Wishfull thinkking? Part of it may also be that famous people have a life that CAN be remembered. those poigniant "memories" can attach themselfs to our own, leading one to belive they actually experienced it. No one wants a boring life. Ironicly, very few people actually try to make an interesting life for themselfs.

We know so little about the lives of the poor, but we all have some knowledge (through having studied history, watched films and TV, read books etc) of the lives of the rich. If we believe that we have lived a past life, we will inevitably pull this knowledge from our stored vault. I remember watching a woman in a trance reliving the death of her family in a fire...she was supposedly a French noblewoman. She was speaking in French, but the narrator noted (with shocked voice) "that the woman had never studied French". Well, neither have I, but I could have said what this woman said in the trance too "Mon mari....il est mort....no...no..no..." I have a latent knowledge of French that probably amounts to several thousand words, due to its influence on English history. Many of us have a couple of hundred French words in our brains at least....coming out with "mon mari...il est mort...no..no..no.." is not beyond most of us.

I'm not sure about the whole "past memories" thing. I need to read up on that more. For the same reasons as you just asked.

Most people don't remember famous past lives - there are actually very few of us who do, and when we do, on one side, it's rather difficult to deal with, and on the other side, we do have the resources, for once, to verify what we believe, because of the abundance of public record. That abundance of public record will also give skeptics fodder to say we learned all about the person, so we are making the stories up. You can't win for trying. ;) However: when we remember famous past lives, the real verification is in the obscure facts. For example: I had always "stumbled" when asked to name Shakespeare's history plays, and included "Edward III" as one of the plays. I sounded like an idiot. I wasn't. "Edward III" was accepted as one of the plays only in the past decade, and I have been slipping and saying it for over forty years. Recently I discovered that a plot I had had for a play for a very long time came from an extremely obscure incident in Shakespeare's life. I was always afraid to write plays, and couldn't finish them - until the year, when I finally truly accepted who I had once been. See - it was hard even for me to believe it. I just kept finding out what I remembered really was true. More details about this past life can be found here: http://home.earthlink.net/~shakespeareswench/reincarnatingwill Does it give me: Any advantage claiming this? Yes and no - I've retained some of my skills, and the more I remember, the better the skills are getting. But that's about the only advantage. More attention? No. At least not good attention. Problems? Oh yes. Then why claim it? Because after a great deal of scrutiny and research I happen to believe it's true. And my belief continues to be reproved when new verifications come up. Why tell anyone? Because I have seen the evidence that reincarnation is for real, and I want to share that with people. I don't care that much about the fame of who I was - I care about the life, and the people I knew. I care about how those things affect who I am now. I care to know that we truly do survive death. That's what is important to me. For more information on reincarnation, go to http://reincarnationcafe.com

Because those are false memories nurtured or planted by the hypnotist/psychologist supervising the session. Remembering past lives is no more scientific than "light as a feather, stiff as a board".

First off,... who in their right mind would want to be the reincarnation of a couple of dead broken artist's, outcasts of their own heritage.

Ego, is a wonderful thing, sometimes. ;)

We have past lives?

Because they are not real memories and the only ones we do know about in past history are the famous names and places. No one want as to be just a boring normal person.

Not everyone who has "past life visions" was someone famous or noble in some way. I am not at all proud of the fact that my last life incarnation was a Veitnam War soldier from Cambodia or Laos that raped at least one child and was killed by 2 or more westerners for it.