Reincarnation a myth?

While im quite a spiritual person i do not think that we reincarnate.

Although it is quite a popular theory and i used to believe in this i have recently changed my mind for a few reasons and here they are.

When i die and eventually get the offer or whatever happens to reincarnate into another body either human or animal, what happens if i want to reincarnate into a dog?

Dogs are not aware of themselves, if i drew a dot on its forehead and place the dog in front of a mirror, the dog will not try to rub the dot off, where as if i did the same with a 5 year old infant human the human will try to rub it off or point at it.

My point is when a dog or any animal dies and passes over into the astral realm and thats if this really does happen,the animal cannot understand anything so it would not be able to choose to reincarnate into another body.

This also brings up another point, do animals have souls the way we humans do?

And do babies have souls, when a human is very young they just have their instincts to rely on like animals,they act like intelligent animals and thats it.

Does the human soul grow from birth or does the soul enter the body after a certain amount of years or at a certain milestone in its development?

Some interesting points here that im recently pondering, and could do with other peoples views.

[edit on 31-8-2007 by markjaxson]

I believe in reincarnation i feel that animals don't have the choice and neither really do we. A system is probably set up that moves us from this life to the next one that we will live which is why most of us don't remember who we were in the past. Those that do have a better advantage then the rest of us i suppose i used to follow the belief because i hated myself but I've gained more confidence and learned to love this life as much as i can. If it is all random and we have no say in our gender,sex,ethnicity etc i just hope that my next self feels more alive then i do.

I disagree. Trying to compare the spirit of an animal to that of a human is preposterous. By the way, I don't believe that there is inter-speciation in regards to reincarnation. Dogs are always dogs and humans are always human.







[edit on 31-8-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

I don't think anybody has the answers on spirituality, do they? Rules on reincarnation, if it exists are unknown to humanity at this point in time.

Reincarnation, if it exists, may be a spiritual evolutionary process in which the individual cannot reincarnate to a less aware being, like a dog.


It's my opinion that if humans have souls, all other life forms do as well. And by that I include anything alive from microscopic creatures to plants. I may go so far as to consider even a multicellular animal like ourselves to actually be made up of trillions of individual souls taking part in the task of life with a single more powerful and aware oversoul guiding daily life activities. Which we commonly consider to be ourselves or our soul.

As an agnostic, I'm a fence sitter on this subject.

And do babies have souls, when a human is very young they just have their instincts to rely on like animals,they act like intelligent animals and thats it.

Does the human soul grow from birth or does the soul enter the body after a certain amount of years or at a certain milestone in its development?

I remember "me" being "me" from a very early age. Though I think completely differently than I did then. Persistence of memory has given me the distinct impression I've been here the entire time I've been alive. I don't know if that equates to having a soul, but if we have souls, we're here at least from the moment we take our first breath.

[edit on 1-9-2007 by Frith]

And do babies have souls, when a human is very young they just have their instincts to rely on like animals,they act like intelligent animals and thats it.

Does the human soul grow from birth or does the soul enter the body after a certain amount of years or at a certain milestone in its development?

[edit on 31-8-2007 by markjaxson]

I believe a human has a soul the moment it is conceived. One of the reasons I believe in reincarnation is because I remember actually entering my mothers womb, i remember feeling the warmth inside and seeing, my mom must have been atleast 8 months pregnant when this happend, but i remember seeing a very faint light, like when you put your hand up to a light and can see the light through your hand and it turns your hand a pinkish color, I can honestly say I remember that. I believe I have very faint memories of past lives, They weren't very clear though.

wow it seems that this is a very hard thing to grasp the earth sucks more and more everyday the people are terrible the earth its self the air weather everything is just not to amazing when you die why would God just allow you to come back to this place...if you don't believe in God oh well......but to humor you why would whatever send you back to this cruddy place come on jeez there is no reincarnation people just wanted to find something and they misinterpted what angels do with living out human lives over and over and thought humans could do it too so yes it is a myth totally

I had a past life reading under hypnosis done a few years back and was told I was an F4 pilot shot down in Vietnam. I thought this was cool, as I always had an interest in military aircraft (I never mentioned this). I then remembered as a 14 year old going up in a glider for a joyride where the pilot let me have a go at the controls.
I lined the plane up with the runway and to my suprise the pilot let me land it, with no help from him whatsoever.
He then asked how long I'd been flying and I told him I'd never been in a plane before. After we got out he asked my mother the same question, with the same reply, and he openly told her that he didn't believe her and had been flying for 22 years and was not an idiot.
I know this doesn't prove anything, but it still spins me out to this day.

Originally posted by thestatue
wow it seems that this is a very hard thing to grasp the earth sucks more and more everyday the people are terrible the earth its self the air weather everything is just not to amazing when you die why would God just allow you to come back to this place...if you don't believe in God oh well......but to humor you why would whatever send you back to this cruddy place come on jeez there is no reincarnation people just wanted to find something and they misinterpted what angels do with living out human lives over and over and thought humans could do it too so yes it is a myth totally

You can't prove that it's a myth and I can't prove that it isn't.
People have their beliefs, one of the reasons for reincarnation is to learn and grow spiritually, you have to find good in all evil all destruction even in death, it's the circle of life. It wouldn't suck so bad either if people realized if they acted loving and caring to everyone then it wouldn't be so bad. Haha, air and weather, well their is something we can do about that too, it's called technology, we aren't always going to be poluting the air for the rest of our lives, I mean we do advance over the years.

Humans do not and have never reincarnated as an animal. The term reincarnation is incorrect, because at the highest levels of nonlinear time it is all one expression.

Animal souls are more along the lines of "energy balance groups."

