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I had a psychedelic trip where there was this sense of rebirth and death over and over again in different lifes. I took 400 ug of 1P-LSD and locked myself in a completely dark room for about 6 hours and did nothing. Honestly I have very blur memories of the experience because it was a lot of shit to process. But there was this recurring theme of rebirth and death over and over again, also my personal identify took some radical shifts to the point I wasn't even myself anymore. At some points I thought I was insane to the point of no return. This was about a month and a half ago and I still don't know what to make of it. Anyway, any thoughts on reincarnation or any useful sources to investigate more about this topic? or are this just traps of the mind. Thanks for any reply!

I wrote a couple blog posts about this topic of reincarnation: http://www.engagednonduality.com/how-does-reincarnation-fit-with-nonduality-or-doesnt-it/ http://www.engagednonduality.com/is-awakening-a-way-to-avoid-reincarnation-liberation-from-the-wheel-of-birth-death/ The quick answer would be - there is no "me"...I was not born, and so will not die or be reborn. The question of reincarnation is only valid for one who identifies with being some one. Some one who is alive now and wonders if he or she will reincarnate. I am no one. I don't care if there is another life or not in the future, because there are other lives now. What I really am is as much you as the person named "Eric"...and so when "Eric" dies...there is still the game of playing you going on. There is no other...no separation.

Thank you for your answer. I don't think you can kill the "I" thought as the "I" is the all. It's more of a matter of removing the limitations/ separations surrounding the "I". But my question about reincarnation wasn't generic, I'd like to know how @eputkonen sees it from where they're at.

The only thing that gets reincarnated is the I-thought. After you reach "1000" (i.e. kill the I-thought) there is no more reincarnation.

What about reincarnation? Did you have any insight about whether you would have to take a new physical body after this would wear down? Would you want to or not?

First of all. You can’t know what happens after death because possibilities are wide open. Karma is just a concept. Reincarnation is just a concept. In assumptions I mean that some people should stop guessing and just authenticly become conscious of what is unknown... I doubt many people here understand what true non duality and not knowing means. Contemplate what does possibilities wide open mean.

Reincarnation? To me that sounds like a movement of time? I’m glad to see you are now free?? Yeah i think suffering played a big role in this for me to. Although when I relaized why I suffered their was a holistic compression/understanding of why. The moment of perception was the ending of the movement that caused this suffering. I remember I just relaized the root of suffering and ended it. I wasn’t born with this. It just seemed to click one day when I saw the truth of falsness of that whole movement of time. The perception was the action. In this action was freedom from time. I didn’t cultivate time, as in psychological time, I ended time immediately. I saw the whole movement of psychological time which seemed to change my pattern of movement. Does this make sense?

From the spirituality perspective,this would be an argument for the existence of reincarnation. Some people come into this life and it just happens,while others can struggle many,many years with purpose and never realize. Not strange for me. This is a welcomed feeling and the fruition of remaining devoted,throughout all the ups and downs, to the spiritual path. A lot of people come into this thinking it's gonna be all roses,and good times. Anyone serious about the spiritual path sooner or later finds out it wasn't what they thought it was gonna be. Suffering is inevitable. Devotion and will of intention is what will get them through. But yes,as the deepening and abiding into the timeless continues,the oneness becomes very apparent. It's a beautiful thing.

Good topic, from my study of ancient scriptures (especially of non-duality) I can say that most people don't have a clear understanding of what karma really is (and I'm talking about people who believe in reincarnation and karma). Would be great if Leo makes a video on this topic.

