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Much less common, but often more interesting, than past life recall is simultaneous life recognition, that is, the realization that one may be living several different lives at the same time.
Its less frequent occurance does not necessarily imply that only a few people may be living several lives simultaneously. But many people have serious difficulties grasping the whole concept of living several lives at the same time. As such, they will be less open to any signs of such a recognition. Even if the signs are there, these people will simply not see them.
There are many types of simultaneous life recognition. One of them can be described as a feeling, a hunch. Somehow you know that there are more than one of you “out there,” but you really cannot put your finger on it. Or you may clearly recognize a specific individual as another “instance” of you. Some people have reported that they live simultaneously here and on a different planet, or perhaps some alternate reality, and experience occasional glimpses of their life in the different world.
This kind of recognition often starts as a recurring dream. One may have a series of very realistic dreams of a regular life, doing regular chores, somewhere else. The somewhere else might be very similar to the daytime reality. Or it may be slightly different. Perhaps there is some technology that seems real but upon further examination does not exist anywhere on Earth.
About twenty years ago I used to dream, night after night, of visiting patients in a hospital. It was a huge hospital in a very tall building consisting of two separate wings. I always had to take an elevator to get to different sections of the hospital. When I needed to visit patients in both wings, I visited those in one wing first, then took the elevator downstairs, walked to the other wing and took another elevator. Then one day someone pointed out that it was unnecessary: both elevators could take me anywhere within the hospital. Ever since then, I was always using the same elevator. It just moved vertically and horizontally as needed to get me where I wanted to go.
As far as I know, such an elevator did not exist anywhere on Earth twenty years ago, and probably still does not. It was obvious to me that what I was experiencing was impossible. But then, it was just a dream, or a series of dreams.
Many years later, I moved to a place near the mountains. I got a beautiful appartment with the perfect view. The next day I got another appartment. Then, about two months later, I remembered the beautiful first appartment and that I had my things in it, but never paid any rent nor did I cancel my lease. Then I realized, wait a minute! Where is that appartment with a view? I was living in a new place but there were no mountains within hundreds of miles. I definitely did not rent out that beautiful appartment with a view. I had never been anywhere near such an appartment. I realized it had to be a dream.
The thing about these dreams is that they were not dreamlike. They were extremely realistic. And the strangest thing about them was that I remembered them. Normally, I forget my dreams, even strong, vivid ones. But not these. They seemed so real that I had to stop to think about them and then decide that, of course, they were dreams because they never happened. They could not have happened.
Psychologically, these dreams are reminiscent of the context transfer memories phenomenon. There is one clear difference: they do not seem like memories of the past, but like “memories” of the present. And since they appear impossible, we assume them to be dreams, though sometimes we have to stop to think about it at first.
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