Old souls

[FlickerOfLight]

Reincarnation was something I had never believed in. Mainly because I was raised in "church." I was taught that we all get one life. One chance. But, something has nagged at me my whole life. I kept this feeling deep within as I journeyed through this life. It was this small voice inside me that kept saying...

I've been here before.


As I have shared, I have been on a spiritual journey for a while. All kinds of doors have been unlocked for me. As I've journeyed through the space within my minds eye I have started to wake up to a memory. A memory of a past life. I believe this was my last life, but not my only other life. I believe that this has happened more then once, simply because, if I've lived another life that I'm starting to remember, then how many more lives have I lived?

When I was about 15 I had an experience where I had this intense vision. This vision was so strong it stuck with me all of these years. It stuck with me because it was a memory of my last life. 

And how it ended...


War...

I am starting to remember. It was cold, and early morning. Sirens rang out. I run out of my tent and look up at the sky. Planes everywhere. The sky is red. I see bombs start to fall. Boom. Boom. All around me. I run, but I don't know where I'm running to. Suddenly a flash of white light...


This was the end to my last life. World War 2.


I have a few fuzzy memories about a life I believe was before this, but I am only seeing this one clearly now.

I believe we Reincarnate. "Born again." I also believe this may be the "1000 year reign" for all of us. Maybe we get more than one life to prepare our spirits for the next step that is beyond this ball of dirt, and this flesh suit...?


Thanks again, RN.

[Ninurta]

I've never believed in reincarnation, either. I've always thought of the idea as just a way to say God must be poor, 'cause he doesn't have enough souls to go 'round and so has to recycle them.

Plus, there's the math problem - there are more people alive, right now, today, than have existed in the entire previous history of humanity on Earth before about 1900. So if reincarnation is a thing, where did all those extra souls suddenly come from?

Still, I sometimes have wide-awake "flashbacks" to places and times I've never been, nor could have been in. So how does that happen? How do I "see" things that I've never seen before to be able to just make them up in my head?

Years ago, some crystal-festooned, patchouli-soaked, tree-hugging flower child told me that I had "an old soul". No, wait - she didn't say I "had" an old soul, she said I "was" an old soul. I dunno if that distinction is important or not. Didn't know what she meant then, don't know what she meant now. I've never figured out just what an "old soul" is supposed to be, so I dunno if I have one or not... or am one or not.... or whatever... but sometimes my soul does get mighty tired, kind of worn-out feeling, like it could use a nap. Maybe I just need more potassium in my life.

But folks say weird, unfathomable stuff like that to me fairly often. They just come in from nowhere, drop some crazy lines on me, they sky back out into the nowhere they came from. And I never know what the hell they are talking about.

Several years ago, I was walking down the street in Kansas City, just minding my own business and be-bopping right along, and some little dude drops out of a recessed store front and stops me. He says "you've  seen things, haven't you?" Well, I didn't know what kind of answer he was looking for, so I replied "I dunno. I reckon. Probably stuff you can't imagine, and almost definitely stuff you'd not expect. So what makes you say that?" And he said "Your eyes. I can see it in your eyes." and then just like that he went back to whatever nowhere he came from, back into the shadows of that storefront. Never saw him again, and I'm kinda glad I haven't.

Life gets weird some times. Just roll with it... and if you ever find out what an "old soul" is, let me know - it'll clear up one more of life's little mysteries for me!

.

[MrJesterium]

Thanks for sharing your experience with us!

I am starting to remember. It was cold, and early morning. Sirens rang out. I run out of my tent and look up at the sky. Planes everywhere. The sky is red. I see bombs start to fall. Boom. Boom. All around me. I run, but I don't know where I'm running to. Suddenly a flash of white light...

You're certain this was WW2?
Did you notice the plane model or the clothes people were wearing?

I've come across several predictions about a sky full of planes (1, 2, 3), red skies, and a bright flash of white light (1, 2, 3).

"Actually about a decade ago or longer I had a dream of sunday morning was bright and shiny was in my house the sky suddenly turned bright red, parachuting soldiers."

Maybe we get more than one life to prepare our spirits for the next step that is beyond this ball of dirt, and this flesh suit...?

Undoubtedly!

•Weishaupt, who had affirmed Christianity after it had been cleansed, and who Jefferson had acknowledged as Christian, had to admit that a divine Plan exists, I found in one of his works the statement:

daß dieſer Vlan nur angefangen wäre, ohne jemalen vollendet zu werden, wenn unser Geist nicht von der Art wåre, daß sich seine Dauer über die Dauer dieses Lebens erstrekt.
(that this plan would only have begun without completing any one, if our mind were not of such a nature that its duration extends over the duration of this life.)

•Goethe, who in his Wilhelm Meister Journeyman Years, had affirmed Christianity as the final religion for mankind, said this about Charlotte von Stein, who he had felt an inexplicable attraction for:

Ich kann mir die Bedeutsamkeit - die Macht, die diese Frau über mich hat, anders nicht erklären als durch die Seelenwanderung. - Ja, wir wareneinst Mann und Weib!
“[I cannot explain] the importance, the power, that this woman has over me” in any other way than through reincarnation (the word was not in use at the time): “Yes, we were once husband and wife!” (letter to Christoph Martin Wieland)

In context of describing three kinds of religion, Goethe wrote, “it may be maintained, that the Christian religion having once appeared, can never disappear again; having once been divinely embodied, cannot again be dissolved.”
_____

Reincarnation was something I had never believed in. Mainly because I was raised in "church." I was taught that we all get one life. One chance.

Probably the intended meaning was that we should live our lives as if it were our last, but this was misunderstood as one life.

John 9:1-2 furnishes the best Christian argument for reincarnation:
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?” implies he had committed the sin before his birth. This is describing an act, not a sinful nature.

John 9:30 “Well, here is the amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes!” This verse implies Jesus was not Galilean like his students, because the Jews could recognize the latter by their dialect (Matthew 26:73), they even said he was a Samaritan (John 8:48), whereas he was recognized by the Samaritan woman (John 4:20) and Scripture attests his country was Samaria (John 4:43), if I'm not mistaken.

John 9:32 “Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. Plenty of blind man healed, why does this case stand out as one of Jesus' unique signs?
Unless... opening the eye pertains to clairvoyance ("clear-seeing"; Mark 8:25, John 1:48-49, 2:24-25).

I heard from WanderingMrM, "In parts of the texts they also speak of humans opening their "eye" not eyes but "eye" which we know is a reference to the third eye." (He also claimed: the Elohim did not expect someone to "entice", "tempt" or tell Eve to eat the fruit of knowledge. In the Hebrew texts and old texts the word used meant "elevate" or "enlighten" of Eve's knowledge.)
___

Let's not overlook the fact that Origen, who was Christian and pagan, had embraced reincarnation, in the manner of Ammonius Saccas, yet their identities have remained a controversial subject of confusion.
The reason for Origen's conversion may have been this: in all time periods, there have been decent, intelligent people who joined a sect in order to keep it in check, keep a watchful eye, in consideration for the fact that bad company/power corrupts. Such was Maxim Gorky "who at times seems to be heart and soul a Bolshevist and at other times openly expresses his loathing and disgust of their destructive policies."

