I did get messed up by some anxiety and have these thoughts rolling through my head so I’ll leave it at cosmic horror warning.
spoiler
I’m not religious but I have thoughts about experiencing consciousness and what it is. I say that consciousness is independent of memory because we forget, clearly dependent on our physical body, etc. generally I do say that we don’t know consciousness so maybe it can be reconstructed (in the can’t rule out the possibility way)
So I can see scenarios were my conscious could pop into existence without my memories after I die (as I’m writing this I realized that’s nothing to fear).
I am trying to adopt healthier mindset of looking at everything in life as a quest, new things are a call to action, and that it’s okay if everything I do amounts to little in x number of years (worked out okay for ozymandias, right?).
Im probably just rambling because my life has got boring and monotonous along with actual fear of American politics.
If it was real and you could retain memories of past lives, I’m confident we’d have some evidence/proof.
If it exists without memory retention and its just some sort of “soul” concept then it really doesn’t matter since you won’t remember anything for it to be worth worrying about.
I was thinking you’d be “reincarnated” or reconstituted via Boltzmann’s brain scenario and you’d get your memories back after some crazy amount of time, but I get that could happen at an earlier stage in life. Sounds like the “universe was created 5 minutes ago along with all our memories” BS
It’s interesting having someone tell me to not worry about it.
Ever hear of Dr. Ian Stevenson?
He emphasized that the information he collected was suggestive of reincarnation but “was not flawless and it certainly does not compel such a belief.”
If even the guy who had done the most research on it doesn’t believe in it, why should anyone else?
Don’t cherrypick qoutes.
Regardless he had to say that to give himself an out, there was concern that he’d be judged negatively for even suggesting reincarnation. Something proven by your own hostility.
When you see anyone disagreeing with you as hostility, you’ve clearly lost the thread.
Stop trying to twist his words in weird ways that benefit your stance, he very literally said we shouldn’t believe.
No.
Do you remember before being born? It’s the same after.
Can you prove that memory is a reliable way to determine reality without referencing memory?
Yeah I can forgot random days of my life so I don’t remember those days. I get the perspective I’m just illustrating a point
What about people who claim past life memories?
As is common amongst Buddhists
Related video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_4BFX_qhhyk
I am aware. I personally think it’s a load of religious bull, but don’t directly want to offend anyone wanting to believe it.
I also know repatriation (I hope that’s the correctly translated term) which is proven to be planted suggested memories through that very process scientifically as far as I am aware at the current state of science.
I do love reading (eg the game is life) playing with these theories, though!
Proof of the evidence that reparitation is suggested?
Fair request.
I did some research into the topic a year ago due to my situation and came to the stated conclusion.
So I tried to find some scientific research again right now (in a limited time frame of like 10 to 20 minutes, on my mobile).
I first tried in English bot got a lot of hits regarding companies and since my native language is not English I don’t know what that word means in relation to companies and also didn’t want to waste time on that.
So I tried it in German and was flooded by hits which offer that ad a service and as such of course tell you how successful it is. Obviously.
I was not able to find the research I remember within that time, I am sorry.
However in any case you’d be free to believe whatever anyway.
The point of the information I read was however that people coming out of the procedure (sometimes, possibly also accidentally) get memories planted in a well known psychological way and it is a highly untrustworthy procedure.
So that’s why I didn’t do it. I have enough to cope with and don’t need additional fictional issues added to that 😁
And they found that all this does is create false memories?
Edit: Oh you meant the hypnosis does. Yeah not sure why he recommended that part before meditation
So reincarnation is not a thing but what’s to stop “you” from coming back as a new individual? After all, it happened at least once.
That’s where we get into technicalities and states of dying.
Ao while I was medically dead it wasn’t so dead that it was unrecoverable. Akin to a reset. Which, depending on the state you were in and the measures taken, could also have side effects and damages.
Anyhow biologically ‘you’ are still there. And leaving the body is it after a bit of decay. Like a complex system falling apart unrecoverably.
I think conclusively stating that is a bit much, we don’t know shit about how consciousness works, do how can we know what happens if it ends?
I died and came back and there was nothing, that concludes it for me. Ymmv, of course.
Are you sure? Like what do you mean nothing? Like it all went to black? How do you know you just don’t remember it?
(in order of questions)
Yes I am. Well, like dreamless time-skip sleeping or before being born, nothing. No not even going to black just not and nothing being there, movie cut.
