History Main / PastLifeMemories

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* In ''[[Film/{{Fluke}} Fluke]]'', the titular dog character Fluke gradually regains his memories of his time as a human known as Thomas Johnson, or just Tom. This eventually leads him to go on a search for the wife and son he left behind.

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live Action TV]]

-->'''Joey:''' Man, it must be so cool remembering stuff like that. I don't have any past life memories.
-->'''Phoebe:''' Of course you don't, sweetie. You're brand new.
* In one episode of ''Series/TheXFiles'' the [Something] Of The Week claims that she and Mulder were lovers in a previous life during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. He goes under hypnosis and seems to not only confirm it but discovers its a full Reincarnation Romance where several of the important people in his life (friends, family, and even ''enemies'') are always involved (Scully is usually his close friend, sibling or his superior; his sister is someone close who he loses every time, etc). Unfortunately, their romance rarely goes ''happily'', this encounter being no exception.

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[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

[[folder: Theater]]
* Theatre/OnAClearDayYouCanSeeForever is a musical about a modern woman who undergoes hypnosis and remembers a life in 18th century England. It was made into a film with Music/BarbraStreisand and Yves Montand.

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* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': In "The Creeps" Finn has a vision of a ghostly, monstrous woman. A later episode, "The Vault", shows that the ghost has been haunting Finn's nightmares. Though a hypnosis-inducing BMO game, Finn unlocks the memories of his past lives and discovers that he is the reincarnation of the ghost (originally a woman named Shoko).

* Parodied in WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy where Quagmire tries to hypnotically regress Peter to find some clue but accidentally goes too far and awakens a demonic personality with red glowing eyes, flaming hands and a megalomaniacal ego.
* Rose Quartz of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' became half of Steven, who has none of her memories. However, [[spoiler: in "Jungle Moon" and "Can't Go Back", he experiences Rose/Pink Diamond's memories. In the former, he (as Stevonnie) actually plays the role of Pink Diamond, but in the latter he's merely observing.]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* In the ''Fanfic/ShadowWars'' universe, several character relationships hinge on conscious or unconscious past life memories.

* In the ''[[Manga/{{Bleach}}'' fic ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/6082452/chapters/20673787 Cyclical]]'', experience from her past incarnation briefly flares through Rukia's head when she first taps into her spiritual energy. (Unfortunately, her mind may have centuries worth of combat training, but her body does not.)

* ''FanFic/CastlevaniaNocturneOfRuin'': [[{{OC}} Mariabella Fox]], who is soon revealed to be the reincarnation of Maria Renard, starts getting flashes of memory and knowledge during her time in Castlevania, first by knowing the names of Death's CoDragons, then by being an InstantExpert with magic, and finally having flashbacks to Maria's life.

When {{Reincarnation}} and past-life memories are presented as being real within the context of a story, It often works in a way similar to GeneticMemory, by giving the character knowledge and skills that they would otherwise be unlikely to gain for themselves. Past-life memories often manifest as DreamingOfTimesGoneBy. On rarer occasions, an entire identity from a past incarnation may start to emerge, resulting in a SplitPersonality. Sometimes a character will undergo a SplitPersonalityMerge, with their current identity combining with that of a previous incarnation, giving them complete access to the memories and skills of the previous incarnation and resulting in a major LevelUp.

!!Examples Include

* ''ShinMegamiTensei: VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'' deals with this, although more prominently in the second game. To wit, [[spoiler: in the first game, Gale has continuous flashbacks to a weeping woman. He initially chooses to use EmotionSuppression to deal with it, but eventually is forced to confront the memory. Later, it's revealed it's the last memory of the man whose personality Gale was constructed. The Four Archangels are a ''much'' weirder example - they're victims of the Demon Virus, who apparently have had their personalities obliterated by it and replaced by the consciousnesses of the Archangels Uriel, Raphael, Gabriel and Michael. The problem? All four make comments related to experiences the Archangels had in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII'', which apparently took place ''in another universe''. It also seems that the same has happened to two who turned into Seth and Satan, both of whom also make references to that game and even reference characters from that game.]]

* Currently, Rose Quartz in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' exists as half of Steven, who has none of her memories. However, [[spoiler: in "Jungle Moon" and "Can't Go Back", he experiences Rose/Pink Diamond's memories. In the former, he (as Stevonnie) actually plays the role of Pink Diamond, but in the latter he's merely observing.]]

* In a variation, the Past Lives attunement in ''TabletopGame/[[InNomine]]'' lets Servitors of Destiny view the memories of ''someone else's'' previous incarnations, even though the person in question doesn't consciously remember anything themselves.

** A major turning point for the characters is Keiichi remembering how he brutally murdered Rena and Mion in one of the previous iterations of the GroundhogDayLoop. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Then things get significantly better.]] [[spoiler:Though they still all end up dying [[SoleSurvivor except for Rena]].]]

* There's a film called ''Film/UncleBoonmeeWhoCanRecallHisPastLives''.

* There's a film called ''Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives''.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': [[spoiler:In "The Creeps" Finn has a vision of a ghostly, monstrous woman. A later episode, "The Vault", shows that the ghost has been haunting Finn's nightmares. Though a hypnosis-inducing BMO game, Finn unlocks the memories of his past lives and discovers that he is the reincarnation of the ghost (originally a woman named Shoko).]]

