Past Lives

[AngryGothChick]

What are your thoughts on past lives and reincarnation?

http://www.thebigview.com/pastlife/

My Results:
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I don't know how you feel about it, but you were male in your last earthly incarnation.You were born somewhere in the territory of modern Wales around the year 950. Your profession was that of a entertainer, musician, poet or temple-dancer.
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Your brief psychological profile in your past life:
You always liked to travel and to investigate. You could have been a detective or a spy.
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The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation:
Your lesson is to conquer jealousy and anger in yourself and then in those who will select you as their guide. You should understand that these weaknesses are caused by fear and self-regret.
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[Wselfwulf]

My honest opinion? Both belief in past lives, pseudoscience like regression therapy and such have propagated due to false memory syndrome, suggestion and confirmation bias. People also look for mystical safety blankets to affirm the value or novelty of their own existence in the face of anomie. I've been called an 'Old Soul' more than once.

[Set]

If that's your view, then you would outright reject the notion of living more than one life at once, am I right?

[Wselfwulf]

depending on exactly what you mean by that...it sounds wild, though.

[Moss27]

This is mine:

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I don't know how you feel about it, but you were female in your last earthly incarnation.You were born somewhere in the territory of modern North Australia around the year 875. Your profession was that of a philosopher and thinker.
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Your brief psychological profile in your past life:
Timid, constrained, quiet person. You had creative talents, which waited until this life to be liberated. Sometimes your environment considered you strange.
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The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation:
Your main lesson is to develop magnanimity and a feeling of brotherhood. Try to become less adhered to material property and learn to take only as much, as you can give back.
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Liberated creative talents... can't wait to use them when I get older. My personality kinda stayed the same, though.

I believe that there are such things as past and future lives. It just seems kinda weird that you only get one shot at life and reality, you know? It's too short.

[Baphnedia]

Everyone believes what they believe... though the thought, in my case, is entertaining...

[Wselfwulf]

It just seems kinda weird

C'mon man. You've gotta do better than that when it comes to reasoning. Er, not meaning to nit-pick.

[Vagrant]

Ooh, internexercises, these can be fun. This is what the site had for me, pertaining to my first day.

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Your past life diagnosis:
I don't know how you feel about it, but you were female in your last earthly incarnation. You were born somewhere in the territory of modern Siberia around the year 1500. Your profession was that of a designer, engineer or craftsman.

Your brief psycholoagical profile in your past life: You always liked to travel and to investigate. You could have been a detective or a spy.

The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation: You fulfill your lesson by helping old folks and children. You came to this life to learn to care about the weak and the helpless.

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I'll try not to over-analyse too much, but let's see...

Why do I sound like a socially-minded Russian variant of Bond? Though I suppose, if I did have a previous life, that's what I'd like it to be like.

On a more serious note, I'll see how many true notes it hits upon.

- I was a woman? As an open-minded gay individual, I see a delicious irony in this.

- I love the cold, and I'm fascinated by untamed landscapes. Siberia would seem to be an iconic representation of this. I absolutely love winter here in Britain, even when it rains, and I often find I'm quite alone in that.

- I am insatiably curious, and I've always had a fascination with noir detectives, oh and Magnum P.I. But the thing is, one could say that about almost every British person, so I'm not sure whether that's accurate, or just a lucky shot based on nationality.

- I'm an INFP with strong familial ties, so the last part strikes home. It reads a lot like horoscopes though and a transparent effect at egoboo and flattery, so it feels a bit like lucky shooting again. I preferred the above two points over these latter two.

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This aside, what are my thoughts on reincarnation? Honestly, I don't know. I do believe in concurrent lives, though, that's for sure. If the average person is open to it, they have Universes cooped up inside their beautiful brains, and realities almost as real, just as real, and perhaps even moreso than this one.

And possibilities are endless, so reincarnation is a possibility, but I have no more thoughts on it than that.

[Kaebora]

My reasoning is just the logic of numbers. If humans have soul (and I believe they do), then there is a limited number of them that could be reincarnated or live multiple lives. The human populations doubles every couple of centuries, and the rate is increasing. So where are all the new souls coming from if they have to be reincarnated? I tend to fall back on christian notions that every soul is unique in how it exists for a breif time on Earth, then the rest of eternity in the afterlife.

