Reincarnation...

[Summer]

I believe in reincarnation, and believe that Jesus also believed in it. When Christ said in the bible in answer to a man who had questioned him about how to reach God, that you must be born again, I believe he meant just that! That you must be born over and over again, in order to become fully enlightened. I also believe when the people called him "Elijah come again" that they really meant exactly that! So, what do you believe?

[Thorn]

I voted yes, but I don't pretend to know if I'm right...

[Summer]

So many of the spiritual paths and the world's religions believe in this philosophy, that I feel it is logical to at least consider the possibility that it may be a reality. The Buddhists, the Hindus, and the Native American people, as well as many of the indiginous tribes all over the world all believe in reicarnation. How many religions besides Christianity can you think of that DON'T believe in reicarnation? I feel the Christians might actually be outnumbered in their beliefs on this subject, although that is only my opinion.

[Thorn]

debbie said:

So many of the spiritual paths and the world's religions believe in this philosophy, that I feel it is logical to at least consider the possibility that it may be a reality. The Buddhists, the Hindus, and the Native American people, as well as many of the indiginous tribes all over the world all believe in reicarnation. How many religions besides Christianity can you think of that DON'T believe in reicarnation? I feel the Christians might actually be outnumbered in their beliefs on this subject, although that is only my opinion.

Well, I don't think Judaism holds with reincarnation. And neither did the Greeks, Romans, or Egyptians. In fact, aside from the Egyptians, they all imagined the after life as something pretty dreary. It seems to have originated in the East, though there are some hits at it in Celtic mythology. Not so much in the Norse - what with Asgard and Hel and all...

It just makes sense to me, though. Everything around us is cyclical. Why would we be different? Simple physics - laws of conservation of matter and energy and all that...

[jimmyRRpage]

I do not believe in Hell, or Satan. I believe that if one's soul is not clean enough to get into Heaven, that soul is reborn in another body, to start over with a clean slate. And this cycle continues until the soul is clean enough to get into Heaven.


On another note, there are many reasons a baby cries. They are hungry, they are tired, they have just used the potty (keep in mind they have not been potty-trained yet), they want to be held, they don't want to be held, they just woke up...

But I believe that when no reason can be found a baby's crying, then that baby is crying because (s)he has remember his (her) past life. I believe that as we get older and our brain makes room for new infromation, our brain makes that room by "deleting" the memories of our past life.

[Summer]

That is such an interesting thought, JRRP! Sometimes when I have looked into a newborn babies eyes, they have seemed so old and knowledgable for some reason. You might be onto something there!

[Creator]

I believe in reincarnation. Simply because I know my mother is in touch with "the other side".

[Creator]

thorn said:

Well, I don't think Judaism holds with reincarnation.

This is what a Jewish religious information site says about it:

Do Jews believe in reincarnation?
by Mrs. Sarah Levi

The answer is yes.

With regards to the skepticism, well, this is certainly not a new occurrence--it actually stems from generations of debate over this little known yet intriguing notion.


The debate over reincarnation was very much a controversy between the Kabbalists and philosophers. "Kabbalah" literally means "reception." The traditions of Kabbalah were transferred from one generation to the next, an unbroken chain since the original knowledge was taught over 3,300 years ago on Mount Sinai. Those who did not receive these well-guarded traditions argued against reincarnation based on their logical thought process. It did not seem to make sense to them, and being that they had not received it as tradition, they felt that it did not exist.

Yet there is room to argue that many of the thinkers who argued against it may have thought differently had they known of the Kabbalistic tradition. A well-known 14th century philosopher, Rabbi Chisdai Cresces, spoke against reincarnation, yet he stated that if he were to have received it in his Kabbalah, he would have felt differently. Similarly, Rabbi Dan Yitzchak Abarbanel wrote that as the great Maimonides neared the end of his own life, he received Kabbalistic traditions which heretofore he had not known of. Upon receiving these traditions, Maimonides stated that had he known of these teachings earlier, he would have retracted many of his philosophical arguments.

