do you believe in a previous life?

[Mobuck]

Yes/No/Total BS?
As I get older, my mind is less occupied with work and day to day commitments. Now and then I seem to have 'thoughts' run through my head like memories but these aren't MY memories. Not actual 'flashbacks' to my real life past--more like from a different time.
Maybe I'm spending too much time watching movies on TV??

 

[Ride1949]

I would say yes. There has to be a reason for this one. They're all practice till you get it right. I'm stillworkin' on it.

 

[bigbillyboy]

For me , no .

 

[coach]

Seems unlikely

 

[peachhead]

It's one of those things I have never given much thought to. This one is the only one I have right now, but I know the one that's coming is much better.

 

[Larryburford]

No but I believe ride 1949's avatar is the best EVER! :.)

I think our DNA brings us closer to the ancestors of our past.

 

[davevabch]

Seems the older I became the more I realized that the entire world including myself was extremely Narrow minded. Things just did not seem to fit with Nature, solar system the the world, universe. Mankind was too self centered to fit into the reality that is the unknown. For some reason it lead me to his fantastic website, new learning etc. Along with other books of learning. Never in all my years did I realize how everything in our life is tied to Astrology.

Fascinating.

https://www.youtube.com/@GaiaVideo

 

[Threespears]

When my Dad took me to the Custer Battlefield he said that he had been there before.
It was his first trip into Montana… You tell Me

 

[sfhogman]

Nope.

 

[davevabch]

I learned a long time ago to listen to my gut feeling.

 

[Watertender]

When my son was little, 2 or 3 years old he started telling me things that no small child would know. He knew that I worked on boilers but I never really talked about details of what I was doing in front of him. He told me to make sure to blow down the gauge glass and other things that I knew he didn't know about. He also started telling me about diesel engines and steam engines. He told me that his friends were telling him about them and that they worked on things like that. I asked him who his friends were and he told me that they would talk to him when he was playing with his toy farm equipment. He told me that his tractor was a Farmall and that he knew how to fix it.

One day I was looking at some old family pictures and I showed them to my son. He got all excited and told me that the 2 older men in one of the pictures were his friends. They were my grandpa and great grandpa. He told me that my great grandpa told him about boilers and steam engines and that my grandpa was telling him about diesels. Great grandpa had owned a Case steam tractor from around 1910 into the late 1920's and then he replaced it with a McCormick Deering 15-30. My grandpa was a mechanic for International Harvester from 1923 to 1957 and repaired tractors on his own after that until he died.

You tell me how my son knew those things....

 

[Jeepnik]

I have absolutely no idea. And I don’t intend to find out any time soon.

 

[GunnyGene]

Not so sure about actual memories as we understand them, but family physical traits and talents are often present over multiple generations. Perhaps mental traits - how we think about things generally, and scraps of memories are passed down in a similar fashion from generation to generation. Our genetic code stores a great deal of information that makes us who we are. I see no reason why that information should be restricted to purely physical traits. There's a lot more about us that we don't understand, than what we do understand.

Maybe Patton was right.
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2016/05/through-a-glass-darkly-poem-george-s-patton.html

 

[blume357]

Yes I do, but it's okay if others don't... we'll just have to argue about it next time around.

 

[Mobuck]

Watertender, your post sent a chill up my spine. I've had similar instances although not at such an early age.

 

[Wvfarrier]

Honestly, I think its hereditary memories. Many species of animals have them, elephants, hummingbirds, its quite possible humans have them but we are so overwhelmed with life that we often disregard their input

 

[vito]

The older we get, and the closer to the end of our lives we get, the more we want to believe that there is something after death. I would love to believe there is, and in some ways I envy those of you with faith that there is some type of eternal existence. But logic, reason and my own observations of reality tells me that we are just as mortal as the cattle and pigs that we eat, and that when death comes, and the brain ceases to function, the awareness of life just ends. Religion tries to fill the void, and give hope especially to those whose lives have been mostly misery, but it also has always been a means of controlling other people. Enjoy life while you are able to do so, because it seems pretty clear that one life is all we get.

 

[Bob Wright]

No. I believe in the Bible as God's Word. Biblical teaching is that once life is given, it is everlasting. At death, a person is immediately in Heaven or Hell. As my Dad once (Well, more than once) put it, "at death you only go to one of two places. If one, you won't want to leave, at the other, you can't leave."

And, the old adage, "As death finds you, eternity keeps you." Now would be a good time to select that destination.