And lastly, I can’t, true. It could also be being influenced by the cocktail of medication you get in that situation which by the way has created a lot of stories to tell afterwards (trips) but not from the time of dying.
NDEs are probably not drug induced… probably
I like to compare it to electronics (since our brain also runs on/with electricity): unplug old electronics and have a look what’s being displayed while the memory and visuals lose their power. 😁
But after that, it’s gone.
Suppose reincarnation was real. But no one has any memory or awareness of a past life. So then what connection does said past life even have to you? How can any supposed past 'you’s really be considered the same you?
In my scenario it would be “consciousness” whatever that is. I could imagine myself with different set of memories or alternate timeline where a different set of events happened. I don’t have any evidence that those scenarios exist, but it would paint a picture that I could be a different person or even a different living continue being.
But yeah if I did have a past life it’s totally lost to me.
But if this other consciousness has no continuity or connection to the consciousness that is currently ‘you’, how can it be said to be you?
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What do you mean by causal connection?
i too am a long time lay practictioner of tibetan buddhsm, That is the real answer.
And to add, The Buddhists themselves don’t really focus on the reincarnation aspect as much as one would think, its only ever really something that comes up incidentally like when enough connections about something come together in the right ways to warrant the question that maybe a past life is returning.
A reincarnated someone would be similar to someone who by their entirety of their atoms to their thoughts, seems to be like this other collection of thoughts and atoms.
Like the process of identifying the dalai lama is basically for the people searching to hone in on the schema of a dalai lama through any way they can and then when someone matches it they do their tests which are essentially to check if their actions are similar to that of the previous ones.
The way in which memory of psst lives works is much like lucid dreaming upon your death bed, you go to sleep with awareness of the changing reality and then the dream you end up in preferably made with an intentional choice becomes one solid line of remembrance which leads to kids who remember their past lives directly.
I have no idea what you said
This may be a problem created by the vagueness of language. We don’t yet know how consciousness works out what it even is, so we can’t assume that it functions independently of your perceptions, memories, and thoughts. It’s a bit like that chestnut about Star Trek transporters, does it kill you and recreate you somewhere else?
Is consciousness merely a map of reality in a constant process of adjusting itself, or is there something there that exists separate from everything that makes us ourselves?
I spend some time thinking about it. I’ve always been by turns impressed with consciousness and very annoyed with its limitations.
Regarding consciousness/the human experience, I think the best way I’ve seen it explained is: a soul (whether you add the religious meaning or not) watching a brain watching a body.
Personally, since I believe I’ll be judged by the Creator, I do believe in life (consciousness) after death. Not reincarnation, but it’s a continuation. Monotheists around the world believe in it also, for whatever that’s worth. 😅
If there is reincarnation and you don’t remember a single thing from before, why bother it doesn’t matter.
If there would be reincarnation where you remembered your previous life, surely someone would have spilled the beans on this by now. I surely would contact any sort of family friends that i had previously.
Since both could be possible but 2. hasnt happened and 1 doesnt matter i would give this a no.
That’s my view too. even if reincarnation existed, it wouldn’t matter. If each life has no memory of the others, then each life is effectively a different person altogether, so from the POV of any one of those people, there is effectively no such thing as reincarnation.
Now suppose there’s some kind of ‘soul’ who the lives ‘belong to’ and will one day remember the lives, again – so what? They’re just memories. Those lives were each a separate person who no longer exists, and never knew the others or the soul.
I get that. Have you read The Egg by Andy Weir? If not, there’s a Kurzgesagt video that’s just that story with animation. I’d suggest it. It touches on this concept and kinda paints a more optimistic picture.
I believe in reincarnation just as much as I believe any other theory of an afterlife - that is to say, I don’t.
We don’t know. Nobody knows what happens when we die. That’s ok, and I don’t feel the need to make up a story to explain away the uncertainty.
I think it’s likely that something happens when we die, but it could just as easily be nothingness, the end of existence. I only think it’s likely because I definitely believe that there is SO much that we don’t understand about the universe that it’s more probable than not that SOMETHING happens that we can’t currently fathom, perceive, or understand.
But, right now there’s no real evidence. So I don’t care, and I don’t worry about it.
To our best understanding, everything that lives will die. I don’t know what happens, it might be some form of heaven, it might be reincarnation, it might be transcendence, etc. However, I take comfort in the fact that it’s a shared experience, whatever it is. It’s natural. It’s part of the process.
