Do you believe in past lives?

Johnnny
Avatar
#1
Do you think people that when they die, just get reborn into another life and start life over again as another person or thing? I seem to think so because i always get these weird deja vu moments where something ive never been too or expeirenced seems familiar....

What do you guys think? Mabye you were someone important in histpry, mabye you changed history or mabye lived a normal humble life in a past life....


YouTube - The Highwaymen - Highwayman

Last edited by Johnnny; Jul 5th, 2010 at 08:52 PM..
 
Mowich
Avatar
#2
I hope so.

Quote: Originally Posted by MowichView Post

I hope so.

Well I should expand on that. I believe that we are reborn time and again into the same family. Our role in the family changes with each incarnation but the unit stays the same. I am not particulary sure how far my family unit extends but that doesn't bother me as I have no control over it anyway, the more the merrier.

Being famous or notorious or brilliant in another life really never crosses my mind, the possibility presented by being my daughter's daughter are so much more interesting.
 
Dexter Sinister
Avatar
#3
When you die, you're dead, that's it, the end. There's no evidence to suggest any part of the personality survives the death of the body, or existed before the body, that's just wishful thinking. Make the best of the time you've got, it's all there is.
 
karrie
#4
I do not believe in past lives no.
 
Johnnny
#5
Quote: Originally Posted by Dexter SinisterView Post

When you die, you're dead, that's it, the end. There's no evidence to suggest any part of the personality survives the death of the body, or existed before the body, that's just wishful thinking. Make the best of the time you've got, it's all there is.

you mean we just dont have the technology yet? JK
 
taxslave
Avatar
#6
My wife does. She also does regression therapy to take people into their past lives. I'm not convinced. The idea is that sometimes peoples problems are from unfinished business in a past life. According to her your spirit will move up and down the evolutionary scale depending on good you lived your last life. NOt sure if humans are considered top of the line or not. She swears that the cat we had for several years that died las fall she had previously. Anyway if she is right then Hitler will spend about 10000 lives as a fly in a jewish ****house.
 
talloola
#7
no, I do not believe in such a thing, that is for the movies.
 
VanIsle
#8
Quote: Originally Posted by MowichView Post

I hope so.



Well I should expand on that. I believe that we are reborn time and again into the same family. Our role in the family changes with each incarnation but the unit stays the same. I am not particulary sure how far my family unit extends but that doesn't bother me as I have no control over it anyway, the more the merrier.

Being famous or notorious or brilliant in another life really never crosses my mind, the possibility presented by being my daughter's daughter are so much more interesting.

I've looked at things similar to you Mowich. Weird things happen within families. My folks were born 20 years apart yet they died only 9 years apart. I have wondered for years if families continue to be the same and if we continue to be born to the same parents and have the same children and on and on. When I speak of weird, 20 years is a long time. Considering my Dad was 36 and Mom was 16 when they married, I am left to (as weird as this sounds) wondering if they died closer in years so that their next marriage brings them closer in years. I continue to wonder how long they "wait" until they are born again, to live again to be able to give birth to the same souls again. Do they wait until their last child dies? Do they start with the same time frames as before? There were 6 kids in my family. Five now. If it all works like that, then somewhere out there, my grandparents (none of which I ever knew) are either waiting to meet, marry and have children or they have begun all that. Perhaps my parents are little children somewhere. I know people laugh or they think "how weird" or whatever. My Mom was a believer in re-incarnation. I don't know how Dad felt about it. My oldest sister and I never knew each other and in the last years before she passed, we didn't really get along. I never knew why. I would like to think that in some way at sometime issues of that nature get resolved.

Quote: Originally Posted by Dexter SinisterView Post

When you die, you're dead, that's it, the end. There's no evidence to suggest any part of the personality survives the death of the body, or existed before the body, that's just wishful thinking. Make the best of the time you've got, it's all there is.

How do you know? There is no reason not to make the best of your time and there is no evidence to say we don't come this way again. Have you ever been in the same room as a person who has died? I mean at the very moment they meet death?
 
Dexter Sinister
Avatar
#9
Quote: Originally Posted by VanIsleView Post

How do you know?

I don't, obviously, how could I? That's simply what the available evidence points to.
Quote:

... there is no evidence to say we don't come this way again.

