Thread: Do you believe in past lives?

i do not view reincarnation as a 'linear' process. Consciousness is eternal, ego-entities are not. opinions are fleeting, the truth is unchanging. the only "truth" is 'suchness'. the "I AM" aspect of existence is real, all else is but shadows and seasons.

refer to my sig...

"let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure (the Self);

And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.

For self is a sea boundless and measureless.

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth."

Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path."

For the soul walks upon all paths.

The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.

The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals. "

I would love to believe in reincarnation and stuff like that, but there so many factors to consider. Not just that we really don't know, but other stuff that would take WAY too long for me to post. Maybe when it's not 11:20 at night and I'm not tired I'll type it.

People have memories of Past Lives and so they conclude that they have lived past lives. The simpler explanation would be to suppose that these people had been gifted with Memory Modules from other souls. Perhaps some Soul or Spiritual Entity who feels some certain sympathy for a person decides to telepathically transmit a Memory to that person. Of course such a Memory will 'play' in the First Person. We will remember another person's memory as though it were one of our own. We can only see from the Camera's Eye.

to experience the memory of a past life does not necessitate that we need to have been that past life, as we can read an autobiography of let's say Winston Churchill without having been that illnatured alcoholic ourselves.

i do not view reincarnation as a 'linear' process. Consciousness is eternal, ego-entities are not. opinions are fleeting, the truth is unchanging. the only "truth" is 'suchness'. the "I AM" aspect of existence is real, all else is but shadows and seasons. *

refer to my sig... *

"let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure (the Self); *

And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line. *

For self is a sea boundless and measureless. *

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth." *

Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path." *

For the soul walks upon all paths. *

The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. *

The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals. "[/b]

This is from the same guy who said about the movie “Waking Life”: “i found much of the dialogue to be a ho-hum stew of existentialist babble.”

I'm a dude of science, so i dont believe in past lives, or any other supernatural stuff. There is still a lot of stuff like this that has no explaination, however

Originally posted by Zero1328
From a Scientific POV, We are all forms of energy. Energy is neither created nor destroyed, just changed into a different form.

Well said - I completely agree with this.

I do believe in reincarnation even though there's not steadfast evidence to support it. There are many things in this world that no one can prove but we believe it anyway (a lot like religion - but I don't want anyone to get started on a debate about that - this thread is flowing so nicely!).

Anyway, I believe that everything is based on good and bad karma. Things happen to you in this life to balance good or bad karma that was committed in previous lives. When a soul achieves a complete balance in karma, that soul is released from being reincarnated ever again. So this supports the need for new souls to start the cycle, and this also supports the belief of a higher plane that souls are released to after completing their karmic cycle. A soul may be reincarnated several times or just a few - however long it takes to complete the karmic cycle.

I may be completely off base with all this, but reincarnation is comforting thought to me.

I also wonder if souls can be reincarnated to different species (for example, cat to human, or human to bird, etc, etc) or if they are species specific. There's probably no answer to this question, but I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on it.

Originally posted by burns91


I also wonder if souls can be reincarnated to different species (for example, cat to human, or human to bird, etc, etc) or if they are species specific. There's probably no answer to this question, but I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on it.

You're right.... this is one of those rhetorical questions that no one can really give a definite answer to. However, after reading various material on this topic, I came to agree with what Sylvia Browne has said on this issue. I know that a lot of people consider her to be a fraud, but despite some misses, she has made many accurate predictions which were recorded and later verified, so I do believe with a lot of her "teachings." Her take on whether souls can be reincarnated to different species is that each species can only be reincarnated into its kind. So, a human will always reincarnate into a human, an animal will reincarnate into an animal, and angels never reincarnate to human form, even though many believe otherwise. The reason why some people may feel an association with a particular animal species ,whether because they frequently dream of that animal, or feel that its symbolic meaning relates to them in some way, could be interpreted as a specific animal could be that person's totem, or their animal spirit guide. This concept was highly common among American Indians who worshipped a certain animal they felt a spiritual link with.

Originally posted by Leo Volont
Perhaps some Soul or Spiritual Entity who feels some certain sympathy for a person decides to telepathically transmit a Memory to that person. Of course such a Memory will 'play' in the First Person. We will remember another person's memory as though it were one of our own. We can only see from the Camera's Eye.

To experience the memory of a past life does not necessitate that we need to have been that past life.