I fully understand that I'm not the body, and that we "invent" a person to be out of social conditioning aka ego. So far I've only experimented with mushrooms, and my ego melted away, I could fully look at "my" body completely detached, like I watched/contemplated some objektive thing, I could see all the flaws of the bodymind without any identifikation with it, truly liberated. However, even though I fully become aware that I'm not the bodymind that took the scrooms, I felt I was still something, like some sort of individuality. And since I'm into to a certain type of cosmology that advocate that although we're not an ego that came to be in a certain body and Then dies with it when the body goes down, we are instead all eternal individuals with different developed skills and talents which we constantly improve on by every life we temporarilly live. Is This compatible with your teaching and nonduality? To me This makes sence, although all is one at its final analysis. Think about it, lets ponder compassion, a highly complex trait/feeling, yet some seem to have a very finetune and developed capacity for compassion at very young age, while others never manage to Carry out any such capacity throughout an entire lifetime. Could it be that we all are going to manage a high level capacity for compassion and other appreciated traits in the end? But that we are at different stages because what we as "individual units" have learned throughout pervious lifetimes aka reincarnation? According to the particular cosmology that resonates with me, we are all the same in terms of what it is that experience, it is always one and the same awareness in each of us that experience whatever we experience, no individuality in that regards. Rather what distinguish us as individuals are that we all have a set of "talent kernals" developed according to what we faced in our eternal Journey so far, and the work we have Done throughout our multiple lives. Thus we are at different levels. Some have very high intuition for Love, beauty, compassion etcetera. This also would be very fair(if it's true), that means people are not randomly lucky to be conpassionate and hence popular, but they rather deserve it because of work and crises in previous lives. To sum it up, the cosmology I refer to only suggest one consciousness(nonduality). It's only the one and same awareness that experience everything through us. But there is an individual aspect as Well, we have different capacities and potential depending how developed out "talent kernals" are, which depends on how we lived and struggled to become better peoples in previous lives. Is This something that can be true? Or do we live in a more strictly nondual realm where any Idea of any individual agent makes no sence? What do you think? I would like Leo's response, but I would Love to hear any other response as Well, please give your opinions on This topic. ?

Those religion accounts and reincarnation are just metaphors on the awakening states that leads to enlightenment, nothing more. <3

Religion and Reincarnation are the story tales of Enlightenment. Pictured in a comic or dramatic way. They describe the awakening processes and the harsh de-atrophy of the body/mind. Take religion or reincarnation as fact and die forever. Reading them between the lines and live. <3

Enlightenment and god is something you can verify yourself with meditation or psychedelics, and there are countless people who have experienced them, so I believe in that. But reincarnation, souls and going to hell after you die doesn't make sense to me. A soul is the sense of self or ego, which is an illusion, and its illogical to think that it can be transported to a different body after you die, you can't transport an illusion. The buddhist version of reincarnation makes sense as things are constantly changing and eg. you become the air that you breathe in and when you breathe out that breath becomes the atmosphere and it involves no soul or seperateness. If hell is being stuck identifying as the ego and not the universe as a whole, which creates suffering ( and the devil is the ego ). Then when the ego dies, ( when your body dies your ego has nothing to cling to so it has to die ) you become god, there is no worries, no pain and nothing matters ( suffering ends ) That's heaven/ nirvana. How can hell exist if it's caused by the ego. Also chakras. Chakras are spinning balls of energy. energy cannot spin that makes no sense. Can anyone explain these in further detail?

hi Lexonn~ Nice train of thought evident in your OP! There is no soul. There is absolutely nothing whatsoever that is referential in terms of the false personal psychological temporal identity of the karmic being that is going to die beyond the singularity of its incrementally created cycle which is utter illusion. It is possible to see through the illusion of self. Those whose inconceivable wonder results in experience of primal non-originated essence and who then further refine its potential in the course of everyday ordinary situations are those whose open sincere intent is a match for creation. Such people gather the real from within the midst of the false because they see that karmic energy and absolute essence are not different. Seeing is itself that which transcends creation. The light of creation and the light of non-origination is the same light. Just turn the light around. This is the nature of one's own mind right now. Your own mind right now is already the nature of enlightenment. What else is there to know other than there is nothing whatsoever to know by knowledge of non-origination. There is no doing. How does one see? It is necessary to turn the light around to awaken to reality. Ordinary people use awareness to create illusion instead of seeing Suchness as is. Reality doesn't look any different than illusion. What's different? Personal selfish perspectives that insist that there must be an ultimate and absolute nature to the self (such as a soul). There is no such thing— and that's a good thing! Karmic cycles are fueled by psychological momentum. This is the nature of conditioned thought. Non-origination has never entered the creative sphere whereby unified selfless knowledge dichotomizes and results in perpetual cycles of birth and death. Since people are essentially enlightened and innately selfless and non-originated, it is only necessary for them to awaken to their nature in order for them to assume their enlightening function. It's a matter of seeing reality as is. The absolute identity of the personality is illusion. This illusion exists by faith-based denial of the nature of selflessly aware enlightening potential. It is possible to see potential by virtue of everyday ordinary situations to the degree that one ceases viewing phenomena in terms of the personality. Views of self and other, right and wrong, good and bad, before and after are all relative to the personality. These are all binding one to karma in perpetuity. Seeing through phenomena without denying their characteristics is turning the light around. Directly experience the functionality of enlightening being in the midst of ordinary affairs. Sudden enlightenment is the result of such actualization of one's enlightening function whereby ego reverts to its rightful relationship with one's selfless nature. As for reincarnation, this is not only lifetime to lifetime— it is thought to thought. Since a lifetime is essentially thought, why not just work with reincarnation on the level of thought? Dry up the habitual streams of thought by simply observing habitual thoughts. Reincarnation is unnatural. Your own nature has never begun— that's non-origination. Habit energy is karmic. What's with that? You already experience that directly without being aware of it. What's with that? ed note: typo 3rd; 9th paragraph

