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You mean reincarnation. What if the consciousness is infinite and we are just adding to it. Or maybe there is specific and non specific consciousness. Non specific meaning universal and specific meaning related to oneself. But the self consciousness could be infinite in which we can experience birth, death and rebirth. waves in the same ocean

@Callum A https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Souls-Studies-Between-Lives/dp/1567184995/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491075019&sr=8-1&keywords=destiny+of+souls https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Souls-Studies-Between-Lives/dp/1567184855/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491075907&sr=8-1&keywords=journey+of+souls These were written by a hypnotherapist who was able to bring back patient's memories of what life was like in the spirit world before they came into physical bodies. Also goes into things like ghosts, spiritual guides, reincarnation etc. Normally I'd be pretty skeptical about it but he has 30 years of research done on it and the information he has received has been very consistent. Plus most of it just makes sense from an absolute point of view, we are just souls playing roles

Dimensions Beyond the Known by Osho A fascinating journey into the many mysterious realms of our existence, including what happens to a person after death, reincarnation, the esoteric roots of religious experience, and the dimension of time. There is also an account of the Tibetan practice of bardo. The beauty of this book is that it explains metaphysical concepts in a simple and comprehensive way. http://www.oshorajneesh.com/download/osho-books/hindi-translations/Dimensions_beyond_the_Known.pdf (Download in pdf format)

I also thought i was the reincarnation of [insert random guru here] the best you can do about all this stuff is just go on your meditation to not acumulate useless mental information when you have a true insight it will look true to the bones five minutes an hour a month later

Last year Jan 2016 I was determined to start a daily meditation habit for 20 minutes. I was very diligent with my practice until 4 months later when something drastic happened to my consciousness. It started subtly and gradually increased by several magnitudes. My meditation practice was the "do nothing" method. My meditation sessions would make me feel "in a focused and clear" state. I felt that I had more energy throughout the day and was overall more productive in my life. I saw this initially as some positive side effects from meditating daily. In April I started to feel euphoric and so full of energy (more than previously). I became extremely outgoing and started to eat and sleep less. When I would get home I would sleep for 3 hours and then meditate some more. While meditating I received a "revelation", and I "realised" that reality is an illusion and life is meaningless. I became paranoid and experienced reality as Orwellian. I believed I had a recollection of "my past lives" and I was the reincarnation of Gandhi and decided to go on a hunger strike for a few days. I also started to hallucinate a bit. What happened afterwards is I got sent to mental institution and was diagnosed with acute psychosis and got prescribed anti psychotic drugs and had to go through a lengthy rehabilitation process. I came to learn recently that meditation could lead to some negative consequences especially if you have had a past of abuse (which I do). I was not aware of this fact prior to starting meditation which I did because of all the positive effects I have heard about it. What I want to know is what exactly occurred in me? Did I experience a kundalini awakening or the dark knight of the soul? Or something else? Let me clarify that under this process I did not intake any form of alcohol or drugs prior to getting rehabilitated. I also was NOT under the guide of a teacher when exploring meditation.

This idea does not exist in the religions that have arisen out of Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism. The philosopher Keith Augustine has written "the vast majority of Stevenson's cases come from countries where a religious belief in reincarnation is strong, and rarely elsewhere, seems to indicate that cultural conditioning (rather than reincarnation) generates claims of spontaneous past-life memories. The philosopher C. T. K. Chari of Madras Christian College in Chennai, a specialist in parapsychology, argued that Stevenson was naive and that the case studies were undermined by his lack of local knowledge. Chari wrote that many of the cases had come from societies, such as that of India, where people believed in reincarnation, and that the stories were simply cultural artifacts. @Deep You will be surprised: all vegetarian religions believe in reincarnation, and all non-vegetarian religions believe in only one life. This can not be a coincidence. Pythagoras vegetarianism first brought to the West. And Pythagoras discovered the Western mind - the idea of reincarnation. If a person is an absolute vegetarian, he can easily recall past lives. Pythagoras visited India, deeply meditated realized past lives. Nature in its wisdom never allows you to remember your past lives – unless you come to a point where it can be allowed, when you become so meditative that nothing disturbs you, then the gates open and all your past lives are before you. It is an automatic mechanism, though sometimes the mechanism doesn’t work. Through accidents some children are born who can remember. But their lives are destroyed. You don’t remember because it would be difficult for you to manage. Even in this life you are making such a mess – many lives remembered, you would simply go mad.

