NationStates Jolt Archive

If we all were someone else in our previous lives, why were there less people in the past? Where are the new lives coming from?

If we all were someone else in our previous lives, why were there less people in the past? Where are the new lives coming from?

They were supposed to be trapped in Animal form (I think).

If we all were someone else in our previous lives, why were there less people in the past? Where are the new lives coming from?

People will say that animals are reincarnated into people.

It's another way to let them escape their fear of death. Don't take that away from them.

If we all were someone else in our previous lives, why were there less people in the past? Where are the new lives coming from?

There is an endless, pervasive consciousness called the Atman, and souls emerge and rejoin with it and from it, when more souls come to be, they are drawn from its endless ocean, and when there are not enough bodies they rejoin its swelling eternity.

Or bacteria. Our souls were in bacteria.

I want some soup.

I want some soup.

I recommend the tomato...

I recommend the tomato...

I can't. The tomato was once Plato. Or Plah-to. Same difference.

People will say that animals are reincarnated into people.

That does explain Congress.

That does explain Congress.

I was wondering why a mosquito was representing texas... :D

That does explain Congress.

Congress is not composed of reincarnated animals.

Animals resolve heated disagreement with head butting contests, flinging their own shit, piercing one another with toxin injecting stingers, or just rending one another apart.

Congress is rarely so transparently honest.

I can't. The tomato was once Plato. Or Plah-to. Same difference.

The cake is a lie!

because most of most of our past lives were on other worlds. in case no one's noticed, there is a rather big universe out there.

=^^=
.../\...

because most of most of our past lives were on other worlds. in case no one's noticed, there is a rather big universe out there.

That's a very good philosophical point!

The cake is a lie!

TIN, you were once a great Mongolian warrior, and you once rode with a Golden Horde that conquered much of the world.

Your bow and blade were swift and true, like your horse, and your bravery was known among all beneath the sky. The Khan's themselves called you to their council tents, and your enemies counted themselves lucky to be your slaves in this world instead of the next.

But then, your four wives synchronized periods, and you called one of them "fat and cranky", and they were upon you like wombats, and you died.

Never forget who you are.

because most of most of our past lives were on other worlds. in case no one's noticed, there is a rather big universe out there.

=^^=
.../\...

L. Ron! We've been waiting for you! Your office is ready!

Please don't sue me.

*Snip*

Strangely enough, I do have a desire for world domination... :soap:

If we came from other worlds then why do Hindu and Buddhist texts not mention it?

If we came from other worlds then why do Hindu and Buddhist texts not mention it?

why would you expect them to?

all beliefs, all the words, people put on paper, whatever they might otherwise be inspired by. there is another reason to, why any belief mentions and refrains from mentioning what it does, and that is because it is addressed to a particular audience, to the moral and spritual needs of that time and place.

their ways of explaining things are in terms of what the people they are addressed to might be familiar with and understand, that is to say, at the time they are revealed.

=^^=
.../\...

If we came from other worlds then why do Hindu and Buddhist texts not mention it?

Are you sure they don't?

Even if they don't, they don't mention that I have two cans of Pepsi in my fridge, but it could still be true.

Interesting: this is probably the first religion (with aspects of religion-bashing) thread I see here that is not bashing either Christianity or religion-in-general.

Interesting: this is probably the first religion (with aspects of religion-bashing) thread I see here that is not bashing either Christianity or religion-in-general.

Surely there've been Islam and Jew bashing ones?

Interesting: this is probably the first religion (with aspects of religion-bashing) thread I see here that is not bashing either Christianity or religion-in-general.

The day is young. :D

Interesting: this is probably the first religion (with aspects of religion-bashing) thread I see here that is not bashing either Christianity or religion-in-general.

Uh...lessee...uh...Christian/reincarnation/animalspirit tie in...

Uh...Jesus sent the demons of Legion into some pigs, so there were beings in the pigs....uh...so, Christianity sucks?

Interesting: this is probably the first religion (with aspects of religion-bashing) thread I see here that is not bashing either Christianity or religion-in-general.

I don't bash the religion. Just their fan clubs... :D

Why should the Great Wheel be exempt from that laws that embroil us all? New lives spin anew, whle those still bound by concepts of the flesh must live among us-why else is communism still espoused when it's been completely deproven? Life is a test, boys-and you have to graduate to pass.

Why should the Great Wheel be exempt from that laws that embroil us all? New lives spin anew, whle those still bound by concepts of the flesh must live among us-why else is communism still espoused when it's been completely deproven? Life is a test, boys-and you have to graduate to pass.

