Strengthening Ideal?

[cloud potato]

Has the concept of reincarnation, alongside your personal experiences, strengthened your relationship with God? Have your experiences lead you to believe in Life after Death? Have they birthed or strengthened a sense of Faith? Has reincarnation brought you closer to the acknowledgment of an unseen, guiding intelligence?

 

[fireflydancing]

Yep. I went from an atheist-leaning personality toward the acceptance/acknowledgment of higher forces, including 'God'. It's not a kind of conversion and I don't feel a before and after. It's more like an expansion process.

 

[SeaAndSky]

Has the concept of reincarnation, alongside your personal experiences, strengthened your relationship with God? Have your experiences lead you to believe in Life after Death? Have they strengthened or birthed a sense of Faith? Has reincarnation brought you closer to the acknowledgment of an unseen, guiding intelligence?

Hi Cloud,

No. It was already in place. To the extent it has grown over the years it has generally done so without reference to reincarnation, though I find that reincarnation helps to resolve some Theodicy issues for me. However, continuing chances for growth, discipline and salvation after life here on earth would resolve most of the same issues, and I believe there is strong evidence for this in Scripture (though I cannot say that such chances are unending). Mostly, reincarnation has been a challenge to me in terms of reconciling it with my tendency towards a mostly standard approach to my Christian faith.

Nonetheless, on the plus side, reincarnation has given me some insights into why I might be the person I am, and why some others might be the people they are. Frankly, I do not find the one-lifetime nature and nurture approach to be capable of explaining why people arrive so distinctively individualistic with their own pre-formed personality from the very beginning. I grew up in a fairly large family, raised 5 of my own, and have 10 grandchildren (with more on the way). I can attest to the distinctiveness of their personalities, tendencies, traits, etc. from the very beginning. None of the foregoing were a "blank slate" to be written on, and "nurture" could only accomplish so much with them (as with me). In short, their growing up seems to be more of an unveiling of the person who was already there, than the creation of someone new--though none I have known were completely immune to influences of current family and circumstances.

Cordially,
S&S

 

[cloud potato]

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I have been thinking that all this change around me is because I am attempting to discover what's always been- realizing I am not who or what I thought I was.

Or maybe I am, and am not.

Do you think we can redefine ourselves? Does that mold take the form of a new personality?

 

[Tanoochi]

Has the concept of reincarnation, alongside your personal experiences, strengthened your relationship with God? Have your experiences lead you to believe in Life after Death? Have they birthed or strengthened a sense of Faith? Has reincarnation brought you closer to the acknowledgment of an unseen, guiding intelligence?

It’s a ‘yes’ to all of the above from me. When experiences like this penetrate the human psyche in such a deep and profound way you want to know why it happened to you and what it all means. You want to know why you had these recurrent dreams, memories of a past life, prophetic dreams, visions from the past and into the future (not so much) and also in my case, premonitions about plane crashes, too. The unconscious mind (what we see in our dreams and how it makes us feel) guides us to seek a greater knowledge and understanding of life itself. You get to go on a wild and magical journey of exploration, researching and reading books about other cultures and ancient civilisations, understanding more about psychology, philosophy, human behaviour and different ways of thinking in order to try and make sense of it all. It’s a continual process of discovery and learning. It can be quite daunting and mentally exhausting all this analysis. You need to know when to switch off and concentrate on your daily life and live in the present moment. If you don’t, I can see how a psychotic break of some sort is very possible. It’s a lot to absorb. And at times you feel like an absolute freak if you tell people about your memories of a past life because you know you’ll be judged, ridiculed and often misunderstood. Some friends will even dismiss you. And some people simply don’t want to go there. I get that. In terms of religion, I don’t consider myself a religious person, but I do believe in God, have my own faith and I’ve definitely become a more spiritual person now. Perhaps I’ve become a little selfish, but I don’t have much time for superficial friends and conversations. I prefer honest conversations and relationships. Exploring this deeper journey of self also makes you more imaginative and creative. I’ve taken on a few writing pursuits in recent years. I’ve also written and self published a few children’s books which has been a lot of fun. For over twenty years now, my wish has been to write a novel and this interest in writing started from my recurring dreams. The woman in my dreams has been a great inspiration and my guiding light.

 

[cloud potato]

Hi Tanoochi,

Thank you for such a thoughtful reply. I'm sorry I haven't been able to reply sooner, as I read your introductory post a few days ago and it really resonated with me. I'm not big on liking post, but I wanted to give you a special "LOVE" reaction to know just how much your sharing meant to me.

It's a yes to all of the above for me too, and I understand the journey as a part of an "eternal career." I see life after life, and with a desire to know God, I see life even in other worlds or planes of existence- a continuation of experiential wisdom. Certainly the human experience, a fantastic expression, is not the only experience. Not the only, "intelligent life." If we can call ourselves that.

I agree with you about magic and a subconscious reality. Lately, I understand the subconscious as more than the physical body. Though the majority of our awareness is anchored to and observed through the material body, I think we are more than that.

The most important thing in my life is sharing and living in Love, becoming aware of our relationship with a Living(Guiding) Intelligence... I call it the Living Spirit... And I've come to realize we are all a part of something much greater than the superficial notion of our "selves." Definitely magical, definitely transcendental. And wow, when I am allowed even a taste of that Love- it just blows everything out of the water. = ) So the desire is to share and live in that Reality.