Here is clip of Dr. Stevenson presenting his research on reincarnation. If we are One consciousness, why do only certain people remember and not all of us? Doesn't that mean consciousness can become individualized or appear to be?

@0ne I just stumbled upon this book called "the truth contest" http://www.truthcontest.com. What if there is only consciousness, only life aka reincarnation. Killing oneself would not help at all. If anything I'd come back and maybe be less fortunate than now. Makes me appreciate my current life even more.

Hey guys, This evening, I attended a lecture by Pete Hulme OBE this evening, a former consultant psychologist and head lecturer at my university. The talk was titled Consciousness: Spirit, Mind or Brain? It was incredibly interesting and inspiring, mentioning things from philosophy to LSD. He left a reading list as a handout that I thought might be interesting/useful to some people.. so here you go! Mario Beauregard and Denyse O'Leary: The Spiritual Brain - a Neuroscience's Case for the Existence of the Soul. A rigorous examination of the work done up to that point in the field of parapsychology. Stephen E. Braude: Immortal Remains - the evidence for life after death. An in-depth consideration of a small number of the strongest cases in favour of medium-ship and reincarnation, testing them against such alternative explanations as dissociated or psi. Peter and Elizabeth Fenwick: Past Lines - an investigation into reincarnation memories. One of the more readily accessible treatments of this issue, again considering other explanations as well as reincarnation. David Fontana: Is There an Afterlife? - a comprehensive overview of the evidence. One of the rare books, written by a practicing psychologist, that is not dismissing the evidence out of hand. H. J, Irwin: An Introduction to Parapsychology. A basic introduction. Edward F. and Emily Williams Kelly: Irreducible Mind - toward a technology for the 21st Century. A comprehensive attempt by two academic editors to gather together a detailed overview of the evidence for mind-brain independence. David C. Lamberth: William James and the Metaphysics of Experience. A fairly demanding exploration of Jame's approach. Pim van Lommel: Consciousness Beyond Life - the science of the near death experience. A presentation of one of the few prospective studies done in this area to date. Alexander Moreira-Almedia and Franklin Sanrana Santos: Exploring Frontiers of the Mind-Brain Relationship. A bit of a curate's egg but there are some excellent chapters triggered by the proceedings at a symposium in Brazil. Dean Radin: The Conscious Universe - the scientific truth of psychic phenomena. It deals in depth with the supportive research that had been undertaken until that point on the vexed issue of psi. t has been criticized for failing to take hoaxes into account and for misinterpreting the file-drawer effect. Worth a look none the less. Jeffery M. Schwartz: The Mind and the Brain - Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force. This book principally addresses the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and concludes: "The clinical and physiological results achieved with OCD support the notion that the conscious and willful mind cannot be explained solely and completely by matter, by the material substance of the brain." Evan Thompson: Waking, Dreaming, Being. Just to show that I don't only read books that confirm my biases, this one is worth a look. Thompson perhaps comes closer than most to the ideal of complete agnosticism in his exploration of consciousness. I don't think he quite manages to shake off a bias towards a skepticism that reads more like dismissal sometimes. So yeah, hope you enjoy It's also worth noting that he considers himself of the Baha'i faith. Good vibes to you all.

Hinduism is kind of everything you need and everything you dont need. Budhism is also kind of same minus brahmanical order. Budha actually fought with Hindu brahmins veiws which is same of abrahamic religion. Hinduism dasha maha vidya (tantric) has lot of freedom compared to some budhist practise. And Hindus veiw on reincarnation is cool.

