Reincarnation?
I haven't posted to this blog in a while. I thought it was about time. I was trying to explain my belief in reincarnation to a friend over the phone tonight, and was trying to give her the "condensed version" so she could get some much needed sleep and get off the phone with the crazy Canadian..
One thing I'd like to state here is that some people who have read the brain farts I have let out in this particular blog might think I'm an athiest, or an agnostic. Far from it. I am neither. I believe in a higher power, God, Fate, Goddess, YHWH, or whatever you want to call him/her. I still believe that no religion I've seen holds all the answers though. I've been down the fundamentalist route (And boy, did THAT ever scar me for life..) as well as the not-so-fundamentalist United Church route (Most of my family belongs to the United Church).
Anyway, this is another of my big beefs with "conventional" Christianity: Reincarnation. Where is it? There is no mention of reincarnation of any sort in the bible. (or is there???) Many other major religions, especially more ancient ones, have some sort of belief in reincarnation.
Something that has bugged me since being a little kid is the idea that some lives seem pointless, or meaningless. If a child is born, lives 3 years, then dies, what has he achieved if he goes straight to heaven (and some religions would have you believe that such a child could still go to hell) without passing "go" and collecting $200? All life has to have some sort of meaning. If those 3 years were part of a much larger learning experience, that would be much easier for me to believe.
I personally think that the whole "Do it our way and you will go to heaven forever" or "Don't do it our way and you will go to hell forever" thing is just a way of scaring people into doing what religious leaders want them to do. Reincarnation doesn't make for good church politics. The idea of "yes, you've been an asshole in this life, but you can rebuild your kharma points in the next" doesn't allow you to control people as well as threatening people with eternal damnation with no hope of parole for, well, ever.
I personally believe that life is a learning experience. I think that each go-around on this planet allows you to learn something new. Our souls are gathering experience. Becoming better perhaps with each new life. We are all headed towards some sort of cosmic enlightenment, or higher purpose. What that would be, exactly, I don't know. But the thought of it gives me much more hope than an eternity of listening to harps and eating Philidelphia Cream Cheese (You know, the commercial?). Not that I don't like harp music, because I really do.
The idea of life as a learning experience is one of the only things that has ever made sense to me. It sits well with me. I feel "right" with it. Life is a big classroom. We're all here to learn something, to experience somthing. Maybe once you've had that experience, or learned the lesson, then it's time to go. Or perhaps you stick around a bit longer to help other people with their own journeys.
I think hell is not necessarily a place, but a state. If you've been a bad person, perhaps your next life will be miserable. If you've been a good person, then maybe you will have a great life the next go-around, or perhaps move on to another, more blissful plane of existence.
I've also read into this idea of different planes a bit. Earth is supposedly close to the middle. There are worse places to be, and there are better places to be. Maybe as you gain better experience, and prove yourself as a good soul, you move on to better planes. If you continue to be an asshole, you move into lower planes. Maybe these could be where "heaven" and "hell" come from. In any event, most religions teach forgiveness and atonement. How is going to hell for an eternity in keeping with this theme? Should not a soul be given the chance to atone and be forgiven as well?
Another reason for my belief in reincarnation is that it is more in-step with the world around me as I see it. If you look at nature and the universe, everything is circular. There are very few "straight lines" in nature. Space is all about circular. Galaxies, planets, star systems... all of space is circular. In nature itself, things are circular too. Something is born, it dies, it becomes food for something else.. Nothing is ever wasted. To say the soul lives and dies once is a bit of a waste to me. If the soul continues a circular existence of birth, death, and rebirth, this makes more sense, and fits in with the universe around me.
Although rare, it has been irrefutably proven on many occasions that reincarnation is real. Too many times has a person had far too much detailed knowledge about things they could have only lived themselves as a past life. I'm not going to go listing all of these here, but I have seen enough to convince me.
So why doesn't everyone remember their past lives? Maybe we weren't meant to. If we were be able to easily remember our past experience, it might make the current one not as valid. To experience a life properly, perhaps we need to start with a "clean slate". Being born with all the memories of a past existence would make it so much more difficult for growth and learning. I think making mistakes is a part of this learning process.
I believe that when I die, all of the questions that I have been asking all my life will be answered. Or perhaps I will just "know" the answers. In any event, this belief makes it much easier to live my life. The fear that I felt growing up that I would think the wrong thing, hear the wrong thing, or do the wrong thing, and thusly end up in hell, is bad. I feel more at ease with myself and the universe around me knowing that I'm just part of a larger cycle, and that I will be my "true self" when I die.
