Does the thought of rebirth scare you?

Discussion of Reincarnation, Afterlife, Life-Between-Lives (LBL)...
Rainbowkiss
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Does the thought of rebirth scare you?

Post by Rainbowkiss »

I find reincarnation a bit scary. I love myself and cherish my good memories. I learned from an amazing website called near-death.com that we are here to obtain spiritual growth. We obtain it through mature behavior and selfless love. Once we leave this world, your selfless love and spiritual maturity will take you up to the highest heaven and you will have eternal life. Life is a school, once we pass with spiritual love we won't need to return. Universal unconditional love is kinda hard.
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Re: Does the thought of rebirth scare you?

Post by __Oracle__ »

It terrifys me ! I can never imagine not being myself anymore. I believe that we continue to come back to learn a lesson. If we could remember everything from our former life, it would be like cheating?. I don't really know who I was in a past life, I have been trying to work on it lately. All I know is that there is a reason for me being here, I've kept my family from crumbling many times. For some reason I believe strongly that my mother will reincarnate as one of my children. I'm not sure how I know I just do. Maybe that is the reason I am trying to convince my hubby to have kids soon lol
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Heartsong
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Re: Does the thought of rebirth scare you?

Post by Heartsong »

Rainbowkiss wrote:I find reincarnation a bit scary. I love myself and cherish my good memories. I learned from an amazing website called near-death.com that we are here to obtain spiritual growth. We obtain it through mature behavior and selfless love. Once we leave this world, your selfless love and spiritual maturity will take you up to the highest heaven and you will have eternal life. Life is a school, once we pass with spiritual love we won't need to return. Universal unconditional love is kinda hard.
I can agree with a great deal of what you're saying, Rainbowkiss.

I find reincarnation to be less scary, however, than the thought that everything we learn in a single lifetime is for nothing, because there might be nothing once we die. That thought has frightened me more than anything else. I struggle with it, and until I put it to rest, I think progress for me is going to be a little slow.

I think that we have to learn how to love selflessly. We aren't born with the capability and I think it takes many lives for the soul to figure out how to accomplish that kind of love. It is one of the biggest indications of spiritual maturity. But it's one stone, and it takes many to form a road. Where I disagree is that we ascend to a "highest heaven". I personally don't believe in a heaven or hell, but I do believe that the soul moves on to something else once we have reached a certain point in our path. Perhaps we become closer to the gods, or maybe we even become gods ourselves. I couldn't say, and the theories are numerous on what waits for us after death.
__Oracle__ wrote:It terrifys me ! I can never imagine not being myself anymore. I believe that we continue to come back to learn a lesson. If we could remember everything from our former life, it would be like cheating?. I don't really know who I was in a past life, I have been trying to work on it lately. All I know is that there is a reason for me being here, I've kept my family from crumbling many times. For some reason I believe strongly that my mother will reincarnate as one of my children. I'm not sure how I know I just do. Maybe that is the reason I am trying to convince my hubby to have kids soon lol


I don't think that remembering our past lives is "cheating" necessarily. As the old adage goes, "those who forget history are doomed to repeat it". In each life, the soul is taught lessons, wisdom that is, I believe, meant to be carried on into the next. By remembering a past life, therefore, we are gaining access to those lessons, and can those bring them from the subconscious (where they likely reside, in my opinion) and into the forefront of our thought. Our perception is thus reshaped, to adapt to the information and the soul can become more aware and receptive to the lessons needed in this life. So, going with that hypothesis, looking into our past lives is like picking up a very old tome, with personal accounts of how we have grown across time.

I also come from the school of thought that time isn't linear. Reincarnation theories often compare both the concept of rebirth and time itself as a wheel. The absolute beauty of the wheel is that it can move forwards and back. However, what if you look at it, not as a wheel, but as a sphere? A ball, if you will. Mobility actually improves, gaining the ability to move in a variety of directions, including left, right, up, down, etc. Time, therefore, when looked at from this viewpoint, expands in ways that boggles the mind, and, to me, becomes unfixed. It can be argued that there is no "going back in time", because time, in this way, would be ever shifting. There would be no fixed point that you could say is in the past, because the very concepts of past, present, future are flipped on their heads, so to speak.