For a modern analogous case, see Tom Taylor's Injustice series, in which Flash and Shazam side with Superman to see his better side and help keep him grounded in reality.
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According to Simone Weil, "Plato said that the ability to discern the good only exists in predestined souls that have been directly trained by God." Goethe affirmed, "es ist ein höherer Sinn, der seiner Natur gegeben werden muß und der sich nur bei besonders Begünstigten aus sich selbst entwickelt..." (it is a higher sense, which must be given to his nature and which develops of its own accord only in the case of the especially favored)

The earliest biblical allusion to reincarnation can be read in Wisdom of Solomon 8:19-20: "As a child I was naturally gifted, and a good soul fell to my lot, or rather, being good, I entered an undefiled body."

How much similar is this to Julian's statements about being drawn to the Sun before being taught! "Now for my part I envy the good fortune of any man to whom the god has granted to inherit a body built of the seed of holy and inspired ancestors, so that he can unlock the treasures of wisdom..."

In the book Living Water, I read Viktor Schauberger had been visited by high-ranking Austrian Jews, who asked him where he had obtained his knowledge for purifying water, he answered that nobody had taught him. He replied saying, “It is possible for the person who has the advantage of this gift of inheritance, to summon up from his blood all this reservoir of knowledge.”

Edit:

But folks say weird, unfathomable stuff like that to me fairly often. They just come in from nowhere, drop some crazy lines on me, they sky back out into the nowhere they came from. And I never know what the hell they are talking about.

Question: Do people also come up to you asking for help?

[Ninurta]

NinurtaBut folks say weird, unfathomable stuff like that to me fairly often. They just come in from nowhere, drop some crazy lines on me, they sky back out into the nowhere they came from. And I never know what the hell they are talking about.
Question: Do people also come up to you asking for help?

Yes. Mostly the homeless, old people, kids, and occasionally women who have managed to get themselves into dangerous situations. Some times, even strange animals. Rarely grown men, although my neighbor often comes seeking help - sometimes water, or food, or yesterday a tool to work on his truck, and this evening he came looking for medicine for an ear ache.

I recall an old black man who came up to me out of the blue in Greensboro, NC, looking for a couple of bucks because he was a diabetic and needed to get something to eat. He was fairly old, but well dressed, and embarrassed to ask but approached me out of necessity. Instead of giving him a couple of bucks, I took him to a restaurant across the street (Tate Street), and got him a meal .Played it off that it was lunch time, I needed to eat lunch anyhow, and appreciated the company. I did that to save his dignity as much as I could.

It doesn't happen so much any more, other than the neighbor, because I don't get out and about as much.

When I was little, I had two sisters who were born with cleft palates, and I was the only one who could understand them, so I translated for them. Mom would get frustrated and exasperated, because she couldn't understand them, but my Dear Old Dad never lost patience with them. He'd ask them over and over again to repeat themselves until he could understand, and he would play it off like he was just old and couldn't hear good. They didn't know any better, so they'd just keep on patiently repeating themselves to help him out until he understood, never the wiser as to what he was up to with that hard of hearing act. I never forget that lesson he taught me without ever even knowing he taught it. To them, you see, he was not helping them, they were helping him.

Those little sisters are also why I learned to fight. Some other kids would pick on them because they couldn't  talk well, and when I caught them at it, I'd light 'em up. I defended them into adulthood, long after they were able to talk properly, up until they asked me to stop, which I did when they asked.

When folks need help, they're already low enough, and there is no rational reason not to preserve as much of their dignity for them as you can muster.

.

[MrJesterium]

So if reincarnation is a thing, where did all those extra souls suddenly come from?

I think it's possible they volunteered to come here from other planets. (Howard Menger)

As a matter of fact, the human population was steadily rising up until the 17th-18th century, after which it experienced an explosive boom. Nature does not make great jumps. (Leibniz) This implies outside interference, emergency measures have been taken by higher powers. It's no coincidence that in the 18th century, there were those heroes throughout Europe who clamored for emancipation from the Church. So it wasn't merely artificial conditions, the lack of birth control, which gave rise to the overpopulation crisis.

An user raised some excellent questions about why the world seems to have come to a halt in regards to AI and Mars exploration. WanderingMrM shared an answer with me: TPTB "are scared to announce the truth, that the age of the universe does not match the time frame required for evolution and development of life based on the scientific time frame and scale/speed at which evolution takes to reach the stage man is at now."

But folks say weird, unfathomable stuff like that to me fairly often. They just come in from nowhere, drop some crazy lines on me, they sky back out into the nowhere they came from. And I never know what the hell they are talking about.

Here's a probable explanation:

A wise lady wrote, "Many of the people who seem to just flow through life have deep inner lives that you cannot see. I have been pleasantly surprised by people that I perceived as superficial dropping the most profound wisdom on me out of nowhere."

But it's also possible that you've encountered angels in human guise, ghosts, or clairvoyants conveying a message they felt prompted to deliver. I collected many of these stories, I noticed the most reoccurring theme was about them looking people in the eye.

Yes. Mostly the homeless, old people, kids, and occasionally women who have managed to get themselves into dangerous situations.

Well, I'll be damned!

Gordon Scallion claimed after awakening his gift and helping out two guys, "People would just arrive at my door. Sometimes it was medical issues and other times it was more to do with personal relationships." He assumed the doctor he had helped sent them his way.

Judy Hevenly's site bio mentions a strange meeting: "Back in London on a rainy night as Judy was walking home from work, a woman suddenly approached her from nowhere. She grabbed her hand and looking in her eyes said ‘you will help many people with your gift.’ Then the lady mysteriously disappeared." After she had an alleged vision of Jesus, she had an inner realization, "after which people out of nowhere sought her help".

An Austrian clairvoyant I interviewed told me,

"I was walking on the street all of a sudden a woman stops by me and stares at me with those weird eyes. She was like 70 years old or so. She spoke broken german - I think she might have been from eastern europe. She stares at me and just says she saw my shiny aura - I should take care of myself because I have something very important to do. Then she went on."

Later, he had a similar realization and "from that day on things in life changed drastically. All of a sudden a lot of positive things started to happened. I walk down to the washing room but realized I don't have any coins for the washer, an old lady comes in and ask if I need 2 euros to start it up. Random people on the street ask me for help, not the usual suspects who want some money from you. And I help, without any motives, just happy to be of any help."

In a removed story, I read about how an user was told by a teen boy that he didn't like hanging around her because her aura was very dark and clouded. "Now, as an adult, I get all sorts of strange people asking me for help, and I've been told my aura is a sky blue with bits of indigo."

