Is there a word for a belief that humans only come back as humans?

[Huckleberry]

Hello, My understanding of the Adam and Eve story is that the tree of life is the earth and the fruit would be all the various lifeforms. God sent his angels to guard the tree of life so that we could only incarnate into human form. Reincarnation means to come back in various life forms. Is there another word which signifies a belief in incarnating as human?


















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[SeaAndSky]

Hello, My understanding of the Adam and Eve story is that the tree of life is the earth and the fruit would be all the various lifeforms. God sent his angels to guard the tree of life so that we could only incarnate into human form. Reincarnation means to come back in various life forms. Is there another word which signifies a belief in incarnating as human?

Hi Huckleberry,

That is a very, very interesting proposition. However, even though I really like it myself (at "first blush"), I'd like to know more about your reasoning and/or "proofs" for this interpretation.

In terms of your question, I believe the word "reincarnation" IS the word used for humans returning only as humans and not animals, etc., though it is often misused for Buddhist-type beliefs that allow humans to come back as animals. To the best of my recall, the term "reincarnation" is of fairly recent origin (late 1800s), though the basic concept of serial incarnations is ancient in both the West and East under many other names, such as (in the West) transmigration, metempsychosis, metensomatosis, palingenesis, etc.

Cordially,
S&S

PS--I believe "reincarnation" as a term for multiple human incarnations was coined by the founder of Theosophy (and according to many) the founder of New Age philosophy, etc.--Madame Blavatsky--though I can't find a cite for that at the moment.

PPS--I actually think this basic idea works better (and is more in keeping with some ancient ideas) if the fruit of the Tree of Life stands for heavenly innocence, immortality, bliss, communion, etc. and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is the tree that leads to the long path of reincarnation we tread on earth--death after death after death . . . .

PPPS--I don't think the ancient Hebrews would have had to be told that the path of death after death, etc. would be trod in human form. The Genesis account is very strong on the differences between the different "Kinds" that were created, including especially the difference between people and animals. Consequently, I don't think that the "People of the Book" then or now would easily adopt of even perhaps comprehend any other position. (I may be wrong in this, as I seem to remember some folk tales among ultra-Orthodox Jewish believers in reincarnation, where humans were reincarnated (gilgul) as animals as a form of punishment).

 

[baro-san]

PPPPS .... I had no idea that there are / were two trees! Also ....

 

[SeaAndSky]

PPPPS .... I had no idea that there are / were two trees! Also ....

Hi Baro-san:

Now I'm surprised!

Anyhow. the Tree of Life was not forbidden to Adam and Eve, but there is no specific mention of them eating from this tree, and perhaps they had no need during the period the story covers (and perhaps they did eat from the Tree of Life and there was no need to touch on that in terms of the narrative). However, their access to the Tree of Life was cut off after the Fall.

OTOH, the tree of knowledge of good and evil was forbidden and reams could be written about the story on this point. However, to me, the choices were basically between the easy way and the hard way, and Adam and Eve chose the hard way. A close parallel (to my mind anyway), is the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which (among its many applications) sheds additional light on the story being discussed (IMO).

Cordially,
S&S

PS--Perhaps I should say that they chose what they thought was the short-cut, but was actually the long and hard way 'round. The short-cut was to stay in harmony with their maker and His purposes.

 

[There and back again]

When it comes to questions like this a lot I mean a Lot of common minds out there are dreadfully slow to even open up to this as a concept never mind exploring even though accounts of non human lives are not at all rare.

 

[SeaAndSky]

When it comes to questions like this a lot I mean a Lot of common minds out there are dreadfully slow to even open up to this as a concept never mind exploring even though accounts of non human lives are not at all rare.

Hi TABA,

I think we should make a distinction here between animals and intelligent beings. Of course, animals also have a degree of intelligence, but there is, none-the-less, a tremendous gap between animals and people. However, there are some accounts of of humans having PLs as intelligent non-human beings on other physical worlds and/or on non-physical worlds, i.e., as what we would call "aliens". Two terms I hear in use currently to denote the difference between "animals" and "intelligent beings" are "sentient"--which would apply to higher animals as well as humans and seems to denote a degree of self-conscious awareness and intelligence, and "sapient"--which includes sentience as well as higher intelligence and only applies to beings of our "type"--i.e., intelligent aliens and humans.

These are rough categories with blurry boundaries. Nonetheless, I think the distinction is pretty clear to most of us. And, as far as I can tell, while there may be crossover incarnations between different types of sapient beings, there don't seem to be crossover incarnations between sapient beings and animals (i.e., non-sapient beings). I hesitate to make this an absolute, but if there are any, they don't seem to be reported by any of the current researchers I am aware of. However, I'm always ready to examine additional information.

Cordially,
S&S

 

[Polaris8]

Hello, My understanding of the Adam and Eve story is that the tree of life is the earth and the fruit would be all the various lifeforms. God sent his angels to guard the tree of life so that we could only incarnate into human form. Reincarnation means to come back in various life forms. Is there another word which signifies a belief in incarnating as human?


















g

Huckleberry,

First off welcome to the forum. You will learn a lot here as the people on this forum are very experienced and knowledgeable in their journey to understanding who they are as soul and where their journey in life it is taking them. From my own experience in the process of reincarnation is that the word you are looking for is evolution. Or the evolution of consciousness (the soul if you will). Most people in western culture do not understand the process of reincarnation. They think you can reincarnation from human to bird, to fish, to insect, to human again. However, nature is far more structured and organized than that. At one time millions of millions of years ago we were all in the animal kingdom as soul had not yet develop an ego that is self-aware as we understand it. Over the course of time soul in the process of reincarnation evolved in consciousness. As this change occurred within soul it slowly took on various forms on the physical plane that manifested this change in awareness. Leading to a self-awareness humanoid called homosapien.

While we are all in this stage of consciousness, we must experience all that there can be in the human state of awareness. This process is always going forward never backward. So, no we don't reincarnate back into a lower life form we once experienced millions of years ego. There is no purpose in that. We reincarnate as human once soul has reached the human stage of consciousness. This process will continue until soul has reached spiritual enlightenment. At that point soul will cycle off the wheel of birth and death and takes its place in the higher dimensions of our universe. The process of karma and reincarnation is not about punishment or reward but a tool for the soul to know itself by its own experience. So, the physical universe is one big classroom from a soul perspective.

Love and peace.

Polaris