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Unless you believe that the soul is somehow damaged during an abortion (given a belief in reincarnation) or that it causes a lot of suffering, I think the final legitimate concern from an utilitarian, non-essentialist and non-reincarnation standpoint is that the fetus is somehow "robbed of life". In my opinion, this comes from an irrational impulse of anthropomorphization (although granted, the fetus is technically a human), in the sense that the fetus in its current state doesn't have a "life" yet in terms of immediate impact on and manifestation in the world (a sense of self, personality, interpersonal relationships, a carbon footprint etc.). On the other hand, there is reason why you hesitate pulling the plug on somebody on a life support. It isn't primarily due to the fear that you think they will suffer a painful death, but it's rather because you recognize that they're a fully "realized" being with a life. They have acquired attachments, experiences, identities, and they're emotionally invested in a story, and that is what is actually keeping you from wanting to end your own life.

I have been able to still feel cold while sleeping in a cold room. But, I don’t know if that applies to general anesthesia. What if there is a consciousness so deep that you can’t remember it? That seems to be suggested by the reincarnation model, in that, we can’t remember our consciousness in a past life or before we were born, but advanced Buddhist monks can access these experiences through meditation.

thank you i always enjoy your questions and i'm glad you liked that even if a little off topic ... evidence is scientific materialist paradigm, it is intellectual game, only works up to 500 level of consciousness truth is radically subjective and has to be found within in any case, i am still pretty new on the spiritual quest so most of the time what i write is just trying to make sense of stuff i am hearing within i am no authority except to myself karma and reincarnation seem wholly obvious from all insights i have gotten karma is simply as you sow so you reap, fruit may not even come this life time but it certainly comes, existence keeps track of every little thing so love is always the better choice compared to fear

@gettoefl beautiful. I love osho. You spoke earlier about karma and reincarnation.. What evidence do you have of reincarnation?

I would say that it happens to you as if you are anesthetized with propofol but eternally. you disappear, period. the question is, what are you now? I would say that you are nothing more than a point of view, an experience, something apparent. All your history is nothing, like an hologram. You turn it of and it's done. I do not get to the bottom of the question, that would be enlightened, but I sense it. the absolute that you really are continues as always, being. Well, not continue, here is the difficult part, there is no continuity because it does not happen in the time, and because it really is nothing. So how anything apparently occurs? How an experience happens from the no experience? what I don't understand is why all enlightened masters speak of reincarnation. who is reincarnated?

One of the most honest expressions about death, which resonates with me: The essence of who you are is beyond death. That comes out of inner realization. I don’t know much beyond that. You’ll have to wait and see when you actually die. - Eckhart Tolle Reincarnation, near death experiences, ghosts, etc. are all possible, but still they are bound by relative reality. Ultimately, does it matter? We are all the same Consciousness, dreaming, in different states of awareness. When you realize that, the rules reveal the game itself.

And as it has been since before the era of the great empires... Romans, Vikings, Aztecs, Egyptions, etc... throughout history the elites have struggled with ways to keep the masses under control. Is reality a simulation? Are we souls incarnating in a playground that we created because oneness became too boring? You're assuming God cares about the end result of this simulation... whether the economy collapses or not, whether Cuban rebels get slaughtered or not... if there is karma, and reincarnation, it's meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Our species will be long extinct before the sun goes Red Giant in our simulation, which is but the blink of an eye in the entirety of "existence." Now, don't forget that the extended warranty on your car is about to expire! "As I was saying, the solution to our real enemy--boredom--turned out to be mortality. There were practical reasons for this. God pondered over a concept which eventually came to be known as time. Because in order to beget a damn thing outside of Source, there had to be an artificial construct to build into as well as the possibility of a beginning and an ending to act as bookends. In other words, it had to be finite or it would not solve the problem of a reprieve away from eternity and infinity. Sometimes infinity is a pain in the ass, and no one knew this better than God." We we need to do is figure out a way to crash the simulation. Chuckle. Maybe hijack the operating system and learn to re-code the program to suit our needs.. not just DNA which we will have mastered within 100 years but some of the basic laws of nature... at that point we can travel to distant "planets" within the simulation.