That is a very valid option to consider, also some people with the gift of clairvoyance or precognition may be able to tune into an event and see it as it's happening in the first person mode. However, I still think it's just as plausable to assume, that it's possible, other than for the aforementioned reasons to be able for a person to view their past life, provided that they had one. I've been reading various literature on this topic; one of them was a summary of reported experiences various people had while undergoing a past life regression session with a highly trained hypnotist. The people undergoing the hypnosis were not in any way manipulated to say what they did, and the only affirmations of their experiences that were taken into account are the ones they reported themselves either after the regression session, or during it, in which the participants had tape recorders on, and were speaking during the session and saying what they were observing as they were viewing their past life. One person even started speaking in an ancient foreign language they had no way of knowing. The reason why the concept of past lives is convincing to me is because during the past life regression session these people underwent, several of them reported as seeing themselves being either stabbed, shot, or physically injured in some way in their past life. One woman saw herself stabbed in the chest, and later connected what she saw with the oddly shaped birth mark on her chest located in the same spot she viewed herself being stabbed in her past life with a spear. Another man reported that during his past life regression session he saw himself being bit by a dog, and he later said that he has been terrified of dogs his whole life and never knew why. The list of these types of "coincidences" people reported after undergoing a past life regression session is relatively large. I think it's valid to consider that there is a possibility that reincarnation in fact exists.

Originally posted by Dust Mote

i do not view reincarnation as a 'linear' process. Consciousness is eternal, ego-entities are not. opinions are fleeting, the truth is unchanging. the only "truth" is 'suchness'. the "I AM" aspect of existence is real, all else is but shadows and seasons.

refer to my sig...

"let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure (the Self);

And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.

For self is a sea boundless and measureless.

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth."

Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path."

For the soul walks upon all paths.

The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.

The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals. "

This is from the same guy who said about the movie “Waking Life”: “i found much of the dialogue to be a ho-hum stew of existentialist babble.”

[/b]

but i only like to eat my own ho-hum stem...

Originally posted by Asher
ho-hum stem...

LOL

Been there, done that, doing it again.

Originally posted by bradybaker
Over the past couple thousand years, the population has grown by a factor of about 1000. And the population has doubled in the past 40 years. So this means that either a) most of us are first round humans (the chances of your soul being older than 150 is only 1 in 6), B) our 'souls' are just fractions of past souls, or c) there's no such thing as past lives.

Waking Life: "everybody always says that they're the reincarnation of Cleopatra or Alexander the Great, I always want to tell them that they were probably some dumb fuck like everyone else."

This assumes that we reincarnate only on planet Earth. It's a rather large universe folks. Why not consider the possibility that we are incarnate on other planets as well?

he already touched on that question a page back when it was asked the last time

Originally posted by sephiroth clock

could you clarify what you mean by this, thanks in advance, I mean the reasoning, and how it supports the soul argument.

I don't think we should associate souls with the body. We have the physical body, the astral body, which is just like the physical body except made of finer material, and when the astral body decays, we are left we just a pure ego. This ego can enter into any physical body he wants, wether it be alien or human.

I also believe that an infinite number of egos can be created from the "soul" of the universe. The universe is like one conciousness, but from that pieces can be seperated to create various egos.

Originally posted by bradybaker
Well I don't believe in souls at all. I'm just speaking hypothetically here.

Basically what I'm saying is:

If populations tend to grow over time, there is a constant need for 'new' souls. So the majority of people alive today did not have a past life, they are a first round humans. This is especially true in souls are unique to humans.

The alien/dog/rodent soul argument opens up a whole new can of worms. Where is the dividing line? Do cats have souls? Do butterflies? Do amoebas? Do viruses?

one live is more than enough, no?

Originally posted by bochen4
one live is more than enough, no?

For you, it is

Waking Life: "everybody always says that they're the reincarnation of Cleopatra or Alexander the Great, I always want to tell them that they were probably some dumb fuck like everyone else."[/b]

Very few people actually say that they were a famous person in their past life. In fact, the majority of people state that they were such unimportant people as peasants in their previous lives.

But the 'very few' who do claim to have been famous people in their past life vastly outnumbers the number who could've possibly been said famous people in their past life. It's all relative.

Indeed, I was actually stating that since the comment is a common argument against reincarnation and past life regression (I personally don't place too much stock in the later though there are other reasons than that).

Hi

Personally I belive that every creature has a soul (after all, we are just apes! and its only inteligence and evolution that seperates us from them.)

So I do belive in past lives... and that you are not restricted to being a person.
I found "Burn's" theory on karma very interesting

I have never belived in Hell, but that were given the chance to corect what we have done wrong... Especially after watching the TV series "My name is Earl"

Of course, I'm a Buddhist!

I remember a few of mine. I remember how I died last. I also have memories of living in Africa, which is why I have such an attachment to it.

I believe in rebirth, or continuity without the presence of a soul. A human or any sentient is a complex entanglement of many elements which shift considerably even while the creature remains incarnate. Upon death, some of those elements migrate to living acquaintances, some scatter, and some remain bound to one another. There may be born, thereafter, 7 or 12 or 200 beings that share in the qualities of the deceased, and they may even recover some of what was left in the care of the living. Of these, one or several may share so much with the deceased that they are essentially "reincarnations," but it is neither the rule nor the norm.

No poll?


No, It does not seem feasible to me.

I don't rule it out. It would be a nice explanation for what happens when we die. It would also serve as a good explanation for Deja Vu.