[voreese]

My belief is that is exist just from the simple fact of the experiences I had as a youth. The knowing and the remembrances I have had in this life time. But one can not prove this only that the soul is a continuim of life force energy and all things cycle in existence. Everyone makes things so hard, when simplicity is the truest of all answers in reality. I do agree that the majority of the people on this globe do believe in it. My mother asked me what I thought at a very young age, not even knowing really what it meant and gave her an analogy. She thought that rather fascinating. When I was doing so, I was in the time of Egygt. Alot of the dreams I had a a teen were past life as well. Not something out of a national geographic, but intense. Yes, I believe, I know. No one could tell me other wise in my truth.

[jimmyRRpage]

I have expanded more on my beliefs on reincarnation in the Philosiphies thread, but since this is about reinacrnation, I'll copy it here, too.

I believe in random reincarnation. If we have made any mistakes that do not enable us to get into Heaven, then we are reborn, but we don't choose our parents.

We could be reborn in the future, in the past... heck, we could be reborn as ourselves and relive our entire lives, only we would not remember our past lives. Obviously, we'd live the life differently, but it's still be a life we'd already lived. We just wouldn't know it.

I also believe I may have lived through my current life once or twice before, mainly because I have a habit of dreaming about things before they actually happen. I also believe if you want to know if you have lived your life before, all you have to do is try and remember if you dreamed of doing something, and then actually done it. The lapse of time between the dream and the dream coming true doesn't matter, but if the dream comes true, then that's the proof (or maybe it's telepathy... I'm not sure).

So, to tie in with what I said before, as babies, we remember our past lives (or the fact that we have been in this life) very, very clearly. But as we get older, those memories either become random dreams, or fade away entirely.

[Summer]

I can agree with that, Jimmyrrpage, because of how my children have acted when they were little. I had one child who would go around singing a song in what sounded like Japanese. She told me what the song was about and everything. When I asked her how she knew it, she told me that she remembered being alive at another time, and she learned it then, ha ha! ;D

[jimmyRRpage]

In my Human Development class, one of the students believes very much like I do as far as reincarnation is concered. He, however, believes in an extension of it, as well, which can get to be a little confusing. Regardless of that, however, I'm starting to see the possibilities.

I believe that reincarnation is random. There is no set body, place, time, etc. You could be reborn in any time, as anyone. You could even be reborn as yourself again.

So, imagine this scenario.

Jack has been reborn as Timothy in the same year he was born as Jack. In High School, Timothy, and his original self, as Jack, become best friends, never imagining in all their lives that they are the same soul.

This is what my classmate believes. You can be reborn as someone else in the same time you were born in originally, and you may even meat your original self and not know it used to be you.

But then the question is, whose soul is in your original body? The answer is, the same soul. And this is the part I'm still trying to figure out myself.

According to my classmate, it's spiritual time travel, in a sense. Your soul realizes it, which is why you either feel very connected to your orginal self, or you are utterly repulsed by your original self. So, it's the same soul, but a different body. The soul in your original body is basically the past version of the soul that's in your current body.


If you understood that, I applaud you. I'm beginning to, but I still haven't figured out how to explain it. I will, at some point, but hopefully you get the idea.

My classmate (who is almost as obsessed with Led Zeppelin as I am) also put across the idea that it's very possible that Jimmy Page could be a reincarnation of either Plant or Jones, or vice-versa. He also believes that John Bonham has been reincarnated into one of today's famous drummers... he just hasn't decided who, yet.

I asked my classmate, what happens if Timothy kills Jack? My classmate's response was:
"Then Timothy doens't have much longer to live, because a soul needs all incarnations of itself to survive."

[Summer]

Wow, that is a lot to think about. Quantumly speaking of course. I don't know if I agree with that theory, but I will give it some thought. I do believe that souls can split into two halves, one male and one female. But I have never thought that in the same time period that you could be more than one person. So it is something new to think about.

[Ria]

I do believe in re-incarnation, because I believe, well, all humans deserve a chance to prove themselves for what they truly are, forgetting whatever they may have done in their past lives. Also I'm Hindu, so it helps.