A good memory triggers the release of “feel good chemicals” as if it happens in real life. If their is such a thing as reincarnation you don’t retain memories as they are physical and therefor is not a part of you.

Nostalgia has always been one of the most interesting emotions that I tend to experience every once in a while. Sometimes nostalgia occurs even when I think about the past that, funnily, I never got to experience. Such as when I'm listening to an old song or watching an old movie...sometimes the yearning get so bad I cry a little...which got me thinking; is the feeling of nostalgia an evidence for reincarnation? Is it a sign of overattachment to the ego? Why do we get nostalgic anyway?

I've been realli liking zen and buddhism books few years ago. I still do like this stuff. Although I always wondered how can people take the concept of reincarnation on blind faith? I mean this whole religion stands on the shoulders of concept that can not be experienced by MOST of the people. But they still follow it, just trusting someone. But if we go deeper instead of "how to make sure there's reincarnation" we face the question "is there any soul at all?" So the only way to get somewhere close to knowing for sure would be to experince the soul directly. How would one do that?

@Leo Gura Yeah but total enlightenment would mean leaving the cycle of suffering according to the buddhists right. You say you might suffer again in a next reincarnation, so you and the Buddha seem to have a disagreement here . What is this thing getting reincarnated if you have done away with all your karma and your ego anyway?

Sometimes an existential crisis can happen when people realize that 1) the ego/self is an illusion, and 2) there is no such thing as objective meaning/purpose. I've been mulling around a few ideas I wanted to throw out. Objective Meaning The idea that meaning or value can be objective is a misunderstanding of what objective means. The only “thing” that can attribute meaning, value and purpose is consciousness. Consciousness is pure subjectivity and has no relation to objectivity. The idea of objective meaning and value is logically incoherent. Value, meaning and purpose can only be determined subjectively. People seem to make the mistake that if value (and/or meaning/purpose) are not objective, then it isn’t valuable. Subjectivity is assumed to be inadequate to attribute “real” value and meaning. This is a false assumption. If it is true that the true Self is infinite consciousness, then what is the difference between subjective values determined by “you” and the idea of objective values determined by “god”? One could say that happiness is the highest value but I think that is too general to be of any use. After a lot of thinking over the past year, I have decided on what my three highest values are. They are love, beauty and being present. Those seem simple but if one builds meaning and purpose around those values, it is a never ending working in progress. Love Some people are predisposed to naturally feeling love and compassion. I am not one of those people. When I was young and Christian, I used to pray that god would give me a heart so I could feel love. In retrospect, it seems odd that I cared that I didn’t care. I have learned, and practice, loving kindness meditation and this has worked wonders. I have also noticed that when I am a more loving person, I am able to perceive beauty that I would have normally missed. I have also found that my trips on psychedelics are more beautiful when I do loving kindness meditation as opposed to other meditation techniques, which seems to confirm this correlation. If my daily goal is to embody love, that is going to change how I perceive other people and how I interact with them. The things I choose to say, or not say, are different. A side benefit of this is everyone thinks you are the most amazing person on the planet. Before the ego can be dissolved, it needs to be made healthy and strong. Someone that struggles with confidence, worries what people think about them, etc, etc is going to have a hard time actualizing. I believe that a focus on embodying love naturally fixes much of the problems that arise from a weak and needy ego. Everybody loves a loving person and a loving person loves themselves because they are easy to love. There is no need to go overboard with fake, contrived love. That comes across as weird and desperate. I just try to make sure love is a factor in how I treat and perceive others. Judging other is the antithesis of love. When I started trying to be mindful of how much I judge others, I was shocked to find that I do it constantly. This is something I work on daily. Beauty One of the things I learned from psychedelics is this universe if full of astounding beauty but sometimes we get so desensitized to it that reality appears to be dull, grey and mundane. Personally, I do not think someone can be happy if they are unable to perceive beauty. I believe that the ability to perceive beauty is affected by loving state of mind and being in the present moment. With myself, I have found I have to continue to cultivate love and being in the present moment to perceive beauty in the way I want to perceive it. Being in the present moment When I refer to the present moment, I don’t mean present moment-ish – I mean this exact present moment that is indivisible into smaller periods of time that can be experienced. Going for a walk around the block on a nice day can be simply refreshing or incredibly beautiful and profound depending on the degree of being present. I try to be as present in the moment as much as possible with everything I do. Much of the time, I get lost in the dream but try to remember to wake myself up as much as possible. Over time, I find that I am more present/mindful more often. If I am mindful, it is more natural to speak and see through the filters of love and beauty. Purpose I have a limited amount of time before I die to develop myself to the highest possible potential. That is my life purpose. I have always had a drive to do something huge with my life. If you havent decided to do something profound and huge with your life, maybe you should. There is more to life than just escaping a weak, needy ego. I look at myself as a blank canvas and I am the painter. I want to create myself into the most beautiful work of art possible by the time I lay on my death bed. Why? Because, subjectively I have decided that is the highest and best life purpose I can have. My purpose does not need to be utilitarian but from a utility standpoint, I suspect that reincarnation and karma are real things.