Deprove isn't a word, and you can't disprove Communism as an idea, you can just prove that it doesn't do exactly what it says it does.

Deprove isn't a word, and you can't disprove Communism as an idea, you can just prove that it doesn't do exactly what it says it does.

I repudify your insinsion that deprove is not a nounance. If you are compuslified to be so pedantical, I shalln't hesititify to put you on ignore, and I will not deignore you until you recant. Or is it decant? Uncant?

Where the fuck is my soup?

Surely there've been Islam and Jew bashing ones?

Your point. While I don't remember Judaism-bashing, someone must've had bashed Islam on the grounds of woman rights or something. Though Buddhism-bashing is something new on NSG to me.

It's another way to let them escape their fear of death. Don't take that away from them.

I find this one slightly arrogant. How do you know this is true, can you proove to me that all those who blive in reincarnation are afriad of death?

On a side note I find it highly humorous when 'rational' people show their irrational belifes.

If we all were someone else in our previous lives, why were there less people in the past? Where are the new lives coming from?

This assumes that 'we were all someone else in our previous lives'

What if not everybody is re-incarnated, what if you and I are in fact 'new souls'

Naaaa man, back to the drawing board for you my friend.

Your point. While I don't remember Judaism-bashing, someone must've had bashed Islam on the grounds of woman rights or something. Though Buddhism-bashing is something new on NSG to me.

Jews can't reincarnate because they don't have souls.

It was proven, by Professor Moishe Silverburg of Miskatonic University Medical School that the soul is housed in the foreskin.

I find this one slightly arrogant. How do you know this is true, can you proove to me that all those who blive in reincarnation are afriad of death?

On a side note I find it highly humorous when 'rational' people show their irrational belifes.

I challenge you to find a sane person who isn't afraid of death. Everyone fears it, especially those who deny it. It's the human condition!

I challenge you to find a sane person who isn't afraid of death. Everyone fears it, especially those who deny it. It's the human condition!

Not at all. I have a sister, who is now and has been throughout her life epelytic. She is one some big medication at the moment which she has been on for the last 6-7 years and it has helped her greatly, but her symtoms are now starting to over come the medication.

She is due in the hospital soon for brain surgery, which may help, even so her doctor has told her that she probably will not live another 10 years. She is ready, and at times even looking forward to her death, as it means an end to he 30 + years of hard, hard life.

She is not scared, I am sad that she may be gone from my life so soon, but I'm glad for her, I'm not scared. I have been dead before as has my dad, he is not scared.

That is three people from one family. Challange met!

I challenge you to find a sane person who isn't afraid of death. Everyone fears it, especially those who deny it. It's the human condition!

Most people reach a point where they think about it and realise they aren't afraid of death. It is only really young people who are.

Most people reach a point where they think about it and realise they aren't afraid of death. It is only really young people who are.

*nod* Yeah I had to have little talk to my 12 year old the other day when he told me 'Dad I don't want to die'

*nod* Yeah I had to have little talk to my 12 year old the other day when he told me 'Dad I don't want to die'

Response: "Then mow the fuckin' lawn!"

:p

Response: "Then mow the fuckin' lawn!"

:p

Heh yeah that wouldn't work for me, living in a tower block as I do.

Most people reach a point where they think about it and realise they aren't afraid of death. It is only really young people who are.
Or, at least, a point where they ain't afraid of death itself, more afraid of dying.

To paraphrase Epicurus:

If I exist, death does not.
If death exists, I do not.
Why fear that which cannot exist while I can?

Well, for the topic question, I've been wondering about that myself. There are two solutions I have come up with to deal with that paradoxon:

1) Assume that you are not necessarily always reborn as a human, but any other living being. Because there is a finite amount of resources on the planet, every amount of nutrients consumed by one living being prevents the feeding of another living thing. So there is a fixed amount of living beings the planet can accomodate, which translates to the fixed amount of souls that circulate in the cycle of life and death.
(Of course, smaller organisms such as bacteria, consume less than complex organisms, yet conventional reincarnation assumes that both of them have one soul - but because the number of living organisms would be much higher if they were more primitive, I think there ought to be a discussion about wether the "soul" is continous rather than discrete, meaning that perhaps each cell of an organism has a "piece" of soul, which together make the soul of a complex life-form, rather than each life-form having a distinct and fixed soul of its own.)

2) Solution 2 has been posted already, it assumes that we do not have knowledge about other locations in which life exists, for example other planets, parallel dimensions, whatever, and assumes that one single life-death-cycle incorporates such locations other than our planet Earth.

