If you believe in reincarnation...

[David1967]

Cylons?! OMGosh! I never thought of that, but that is how they do it isn't it.

 

[Draka]

Cylons?! OMGosh! I never thought of that, but that is how they do it isn't it.

That's how they explained how good the Raiders were at flying and fighting. That every death was a learning experience. One episode had a skin job snap and kill a human that had killed her before in a particularly horrifying way. The torture of it, of how she died, affected her greatly. If you think about it, though fiction, it makes a point to this conversation. While, yes, it would be neat to remember useful information and lessons and such as one would think those things beneficial, remembering fully would mean taking the bad along with the good. Some lives have far more bad than good, some deaths far more excruciating, some pain so horrifying that a person may have killed themselves in the first place to escape it. To remember everything life to life would be more debilitating than anything and would actually probably hinder the learning of anything new.

 

[Rick O'Shez]

One theory is that memory is not locally stored.

So where do you think it might be stored?

 

[Rick O'Shez]

In other words...Cylons.

Or perhaps we will all achieve union with the Borg hive mind.

 

[George-ananda]

So where do you think it might be stored?

In the akasha (like an imprint of all that occurs).

 

[sun rise]

The brain certainly suffers from death, so if reincarnation exists in any form it must be capable of somehow bypassing the biological limitations of the brain anyway.

Some descriptions of reincarnation seem to me to be edging dangerously close to unsupportable claims, with perhaps nothing more than a desire to see some form of inheritance or continuity to sustain them. Others rely heavily on what appears to be claims of paranormal phenomena of inheritance of memories, which are both difficult to clearly demonstrate and IMO of little practical significance even if known to be true.

At the end of the day, the idea of reincarnation sure feels a lot like an emotional appeal with little connection to facts.

There is some research, such as children with birth marks who remember being wounded or killed in a prior life and when tracked down, there was a person who did suffer that injury in a different location. This is by no means proof of reincarnation from a scientific perspective, but I've yet to read a better explanation of the observations. And so far, there's more evidence for reincarnation than string theory!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Stevenson#Reincarnation_research has some of the background on case studies.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

For those who believe in reincarnation, does it at all depress you that all of your wisdom from this life might not be carried over or remembered in the next life?

For example - in this life you believe reincarnation to be true, for whatever reason. You might have thought hard to come to the conclusion of reincarnation. In the next life, you are statistically likely to live a life ignorant of that conclusion. Does this not bother you, that in the next life you may not be as philosophical or as wise as you've become in this life?

The Orphics had a method of dealing with this that they taught to followers of that school:

"Gold-leaf tablets found in graves from Thurii, Hipponium, Thessaly and Crete (4th century BC and after) give instructions to the dead. Although these thin tablets are often highly fragmentary, collectively they present a shared scenario of the passage into the afterlife. When the deceased arrives in the underworld, he is expected to confront obstacles. He must take care not to drink of Lethe ("Forgetfulness"), but of the pool of Mnemosyne ("Memory"). He is provided with formulaic expressions with which to present himself to the guardians of the afterlife.

I am a son of Earth and starry sky. I am parched with thirst and am dying; but quickly grant me cold water from the Lake of Memory to drink.[12]​

Other gold leaves offer instructions for addressing the rulers of the underworld:

Now you have died and now you have come into being, O thrice happy one, on this same day. Tell Persephone that the Bacchic One himself released you.[13]"​

 

[LuisDantas]

There is some research, such as children with birth marks who remember being wounded or killed in a prior life and when tracked down, there was a person who did suffer that injury in a different location. This is by no means proof of reincarnation from a scientific perspective, but I've yet to read a better explanation of the observations.

I can think of a couple myself. I suppose having a little background in statistical relevance helps.

And so far, there's more evidence for reincarnation than string theory!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Stevenson#Reincarnation_research has some of the background on case studies.

On the other hand, the quality of the evidence and of the examination of same is rather asymetrical.

To say the least!

Kardecist Spirits attempting to show "evidence' for reincarnation are one step away from rambling, ravenous, irrational creatures. It is a truly sorry spetacle, the way they twist and misrepresent anything at their reach in order to support their egotistical superstitions.

I am not saying that they are representative of reincarnation believers, but they sure do not present a good face of the group as a whole.

 

[Terese]

If i don't achieve moksham in this life, then maybe next human form. If not, next one. Be patient, we all eventually reach God.