[edit on 1-9-2007 by lightworker12]

I am not saying that I can prove this in any way, because I can't, but I have past life memories from a couple of lives, in which I was an animal.

I realize I may get flamed for this, and so I am saying very little. I just felt like I should post this since there are people here adamantly saying that you can't change from one species to the other in reincarnation.

I don't think that the rules we put on things dictate how they are. All we can say is maybe.

I also don't see animals as "less aware." After all, how do we know this? It seems often that they are more aware. They can sense things that are about to happen, like heart attacks, strokes, and some can even sniff out cancer. Sure, this could be something that has to do with their physical senses, but...

Animals can sense a lot about people, a LOT. If someone is nervous, even if they are extremely good at acting like they're not nervous, an animal can sense it. An animal can also sense a person's intentions, and may react rashly towards people who don't have good ones, even if they are normally friendly pets. Some people are really good with animals, and I think that is because animals can sense something about them.

I don't think we should be so quick to judge animals as "less aware." They just do not think like we do.



[edit on 1-9-2007 by MinHawk]

Reincarnation is crock, what would happen if all life was destroyed and there was nothing to be reincarnated into?

Originally posted by thehumbleone
Reincarnation is crock, what would happen if all life was destroyed and there was nothing to be reincarnated into?

Other planets perhaps?

I mean, if reincarnation did exist why would we only reincarnate here?

-Will

My Nan a devout Christian firmly believed in reincarnation. As a matter of fact, she told me that this was my first incarnation on Earth, and when my sister was born some 10 years later; she told my mother that she had lived on Earth before.

My Nan never doubted for one minute in reincarnation, and even said that we could be incarnated on other worlds. Her belief was so strong that I guess that I have come to believe in reincarnation.
I use to have dreams as a young child of coming down to Earth being microscopic and then pulling away from Earth until it was microscopic in size.

My Nan use to tell me that I was remembering my incarnation onto Earth and had the knowledge of returning from where I came.

If it hadn't been for her, I don't know how I would have coped with that nightmare that I had from infancy to the age of 12.

While I don't believe we can be reincarnated into animals, I do believe there is a lot of cases out there that beg the human soul may be brought back for another life on earth. I find reincarnation stories to be absolutely fascinating and some of them are very very hard to explain.

Originally posted by Frith


Reincarnation, if it exists, may be a spiritual evolutionary process in which the individual cannot reincarnate to a less aware being, like a dog.


It's my opinion that if humans have souls, all other life forms do as well. And by that I include anything alive from microscopic creatures to plants. .


[
I[edit on 1-9-2007 by Frith]

What if when reincarnated into a "lower" level animal that you are there because you needed a mental break. No more worries about your spouse cheating, no more worries about buying that cool new Land Rover that just now came out, no more worries about the size of your house, gas prices, etc.

You would then get back to survival mode. You would worry about food, shelter, mating. Maybe that's the "break" you need when you're put down a level or two.

All animal instincts are natural and automatic. Of course I am not saying that we know all about the mind of a dog or cheetah or whatever, I'm just saying that it's different.

Maybe we need that sometimes. Their lifespans are not as long as ours. Chill out here for a few years not worrying about where my kids are going to college ........might be good for the soul. Being less aware sounds good sometimes. Like a spa...kinda.




Just a thought, mind you. I, personally, don't have a clue nor a theory about reincarnation on a "belief" level. I just don't know. God didn't grant me that knowledge when he sent me here.

Originally posted by Frith


It's my opinion that if humans have souls, all other life forms do as well. And by that I include anything alive from microscopic creatures to plants. I may go so far as to consider even a multicellular animal like ourselves to actually be made up of trillions of individual souls taking part in the task of life with a single more powerful and aware oversoul guiding daily life activities. Which we commonly consider to be ourselves or our soul.

As an agnostic, I'm a fence sitter on this subject.

I find I may think along those lines too, we are just animated meat too, what makes our atoms more special, unless of course, awareness thoughts implant themselves to an atoms memory and live on that way? Then we die, then the memory of atoms are dispersed into maggots, spread into the soil, plants, or wind and incorporated into various living organisms, then becoming a part of that organisms awareness.
We are all made of the same stuff, even as a rock, is a rock aware, perhaps yes if it contains nuclear memories?

And uplander, I agree there too, as compared to my own 'escapist thinking', ever since I was a child.
'Sometimes I will look at a seagull and wonder what it's like to only worry about getting enough to eat for the day, and where will it be, the clown or the Crown, which parking lot?'
As a child I would think, 'The birds don't have to sit here in this stupid classroom, their life is so much free-er'.
Perhaps it is that kind of thinking that leads to a belief in reincarnation?
I don't know, I don't know enough!
I wish I knew more.

I don't mean only life on this planet being destroyed, I mean life everywhere.
How would reincarnation work if all life was destroyed then?

[edit on 2-9-2007 by thehumbleone]

very good thread. I see reincarnation as being very plausible. I also see living the 'life of' an animal.. but in no way 'being an' animal soul. All things are as they are meant to be. And there are probably millions of planets that are similar to this one, just not exact. just my 2 cents. again good thread. thumbs up on reincarnation. Oh and I would not want to view into my past lives... kind of like cheating I would think if we TRUELY are growing as soul/spirit.

Reincarnation is part of the school of live/s, that forms your higher being for accesention to the next plane of existance/spiritual realm of Godliness.
Your soul is alive before you are born, it comes with you while growing in the womb-some souls are new others born again to complete the journey. I see reincation as more of a human process, as opposed to animals, trees, etc. Though animals do have a process.

Originally posted by thehumbleone
I don't mean only life on this planet being destroyed, I mean life everywhere.
How would reincarnation work if all life was destroyed then?

[edit on 2-9-2007 by thehumbleone]

It would all be over..