Life gets weird some times. Just roll with it... and if you ever find out what an "old soul" is, let me know - it'll clear up one more of life's little mysteries for me!

Basically, all children are old souls who have had the experience of countless lifetimes behind them. It's just that they do not receive opportunities for rousing their latent knowledge or lack a stimulus to activity. Goethe was unable to remember his past life until he had visited Italy and observed Roman replicas of the Greek statues, he reproduce them from memory.
___

They are here to develop their talents, find their place in life, and to serve life - development - their fellow man, their community (in the widest sense). Many people have told me how they felt like it was a duty, an obligation.

"My life is better when I just listen and do instead of fighting it or disbelieving it. It’s hit me over the head too many times, saved me from terrible situations, made me unexpected money and been there when no one else is."

In an interview, Thomas Mesereau said, "I was one of those “lost souls” who spent considerable time wandering through the wilderness before finding my calling... During one illuminating moment, approximately twenty five years ago, I realized that civil rights and criminal defense were for me."

My American inventor friend wrote, "Imposter syndrome might mean you're in the wrong place, even if you are performing well. Why do I say this? I'm realizing that to some degree, I went down the wrong path... Had I listened to the little part of me that felt like an imposter, I would have discovered sooner that I was going down a path that wasn't what I actually wanted."
___

It's a mistake for people to speak of "indigo children". People seem to have the misconception that being an "old soul" has to do with feeling older than they are, feeling heavier. Goethe was an old soul yet he behaved like a kid after meeting Ulrike von Levetzow.

On that note, an ex-military friend once told me, "I think that one of the most dangerous and destructive thoughts in our times is that any one person is “special” in any way. That thought is used to justify everything from grotesque greed to heinous acts of mass violence."

[FlickerOfLight]

@Jesterium
I figured it was WW2 from the types of places in the sky.

---

I've never believed in reincarnation, either. I've always thought of the idea as just a way to say God must be poor, 'cause he doesn't have enough souls to go 'round and so has to recycle them.

Plus, there's the math problem - there are more people alive, right now, today, than have existed in the entire previous history of humanity on Earth before about 1900. So if reincarnation is a thing, where did all those extra souls suddenly come from?

Still, I sometimes have wide-awake "flashbacks" to places and times I've never been, nor could have been in. So how does that happen? How do I "see" things that I've never seen before to be able to just make them up in my head?

Years ago, some crystal-festooned, patchouli-soaked, tree-hugging flower child told me that I had "an old soul". No, wait - she didn't say I "had" an old soul, she said I "was" an old soul. I dunno if that distinction is important or not. Didn't know what she meant then, don't know what she meant now. I've never figured out just what an "old soul" is supposed to be, so I dunno if I have one or not... or am one or not.... or whatever... but sometimes my soul does get mighty tired, kind of worn-out feeling, like it could use a nap. Maybe I just need more potassium in my life.

But folks say weird, unfathomable stuff like that to me fairly often. They just come in from nowhere, drop some crazy lines on me, they sky back out into the nowhere they came from. And I never know what the hell they are talking about.

Several years ago, I was walking down the street in Kansas City, just minding my own business and be-bopping right along, and some little dude drops out of a recessed store front and stops me. He says "you've  seen things, haven't you?" Well, I didn't know what kind of answer he was looking for, so I replied "I dunno. I reckon. Probably stuff you can't imagine, and almost definitely stuff you'd not expect. So what makes you say that?" And he said "Your eyes. I can see it in your eyes." and then just like that he went back to whatever nowhere he came from, back into the shadows of that storefront. Never saw him again, and I'm kinda glad I haven't.

Life gets weird some times. Just roll with it... and if you ever find out what an "old soul" is, let me know - it'll clear up one more of life's little mysteries for me!

.

In my experience, logic and reason are not what leads us to finding and walking into "The Kingdom of Heaven."

Lean not on your own understanding. 

Unless you become like a little child you will never see the Kingdom of heaven.

[Ninurta]

So if reincarnation is a thing, where did all those extra souls suddenly come from?

I think it's possible they volunteered to come here from other planets. (Howard Menger)

I can't place much stock in Mr. Menger. When he made the claim that his aliens came from Venus, he kind of crapped the nest for me.

Be that as it may, the world population boom IS a sight to behold. When I was born, I think there were about 3  billion people on it, and just in my lifetime, so far, that has damn near tripled. Some good, some not good at all. I sometimes wonder if some of those extra souls aren't really just evil spirits animating human bodies.

I've known about there not being enough time for humanity to develop for a long time. the vast majority of mutations are detrimental to life, and are not passed on because the organism dies from it before it procreates. On average, it takes about 20,000 years for a beneficial mutation to occur, so from a purely natural selection standpoint, the age of the Earth at 4 1/2 billion years is not enough time for a human to have developed from a chimpanzee or whatever, so that pretty much closes the books, for me, on the notion of evolution as an answer for how humans developed on Earth. There pretty much had to be a creative of guiding hand for us to even exist at all at a level that would even wonder about it.

I don't know anything about "auras". I'm not even sure I have one - at least no one has ever told me they could see it. I never paid much attention to it. It sounds pretty New Age-ey to me.

I've never found my "place in life" or "calling" or whatever you want to call it. Most of the time, I've just done whatever there was to be done. A large part of my life has involved carrying a gun for a living, but there have also been stints as a radio DJ, a warehouseman, a landscaper, a manager, a "team leader" and so on. The best way to put it I reckon is to say that I don't know what I want to do when I grow up... and I'm getting a bit too long in the tooth to make that sort of a decision now, so I just roll with whatever comes along. I'm not rich, never have been, and have never wanted to be - money is just something else to worry over, and life is too short for that kind of foolishness. So I think it is fair to say I'm not "special", except maybe in the short-bus sense of the term.

I don't know what an "indigo child" is, either. That's right up there with auras for me, just some more New-Agey stuff that I'd never be able to comprehend.

On that note, an ex-military friend once told me, "I think that one of the most dangerous and destructive thoughts in our times is that any one person is “special” in any way. That thought is used to justify everything from grotesque greed to heinous acts of mass violence." 

He's absolutely right. There are just too many of us for any one to be "special". Now some folks are rich, and some folks are powerful, but that doesn't make them "special" except in their own eyes. Quite a lot of those "special" folks (rich and/or powerful) have created all manner of misery among human-kind in their quest to gather even MORE riches or power, which they normally have to take from someone or someones else to get. Personally, I think those questing for glory, riches, or power are really doing it out in fear and insecurity. Only fear or insecurity cause one to have a "need" to control everything around them - they're just small children trying to create their own safe space in an unsafe world by trying to make all the other humans do their bidding.

My second wife once told me that all women want is security, and that money equals security, and that was why women sought out rich men or men they though were capable of getting rich. As it turned out, she eventually divorced me because I had no desire at all to be rich or powerful. I have a hard enough time controlling myself - why the hell would I want to control  and micromanage everyone else around me too? Who needs those kinds of headaches?

