For whatever reason, the topic of past lives has come up a few times in the last couple of weeks. In order to save myself the trouble of stating my viewpoint, I’ll post it here. I may go into more details at another time.
Being an atheist, I don’t believe in God or any of that stuff, nor do I buy into the agnostic idea of souls or whatever. I wouldn’t say, however, that I strictly believe in science or whatever. My beliefs on those “big questions” are rather nebulous, to be honest, and I am still trying to figure out what I think is true.
But on the topic of past lives: I do not believe that souls are reincarnated. I think when people have hypnosis that finds past lives (or however else people determine that stuff), one of two things is happening:
- The “past life” is really some repressed idea in the person’s unconscious psyche (yes, say hello to Jason the Freudian). To the person, it may very well be “saved” as a past life and there are ripple effects of that past live in the person’s life, but it all comes from some sort of inner psychological goings-on.
- The “past life” is really a simultaneous existence of the person, though in another dimension. What I mean by “dimension” is rather vague. Do I mean another universe using the Bubble Universe Theory? Or do I mean another dimension as in a hypothetical “sixtieth dimension” where reality is shaped based on different variables and whatnot? Like I said, I’m not sure what I mean by “dimension” here, but any of the possibilities seem more likely to me than the existence of a human soul that is reincarnated.
So there you have it. Don’t be afraid, however, to ask me this in person. I just figured since it seems to be a hot topic lately, I should get my thoughts out there.
Hi Jason, I’ve been reading your blog for a while now, (found it when I was looking up ‘Mysterious Skin’ a few months ago), and thought it’s about time I stopped lurking.
Anyway, it’s interesting that you find it easier to accept multiple dimensions over the concept of souls. A lot of the people I know struggle with the idea of a ‘multiverse’ but take souls for granted.
So is your view on reincarnation resultant from your view on souls? There is a definite dependancy there.
Aside from that, I’m still waiting for your take on people who hate Hip-Hop music. 😉
yeah, it is quite strange, i know (re: accepting multiple dimensions over souls). though before i posted this entry, i did some brief soul-searching about whether it’s worth giving up one idea you might accept (e.g. reincarnation) because it doesn’t fit into another world-view you accept more (e.g. athiesm). i’m sure there is a happy medium somewhere, but for now i’m going to come down on the side of athiesm and be sorta fundamentalistic about it use it as the basis of my argument against souls. (the argument, which, of course, i haven’t even layed out yet…)
as for hip-hop music, when did i mention that? i swear i need to start a list of asides in posts where i suggest that i will write a post about something that i haven’t started writing even.
well, that was a good question, but here is another question: how far will you go with it? why not spice up our life with these colourful metaphors.
hahah… ok… well I guess I’ll save any rebuttal for when you do come up with an arguement. And was the fact that you had to do “soul-searching” an intended pun? I mean, the result of your “soul-searching” was the relisation that souls don’t exist! 😛
So that totally throws a spanner in my understanding my how automatic doors work. (Simpsons reference.)
Anyway, the Hip-Hop haters ref is on the “My Favourite Albums” link on the nav panel above. I pretty much agree with you on the music front, and I have my own ideas on why some people hate certian types of music… would be interesting to see if it the same again.
i suppose my last post did make a sense. 🙂 i guess I was the third person mentioned “past life.” a friend of mine (well, not that close as a friend) told me once that my past life was a English woman. it was strange indeed. i do, however, feel close to the English culture. i do like writing but i am not good at it… but i so enjoy my creative twist on langurages. 🙂
it is my second time replying on this website. for those who don’t know me, my name is richard, a design student at cornish. it’s nice to see you guys online. cheers,
R.