Reincarnation

But… did she get the jewelry?

People who believe in past lives always seem to have been Cleopatra or some exotic thing.

Nobody was a truck driver in Iowa.

You may find this thread of interest.

Eventually, yes, R1. Grandma died and she willl get the jewels (when her mother dies).

Consider that most organisms that have ever existed likely live fast and die a horrible death - either by disease, injury, or being eaten alive. Consider one very particular species - humans - of which a very tiny fraction live long, comfortable lives and, if they’re lucky, die a painless death under the care of medical staff. Maybe.

What are the odds that any one being will experience another consciousness after death that is so lucky?

I find reincarnation interesting, but I always wonder where does the soul start? I mean, with an ever increasing population how could everyone have a past life? The math doesn't work. If the world population was only a few million 2000 years ago, how does that translate to a world population of 7 billion? Where do the souls originate?

R6, check out "Journey of Souls." Interesting book. Been awhile since I read it though, but it's on my bookshelf.

I believe in reincarnation, and have from a very young age (10ish).

^ Tell us how the book addresses my questions @r6

Well, I would but apparently been marked a troll for some reason. That's sad. I haven't said anything controversial and the only thing I kind of flooded was the Seinfeld thread.

But if we return that means we did not learn all our lessons. If there is reincarnation, I'd prefer this to be my final trip on the wheel and my next stop to be nirvana.

So, I can't post new threads, but I can apparently respond to others. I believe we do keep returning until we learn all of our experiences we can. It's not as simplistic as that, though. I feel we come from a great source and are sent, like a child, on our way through several lifetimes to gather experiences and amass them for the source. Collect is probably a better word. One we achieve a certain level of understanding, I believe we return to the source in a state of nirvana and rejoin. There are far many other nuances such as soul groups, but this is what I've believed - through no other outside source like my family because they were atheist - it just has always felt true to me. We are energy/matter, and we can't be destroyed. I think the source is constantly churning out new souls and bringing them back in once they've completed their soul cycles. Yep, I agree, it sounds a bit out there. But it makes sense to me, especially with all the kids that have these past life stories that can be corroborated and they would have no way of knowing.

The whole idea with reincarnation is we keep coming back and learning,moving on to a better higher plane of some sort of spirituality or becoming a better individual. If you look at the planet it is plain that is not happening and there are more jerks around as we go on.

r12 that is our corporeal experience, which is what is wanting to be experienced by the source - all the happy, shitty, sad, joyful things. what we take with us after that corporeal life is very different.

r8 Other than the fact it addresses many questions about reincarnation you have. The author is an expert. Here is a link with plenty of reviews (over 5200+): But I've always responded with my thoughts.

There's no such thing as reincarnation. Furthermore, "memories" demonstrate nothing, particularly in children, that one has to remind people about the countless cases of satanic kindergartens that sprouted through the USA, all because of faulty psychological techniques that either told children what to say or planted false memories... As well as that not all of those who believe(d) in reincarnation accepted that there was such a thing as "memories from past lives", the Neo-Platonists were clear in that the "irrational soul" died wholly, leaving neither memories, nor sentiments, nor anything about past-life. If reincarnation was a phenomenon as such, then we'd had aplenty of proofs, besides some deluded sectarians claiming to be this bodhisattva, this king, this whatever from whatever time. We'd have Chinese reincarnating in the USA, speaking Chinese and behaving like Chinese, but there's no such thing. We'd have Gutenberg reincarnating among the Bantus and brining them the printing press, but there's no such thing. In short, never ever anything of importance could be imputed to reincarnation, we only have petty people claiming to have insignificant memories.

All you opinion r15

R16 Sure thing Queen Nefertiti, it must be quite the downturn, from that to this.

r15, you clearly have not looked far into reincarnation memories that show languages and memories far from beyond what you are putting further. it has happened and has been validated.you are trying to validate your own beliefs.

OMG what a fuck up you are. YOU CLEARLY HAVE NOT READ MUCH ABOUT PAST LIFE EXPERIENCES. have you even read the text cited?! Dumbass. you just don't want to believe it and want to care about it because it reputes your beliefs. Fuck off. I'm done. you can't even have a rational conversation.

Also, i don't believe most of the past life experiences are from famous lives Most of them are plain old peeps living normal peasant lives who died horrible deaths. if you actually READ the damn text i cited, you'd know, fucktard. thanks for actually trying to having a discourse in your fucking question, idiot.

The stories of lives lived that I could tell if I had the time......