I can't be too quick to dismiss reincarnation as a halucination-turned-religion, as there are some reported cases that are unexplainable. The majority of reports are from people that have had previous knowlage of the individual they claim to have been, or had been manipulated during hypnosis. Therefore, I can safely say I dismiss all cases of past lives found in hypnosis, because the person is completely open to suggestion from the hypnotist. There are some people that painted paintings from dreams they had, and they turned out to be paintings that almost exactly match the works of past artists (not the famous ones, but the lesser known starving artists) which is quite astounding if true.

I have come to beleive something a bit more simple. All of humanity is connected to a combined subconcious, unknowingly picking up each other's brain waves. Only those that are sensitive to it can pick up on the knowlage and experiances of others in bits and peices. It could be precieved as knowlage learned in past lives, or through reincarnation.

[Grey]

It all depends on the philisophical views of the person declareing the idea, and the person they are saying it to. If I was to say I was killed at the battle of gettysburg, and I fell at Devil Den, even if I belive it, the person I tell it to may not. Myself I belive in past lives because I belive the human soul is a free being, and that some people would feel more comfertable on earth, then in the afterlife.

[Terastas]

Just for laughs, here's what it said about me:

I don't know how you feel about it, but you were female in your last earthly incarnation.You were born somewhere in the territory of modern West Russia around the year 1125. Your profession was that of a farmer, weaver or tailor. Your brief psychological profile in your past life:
Seeker of truth and wisdom. You could have seen your future lives. Others perceived you as an idealist illuminating path to future. The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation:
You fulfill your lesson by helping old folks and children. You came to this life to learn to care about the weak and the helpless.

Obviously I think that's a load of bull, but on reincarnation itself, that I could believe in.

When someone dies, their body doesn't just disappear, right? It decomposes and becomes less recognizable as a body, but everything that made it a body is still there in existence. Likewise, when the person was born, their body didn't just pop into existence. It started off as just two cells, one taken from the mother, the other from the father, which grew off of sustenance from the mother before birth. Everything that made it into a body was there before it became a body as well.

The same, I ration, could be true of the soul: It has to have come from somewhere, and it has to go somewhere.

Mind you that I also don't believe in automatic reincarnation, or reincarnation based on karma. Here's my Christianized approach to reincarnation:

1) It was said that the most important commandment is to love God with all your heart.
2) To love God with all your heart is to love everything God has done.
3) To love everything God has done is to love the universe.
4) To love the universe is to want to experience it once again.

So it makes sense to me on multiple levels, therefore I'll acknowledge it.

There is, however, absolutely nothing beyond that little bit of rationalization I could offer to support reincarnation. I remain agnostic; there is no possible way to know for sure, and I see no reason to take seriously anyone that claims otherwise.

Do I believe in reincarnation? Yes.

Do I believe that all the medieval female Russian farmers, weavers and tailors from the 1100s were reborn on March 26th, 1984? Hell no.

[Baphnedia]

Muahahaha! I'll have to send you a Russian mail-order bride for your birthday!

[Grey]

People always agrue that if there was such a thing, then why don't people show signs of previous skills? Things like if you flew during WW1, why don't you know anything about planes now? Which is stupid because what would a WW1 pilot know about an F22 Raptor?

I was raised as a Catholic, so when you died you usually went either Up or Down. There was no other options Period. But over time I began to belive that one Belives what they will. But I'll stop before this becomes a thealogical agrument.

This is really a question of what is the Soul? What defines a souls the soul? Even to the question of what indicates a soul? How doe's it work? How long doe's it last? Whats it made of?

[Midnight]

.

[Xiroteus]

I believe we have lived different lifetimes, not one after another though since I believe in an afterlife, we choice when and if to live on this earth again.

The same, I ration, could be true of the soul: It has to have come from somewhere, and it has to go somewhere.

I see a couple of common assumptions here (not picking on you, Terastas; it's just that you've said it most clearly and succinctly).

