Do you believe our souls have lived other lives?

[Bob Hubbard]

Personally, I've always felt a connection to Gettysburg, and Virginia. Also, Rome and Egypt seem, familiar. *shrug* Or, I could be simply weird.

 

[elder999]

*shrug* Or, I could be simply weird.

I am weird, and proud of it.:lol:

 

[Lisa]

Personally, I've always felt a connection to Gettysburg, and Virginia. Also, Rome and Egypt seem, familiar. *shrug* Or, I could be simply weird.

Must be all those unresolved issues in past lives that you are dragging along with you. Are you at least male?

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Must be all those unresolved issues in past lives that you are dragging along with you. Are you at least male?

Last time I looked.....

 

[Cruentus]

Last time I looked.....

Bob...did you shave your head?

On topic...

It is important to mention that thermodynamics and other parts of science don't actually prove anything in this regard.

We don't have objective evidence for souls to begin with; but even if we assume that we have souls we don't have objective evidence that "the soul" or consiousness would remain in tact after death. The body surely doesn't, as it gets recycled back into the universe.

If we were going to use the laws of nature and the law of thermodynamics as a clue for what happends to our "soul" (again, assuming that souls exist), then we would assume that the soul wouldn't remain in tact anymore then our bodies would. In other words, our "energy" would reincarnate, but our consciousness and who we are would cease to be.

But, I think most people are not comfortable with the notion that they may someday no longer be conscious, as that would mean that we would basically no longer exist beyond this life.

I personally am not comfortable with that thought either; and I do believe that we have souls. But I realize that this is my belief; I may have subjective proof for it, but I have no verifiable objective evidence to prove my beliefs. That is what makes them "beliefs" and not "facts" that can be backed by science.

Paul

 

[Elayna]

Hiya Everyone....

Ohhh how i love this topic. Whoohoo I say.

I believe in past lives and future lives. I believe in God. I believe he made our soul. So I say....Is our God a wasteful God? What would be the point to life to come here...live 80 to 90 years and then that be it? I mean come on people....what a waste. There is so much to learn, to see, to experience. I dont think we could do that in one lifetime. There is so much to learn to become better.
I think that the memories of past lives are not in our concious memory but rather in our sub-concious memory. That part of us that is hard to access...that 90% of the brain we dont use for some reason or the other.
Im not one to obssess about who i was in the past...It was the past. I just hope I have learned from whatever my mistakes were and repeat whatever I did right. And had fun baby...Yea!!!!
Anyhooooo.....Let the good times roll....
Live this life to the fullest. But not like its your last. Enjoy everything all around you. And just in case we dont have lives after this....Dont take anything for granted I say.
But again.....I say eat lots of chocolate too. LOL...
TTYL peeps....

 

[Jenna]

Hiya Everyone....

Ohhh how i love this topic. Whoohoo I say.

I believe in past lives and future lives. I believe in God. I believe he made our soul. So I say....Is our God a wasteful God? What would be the point to life to come here...live 80 to 90 years and then that be it? I mean come on people....what a waste. There is so much to learn, to see, to experience. I dont think we could do that in one lifetime. There is so much to learn to become better.
I think that the memories of past lives are not in our concious memory but rather in our sub-concious memory. That part of us that is hard to access...that 90% of the brain we dont use for some reason or the other.
Im not one to obssess about who i was in the past...It was the past. I just hope I have learned from whatever my mistakes were and repeat whatever I did right. And had fun baby...Yea!!!!
Anyhooooo.....Let the good times roll....
Live this life to the fullest. But not like its your last. Enjoy everything all around you. And just in case we dont have lives after this....Dont take anything for granted I say.
But again.....I say eat lots of chocolate too. LOL...
TTYL peeps....

Hey Elayna welcome to MT firstly and wow my friend this is a super post right here and you have a lovely spirit and which is not weighted as many in jaded cynicism and but you said "What would be the point to life to come here...live 80 to 90 years and then that be it?" which suggests that there is some unwritten rule to suggest "fairness" in our eyes so that the reasoning is that if we just died after our alloted time then that would be unfair or pointless.. but I would just offer an opinion to say perhaps right answer wrong reason and which is just my opinion and do not pay attention to me anyways and but we are inclined to take the view of ourselves as the centre around which everything revolves which is contrary to the truth that we are just the outpost revolving around the centre. What I am saying is that there IS no point looking at ourselves inwardly as finite existences and which sounds unfortunate but we would do better to step outside ourselves a little and look in that is when things begin to make a bit more sense in the overall bigger picture because in the bigger picture where we are little cogs in the big machine then there is no relevance to the notion of "pointlessness" ahh but see I am not so good for clarity or logic and so just disregard all that.. pffft.

but yes we are in agreement CHOCOLATE IS GOOD, ha! and that is the point of existence right there! .. welcome to MT Elayna and that is a lovely name also! I will go have a little nosey at your posts maybe..

