Reincarnation Thoughts

I don’t completely subscribe to the idea of reincarnation but a recent conversation with a good friend on the subject has prompted some reflection on my part. He described his conception of the subject in such an interesting fashion I thought to share it here as a topic of discussion and exploration.

He used computers as the analogy in which to compare his theory of reincarnation.

In the beginning our conscience or souls are like a brand new computer program. We are all the same, the coding copied from the same master file downloaded and installed to our first hard drives – our first bodies or more exactly our new bodies’ brain. Immediately there are slight variations do to manufacturing differences in our systems (body). Thus starts the beginnings of unique-ness

As we live out our life our program runs, self updates and rewrites its code over and over – learning, our experiences and the like influences these rewrites. Over time our hardware becomes too old and we start to deteriorate, eventually ending in complete system failure or crash – we die. Fatal Error, blue screen of death…

But is this the end? When our computers die, can we not sometimes extract some information from the ‘dead’ system? So what if this is true for us as well? His thought is that some unseen force or entity (God or something similar?) removes our original operating system (soul?) from our old worn out hardware – our dead bodies. (don't look at this as a physical thing, more like a more natural energy transference thing)

Picture this operating system as containing our original coding that has been contiously rewritten and enhanced by our experiences. Now this Operating system does not include our vivid life memories, it is the essence of energy that allows our bodies to function and grow ect... the memory of accrued knowledge and experience is almost empty except for the base instinctive at the start. Since Life memories are cached elsewhere else in the system, they are not part of the removed program and are lost with the expired body. However as with most things not all happens perfectly as designed. Contained within our down loaded operating systems there are deposited bytes of information, pockets of random memory saved where it wasn’t supposed to be saved.

The time comes to reload our software into a new system and hardware ie; a new body and mind; we basically repeat the preceding paragraphs over and over, every life time adding a few morsels of memory fragments with every up load at the end of another life term.

Perhaps there are individuals with ‘operating systems’ that have been around since the dawn of time, Snippits of actual human history and experience hidden away within.

Who has not had the feeling of being at a place when you fully know that you have never been there before? Or that haunting memory that seems so real, but is from an impossible time not near our existing life span years?

I personally have a distinct memory of Victorian England, you know, Ebenezer Scrooge stuff. The feelings and observations are specific and vivid, like looking back at my morning today… the snow covered streets, complete with horse and cart tracks, the gas street lights (not on; it's daytime although a little gloomy. overcast?), the snow on my coat, store fronts, other people in period clothing. I can feel that my fingers are a little cold. I recall the smell of bread and the odor of coal soot? (I have no idea what coal soot or smoke would smell like). All this is accompanied with a strong sense of happiness…is this just an attraction to that time? Or is it an actual memory fragment miss-filed in my operating system?

Something to ponder my friends,

MTFBWUA

personally i have rememories about feudal japan? I never really thought much of it

I go along (mainly) with the idea used in science - nothing is lost - everything remains in equal quantities but may well change form.

But this leave a gap for me - as I know there such things as 'spirits' or 'ghosts' or whatever name you want to apply.

I guess you could say our 'spirits' are like sound waves and continue long after the 'audible' sound has faded (our physical being)

If everyone can wait a while, I'll let you know :lol:

MTFBWY - A

based upon personal experience i do feel that many are recycled so to speak, those that aren't linger on as spirits/ghosts(energy can neither be created nor destroyed).

other personal experiences lead me to believe that some poeple do retain fragments of memory...look at children that seem to have innate knowledge of skills that take some a lifetime to learn.

as to the whole deja vu thing....it happens to me so often that i sometimes have a hard time seperating what really happens and what was a premonition

I have heard the term 'old soul' used to describe people who seem to be able to have insight into the past, views often from an angle that only someone who lived in the time would understand, that is to say, they see things in a way that doesn't adhear to modern thought and science, their preception could hold a view that we today would instantly recognize as incorrect, but however bazar by our standards, was the norm of the time.

I see time and again Dr.s and Phd's forming complicated theories on historic events using modern scientific knowledge. But we have to remember that even a mere 200 years ago our understanding and knowledge of nature, our health, and our planet was but a fraction of what it is today. We cannot expect that a person living in that past time to make decisions and act as we would today. I believe that the motives to many past events are much more base than we think.

Oh I guess I forgot my point of my last post, and that is, lots of people who experience dreams, feelings, deja vu, the hibbi jibbes of a past life experience more often describe a normal mundane event other than one of excitement or grandure. Simpler times...

it's kind of interesting you used the term \"old soul\"...when i was in the navy my 3rd apprentice as well as all my friends always called me that

in high school it was the same thing, everyone said i was too mature, because i saw things differently then them and acted differently.

it can be difficult looking younger then i actually am, and thinking older then i am...

i've had psychics do readings on me and been told by them that i possess \"wisdom beyond my years\", under normal circumstances i would be skeptical of most psychics, however these 2 had been able to identify my personality without having ever met me before, i know the whole \"cold reading\" trick and i wanted to make sure they weren't using it...they never asked me anything. i've done enough research of my own on psychic's to know that some people that claim to be psychic are frauds but there are enough legitimate ones to warrant a degree of belief.

it's possible sometimes that the people we meet, we've already met before and are simply drawn back...

Yes there is a theory I read once that said we all travel through time and lives as a close knit group. it claimed that our close friends and family have been around each other through many incarnations, playing different roles each time around. The person who is your sister today, may have been your tent buddy during the civil war, and you may have been her wife during her incarnation as a witch doctor in Africa...interesting theory

My wife shares much of what you were saying, she has been described along the same lines. She has much insight to many things, receives signs, dreams, and often knows of deaths in the family a day or two before, that sort of thing. A psychic once called her 'an old soul' and said that she is psychic, Calling her a 'telephone'.
Incedently, she considers most psychics as frauds. and her biggest wish...is to loose her ability (burden she calls it) for ever.

The idea of reincarnation and past lives is a very interesting topic indeed.

that's eerie again...the day my brother died i knew the moment it happened(i felt it but didn't know what the feeling was untill 936pm that night), then the day my dad died i had that same feeling again at the exact time it happened, even his 3 dogs seemed to know at the same time i did. within a few mins of that my mom called from the hospital to tell me (what i already knew)

as i said with the deja vu, it's happened way too often to be a fluke...especially after i wrote down a couple of them only to see it happen years later exactly as i wrote down...

she really shouldn't think of it as a bad gift/ability, nor should it be thought of as a burden, sometimes these are given to us for a purpose, we just need to find that purpose and what was once a burden becomes a blessing. not obtaining that purpose could (in buddhism) be a possible cause for being reborn.

it comes in handy when driving...i've avoided many accidents by knowing what was about to happen....if you'd like to see a pretty good movie on the subject watch \"next\" with nicholas cage in it.

that's eerie again...the day my brother died i knew the moment it happened(i felt it but didn't know what the feeling was untill 936pm that night), then the day my dad died i had that same feeling again at the exact time it happened, even his 3 dogs seemed to know at the same time i did. within a few mins of that my mom called from the hospital to tell me (what i already knew)

as i said with the deja vu, it's happened way too often to be a fluke...especially after i wrote down a couple of them only to see it happen years later exactly as i wrote down...

she really shouldn't think of it as a bad gift/ability, nor should it be thought of as a burden, sometimes these are given to us for a purpose, we just need to find that purpose and what was once a burden becomes a blessing. not obtaining that purpose could (in buddhism) be a possible cause for being reborn.

it comes in handy when driving...i've avoided many accidents by knowing what was about to happen....if you'd like to see a pretty good movie on the subject watch \"next\" with nicholas cage in it.