(1) that the soul exists at all. That isn't something I actually believe in myself (if I have a "soul" it's never manifested itself to me. I have two arms and two legs. I can see them. Nobody's yet been able to show me my soul). But this whole debate assumes its existence, so I'll just leave it and go on to another assumption:

(2) that the soul exists in linear time. Ever considered that your previous incarnation may still be alive somewhere?

It would be more like your soul is you, what you are, the energy that can ever be destroyed. (Personal opinion only of course.)

People always agrue that if there was such a thing, then why don't people show signs of previous skills? Things like if you flew during WW1, why don't you know anything about planes now? Which is stupid because what would a WW1 pilot know about an F22 Raptor?

Some do when they are children, then the memories start to fade as they age, one reason can be we are not meant to know these set of skills in this lifetime, we have new goals this time around.

Fears can come from past lives, even more so with fear that has nothing to do with your current life.

[MoonKit]

Yes, I do believe in past lives. I dont actually remember any of them but when I first came on this "generator" a year or so ago, it sent a shiver down my spine. It was awfully personal to me for some reason.

Your past life diagnosis: I don't know how you feel about it, but you were female in your last earthly incarnation.You were born somewhere in the territory of modern Southern England around the year 1075. Your profession was that of a farmer, weaver or tailor.

Your brief psychological profile in your past life:
Seeker of truth and wisdom. You could have seen your future lives. Others perceived you as an idealist illuminating path to future.

The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation:
Your lesson is to develop a kind attitude towards people, and to acquire the gift of understanding and compassion.


At the time I had been feeling extremely connected to England. I've always believed I knew how to sew well (and attempted to) even though Ive never been taught. I do need to develop more understanding and compassion towards people. And the whole part of seeing your future lives always struck me as really interesting. Is that possible? It got even creepier when "characters" from stories I started a couple of years ago just recently started showing up in similar situations. Maybe I could see my future...

Creepy, creepy stuff!

[Wselfwulf]

Please, I urge you to reason clearly...'however, you should know that this software is only slightly more sophisticated than an electronic fortune cookie'. That is a quote from the disclaimer itself. Soul theory has no legs to stand on in anything but theology, which never requires a rationale for the belief.

Think of Drake's equation...no one through regression therapy or hypnotherapeutic memory retrieval technique ever yeilds any non-human sentient being...can it be that memories are only fabricated within the scope of the mind that creates them, rather than some greater soul substrate or experience as the claim sometimes goes?

However I predict that unfalsifiable rules will be mounted in it's defense, forged from some strange rule system that seems to need no proof, but defends it from all attacks. What allows one to think that these things can apply to you personally is the same fallacious effect that works for astrology. And the appeal to the law of conservation of mass/energy cannot apply to the soul or the soul would be detectable in some form.

[Vagrant]

The question of the increasing population of humanity is an interesting one, and that assumes souls as a singular whole, thinking on this topic lead me to an interesting conclusion.

If, perhaps, souls were a resource and part of some whole that was mined up by a birth, simply that we take a chunk of the soul stuff up when we're born, and it dissipates back when we die, perhaps the constitution of the piece we take is built upon ancestory. This would lead one to wonder then that if perhaps this is a limited resource, and with the more humans Earth is swamped with, the more diluted this human essence becomes, and perhaps the weight of souls then is not equal to each birth, and as time goes on and overpopulation grows, there'll be less and less brilliant people popping up. Our own personal armageddon that might even occur as close as 2012.

Of course, that all reads like complete bull, but I like bull, it can be fun.

Kaebora's idea of mind echoes is an interesting one. I saw that idea in a book or a comic once, long ago. It also put to claim that all minds grew together eventually, and that this was an ongoing thing over all realities. And that dreams were but the recollections of the minds we were linked to, their most powerful and emotional memories screaming at us, down the line. So to speak.

All in all, this is an interesting thread, quite enjoyable to read. Had to add my own brain dumps.

[Terastas]

The same, I ration, could be true of the soul: It has to have come from somewhere, and it has to go somewhere.

I see a couple of common assumptions here (not picking on you, Terastas; it's just that you've said it most clearly and succinctly).