Yr most obdt hmble srvt,
Jenna

 

[Elayna]

Hey Jenna girl....

Thank you so much for the nice comment about my spirit. I always wondered why i looked so good in the mirror. LOL, Hehehe. (update, havent looked in the mirror since my son was born).

Well, even though your thoughts were jumbled a bit, I tottaly got what you were trying to say. And yet again i am shown how much I still have to learn.
But for me, I guess thinking that it would be pointless to only live for 80 or 90 years and thinking I am the center of the universe comes from my belief that God did indeed create us from his image.(not his physical image) If He did not think we were the center of the universe in some fashion, then why would he do that? (add that to a list of a million "whys" i have). I dont think we are the only ones out there. I dont think that all fate of the universe rests in our hands. I dont think were that big. But I do believe that we are important enough, to have more worth then, to live one life, and never be able to experience all the things he puts in front of us. Or even learn all the things there is to learn. I hope he would have enough respect for our souls to see us as creatures worth the opportunity, to continue on in our journey, past our mortal life.
Let me define my meaning of life.
Life= the span between birth and death. Not only bodily birth and death, but also, emotionall and spritual.
So, In my mind and heart, I believe that another life can also be the life you lead as a spirit in heaven. But i also believe that you could be sent back again to take human form to continue your journey, or to start anew.
I also believe this would apply to little green men. *smile*
Update: I take everyones opinion seriously and disregard nothing. There is always something to learn from everything. Whether you see it at the time, or not.
Warning: I can be a bit of a smart a**. BWAHHHAAAHHAAA
Jenna girl.....I agree with you, in that we should concentrate on looking within. I believe that alot of answers can be found with looking into your own mind and heart and not always looking to the stars. But sometimes, it is good to dream and look to the stars. They hold secrets of their own, that maybe someday we will be ready for. Until then.....Lets all keep dreaming in our own wonderful minds.
Tottaly loving the convo...keep it coming peeps.
TTYL

 

[heretic888]

I think that the memories of past lives are not in our concious memory but rather in our sub-concious memory. That part of us that is hard to access...that 90% of the brain we dont use for some reason or the other.

Just a quick FYI. . .

Contrary to popular belief, human beings actually use almost 100% of their brains. The information that gets garbled and distilled to the common populace originally states that we generally only use 10% of our brains at any given time. However, the truth is that we do use almost 100% of our brains at some time or another.

The notion of some "untapped reservoir" of psychic potential in some corner of our grey matter is just nonsense. We only use 10% of our brains at any given time in order to preserve metabolic energy and attention, not because we secretly have burried subconscious memories of untapped psychic abilities.

Actually, it is interesting to observe the neurological makeup of those individuals that do go along and develop such qualities. Long-time practitioners of meditation, for example, have thicker cortical bundling in certain portions of their brain. This does not imply that they are accessing regions of their brain that we are not, but that the regions they are accessing are more "developed" due to constant use and practice (similar to building muscles from weightlifting and exercise).

Anyways, back to your discussion. . .

 

[Cruentus]

I just wanted to back Heretic up to say that is absolutely correct.

I like that he also mentioned the bidirectional relationship between cognition and brain development; that the brain is a living organ that actually has the propensity to develop from use not unlike many other organs as well. Nice job...

 

[heretic888]

I just wanted to back Heretic up to say that is absolutely correct.

I like that he also mentioned the bidirectional relationship between cognition and brain development; that the brain is a living organ that actually has the propensity to develop from use not unlike many other organs as well. Nice job...

Thanks.

The technical terminology for these concepts, in case anybody is interested in looking into them themselves, are long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term enhancement (LTE). Interesting stuff.

Laterz.

 

[Elayna]

HIya, Thanks you 2 for the science update.. I guess thats why i didnt do so well in science in college....and that the professor was dressed tottaly tacky. LOL.Imagine what we could do if we could access more then 10% of our brain at any given moment. That would be definatly cool. I guess believe in past lives is mostly a personall belief. It cant be proved by science. But I do say science has yet to clone a full grown human being....so i think there is still so much about the human body and mind that is under question of what we can or cant do. I believe that until we now 100% that we cant do something,.believe that we can. Ok you got me...im a tottaly optimist. LOL.Anyhooo....To each his own you know.TTYL

 

[heretic888]

Imagine what we could do if we could access more then 10% of our brain at any given moment. That would be definatly cool.

Err... not really.

We only "use" 10% of our brains at any given moment so as to conserve energy. It wouldn't be "cool" if, for example, you could use 100% of the muscles of your body at any given moment. You would probably end up seriously injuring yourself.

