Past Life-whats the point

I also find it curious that so many people balance a faith that doesn't include past and next lives and this belief in pre and post lives, Hm.

Now think of DNA.This is present in you.It is present in your parents; and their parents, and all our ancestors for millions of years.It will only stop if we do not have children.That is why my children,grandchildren,and great-grandchildren, are so important.They are carrying my genes and DNA.
So,if you wish for your DNA,at least,to live forever, have children!

While I do believe in an afterlife and reincarnation, if the scientific answer of we end and become worm food is true, whatever. I'll be dead so what would I care?

I find the idea of past lives interesting, but I don't see why people care so much about them. You were King Henry the eighth you say? Great, what have you done in this life to make you special? I also love how people were Cleopatra or Alexander the Great, they were never Steve the Hobo. I had a possible past life experience on the 100 anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic that [if true] revealed I was a man who died on the ship. True or fantasy whatever, I found it interesting, but I didn't seek out a past life, nor do I shape my world around it.

If we are reborn, you might use your past experiences for wisdom/guidance [more of a what not to do I guess] but you lived that life so your soul could experience something new [rich one life, poor the next. Man, woman, murderer, victim and on and on and on] so, if the purpose of rebirth is to experience new things, why look back?

And if the opposite is true and we only have this life, why spend time trying to look back, or fear the idea that our consciousness just ends. Live. Experience. Do something. If we are not reborn you can have fun now. If we are, how bored will you future life be when they see you constantly meditating/skrying. [Though, it might show the future life what not to do]

well my personal belief is that it does apply to this life.
Things like fears, personality traits, Karma and even the way things go can repeat themselves in this life. Karma is a big one for me, if you died in the past life without correcting bad karma, I believe it can pass over to this life. So can addictions in my views. I've learned of many of my past lives and saw that they all were kind of linked in a way. Sometimes things that happened then, though it may have been 100s of years ago, ended up happening or catching up to me in this life.
Even without that, its interesting to learn of your past. You gain wisdom from it, knowledge on things you didn't know and talents or traits you haven't thought to learn of in this life.

You tend to carry certain things on from your past lives. Tendencies to do things or act a certain way is one of them.

As you say,Chaos, it is your belief! I am well aware of my ancestry,who they were,and how they lived. I can trace my ancestry back to 1349.(Before that Saxons didn't have surnames.)But I certainly don't "experience" those past lives!

Personally, I do not believe in an afterlife, past lives, reincarnation, etc etc.

However, I see that some people feel it necessary to gain an understanding of their 'past lives' in order to offer an explanation of why they are the way they are now, eg: did something happen to them in a past life to make them have a certain trait.

As has been said previously on this post, it is mostly reliant on belief.

Your experiences do help enhance your beliefs. Everyone has different experiences as their proof of different things, so it is up to you to believe you do or do not have past lives, no one else can figure that out for you.

i guess the best thing to do is look into it as much as you can and form your own opinion

People curious about their past lives because in our past lives we miss something, we didnt do something which we should do, so we born again to do this, we born again for learn this lesson.