The Belief of Reincarnation

Forgive me for bringing up a thread topic that is probably one of those that has been beaten to death on ATS, but in the threads I found about reincarnation, I could not find one dealing with a personal belief of reincarnation.

I do not and will not pretend to understand reincarnation. I have yet to research the topic or learn anything of value. I do not understand why or how it works, nor could I answer its many questions. I merely understand the basics of what it is.

I have a few questions for anyone who is knowledgeable in this area:

If someone were to be reincarnated, would that individual know or suspect that they were reincarnated without others around them bringing up the possibility?

If so, would that individual be able to pin point what or who they were in their previous life simply by examining their personal interests, opinions or thoughts? Or would these be different in this current life than it was in the previous life?

Is there any suspected amount of time that a spirit takes before reincarnating, so as to better pin point who or what you may have been in your previous life by narrowing your previous life down to a certain time period?

And my final question is, is there any distinct relation between reincarnation and established religion and belief in a "higher power"? Or would it be logical to assume reincarnation is still possible without there being a God?

My curiosity in reincarnation is one that has started fairly recently and picked up rapid steam since, for no apparent reason. My curiosity stems from an odd suspicion of the origins of my interests, thoughts and opinions, which seem out of the ordinary to the person I thought I was for at least the first 15 years of my life (I am 20).

I won't go in to my interests, thoughts and opinions other than to say they are very heavily in to politics. Sure, it is possible to have an extreme interest in politics. But the person I normally associate myself with being, the passionate level of interest I have in politics, and more specifically, propaganda and other 'evils' of politics, is out of the ordinary.

Do I believe I'm reincarnated? No. Do I want to be reincarnated? No. Do I believe its possible, based on my limited current knowledge of the subject? Yes.

I'm not asking for opinions of whether or not I am reincarnated. I'm not asking for sarcastic remarks from people who consider this subject a joke. I'm simply asking for a better understanding of reincarnation from someone who has more knowledge on the subject than myself, which I suspect to be pretty much everyone who reads this.

This thread is genuine, not a prank, nor an attempt at starting a religious debate. I am genuinely interested and curious. Any help and information would be welcomed.


[edit on 7/16/08 by NovusOrdoMundi]

It is difficult to talk about Reincarnation without talking about God.
Don't let the name God put you off reading this. It's just that you cannot separate the two subjects

I can provide no proof for any of this, it is what I have learned and accept as my own truth.

Firstly our consciousness is eternal as is the consciousness of God.

Our consciousness lives in multiple dimensions of existence at the same time, the number of dimensions we live in depends upon how spiritually advanced we are.

Our consciousness within the third plane of existence (this dimension) is veiled, the purpose for which being our free will to choose, subject to the laws of Karma (laws of attraction) between the moral choices we are faced with in this human existence.

We are here to make mistakes and learn from them and to test our own spiritual growth. It is easy to be good in the spirit world surrounded by unconditional love. It its far more difficult to make the right decisions when we think that this life is all there is. It is here that we attain our greatest spiritual growth.

Everything that has consciousness is God.

Every sentient beings consciousness is a holographic fragment of Gods consciousness. God is not a person, God is the sentient harmonic energy that exists everywhere in the universe. When we experience love, then we have discovered God. If you want to know God then let Love into your heart. Allow Love to grow within you until you feel unconditional love for all humanity and all life (nobody said it was easy) and then God will become you.

Do good unselfish things until you have paid your Karmic debt and then only good things will happen to you.

When we die we all take with us either Heaven or hell it all depends on how we have lived. Hell, for want of a better word is the regret you will live with for hurting others and you will share the same space as others who also enjoy hurting others.

Heaven, and I can't think of a better word, is spending your afterlife existence with others who have lived by the one really important biblical advice of doing unto others as you would have done to yourself.

Your long journey to fully experience God becoming you, is much more pleasant when you share it with other kind souls. We may all choose to incarnate hundreds or thousands of times but usually for the one goal, that is to not have to incarnate into this comparatively dull world.

What comes next is indescribably beautiful, it just gets better and better as you advance. Even those who go to the dark regions eventually will experience this.

Eternity is a very long time. The journey is anything but boring.

Why does God allow evil to happen? - Because we have free will.

Why does he allow good people and babies to die? - Nobody dies! just our physical shell dies.

Why is suicide bad? - Think snakes and ladders.

Why do bad things happen to us? - We learn and grow from suffering and the choices we make. Pay off Karmic debt and things improve immeasurably.

Why has God set up this process with trillions of souls (not just Earth)? - This is how God grows.

Who was Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Mohammad and all the rest of the prophets? - All ascended masters who chose to incarnate to help God become all of us.

What is religion? - The starting point to get you thinking straight. Once you have begun your spiritual journey you can discard it. For some it helps to belong to a structure with like minded people. Religion isn't bad once you realize that it has been used to control people who worship the religion and it's leaders rather than getting on with personal spiritual growth.

