There’s one thing I’ve learned after over 15 years as a professional Vedic Astrologer: We are all imprinted beings.

Sociologists lead us to believe that we are nurtured into the people that we become. Your parents, your religion, your education, and your culture all condition what you will express of yourself. They assert that you are a product of your surroundings. You’re born as a blank slate that gets written upon by your life’s experience.

In my meeting with many parents over the course of my career as a Vedic Astrologer and life coach, however, I found this theory to be entirely suspect.

Once the mother of a five-year-old boy came to me for a consultation. Her son was having trouble adjusting to pre-school because he was convinced he was a soldier fighting in World War II. He would describe vivid battle scenes on the playground, scaring the other children. His obsession with war scenes became too much for the teacher to handle and she requested he be removed from the school.

Sheryl, the boy’s mother, arrived in my office nervously. She looked like she hadn’t slept in some time. And her eyes had a mist of fear about them. I think she was scared about what I was going to say to her.

I got the tissue box out.

“So we’re here to discuss your son’s natal chart,” I began. “Do you have any questions or issues you’re concerned about that you’d like me to address in the reading?”

Breathing out a long sigh, Sheryl let go of some of her initial anxiety.

“Yes, there’s something I’m worried about with my son, Cody. He’s obsessed with World War II. Neither my husband nor I have any idea why. We’ve never discussed the war, nor has he seen any movies or anything else that would explain the detail with which he describes scenes from the battlefields. Now his pre-school teacher thinks we need to have him psychologically evaluated because it’s all he talks about. On top of it, he insists on being called ‘Joe.’”

She took a breath in after mention of the name to let it sink in. That her son was recalling such vivid violence stressed her out. She reached for a tissue.

“I’m afraid he’s not normal. I mean—this isn’t normal, right?”

I looked to Cody’s Vedic Astrological chart for an answer. I noticed immediately he was born under the influence of Ketu (the south node of the Moon), which in Vedic astrology signifies past life impressions.

“Was there a person in your family named ‘Joe’ who’s no longer with us?” I asked.

Looking up at the ceiling, Sheryl thought for a moment. And then she let her gaze drop directly into mine. “Do you think he could be my Grandpa Joe come back again?”

The thought seemed likely to me based on strong influence of Ketu in Cody’s natal chart. “Was your grandfather a WWII veteran?”

“Yes, he served in the war and was part of the Normandy invasion. But he never talked about it. He went to his grave without ever sharing what really happened to him. I think that might have explained why he was so mean to my grandmother. He had a lot of post-traumatic stress,” she concluded.

Throughout our conversation, Sheryl was troubled by the idea of reincarnation. It had never been part of her belief system. She was raised Mormon and believed in the eternity of the afterlife united with her family.

But the more we spoke, she started to warm up to the idea as a more appealing possibility than a diagnosis of mental illness or autism that the school psychologist had suggested. That her son might be her reincarnated grandfather made sense to her.

Yet it rocked her world.

Sheryl recalled a moment when Cody grabbed a photo of Grandpa Joe displayed on a shelf. “He cried for it. And I let him touch it. Now come to think of it, they look exactly alike.”

She then wondered—like many of us—do we just continue? Do our lives never end, but repeat over and over again? What’s the point of that? Or do we at some point become liberated from the cycle of births?

The answer of reincarnation for her son’s peculiar behavior had raised more questions. She had to look deeper in her own self for understanding. She had to ask the question—Who am I? Am I this story that repeats lifetime after lifetime? Or is there anything else?

Cody’s story calls into question the theory that we are nurtured into the people we become. Instead, we may be imprinted by a whole other set of influences beyond this life and by forces beyond our parents and culture.

These tiny children are born intact with personalities and preferences and emotional temperaments and intellectual capabilities. Mozart, for example, was born with an innate ability to play exquisite music. He never had to be taught.

You never needed to be taught either.

You were born intact with everything you need to succeed in your life’s mission. Your life’s path is not about modeling yourself after someone else. It’s never about attempting to become someone other than exactly who you came here to be.

Your life is instead a discovery, an unfolding of a unique destiny that was given to you by the stars.

To know the inner meaning of the stars is to know the inner meaning of your life’s purpose—and the makeup of your personality and psychology. The entire universe is within you with a message about where you came from and why you are here.

Every human life is intimately connected to the light of the stars. Because of that unbroken connection, your life story is part of the life story of the entire universe.

The way of knowing your unique connection to the universe that was formulated in ancient India is known as Jyotisha, the “science of light,” or most commonly “Vedic Astrology.”

Yet Jyotisha is more than describing whether you are an Aries or a Libra, whether you relate best to Sagittarians, or if you’re destined to be in a car accident.

Rather it’s a psychological technique that allows you to perceive something more authentic about yourself and your life’s value than what your family, your education, what societal values and society in general has projected on to you.

Jyotisha awakens your inner eye of knowledge that allows you to see your life’s inborn and innate possibilities. It cultures the way you see the world that is profoundly uplifting—because it’s exactly how you were meant to see it.

Such right seeing enlivens your ability to achieve your highest potential. Your highest potential is the realization that you are profoundly connected to all things in the universe.

There is no separation between you and the planet Saturn, for example. You are connected with the sun. The moon is connected. All the planets and stars exist within you and give you their qualities that are observable in your defining personality and other traits.

But how are you connected exactly? That’s what we are here to learn and understand and explore in this precious human birth.

And to help you answer this question, the ancient seers of India have given you a profound gift—your Vedic astrological chart.