R18 Oh, I see, well it's you and your reincarnatards who make extraordinary claims, that merit extraordinary demonstrations, not merely recurring to "oh well it's all your fault for not investigating enough", I've read enough to know that all these claims meet no criterion of proof. I care not enough about whatever method of population control they employ among the deluded peasants of the Tibet, or about a Karen wanting to feel special, there's no such thing as reincarnation, whatever happens after this life, it certainly is not reincarnation, we've had thousands of years to have a proper proof, someone incarnating in Europe speaking about a continent to be found past the atlantic sea, or something along these lines, nothing, only people "reincarnating" in the same place, with no extraordinary memories about their "past lives".

R19 See, the Neo-Platonists were wrong, here we have a person with no rational soul, only irrational. Cry me a river, Nefertiti. R20 Except I care not about your made-up memories about being a peasant, a bodhisattva or whatever, nothing of all that matters the least, it's all worthless, it's had no use whatsoever, nobody discovered a continent because in a past life he was a Native American, or anything like that. All these accounts are people too bored with their lives that they feel the need for something special, and make claims that meet no criterion, you could easily know how was the life of a peasant in the Middle Ages, or Ancient Egypt, or whatever nowadays. There's no exceptional revelation, no Voltaire reincarnating, no Plato, nothing, only mediocre people, making mediocre claims.

Or maybe try the link upthread of an actual scientist who has done many studies...ffs. it's actually interesting.

R23 "actual scientist", so the typical fallacy of appealing to authority. I need not consult whatever this snake oil peddler's book to know what I fill find, I will find nothing that can't be account by what I already said in my other post, faulty psychological techniques, that create false memories or either manipulate children to say what the interviewer wants to hear. That's it. We still live in a world, were after thousands and thousands of years, the supposed supernatural process of reincarnation has offered no proof of this exceptional process, no Chinese waking up one day in America, no Gutenberg among the Bantus, nothing of that. Whatever happens with ourselves after death, certainly isn't reincarnation. And not a thousand karens claiming to be this or what queen from Ancient Egypt will convince me of the contrary.

Brian Weiss was head of Psychiatry at Jackson Memorial in Miami.

As a traditional psychotherapist, Dr. Brian Weiss was astonished and skeptical when one of his patients began recalling past-life traumas that seemed to hold the key to her recurring nightmares and anxiety attacks.

His skepticism was eroded, however, when she began to channel messages from “the space between lives,” which contained remarkable revelations about Dr. Weiss’s family and his dead son.

Using past-life therapy, he was able to cure the patient and embark on a new, more meaningful phase of his own career.

What about the trans? Won't somebody think of the trans? Which sex were they born in their previous life?

Not only do I believe in reincarnation, but I believe we are living all of our lives simultaneously.

Earthlings are addicted to the concept of linear time.

^ Very well said! I wholeheartedly agree.

I wouldn't call it Heaven or Reincarnation but I do believe we go somewhere. Our bodies will remain on Earth but the collective energy in our souls with carry on.

[quote]If there is reincarnation, I'd prefer this to be my final trip on the wheel and my next stop to be nirvana.

The Buddhist concept of nirvana is that, in attaining it, you are "blown out like a candle." In ending the cycle of rebirth, you are also eradicating your sense of self. When the flame of a candle is blown out, its elements still exist but as part of the universe. Personally, I think being reborn as a different personality sounds like more fun.

Why are these reincarnationists always Cleopatra or Alexander the Great in a previous life? Why were they never just regular folks? Asking for a friend.

i don't believe that r31. if you're interested in the subject, you can read many books on the subject where the stories are NOT at all about famous (or infamous) historical figures. The majority were about everyday, normal people.

R25 well if Oprah endorses this guy he must be telling the truth! He clearly has an agenda to promote his beliefs because he writes books on the subject. I was already sceptical from Oprah’s hard sell at the start when she says he’s Yale and Columbia educated as though we should trust him because of those credentials- like nobody from those establishments are going to want to find gullible people to make money off of. Honestly he sounds like a flake with his belief in the “dimensions of heaven” and “angels”.

And his belief that some patient knew about his child’s death and fathers death- it honestly just sounds like he was traumatised by those events and just wants to believe that there’s something more to life than simply being here one minute and gone the next. Even highly intelligent people don’t want to believe that they may not get another chance to correct their mistakes from this life.

Really Oprah and her guests; between the “a million little pieces guy”, the “the secret woman”, this guy and dr. Phil and whoever else she lauds as some sort of expert in their questionable field - the woman is always peddling this type of thing to her gullible audience knowing full well that anyone who has the time to watch her show probably has time and energy to burn.