.

[Ninurta]

---

In my experience, logic and reason are not what leads us to finding and walking into "The Kingdom of Heaven."

Lean not on your own understanding. 

Unless you become like a little child you will never see the Kingdom of heaven.

I dunno. Maybe.

I can say that logic and reason are what brought me to join a church, get baptized, and start studying the Bible all those many years ago. Logic and reason dictate that there has to be something beyond mere random chance, because random chance would not have produced the long string of impossible probabilities that, over several billion years and building one upon the next with the previous one being prerequisite to the development of the next step, led to me even existing.

After having read the religious texts of several religions, logic and reason are what have convinced me that the Bible is the most likely answer to life's questions. It's the only one I've found with any internal consistency at all. Now that is not to say that I am a Christian, because I'm not, despite what Grace may try to tell you. Most of the "Christians" I've been around are not the sort of people I would willingly associate with, and therefore I refuse to take on their name. Most of them, from what I've seen, tend to ignore the bible. Not altogether, mind you - they will pick and choose what they do and don't want to believe, and then make up fantastic rationales for it, while ignoring the rest of the Bible. I've no time for foolishment like that. It's either all or none.

They will read it "wrong", with an eye to "proving" their own pet doctrines. That's not how it works. When they "lean on their own understanding", they are actually just reading the parts they like, and ignoring the parts they don't, and perhaps purposefully misunderstanding the spirit in which any given passage was written. Doing that, they just can't see the cohesiveness of it... and THAT leads them to lead others astray, to place a "stumbling block in their path".

I.e they are not "rightly dividing the word of God". You can't get there from here when you are holding the map upside down.

Regarding "becoming like a little child", I've never grown up, so regression is difficult. Like I said above, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Maybe it would be more precise to say I've never changed from childhood. My Dear Old Dad used to claim that even when I was tiny, I was just a really short adult - in his words, even when I was little, "there wasn't any bullshit about him". So, it may be that I never grew up, OR it may be that I never was a child. In the end, the two may be exactly the same thing.

Nowadays, all my hair and teeth are falling out, and in just a few short years, I'll likely be in diapers again... so there may actually BE a second childhood on the agenda!

If I manage to live long enough, that is...

.

.

[727Sky]

Growing up Southern Baptist with the fire and brimstone preachers sometime around1974 while living in a Buddhist country and liking what I was seeing I sat down and read the new testament until I got to Matthew and read where Christ said he came for the Jews and not the Canaanites... I continued on and read the letters of Paul.... IMO at the time I considered Paul was the one communicating from jail who sent disciples out to recruit the Gentiles. Forgive me as 1974 was a long time ago for me to remember all the details...

Now the reincarnation thingy.

I had a monk tell me we are born 7 times unless you screw up then it is a do over. By the 7th time you have learned all your soul is supposed to learn and you then, upon your death, go to the next plain. What is the next plain no one really knows but is is supposedly something to do with becoming one with the ?????

Have you met people who were dumber than a door knob while others who you were comfortable with or even admired and felt like a great fitting relationship glove. ... You see people with afflictions or just really having a bad life and according to the monk their last life caused much misery to others ... Wonder what Hitler, Pol Pot, or MAO will or have come back as ?

I am supposedly on my 4th life according to the Monk dude and that along with some money will buy me a cup of coffee as the saying goes.... I am not concerned or worried about death or the afterlife as I find most religions which were written down by the hand of man to be nothing more that superstitious beliefs that followed us since we first started asking why as a species..

People and whole religious structures make a living off of the fear of some Sky Fairy or a devil that lives in a pit where your loving Sky fairy father will send you for all eternity if you screw up bad enough...

There is good and protections in most if not all religions as in some cases they regulate and protect the society. There is also some sick shit in many of them..

George had some interesting thoughts on religion and God whether people agree or not.

3-year old Dorothy was playing, then accidentally fell down a flight of stairs. She hit her head and was knocked unconscious. When her parents found her, she wasn't breathing. They called a doctor who rushed over immediately. Dorothy's mother broke down when the doctor said there was nothing he could do. Her little girl was dead. The doctor left and returned an hour later with Dorothy's death certificate and gently discussed arrangements for the little girl's body. But during this conversation, shuffling was heard coming from Dorothy's room. They ran upstairs and there she was, playing in her room like nothing happened. The doctor examined her again. There was no sign of injury. He had no explanation. He said it appeared as if Dorothy had come back from the dead. He didn't realize how right he was.

[MrJesterium]

About Howard Menger; 
However crazy his alien claims were, he spoke the truth when he wrote, "All of us have lived through hundreds of incarnations on various worlds."
Menger distinguished between what he called reborns & reincarnated beings; the former were from a higher world, the latter was a direct rebirth from earth. Like Goethe, he also claimed to have felt irresistably drawn to a woman, Marla, except she was an earth-born.

I sometimes wonder if some of those extra souls aren't really just evil spirits animating human bodies.

There was such a belief embraced by the Druids, that on new moon nights, impure souls competed for bodies, this was how the word "lunatic" was conceived.

From a purely natural selection standpoint, the age of the Earth at 4 1/2 billion years is not enough time for a human to have developed from a chimpanzee or whatever, so that pretty much closes the books, for me, on the notion of evolution as an answer for how humans developed on Earth.

Exactly, a human couldn't have made the giant leap on his own. And that's where Venus comes in. There were allusions in the Bible to a time when man "walked with god", with a race of light-bearers (Isaiah 14:12), or "shining ones" (angels), whose history was duly distorted into the rebellion against heaven, yet the evolved Mind is never at war with itself.

Cusano, or Nicholas of Cusa, wrote:
It may be conjectured that in the area of the sun there exist solar beings, bright and enlightened denizens, and by nature more spiritual than such as may inhabit the moon – who are possibly lunatics – whilst those on earth are more gross and material.

Yesterday, I was just going through some clippings of what my friend Kate told me. She said,

"I believe when it is said that we are created in the creators image it is pertaining to the soul because we are not our body but instead we are our soul. I believe “let there be light” is a much more meaningful sentence or statement. As much of life and everything around us seems to share a similar energy here. One of which I don’t feel in entirety in a few other dimensions. But it is strong here. Maybe because we share that same energy with the plant and animals as with what we are."

Menger claimed, "If two planetary bodies are close in frequency, then, of course, the life forms are visible to each other. The life forms on Venus and Saturn, for example, are visible to each other, and their cultures interchangeable because of the compatible frequencies."

There pretty much had to be a creative of guiding hand for us to even exist at all at a level that would even wonder about it.

My friend Kate once asked me, "Do you ever look at your arm and amazed that you can move it?". I had never before thought about how/why I could effortlessly moved my limbs in an instant.
The amount of time it'd have required for man to perfect his organism, so that it could maintain itself without our supervision, and to internalize his habits, is far longer than some people have erroneously assumed. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli...7/mode/2up

I've never found my "place in life" or "calling" or whatever you want to call it. Most of the time, I've just done whatever there was to be done.