So, when you look at a past life, are you really looking into the past? According to this idea, no. Rather, you are looking at a single point that, in theory, could actually be happening simultaneously to the time you've parted the curtain and looked. Are you looking at a past life at all then, or are you looking at another life you're living right now? Who's to say that the soul is limited to a single space or dimension? What if what we perceive as our soul is only a fragment of it, learning what it needs to know on one plane while experiencing a different lesson altogether on another? By glancing at what another life our soul lives, we access greater knowledge, of ourselves, and of the universe. When you do away with the idea that we are limited to our physical bodies, that there is a separation between dimensions, time, space, etc., the possibilities are overwhelming. :shock:

I could keep going, but I'll leave it there. Frankly, I'm making my own head hurt. :evilwitch:
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Rainbowkiss
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Re:

Post by Rainbowkiss »

Thank you all for your opinions. I am not afraid of dying though. Heaven and hell are within, they are spiritual conditions and not otherworldly places. People create heaven and hell all the time from the choices they make. I have quotes from near-death experiencers to share: Death is only a gentle passing to a much freer life: Life is a journey in which you are meant to learn a great lesson, you can't truly die!: Eternity does not begin after death, we are in eternity right now: Death is blowing out the candle because the dawn has come: If I lived a billion years more, there wouldn't be a single experience on earth that's better than being dead, nothing: Nothing can happen more beautiful than death: Life is about everyone, not pursuits: The most important thing in life is love: Love cannot save you from physical death but it fulfill's life's purpose. Without love, life isn't worth living: Love humans,animals, and the earth itself to bring heaven on earth. All these quotes are from near-death experiencers. Blessed be! smileylove
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Re: Does the thought of rebirth scare you?

Post by __Oracle__ »

Heartsong wrote:
Rainbowkiss wrote:I find reincarnation a bit scary. I love myself and cherish my good memories. I learned from an amazing website called near-death.com that we are here to obtain spiritual growth. We obtain it through mature behavior and selfless love. Once we leave this world, your selfless love and spiritual maturity will take you up to the highest heaven and you will have eternal life. Life is a school, once we pass with spiritual love we won't need to return. Universal unconditional love is kinda hard.
I can agree with a great deal of what you're saying, Rainbowkiss.

I find reincarnation to be less scary, however, than the thought that everything we learn in a single lifetime is for nothing, because there might be nothing once we die. That thought has frightened me more than anything else. I struggle with it, and until I put it to rest, I think progress for me is going to be a little slow.

I think that we have to learn how to love selflessly. We aren't born with the capability and I think it takes many lives for the soul to figure out how to accomplish that kind of love. It is one of the biggest indications of spiritual maturity. But it's one stone, and it takes many to form a road. Where I disagree is that we ascend to a "highest heaven". I personally don't believe in a heaven or hell, but I do believe that the soul moves on to something else once we have reached a certain point in our path. Perhaps we become closer to the gods, or maybe we even become gods ourselves. I couldn't say, and the theories are numerous on what waits for us after death.
__Oracle__ wrote:It terrifys me ! I can never imagine not being myself anymore. I believe that we continue to come back to learn a lesson. If we could remember everything from our former life, it would be like cheating?. I don't really know who I was in a past life, I have been trying to work on it lately. All I know is that there is a reason for me being here, I've kept my family from crumbling many times. For some reason I believe strongly that my mother will reincarnate as one of my children. I'm not sure how I know I just do. Maybe that is the reason I am trying to convince my hubby to have kids soon lol


I don't think that remembering our past lives is "cheating" necessarily. As the old adage goes, "those who forget history are doomed to repeat it". In each life, the soul is taught lessons, wisdom that is, I believe, meant to be carried on into the next. By remembering a past life, therefore, we are gaining access to those lessons, and can those bring them from the subconscious (where they likely reside, in my opinion) and into the forefront of our thought. Our perception is thus reshaped, to adapt to the information and the soul can become more aware and receptive to the lessons needed in this life. So, going with that hypothesis, looking into our past lives is like picking up a very old tome, with personal accounts of how we have grown across time.

