Your Thoughts On Re-Incarnation...What Are They?

I believe that when you're dead, you're dead. End of story.... BUT.... I am more curious about the concept of 'self awareness' and also of the possibility of 'inherited memory'.
 

I tend to believe humans created this past lives and reincarnation theory because life is unfair and it's just too much for us to believe that some people endure joyless lives for no good reason. Therefore, the belief in heaven and/or reincarnation offers some kind of hope to the most hopeless. Of course I don't know everything. :eek:
 
Inherited memory is something that interests me too. I understand that mitochondrial DNA, unlike nuclear DNA, can be altered during the lifetime of the organism. These changes are passed on by our mothers.

I have always been surprised about the way I am stirred by the sound of the bag pipes. As a third generation Australian there is no reason why I should be affected by the music of the Scots. I am totally unmoved by indigenous music, including the digeridoo. Perhaps I have an inherited memory from my ancestors that is expressed by an affinity for Celtic music. It could be hard wired in my cells. Who knows?
 

Warrigal said:
Inherited memory is something that interests me too. I understand that mitochondrial DNA, unlike nuclear DNA, can be altered during the lifetime of the organism. These changes are passed on by our mothers.

I have always been surprised about the way I am stirred by the sound of the bag pipes. As a third generation Australian there is no reason why I should be affected by the music of the Scots. I am totally unmoved by indigenous music, including the digeridoo. Perhaps I have an inherited memory from my ancestors that is expressed by an affinity for Celtic music. It could be hard wired in my cells. Who knows?
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Another thing we have in common. I have always loved the bag pipes too. One of our very first dates was going to see the Scots Guards in Madison Square Garden in NY. Still one of the most thrilling days of my life. One of my wife's first gifts was a record album "Scotland the Brave". It kind of became "Our song" Lol! I was helped along though. As a kid I saw a lot of movies about the Brits and Scots. "Gunga Din", "The Charge of the Light Brigade", the 1939 version of "Four Feathers". Still my favorite movies despite the now politically incorrect themes.
 
Bettyann said:
I can't imagine much of anything to much more AWFUL than living 'just one life'....what a narrow limited experience that would be... and then the old scary religious fables of a Heaven and or a Hell.... then 'if you are good' you get to go to heaven, wear a white robe and strut around on golden streets singing eternal praises to this narrow idea of a 'god' who demands constant praise. Oh my.... how you can control people if you keep them in enough fear.... and teach them to think 'realistically'... :)
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:iagree:
 
Guitarist said:
Actually there is "hard physical evidence" of life after death -- Jesus came back from the dead and appeared to His disciples and spoke and ate with them. They wrote about it and I trust their eyewitness accounts.
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Then do you trust the accounts of sane, normal, educated people who have had near death experiences and who come back from that and are profoundly changed in their philosophy, attitude, ways of living, etc? A 1992 Gallup poll suggests that 13,000,000 Americans have experienced a NDE which at the time was about 5% of the population. A German poll done around then says 4% for their population. So would you believe them?
 
I think the study of paranormal occurrences including NDE is an area that bears much much more study, and so far there's no proof either way. The brain is very very complex and there is so much we don't know about what is happening when someone is dying or when they come back after being revived. I've heard the same kinds of things from people who are 'believers' and I'm sure its way more complicated than the idea of reincarnation and people turning over a new leaf after being in a coma because they got to see 'the other side'.

Not long ago we knew nothing about flying, electricity, radio waves, telephones, television, computers, space travel ... all these things have come about in the past few centuries and at first it all seemed like magic. That's how people view these NDE things now, like some kind of magical spiritual angels and sweet music and light at the end of the tunnel and stairway to heaven kinds of things. In the future, I'm sure there will be more answers as to what is happening at the time of death and return from comas and will be treated more scientifically.
 
SifuPhil said:
I'm not smart enough to know the answer - I'll keep all options open at this point, and maybe I'll find out when I die.

Or maybe I won't.
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Hey, Phil! Our paths haven't crossed in some time. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe not. To each his own. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm looking forward confidently to a very long nap. I find that idea much more comforting than spending eternity in Heaven, Hell or any place else for that matter or alternatively, coming back here in some unkown circumstances to do it all over and over again.
As human beings go, I've had quite a happy life. I'll just take my winnings and its off to bed. :eek:fftobed:
 
Cookie said:
I think the study of paranormal occurrences including NDE is an area that bears much much more study, and so far there's no proof either way. The brain is very very complex and there is so much we don't know about what is happening when someone is dying or when they come back after being revived. I've heard the same kinds of things from people who are 'believers' and I'm sure its way more complicated than the idea of reincarnation and people turning over a new leaf after being in a coma because they got to see 'the other side'.

Not long ago we knew nothing about flying, electricity, radio waves, telephones, television, computers, space travel ... all these things have come about in the past few centuries and at first it all seemed like magic. That's how people view these NDE things now, like some kind of magical spiritual angels and sweet music and light at the end of the tunnel and stairway to heaven kinds of things. In the future, I'm sure there will be more answers as to what is happening at the time of death and return from comas and will be treated more scientifically.
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I read a book which was written to discuss and rebut the standard 'justifications' that doctors give when questioned. I found it difficult to read because I'm not a medical person obviously, but it covered things like epilepsy, oxygen deprivation, brain shut down, random neutron firing and all kinds of other things....like what neuroscientists think, where consciousness exists, the function of the brain, etc., as well as observed effects on the brain during the episode. All terribly interesting even if a slow read for me.