As for my part, I'm looking forward to harvesting the lifeforce of the planetary cycle of death and rebirth as an energy source...
*insider*

Yours,
ShinRa

Why do you feel that everyone would always reincarnate into the same species... or onto the same planet? It's entirely possible that a good person can reincarnate as a cat with an effective, loving family while a bad person reincarnates as that cat who spends their whole life in a poor quality animal shelter.

If we all were someone else in our previous lives, why were there less people in the past? Where are the new lives coming from?

if we can suppose that souls move from a newly dead body and persist in time and space to insert themselves into a fetus being carried in the uterus of a random stranger somewhere in the world what is the problem with supposing that they sometimes spontaneously generate instead?

if we can suppose that souls move from a newly dead body and persist in time and space to insert themselves into a fetus being carried in the uterus of a random stranger somewhere in the world what is the problem with supposing that they sometimes spontaneously generate instead?

I propose the reconciling model of Conservation of Souls, with a corollary that a new soul can come into being so long as an associated anti-soul with diametric characteristics also comes into existence.

Me being a racially aware committed White Nationalist, my anti-soul is Samuel L. Jackson.

If he and I were to so much as shake hands, the resultant annihilation event would leave a crater the size of a frisbee, with nothing left but the unused condom I've carried since high school and a leather wallet that says Bad Motherfucker.

I propose the reconciling model of Conservation of Souls, with a corollary that a new soul can come into being so long as an associated anti-soul with diametric characteristics also comes into existence.

Me being a racially aware committed White Nationalist, my anti-soul is Samuel L. Jackson.

If he and I were to so much as shake hands, the resultant annihilation event would leave a crater the size of a frisbee, with nothing left but the unused condom I've carried since high school and a leather wallet that says Bad Motherfucker.

whoa i hope you dont live in southern california.

If we all were someone else in our previous lives, why were there less people in the past? Where are the new lives coming from?Aliens.

Or maybe reincarnation supposes you'll be born into a new life, rather than supposing you had a previous one.

It would appear to be that I have yet again been proved wrong. Like always, I accept and surrender. Good argument!

It's another way to let them escape their fear of death. Don't take that away from them.

This is a rather disturbing over generalization of religion. First of all, we got to look at the nature of fear of death. Death is so fearful because of the process of losing everything, and reincarnation doesn't solve that. Reincarnation isn't a model that preach the prolonging of life. Rather it is a system that force you to continue this cycle of death. It is precisely that which makes reincarnation describe as the ultimate suffering and pain. I have yet to see a religious monk embraces it as a form of relief.

the only way to "escape the fear of death" as you would call it, is to reach enlightenment, which is nowhere near the same as the Christians "accept Jesus and go to heaven where you retain yourself plus eternal bliss" model.

I believe Buddhism does mention the many worlds model in regard to reincarnation, and nowhere has it said life is limited to Earth. Although generally speaking Buddhism refuse to describe the meaning of self, because it doesn't use the soul model as western religion believe it to be. To say that the self ends on death isn't really true, but to say that soul exist after death isn't true either. Because we describe ourselves not with the true nature, but our composition of experience, emotions, mind, and will. It is the same kind of things that will not be retain upon dying. I really can't explain rather what is reincarnated as a bacteria is the same as what is reincarnated as a whole human being, since we are multicellular. And with the Buddha refusing to answer these kind of questions I suppose it is open to speculations.

If we all were someone else in our previous lives, why were there less people in the past? Where are the new lives coming from?

People died more often in the past. The turn-around rate was higher and the souls got to rest more.

This also presupposes that the soul is a temporally limited thing. Buddhism, as little as I know about it, does have some unique conceptions of time. And, anyway, why would a metaphysical construct such as a soul be limited by a linear conception of time. Four different people, one single soul, and all that.

There is an endless, pervasive consciousness called the Atman, and souls emerge and rejoin with it and from it, when more souls come to be, they are drawn from its endless ocean, and when there are not enough bodies they rejoin its swelling eternity.

Or bacteria. Our souls were in bacteria.

I want some soup.

*Gives Hammurab a bowl of potato-leek soup.* I think the potato was your great grandmother.

What I want to know is why so many people are reincarnations of Cleopatra and so few (if any) are reincarnations of Hitler.

Your point. While I don't remember Judaism-bashing, someone must've had bashed Islam on the grounds of woman rights or something. Though Buddhism-bashing is something new on NSG to me.