You can ALWAYS stop playing games such as: - Validation - Loneliness - Being right or wrong - Heaven and hell - Reincarnation - 'Soul contracts' - Life being a school or a test - Reptilian overlords - Past and future - Spiral Dynamics - Chakras - Being a human being inhabitating planet Earth - Science - Being a man - Being a woman TRUTH EXISTS BEYOND THE GAMES

It means that reincarnation is not what you think it is.

Hilarious attempts at rationalizing away evidence for reincarnation by practitioners of scientism: The scientific method just doesn't apply to this. You can't do an experiment using the current version of the scientific method, and prove that someone's soul reincarnates. You also can't prove with current methodology that it does not. I love how that makes these guys sweat and squirm and resort to hypocrisy and fallacies. The eggheaded guy criticized that reincarnation researchers are biased because they want it to be real. Then proceeded to set up an experiment with the goal to prove that it is not real? The experiment involved getting children to make up stories, and seeing if those correlate just as well with people that have existed. Then they picked only the stories that seemed to be very specific, linked them to a real person, and said "Tada, a made-up story is just as easily linked to a person that really existed". Conveniently ignoring that memories and imagination are very similar, especially children often mix them up. He didn't prove that telling the child to make up a story didn't trigger a past memory in her. That's what it clearly looks like to me. And the older devil: "We lost the Christian narrative that helped us cope with the mystery of death, and so we find patterns in perceptions, and pick and choose ideas that give us comfort . [And so that's why we needed the idea of reincarnation]" (notice how the choice of words makes it sound pathetic) LOL? Scientists do the exact same thing, but word it a bit differently. And they don't even see HOW it is the exact same thing. We lost the narrative that the atom is solid, which helped us understand (helped us cope with the mystery of) life, and so we find patterns in perceptions, and pick and choose new models that make sense to us (give us comfort/the illusion of complete understanding). [and now we have (that's why we needed) string theory / quantum physics] We lost the narrative that the sun spins around the earth, that made us uncomfortable, so then we looked around (measured a bunch of stuff, which is just perception with arbitrarily chosen sensors), and needed a new story to make us comfortable again. So interesting and devilish how they just reword the same process, to make it sound pathetic. I used to believe this scientism crap, not too long ago?

Hilarious attempts at rationalizing away evidence for reincarnation by practitioners of scientism: The eggheaded guy criticized that reincarnation researchers are biased because they want it to be real. Then proceeded to set up an experiment with the goal to prove that it is not real? The experiment involved getting children to make up stories, and seeing if those correlate just as well with people that have existed. Then they picked only the stories that seemed to be very specific, linked them to a real person, and said "Tada, a made-up story is just as easily linked to a person that really existed". Conveniently ignoring that memories and imagination are very similar, especially children often mix them up. He didn't prove that telling the child to make up a story didn't trigger a past memory in her. To me, it clearly did. And the older devil: "We lost the Christian narrative that helped us cope with the mystery of death, and so we find patterns in perceptions, and pick and choose ideas that give us comfort . [And so that's why we needed the idea of reincarnation]" LOL? Scientists do the exact same thing, but word it a bit differently. And they don't even see HOW it is the exact same thing. We lost the narrative that the atom is solid, which helped us understand (helped us cope with the mystery of) life, and so we find patterns in perceptions, and pick and choose new models that make sense to us (give us comfort/the illusion of complete understanding). [and now we have (that's why we needed) string theory / quantum physics] So interesting and devilish how they just reword the same process, to make it sound pathetic. I used to believe this scientism crap, not too long ago? It's very sneaky. They use the fact that "in believing this, they take great comfort" as a way to discredit it. Conveniently ignoring (or not knowing) that how a belief feels is a good indicator to how closely it aligns with truth. What a great deception! I pity these people now (of whom I was one) who force themselves to believe things that are very uncomfortable and cause great suffering to believe. Just because they got brainwashed into thinking that that is the correct way. Same with hell. "If you have anal sex, a bearded man in the sky will make sure you burn eternally". Does that feel comfortable to believe? Nope. So the comfort argument really doesn't fly as a way to discredit religion. That is a good song tho. Bro... If people who died and came back right away (the ones who had a near-death experience, of which many, many great recontations can be found in Shaman Oaks's youtube channel) remember that tunnel, AND children who were recently born remember that tunnel, then how stupid is it to say that the tunnel doesn't exist? That's like saying planets don't exist because you never looked through a telescope, and people who look through telescopes are crazy. And "it brings them great comfort" to look through telescopes and believe that we're not the only planet. ? Interesting parallel: if you die a violent death, your reincarnation remembers your past life better. If you are violently awoken from sleep, you remember your dream better. Do animals know the things they miraculously know (how to do their mating ritual, how to fly around the earth and navigate during winter trek, I'm sure there are better examples) because all of them die violent deaths again and again, and so they compensate their lack of brain size with being able to retain memory and learn across lifespans? Also what's interesting to me that in these reincarnation stories, the kids stopped remembering from the age they went to school. What would we remember if we didn't force-feed information to our children?