God and all the prophets don't want you to praise them, they want you to BE them.

If you want to know more about life in the spirit world and why we reincarnate go Here



Peace and Love and have a great journey.

There are many flavors of reincarnation, so you might read a wiki article about the basic theories. I have studied Buddhism for a long time, and there is a belief in rebirth in Buddhism, but not strictly speaking reincarnation. Reincarnation usually posits a transmigration of a particular soul from one life to the next, whereas Buddhism does not hold that the soul exists at all.

In Tibetan Buddhism, for example, there are some definite beliefs about the amount of time it takes for a person to be reborn after death into a new birth. (Don't know what the time span is off the top of my head.) The reason why most people don't remember their rebirths is that they cannot escape the illusion of their own ego, or self , or soul, however you want to call it. For a Buddhist, the soul is like a little eddy of water in a river. The river itself is just water, but now and then little whirlpools and eddies form as the river flows. These whirlpools don't have some separate existence from the water, but it looks that way to those who are ignorant, which is most of us. So one whirlpool forms, and then dissolves, and then forms again. Most people can't remember one whirlpool from the next because they don't understand the non-reality of these pools.

However, the more one clarifies ones self through meditation, the more one realizes that the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth is itself an illusion. It's all just water, as from above. The more one purges him or herself of this illusion, the better they are able to remember previous births when one is reborn.

This is just Buddhism, but other religious traditions do hold to the belief of an actual soul migrating from one life to the next.

I have my own thoughts on reincarnation.

I think the best definition of a soul, can be the innhert 'energy' in the lifeform.

Each and every lifeform has this energy. It is this energy that gives living beings its life.

This engery cannot be destroyed, so, upon death of the body, your 'soul' is transported somewhere(heaven?) where your soul is waiting fo another body to inherit.


So, i kinda think that soul is jumping from life body to life body.

I could be wroung thou...

Well, my understanding of the whole concept of reincarnation is based on the idea that the creator laid down universal "laws" governing the universe. Reincarnation is, at least in a rudimentary sense, the law of cause and effect, or, as I am sure you have heard the saying, "What comes around goes around."

Now, with that being said, cause and effect is usually supplanted with the word Karma. Basically what you do in this life will come back on you in another. It's the idea of no good or bad deed goes unrewarded or unpunished.

I personally think that reincarnation is a possibility if not a plausibility. However, one should live their spiritual life as if they only have one... People should make this one count, not depend on future lives to correct their ways. I suppose this may be a very real reason why people don't typically remember past lives.

Diane Morang was on Coast to Coast AM last night.
She has a pretty good explanation of reincarnation, based on scientific principles.
If you want to believe in reincarnation, her theory is as good as any.
Personally, I do not believe life is a test.
Even if it was, there is no do-overs.

[edit on 17-7-2008 by jmdewey60]

The following are my personal beliefs on reincarnation:

"If someone were to be reincarnated, would that individual know or suspect that they were reincarnated without others around them bringing up the possibility?"

They might. It would depend on wether, in their reincarnated form, the knowlege of past lives present in their boundless self (or oversoul) would transmit to the inner self at some point in their lives. This is assuming that the inner self is a rough copy of the boundless self, transmitting and recieving information to and from the boundless self (kind of like a probe would do on an alien planet).

"If so, would that individual be able to pin point what or who they were in their previous life simply by examining their personal interests, opinions or thoughts? Or would these be different in this current life than it was in the previous life?"

They might not be able to pick up on WHO they were, but their interests, opinions, and thoughts WOULD reflect WHAT THEY WERE LIKE. I believe that the personality changes from life to life just as it changes from experience to experience.

I see it as kind of like a car wreck. Two cars (a person and the experiences in that person's life) come into contact on the road. Both cars are affected by this contact. If, after driving home from the wreck, you looked at your car, you really wouldn't be able to tell from the change in your car what EXACTLY you hit, just that there was indeed a collision and now your car is different.

"Is there any suspected amount of time that a spirit takes before reincarnating, so as to better pin point who or what you may have been in your previous life by narrowing your previous life down to a certain time period?"

I view all souls as existing outside the time-space continuum so that question becomes complicated. Time is an aspect of at least this universe. Time flows forward. The future is hypothetical and the past is over so all that one can be incarnated into is the present. From a point of view outside of time I can best guess that the choice wouldn't so much be "when do I reincarnate" as it would be "do I choose to reincarnate". It's kinda tricky but if you mentally squint just right you can almost make out the big picture implied by these concepts (kinda like those annoying 3D image puzzles).

"And my final question is, is there any distinct relation between reincarnation and established religion and belief in a "higher power"? Or would it be logical to assume reincarnation is still possible without there being a God?"

I would say that reincarnation is DEFINITELY possible with OR without a God.


Like I said, these are just my personal opinions on the topic of reincarnation and its application to metaphysics and theology.