Past Life

A Past Life is a different life lived by the same soul. Over time, souls can reincarnate as different people and go through various lifetimes to evolve and grow as individuals.

Overview
As people progress through different lives, their souls remain in contact with the same souls in every lifetime. Souls can recognize each other so that they may find each other in each new life. Sometimes a past life will come to haunt a person's present life to warn them of something or to prevent something that occurred in the previous lifetime from occurring again.

Similarly, a witch can have vague recollections of a past life but they will not realize this is so. For example, Paige remembered events from her life as the Evil Enchantress from childhood, but had always assumed it was a story she had invented. It is unclear if only upper level witches can remember aspects of their past lives so vividly. Perhaps one can only remember past lives with which they have a close connection with. Paige had always said she related to the Enchantress and not the Prince and Princess in her story and the Book described her as 'defiant, resourceful and independent' which Piper remarked was similar to Paige's personality.

As for witches, the way they use their powers in a Past life determines how they develop and what they are in the next. If abuse them by using them for evil or the like then in the next life the powers regress and change into something else. In short, they lose them. However, if a witch uses her powers for the good well then they become stronger and evolve in the next. A good example of this would be in the past lives of the Charmed Ones.

Phoebe Halliwell and Paige Matthews were P. Russell and The Evil Enchantress respectively. Both of them had strong offensive powers in those lives, Pyrokinesis for Russell and Conjuring the Elements for The Enchantress. However, unfortunately they abused them and so they lost these powers in their next lives. Conversely, Piper Halliwell was P. Baxter in her Past Life who had the power of Molecular Deceleration. She used her powers well and so they advanced in the next life, manifesting as Molecular Immobilization & Combustion. It is unknown why Prue lost her power of Cryokinesis (owned by P. Bowen in her Past Life) as she was portrayed as a good witch and so assumedly used her powers well. It is possible that she misused them later on and therefore lost them. Although, if Prue had lived, she may have developed cryokinetic powers along with her Telekinesis and Astral Projection. Another argument is that both Prue and P. Bowen have kinetic powers and Telekinesis is simply stronger and more complex.

In terms of how quickly after one's death they are reborn, it is unknown. For example P. Baxter was reborn as Piper Halliwell only two years after her death, whilst P. Bowen was reborn a mere five months after her death, as Prue Halliwell. Similarly, Leo Wyatt's past life must have died in 1924, as his pre-Whitelighter self was born in May 1924, merely three months after the death of P. Russell. However, P. Russell died young in 1924 and was not reborn until 1975 as Phoebe Halliwell. This may be because she was an evil witch and was punished.

List of Past Lives

 * Kat Martin's is Serena Denison
 * Melinda Cooper's is Isabella Bowen
 * Mikayla Cooper's is Sophia Bowen
 * Olivia Martin's is Melinda Denison-Keller