The next time around maybe I will meet my soulmate, and spend a lifetime with that person. Perhaps my purpose this time around is to learn to be happy with myself. Who knows? I don't for sure, but my current beliefs make a lot more sense to me than my old ones. I sleep better, and feel at peace with myself knowing that whatever I do, it's all just a learning experience. Anything bad I do, I will have to pay for later. All the good that I do will be my reward in the next life.
Peace
[Edit]
This just in. I was reading an article about Ian Stevenson, who spent a lifetime gathering scientific proof about reincarnation. His studies deal mostly with children, because he says that they are far more scientifically credible than adults. He deals with children who have unexplained memories of things that they could not have experienced.
This got me to thinking about something that happened to me.
As a small child (about 5), I had this dream. At least, I thought it was a dream. Anyway, I was in the middle of a bank robbery. Someone shot a gun in my direction. I vividly remember the event. The bullet went whizzing past my ear, grazing it.
I remember the way it sounded as it went by. It was spinning, making that sound that bullets make when they spin as they move forward. Also, when it grazed my ear, it felt slightly hot.
I didn't ask myself until much later, how does a child know what a bullet actually does? How does a 5 year old child know that a bullet actually spins at a high velocity as it travels through the air? How does a child know the sound that it makes?
I knew these things later on, once I had actually fired a rifle as part of firearms safety training. I actually didn't know until then that the barrel of a rifle causes the bullet to spin. Yet, my "dream" had the very vivid experience of all these things.
Interesingly enough (and perhaps coincidentally), I have a small "bullet sized" round chunk missing out of one ear that has been there since birth. Interesting, because Dr. Stevenson was talking about how children have documented birthmarks or birth defects that correlate to wounds in past lives. This what got me to thinking about my own experience.
There are other experiences too. But I'm tired.
One thing I'd like to state here is that some people who have read the brain farts I have let out in this particular blog might think I'm an athiest, or an agnostic. Far from it. I am neither. I believe in a higher power, God, Fate, Goddess, YHWH, or whatever you want to call him/her. I still believe that no religion I've seen holds all the answers though. I've been down the fundamentalist route (And boy, did THAT ever scar me for life..) as well as the not-so-fundamentalist United Church route (Most of my family belongs to the United Church).
Anyway, this is another of my big beefs with "conventional" Christianity: Reincarnation. Where is it? There is no mention of reincarnation of any sort in the bible. (or is there???) Many other major religions, especially more ancient ones, have some sort of belief in reincarnation.
Something that has bugged me since being a little kid is the idea that some lives seem pointless, or meaningless. If a child is born, lives 3 years, then dies, what has he achieved if he goes straight to heaven (and some religions would have you believe that such a child could still go to hell) without passing "go" and collecting $200? All life has to have some sort of meaning. If those 3 years were part of a much larger learning experience, that would be much easier for me to believe.
I personally think that the whole "Do it our way and you will go to heaven forever" or "Don't do it our way and you will go to hell forever" thing is just a way of scaring people into doing what religious leaders want them to do. Reincarnation doesn't make for good church politics. The idea of "yes, you've been an asshole in this life, but you can rebuild your kharma points in the next" doesn't allow you to control people as well as threatening people with eternal damnation with no hope of parole for, well, ever.
I personally believe that life is a learning experience. I think that each go-around on this planet allows you to learn something new. Our souls are gathering experience. Becoming better perhaps with each new life. We are all headed towards some sort of cosmic enlightenment, or higher purpose. What that would be, exactly, I don't know. But the thought of it gives me much more hope than an eternity of listening to harps and eating Philidelphia Cream Cheese (You know, the commercial?). Not that I don't like harp music, because I really do.
The idea of life as a learning experience is one of the only things that has ever made sense to me. It sits well with me. I feel "right" with it. Life is a big classroom. We're all here to learn something, to experience somthing. Maybe once you've had that experience, or learned the lesson, then it's time to go. Or perhaps you stick around a bit longer to help other people with their own journeys.
I think hell is not necessarily a place, but a state. If you've been a bad person, perhaps your next life will be miserable. If you've been a good person, then maybe you will have a great life the next go-around, or perhaps move on to another, more blissful plane of existence.
I've also read into this idea of different planes a bit. Earth is supposedly close to the middle. There are worse places to be, and there are better places to be. Maybe as you gain better experience, and prove yourself as a good soul, you move on to better planes. If you continue to be an asshole, you move into lower planes. Maybe these could be where "heaven" and "hell" come from. In any event, most religions teach forgiveness and atonement. How is going to hell for an eternity in keeping with this theme? Should not a soul be given the chance to atone and be forgiven as well?