@heisenburger You are forgetting something important here....those who are suffering in wars, and those animals who are getting killed, millions of them, are already "you". Are they not? So what are you afraid of? Ok that was mystic mumbo jumbo enlightened master talk about. It all depends on how you define "you". People have a different idea of self depending on their level of achievement. Lets see: you=body: it becomes dirt for sure, nothing is reborn that is body. you=ego: or the lower mind, responsible for survival of the organism. It surely gets destroyed as brain decomposes. you=mind: hmm .. we are getting fuzzy here, because mind is non-physical, perhaps something will survive, like an artistic skill or effect of a deep trauma. But its probable that most of it is wiped out, including the personality (individualness), memories, and knowledge. you=universal mind: we are in pure theoretical area here (as far as my own experience goes), but I can guess that most of it survives. It includes the impressions taken from current life, the storehouse of impressions is universal mind, aka Karmic store. According to some, it is this thing that is reborn (concept of Jiva, or soul). To stop it from playing the game of lives and death (samsara), you need to get liberated (nirvana). To be honest, it all is just theory for me (at this time, no direct experience whatsoever). you=consciousness: there is no doubt that you are the consciousness, and it cannot die, its not a thing, not physical, not non-physical. Its the witness, and it will witness the next drama on its screen. It is free, it is already in nirvana, nothing needs to be done. So you can pick a definition, and worry about death and reincarnation at that level. In the end, you will find that its useless. Some things are unknowable. Most are beyond a person's control (dead or alive). The only thing you can do is be enlightened, remain as consciousness. Rest may happen when the time is right. All the best for your next incarnation

Buddhism teaches in reincarnation if you die before enlightenment, this scares the shit out of me, does this mean I can be reborn in a country with wars going on and be tortured endlessly or be born as an animal that is brutally killed by another. How do you reconcile these negative images.

I really wonder which density of consciousness 5-meo produces. It's not 3rd density, it is higher as there is no sense of body anymore. It's not absolute infinity either, or God, it's a glimpse, probably only of 4th density. I guess that is why its such an effective tool in advancing in 3rd density. Because the difference between the current consciousness and the state of consciousness it produces (4th) is so high. It shows the potential for work to be done. I still wonder if it actually does anything by itself or it just shows what has to be done. I'm excited that there is much more to this than just enlightenment. The possibilities seem to be infinite hehe. What I'm getting from the book though is that enlightenment is enough. So we don't have to completely transcend the body and move to 4th density in this lifetime, which would end in premature death of this incarnation. I can still enjoy my life in 3rd density and raise my consciousness while I'm doing so. I also really like the concept of not forgetting when moving to 4th density. My motivation to do this consciousness work has moved away from the panicky "I'm going to die, I need to make the most of my life" to a more relaxed motivation of trying to move towards the source. The possibility of it not "All being for nothing and gone when dead" somehow has given me some peace. I have to say that overall the book has given me more peace than anything I have ever read before. I have been really closely observing myself. I'm weary that it's just my ego attaching to something. I have always dismissed reincarnation, but the more I think about it the more it makes sense. The body dies of course. But the thing/spirit/whatever that made it "alive" remains. The basic desire of everything is to return from finity to infinity. Basically to return to the source. When resisting this urge, not listening to intuition (potentially thoughts from higher density beings) things start to go wrong and the entity will experience suffering in this lifetime. When the entity lives his life on this plane to its fullest potential and has advanced as far as the entity was able to in this incarnation the life is great, joyful, happy and a success. This book raises lots of questions and possibilites that I have been pondering about for the last couple of days. I started reading book 2, I'm excited.

If it's confusing for you, don't use it. The point is excercising your focus. I AM ABUNDANT. I AM HEALTHY. I AM THE REINCARNATION OF JAMES MF'N BROWN. Whatever. Keep it simple bro.

When the ego dies along with the temporary body you become one again. Time doesn't exist there since it is only relative to a certain perspective so don't worry and don't project fears of the ego to a state you will not have one anymore. Everything is going to be okay and so it's meant to be. Reincarnation might happen when the conditions are right at a certain place and time, but you probably won't remember anything.

At 2500 points you've attained Ultimate Egoic Glory and circle around again, reverting to -1500 points in what is now your perpetual forum reincarnation hell.

@100rockets There is research by Dr. Ian Stevenson from the University of Virginia on reincarnation. He interviewed a few thousand children who remembered their past lives. It doesn't prove reincarnation but it's interesting nonetheless. I think it's possible that we exist as separate souls.

Consciousness has made an identity called "Deep". This identity is imaginary so there is no such thing as a separate "Deep" from Consciousness. It's all created within my mind. That's how it is with all the other humans. The illusion is so powerful they believe they are that identity and they are experiencing life as that. Reincarnation is just a concept to explain Consciousness taking on many identities. Consciousness is continuous but there are individual egos within it. Why does it do this? We don't know.