I also come from the school of thought that time isn't linear. Reincarnation theories often compare both the concept of rebirth and time itself as a wheel. The absolute beauty of the wheel is that it can move forwards and back. However, what if you look at it, not as a wheel, but as a sphere? A ball, if you will. Mobility actually improves, gaining the ability to move in a variety of directions, including left, right, up, down, etc. Time, therefore, when looked at from this viewpoint, expands in ways that boggles the mind, and, to me, becomes unfixed. It can be argued that there is no "going back in time", because time, in this way, would be ever shifting. There would be no fixed point that you could say is in the past, because the very concepts of past, present, future are flipped on their heads, so to speak.

So, when you look at a past life, are you really looking into the past? According to this idea, no. Rather, you are looking at a single point that, in theory, could actually be happening simultaneously to the time you've parted the curtain and looked. Are you looking at a past life at all then, or are you looking at another life you're living right now? Who's to say that the soul is limited to a single space or dimension? What if what we perceive as our soul is only a fragment of it, learning what it needs to know on one plane while experiencing a different lesson altogether on another? By glancing at what another life our soul lives, we access greater knowledge, of ourselves, and of the universe. When you do away with the idea that we are limited to our physical bodies, that there is a separation between dimensions, time, space, etc., the possibilities are overwhelming. :shock:

I could keep going, but I'll leave it there. Frankly, I'm making my own head hurt. :evilwitch:

That is a lot for me to process lol Those are pretty interesting concepts, that Ive never even though of. So if we were to die tomorrow , then we could be reincarnated in a different time which would be the past to us? or maybe even a different plane. The separate soul fragments, experiencing two different things on different planes at the same time is pretty interesting and makes a lot of sense once you really think about it. I have read a few stories of people who recall having previous lives on different planets or planes. People who remember being "aliens", which makes me think maybe a long time ago their was a lot of life on other planets.

I'm also wondering if it is possible to relive our lives now more then once, I get bouts of deja vu. Where I always feel like I have been to a place before or I know what the place will look like before I get there.

I have been trying to connect with my higher self lately. Maybe it is like a puzzle, fragments of our souls are separated until they are one again. If your familiar with harry potter it is described a lot like Voldemort and his horcrux's lol minus the being evil part.


Now my head is dizzy lol
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Heartsong
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Re: Does the thought of rebirth scare you?

Post by Heartsong »

So if we were to die tomorrow, then we could be reincarnated in a different time which would be the past to us? or maybe even a different plane.
Yes, that's possible, I think.
I'm also wondering if it is possible to relive our lives now more then once, I get bouts of deja vu. Where I always feel like I have been to a place before or I know what the place will look like before I get there.
Also very possible, if you're looking at time in a non-linear way. We could be living the exact same moment in one, five, or even a hundred different dimensions, each with subtle differences or with perfect similarities. And I know that feeling! I experience it a good bit. For me, I get the sense that I dreamed the moment I experience deja vu and then I get these weird "I'm in a loop" feelings. Very strange and very unsettling.
Maybe it is like a puzzle, fragments of our souls are separated until they are one again. If your familiar with harry potter it is described a lot like Voldemort and his horcrux's lol minus the being evil part.
Yes, I loved that idea! JK Rowling really brought up some interesting concept without realizing it, I think. Part of her genius. :)
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Klia
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Re: Does the thought of rebirth scare you?

Post by Klia »

Hello,

I haven't thought about this as much recently but I do believe in reincarnation since finding this path. It just makes more sense than sitting in a heaven for eternity, though Pagans do have this option somewhat. I do have to say it scares me some because I'm not as carpe diem as some people. No one is perfect so a good afterlife is not guaranteed! It scares me to think my next like won't be as fortunate, that I may go through more struggles, etc. I try not to think about it because it is not this life, so I need to focus on this life to make a better afterlife.

But it makes me wonder... do people in ghettos and the pits of Africa or any poverty stricken area all have a bad life prior? Did they all do something to make this life a negative one? Or were they good people in a past life and given this obstacle in this life to make the best of it? That scares me. What if we're not given an afterlife we think we deserve!?!?! ahhh!!
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Re: Does the thought of rebirth scare you?