Same thing with the brain, I would expect some severe psychological and possibly neurological damage would result from "using it all" at once. Actually, we unconsciously "filter out" a lot of things from our active attention so that we will not overwhelm our sense of perception. My guess is that somebody hypothetically going at it 100% would have very little in the way of sanity.

Laterz.

 

[Rich Parsons]

Err... not really.

We only "use" 10% of our brains at any given moment so as to conserve energy. It wouldn't be "cool" if, for example, you could use 100% of the muscles of your body at any given moment. You would probably end up seriously injuring yourself.

Same thing with the brain, I would expect some severe psychological and possibly neurological damage would result from "using it all" at once. Actually, we unconsciously "filter out" a lot of things from our active attention so that we will not overwhelm our sense of perception. My guess is that somebody hypothetically going at it 100% would have very little in the way of sanity.

Laterz.

HMMMM? I thought it was about 2% of the Brain being used on average, unless of course you include the lower brain stem and auto-functions then maybe it would be up to 10%.

 

[Cruentus]

Wanna know what's Kewl...

I aMusing 100% of my brain RIGHT NOW!!!

GAAACK! verkill:

 

[qizmoduis]

The brain uses up a lot of power:

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/JacquelineLing.shtml

Snopes on the 10% myth:

http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percnt.htm

Just a little snack for thought. Stick in the 90% of your brain that you're not using right now. Try not to overwrite something important, though.

 

[Lisa]

Wow.

Now hasn't my little thread about believing if your soul has lived other lives evolved into quite a discussion. I am impressed with the answers and the conversations going on. Obviously our membership is quite opinionated in this sense. I just wanted to thank everyone for their input. I have actually learned quite a lot so far and look forward to learning more.

I am one of those poor souls who obviously was under the belief that we used a ver small percentage of our brain. Obviously that has been defunked. I have to admit part of me is a little disappointed. I guess I wanted to think we were capable of much more then we presently are. I was hoping that other 90% of our brains unlocked so many answers to questions that we have

Carry on.

 

[heretic888]

Thanks for the links, qizmodius. Excellent stuff.

I am one of those poor souls who obviously was under the belief that we used a ver small percentage of our brain. Obviously that has been defunked. I have to admit part of me is a little disappointed. I guess I wanted to think we were capable of much more then we presently are.

We most certainly are, but it's not due to unlocking some "secret" portion of our brains that was hirtherto unexplored. The "secret" is developing the parts of yourself that you already have access to, just like building muscle from persistent exercise.

To that end, you may want to look into some of the stuff researched by neurotheology.

I was hoping that other 90% of our brains unlocked so many answers to questions that we have

Well, from a purely evolutionary perspective, it would make no sense to have an organ that the vast majority of the species don't generally use. Especially, as noted by one of the links that qizmodius provided in his post, the vast amount of energy that the brain consumes.

I personally believe that some degree of "psychic" ability does exist in humans, but I don't think it is accessed from unlocking some "hidden" portion of our grey matter. I also think that the vast majority of individuals claiming to have "psychic" abilities are lying charlatans.

Laterz.

 

[Fu_Bag]

I personally believe that some degree of "psychic" ability does exist in humans, but I don't think it is accessed from unlocking some "hidden" portion of our grey matter. I also think that the vast majority of individuals claiming to have "psychic" abilities are lying charlatans.

Laterz.

Hmmm... Somehow............I.........just.............KNEW that you were going to say that.... Wwwweeeeeiiiiiirrrrrrrdddddd......

 

[qizmoduis]

Wow.

Now hasn't my little thread about believing if your soul has lived other lives evolved into quite a discussion. I am impressed with the answers and the conversations going on. Obviously our membership is quite opinionated in this sense. I just wanted to thank everyone for their input. I have actually learned quite a lot so far and look forward to learning more.

I am one of those poor souls who obviously was under the belief that we used a ver small percentage of our brain. Obviously that has been defunked. I have to admit part of me is a little disappointed. I guess I wanted to think we were capable of much more then we presently are. I was hoping that other 90% of our brains unlocked so many answers to questions that we have

Carry on.

Disappointed!? Goodness, I hope not. Human understanding of the world and the universe is growing by leaps and bounds every day. We cure diseases and save lives. We see into the very beginning of time and the very edge of the universe. We can study the largest structures of the universe and can write our names using just a few atoms with an electron microscope. Look how far we've come, just in the past century, and we aren't slowing down at all. (To some, that's a problem) Mysticism and superstition aren't necessary to see the wonders of our world and the beauty (and ugliness, unfortunately) of human creativity and potential. In fact, they are terrible impediments to progress and a source of much suffering in the world.

Don't be disappointed. Be overjoyed! Look what we've done, despite our flaws. And we did it without help.

Obviously, we've got a long way to go.