Given that there's a pattern of children remembering their past lives, and talking about them as soon as they learn to talk (I just checked some documentaries), also past life regressions seem to work well, so that points to reincarnation being real. At least at the level where you and I are real. Also, they remember how they died. Which is remarkable, because most 5 year olds don't even know about death

@Chrisd Thanks for the link. You got to the point that disturbs my mind on this question. "only the Soul (The Self)" Sometimes I read that there is no self. Sometimes I read that there is memory in the body (Runanubandha). If our body is a composition of so many cells, and the cells die, ok ... But all the "learning" must keep going in a "personal" level. For me this would be the self somehow. @Endangered-EGO That the really hard question, I agree. After so many videos from Leo and other experiences and sources, I understand that consciousness is the "material" of everything and that everything is happening inside of consciousness. I think I get this point. But the division that makes us different beings is still hard for me, specially when we say that we are all the same God imagining this. @Gianna Does it mean that there is no reincarnation at all?

There is a precedent for this, ie what was my awareness or aliveness like before I was born or even conceived? Mind you, my earliest memories only go back to 4 y/o so it's a hopeless quest. Do babies even feel alive until they develop a sense of me & other? People who believe in reincarnation usually follow up with an explanation that most of us forget our previous lives unless we have hypnosis or advanced spirituality. I do think however that the quality of consciousness is related to the physical form, humans are different physically to other animals, so our consciousness is different. If inanimate objects like crystals are also conscious, it will be different again. The question is, what if anything is the feeling of "me-ness" which endures changes in forms?

It's not really reincarnation. How can you reincarnate if you are not alive nor dead? It is really just a change in perspective and limitations.

Hey Tim, thanks for your reply. Your question made me look to a few definitions and reflect upon them. In the video, Leo talk about the realization that everything is the soul, even a tree is the soul. I think this means the realization of no Self. But I can't understand how this is a contrast with the reincarnation aspect. If we need to learn more and more throughout lives, something needs to keep holding this accumulated knowledge. And it's not the 37 million cells or much more than that in my understanding.

I went through Green when I was somewhere around 15 years old. idk what to say about it, Greens will Green. Had a left/socialist bias. Was deep into chakras/vibrations/meditation/non-physical/etc.. Listened to gurus a lot. Believed in reincarnation. Believed "Green perspective, best perspective". Wasn't sceptical enough. Slightly too radical & idealistic. Etc. Wish people would be more specific when making such bold assertions. There are barely any tier 2s on the forum (or anywhere else), so I'm misunderstood constantly. Close to 100% of the time, really. But anything tier 2 will be misunderstood, 100% of the time. So everything is as should be. Maybe you missed it, but I did say the sensitivity and censorship are likely non-issues. They're a necessary step for humanity's progression to tier 2. Hard to say as progress is exponential, and future technologies can affect rate of development. But yeah, I think even the most developed countries won't be Yellow for a few more centuries.

Context: Free Will vs Determinism - Does Free Will Exist? My quick and short take/interpretation about the video above to get to the question: We are the output of 37 trillions of cells that together make extremely complex decisions. Ok, so Leo (as in the videos): what is the "I", the "self", in this system(brain+body) that reincarnates? PS: I'm considering that usually the teachings in Leo's videos go along with Buddhism, Karma, enlightenment, and other subjects like this. I imagine I can make the assumption that reincarnation is part of the equation, even that I never saw a video from Leo specifically about the subject. Thank you for reading, appreciate any good ideas, links or comments to help me with this inquiring.