There's none that says we do either, and in the absence of positive evidence for such an extraordinary claim the rational position is not to believe it. The people making the claim have to produce the evidence that supports it, and they haven't. There's no evidence to say there's not a pink teapot orbiting the sun between Earth and Venus, but that doesn't mean it makes sense to think there is.
Quote:

Have you ever been in the same room as a person who has died? I mean at the very moment they meet death?

Yes.
 
Bar Sinister
Avatar
#10
If you are talking human reincarnation; that is dead humans coming back as other humans there is a number problem. If reincarnation was the only way for other humans to come into existence then there would only be two of us.
 
Cliffy
Avatar
+2
#11  Top Rated Post
I think that to be fully human, to experience all there is to be fully a conscious and evolved human that it would be necessary to return many times. How that mechanism works is still a mystery but I think it would be likely that we return to experience what it is like to be male, female, different ethnicities, religions, historical time frames, professions, etc. There may be no scientific way to prove it because it is beyond our ability at the present time but so many people have experienced bleed throughs to past lives and there is so much historical writings about such experiences that to dismiss them off hand seems a little closed minded.

I was born in Montreal to middle class British parents, lived in suburbia, worked as an engineer, then one day I just left all that behind and moved out into the bush in BC where I squatted in an abandoned tool shed from a defunct placer mining operation. I never felt comfortable living in the city but when I moved out into the bush, I felt instantly that that is where I belonged. I instinctively knew how to survive out there. It just all felt so familiar and comfortable.

I was raised Catholic but it never sat easy on my mind. It never made sense to me even as a young child, but when I looked at native spirituality, it just fit me like a glove. It just felt so familiar, so right, like I had come home not only to the forest but to my culture. Aboriginal people accepted me as a kindred spirit right from the beginning. It is hard for me to not think that all that has to do with who and what I was before taking on this shell.

From the people I have met and the interactions I have experienced I would not say that we keep being born into the same family groupings, but more likely the people close to us in life are people who have been close to us in the past, as friends, lovers, sons and daughters, but we do keep changing roles within a close circle of relationships. Even people who are on the fringes of our awareness now could have played a more significant role in the past.

I trust my intuition more than my intellect in such maters. The intellect is limited in its scope. But the intuition is aware of everything that is going on around it, even what is coming at it. That is why some people have avoided catastrophe by being late or because of circumstances seemingly beyond their control. To me science is limited to and by the intellect.
 
Curiosity
Avatar
#12
Ouch!!! It's early here and I see a reincarnation question..... wow! Thanks Johnny!

I play with the possibility because one of my sisters was a true believer but she was also a very inquiring person who examined all kinds of issues we deal with in our lives. She maintained that when we die we often
leave unfinished issues or ones which need to be dealt with and reincarnation gives us that opportunity.

If you are inclined to believe you "get one chance only" and can live with it you probably think you get one ticket for the only ride.... I'd like to think we can return more learned, more improved, and right the wrongs
committed at an earlier time.

Our current human life span leaves little room for knowing ALL there could be - especially as we deal with our concepts of religion and a higher power and faith and issues of medical marvels which have allowed us to be
more free (and careless) with our behavior than our ancestors were.

Nice post Cliffy - you bring hope into the picture - I would love to have another go at life because this one is so fascinating to me.
 
MichelleIMG
Avatar
#13
I either believe in reincarnation or spirits. If none of those happen - your life just goes blank
 
petros
#14
I fully believe that people had lives in the past.
 
spaminator
Avatar
#15
if reincarnation exists i hope that i come back rich.

sylvia browne said that she believes that the majority of people are on their last life which could indicate that the end could be near. eg. december 21st, 2012.

there is a documentary that you might be interested in.

MAINABOUT THE SHOWEPISODESSCHEDULEABOUT THE HOSTREGRESSION HYPNOSISCONTACT
A 3-part series on Wednesday, September 29, October 6 and 13 at 8 pm ET on CBC Television.

