Have you ever met someone you felt sure you knew before, but you never ran into him or her this lifetime? Do you believe that love, hate or other emotions can span space and time?

39-year-old Doralice Santana of Brazil did. In fact she was so sure, that when she met 85-year-old Joe Myers of Winston-Salem North Carolina last December they got married again.

Quite a leap, considering their completely different backgrounds, professions.

And ages.

Myers, who has long believed in reincarnation, and writes about it on his web site at www.reincarnation2002.com/ is certain he is the reincarnation of Edward Bellamy (1850-1898) and is the author of the book Edward Bellamy Writes Again.

Doralice recalled her marriage to Bellamy, searched for him on the Internet, found Meyers' web site, emailed him and resumed where she'd left off. The story of Joe and Doralice Myers reuniting and remarrying in December was published last month in the Winston-Salem Journal.

But although there may not be too many people who are as certain of their past life recall is as Joe and Doralice, there are sure a lot of people who believe they have lived before and have some feeling, vague or strong, of what must have occurred.

Another take on this is, have you ever met someone you disliked intensely at first site, without ever hearing anything about the person or having any prior acquaintance. But you just knew he or she was a jerk/creep/rogue/whimp....?

There are a lot of people who go to a movie, where the plot centers around a past life relationship, that totally get into the movie and root for the characters to vindicate their foreknowledge. But what do they believe when they leave the theater? Do they actually believe in past lives or is it just, like the Simpsons or South Park, a fanciful construct?

A few years ago Finlandia Vodka build a whole ad campaign on the "in a past life I was a...." theme.

When I told the Meyers/Bellamy story to one of by friends over lunch today she got all excited and told me about the time at least 30 years ago when she and her husband went out to dinner with another couple—a business associate of her husband's. As soon as she saw the man, that was it. And it was the same way for him. The rest of the evening was epiphany for her. It was just the two of them in rapt communication. She was not about to cheat on her husband or he on his wife so nothing ever came of it. But 30 years later that incident is as clear to her as if it happened last week.

On the Scientology web site it says, "Man is an immortal, spiritual being. His experience extends well beyond a single lifetime. His capabilities are unlimited, even if not presently realized - and those capabilities can be realized."

Personally, I'm pretty comfortable with this idea.

I'm a Scientologist and I have recalled having lived before. I've never been tempted to change everything in my life because of recalling a past life incident like Meyers (who is not a Scientologist but rather a Christian) and Doralice (no faith stated in article) did, but the idea of renewing old friendships, even old loves, isn't that foreign to me.

Maybe if some of our "friends" who are cutting down rain forests, dumping sludge in the seas, polluting the air with the byproducts of their "get-rich-now-cuz-you-onl y-live-once-so-why-worry" irresponsibility could get the idea that they are going to have to come back and live in the mess they are manufacturing today, they might deal with things a bit differently. Maybe some day, before it's too late for all of us, they will.

(Reprinted courtesy of Vartas Diary).