3rd World Nation PLs

[Obie]

Does anyone remember having a life in a third world nation and being born in extreme poverty? Did your subsequent lives get better or did you have repeating lives of extreme hardships? I plan on doing some volunteer work in third world nations. I just want to know more about people whose lives are marked by poverty and if they are doomed to living the same type of life over and over.

 

[Nightrain]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say, yes; that I remember lives in which all I had was was the ground to sleep on and a dark rainy sky to cover me—including this life. It didn't last. And it doesn't last for everyone else as well—except for those who get in the habit of living that way, because it can become comfortable in a strange and perverted way. It is a simple life, and one that is not lonely, for it is well-populated.


I don't believe that people are "doomed" to living the same type of life over and over, unless they form a habit of living that way. I do believe that people who live that way chose to do so before their incarnation in order to learn something, or to teach something, or as I said above, because they are in the habit of doing so.

 

[Eevee]

I remember a life as a poor East Indian farmer, and also a life as a tribal African. Although those were lives in poor communities, I don't consider them as bad lives.


And I certainly don't believe that people are 'doomed' to live in 3rd world circomstances over and over again. To put it the other way round, I don't think many of the people who claim to have been of nobility or royalty in one or more past lives, are royals now. : angel

 

[Shiftkitty]

Well, I remember rooting through garbage bins behind restaurants to find dinner...


..wait. That was this life.


How long ago did the whole concept of the "Third World" come into existence?

 

[Kristopher]

Do you think some souls may incarnate under similar circumstances in every life just out of preference over actually learning? I know that we can still learn as well but, for example, a certain location, body, family and so on, even if this has nothing to do with what we're learning.


I suppose this is just the same as a soul having a prefered sex. I'm sure we could learn the same lessons in life being male or female anyway.


I don't think it's like "Okay, you were born in Mexico your past three lives as a female, now you need to be born somewhere else as a male".

 

[Nightrain]

If there is a purpose behind reincarnation, it would seem that establishing some consistency in our experience, body type, identity and personality would enable us to focus on our purpose. This consistency could be evident in the number of cases in which people resemble past life personalities and exhibit similar traits. Of course there are clear examples in which people choose quite different appearances and situations, perhaps because their purpose involves exposure to a unique view of the situation.


I would equate both situations to someone in this life who is trying to solve a technical problem where they repeat a formula or technique with only slight variations each time. Then, by suddenly leaving their laboratory and going for a drive in another part of town, the solution appears as if by magic. Both are important, but 90% of it involves perspiration and 10% involves inspiration (Thomas Edison).


In the case of reincarnation we may spend nine out of ten lifetimes repeating similar lifestyles preferring the same sex, appearance and personality with only slight variations along the way; then spending the tenth in a totally different situation which enables us to achieve some great insight.


This is, of course, an over-simplification of what probably takes place. And I do think that variations are as plentiful as the number of souls. But I also suspect that we experience multiple incarnations in much the same way as we experience this one life that we are most aware of. In other words, if we are creatures of habit in this life, we may also be in other lives as well; thus choosing situations that we are most comfortable with. And, if we are prone to being spontaneous, we may tend to choose incarnations in situations that are wildly different.


As far as being doomed to some type of life that appears to be most dominant in the world, I don't believe that we are thrown like dice onto some sort of gambling table where statistics determine probability. I think that our lives all have purpose, and our choices determine where we'll end up in the next life. Just because the majority of people in the world live in poverty, doesn't mean that we will necessarily end up there.

 

[usetawuz]

I lived a subsistence lifetime in China on the rice paddies; I lived another subsistence lifetime in equatorial India and worked my way up to a very minor clerk; I was a member of an isolated amazonian tribe...each of these would qualify now as "third world" and I do not see any of them as being "penance" for malfeasance...rather they provided a location with which I could engage with soulmates and work through various karmic exercises. These lives were intersperced with many others throughout various middle-class and high society/minor royalty lifetimes in europe and the US.