 

[serp777]

Actually, you are not just born randomly. The process is about soul development. After a life you will spend considerable time on the astral and mental planes digesting the lessons of the last life and learning new lessons. At an appropriate time the soul will spawn a new incarnation appropriate for the development it needs. A more advanced soul (old soul) will have a greater influence on the next life than would an undeveloped soul. The soul has memories of all its incarnations.

Yes, the scenario you laid out sounds depressing and makes the spiritual progress in this life pointless.

How is it that you know its random vs non random? This is one particular interpretation of reincarnation that has no evidence confirming one way or the other,

 

[LuisDantas]

Exactly. I wonder if it is meant to be taken literally.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Just imagine who we could become as a species if we could retain all our knowledge from one life to the next. Imagine being able to expand on the positive things we accomplish and hopefully not repeating the mistakes of the previous lives.

How possibly could the memories of thousands, if not millions of past lives be recollected and reflected upon preserved in memory?

That would make for one hecka'va brain. ;0)

 

[David1967]

How possibly could the memories of thousands, if not millions of past lives be recollected and reflected upon preserved in memory?

That would make for one hecka'va brain. ;0)

Exactly! In time with that potential, would we become a god?

 

[sun rise]

I can think of a couple myself. I suppose having a little background in statistical relevance helps.




On the other hand, the quality of the evidence and of the examination of same is rather asymetrical.

To say the least!

Which is why I am not claiming that the studies so far constitutes any sort of proof. It does not meet a confidence interval, say 95%, test for statistical validity.

But when children in a specific age range from many different cultures identify a birth mark as coming from an injury suffered in a specific location by a specific person and such an event is found to be true, it to me, putting on my science hat, constitutes an interesting finding worthy of study by others including looking for proof of alternative explanations.

Kardecist Spirits attempting to show "evidence' for reincarnation are one step away from rambling, ravenous, irrational creatures. It is a truly sorry spetacle, the way they twist and misrepresent anything at their reach in order to support their egotistical superstitions.

I am not saying that they are representative of reincarnation believers, but they sure do not present a good face of the group as a whole.

Wow. I had never heard of Kardec before. The little I just read had nothing to do with examining evidence. Philosophy is not science.

But lumping all those who believe in to reincarnation into a "group" as you did is a logical mistake because there no no group as such given that those who believe in reincarnation include many different religions and philosophers. It's like saying that a specific atheist does not present a good face of atheists in general which might be true but not meaningful.

 

[LuisDantas]

Fair enough.

But if you lived in Brazil you would be hard pressed to even find a non-kardecist conception of reincarnation.

Many people assume that Hinduism and even Buddhism have similar beliefs.

 

[George-ananda]

How is it that you know its random vs non random? This is one particular interpretation of reincarnation that has no evidence confirming one way or the other,

My opinion was formed by a study of the paranormal (communication with the beyond) and the teachings of many masters and seers of eastern, theosophical and spiritualist traditions that I believe can (after objective consideration) genuinely tell us of things beyond our normal reach.

 

[Valjean]

How possibly could the memories of thousands, if not millions of past lives be recollected and reflected upon preserved in memory?
That would make for one hecka'va brain. ;0)

But brain's just a valve or tuner, like the tuner in a radio or computer. In normal consciousness it's tuned to a single, specific site. This doesn't preclude the existence of a massive web of other, potentially accessible sites or of a neuronal configuration able to access multiple sites/bandwidths.

Exactly! In time with that potential, would we become a god?

Of course. That's the whole point. But the eventual goal is to transcend even God and merge with the Cosmic Internet or Brahman.

 

[serp777]

My opinion was formed by a study of the paranormal (communication with the beyond) and the teachings of many masters and seers of eastern, theosophical and spiritualist traditions that I believe can (after objective consideration) genuinely tell us of things beyond our normal reach.

Aren't there many masters who have concluded that it is random?

 

[Rick O'Shez]

How is it that you know its random vs non random? This is one particular interpretation of reincarnation that has no evidence confirming one way or the other,

Who knows, it could an entirely random re-cycling of consciousness, like a magical mystery tour.

 

[Rick O'Shez]

But brain's just a valve or tuner, like the tuner in a radio or computer. In normal consciousness it's tuned to a single, specific site. This doesn't preclude the existence of a massive web of other, potentially accessible sites or of a neuronal configuration able to access multiple sites/bandwidths.

It tempting to assume that altered states of mind/consciousness have some objective correlation "out there", but it all looks rather speculative to me. We simply don't know.