Reincarnation

[Ravenstar]

Reincarnation is something that has fascinated me for many years... I hesitate to say i 'believe' in it, but only because the whole 'belief' thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I have had strong senses of knowing things, or of not really 'learning' things but remembering them, certain things come very easily to me even though i have had no education or training in them (medical diagnoses, for one... more on the lines of a healer than a doctor though) I just can easily see where something is going wrong physically... especially with a nutritional imbalance, but I've never studied medicine, or even anatomy to any degree.. it's weird.

 

I've also had a strange affinity with certain ancient cultures... to where i can feel what it was like to live in them and they have a sense of familiarity to them that seems just a bit uncanny.

 

I've had two short out of body experiences that really make me think that maybe we are more than just electrochemical signals from a physical construct. In one i was washing dishes and then I was simultaneously washing dishes and watching myself wash them from a viewpoint of about 3 feet behind and 2 feet above my position... and i could see a piece of lint in my hair, in the back, that i verified once i was back at the sink... i pulled it out of the back of my head... it was an interesting experience, not at all frightening. I don't claim to understand it though, and yes I was stone cold sober.

 

It's all subjective, and I am a fairly analytical person—which doesn't compute, but there it is.

 

I think about the nature of consciousness though, it's quite a mysterious thing. I also wonder about how we think about ourselves... there seems to be a sense of duality in consciousness, there ones personality and then there's the watcher—that part that watches and comments and the one we argue with, inside ourselves. What is that, exactly? Isn't it interesting also to know that over the course of our lifetimes all the cells in our bodies die and are replaced? many times? We are not the same physical being we were even seven years ago yet consciousness remains constant? Clearly it isn't in the physical that consciousness resides, at least not in the actual crude molecules but in the patterns... this leads me to think that personality, or if you will, our spiritual selves—our essence—does not necessarily have to reside in the body.. maybe these patterns can exist outside of the physical. Who really knows? Is it empirically provable? Not at the moment, but in the future? maybe.

 

Quantum physics has some exciting concepts in it also... spooky action, M-theory, double slit experiment, etc... which describes or at least suggests that our universe is far stranger than we have ever thought. I read one thing about the holographic universe that was very provocative, something about how the entire universe could be a projection from black holes—virtual. I can't cite at the moment but i will find the reference again. I don't believe we have a very good understanding yet of how thing really work - though we are seeing hints from science that are really amazing. I suspect consciousness theory and quantum theory will merge at some point.

 

I have had thoughts that IF reincarnation is a reality that it could work this way, sort of along the lines of Sagan's thought that we are the universes' way of understanding itself, that we are these patterns of consciousness formed by the expansion of the universe and for it all to make sense we would necessarily have to experience everything... being a rock/mineral, animal, plant, murderer, murdered, loving/hateful, etc... there would be an underlying pattern but the actual experiences would be total immersions into these experiences... not sure how this would work but some universal laws would have to be followed otherwise it would be chaos, such as cause and effect (karma?) balance, etc... it's gets a little mind boggling - but it's a big universe, why not?

 

I read some of the Seth material many years ago... it has some cool concepts about this kind of stuff.. gets one thinking anyway.

 

I guess I'm at a place where i don't believe anything—but I'm open to the possibiities. I don't need to be sure of things anymore - it's kind of a freedom i never had before.