Biographies of the Unborn

Human history for the nine months preceding birth is far more interesting and contains events of greater moment than all the threescore and ten years that follow it. -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• Contemporary Research
• Native American Prenatal Memories
• Embryonic Consciousness Accounts from Vedic India
• Tibetan Masters in Utero
• John the Baptist
• Hidden Life of Twins

Sandra

We had lived in a two flat apartment in Chicago when I conceived my son Jason, but we moved to the suburbs when I was six or seven months pregnant with him. So he lived in that apartment inside me for that period of time.

One day I felt the impulse to take a nostalgic tour and drove near our former neighborhood. I had not been back for over four years. As I turned the corner and headed down the street, Jason pointed out, "That is our house!" I said, "How do you know that that is our house?" He said, "That is our house."

I said, "Jason, you did not live there." He said, "Yes, I did." I said, "No honey, just your sister lived there. You were not born yet."

Jason said, "I was not born yet, but I was on the other side."

I loved the way Jason put it, "I was on the other side" which is not a phrase that I have ever used. And I swear that no one around me ever said it.I have no idea where he picked that up. Jason just knew. My son is like that.

Often times when we reminisce about some event, he will say, "Oh, yes, I was there, Mom. Don't you remember?" I will say,"That is before you were born." But Jason insists that he was there even when the event happened before his conception. He must have been hovering around me.

Sage

I realized the power of pre-natal affirmations when first grandson came to me in spirit form when he was in the womb. He told me, "I don't know if I can stay on. I am frightened. It takes a lot of courage for souls to come in right now because things are so sped up and happening so fast in such a concentrated way. I am having a hard time deciding whether to be born male or female. Which of the lessons do I need?"

My grandson was in a last minute panic choice, but was clear about his needs and told me, "My parents are not saying these things. This is what is I would like them to say to me:"

My granddaughter and other family members took turns speaking the prayers and affirmations aloud. As a consequence, his natural birth was gentle and short. Today he is a contented, advanced, happy six-month-old baby.

Prenatal and newborn affirmations are important. You can support them through the womb and birth time. The soul hears when it is in the womb. You connect with it. By telling the soul the things he needs to hear, unfulfilled desires for love within you or your child are fulfilled.

I recommend selecting statements that family members would have loved to have heard from their parents and siblings when they were in the womb.

Studies have shown that we are heavily influenced and abide in a highly teachable state while in the womb and during the first few years of our lives. What our parents and siblings say and feel about us coming into the family affects us and our level of self-worth. The state of affairs in the world and the family unit also plays a role in the belief systems and attitudes of the child soon to be born, so a peaceful environment supports the child in well-beingness.

When a pregnant mother acknowledges that she is carrying a child within her who is relatively aware, her experience becomes more fulfilling. A generation of children with conscious mothers can generate happier, healthier and more-realized children on Earth.

• Chippewa -- The unborn child warns his mother if she is approached by an negative spirit.

• Lenape -- A sagacious man declared that he had acquired supernatural knowledge even before his birth. "I have lived through two generations. I died twice and was born a third time to live out the present race, after which I will die and never more return to this country. I remember well what the women had predicted while I was yet in my mother's womb. Some had foretold that I would be a boy, others that I would be a girl. I distinctly overheard their conversations, and can repeat clearly everything exactly as they had said it. "

  Reverend John Heckewelder (1743-1823) who reported his memories observed: "I have known several other Indians who firmly believed that they knew by means of these visions, what was to become of them when they should die, how their souls were to retire from their bodies and take their abodes into those of infants yet unborn."

• Saulteaux -- "Four nights before I was born I knew that I would be born. My mind was as clear when I was born as it is now. I saw my father and my mother and I knew who they were. I knew the things an Indian uses, their names and what they were good for -- an axe, a gun, a knife and even an ice-chisel. I used to tell this to my father and he replied: 'Long ago the Indians used to be like that, but the ones that came after them were different.'" Only one of my children remembers being in utero.

• Thunder-Cloud, Winnebago shaman -- Then I was brought down to earth again. I did not seem to be in my mother's womb, but I was taken into a room where I remained sitting continuously. Never, throughout all this period, did I lose consciousness. Always, I was keenly aware of what was happening outside. One day I heard the noise of little children outside and other sounds. I thought I would go outside. Then it seemed that I was making my way through a door into the open. I stumbled through, and a sudden rush of cold air struck me so bitterly that I began to cry. So in fact, it appeared. Actually, of course, I was being born again from a woman's womb.

• Tsuyukwerau, Yuma shaman -- Before I was born, I would sometimes steal out of my mother's womb while she was sleeping. But it was dark and I did not go far.

