Originally Posted by
sivason
Hi Abra, I suppose that a lot of people make up stories about past lives to sound cool; maybe they even convince themselves. They are dramatic people who want to tell you they were Cleopatra or Alexander, so they are not going to say "I spent a few lifetimes as a mudskipper." I also think far more drama queen fantasizers tell stories about made up past lives then honest people express what they experience regarding past lives. That is why the largest portion of past life stuff is really cool and about humans.
That said, I will admit/tell that I have a deep conection with reincarnation. I remember a sampling of a few lives (optionally: delusional- but i don't think so) including the last 5 and 3 older human lives. I have also often been an animal. I will express what I believe I know on the subject below.
A priest of the Krisna movement argued with me about why I would choose non-human forms. I told him that one of his own saints was known to incarnate in a deer body. He said the story was a lesson on how he screwed up so it can be avoided. To him, the only proper form was human. He spouted ill formed concepts on how only man has the brain power to 'serve God' so spending time as a animal was neglecting the quest he was on 'to serve God.' So there is one line of Yogis wwho will strive to always be human.
Then some people are highly opposed to killing or eatin meat. These souls will always choose non-carniverous bodies. However, most cool animals eat meat, so human is a good choice for those souls.
The untrained soul does the easiest thing. The freshly dead soul has images of the most recent life still tied up in the energy body. The confused disembodied soul wishes it had a body, and seeks a way to re-enter the world. It tends to seek what it knows, so a goose that died would be thinking about being a goose. If a goose body is available it goes into it. This explains why untrained humans often reincarnate as human.
There is a temple in India that tends rats. The idea is that if any of their group wish to take a break for a few years, they can reincarnate as a rat in the temple. Because they do not know which if any of the rats are their loved ones, all the rats are treated well. Here is the idea. If a human couple is seperated by the early death of one member, the dead member should not take human form. Say 2 people are both 40 years old and the husband dies. He becomes a baby within a years time. She lives to be 70 years old,,, he grows to be 30 years old,,, she dies and becomes a baby and grows to be 20 and he grows to be 50,,, they find each other again!!! Wait he is 50 and she is 20 lame! Instead of this it can go this way. He dies at 40 and becomes a rat,,, the rat dies at 2 years old, again, and again and again,,, She dies at 70,,, with in a year of her death the newest rat dies,,, he is reborn the same year as she is.
So in that setting an animal can be selected to avoid incarnating as a human in order to wait for the right time. Of course I imagine it can be very fun just to get to be some animals. Incarnation as an animal may also just be a way to relax.