There has been some Hindu bashing in the past, when a politician got fired for stating there was no evidence that a certain landmark was created by an Avatar with the help of thousands of monkeys IIRC.
And of course those nice "child oracles" some villages like to employ. Inhaling toxic fumes, being discarded as dirt when they hit puberty... very nice.

What I want to know is why so many people are reincarnations of Cleopatra and so few (if any) are reincarnations of Hitler.

I *might* be Himmler. Let me check my file on you.

Also why is the death rate not equal to the birth rate?

If we all were someone else in our previous lives, why were there less people in the past? Where are the new lives coming from?

The souls thin out, get distributed over more people. That is why we are really shallow soap opera loving people now.
On the upside, we do get more soulmates.

Why do people assume they're going to be reincarnated as other people? Shoot, there's at least a few hundred billion insects out there, let alone everything else.

The souls thin out, get distributed over more people.
One soul can 'be' more than one person at the same time?

One soul can 'be' more than one person at the same time?

Why not ? The idea that we are all part of a single form of higher life to which we return after our death is hardly uncommon within religions. Or even computergames.

Why not ? The idea that we are all part of a single form of higher life to which we return after our death is hardly uncommon within religions.
Sure, but I don't like it.

I am me; I'm not some higher being.

Sure, but I don't like it.

I am me; I'm not some higher being.

Well, it would mean that you are you now. But after your death you will not be nothing, but instead part of something bigger, intermingling with other parts and eventually reborn in a way. To wit: your sense of humour in person A, your musical talent in B and so on.

That in no way takes anything away from who you are now, in this life.

What I want to know is why so many people are reincarnations of Cleopatra and so few (if any) are reincarnations of Hitler.


That always made ME wonder, too. Nobody is ever a reincarnation of some kid no one cared about who fell down a well and died a lonely miserable death.

No one ever claims to be an old spinster from the 1930's who died of cholera while still a virgin.

Nooo...they all had to be someone famous.

Not that I don't believe in reincarnation...I just also believe that the human ego distorts stuff.

In any religion.

Someone here had it right: "I don't hate religions, just their fan clubs."

GP

But after your death you will not be nothing, but instead part of something bigger, intermingling with other parts and eventually reborn in a way. To wit: your sense of humour in person A, your musical talent in B and so on.
But that's not me, that's something quite different. If I'm going to exist forever, I want to exist, not a part of me. That's much the same as not existing at all.

One soul can 'be' more than one person at the same time?
In the Karma Kagyu lineage, there are currently five teachers who are all reincarnations of Jamgon Kongtrul, who was just too nifty to reincarnate only once at a time.

If we all were someone else in our previous lives, why were there less people in the past? Where are the new lives coming from?

You know the way everybody's into weirdness right now? Books in all the supermarkets about Bermuda triangles, UFO's, how the iMayans invented television. That kind of thing?

Well the way I see it it's exactly the same. There ain't no difference between a flying saucer and a time machine. People get so hung up on specifics. They miss out on seeing the whole thing. Take South America for example. In South America thousands of people go missing every year. Nobody knows where they go. They just like disappear. But if you think about it for a minute, you realize something. There had to be a time when there was no people. Right?

Well where did all these people come from? hmmm? I'll tell you where. The future. Where did all these people disappear to? hmmm?

The past!

That's right! And how did they get there?

Flying saucers. Which are really? Yeah you got it. Time machines. I think a lot about this kind of stuff. I do my best thinking on the bus. That's how come I don't drive, see?

In the Karma Kagyu lineage, there are currently five teachers who are all reincarnations of Jamgon Kongtrul...
How on Terra do they know that?

How on Terra do they know that?
The procedure for recognizing a reincarnation is to offer a youngster five walking sticks (one of which belonged to so-and-so) and five bowls (one used by so-and-so) etc. and if the kid also runs up to so-and-so's best friend, who is disguised inconspicuously in the crowd, and so on, that's a plus.

That always made ME wonder, too. Nobody is ever a reincarnation of some kid no one cared about who fell down a well and died a lonely miserable death.

No one ever claims to be an old spinster from the 1930's who died of cholera while still a virgin.

Nooo...they all had to be someone famous.

Not that I don't believe in reincarnation...I just also believe that the human ego distorts stuff.

In any religion.

Someone here had it right: "I don't hate religions, just their fan clubs."

