Does anyone here believe in reincarnation?
The matter that makes up a human never really disappears. So is it possible that the same cells could in the future be part of another human? I know it sounds far-fetched but I just wanted to throw the idea out there. Plus scientists say we are all made of star stuff but maybe one day there will be an astronomical event that causes the destruction of the earth and then the same could happen again as when living matter first appeared.
I believe it could be possible, but so can most things. It's fun to wonder every now and then, but you will never reach an answer, still fun though.
I just like to think about these things. I like to think of myself as being open minded. Every time I hear a new idea I think about it and research it.
Just out of curiosity did you always live in Warner Robins? I lived there when I was a kid and I am about the same age as you.
The essence of who you are, your soul is pure energy.
Energy cannot be destroyed.
The physical body is merely a vessel for that energy.
So yes, I believe in reincarnation.
I have an advantage when it comes to this question as experiencing an NDE given a glimpse of what happens when your physical body dies.
Believe or not, it is your choice.
_________________
The impossible is only something that hasn't been done yet.
I believe it could be possible, but so can most things. It's fun to wonder every now and then, but you will never reach an answer, still fun though.
I just like to think about these things. I like to think of myself as being open minded. Every time I hear a new idea I think about it and research it.
Just out of curiosity did you always live in Warner Robins? I lived there when I was a kid and I am about the same age as you.
I do the same thing, that's why I say it can be fun. I used to obsessively wonder about existence, the possibility of God, the possibility of no God, How existence came to be. I got in trouble at bible school when I was 4, the teacher was introducing us to the idea of God, she said God created us. I asked her who created God, she said nobody, he just always existed. So I asked how could he just always exist without a beginning, then she told me to shut up.
I just moved here, I grew up in Gordon, about 45 min away, between Macon and Milledgeville.
Energy cannot be destroyed.
The physical body is merely a vessel for that energy.
So yes, I believe in reincarnation.
I have an advantage when it comes to this question as experiencing an NDE given a glimpse of what happens when your physical body dies.
Believe or not, it is your choice.
Do you remember things that happened to you in a past life?
techstepgenr8tion
Veteran
Joined: 6 Feb 2005
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 24,194
Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi
Yes, although it's quite likely not a permanent state of things nor would we want it to be.
I remember when I was reading Lectures on Ancient Philosophy a couple pages in chapter 9 (Cycles of Necessity) really resonated with me:
The visible world gradually assumes the appearance of the office where he labored during the years of earth life. Still the ticker sounds in his ear, the telephones ring, and vast projects torment his tired mind with their complexities. A little while and his soul drifts into a great vortex of endeavors, vain struggles, and loosened passions. Like a mighty whirlwind his soul in company with the souls of millions is swept about in hopeless confusion in the after-death chamber. The sighing of the wind is the mourning of deluded souls. Suddenly the curtains begin to sway and through them sweeps the torrent of air back into the world of the living. A little child creeps through a tiny rent and burdened still with the affairs of life crawls into mortal existence. The years pass and the child again becomes a man. Still the ticker sounds, still the struggle for gain goes on, again the back is bent by responsibilities, the life soured by unfulfilled desire until at last, carrying with him the same possessions that bowed his back before, the soul creeps away again to rest. Yet what is rest? Just more longing, more desire, more unrequited love. Thus age after age the Wheel of the Law goes round; age after age man comes and goes , bound to its spokes of agony, and this fools in their folly have termed life.
All this the opened eye of the philosophy lays bare; all this the sage perceives with enlightened vision. He knows the unreality of heaven as well as hell. He realizes that both are but projections in the substances of a more subtle element of the same impulses which have taken a beautiful earth and made of it a breeding ground of greed and a house of discord. Death is not a liberation from ignorance, nor is it a solution to man's problem; neither is it the end of anything. Death is but an exchange of vestments; it is no cure for that sickness of the soul which the wise term ignorance. Back and forth between the chambers of life and death man passes until he wears ruts in the stony floor he treads. Yet he is never free for he escapes one prison but to enter another. With perennial hope he faces each new scene, only to find that he exchanges bad for worse.
Birth and death are illusionary in that they seem to be a change of state when in reality they are but a change of place. Through man were lifted to the heights of Olympus he would not be greater than himself; and though he were hurdled downward to the depths of the inferno, no virtue that is innately his could be taken from him.
_________________
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin
If I was to believe most of the people who believe in reincarnation, then I would have to believe that:
Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... Life sucks ... You die ... et cetera ... ad eternum ...
The concept of the soul, which I borrow from Jain philosophy, is fairly complex and difficult to explain and justify from just a few paragraphs or even one book alone. Nevertheless, here's a link to a fairly comprehensive article about it.
http://www.herenow4u.net/index.php?id=65933
Thus, in Jain philosophy, if one could understand the concept of the soul, he can similarly grasp the concept of reincarnation which, in essence, is transmorgrification of the soul, if you will.
_________________
One Day At A Time.
His first book: http://www.amazon.com/Wetland-Other-Sto ... B00E0NVTL2
His second book: https://www.amazon.com/COMMONER-VAGABON ... oks&sr=1-2
His blog: http://seattlewordsmith.wordpress.com/