(1) that the soul exists at all. That isn't something I actually believe in myself (if I have a "soul" it's never manifested itself to me. I have two arms and two legs. I can see them. Nobody's yet been able to show me my soul). But this whole debate assumes its existence, so I'll just leave it and go on to another assumption:

(2) that the soul exists in linear time. Ever considered that your previous incarnation may still be alive somewhere?

It would be more like your soul is you, what you are, the energy that can ever be destroyed. (Personal opinion only of course.)

*nods* Just as a "body" is an assortment of physical parts, a "soul" could simply be an assortment of nonphysical parts: the person's memories, emotions, etc. Even if you don't believe in souls in an organized religion and/or afterlife sense, it's pretty hard to dismiss the existence of thought and emotion. Regardless of whether the immortal soul is real or not, the energies that constitute the person's conscious/spiritual being have to come from somewhere and go somewhere as well.

Past life recollection only makes sense under the assumption that the soul is indestructible and cannot be added to or subtracted from. It might explain the few legitimate instances of recollection (a lot of people who claim to know their past lives are full of it), but if reincarnation were exclusive to human beings, I think the phenomenon would be a lot more commonplace than it is.

So for the record, I'm not stating whether or not I believe in the immortal soul or not. Just that I don't believe in exclusive reincarnation.

[Grey]

I think it all boils down to the fear that " What if there really was nothing after this life?" That everything you fought for, suffer'd, belived, loved, and hated were for nothing. If this is true, then why are we so creative? Why do we like color's so much?

I don't belive that this is all there is. I refuse to.

[Baphnedia]

Even if this is all there is, most of us don't acknowledge it, but we are fighting for the futures of our children and grandchildren. In most projects, we are self-indulgent though, but just trying to make the world a better place doesn't affect anything in the here and now - it affects all of our tomorrows.

[IndianaJones]

I don't think the evaluation of the past lives from the website is accurate, it might be crude.

Here is my so-called past life. Like it is any correct, I think not.

I don't know how you feel about it, but you were female in your last earthly incarnation.You were born somewhere in the territory of modern Arctic around the year 650. Your profession was that of a warrior, hunter, fisherman or executor of sacrifices. Your brief psychological profile in your past life:
You were a sane, practical person, a materialist with no spiritual consciousness. Your simple wisdom helped the weaker and the poor. The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation:
You should develop your talent for love, happiness and enthusiasm and you should distribute these feelings to all people.

Your soul is the conscious, energy, and personality. The soul is yourself and its you. The body is your physical vessel. Its like a organic vehicle, you control the body with your soul. Like the driver activates the car when your spirit goes back into your body if you were half-dead or unconscious.

There is no such thing as death, only your vessel dies. Because the spirit is immortal and indestructible.

I think there is no such thing as 'only 1 life in this video game reality.' The government wants you to think you only have one life on this planet and they tell you to use it well.

Believe what you believe. But your belief system will change, if you knew the Truth.

[RedEye]

My personal take on Reincarnation:
IF you have to choose from the continuous spontaneous creation of new souls Versus a very large semi-fixed number of souls, then idea number two makes the most sense.
It uses the least energy.

Other Opinions: The Soul is eternal and immortal. Personality is that soul's reaction and response to the Culture, Time, and Social level the soul is born into. It's sort of like a suit of clothes for the soul. When you die and are eventually reborn, you get a new wardrobe to wear. Some things stick, like that plaid lounging jacket, or the platform soled shoes and go with you into your next physical incarnation.

This avoids the time paradox. Your soul is outside of what we call "time" and can go forwards, backwards, or even sideways as you return to mortal life.
Why?
Life is Growth. Everything that lives, grows. Growth need not always be physical in nature, but if you live, you grow.
If you don't grow, you were never alive to begin with.

[Aki]

Given the cyclic nature of almost everything else in reality, if there is anything after death reincarnation just makes the most sense since it's cyclic as well - reusing the nonphysical components just like the physical ones are reused.

Nature just doesn't abide by wasted stuff, y'know?

[Grey]

Makes sense. Nature is in all things living. And there is no waste in nature.