I'ld like to say thank you to Mrs. Walker for commenting on my last post and suggesting the theme for todays blog. Reincarnation. Do we get the chance to return in a new form after the death of this physical form? So many religions have some form of reincarnation in amongst their Dogma. Even Christianity has the Resurrection. Does this go along as a form of reincarnation? Do past lives mold the form in which you will be reincarnated?
These are just a few of the questions about this subject that I think are important to discuss. So lets delve into my own personal ideas on this subject.
Do I personally believe that reincarnation and past lives are real. Yes. I have no doubt that I have specific memories of at least one life that I have lived through. I have specific memories of being a WWII fighter pilot who was shot down during one of the battles that occurred in the Pacific campaign. Memories of that life being the most vivid, probably since that was the last life I lived before this one I'm currently wandering through.
Fundamentally we are all made up of energy, and that energy doesn't cease to exist because of death. Through death and decay all matter and energy is recycled. Does this energy retain memory? I think so. Our souls for all intent is energy that has retained conceseness and form from the moment of its enitial creation.
I don't, however believe that we will ever come back as a different animal, bug, bird, fish, whatever. That the people of the Hindu faith believe. I personally believe that our soul is ours it dictates the body that we will inhabit from one life to the next and this doesn't change. Basically if your a 6' 5" male in one life odds are that's what you will always be. That's right I don't think you will change gender from one life to the next. I could be wrong I'm not exactly privy to the Grand Scheme. Maybe there is a choice, but I have yet to have memories of a life that I was not male.
From the studies that I have done since becoming a Pagan I think that we go from one life to the next in the attempt to learn something that will be necessary for our progression to the final step. Whether that is heaven, enlightenment, the summerland. Your faith will dictate that answer.
So how about those Christians? Does their Resurrection go along the same lines as reincarnation? I think so. You will die. Your soul will leave your physical body until the day God returns it to your newly resurrected form. That soul will spend time in limbo, paradise, or just pestering some kid who just happens to be able to see you. You will be given previously withheld memories of your time in the pre-existence. Is this not a previous life that you lived? Maybe not the definition of a physical life but it's still existence.
During a reading by on of the most proficient psychic that I have ever known. She told me that I had lived several lives and that I was a tremendously old soul. I am a little leery of past life regressive hypnosis because of the suggestible nature of hypnosis, but would one day like to see just how many life memories I can regain.
Just one more thing that I think is an interesting part of past lives. That would be the possibility of retaining relationships from one life to the next. The possibility of the soul mate. The Greeks believed that during the creation of a soul that it contained a male and female half that created the whole. That the point of that soul being placed into a physical body that the two halves were seperated. Thus the belief of the soulmate, finding the other half of your soul would be the ultimate relationship. I do think that the possibility of maintaining relationships from one life to the next is likely. We are drawn to the lives that influenced the previous ones. They are comfortable. They are familiar, thus drawing us towards them from one life to the next.
So I hope that that has maybe enlightened or just given you a few things to think about. Form your own opinion. Whether you have the same ideas as I do doesn't matter. Just the chance to share my thoughts on the subject and the possibility of hearing yours is always worth the time it takes me to fumble through typing this post.
Until next time Kiddies,
God bless...whoever that God may be.
Very well said - I particularly like your take on the Resurrection being a form of Reincarnation!! And you are welcome dear - I enjoy reading your thoughts!! :-)
ReplyDeleteI do firmly believe in the concept of reincarnation. I have a heavy science and engineering background and understand the conservation of energy -- energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only converted. I also know that mass and energy are related by proportionality. Personality and experiences, usually attributed to firing neurons in our brains, are really nothing more than energy. Once we're dead and our mass is disposed of, where does that energy go?
ReplyDeleteI don't have any knowledge of having lived previous lives, but I feel that once my crude matter breaks down and that energy is given back to the universe, that energy can be reformed in whatever form is required by the balance. If that's as a human or a tree or a worm or a fish, that's what it is.
Is there a God? I'm agnostic, so I believe there may exist a/many supreme being(s), but I don't believe he/she/it operates the way that religions suggest. They probably operate more like "Q" from "Star Trek" by adjusting variables here and there to see what happens.
Great blog, my friend. Keep up the great work. I miss our discussions, and this is a wonderful way to engage in them again over the distance.
--Mike (womprat99.livejournal.com)