To be fair, and as a rule, most people don't start seeking until their thirties. The reason for this: "many of us who are working here suffer from memory blocks which are unveiled only after we have already become established in a way of life—in my case, married, with children and the attendant obligations." (according to Menger)

Walter Russell claimed, "Great men’s lives begin at forty, where the mediocre man’s life ends." It's never too late for even old men to make a contribution. At age 61, Goethe published his Theory of Colours.

I think you'll find Bertrand Russell to be a relateable companion, he once admitted, "I have imagined myself in turn a Liberal, a Socialist, or a Pacifist, but I have never been any of these things, in any profound sense. Always the sceptical intellect, when I have most wished it silent, has whispered doubts in me..."

The best way to put it I reckon is to say that I don't know what I want to do when I grow up... and I'm getting a bit too long in the tooth to make that sort of a decision now, so I just roll with whatever comes along.

Well, what did you feel drawn to from an early age?

Incidentally, my friend Subject_Pie8529 had told me, "I just share but I sometimes don't look for answers to these experiences. I just go with the flow eventually I get my answers without looking for them."

I can relate to not worrying over money. I was never taught how to make money, finance is completely foreign to me, I don't have the slightest inclination to learn about its management. I think it'd be a better use of my time prioritizing research, even if it means ending up in homelessness.

I abide by two mottos:  "Invest in the future" and "Invest in others".

[DuckforcoveR]

There are just too many of us for any one to be "special".

Damn you Ninurta! I woke up today feeling special and came here to tell everyone about it!

[FlickerOfLight]

I'm going to throw this into this mix. Great conversation. 

For those who look at everything through the Biblical standpoint. 

I believe the 144,000 are going to be reincarnated souls. Sent in the "last days" as part of God's "army." 


Did anyone catch that John thr Baptist was Elijah reincarnated? Jesus himself states this. And remember, John the Baptist was Jesus' cousin.

Reincarnation is literally mentioned in the Bible.
As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written,
“‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way before you.’
For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

This shows John the Baptist was Elijah reincarnated. And John seemed to be completely unaware of it. 
____________
7 lives would be cool. If so, I think I'm on my last one. 

---

So if reincarnation is a thing, where did all those extra souls suddenly come from?

I think it's possible they volunteered to come here from other planets. (Howard Menger)

As a matter of fact, the human population was steadily rising up until the 17th-18th century, after which it experienced an explosive boom. Nature does not make great jumps. (Leibniz) This implies outside interference, emergency measures have been taken by higher powers. It's no coincidence that in the 18th century, there were those heroes throughout Europe who clamored for emancipation from the Church. So it wasn't merely artificial conditions, the lack of birth control, which gave rise to the overpopulation crisis.

An user raised some excellent questions about why the world seems to have come to a halt in regards to AI and Mars exploration. WanderingMrM shared an answer with me: TPTB "are scared to announce the truth, that the age of the universe does not match the time frame required for evolution and development of life based on the scientific time frame and scale/speed at which evolution takes to reach the stage man is at now."

But folks say weird, unfathomable stuff like that to me fairly often. They just come in from nowhere, drop some crazy lines on me, they sky back out into the nowhere they came from. And I never know what the hell they are talking about.

Here's a probable explanation:

A wise lady wrote, "Many of the people who seem to just flow through life have deep inner lives that you cannot see. I have been pleasantly surprised by people that I perceived as superficial dropping the most profound wisdom on me out of nowhere."

But it's also possible that you've encountered angels in human guise, ghosts, or clairvoyants conveying a message they felt prompted to deliver. I collected many of these stories, I noticed the most reoccurring theme was about them looking people in the eye.

Yes. Mostly the homeless, old people, kids, and occasionally women who have managed to get themselves into dangerous situations.

Well, I'll be damned!

Gordon Scallion claimed after awakening his gift and helping out two guys, "People would just arrive at my door. Sometimes it was medical issues and other times it was more to do with personal relationships." He assumed the doctor he had helped sent them his way.

Judy Hevenly's site bio mentions a strange meeting: "Back in London on a rainy night as Judy was walking home from work, a woman suddenly approached her from nowhere. She grabbed her hand and looking in her eyes said ‘you will help many people with your gift.’ Then the lady mysteriously disappeared." After she had an alleged vision of Jesus, she had an inner realization, "after which people out of nowhere sought her help".

An Austrian clairvoyant I interviewed told me,

"I was walking on the street all of a sudden a woman stops by me and stares at me with those weird eyes. She was like 70 years old or so. She spoke broken german - I think she might have been from eastern europe. She stares at me and just says she saw my shiny aura - I should take care of myself because I have something very important to do. Then she went on."

Later, he had a similar realization and "from that day on things in life changed drastically. All of a sudden a lot of positive things started to happened. I walk down to the washing room but realized I don't have any coins for the washer, an old lady comes in and ask if I need 2 euros to start it up. Random people on the street ask me for help, not the usual suspects who want some money from you. And I help, without any motives, just happy to be of any help."

In a removed story, I read about how an user was told by a teen boy that he didn't like hanging around her because her aura was very dark and clouded. "Now, as an adult, I get all sorts of strange people asking me for help, and I've been told my aura is a sky blue with bits of indigo."

Life gets weird some times. Just roll with it... and if you ever find out what an "old soul" is, let me know - it'll clear up one more of life's little mysteries for me!

Basically, all children are old souls who have had the experience of countless lifetimes behind them. It's just that they do not receive opportunities for rousing their latent knowledge or lack a stimulus to activity. Goethe was unable to remember his past life until he had visited Italy and observed Roman replicas of the Greek statues, he reproduce them from memory.
___

They are here to develop their talents, find their place in life, and to serve life - development - their fellow man, their community (in the widest sense). Many people have told me how they felt like it was a duty, an obligation.

"My life is better when I just listen and do instead of fighting it or disbelieving it. It’s hit me over the head too many times, saved me from terrible situations, made me unexpected money and been there when no one else is."

In an interview, Thomas Mesereau said, "I was one of those “lost souls” who spent considerable time wandering through the wilderness before finding my calling... During one illuminating moment, approximately twenty five years ago, I realized that civil rights and criminal defense were for me."

My American inventor friend wrote, "Imposter syndrome might mean you're in the wrong place, even if you are performing well. Why do I say this? I'm realizing that to some degree, I went down the wrong path... Had I listened to the little part of me that felt like an imposter, I would have discovered sooner that I was going down a path that wasn't what I actually wanted."
___

It's a mistake for people to speak of "indigo children". People seem to have the misconception that being an "old soul" has to do with feeling older than they are, feeling heavier. Goethe was an old soul yet he behaved like a kid after meeting Ulrike von Levetzow.