GP
oh you arent up on these things. its the IN thing these days to have several past lives at least one of which is of a noboby. they use the story to explain things in their current life. ..oh i was a civil war private who drowned in the mud at antietam, thats why im scared of water today.

sometimes they channel these dead former selves and speak in their voices. i saw a woman on a tv talk show some years ago who was the reincarnation of an irish woman who had the WORST irish accent--she sounded much more like an american woman faking an irish accent. strange that.

The procedure for recognizing a reincarnation is to offer a youngster five walking sticks (one of which belonged to so-and-so) and five bowls (one used by so-and-so) etc.
And do they offer these sticks and bowls to every youngster in Tibet, or what?

I *might* be Himmler. Let me check my file on you.

I guess that makes me Reinhard Heydrich, then. We should see if we can round up the rest of the old gang and set sail for Brazil...

I guess that makes me Reinhard Heydrich, then. We should see if we can round up the rest of the old gang and set sail for Brazil...

No, I'm Heydrich, you're Eichmann.

*trades hats and uniforms*

And do they offer these sticks and bowls to every youngster in Tibet, or what?There are generally several candidate children, chosen by soothsayers looking for lucky omens around the time of their births. Everybody in Tibet (at least, pre-occupation Tibet-- but I bet it really hasn't changed) is pretty superstitious and watches for omens all the time.

*nod* Yeah I had to have little talk to my 12 year old the other day when he told me 'Dad I don't want to die'

Whenever I say stuff like that, my dad always tells me that I have too much time on my hands.

If we all were someone else in our previous lives, why were there less people in the past? Where are the new lives coming from?

As the population grows, Jesus shits more souls out his ass.

End of thread.

If we all were someone else in our previous lives, why were there less people in the past? Where are the new lives coming from?

Good point! I never thought of it that way.

I didn't believe in reincarnation to begin with, but that is an excellent point.

If we all were someone else in our previous lives, why were there fewer people in the past? Where are the new lives coming from?
Fixed.

Also, considering the number of people walking around these days with what amount to only partial personalities and little discernible soul, perhaps a lot of people are having to share.

Soul time shares, as it were.

By the way, "we all were someone else in our previous lives" is not the only available model of reincarnation.

If we all were someone else in our previous lives, why were there less people in the past? Where are the new lives coming from?

depends on which version of Reincarnation you are arguing against. some believe that it's a heiarchy... of which humans who fail on the karmic scale turn into animals. animals into insects and so on. but if you succeed, then you move in the opposite direction.

so yes, there were fewer humans back then, but there were more animals back then also. ;)

"What's a snail gotta do? lay a perfect trail of slime?" - Jack Nicholson The Bucket List.

why would you expect them to?

all beliefs, all the words, people put on paper, whatever they might otherwise be inspired by. there is another reason to, why any belief mentions and refrains from mentioning what it does, and that is because it is addressed to a particular audience, to the moral and spritual needs of that time and place.

their ways of explaining things are in terms of what the people they are addressed to might be familiar with and understand, that is to say, at the time they are revealed.

=^^=
.../\...



Whatever you just said sounded great. Cept I didn't understand it. :hail: great god of mincing words! May we have :fluffle: in his honor! rofllmao

Who said you had to be reincarnated after your death? One could always be reincarnated in the past, after all.

If we came from other worlds then why do Hindu and Buddhist texts not mention it?

They do.

The scriptures speak of many planets. Vaishnavite scriptures (Srimad Bhagavathm) speaks of MahaVishnu's energy creating infinite universes...

Just because someone claims that they're a famous person reincarnated, doesn't mean that they're telling the truth.

As for Hitler, Saddam, and such, don't expect to see them reincarnate anytime soon -- they have several hundred years of punishment to deal with first. As for Gandhi and Mother Theresa, don't expect them soon either -- they have several hundred years of being rewarded first (although i assume they could return early for reasons simialr to the reason Le Duc Tho declined (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_controversies#Voluntary_refusals) mankind's greatest honor)

Jews can't reincarnate because they don't have souls.

It was proven, by Professor Moishe Silverburg of Miskatonic University Medical School that the soul is housed in the foreskin.

wat complete garbage...

neway, i could discuss and answer every single question on resurection or reincarnation according to my beliefs (for that matter, knowledge) as a jew. however, i have neither the time or patience. good day.

so yes, there were fewer humans back then, but there were more animals back then also.

except that there was a time before any life existed at all.

of course, realizing that lends itself to an answer; there would have to have been a first soul and, therefore, a process for creating them.

now if only souls actually existed in the first place (let alone reincarnation), we might be on to something here...

Clearly, some of the people in this topic haven't read enough H. P. Lovecraft stories.

I think that we need an expert on reincarnation.