Re: If everyone knew about past lives and the spirit realm...
I agree with you that most modern scientists are not open minded to consider what i call the thought world, which was at one time considered separate from the physical world.
However even if you can observe that there is more than the physical world and others people can observe it too (inner voice, inner vision, living animated body) (so this is an objective proof in a way) you also don't want to repeat concepts from others religions if you can't verify that they are true. If you do this, you are just a repeater and a fanatic.
I agree that some concepts from some religions makes more sense, they are more believable, but this does not make them true if you can't reproduce the same experiments/observations.
Also, you can say all you want that you are not a sheep and that you are awake and that you know the truth, this does not make it true if you can't prove it and others can't reproduce it.
There are only a few people in this world who accept that there are things we know (objective truths) and there are things we don't know, and this does not mean we need to follow a religion, this means we must investigate, experiment, observe the results, and bit by bit, understand what is going on, what is true or false. We can use religion as a guide but not as gospel...