A few years ago, a book came out by a neurosurgeon named Dr. Eben Alexander who came down with a near fatal case of meningitis. He talks of his experience when his brain had shut down entirely for a period of about 8 days while his body I believe, was basically on life support. Apparently the infection had basically overpowered his brain. But when he finally came out of the coma, he came back with tales of the most amazing and wonderful experience. The thing to remember is that while he was 'having this most amazing experience', his brain was basically not functioning because of the raging infection.

The clincher was in the story of his finally meeting his birth mother a year or two later. The illness had opened him to wanting to meet her at that point and when he was sitting in the living room of her home, there was a photograph of a young woman whom he recognized from her having met him on the other side. In their first meeting, she was a stranger to him, but she was kind and caring and helped him understand what he was seeing all around him. The photograph in his birth mothers living room, was a photo of her daughter who had died when she was in her early 20's. Dr. Alexander not only didn't know that he had a younger sister, he hadn't even known at the time of his experience, who his birth mother was. (Pretty sure that is how he tells the story - in a nutshell:rolleyes:)

Before the illness, he was entirely a man of science, I don't think he was even a religious man of any sort and absolutely didn't believe that there is anything after this life. He doesn't believe the same way anymore. So I think when you ask for more study, I think having a man of science go through the experience himself is the foot in the door to credibility among the medical community. And there are studies that have been done although of course, there will likely never be physical evidence that is every 'brought back'. But at that point one would look at brain/body physiology, what science believes about consciousness and then all the verifiable 'evidences' like blind people seeing what is going on around them while their dead bodies are being worked on, who they see in the room, the psychological changes they experience, sometimes the dramatic hearings from terminal illness. It's an utterly fascinating subject.

This is a video of one of Dr. Alexander's talks in case anyone is curious.

 
http://www.skeptic.com/insight/proof-of-heaven/

Interesting, I read the Wiki info about this man and also an article in Skeptic, which is well worth reading.

His life definitely did improve after the experience, he had been in a lot of trouble as a neurosurgeon and falsifying records etc., yet after he published his book he made a fortune. Whose to say? How can anyone know what was really going on with him. People want to take him at his word, yet is his word reliable considering his professional history?
 
Underock1 said:
Hey, Phil! Our paths haven't crossed in some time. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe not. To each his own. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm looking forward confidently to a very long nap. I find that idea much more comforting than spending eternity in Heaven, Hell or any place else for that matter or alternatively, coming back here in some unkown circumstances to do it all over and over again.
As human beings go, I've had quite a happy life. I'll just take my winnings and its off to bed. :eek:fftobed:
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Hi, Rock! :D

Interesting that you twice refer to death as sleep - one of the oldest visualizations of death there is.

Of course, with sleep you wake up and regain consciousness ...
 
SifuPhil said:
Hi, Rock! :D

Interesting that you twice refer to death as sleep - one of the oldest visualizations of death there is.

Of course, with sleep you wake up and regain consciousness ...
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The oldest visualization because its the obvious one. Its the conclusion that is unacceptable so elaborate religious and philosophical arguments are erected against it in self defense.

The fact that you don't wake up from death is not my problem. Its waking up from sleep!

No. I'm not suicidal or depressed. Just looking for an easy way out when the time comes. :cheers1:
 
Obvious? I don't equate death with sleep.

An easy way out for you and I, perhaps - it's our loved ones that do the suffering, no matter how easy our passing may be.

The living are always left with the crappy details.
 
SifuPhil said:
Obvious? I don't equate death with sleep.

An easy way out for you and I, perhaps - it's our loved ones that do the suffering, no matter how easy our passing may be.

The living are always left with the crappy details.
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Obvious to me. Conscious/ Unconscious. You just don't come back from one.

I certainly know the "crappy details" from my own experience. Its something that all of us will face sooner or later. I have very few loved ones left. They all love me, but the inescapable fact is that my passing would simplify their lives and free up assets that would be enormously more useful to them at their stages in life than just sitting in my accounts "just in case".

Please don't think that I am sitting here morbidly depressed. I laugh at "The Simpsons" every night. The explosion of scientific knowledge keeps me interested. When I'm feeling low, I sit in my virtual Japanese garden via You Tube and meditate. I am just sharing some thoughts that, bearing in mind flawed perceptions, seem obvious and simple to me.
 
Phil. I see you have a blog. Just went over there and already had a few chuckles. Glad to see you having fun with it, and you obviously are. I will be a visitor from time to time. Have fun!
 
Well, Warrigal, it took me YEARS to overcome the damaging affects I received from 'religion' from various religions in my fear-motivated searching for 'the right one' to 'please god.'
.... I don't mean to insult anyone that is sold on religion (I have the greatest respect for Buddhism, which isn't actually a 'religion' but a philosophy...its just not my OWN thing.... If organized religion works well for some that's great. You and I may have a 'good gifted life' in the present moment... but many, many do not...in THIS one life!
 
I understand Bettyann. I became an atheist around 18 years of age and remained one until the age of 33. When I returned to Christianity there was no way that I was going to have any truck with fundamentalism. Heaven and hell don't even rate a mention at my church. Fear doesn't motivate us at all. Love is the key, whether one attends church or not. Love heals and love sustains.
 
Underock1 said:
Phil. I see you have a blog. Just went over there and already had a few chuckles. Glad to see you having fun with it, and you obviously are. I will be a visitor from time to time. Have fun!
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Thank you for visiting, Rock.

Sometimes humor is my only defense, ya know? ;)
 

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