Another reason for my belief in reincarnation is that it is more in-step with the world around me as I see it. If you look at nature and the universe, everything is circular. There are very few "straight lines" in nature. Space is all about circular. Galaxies, planets, star systems... all of space is circular. In nature itself, things are circular too. Something is born, it dies, it becomes food for something else.. Nothing is ever wasted. To say the soul lives and dies once is a bit of a waste to me. If the soul continues a circular existence of birth, death, and rebirth, this makes more sense, and fits in with the universe around me.
Although rare, it has been irrefutably proven on many occasions that reincarnation is real. Too many times has a person had far too much detailed knowledge about things they could have only lived themselves as a past life. I'm not going to go listing all of these here, but I have seen enough to convince me.
So why doesn't everyone remember their past lives? Maybe we weren't meant to. If we were be able to easily remember our past experience, it might make the current one not as valid. To experience a life properly, perhaps we need to start with a "clean slate". Being born with all the memories of a past existence would make it so much more difficult for growth and learning. I think making mistakes is a part of this learning process.
I believe that when I die, all of the questions that I have been asking all my life will be answered. Or perhaps I will just "know" the answers. In any event, this belief makes it much easier to live my life. The fear that I felt growing up that I would think the wrong thing, hear the wrong thing, or do the wrong thing, and thusly end up in hell, is bad. I feel more at ease with myself and the universe around me knowing that I'm just part of a larger cycle, and that I will be my "true self" when I die.
The next time around maybe I will meet my soulmate, and spend a lifetime with that person. Perhaps my purpose this time around is to learn to be happy with myself. Who knows? I don't for sure, but my current beliefs make a lot more sense to me than my old ones. I sleep better, and feel at peace with myself knowing that whatever I do, it's all just a learning experience. Anything bad I do, I will have to pay for later. All the good that I do will be my reward in the next life.
Peace
"Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again...What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:4-9)
[Edit]
This just in. I was reading an article about Ian Stevenson, who spent a lifetime gathering scientific proof about reincarnation. His studies deal mostly with children, because he says that they are far more scientifically credible than adults. He deals with children who have unexplained memories of things that they could not have experienced.
This got me to thinking about something that happened to me.
As a small child (about 5), I had this dream. At least, I thought it was a dream. Anyway, I was in the middle of a bank robbery. Someone shot a gun in my direction. I vividly remember the event. The bullet went whizzing past my ear, grazing it.
I remember the way it sounded as it went by. It was spinning, making that sound that bullets make when they spin as they move forward. Also, when it grazed my ear, it felt slightly hot.
I didn't ask myself until much later, how does a child know what a bullet actually does? How does a 5 year old child know that a bullet actually spins at a high velocity as it travels through the air? How does a child know the sound that it makes?
I knew these things later on, once I had actually fired a rifle as part of firearms safety training. I actually didn't know until then that the barrel of a rifle causes the bullet to spin. Yet, my "dream" had the very vivid experience of all these things.
Interesingly enough (and perhaps coincidentally), I have a small "bullet sized" round chunk missing out of one ear that has been there since birth. Interesting, because Dr. Stevenson was talking about how children have documented birthmarks or birth defects that correlate to wounds in past lives. This what got me to thinking about my own experience.
There are other experiences too. But I'm tired.
posted by Blogosaurus Rex at 9:25 PM
4 Comments:
Wow. I think you summed up mostly everything that I think about life and our purpose here etc. I used to be really into reincarnation and even know, though I try to be sceptical about most things, there is a part of me that is mystified and excited by the prospect that maybe we DO go around and around, learning as we go. Have you read 'The five people you meet in heaven?" I LOVED that book..it put into place some of my thoughts about life and death. I love reading about other people's beliefs, especially when they are moderate and introspective and come from a genuine, wondering place. Glad I found ya! love betty.
Thanks for the comment betty. I actually forgot all about writing this until I got an email notification about your comment. I write far more on my other blog.
I'll try to check out that book when I get time.. it sounds interesting.
Anyway, I'm very glad you liked the post :)
Interesting, because you have the reverse position of myself, in some ways.
I am a practising Catholic and believe in the Church and Jesus, but think an afterlife is a white lie.
Something lasting forever, as in our essence, contradicts the laws of the universe, as in entropy.
Our salvation is something we do here and now.
It is about leaving behind more positives than negatives.
WE are our OWN judgement.
The moment we die, we will be engraved into eternity, the way we left this world.
If we die knowing we left the world a better place, we leave a happy imprint.
That's what I think, anyway.
Thanks for the comment, but I would have to disagree. The "Conservation of Energy" principle states that:
"the law of conservation of energy states that energy can not be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another"
I believe the energy that is our essence, our soul, is constant. It has existed forever, and will continue to exist forever.
The notion of an eternity in Heaven or Hell is just another means of control over people.
However, I do agree with you that the "afterlife" might be a white lie, but only in the traditional religious sense. I think the "anotherlife" might be a better term. ;)
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