On that note, an ex-military friend once told me, "I think that one of the most dangerous and destructive thoughts in our times is that any one person is “special” in any way. That thought is used to justify everything from grotesque greed to heinous acts of mass violence."

There is so much wisdom right here. You've covered everything beautifully, so I'm gonna let it stand as is. 

The claims made here are things I've learned through my experiences in life. I do not have this knowledge from books. I obtained ot through my walk.

Thanks, MrJesterium. You've added great insights into the conversation. 

As have you all. It's in viewing every angle that we can start to see things clearly. I just had to let go of all the lies I've been fed.

---

---

In my experience, logic and reason are not what leads us to finding and walking into "The Kingdom of Heaven."

Lean not on your own understanding. 

Unless you become like a little child you will never see the Kingdom of heaven.

I dunno. Maybe.

I can say that logic and reason are what brought me to join a church, get baptized, and start studying the Bible all those many years ago. Logic and reason dictate that there has to be something beyond mere random chance, because random chance would not have produced the long string of impossible probabilities that, over several billion years and building one upon the next with the previous one being prerequisite to the development of the next step, led to me even existing.

After having read the religious texts of several religions, logic and reason are what have convinced me that the Bible is the most likely answer to life's questions. It's the only one I've found with any internal consistency at all. Now that is not to say that I am a Christian, because I'm not, despite what Grace may try to tell you. Most of the "Christians" I've been around are not the sort of people I would willingly associate with, and therefore I refuse to take on their name. Most of them, from what I've seen, tend to ignore the bible. Not altogether, mind you - they will pick and choose what they do and don't want to believe, and then make up fantastic rationales for it, while ignoring the rest of the Bible. I've no time for foolishment like that. It's either all or none.

They will read it "wrong", with an eye to "proving" their own pet doctrines. That's not how it works. When they "lean on their own understanding", they are actually just reading the parts they like, and ignoring the parts they don't, and perhaps purposefully misunderstanding the spirit in which any given passage was written. Doing that, they just can't see the cohesiveness of it... and THAT leads them to lead others astray, to place a "stumbling block in their path".

I.e they are not "rightly dividing the word of God". You can't get there from here when you are holding the map upside down.

Regarding "becoming like a little child", I've never grown up, so regression is difficult. Like I said above, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Maybe it would be more precise to say I've never changed from childhood. My Dear Old Dad used to claim that even when I was tiny, I was just a really short adult - in his words, even when I was little, "there wasn't any bullshit about him". So, it may be that I never grew up, OR it may be that I never was a child. In the end, the two may be exactly the same thing.

Nowadays, all my hair and teeth are falling out, and in just a few short years, I'll likely be in diapers again... so there may actually BE a second childhood on the agenda!

If I manage to live long enough, that is...

.

.

Faith is the exact opposite of logic and reason. We have to set our minds free to have "faith" that can say to a mountain "go into the sea," and it be done. 

Logic and reason would never heal the sick or cast out a demon, simply by saying a word.

Human understanding is logic and reason. Faith goes beyond what we know. It just depends on how much Faith a person puts into it. If you don't believe something like, say, speaking in tongues. If you don't "believe in ot" then it will never happen. If we don't believe we can lay hands on a person and heal then then we won't ever do it. 

Faith is the opposite of experience and knowledge. 

I put my faith into, "I don't know squat." Once I let go of my intelligence my eyes really started to open.

You're dad claiming that you were like an adult when you were a child is what some would call an "old soul." Wisdom beyond their years is one indicator. That wisdom had to come from somewhere. Wisdom comes from experience. A three year old who seems to have the wisdom of an old man is a soul who has had a lot of experience. I've seen thos wisdom myself in some children. This isn't intelligence in these kids. It's pure wisdom. I've heard small children who were wiser than any 78 year old I've ever known. How could this be possible without that soul having some experience within?

Our spirits are eternal. I think some of us choose to come back. Bodhisattva-Style.

All of this is a learning experience for me. I used to be set in my "beliefs." Then I realized, my "beliefs" were shackles of my mind. I actually went back and unlearned everything that was taught to me by man, and relearned everything I thought I knew. This is when those doors started opening for me. It was in the freeing of my mind from all the lies and bs I had been taught through this world. If this is the devil's world then everything I've been taught by it is a lie. I drudged through all of those lies like walking through the dark with only a FlickerOfLight to guide me every so often into the right direction. The light gets brighter and brighter the more I let go of all those boundaries thrown on me through the "church," this world and all my experiences.

If a person needed factual proof to "believe" in things like this, then that individual will never find anything beyond the black, white and red letters.

I know that you are one who is highly intelligent and experienced. I know you hold great earthly wisdoms from those experiences. To become like a little child would be to "let go" of all of that and look at God through those child eyes that, yes, are still within you. Go back and re-look at God's Word through those eyes, and you will see the Word of God come Alive.

I thank you for your view on this. I know that I seem to constantly go head to head with ya. Iron sharpens iron. I know where to sharpen. Tons of respect for ya. This is simply my view and I appreciate the discussion. You make me think, and every conversation with you sharpens me.

Cheers.

[Ninurta]

There are just too many of us for any one to be "special".

Damn you Ninurta! I woke up today feeling special and came here to tell everyone about it!

You're "special" like I am - we're riding the short bus, sitting in the back throwing paper wads!

.

[FlickerOfLight]

There are just too many of us for any one to be "special".

Damn you Ninurta! I woke up today feeling special and came here to tell everyone about it!

You're "special" like I am - we're riding the short bus, sitting in the back throwing paper wads!

.

Lol. I'm of the same tribe.

In no way do I think I'm "special." You can take a look at my life. It's obvious. My life has been a shit show of bad decisions, and f*** ups. I'm smart, but very very stupid at fge same time. So, no. I do not think I am special. 

I think everyone is special. Every person has a story to tell, and every single one of us matter. It doesn't matter the race, religion, creed or what planet they're from. Every one of us was made in the image of God. I don't think like the world thinks. I don't think in the smartest most experienced person in the room. I know everyone has something to add. Some are just void of love. Anyone who has love in their hearts is "special" because they are a part of the most special thing in all of creation. Love.

But no. I am a foot washer. I am salt of the earth. 

I'm just paying attention to what I see. I share my story, because it's all I have.

[Ninurta]

Faith is the exact opposite of logic and reason. We have to set our minds free to have "faith" that can say to a mountain "go into the sea," and it be done. 

Logic and reason would never heal the sick or cast out a demon, simply by saying a word.

Human understanding is logic and reason. Faith goes beyond what we know. It just depends on how much Faith a person puts into it. If you don't believe something like, say, speaking in tongues. If you don't "believe in ot" then it will never happen. If we don't believe we can lay hands on a person and heal then then we won't ever do it. 

Faith is the opposite of experience and knowledge. 

I put my faith into, "I don't know squat." Once I let go of my intelligence my eyes really started to open.

