Radical Reframe
By Les Mottosky
A decade ago I met a woman with a stunning claim: Gillian remembered being conceived, developing in the womb and being born. I urged her to say more. She shared being 5 years old in the car with her Mom when a song came on the radio: "You played this song when I was in your belly!" Her Mom was stunned and had to pull the car over. The song was from an album she'd listened to in her first trimester.
((Before you check-out and move on to the next article, consider this: if you believe in the afterlife, why couldn't – why wouldn't – there be a beforelife?))
Turns out, Gillian isn't alone. Because this topic can’t be observed, tested, or measured, it's shunned by science. Yet significant anecdotal evidence supports the phenomenon as legit. Across hundreds of consistent pre-birth memory reports, the following themes emerge. Nearly without exception:
Non-physical existence first: Almost everyone describes being in a loving, light-filled “place” before choosing Earth.
Choosing parents and/or life plan: Deliberately picking parents (often for specific lessons or karma), sometimes with spiritual guides to assist.
Conception as a deliberate entry: Describing a “whoosh,” “drop,” or “merging with light” at the moment of conception.
Awareness inside the womb from very early: Consciousness present from weeks or months in utero; hearing parents’ voices and feeling emotions.
Knowledge of the upcoming life: Knowing the challenges they will face, the lessons they came to learn, and even how and when they will die.
Reluctance or excitement about birth: Some feel pushed out, others resist because the womb feels safe and Earth feels harsh.
Birth trauma: Birth itself is almost always remembered as violent, cold, bright, and painful.
Instant recognition after birth: Recognizing parents, siblings, hospital room details, or (eventually) commenting on conversations that happened while they were “still inside.”
Loss of memory around age 3–7: Some people retain fragments lifelong, but most children who talk openly about it stop by school age.
Wild, right?!
So what's the insight for those of us who don't remember what colour socks we put on today, let alone our pre-birth socks? One (unpopular) concept stands-out: self-leadership.
To apply this, you must embrace an assumption: pre-birth memories aren't universal, but the experience of it is. Even for you.
Those pre-birth memory themes reveal ultimate personal responsibility. If we chose the timing, place and parents of our Earth Visit –with awareness of the challenges, lessons and even the details of our own death– nobody decides our experience.
We chose the crappy boss. We chose the car accident. We chose the disease. We pre-chose every ghastly and sublime experience in our life. To be crystal: 'chose' is not 'choose'. The former defines every moment as destiny. Designed by us.
This means it's not possible to make a mistake, but we can still learn from those experiences the rest of the world calls a mistake. And we can learn them shame-free.
Billions of people live their lives in a way that'll influence the completion of it. (Regardless of spiritual tradition, we can sum this up as basic Golden Rule stuff). But what does it mean if we also pre-took responsibility for every moment of our experience? The excuse-making-machine melts. "Yeah, and..." replaces "Yeah, but...". Our inner-victim drowns in an eternal ocean of personal agency.
What if you lived – not the Golden Rule – but the Molten Rule: The law that melts all other laws?:
I am where the buck stops because I'm also where it started.
How different is your life if this is true?
TAGS: #Radical Reframe #Wisdom In Leadership #Curiosity Is Our Nature #Adaptation As Innovation #Pre-Birth Memory
Les Mottosky
Adaptation Strategist // I help organizations turn creativity into their competitive advantage by aligning leadership, culture and strategy to unlock adaptive innovations. It's not easy. But it's simple.
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