The universe doesn’t owe us an explanation. Maybe we’ll figure it out, but we haven’t yet, and I’m fine with that.
It doesn’t make sense biologically
I like the idea in Buddhism, that you are precious/valuable from the moment you are born. You already achieved plenty in your past life, which is why you were born as a human. Therefore, there is no need for self-hatred or for pressure to perform.
Not very knowledgeable about Buddhism but is the cycle over once you ‘reach’ humanity or can you just be an awful human being in this incarnation and come back as E. coli the next time?
I see it (or at least some form of it) as a realistic possibility. Let’s say that consciousness is a completely physical thing, a certain set of chemicals, cells and molecules in my brain that define what is “me”. That would mean that given infinite time, something that possesses “my” consciousness would eventually appear again.
Yeah and it should theoretically be instant from your perspective. The whole memories thing would be weird like you don’t have your memories or you have a different set. My scenario is I’m reincarnated as a space squid and life w normal space squid existence
But that wouldn’t be you, though, just a copy of you enjoying life while you’re inert. Right? This is the basis of the game SOMA, btw. 👍
Why wouldn’t it be her?
If I cloned you right now, would that clone be you? If I cut her, would you bleed? If I fed her, would you be full? The same principles apply, just within a different timeframe.
There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1, but none of them are 2. Infinite time does not mean that everything (including your scenario) is going to happen.
There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1, but none of them are 2.
That is by definition though. 2 is impossible to appear between 0 and 1. I know already that it’s possible for my consciousness to exist and I don’t see a reason to assume it’s impossible to exist in the future. So, it becomes more like the Infinite Monkey Theorem. Technically, it’s possible for my consciousness to not appear again, but almost surely it will.
Math is such a wonderful example of how limited our brain is ;-)
Why not?
To be honest, the only answer i have to say is: “we’ll see”. Wheter it’s nothing or not, the second option would imply that there is effectively something beyond what we know about the universe.
What even is the soul? YOU from now think very different than YOU from ten years ago. Can we say that those two people are the same? Not really. Yet you share common memories with this early you, who doesn’t exist anynore. Is it technically correct in this point of view to say that you are the reincarnation of you from ten years ago?
If someone in the far future were to think like you, to remember exact memories from yours, would act the same way you would act in the same situation, it would not we wrong to say they are your reincarnation, no?
Again i’m just supposing.
Well it is part of my religion, but how it’s interpreted varies :3
I personally don’t worry over death too much either way
Not like we can do much about it, right? And life is a gift so every day is already more than what we ‘deserved’.
I mean… im not gonna say the whole gift and “more than what we deserve” stuff, but yeah… what happens when you die doesn’t really matter much, and no one can know what happens, so you should really focus on doing stuff now, and not planning for some eventuality that you can never predict
I like the quote “fill your life with love and let death take care of itself”
I hope not.
I felt that way too, but then I watched re zero and that changed my mentally. I watch the anime last year
I do believe in reincarnation, in that we are all physical manifestations of what you could call “God”. That means that everyone you meet, every dog you pet, every ant you accidentally squish, is synonymous with the divine. We are all constantly reincarnating throughout the universe, and this should be looked at no more acutely than the cells in your body constantly dying and being reborn.
I guess you could call it pantheism, though I tend to follow philosophies like Zen Buddhism and the Tao and it still seems to work.
Looking at existence in this way can form a new understanding, nay, a new reverence towards your life and the universe. Then you will understand who you really are and why you’re here. The real power of God is in manifesting everywhere, all the time, all at once. After all…
And that is, of course, why the images of the Hindu gods are shown with many arms or many faces: because it is saying that all arms are the arms of the divinity, all faces are its masks.
-Alan Watts, Out Of Your Mind
I want to believe
If it was a choice why would I ever wanna come back to this hell hole ?
I think this universe sucks, not to ignore human history. Lots of it is empty space apparently cosmic events can wipe you out with next to no warning, your made up of atoms and cells that can die and degrade, and we are stuck to this solar system because space isn’t empty it’s full of shit thats going to kill you
Which is why my headcanon for this universe is that we’re basically running rogue playthrough in this life. After you die, you’ll regain all your “soul” memories and will be given a choice to “replay” with another life and losing your memories “again” until you’ve reached a certain level of enlightenment and then you’ll “graduate” from our current level of existence.
Call me crazy but it helps me sleep at night, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