@machiavelliThe whole point of asking what does God look like ignores the point whether there is such a thing(looking like a human or otherwise). You choose to assume there is a God because you assume the religions are fully right. I ask, Have you heard about LEO? The latest God in town. Leo controls every frickin thing in the universe. Leo is omnipotent, omniscient, omniwhatever. Leo makes every man and woman wet. Leo is all powerful, pervading, origin of the universe, killer of the evil, upholder of the virtues, master of humans, freedom bringer, the prophet, a spiritual missile penetrating everybody's heart, the great sacrifice. the reincarnation, the caliph, the light bringer, the king of kings...................... but do you know what Leo actually is? All the things above are words. You don't know what Leo actually is.

Buddha admitted the existence of higher dimensional beings but he said they are not worthy of worship as they too are entangled to samsara and reincarnation. Brahma has form. He has three heads . Its brahman who is formless . By definition God is Infinity and is everything. Nothing exist except god. So god is universe/multiverse , birds, mountain, stones, walls, trees, curtains etc So why we limit him in finite form when he is formless and infinite.

If one is dead and knows it, then no one is dead. If one is dead and doesn’t know it, then no one is dead. If you mean after death of the body? This assumes time is real. It isn’t. In the dream of time in a very concession oriented way you could say there’s apparent reincarnation, but not separate from this — even that’s not strictly true though. This is already everything — separation of any kind is an illusion. One thing is for sure: you have nothing to worry about. The purpose of everything is literally what you are.

Why not make for a living with high quality content, like Leo? To bring into this confused world even more confusion is not good for karma. She won´t have it as good as me in one of her reincarnation in 100 years.

So let´s draw conclusion of what I´ve learned. Not exactly learned, I might have known it already intuitively but I wanted to hear it from a man. And now I did. For men there are 2 cathegories of women: 1. Women making impression of being IN control of their feelings 2. Women making impression of being OUT of control of their feelings To a group No. 1 they want to build a perfect relationship. This one: "It is commitment. Dedication. Loyalty. Sacrifice. It is a sacred partnership." (Ridiculous.. but Hulia, please stay matter-of-factly, we are exploring) To a group No. 2 they want fuck and talk. If you think of some popular movies, like "Lucifer" for example or "Helen and the boys", these are always the most rigid and biased women who get the best men. (And of course always blonde) By the way, now I understand why the guys of this forum post the anti-male videos of Till Swan. She is a perfect dream-woman for a perfect dream-relationship. She knows everything about relationships. What can go wrong? These are the things like they are and there is nothing to do about it. It´s like a virus hitting all men, even the smartes ones. In one of my reincarnation maybe in 100 years the mindset will change. And my strong wish presently will be the reason of this change. I´ll get what I want but it takes longer.

Why do Buddhists say there can be freedom from the cycle of birth and death? It is freedom from the carrousel of thoughts, which no one ever exits. It is a reference to thought activity, not a reincarnation of separate selves. The ‘wheel’: Subject object thoughts. Self referential thoughts.