  While I was evolving in my mother's womb, I visited Avikwame and retraced all time back to the original keruk [ceremony?]. One of the ancestral spirits who participated in that ritual instructed men the mourning rituals.

  I hesitate to give a straightforward account of pre-birth, because others often misrepresent my statements. However, I admit: "It takes four days to tell all about Kwikumat and Kumastamxo. I am the only man who can tell it right. I was present from the very beginning, and saw and heard all. I dreamed a little of it at a time. I would then tell it to my friends. The old men would say, 'That is right! I was there and heard it myself.' Or they would say, 'You have dreamed poorly. That is not right.' And they would tell me right. So at last I learned the whole of it right."

• Wahpeton -- The medicine-man knows everything about his future existence even before his birth.

• Mohave -- We Mojave doctors are born, not trained. Our gifts are supernatural, not acquired. We can talk to the spirits before we leave out mother's womb. We have women doctors who are born with the gift just as the men; they are regarded as our equals and treated with every consideration.

  Dreams first occur while the unborn child is still in the mother's womb. In the fetal stage, ordinary souls follow the actions of the mother and dream of how to be born. The souls of medicine men receive supernatural powers while in the womb. They witness the origin of the world and listen to the instructions handed out to mankind by Paho' tcatc.

• Yuma -- After the unborn child is in the womb for one or two months, he has dream visions which destine him to become a healer.

• Iowa shaman -- My soul inspected different tribes before I chose to be born. The Iowa suited me because they were clean, kept their camps swept up and sent their women a long way off to menstruate. I came down and entered a dark lodge with a bearskin door and after quite a stay, I was born.

• Menomini -- The universe is divided into the upper and lower portions. The good gods inhabit the higher regions, whereas lower regions are the lair of the evil gods. Earth is sandwiched in between. Four tiers constitute each of these two regions with various superpowers dwelling in these strata.

  When a woman is pregnant, her unborn child's spirit often leaves the womb. It enters the huge metallic cylinder which stretches from the center of Heaven to Earth. The child ascends the tube up to the top where he meets the four celestial dignitaries: the Red War god, who sits in the East, along with three lesser deities who are judges of the dead.

  The Red War god looks at the child's spirit, and prophesies the child's future life on Earth: career, victories in war, as well as granting him a fixed number of years of life. The Red War god assigns one of the lesser gods the duty of watching for the fulfillment of the prophecy and to avenge the child should he be slain before the appointed time.

• Debzhin Shegpa (1384 to 1415) -- Lhamo Kyi, a Yogini, and her husband Guru Rinchen, a Tantric master, heard their son reciting prayers, mantras and the Sanskrit alphabet inside his mother's womb. Immediately after birth, the newborn exclaimed, "I bow down to all the Buddhas. I am Karma Pakshi. Om mani padme hum."

  Tibetans recognized their son as a high lama and the Fifth Karmapa. He became guru of the Chinese Emperor Yung Lo.

• Wangchuk Dorje (1556 to 1603) -- People heard the baby reciting mantras while he was inside his mother's womb. When their son was born, he sat cross-legged, wiped his face and announced, "I am the Karmapa!" He remained in that seated position for three days. Whereupon his father bowed down before him in awe. At this, the child stood up and announced, "Om-Ah-Hum" (sacred syllables) and he started to laugh.

  Tibetan lamas accepted him as the Ninth Karmapa, the leader of the Black Hat Buddhists, and they took him to Tsurphu monastery when he was six months old to begin spiritual training.

• Chospal Yeshe (1406 to 1452) -- While still inside his mother's womb, he could be heard reciting the mani mantra. Several rainbows in the shape of an umbrella formed above the roof of their home at the time of his birth. The Mongolian letter Gyel (meaning victory) was inscribed on the soles of his feet.

  Accepted as the third Shamar Tulku - leader of the Red Hat Buddhists - Chospal Yeshe devoted his life to teaching religious doctrine to many disciples.

• Four-year old Osel Hita Torres was eating lunch on the balcony of a Swiss restaurant overlooking a valley with his father, his tudor and an Italian monk. He began to speak in a tone that made everyone stop and listen: "Before, many, many Buddhas came into my body, then I became tiny and entered into my mother's womb. Then I came out." Before, I was Lama Yeshe. Now I am Lama Osel."

  Lama Thubten Yeshe was a prominent Tibetan lama who died in California in March 1984. When he was dying, Lama Yeshe had performed his meditation where he visualized Buddha Heruka, dissolving into him several times. Mastery of this complex meditation is essential in order for the spiritual adept to dictate the precise conditions of his next rebirth. The Dalai Lama had identified Osel who was born the next year as the reincarnation of Lama Yeshe.