Don't miss our last episode featuring Dr. Brian Weiss on Wedneday, October 13 at 8 pm ET on CBC Television. Was real estate agent Bill a bootlegger in 1920s Chicago? Could website designer Natasha have been a bean trader in Nepal? And did homemaker Birgitta's many lives take her through time as an African mother, an aristocrat in France, a widow in Russia and a male farmer in northern Germany?
Everyone wants to know if we have been here before. Will we be here again? In P.L.I., ordinary Canadians are invited to explore this idea by trying past life regression hypnosis, which some believe can give access to past life memories. This series of three one-hour network specials will air consecutive Wednesday’s, September 29, October 6 and 13 at 8pm.
Intrepid reporter Sarah Kapoor investigates details of the volunteers’ hypnotic experiences to look for hard evidence that these lives could have actually existed. Her detective work takes her around the world; from a rural Indian village to an Irish graveyard, from a nunnery to a saloon. She gets help from historians, village elders, priests and advocates of paranormal activity.
For volunteers Bill, Birgitta and Natasha - who all share a healthy dose of skepticism - a trip to view the evidence of their past lives could rock their present world! Part X Files, part Lonely Planet, part Nancy Drew, P.L.I., does not try to prove or disprove the existence of reincarnation or that memories can be recalled through hypnosis. Instead it looks at a mysterious experience that asks us all to ask ourselves: What does happen after we die?

CBC.ca - Past Life Investigation
 
VanIsle
#16
Quote: Originally Posted by Dexter SinisterView Post

I don't, obviously, how could I? That's simply what the available evidence points to. There's none that says we do either, and in the absence of positive evidence for such an extraordinary claim the rational position is not to believe it. The people making the claim have to produce the evidence that supports it, and they haven't. There's no evidence to say there's not a pink teapot orbiting the sun between Earth and Venus, but that doesn't mean it makes sense to think there is. Yes.

There probably is evidence out there somewhere that actually does show there isn't a pink teapot (or a yellow one for that matter) orbiting the sun at any point . You answered the point I was making via the words "how could I". You made your original statement as actual fact and until the day we die, we'll never know. As I told an athiest friend one time - I expect the day we'll actually meet face to face is when you enter the gates of heaven.
I too have (only once) been in the room of a dying man. He reared up from his bed with the strength of a lion and screamed something to a vacant wall at the end of his hospital bed. Another woman in the room translated his words to say that he was telling his dead mother that he would be there soon. He flopped back onto his pillow and I thought he had died. With super strength, he once again reared up and yelled out the same words and this time when he fell back he did die. It isn't sound evidence of anything because I could not see what he was seeing and I have no proof he was seeing anything at all. It certainly gives me pause for thought.
 
TenPenny
Avatar
#17
You're born.
You live your life.
You die.
End of story.

There is no afterlife. There is no reincarnation, there is no overall plan, there is no over-riding 'point' to life.
You live a short life, and that's that.

That's my opinion.
 
VanIsle
#18
Quote: Originally Posted by TenPennyView Post

You're born.
You live your life.
You die.
End of story.

There is no afterlife. There is no reincarnation, there is no overall plan, there is no over-riding 'point' to life.
You live a short life, and that's that.

That's my opinion.

Like Dex, you state it as a fact, not an opinion. None of us know the answer.
 
TenPenny
Avatar
+1
#19
Quote: Originally Posted by VanIsleView Post

Like Dex, you state it as a fact, not an opinion. None of us know the answer.

Umm...I put a line in there 'that's my opinion'. There's a reason I put that line in there. 'That's my opinion' means that the foregoing few lines are my opinion. They are not concrete verifiable facts. They are my opinion.

Do I need to clarify it for you?
 
VanIsle
#20
Quote: Originally Posted by TenPennyView Post

Umm...I put a line in there 'that's my opinion'. There's a reason I put that line in there. 'That's my opinion' means that the foregoing few lines are my opinion. They are not concrete verifiable facts. They are my opinion.

Do I need to clarify it for you?

No reason to be nasty. I read your "opinion" but before you wrote that, you were very clear about the "facts". If you want to clarify things perhaps you should start with words like "I believe that".........
 
TenPenny
Avatar
#21
It is my opinion that my post was quite clear that it was my opinion.

It is my opinion that I'm not being nasty, I think you're being a dikhead for no reason.

It is my opinion that it was quite clear that it was my opinion, it is my opinion that if you can't figure that out despite having said so yourself, I can't help you.

