Thread: Ok, trying this again -- refining my theory on NON-SPIRITUAL, NON-RELIGIOUS reINCARNATION

Ok, some thoughts I had while sitting in McDonald's today -- this might help to explain the idea better:

First, the all-important concept of SUBJECTIVITY. This concept is crucial to understanding what I'm talking about. And for the sake of keeping this simple, Ill confine it to talking about people... though keep in mind animals might be included as consciousnesses.

How many people exist in the world right now? I don't know... billions anyway. Only one of them is YOU. All the rest are what I'l call NOT-YOU. Think about the differences.

YOU have total and immediate access to your own thoughts and feelings, your memories (well, some have better and quicker access to those than others... ). You DON'T have direct access to anyone else's thoughts feelings or memories... to get to them you need to communicate with that person, a process fraught with mishap and distortions. Would that we could plug a USB cable directly between our heads and uplink mind to mind, but alas, the technology is not yet here.

Another feature of subjectivity... you see the inside of your own eyelids, where as you see the outside of everyone else's. Unless they're doing that gross trick where they turn their eyelids inside out... but I digress.

By SUBJECTIVITY I am not referring to your awareness (though I'm sure I called it that earlier... hey, I'm slowly learning how to express this, ok? Give me a break!). I'm also not referring to your consciousness or your mind. Not your personality or your thoughts or memories... ONLY the sense that it's YOU in there... behind those eyes, between those ears.

I thought I had more on the sense of subjectivity, but I guess that's it. Well, I had this stupid thing with a bunch of ping-pong balls all white except for one blue one, but that's just dumb. We're not here to talk about blue balls anyway.

Alright with that concept of subjectivity firmly in mind, let's begin at the beginning. You were brought into this world as an embryo. Somewhere along the way, I have no idea just when, the brain of said embryo developed to the point that it began to function. I don't know if a fetus is considered conscious or not... and I'm not here to debate that point. Really it's not important if it happens in the womb or sometime during infancy, but consciousness forms in your soft little head. I understand now that some of you believe the brain doesn't CREATE consciousness but is rather an organic machine that downloads or receives it. I'm not familiar enough yet with these ideas to say whether this affects the sense of subjectivity or not. My gut instinct is to say subjectivity dies with the body, but who can say? I just think that, without eyes to look out through and ears to nestle between there's no real sense of "I". But I could be wrong.

This is how you came into the world. According to my idea, when your body dies that sense of subjectivity goes with it.

On the day you die, how many new consciousnesses are born? Thousands? ... And how about in the following year? Decade?

Look at it another way. How many consciousnesses have ever been created in the world? EVER. That's a loooong time friends!! Even if we include only humans (not sure at what point we draw the line between protohuman and true human, but anyway... ) the number is astronomical. Now... how many MORE consciousnesses will ever be born into the world in the future? And let's assume the future doesn't end in 2012, shall we?

Ok, back to where I left off before this little side-track... how many consciousnesses will be born on the day you die? They're all brand spankin' new (I believe anyway)... but EVERY ONE OF THEM HAS A SENSE OF SUBJECTIVITY FOR WHOEVER IS INSIDE THAT BODY. Let's not forget... every "NOT-YOU" is somebody too... to them, THEY are a YOU and you are a NOT-YOU. Gets confusing, don't it? But my point is... every one of those little baby consciousnesses (never used that weird word before getting to this forum... see what this place is doing to me!!?? ) -- every one of them has its own subjective sense of being somebody's I.

All I'm saying is, why couldn't ONE of them (not necessarily on the same day you die, could be years later or decades, any amount of time really) subjectively be YOU again?

Damn, and once again I run into that wall!

I can just see over it, but I can't get past it. Words always fail me right at that point.

But I'm glad a couple of people understand... thats very encouraging. My hope is that it's like seeing a cockroach.. you know, they say for every one you actually see there are a hundred more hiding. So maybe some people have read it and "get it" but just haven't posted.

Man, every time I try to express it better I feel like I just went through the wringer!