Bob Wright

 

[Johnnu2]

Watching cowboy shows in the 50's makes me think I was a cowboy, but I've always been quite frightened when mounted on a horse.... I tried often, no dice. So, I guess it's a "no" for me. BUT I did have a ghost in a house that I owned back in the 1980's.... I could tell stories that would make YOU believe.... p.s. she had committed suicide in a lake in our community when she found her old husband was running around on her. RIP Mrs. A.
J.

 

[davevabch]

Many years ago I discovered something about myself. I would have a Dream and it that dream would be some person I have not seen for many years. And withing three-5 days, I would run into this person. At first I thought it was just a coincidence. But it became so true in all these years Now I know if I see someone in my past life in a dream, I WILL see them soon.

 

[WalterEmrick]

I have no formulated opinion. To me there is an infinite number of possibilities. I'm presently working with MUFON doing video of numerous interviews and eventually producing a documentary. Within the context of the paranormal, these folks have some very interesting beliefs and opinions, the range of which are limitless. Per the definition of unknown, none can be entirely dismissed.

 

[davevabch]

As a child, I went to Sunday School, Church etc. but the more I went the more things just did not make sense. I always felt early on that there was something missing. Then I read a book about Deism. And it was like a awakening. For the first time, I was about to define my beliefs. And I can find it more in NATURE than anywhere else. And God's greatest gift was "The ability to Reason."

I have always enjoyed how Einstein felt in his Religious views.

"The third style, which Einstein deemed most mature, originates in a deep sense of awe and mystery. He said, the individual feels "the sublimity and marvelous order which reveal themselves in nature ... and he wants to experience the universe as a single significant whole."

Just like Einstein, I feel God is much too powerful and way beyond the understanding of mortal men. Oak trees reproduce, People reproduce.

Einstein himself stated "I'm not an atheist, and I don't think I can call myself a Pantheist ... I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings". Einstein believed the problem of God was the "most difficult in the world"—a question that could not be answered "simply with yes or no". He conceded that "the problem involved is too vast for our limited minds".

 

[gnappi]

I never did think much on reincarnation or destiny until I got my most recent dog. As an adult, I've personally had three dogs all were black and white female lab mixes, and all had names starting with the letter S. The second a lab / Aussie named Sparky ( which my son named not knowing my first was named Shadow) had an uncanny knowledge of subtle things I had to teach the first. My third (her name is Sherry and was given to her in the shelter) is a lab / pit mix and I did not have to train her at all.

Funny when I got Sherry a year or so after the last one died, for no reason at all went to an animal shelter I had only been to once before in the 27 years I'm in Florida and there was a black and white female lab mix named Sherry sitting in a "meet and greet" cage staring at me. Destiny? Maybe! I took her home without needing to think on it.

Anyway, the requests of Sherry, give me your paw, give me your other paw, sit, speak (though she doesn't like to do it), get your bone or toy (she knew the difference) you want to go out, eat, play, go in your bed... even looking where I was looking and asking "where did he go?" she looked where I was looking, saw the squirrel, coon, bird, lizard, possum or whatever and she KNEW what I meant and was not taught it. She NEVER pooped in the house and went to the back door to tell me she needed do it but being a puppy she couldn't control her bladder all night.

After I realized how much like my other two dogs she was, I had two dreams of Sherry as a "spirit" baby being told before being born that she was not to EVER answer to the name of Sparky. Subliminal self suggested dreams? Weird. So for animals at least I've come to entertain the thought of reincarnation.

Now for people? I also believe in Scripture's version of life AFTER death.

 

[NH Rugerman]

As a child, I went to Sunday School, Church etc. but the more I went the more things just did not make sense. I always felt early on that there was something missing. Then I read a book about Deism. And it was like a awakening. For the first time, I was about to define my beliefs. And I can find it more in NATURE than anywhere else. And God's greatest gift was "The ability to Reason."

I have always enjoyed how Einstein felt in his Religious views.

"The third style, which Einstein deemed most mature, originates in a deep sense of awe and mystery. He said, the individual feels "the sublimity and marvelous order which reveal themselves in nature ... and he wants to experience the universe as a single significant whole."

Just like Einstein, I feel God is much too powerful and way beyond the understanding of mortal men. Oak trees reproduce, People reproduce.

Einstein himself stated "I'm not an atheist, and I don't think I can call myself a Pantheist ... I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings". Einstein believed the problem of God was the "most difficult in the world"—a question that could not be answered "simply with yes or no". He conceded that "the problem involved is too vast for our limited minds".

Davevabch
God is KNOWABLE otherwise He wouldn’t have created us as thinking human beings in HIS image, if YOU TRULY seek HIM, HE can be found. Einstein was smart enough to understand the truth the Bible clearly teaches, that GOD has placed in each man the knowledge of HIMSELF, and those who refuse to acknowledge him are without excuse for having the relationship with him that HE seeks with all men through HIS SON, JESUS CHRIST.