The above post is my opinion only.
Please be aware that opinion is not verifiable fact.
 
talloola
Avatar
#22
Quote: Originally Posted by TenPennyView Post

Umm...I put a line in there 'that's my opinion'. There's a reason I put that line in there. 'That's my opinion' means that the foregoing few lines are my opinion. They are not concrete verifiable facts. They are my opinion.

Do I need to clarify it for you?

My opinion is exactly same as yours. The dying man or anyone dying is probably thinking very much
of other people in his family who have died before him, and he is on his way there too, it is just common
sense and what I would think many people think when they are dying.

I am not at the point of dying, but I have thought many times about my mother, who has been gone now for
ten years, and it gives me comfort to know that when I die, I can do it with more grace and acceptance
because she did, BUT that has nothing to do with joining her, or her coming back, or me coming back, it
is just a normal family thought, without imagination getting tangled up amongst the thought.

The word imagination has not been mentioned here, and it is the one 'wonderful' and 'vivid' ability we all
have in our makeup, and some use it much more than others, hence the very interesting and successful movies
about past lives and other such fantasies.

Until we actually see proof of any afterlife or previous lives, we can comfortably know there are none, as
if there were, it would be very apparant, and not 'just' people picking up on what other people thought they
saw in this life or others lives, but they have no proof they actually did.

So the proof is on those who believe those things, because they have never shown themselves here to prove
anything to the rest of us.

That is my opinion --------
 
Scott Free
Avatar
#23
Quote: Originally Posted by JohnnnyView Post

Do you think people that when they die, just get reborn into another life and start life over again as another person or thing?

I don't know of any means or mechanism whereby that would be even plausible let alone possible
 
Bar Sinister
Avatar
#24
Quote: Originally Posted by TenPennyView Post

It is my opinion that my post was quite clear that it was my opinion.

It is my opinion that I'm not being nasty, I think you're being a dikhead for no reason.

It is my opinion that it was quite clear that it was my opinion, it is my opinion that if you can't figure that out despite having said so yourself, I can't help you.

The above post is my opinion only.
Please be aware that opinion is not verifiable fact.

I agree. I had no trouble understanding that you were posting your opinion and not attempting to make a statement of fact.
 
Kathie Bondar
Avatar
#25
Quote: Originally Posted by Dexter SinisterView Post

When you die, you're dead, that's it, the end. There's no evidence to suggest any part of the personality survives the death of the body, or existed before the body, that's just wishful thinking. Make the best of the time you've got, it's all there is.

Just because you don't know it, does not mean no evidence. Easy brush-off to a complex question. If you keep searching you might find. On the other hand it is a lot easier not to bother.
--

Quote: Originally Posted by karrieView Post

I do not believe in past lives no.

Any reason why not? Not even curious if there is one?

Quote: Originally Posted by JohnnnyView Post

you mean we just dont have the technology yet? JK

Check it out --

Quote: Originally Posted by talloolaView Post

My opinion is exactly same as yours. The dying man or anyone dying is probably thinking very much
of other people in his family who have died before him, and he is on his way there too, it is just common
sense and what I would think many people think when they are dying.

I am not at the point of dying, but I have thought many times about my mother, who has been gone now for
ten years, and it gives me comfort to know that when I die, I can do it with more grace and acceptance
because she did, BUT that has nothing to do with joining her, or her coming back, or me coming back, it
is just a normal family thought, without imagination getting tangled up amongst the thought.

The word imagination has not been mentioned here, and it is the one 'wonderful' and 'vivid' ability we all
have in our makeup, and some use it much more than others, hence the very interesting and successful movies
about past lives and other such fantasies.

Until we actually see proof of any afterlife or previous lives, we can comfortably know there are none, as
if there were, it would be very apparant, and not 'just' people picking up on what other people thought they
saw in this life or others lives, but they have no proof they actually did.

So the proof is on those who believe those things, because they have never shown themselves here to prove
anything to the rest of us.

That is my opinion --------

It took advanced technology to get to the moon. Would you think getting to the other side of death would be just a simple up up and away?
The technology is descrived in Ch. 36, check it out --
 
Ron in Regina
Avatar
#26
Quote: Originally Posted by JohnnnyView Post

Do you think people that when they die, just get reborn into another life and start life over again as another person or thing? I seem to think so because i always get these weird deja vu moments where something ive never been too or expeirenced seems familiar....

