I know I've just posted a long quasi-historical post on another thread, but as someone with a keen interest in history, it would be interesting to hear about any research people have done into their past lives from a historical rather than personal perspective.

For me understanding that I was a German soldier during WW2 made me think quite a bit along these lines, and try and compute his movements based on my impressions from dreams. I haven't found any record of his name (Julius Steiner or Steinl) on any internet records, I did find a Julius Steinl on an Austrian list but he is still alive, so it can't be him. I don't have the luxury of being able to go and do meaningful research in any of the places I think he might have lived in or passed through, but I just wondered if anyone was approaching some of their own past lives from this angle...it could actually be quite a bonus for historians to quiz people under hypnosis or get them to try and recover details. Not that I'm suggesting invading personal privacy or trauma, but for people whose past lives are "solved" it could be an interesting journey.

I personally think that it doesn't matter if one of our past lives (or conversely, future lives) are still alive when we're born into this life.  Our soul merely chooses the best possible time and place to reincarnate us for the sake of our soul's education.  It probably figured that the odds of a 26 year old woman from the UK meeting an Austrian ex soldier who's about 80 or 90 by now, very very slim.  I'm inclined to agree :P.  Of course, I have no idea what would happen if you were to meet a past or future life of yourself, it would be interesting though.  I think it would be much like the instant repoire you feel for your soul mate.

Now there's a fascinating idea. I hadn't thought about it like that... but it makes very good practical sense, and I'm slowly coming to discard the needs of logic in all of this.

Just wait until you start to consider being born into alternate possible realities into the mix.  We have to ask ourselves, do our souls exist outside of the big web of possible realities, or inside each reality XD.  I try not to think about that, because I'd hate to think that there's an incarnation of me somewhere in the metaverse that helped Hitler win the second world war or something.  In the case of alternate realities, I preffer to keep the blinkers on :P