I was taught that faith is knowing without seeing. Not "Believing" without seeing, which is a different, lower,   level of certainty, but KNOWING without seeing. To KNOW, with a certainty, without external "proof". I personally think (a yet lower level of certainty than "believe") that God uses many paths to draw God's own., and whatever path God may use for that purpose is tailored to the individual God is drawing. I believe that there are no "one size fits all" solutions. It takes different "bait" to draw different folks, each according to his own preferences.

You're dad claiming that you were like an adult when you were a child is what some would call an "old soul." Wisdom beyond their years is one indicator. That wisdom had to come from somewhere. Wisdom comes from experience. A three year old who seems to have the wisdom of an old man is a soul who has had a lot of experience. I've seen thos wisdom myself in some children. This isn't intelligence in these kids. It's pure wisdom. I've heard small children who were wiser than any 78 year old I've ever known. How could this be possible without that soul having some experience within?

I agree with you that "intelligence" and "wisdom" are two entirely separate things. "Intelligence" is a native measure of one's capacity to learn, while "wisdom" is the correlation and expression of the things learned by the intelligence through experience. Therefore, one has to "learn" some things and process them through the "intelligence" before "wisdom" can extract and express lessons from what is learned. Little kids have not had the time for all that learning and experience, and any wisdom they display has to come from somewhere external to their perceived (lack of) experience which has not had time to happen.

Our spirits are eternal. I think some of us choose to come back. Bodhisattva-Style.

I'm certain that spirit is eternal. It's the "coming back" part that many folks, myself included, tend to get stuck on. Science has yet to crack the code of "consciousness", and there is a reason for that. Science tends to operate on empirical observation, and there are just some things that will never volunteer to jump through hoops to provide that observation. I used to tell folks that "God doesn't dance like a trained monkey just because you want to crank the organ" A crude observation on my part, but I am convinced an accurate one.

I personally think that "consciousness" or "soul" or "spirit" - whatever one wants to call the essential part of us that makes us ourselves - is actually external to the body and "eternal" in it's essential nature. Where science tends toward thinking that the "self" is created within the brain, I am convinced it is external to the brain, part of a mysterious "out there" that most never get the opportunity to see while living. I think that the body is just a vehicle for the soul, and the brain is the "conduit" or "receiver" that processes the soul and binds it to this or that body for a time.

I liken it to a radio receiver to try to help folks understand - you cannot see a radio signal, but when it is received and processed via a radio receiver, you then know it is there. The radio signal is not generated by the radio, it is just captured, "tuned in", and expressed by the radio receiver. Beyond the receiver, it still IS, but cannot be seen. When you turn off the radio, the signal does not cease to exist, it only ceases to be expressed via that particular receiver.. That is also the way of things with "spirit".

All of this is a learning experience for me. I used to be set in my "beliefs." Then I realized, my "beliefs" were shackles of my mind. I actually went back and unlearned everything that was taught to me by man, and relearned everything I thought I knew. This is when those doors started opening for me. It was in the freeing of my mind from all the lies and bs I had been taught through this world. If this is the devil's world then everything I've been taught by it is a lie. I drudged through all of those lies like walking through the dark with only a FlickerOfLight to guide me every so often into the right direction. The light gets brighter and brighter the more I let go of all those boundaries thrown on me through the "church," this world and all my experiences.

If a person needed factual proof to "believe" in things like this, then that individual will never find anything beyond the black, white and red letters.

That's absolutely true. "Proof" is anathema to "faith", "proof" destroys "faith", for when we have proof, faith ("knowing without SEEING") is no longer necessary. That may be why proof is so elusive for scientists New experience brings question to knowledge, and that is why proof often dodges and escapes us - it would destroy our chance to have faith if captured. "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." - 1 Corinthians 13:12

I know that you are one who is highly intelligent and experienced. I know you hold great earthly wisdoms from those experiences. To become like a little child would be to "let go" of all of that and look at God through those child eyes that, yes, are still within you. Go back and re-look at God's Word through those eyes, and you will see the Word of God come Alive.

I thank you for your view on this. I know that I seem to constantly go head to head with ya. Iron sharpens iron. I know where to sharpen. Tons of respect for ya. This is simply my view and I appreciate the discussion. You make me think, and every conversation with you sharpens me.

Cheers.

I don't know how "intelligent" I am. I just know what I know, until I don't know it any more and have to readjust. New experience brings question to knowledge, and some times that knowledge has to be adjusted in light of new experience. It's a life-long process. Maybe longer than "life", if we have to keep coming back again to "learn" more stuff. Some things, by their very nature, cannot be grabbed, poked, prodded, and analyzed. Those things require faith, whether the faith is for or against them - they cannot be "proven" in either direction. God - and "spirit" - does not jump through hoops on command for our amusement and verification, so absolute "proof" of some things will forever elude science. Those things then have to be "taken on faith".

Growth only comes through adversity, and that continues into the realms of "knowledge" as well. That is also often the answer to the question of "Why me? Why does God allow bad things to happen?" They happen because without adversity there is no growth.

So, you are welcome to spar with me. The "adversity" it provides doesn't just promote your own growth, but mine as well, and hopefully, the growth of those who read and consider such exchanges. That's why I insist on all views being allowed to be aired here, ESPECIALLY those I may not agree with - the free exchange of ideas. Without the adversity that provides, there is no growth intellectually, either.

"Adversaries" are not necessarily "enemies".

Stagnation is for ponds, not people!

ETA: Folks should also consider that some times, I will take a stance that I know to be false or untrue. I do that at times in order to force someone to defend their beliefs, so that they can be sure they know what they believe, and why they know it. Too many people these days only know what they are told to believe, without analyzing it. They do not "know what they believe", they only "know" what they are told to believe, without questioning it. So, some times I will force them to question it, so that their faith in what they know has a firmer foundation that they can express and defend.

I'm sometimes an asshole like that.

.

[FlickerOfLight]

I've got all kinds of "amens" for you on that last post, Ninurta. You hit so many notes that I am in rune with; in a manner of speaking. 

First off, yes, different paths and what works for one does not work for the other. Not everyone was meant to heal others, or search the depths amd heights of the Kingdom of heaven. God himself says that he is the Potter and we are the clay. And that he does make some "pots" for special use. I took that as exactly what you've stated. We all have different paths. 

I've always said, "None of us are as smart as all of us." An old saying I picked up somewhere. But yes, I truly learn from listening to other people's stories and hearing their wisdom of those experiences. I do well with teaching myself, sure. But, I am only elevated when I hear someone else's  pov  or thoughts on it. This is the only reason I utilize this site like this. Everyone here gets me thinking in a new direction. Together we are quite brilliant. This is why it is so important for "evil" to divide us.

You also stated how you learn and re-learn as you grow. I fully agree. Every time I think I've got something figured out, I learn or see some new angle and "adjusting" what I know.