What do you guys think? Mabye you were someone important in histpry, mabye you changed history or mabye lived a normal humble life in a past life....


Do I believe there is something more? Yeah, I do.

Recycling souls or whatever you wish to call it? Why not?

Does this belief harm myself or anyone else? Nope.

Where any of us someone famous in a past life? Doubtful. Right now
few are famous...and many more are just living our lives. Should that
be any different if souls (or whatever) are recycled?

Does this belief justify pissing away ones life? Like the one you're in
right now...if that's the way it works? Nope.

Am I recruiting, or pushing my beliefs onto anyone else? Nope.

Do I have any proof or evidence beyond the antidotal? Nope...but does
that really matter if it gives me comfort, and I'm not selling anything, and
I'm not hurting myself or others?
 
talloola
Avatar
#27
Quote: Originally Posted by Kathie BondarView Post

Just because you don't know it, does not mean no evidence. Easy brush-off to a complex question. If you keep searching you might find. On the other hand it is a lot easier not to bother.
--


Any reason why not? Not even curious if there is one?


Check it out --


It took advanced technology to get to the moon. Would you think getting to the other side of death would be just a simple up up and away?
The technology is descrived in Ch. 36, check it out --

Dexter wouldn't be a person to 'not bother' about anything.

The other side of death is life before death.

No I do not believe in any such thing, and do not connect
the word technology to any mythical belief at all.
 
VanIsle
#28
Quote: Originally Posted by TenPennyView Post

It is my opinion that my post was quite clear that it was my opinion.

It is my opinion that I'm not being nasty, I think you're being a dikhead for no reason.

It is my opinion that it was quite clear that it was my opinion, it is my opinion that if you can't figure that out despite having said so yourself, I can't help you.

The above post is my opinion only.
Please be aware that opinion is not verifiable fact.

Too funny! I didn't know you had a sense of humour!!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Bar SinisterView Post

I agree. I had no trouble understanding that you were posting your opinion and not attempting to make a statement of fact.

For goodness sakes! I understood him. I just felt like being a pest today. Give it a rest you guys.

Quote: Originally Posted by Scott FreeView Post

I don't know of any means or mechanism whereby that would be even plausible let alone possible

Have you ever heard of God and Heaven?
 
Dexter Sinister
Avatar
#29
Quote: Originally Posted by VanIsleView Post

You answered the point I was making via the words "how could I". You made your original statement as actual fact...

Not really. The question posed in the OP was, what do I think, so what I posted is what I think. I didn't see any need to qualify it, it's just what I think is correct based on the evidence available to me and what I understand of how reality is. It couldn't be anything else. If evidence comes along that shows I'm wrong I'll cheerfully and with fascinated delight change my mind. But the evidence better be pretty good, because if there's any reality to reincarnation then a huge lot of other stuff science currently understands about physics and biology and chemistry, to name only a few fields of knowledge, is not correct, it'd be a major paradigm shift on an unprecedented scale.

For future reference, you can assume that's true of anything I write that appears to be a statement of fact. All knowledge but the trivial is tentative to some degree, but it's interesting how what's trivial changes over time. It's now generally viewed as trivially true that the earth orbits the sun, for instance, that's been established beyond any reasonable doubt, but it's not very long ago that you could get into serious difficulties with the civil and religious authorities (which were often the same people) for making that claim.
 
VanIsle
#30
I think all you guys are feeling way too serious tonight. It's our first warm day of the year (well - nearly our first. They say we had one on June 23). It's a great feeling to be sitting here at 11:30 PM with the doors open and the house warm. I just feel good tonight and a little on the goofy side as well. Have a great night. (No - not drinking. Hmm - that 's a statment and it's not quite true. I do have a glass of ice water sitting beside me).
 

Similar Threads

114
What is the purpose of our lives?
by sanctus | Aug 6th, 2009
0
Run for your lives!!!!!
by Dreadful Nonsense | Aug 2nd, 2007
0
Struggling All Our Lives
by darkbeaver | Mar 14th, 2007
no new posts