CAN YOU REMEMBER your existence before you were born? We’re not referring to past lives here, but the moments in time just before you were born into your present life. Most people believe in life after death, but what about life before birth?

If we are essentially spirit or consciousness, does that consciousness have an existence before we are born, in the same way that it might have an existence after death?

If so, is it possible to actually have a memory of that pre-birth existence?

Here are several such memories reported by readers (names have been changed for privacy):

THE TUNNEL

Just as people have reported traveling down a tunnel or hallway in the near-death experience, a similar vision has been reported in some pre-birth memories. “I remember being in a kind of tunnel where people – more like young children – moved in the same direction, but not in rows,” says Louis. “There were no lights, but I could clearly see, and not like I see now... it’s hard to explain. I remember a feeling of extreme happiness. It’s as if this tunnel is connected to where I came from to this world.”

Alison’s vision was more like a hallway. “I remember intense fear,” she says, “and I was running down what looked like a stone hall, no paintings or anything. It kept on going until I reached the end and all it was, was just white. That's all I saw. My fear was gone and I wasn't breathing heavily. I heard a weird noise that I can't explain and then I remember being a little child running up to my father when he just got home.”

THE LARGE WHITE ROOM

One of the most common visions recalled is of a bright white room – a waiting room, of sorts. “I recall being in a large white room,” says Bernard of a memory he began to become aware of when he was three of four years old. “I was sitting on the floor waiting for someone to direct me. I remember seeing a large white desk, and behind it sat a tall, slender Caucasian man. He was wearing a white suit, had white hair, and was writing something in a large white book using a large white quill pen.

“I remember seeing people talking amongst themselves and a male telling me who my parents were going to be, and he gave me a play-by-play of my life. He asked me if I agreed to it. I remember looking down through clouds. I could see Earth... then nothing.”

Kirk remembers the bright room also. He did not see the figures Bernard did, but he heard them. “I was in this super bright room that seemed endless,” he says. “There was a voice talking. I told him I wanted to be born around this time and said I wanted this lady to be my mother. He told me that it was going to be tough growing up during that time with her. I agreed because I wanted to be put to the test and be born as a male. I was born July 4, 1989.”

Yolanda can recall the room and the figures there, but not the light. And her experience hints at the process of reincarnation – that she has been through it many times.

“I remember being in a room, but I do not remember what it looked like,” she says, “but I do remember the conversation I had before I was sent. I remember it being a male figure. There were others in the room, many others, and they were in either in a line or a circle. This figure said to me, ‘You have to go back.’ When I was told this, the feeling that I had was a deep sadness. I remember crying and saying that I did not want to go, but I was told that I had to, but this would be the last time I would not have to go back again.”

And James can remember the light, but not the room. And he was given a preview of his destiny in his new life.

“I recall being in a great light white area surrounded by what I’d call baby souls,” James says. “We were all waiting in line to go down to our parents. The larger soul next to me reminded me, as I was ready to ‘pop’ down to Earth, that I wouldn’t be living my life with the girl I was looking at, but promised I would be very happy where I was ultimately going. I remember being very sad, but jumped down after he tapped me on the right shoulder. I went down, knowing I wasn’t going to the lady that had me. I am adopted and I knew I was going to be with another set of parents.”

Cynthia also remembers the strange, all-encompassing light and the entities there. “I remember white light... but it wasn't white or light, if that makes any sense,” she says. “I wasn't surrounded by it or bathed in it, but rather part of it, like it was just one great ethereal mass. I could feel another entity and I was communicating with him. We didn't speak using actual words, but more like an exchanging of ideas in complete form. I remember a sort of questionnaire... choices... like time or place or stature. Then I was in my mother's womb. I feel like I have some purpose.”

THE DARKNESS

Some people’s first memories of the pre-birth experience is not of light, but of darkness.

“My experience was that of being in complete and utter darkness, in the void,” says Kathy. “There was no fear, no sound, or feeling. The best way I can describe it is to imagine that you exist, but you have none of the five senses that our bodies have (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell), but you know you're alive. Maybe the moment of self-awareness is a better way to put it.”

Ronald also remembers the darkness, but his sense of consciousness or self-awareness didn’t seem to kick in until much later. “As I remained in the void, for I’d say about two seconds in our time,” he says, “out of the silence came an extremely quiet musical scale, getting louder and louder, the notes high and higher, and then at the last loud, high note, DUN!... I was there! The next thing that happened after the scale was spinning around in my living room at the age of three, thinking about how strange it was.”

Next page: Children's Memories, and Verification