Yup, as the mystics before me pointed out: "Death is 'a stripping away' of 'all' that is 'not-you'. The secret of life is 'to die before you die' and realize there is no death". I already knew that before my last DMT trip -- and not 'knew' as 'in belief', but as in: I have directly died many times already, i.e. transitioned from 'selfish states of consciousness' to states of 'Eternal Love, Empty Consciousness, God, Infinite Imagination, Absolute Goodness, Pure Being.' There is no death for 'that which you truly are' (God, Consciousness, Love, The Now, Soul, Infinity, Eternity, w/e you wanna call The Self-Less Self), since it is already simultaneously both dead and alive; or even more accurate: it is neither of them, it simple is what is: THIS: *plays a note on the piano*, and we won't give it a name. The thing is, nothing we can say with words about 'Absolute Truth' ... 'is it.' Everytime we say a sentence, we are limiting Infinity to something finite our ego can grasp onto. So even saying 'death is imaginary, you are eternal' is a limitation. Everything is. Yet everything is also IT. 'Death is imaginary' is a fantastic pointer to towards Truth, though. Life is also imaginary. My life as Thomas, your life as Leo, is also imaginary. The essence of 'every experience' is that it is part of the Infinity of Imagination. Absolutely EVERYTHING is imaginary, which means that EVERYTHING is also real. The only 'thing' -- we could say -- that is 'not imaginary' is Infinity (God, Consciousness, Love), but again: all language is limiting. What I'm saying hardly makes any sense to those who have close to no experience with ego-death. To be able to communicate pointers of truth clearly and accurately even to those who are deeply asleep is an art form: a task of immense complexity. The Essence of Reality (Infinity) is so infinitely meaningless, that whatever is then 'imagined' must - per definition - be infinitely meaningful. From the perspective of me as a human being who "needs to": breathe, eat, love, have sex, sleep, pee, shit, drink water, feel that life is meaningful... - death is *not* imaginary. (Absolutely speaking it is, but follow me here, please). I can die any time. I could have stopped breathing during my DMT trip. I can get killed by a car on the road in 30 minutes. I will die. Waveintheocean/Thomas will die eventually. That is as true as Truth can get with words. Leo will die. Not ego-death -- not some kind of 'imaginary' 5-MeO-DMT-trip-ego-death -- but as in real physical death. Yet, what I *really am* can of course not die, cos it wasn't even born to begin with, I am Infinite & Eternal, as you say, sure, I know that, that's not at all what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about real physical death. Just forget all the fancy spiritual talk, I'm talking totally down to earth: I will die. That's as certain as the Sun will rise tomorrow. I will die. You will die. This is simply a fact we can ALL agree on. You can run away from 'yourself/truth/death' all life, but you will still die. Now, what is physical death, then? It's imaginary of course. But my whole life, your whole life, *IS* already *imaginary*... Death isn't different in that way. It's Infinite Imagination. And there is infinite meaning behind your life and behind your eventual physical death. What I got a taste of during my DMT-trip was just what awaited me after my imaginary physical death. It was bliss beyond all human imaginations of what bliss is. I can try to describe it, but words fail. ... Life, as in down to earth life here on Earth, is mystical, enigmatic and ineffable...just like death. But it's also rather obvious that it is filled with so so so much suffering. One thing is the suffering in my own 'egoic limited selfish life' 'as Thomas'... - Hah, that's only one drop in the ocean of the bottomless suffering human beings 'have and are and will' endur-ed/-ing/-e....... Life is painful as fuck. We can transcend our own suffering, and thus help others transcend theirs, yet it's still filled with suffering. You and I, Leo, are lucky, lucky souls who can smoke DMT in their apartment in a relatively safe country like USA/Denmark. But let's look around on the globe shall we: it's beyond belief, it's too much, it's literally painful and mesmerizing simultaneously to see how much suffering the average man & woman endures in their lives on Earth. I went through what felt like every single possible human emotion ever felt on Earth during my DMT-trip, from heavenly highs to contentment to the most terrifying painful lows down in the deepest parts of hell. It was clear to me, that relatively speaking, the sum of all these 'emotions' was (still): pain, suffering. That's just the nature of the human ego/condition: to be in pain, to suffer. And it was just lucidly clear to me that there was a deep, deep meaning & purpose behind all of it. And while you always have an invitation (here on Earth) to wake the fuck up and actually transcend all your own suffering (transcend ego), globally speaking it's just a tiny tiny drop of suffering that's being transcended in a vast ocean of suffering. Life IS suffering. Death IS bliss. Yet I'm not saying you should strive to die, i.e. begin getting suicidal ideations. Suicide is an imaginary external solution to an imaginary inner problem. Suicide literally will just make your soul reincarnate instantly back into Earth one way or the other (it's infinite, remember), because you haven't finished the lesson yet. What is life? It's a long, long, long, thorough lesson in accepting pain, transcending suffering, saying no to ego, saying no to devilry, no to cravings, no to being asleep, and instead: yes to liberation, yes to being awake, yes to selflessness, yes to Love. That's what it is. It's basically about becoming a professional at 'breathing through all the pain of life'. When you have become pro enough, you can consciously die - Mahasamadhi - and join the rest of the pro-breathers in the afterlife. Consciously dying = Afterlife = Bliss Unconsciously dying = reincarnation = still some suffering left to transcend:-).