PROOF OF REBIRTH?

by Dansk 53 Replies latest jw friends

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  funkyderek

  Dansk:

  But soul or spirit would infer that "something" such as a "person" is passed over from life to life, which is NOT what rebirth is about. I suppose it is the "essence" of the person (English is very limited).

  Essence seems like a good word to me. If English is limited then perhaps we can just borrow the word from another language. (Something like chi or katra).

  I prefer the Dlaia Lama's meaning above. How does this confuse the issue?

  Because consciousness means the state of being conscious i.e. being aware of one's environment and one's own existence and thoughts (or similar). Redefining it to mean some ineffable essence that is mysteriously passed on at death from one organism to another will necessarily cause confusion, especially when the organisms are for the most part not aware - conscious - of the transition.

  It is exactly what Jonathan Millar said, also, i.e. "Where does consciousness go?"

  It doesn't go anywhere. Where does the light go when you switch a lamp off? Consciousness appears to be a property of a living brain. When the brain (or part of it) is "switched off" the conditions necessary for consciousness are no longer there, so the phenomenon ceases.
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  Dansk

  FunkyDerek:

  It doesn't go anywhere.

  Ah, but now we have come full circle! YOU say it doesn't go anywhere, but you can't prove that any more than I can that it does. I still think the whole concept of rebirth - the transmigration of consciousness (?) - one's essence (?) - is tremendously interesting with, as yet, no satisfying answer either way.

  I would have liked more responses to this thread, to hear what others thought, especially regarding the possibility of rebirth and of the stories cited. I would love to read personal rebirth stories and/or be directed to similar stories of interest. Perhaps people are fed up with the whole "religious" kaboodle now (?) - and who can blame them! Is there a God? Does it matter? Christ is Lord (that's all we need to know), Is evolution the answer?, etc.

  Remember, this thread starts with a question: Proof of Rebirth? I'm not saying the two cited stories give sacrosanct proof. Oh, well............

  Ian
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  LittleToe

  Cognito ergo sum.
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  Dansk

  Cogito, ergo sum = I think, therefore I am.

  Now, I wonder where this will take us............................?

  Ian
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  JamesThomas

  You're doing it again!

  Yes, dear Ian. Again, and again and again. I'm with you here, and am only giving furtherance and import to what you begin to touch on.

  There are billions who will support our seeming brokenness and need for healing and evolving to a higher place; and like I have told you before Ian: I ain't one of them. Our isolated broken selves, are an illusion. We are whole already; and that is discovered in the present moment of now, or never. So, tell me, what better time to hear?

  Look at me as a little hammer, who whacks away at the little cracks that will allow the light to come through. Or someone who drops little seeds in the snow that may bloom on their own some spring day, when this body and it's little mutterings are long gone.

  Please, bear with me.

  j
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  Dansk

  James:

  Look at me as a little hammer, who whacks away at the little cracks that will allow the light to come through. Or someone who drops little seeds in the snow that may bloom on their own some spring day, when this body and it's little mutterings are long gone.

  Please, bear with me.

  This forum would be all the sorrier for your lack of input. I doubt if anyone here doesn't appreciate your words of wisdom, I only wish more were listening. It's good to have a kindred spirit.

  Bear with you? Brother, we are interconnected!

  ((((((((HUGS & ))))))))))

  Ian
• 

  wombat

  **There is a simple method to access these rememberances. One time in a group of about ten people, young ones and older ones, some former JWs, when I told them about this, they said try it on us. More than half of them had experienced surprising rememberances that stunned them.**

  No-one ever asked Belbab how he did this trick. Shame.
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  belbab

  I thought that some who reach Nirvana, do not choose to remain there, but decide to come back and enable the rest of humanity to arrive there also. If that is so, then that would be my desire. At this time I can only report some things I have observed and considered during my stay in this vale of tears.

  Regarding what some call the larger Universal Self, call it Holy Spirit, the Tao, Perennial Philosophy or what ever name has significance for you, I believe that the Big Eye, the big i, does exist, beyond the concept of time and space, the was, the is, and the coming.

  At the same time, I consider myself, as a little eye, a small insignificant eye or I through which the universal eye sees my time and my space, my viewpoint.

  In remembering what seems to be events from past lives, the sights and events are seen from a point of view and this point of view identifies itself as an i. It is the same when we remember our present past, from childhood for example. We remember and identify with the childhood i . We can relive our experiences in thought, with emotions and physical pain or joy. If the event was too traumatic we cannot remember it. But under certain circumstances it can be brought to the surface.

  Is there any evidence of collective consciousness. Consider what a mob or a party is. One person can start either, and collects together in thought, emotions and place others. Suddenly the crowd takes on a mentality of its own, and arrives at a state of violence or joy that no one invidual would have dreamed of on his own.

  Regarding my posting how to access past lives, I have rethought the matter and for now I choose not to post it here on this board. Buddha was said to have rememberances of all his past lives. Jesus probably also, he says (not said, past tense) Before Abraham was (past tense), I am. Also it is written somewhere (Isaiah?) Do you consider the dead on behalf of the living? To the Law and to the Testimony, if they do not abide by that they will not see the light (paraphrased)

  However, if anyone wants to know, I will pm you the information. One poster has already requested that and I have replied.

  belbab
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  metatron

  "Scientists" have no particular reasonable replies to Sheldrake's assertions, no different from you. Ridicule is what they pathetically

  offer instead. I am keeping up with the latest developments, thank you - and I await a new openminded generation of experimenters

  to replace people like Dawkins and Randi and others.

  metatron
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  Gretchen956

  I was a huge skeptic at one time. But then I met someone I had known before. It changed my life. I too love the distinction of reincarnation vs rebirth. Of the two what falls most closely with my belief is rebirth.

  Sherry