years ago. The pre-birth experience seems to "remember" an existence in the same or similar plane of existence described by NDErs.

Those who say they have had this amazing experience recall being in a spirit world, are aware of life on earth, and can sometimes choose their next life or communicate with their future parents. Some people even get a glimpse or a sense of the pre-birth realm during an NDE.

"Our research indicates that there is a continuity of self, that the 'same you' progresses through each of the three life stages - life before life, earth life, and life after death," according to Royal Child - The Prebirth Experience. "In a typical pre-birth experience, a spirit not yet born into mortality crosses over from the pre-earth life or heavenly realm and appears to or communicates with someone on earth.

The preborn soul often announces that he or she is ready to advance from the premortal existence by being born into earth life. After nearly 20 years of collecting and studying PBE accounts and comparing data with other researchers of spiritual phenomena, we have identified typical traits, characteristics, and types of PBEs; also when, to whom, and where they occur."

Of the people Prebirth.com has surveyed, 53% felt they remembered a time before conception, and 47% after conception, but before birth.

PRE-BIRTH MEMORIES AND EXPERIENCES

Most memories of a recent pre-birth existence come from children who reveal their recollections spontaneously and without prompting. One such case, from a woman identified only as Lisa P., is told in the book, Coming from the Light by Sarah Hinze:

I was putting three-year-old Johnny to bed when he asked for a bedtime story. For the past few weeks, I had been telling him of the adventures of his great-great-grandfather: a colonizer, a soldier, a community leader. As I started another story, Johnny stopped me and said, "No, tell me of Grandpa Robert." I was surprised. This was my grandpa. I had not told stories of him, and I could not imagine where he had heard his name. He had died before I had even married. "How do you know about Grandpa Robert?" I asked. "Well, Momma," he said with reverence, "he's the one who brought me to earth."

Some experiencers claim to have been given a preview of their coming lives, as in this story at Prebirth.com from Gen:

I remember someone talking to me, not with a voice, but more to my own mind, that it was not good for me to choose who was my parents, that it would not work out. And I was insistent on coming into my family, and it would not work out between my mother and father. I remember being shown various things and places that have happened in my life, even down to the house I live in now.

And here's an excerpt from Michael Maguire's experience at Thoughtful Living:

I can remember standing in a dark space, but unlike being in a darkened room, I could see everything around me and the blackness had dimension. There was another person standing to my right, and like me, he was waiting to be born into the physical world. There was an older person with us who could possibly be a guide, since he stayed with us until we left and answered my questions. In front of us and approximately 30 degrees below us, we could see the Earth with the facial images of two couples. I asked who those people were whose images appeared on the Earth and he replied that they were going to be our parents. The older man conveyed to us that it was time to go. The other person standing next to me walked forward and disappeared from my sight. I was told that it was my turn and I walked forward. Suddenly I found myself lying in a hospital nursery with other babies around me.

Next page:Communication with the Pre-Born