Post by Xiao Rong »

Klia wrote:But it makes me wonder... do people in ghettos and the pits of Africa or any poverty stricken area all have a bad life prior? Did they all do something to make this life a negative one? Or were they good people in a past life and given this obstacle in this life to make the best of it? That scares me.
I do not personally believe in reincarnation or the afterlife, but from what I understand of karma (which I think applies to this discussion), you are not supposed to understand or know anyone else's karma (or your own, for that matter). Karma is not a direct cause-and-effect correlation (if you have bad karma from a past life or something, you never know when it'll hit you), so you can't make assumptions that people are suffering horrible circumstances were awful people in a past life and therefore deserve it, or that because they have a good life that they deserve it. I think it's more important to focus on the present and being kind and compassionate to everyone, and not to think too much about whether or not people "deserve" to suffer.
Klia wrote:What if we're not given an afterlife we think we deserve!?!?! ahhh!!
That's why I think that some things are meant to remain a mystery.
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Re: Does the thought of rebirth scare you?

Post by dreadedpsychopomp »

I'm fairly sure I've had many lives on Earth and elsewhere. I also believe that people stick around after death or can be summoned.

That said, yes, it does scare me. I don't want to spend this lifetime cultivating experience and knowledge just to lose it all and have to start over. I don't want to work hard toward self love and acceptance only to die and forget so I can become someone else.

I think of reincarnation less as being about learning until we ascend for the reason of... if we're supposed to learn to ascend here, why forget most of our experience? That's like being expected to start college but Oh yeah, during an accident you forgot everything learned in kindergarten through senior year of high school but if you're lucky, you might remember little tidbits which you might not be able to trust. Oh, and good luck.

I think that's pretty counter intuitive. So my attitude toward it is that maybe it's simply a game of sorts once a spirit gets to a certain level of self awareness.

Otherwise, Yes, rebirth for the sake of spiritual wisdom does scare me.
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Re: Does the thought of rebirth scare you?

Post by Aimhirghin »

Hi Rainbowkiss.

Your question about if we are afraid of Rebirth/Reincarnation is a very good question in my mind.
And To answer it from my perspective.
No i am not afraid of getting reborn, because i believe it is a part of the human path, I leaning to the Buddhist way of life and beliefs, and for me rebirth is a path to enlightenment. I am not going to make this in to a Religious view here on this forum. But i only use my knowledge from buddhism to explain this.

For me rebirth come from karma, in the way that until we awaken to the truth we will gain karma from our speech, acts, and thoughts. and when we understand that we must stop doing harm to other we will reach what is called Enlightenment and this is the path to stop the circle of rebirth.
And more thing, This is to Xiao Rong. In my view the Karma do follow us from one life to an other.

Hope this did not sound to religious.

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Re: Does the thought of rebirth scare you?

Post by Xiao Rong »

Aimhirghin - when I said that we can't know of our karma, I wasn't saying that it doesn't follow you from one life to another. My understanding is that karma does follow you from life to life, but one can never fully know what one's karma is (much less another's) because it is so complex.
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Aimhirghin

Re: Does the thought of rebirth scare you?

Post by Aimhirghin »

Xiao Rong.

I am agree that Karma is difficult to understand.
Sorry if i misunderstood your meaning.

Aimhirghin.
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Re: Does the thought of rebirth scare you?

Post by -Dark-Moon- »

I believe that all this new age dogma regarding enlightenment through selflessness and sacrifice and unconditional love fall into the category of right hand path teachings. I believe it's a somewhat lop sided incomplete path towards spiritual ascension. I believe that there is value in also working left hand path teachings such as luciferianism. Lucifer is 'the light bringer'... This path emphasizes truth and freedom of will, worshipping the inner self and one’s ultimate potential. Traditional dogma is shunned as a basis for morality on the grounds that humans should not need deities or fear of eternal punishment (karma included) to distinguish right from wrong and to do good.
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Re: Does the thought of rebirth scare you?

Post by Lillady »

Death is what scares me not reincarnation. I have always felt this way even when I was a kid. I am not sure why I think it is connected to the unknown with death. Reincarnation though I look foward to my spirit getting a chance to begin again, I just hope that my next life is better as I have learned many lessons in this one.
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Re: Does the thought of rebirth scare you?

Post by TraceyC1959 »

I am still not 100% a believer in reincarnation however with me not being so sure that it is not possible the thought that it could happen does leave me worried and some what scared, for example if it does happen what will I come back as, where will I come back? If it is true and I do come back I do hope that I have a slightly better life than this one hopefully meet some better people.
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