If you ever get around to posting your novel, please feel free to share. You're a wonderful writer and I'd be happy to explore more of what it is you'd like to express.

A hearty welcome to the reincarnation forum, and thank you for your post.
Your friend behind a screen (hehe)
~CP

 

[Tanoochi]

Hi Tanoochi,

Thank you for such a thoughtful reply. I'm sorry I haven't been able to reply sooner, as I read your introductory post a few days ago and it really resonated with me. I'm not big on liking post, but I wanted to give you a special "LOVE" reaction to know just how much your sharing meant to me.

It's a yes to all of the above for me too, and I understand the journey as a part of an "eternal career." I see life after life, and with a desire to know God, I see life even in other worlds or planes of existence- a continuation of experiential wisdom. Certainly the human experience, a fantastic expression, is not the only experience. Not the only, "intelligent life." If we can call ourselves that.

I agree with you about magic and a subconscious reality. Lately, I understand the subconscious as more than the physical body. Though the majority of our awareness is anchored to and observed through the material body, I think we are more than that.

The most important thing in my life is sharing and living in Love, becoming aware of our relationship with a Living(Guiding) Intelligence... I call it the Living Spirit... And I've come to realize we are all a part of something much greater than the superficial notion of our "selves." Definitely magical, definitely transcendental. And wow, when I am allowed even a taste of that Love- it just blows everything out of the water. = ) So the desire is to share and live in that Reality.

If you ever get around to posting your novel, please feel free to share. You're a wonderful writer and I'd be happy to explore more of what it is you'd like to express.

A hearty welcome to the reincarnation forum, and thank you for your post.
Your friend behind a screen (hehe)
~CP

Thanks for all the love and welcoming me to the reincarnation group, CP. It means a lot. It’s not easy sharing deep personal stories of this nature. The fear of someone passing judgement has always been my greatest problem. I guess a lot of other people would have this same fear, too. Even talking to friends and family about these real and extraordinary experiences can be difficult. Some of them think it’s all hocus pocus. But I’m so glad to have discovered this forum. It appears there’s quite a community of people here who have experienced past life memories and other psychic phenomena. It’s wonderful to read about the stories (the dreams, visions, memories) behind their existing lives. Very interesting concepts discussed and obviously matters I can identify with and relate to. The journey or ‘eternal career’ also resonates strongly with me. Life is a journey. Work to be done on our inner selves is never ending.
Going forward, I think it’s important that we continue to support one another and share our weird and wonderful stories of abnormal phenomena until further research is carried out by the great scientists, physiologists, and all other health experts of the world who have a greater understanding of the functions and mechanisms of the living brain and how it all works. It’s all very complex. Too complex for me to understand. The relationship between time, space and memory and its interrelatedness to remembering past life events also warrants further investigation. If we are stardust then maybe we do live forever. I don’t know, perhaps we’ll never get the answers we’re searching for in this lifetime regarding the concept of reincarnation. It’s a lot to get your head around, often involving very deep, confusing and intense conversations. I’m not quite sure I believe in it myself sometimes. But I certainly think it is possible. Perhaps the only proof we have is in the telling of our stories. Perhaps that’s all the proof we need in our continual exploration, growth and development of self and understanding the evolving nature of human beings. I might talk more about the writing of the novel soon. In the meantime, stay curious, love thy neighbour, as thyself. x

 

[cloud potato]

Thanks Tanoochi, I take delight in your expression.

 

[fireflydancing]

Thanks Tanoochi, I take delight in your expression.

Me too

 

[Polaris8]

I was raised Baptist growing up. I left the Church at 13yrs old as I just could not accept the concept of a God to only accept just Christians into heaven and let everyone else burn in Hell for all eternity. It just didn't seem God like. Plus, the concept of being born of sin at birth didn't sit well with me also. I mean come on looking at a newborn baby as a sinner just didn't make senses. So, for many years after that I was agnostic. It was not until I had a heart attack and had an NDE did all that change.

During the NDE I had for lack of a better word a brief experience of cosmic consciousness while out of the body. During that experience everything made senses to me for the first time in my life. It was also then I realized I had lived before in other lifetimes as does the rest of the human race. Before this happened the concept of reincarnation just was not on my radar. So, after I recovered from the heart attack I when through a period of
of finding out more about reincarnation, the journey of the soul and why we come back along with exploring other spiritual paths that had a more eastern viewpoint than that of our western culture. This personal journey for me has led me to a more personal connection with God from within which is more self-aware now. Not from a human perspective as the human state of consciousness will always be limited and flawed to a point because it deals with the lower ego but from a soul state of consciousness which is above the mind and duality. Some call this this higher self.

In the end what I have discovered is that there is no death as it is an illusion of the mind. Death is nothing more than a transition from one state of consciousness or beingness to another. This is because soul always lives in the eternal moment of the now. So, in reality there is no future or no past. Only the moment of the now exist. And because of this soul already lives in eternality.

Love and peace always.

P.

 

[cloud potato]

Thanks P. = ) I understand your reply.

I feel, "to a more personal connection with God from within which is more self-aware now" has really been speaking to me lately. More connections, more ideas, more Faith and conviction in *that relationship. Relationship with God.

We are blessed.