I don't give a shit about Oprah's endorsement...I was reading this guy's stuff long before she came along and had him on her dumb ass show. I'm not the one who posted at R25.

Reincarnation is the fundamental of Buddhism. You reincarnate until you reach nirvana.

I can see how reincarnation would have been appealing to peasants in years gone by. Or those who believe the grass is always greener.

Years ago I had very strange vivid dreams in which I saw myself (although they were a different 'self' not the person that I am now) in past times and ages. I saw myself as a Native American Indian, someone who lived 2000 years ago at the times of Christ, and the list goes on. I saw myself as a female in the last Century and mysteriously I don't know what happened to her - it appears that I came back very quickly after that lifetime as the person that I am now. I think reincarnation is possible and the memories are deeply regressed in us.

Shirley MacLaine goes from being in Atlantis, a medieval warrior, an orphan raised by elephants, a Japanese geisha and a model for post-impressionist painter Toulouse-Lautrec to starring in a film called Noelle with Anna Kendrick… her lives seem to be becoming trashier and trashier- I wonder what lessons she is learning.

According to Buddhism, the purpose is to escape the cycle of reincarnation by achieving nirvana.

OP, your 'grandmother' story sounds less like reincarnation and more like a case of metempsychosis, like what's depicted in 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐲 ('Since Aunt Ada Came to Stay') or 𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐙𝐨𝐧𝐞 1985 ('Gramma'), wherein a sorcerer migrates his or her consciousness to the body of a younger individual, crowding out their personality, in order to extend their own life.

(Neither reincarnation nor metempsychosis actually happen; they're fictional.)

[quote]So, I can't post new threads, but I can apparently respond to others. I believe we do keep returning until we learn all of our experiences we can. It's not as simplistic as that, though. I feel we come from a great source and are sent, like a child, on our way through several lifetimes to gather experiences and amass them for the source.

This is exactly what I believe R11, and I'm not sure where I got it from over the years but you've completely nailed it. That's the exact same conclusion I came to.

Also, yes, my little niece was one of those kids who would talk about past lives. She doesn't remember any of it now. Imagine a 3 year old carrying on a full conversation about something they should know nothing about with a vocal cadence and a vocabulary that is unsettling. She'd go through these phases where she'd talk like she was much, much, older.

I also had past life dreams as a kid. They weren't like other dreams I've had. They're still pretty vivid to this day. They were always first person. I looked in a mirror in one of them and I didn't look like me at all but it was me. I'd go places and do things that are still completely foreign to me and at least one point I found the exact place where I had always dreamed I had been while on a trip a few years ago.

One of the most chilling things I've read is Gene Siskel's words to Roger Ebert when he was in the process of dying. He was going between here and somewhere else and claimed that all of this (life on earth) is an elaborate trick and that where he was going the past, present and future were all happening at the exact same time.

[quote] One of the most chilling things I've read is Gene Siskel's words to Roger Ebert when he was in the process of dying. He was going between here and somewhere else and claimed that all of this (life on earth) is an elaborate trick and that where he was going the past, present and future were all happening at the exact same time.

Sounds like someone who watched too many movies.

R2 that's hysterical. I've said the same thing!

I've done past lives nonsense twice for fun. Both times I got called Pythagorus. Please. If I was really some reincarnated ancient Greek, I'd be a sweet little bottom boy working the baths helping out daddy get off.

Not worrying about solving the fucking hypotenuse.

The notion of reincarnation is nightmarish to me, I’m glad I don’t believe in it

DL Critical thinking- I don't know anything about it, never read a book about the subject but I can tell you it's all bullshit. Anyone who was on Oprah is a fraud, anyone who went to Yale or Columbia is a fraud. If it was on a tv episode that means it's fake, I don't understand the numbers so it's bullshit.

I had 2 past life readings/nonsense because I don't believe in it, they said the same thing but it's not true and I didn't read investigate the subject at all.

(Pythagoreanism was a school of philosophy with thousands of adherents. He Also identified/measured a musical octave and the Music of the Spheres)

Stem cells have memory, google it. Every week it seems we get new science that demonstrates how photons and other particles behave in ways we never imagined or understand. Just this week there was an article about how wormholes could be traversed. In quantum physics every day is like sci-fi.

Perhaps "reincarnation" is simply cellular memory of some sort. IDK but "there are more things in heaven and earth that are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Reincarnation is the spiritual hobgoblin of a narcissist.