Do you believe in soul mates?

[George-ananda]

Umm ... what?

Many people (such as myself) that believe in reincarnation believe we choose relationships and situations based on many factors; it is not a random process as it might appear from the physical-only level.

 

[PackJason]

Many people (such as myself) that believe in reincarnation believe we choose relationships and situations based on many factors; it is not a random process as it might appear from the physical-only level.

Alrighty then.

 

[El Conquistador]

I choose to be born in the middle of a cholera outbreak.

I choose to be born in Auschwitz in 1944.

I choose to be born after my mom popped thalidomide for a few months.

I choose to be born to a crack whore.

I choose to be born in Hiroshima in early August 1945.

 

[PackJason]

I choose to be born in the middle of a cholera outbreak.

I choose to be born in Auschwitz in 1944.

I choose to be born after my mom popped thalidomide for a few months.

I choose to be born to a crack whore.

I choose to be born in Hiroshima in early August 1945.

I choose to be born in Detroit.

*shiver*

 

[El Conquistador]

I choose to be born in Detroit.

*shiver*

Well, there's no reason to be stupid about it.

 

[Demonslayer]

I choose to be born in the middle of a cholera outbreak.

I choose to be born in Auschwitz in 1944.

I choose to be born after my mom popped thalidomide for a few months.

I choose to be born to a crack whore.

I choose to be born in Hiroshima in early August 1945.

We'd have 1,000,000 Paris Hilton's and zero slaves.

 

[lovesong]

I think there are good and bad matches, but no one is a perfect match, and neither is there just one excellent match. Think about it: everybody's supposed to find their perfect match out of 7 billion people? It's a sentimental concept, but recognizing that doesn't undermine the genuine power of finding someone we can love without reservation.

On the other hand, having difficulty finding such a spouse shouldn't make us settle. Better to live your life unmatched, which doesn't mean you live alone.

I believe in soul mates in the romanticized sense. There's no way that out of seven billion people there is only one person who is just right for you, I'm positive that there are multiple great matches for everyone. The idea of a soul mate in reality is someone who comes as close to perfect as possible, it's just the romanticized way of labeling the one person you spend your life with. I know that there is no "one true perfect match," but I still love the term, it's sweet, and just as with all the other terms we use in love, it's the emotion it conveys that matters, not whether it's entirely accurate.

 

[Demonslayer]

I believe in soul mates in the romanticized sense. There's no way that out of seven billion people there is only one person who is just right for you, I'm positive that there are multiple great matches for everyone. The idea of a soul mate in reality is someone who comes as close to perfect as possible, it's just the romanticized way of labeling the one person you spend your life with. I know that there is no "one true perfect match," but I still love the term, it's sweet, and just as with all the other terms we use in love, it's the emotion it conveys that matters, not whether it's entirely accurate.

It seems like everyone pretty much agrees on this issue.

Which is odd because there are a lot of people around here who believe in some seriously far out wacky stuff. I'm surprised we don't have more people thinking certain souls are magically linked together before birth by some busybody deity or something.

 

[ThePainefulTruth]

Not a chance in hell. It's all blind luck.

I completely disagree with that. If you're truthful with your partner, and with yourself including in your evaluation of them, it eliminates 98% of any luck component, unless the other one is a lying sack of chicken coop scrapings and used cat litter.

 

[ThePainefulTruth]

I'm open to definitions of 'soul-mate' that do not include them being some unrealistic 'perfect match'.

Yes, I should have differentiated. Though it's usually taken to mean like one in a jillion best match possible, it has taken on a more realistic meaning like one in a thousand or something.

 

[ThePainefulTruth]

Funny that most people just so happen to live near, work with, or went to school with the person that becomes their "soul mate."

PainefulTruth said it best, it's a nice romantic concept, is all. Otherwise you'd have a lot more cases of some 19 year old college kid from Cleveland having a 83 year old Chinese soul mate working in a textile plant in Beijing.

Yes, doomed by chronology. But fortunately, the odds are much better--while the moral is, don't settle.

 

[ThePainefulTruth]

Oh yeah, I guess we should back up a step...do we even believe in "souls" let alone soul mates?

I don't.

I don't think the definition has ever been literal, except maybe for the orthodox.

 

[ThePainefulTruth]

It seems like everyone pretty much agrees on this issue.

Which is odd because there are a lot of people around here who believe in some seriously far out wacky stuff. I'm surprised we don't have more people thinking certain souls are magically linked together before birth by some busybody deity or something.

The Sun is still up.

 

[ThePainefulTruth]

I believe in soul mates in the romanticized sense. There's no way that out of seven billion people there is only one person who is just right for you, I'm positive that there are multiple great matches for everyone. The idea of a soul mate in reality is someone who comes as close to perfect as possible, it's just the romanticized way of labeling the one person you spend your life with. I know that there is no "one true perfect match," but I still love the term, it's sweet, and just as with all the other terms we use in love, it's the emotion it conveys that matters, not whether it's entirely accurate.

Well put.

Is that an eggplant in your sig?

 

[Valjean]

"Soul Mate" is a Hindu or Sethian metaphysical concept. It refers to an entity that you've associated with through multiple life-cycles; so closely that you've synchronised incarnations. You always meet, and the association is more intimate with each cycle. Eventually you merge into a single soul/entity.
Two entities spiraling toward each other, life after life, afterlife after afterlife, till they become one. Universal gravitation.
The cycle continues, with the merged entity merging over and over again with other entities, till only a single, Universal Soul exists.

Is this what we're talking about, or are we just talking about really close friends?
If just really close friends, why the cultural misappropriation? Doesn't seem PC...

 

[lovesong]

Well put.

Is that an eggplant in your sig?

Why yes it is.

 

[arthra]

Although Baha'is do not believe in reincarnation there is a sense in which the concept of "soul mates" could be understood through our view of marriage...and spiritual bonding.

Consequently when the people of Baha desire to enter the sacred union of marriage, eternal connection and ideal relationship, spiritual and physical association of thoughts and conceptions of life must exist between them, so that in all the grades of existence and all the worlds of God this union may continue forever and ever for this real union is a splendor of the light of the love of God.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith, p. 372

 

[ThePainefulTruth]

Why yes it is.

Very tiny, and the leaves look...blue. I guess it's just my imagination running away with me.

 

[Spiderman]

Absolutely, but my closest soulmate was murdered in 1974 , but helps me tremendously

 

[El Conquistador]

I completely disagree with that. If you're truthful with your partner, and with yourself including in your evaluation of them, it eliminates 98% of any luck component, unless the other one is a lying sack of chicken coop scrapings and used cat litter.

Not what I meant. The blind luck part is meeting your partner in the 1st place.