Here is an excerpt from the books of Romans, Chapter 1, Verse 19:
19because that which is known about God is evident [n]within them; for God made it evident to them. 20For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternalpower and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21For even though they knew God, they did not [o]honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptiblemankind, of birds, four-footed animals, and [p]crawling creatures.

We have only one life, but it is eternal in its length….Man wastes his time in this life instead of understanding the importance and the LENGTH of the life that follows this one. Death is not the end, it is the beginning…..

 

[davevabch]

Well, I got nuttin against 4 footed animals other than to say that if I do come again in another life, I hope to be a Beagle with a owner that loves to hunt.

By the way, Here is a recent pic of one of our Feathered Friends. He is doing in Nature what human beings do every day. That is a smaller bird he is feasting on.

 

[Armybrat]

In 2010 my middle son had a very near death experience when he severed his femoral artery during a building project.
Luckily his Boy Scout training, the EMS, and the ER doctors all combined to save his life, but it was a very close thing after his average size body had lost at least 3 liters of blood.
So close, that the ER surgeon was very surprised my son didn’t go into a fatal cardiac arrest.
While he was unconscious on the operating table, Son said he literally “saw a light tunnel and started walking towards it. He encountered both my deceased parents and my wife’s mother who told him to go back, that it was not his time yet”.
He says it was as real as sitting there talking to me at the moment.
Son was not a religious person at all, but now he is absolutely convinced there is an afterlife.

Good thing he lived, because his beloved wife passed away three years later from breast cancer, leaving him to raise their two sons ages 10 & 3.
He definitely was saved for a purpose, IMO.
He has done a fine job as a single father these past 11 years, with family help of course, and they are prospering.

 

[wproct]

I have come to really like this section of the forum. We talk about things we otherwise would avoid. I'll be 80 years old shortly, and ponder about life things alot. My Mom was very religious, as was my Dad, but Mom was on a different level. I attended Sunday School and Church every Sunday, Mom's rule. Even when I got my car she told me that I was too old to tell me I had to go to church but she told me if I went to church I could do whatever I wanted the rest of the day. If I didn't, I wasn't going anywhere else the rest of the day. I didn't like it, but it worked.

When I grew up and left home I didn't want to go to church and didn't. The girl I married had almost the same beliefs that I did. We did go to church for a short time as we felt our kids should be introduced to it, but when they grew up they quit going also. I don't believe in religion as it is taught, but I would like to think there is an afterlife. I can make valid arguments against Christianity and I can make valid arguments against evolution. I have had experiences in my life that were strange and unexplainable but in time I don't dwell on it. My son had a dog, a boxer, that I became very attached to. I would talk to him all the time and there were days that he would sit and look at me and I would swear he was trying to talk to me. I like to believe in an afterlife, and that I will once again be able to talk to family and friends that have passed on, I mean you have to. All I can say is that life is a mystery and there will come a day, I hope, that I will get the answers. Good conversation here.

 

[davevabch]

I think it is wonderful that people have their personal religions and in my most Humble opinion, all are praising the Same God which is great. While organized Religion is not for myself., I accept all of them.
What has Puzzled the hell out of me, what I will never understand is why some will hate the religions of other than their own. Seriously I have seen members on this forum Vilify with vile hatred of other religions. Use verses out of their bible etc to hate and justify hate.

I personally do not believe their was a man named Jesus. Maybe their was, maybe a Prophet, whatever, but no real historical fact. We do know and have a lot of historical facts about Pontious Pilot of the same timeline. But regardless, the Jesus in the Bible that I have read was a symbol of Love, Peace, tolerance of others. Not someone I ever read about as being one to Hate. And these are people that call themselves Christians. It comes across to myself as hypocrisy.

I think Gandhi when speaking on this subject and in this regard, said it best. "I love your Jesus, just do not like your Christians." (and of course all religions will have their radicals, not just Christianity and of course they are not the main stream Christians I know and have that are family).
Using any religion as a tool to Hate and Kill is totally against the laws of Nature.

 

[PinnedAndRecessed]

No. I believe in the Bible as God's Word. Biblical teaching is that once life is given, it is everlasting. At death, a person is immediately in Heaven or Hell. As my Dad once (Well, more than once) put it, "at death you only go to one of two places. If one, you won't want to leave, at the other, you can't leave."

And, the old adage, "As death finds you, eternity keeps you." Now would be a good time to select that destination.


Bob Wright

In point of fact: Heb 9:27: ".....it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment"

 

[protoolman]

I'll stick with organized religion. I've seen the proof of it over and over. No doubting Thomas here.