Where our world and Spirit meet

Jack and Boy

 White Buffalo Calf Woman, Original artwork above by

Rogue Guirey Simpson, 1992

Why do we have past lives, or future ones for that matter? Conversations with Native American Lakota spirits  explained that in their case, a person's soul is incarnated in a waiting body sometime before birth. That person lives their life as best they can, and their soul remembers all of the journey. That person passes on their wisdom to the young of the tribe and when their journey has ended, dies. The soul returns to spirit, adding the knowledge of that journey to what we might understand as their higher self. They are later reincarnated in another body in the tribe just as before and they learn more in that life, in part due to their own teachings passed on to the tribe from the previous life. And on it goes until their spirit is wise enough and enlightened enough not to have the need to return to a body. Instead they become a spirit guide and inspire the tribe from spirit. This is one reason why many people are told they have a Native American guide.