With this reincarnation, I really don't know. All I can say is it is a very powerful feeling. One that I've even had a vision or two about, and it started when I was young. I the vision I can even smell the bombs. I can feel the heat from the blasts around me.  This has stuck with me for a long time. I am only now considering the possibility. 

I look to the Word of God in all of these matters. I can see where the Bible backs up reincarnation; at least to some extent, and at least for some people. I actually don't think we all reincarnate. But, I don't really know. I can see it as a definite possibility even through the Bible, as well as all of the lost books about God.

I have looked at all of this through the eyes of different cultures. I see the scattered wisdom of the mysteries of God spread out through us all. I tried  not to look at any of it from a purely western vantage point.  History of the west showed me not to trust what I've been taught here. I looked beyond those borders of religion and geography. I believe God's wisdom is spread out evenly through us all. Mash it together and I think we hit the truth.

[Ninurta]

I have looked at all of this through the eyes of different cultures. I see the scattered wisdom of the mysteries of God spread out through us all. I tried  not to look at any of it from a purely western vantage point.  History of the west showed me not to trust what I've been taught here. I looked beyond those borders of religion and geography. I believe God's wisdom is spread out evenly through us all. Mash it together and I think we hit the truth.

It's funny you should mention that. Recently, in a private communication (one sparked by this very thread, as a matter of fact), I mentioned that I've made a study of "Near Death Experiences" or "NDEs" in order to tease out any information they might contain. I noticed that in many of them, though not all - as well as many more "visions" folks have had without the benefit of dying to get them - a "figure" appears to them on "the other side", or wherever it is they travel to.

That figure seems to be the same person in all cases, but it never identifies itself, seemingly preferring to just let the individual assume it's identity. Christians tend to identify it as "Jesus", where Muslims tend to identify it as "Mohammed" or more usually "the Imam" or some other such like figure from Islam... Hindus tend to identify it as "Vishnu" or "Krishna", Buddhists as "the Buddha" and nonaligned "New Agers" as "a spirit guide". I don't know what Jews would identify it as, although if we take the vision at Gethsemane into account as an example of it, then perhaps they would identify it as "Elijah" or "Moses"... but in all cases it seems to be the same figure, but identified by the individual experiencing it in the way most comfortable and identifiable to themselves.

And so far, in any legitimate NDE, it has never identified itself, but rather allowed the individual to identify it in the way most comfortable to themselves.

Now, whether these NDEs and visions are real, concrete experiences or just the imaginings of a dying or troubled mind is up for grabs. I reckon it's just another of those things that has to be "taken on faith". In any event, there seems to be quite a lot of correlating and similar experiences in them reported across all faiths, of which this figure appearing is just one more commonality.

So, you may be on to something there.

.

[FlickerOfLight]

I have looked at all of this through the eyes of different cultures. I see the scattered wisdom of the mysteries of God spread out through us all. I tried  not to look at any of it from a purely western vantage point.  History of the west showed me not to trust what I've been taught here. I looked beyond those borders of religion and geography. I believe God's wisdom is spread out evenly through us all. Mash it together and I think we hit the truth.

It's funny you should mention that. Recently, in a private communication (one sparked by this very thread, as a matter of fact), I mentioned that I've made a study of "Near Death Experiences" or "NDEs" in order to tease out any information they might contain. I noticed that in many of them, though not all - as well as many more "visions" folks have had without the benefit of dying to get them - a "figure" appears to them on "the other side", or wherever it is they travel to.

That figure seems to be the same person in all cases, but it never identifies itself, seemingly preferring to just let the individual assume it's identity. Christians tend to identify it as "Jesus", where Muslims tend to identify it as "Mohammed" or more usually "the Imam" or some other such like figure from Islam... Hindus tend to identify it as "Vishnu" or "Krishna", Buddhists as "the Buddha" and nonaligned "New Agers" as "a spirit guide". I don't know what Jews would identify it as, although if we take the vision at Gethsemane into account as an example of it, then perhaps they would identify it as "Elijah" or "Moses"... but in all cases it seems to be the same figure, but identified by the individual experiencing it in the way most comfortable and identifiable to themselves.

And so far, in any legitimate NDE, it has never identified itself, but rather allowed the individual to identify it in the way most comfortable to themselves.

Now, whether these NDEs and visions are real, concrete experiences or just the imaginings of a dying or troubled mind is up for grabs. I reckon it's just another of those things that has to be "taken on faith". In any event, there seems to be quite a lot of correlating and similar experiences in them reported across all faiths, of which this figure appearing is just one more commonality.

So, you may be on to something there.

.

That's really interesting. 

God himself says he has many names. Every text or scroll over studied it said throughout that the Lord has many names. The book of revelation, when "jesus" is riding on that horse it says he has many names, one of which no one knows. Even in the lesser key of Solomon it's states that God has several names. One of which no one can say with guidance from the Spirit (I believe he is actually referring to the Holy Spirit). No matter where I've looked I see different names. Enoch refers to God the Father as "The Lord of the spirits." He is referred to in many different ways. So, I can see Him having different "inages." I can see it being a familiar form, designed to each individual. That all makes perfect sense, and aligns with every text I've ever seen.

I've had two visions. One in a dream and one fully awake. I couldn't see who was in that Light. I just felt the presence of the Lord, in what "felt like" the Jesus I know. I've witnessed the devil trick me into believing he was God. I've seen how that works. 

The Bible does state that we will all stand before the Lord. I imagine He will be the first person we all see. I some shape or form.

I am coming to the conclusion that our spirits are created before our journey through this life. The coup in heaven happened and so every spirit needs to be tested, and refined. Time and pressure. If our brains store our consciousness, then when our spirit detaches from our bodies then all of those memories would cease to exist. The brain dies, and so would the memories. I would think, anyways. 

If this is so, then the spirit would have to retain some memory. We would have to carry those memories with us in some way. If we face judgement then we would definitely need the memories to go with us into the next life.

I think in reincarnation those memories are wiped from our former lives. Unless we dig deep enough and stumble across the weird, like I always seem to do. 

---

The planes looked something like this.




There are American bombers, I believe. In the vision it was never clear what army I was in.

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

It's like that movie with Bill Murray, Ground Hog Day, down to the details. I hate doing the same shit over and over, because I'm not sure what I may have missed the first time around.

Maybe, just maybe, I can remember enough to know what to expect on the next go-around and not have to ask why did I do the same shit once again.

[p358]

Consider that re-incarnation is supposed to be the journey of life through the levels of animals.

So you start at perhaps a possum, move up next time to an otter, then to a rabbit, followed by sheep, cow and finally you get to start on the carnivores. Eventually you get to human.

However there are now too many humans and those humans have been wiping out the other carnivores.

So!

Some souls are moving up the scale far too fast.

Next time you are out, look at the people.  Can you spot the ones that were a cow last time.  There are many many sheep out there and of course we can all identify those that were goats last time.


Have fun looking around next time you are out and about.

P