Is there hell or heaven in terms of how our consciousness would be affected after life dew to our karma or any other factors. You gotta do this one leo Also - On Reincarnation, Moksha ( a concept of liberation from reincarnation from Vedas ) and paranormal being that is spirits, ghost and even our soul. P.S. - You have been teaching meaning, tactics and strategy to achieve xyz things in this life, and now, I am trying to understand if there is a certain ideology that is to be followed as it can have impact after life.

I would give up thinking of reincarnation in conceptual terms because it is not something the body and mind can use. You've already reincarnated an infinite amount what recollection do you currently have of it? Probably none if you're being purely honest. You're already an alien on a planet in infinite space, if you're thinking about other aliens you've just grown bored of your current experience. There is nothing you can hold on to, absolutely nothing, everything you do in this body is temporary and nothing will be kept permanently, your true self is the nothingness or whatever else you want to call it. And the death of this body will not only mean you lose the body and experience but the entire reality, literally meaning any history till this date is lost in an infinite amount of possibilities, even people like the Jesus or Buddha are only relevant within this experience.

yeah reincarnation is a strange Idea if you think the ego is actually an illusion right. Because what is getting reincarnated? An illusion? I asked this to a Vipassana Teacher at a Guenka retreat once. He basically said that karma and memmories from old lives don't just go away. They find a new expression in a different life. And because you could make the argument that our ego's are pretty much just karma and memmories, reincarnation could sort of exist. I am very much agnostic about reincarnation. I have no Idea.

Watching one of Leo’s videos he says “sure this body will die, these perceptions will go away. What will happen then? That’s part of infinity, my death is part of infinity.” So consciousness shuts off, and you’ll no longer be able to experience this infinity.. Unless it’s like a reincarnation kind of thing? How is this still not sad as fuck and scary? You’re only able to see this infinity through some form of consciousness, right...?

Actually, there is some evidence that would indicate that reincarnation is real. I have read the studies by Ian Stevenson on reincarnation, the critiques of Stevenson's work and the critiques of the critiques. For this reason, I feel that a belief, or at least a suspicion, in reincarnation is reasonable. I think there can be some good that can come sometimes from taking spiritual direction from people on faith but I think caution and a healthy dose of skepticism should be exercised to avoid getting off-track. Even in the Kriya book that Leo recommends, the author claims that his spiritual development was hindered by following false teachers and beliefs.

The main difference is that you can just do the exercises yourself and see.I dunno siddhis though. I mean Buddhists believe in reincarnation, deity yoga and Tibetan Buddhism apparently let you become a literal deity by channeling it's characteristics and praying to it and stuff. By the way siddhis are a thing in buddhism as well. My personal take on it is to not waste too much time thinking about what is real and what isn't. I just do my practice and as long as I am progressing that is enough.