* Happens often enough in ''Videogame/PillarsOfEternity'' that there's an in-universe term for it: Awakening. People can be Awakened in various ways. The most common way is to encounter something [[spoiler:or in the case of the protagonist, ''someone'']] that has a connection with a past life. Being awakened has its advantages, but the stress of having memories from other lives (particularly if said lives were bad ones) tends to offset them. During the main quest of ''The White Marches'', you have to use your powers as a Watcher to trigger an Awakening in someone. It's made clear that this could have dire consequences for whoever you choose. [[spoiler:One person will have to spend the rest of her life with a corrupt guard captain in her head (though that isn't ''all'' bad, as her past self's guidance leads her to becoming a much more assertive, if somewhat shady and dishonest person). The other one, if you make the wrong choices, will have her identity be completely overwritten by her past self who immediately attacks you forcing you to kill her.]]

* Happens often enough in ''Videogame/PillarsOfEternity'' that there's an in-universe term for it: Awakening. People can be Awakened in various ways. The most common way is to encounter something [[spoiler:or in the case of the protagonist, ''someone'']] that has a connection with a past life. Being awakened has its advantages, but the stress of having memories from other lives (particularly if said lives were bad ones) tends to offset them. During the main quest of ''The White Marches'', you have to use your powers as a Watcher to trigger an Awakening in someone. It's made clear that this could have dire consequences for whoever you choose. [[spoiler:One person will have to spend the rest of her life with a corrupt guard captain in her head. The other one, if you make the wrong choices, will have her identity be completely overwritten by her past self who immediately attacks you forcing you to kill her.]]

* The vocaloid fanfic ''Fanfic/RottingCamellias'' has Miku [[spoiler: dreaming of her past life as a mage with Luka and Meiko.]]

[[folder: Web Original]]
* [[PersonOfMassDestruction Tennyo]] from the Literature/WhateleyUniverse is slowly remembering the life of the Star Stalker.
* In WebAnimation/PeteraDzive, Peter, the title character, tells of how his grandfather recommended drinking booze mixed with toothpaste to improve memory. Peter tries this and realizes that he was a cactus in his past life.
* Roleplay/LegendariesLost has Thanatos the Duskull, who was a Darumaka in a previous life, and once per day, can use a move from that list instead of his own.
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* In RealLife there are people who claim that a person can unlock memories of her past incarnations under hypnosis, usually the directly preceding one. Often this is declared to be a reason for that person's mental problems, essentially a case of suppressed memories taken UpToEleven. Needless to say, psychologists are skeptical, especially as the very idea of suppressed memories as a cause of problems is rapidly becoming discredited. This is probably one of the more common kinds of reincarnation claims in the Western world.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'': A major turning point for the characters is Keiichi remembering how he brutally murdered Rena and Mion in one of the previous iterations of the GroundhogDayLoop. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Then things get significantly better.]]

* LightNovel/DenpaTekiNaKanojo: Ochibana Ame declares to Juuzawa Juu that she has past-life memories where Juu was the King of the Lemurian Continent thousands of years ago, and Ame was his knight who CannotTellAJoke. Ame sincerely believes this, everyone else believes [[YoureInsane She Is Insane]].

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[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

* [[{{VideoGame/BlazBlue}} Ragna]] recalls fighting [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Jin]] in the NOL Cathedral in Kagutsuchi in an alternate timeline... and then there's the fact that the soul Kokonoe installed into [[EmptyShell Lambda]] used to belong to [[{{Yandere}} Nu]].

[[folder: Web Original ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Theatre/OnAClearDayYouCanSeeForever is a musical about a modern woman who undergoes hypnosis and remembers a life in 18th century England. It was made into a film with BarbraStreisand and Yves Montand.

* ''{{Exalted}}'': The Spark of Exaltation (the godly thing that allows you to [[{{Ubermensch}} kick ass and chew bubblegum]]) attaches to the soul of its recipient, receiving the Exalt's memories in the progress. When an Exalt dies, the attached memory is normally removed by Lytek (the god of exaltation) because human souls aren't meant to house memories other than their own. However, the Sparks captured by the [[{{Hell}} Yozis]] aren't purified this way, so a Green Sun Prince can draw upon the memories of the previous Exalt his or her spark is attached to, gaining sudden skill as a result. It has its dangers too: due to the potential depth and vastness of the tapped memories, the previous Exalt's personality might overwhelm the current, obviously-younger Green Sun Prince. An official example was a (male) Infernal letting go of an elder Sidereal[[note]]kung fu ninja who controls fate[[/note]] instead of dealing the final blow, because that Sidereal was his/her husband in previous life. That's an override of gender, allegiance, and possibly sexual orientation.

* In ''SilentHill3'', [[spoiler: Heather]] occasionally has [[spoiler: Alessa]]'s memories, even before she discovers she is her reincarnation. Some of the memories might also be [[spoiler: Cheryl's.]]

* In ''[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]'', the ghost-type Yamask carries around a mask that used to be its face as a human. According to its Pokédex entries, each retains memories of its former life and sometimes it looks at its mask and cries.

* [[PersonOfMassDestruction Tennyo]] from the WhateleyUniverse is slowly remembering the life of the Star Stalker.

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'': For Hieda-no-Akyu, it's one part this and one part GeneticMemory, as she constantly reincarnates into her own bloodline (like certain figures in RealLife religions).

* Parodied in Family Guy where Quagmire tries to hypnotically regress Peter to find some clue but accidentally goes too far and awakens a demonic personality with red glowing eyes, flaming hands and a megalomaniacal ego.

* In ''TheWheelOfTime'' many male channelers develop a form of insanity that results in a breakdown of the barriers between their past lives and their current life. For most, this results in simple insanity. However, Rand, who TheHero and TheChosenOne of the series, is able to take advantage of knowledge and skills gained from his past life even as it is slowly driving him into a SplitPersonality insanity. [[spoiler: Rand eventually undergoes a SplitPersonalityMerge, causing him to gain all the memories and knowledge of his previous incarnation, making him much more powerful.]]