Hindus believe in God and the soul. Jainas don't believe in God at all but only in the soul. And Buddhists don't believe in the soul or God either. But about reincarnation all three agree — even Buddhists agree, who don't believe in the soul. A very strange thing…then who reincarnates? Even Buddhists could not deny the phenomenon of reincarnation, although they could deny the existence of the soul; they say the soul does not exist but reincarnation exists. And it was very difficult for them to prove reincarnation without the soul; it seems almost impossible. But they found a way — of course it is very subtle and very difficult to comprehend, but they seem to be closer, the closest to the truth. It is easy to understand that there is a soul and when you die the body is left on the earth and the soul enters into another body, into another womb; it is a simple, logical, mathematical thing. But Buddha says there is no soul but only a continuum. It is like when you kindle a candle in the evening and in the morning when you are blowing it out a question can be asked of you: Are you blowing out the same light that you started in the evening? No, it is not the same light, and yet a continuity is there. In the night when you lit the candle… that flame is no more there, that flame is continuously disappearing; it is being replaced by another flame. The replacement is so quick that you can't see the gaps, one flame going out, another coming up, that going out, another coming up. There are bound to be small intervals, but you can't see them with bare eyes. Buddha says that just as the candle flame is not the same — it is changing constantly, although in another sense it is the same because it is the same continuum — exactly like that, there is no soul entity in you like a thing but one like a flame. It is continuously changing, it is a river. Buddha does not believe in nouns, he only believes in verbs. He has come closest to the truth; at least in his expression he is the most profound.

My small understanding is that even though there is no independently existing self from its own side, what is seemingly reincarnated is karma and ignorance. Therefore, if liberation were to occur, one would realize the selflessness of all phenomena and realize that even the concept of birth and death, karma, and reincarnation were also dreamlike. But until one truly experiences it and is no more afflicted by any phenomena such as cold and heat, suffering and so on, the law of cause and effect still has to be considered in high esteem I would say

I was reading about this concept in Buddhism that there is no soul because there is no self. I get the no self concept in the physical world but they say there cant even be a soul because thats a self too..we are really all one the separation is an illusion. I get that but then how can they claim there is reincarnation and rebirth at the same time? Are they saying that rebirth is just a natural process that will be experienced by some random spec of consciousness? Who ever is being reborn, is that not you? will it not be your own consciousness that is experiencing a new form of life?

You're right, thanks. Enough is enough. I admit I was tired yesterday which my post reflect. The thing is, if it was just a dude who had not written anything intelligently, and just claimed the Earth was flat, then I wouldn't waste a second on him. The problem for me here is obviously that I see a guy who has lots of wisdom - but still is deluded in many ways. And yeah that triggers me probably because I'm scared of how I myself may turn out to become. And yeah I'll use this thread as a warning to myself on how deluded one can get on the path if they aren't aware of their own inner workings. @Aware Again Aware, I'm sorry for judging you and writing my last post. I really am. And I thank you for your contribution in this thread anyway, although I'm puzzled by the stupidity of lots of it. I know that you will automatically interpret "puzzled by stupidity of it" as "oh, the guy admits he isn't spiritually developed to understand my holy teachings"... Well - you know that might just be right. Or might it be that I see more clearly than you and see through your own delusions? Nah, that'd be silly to even think this thought, right? Because you're not attached to anything in this life, so you're something like a reincarnation of Buddha. So wise, so better than others, so smart, so loving, so sublime, so goooooooood, so advanced -- right? No one can teach you anything. You get your knowledge through communication with other masterful beings from other Universes doing the night where you meditate. I bow before you, my master. I admit I am not ready for such divine knowledge. Oh Lord, I wish I could see the logic behind the arguments for Earth is flat -- the big grand hoax created by the THEM, the sequentials... Oh Lord, save me, help me, show me. "and put me on ignore, ..." Great idea, thanks. That's exactly what I'm gonna do, I think we two have thrown enough bullshit at each other for now. And I'll be free from reading more "divine crap" from you. Bye.

In Buddhism tradition, enlightened people choose the moment of their death, and break the cycle of reincarnation by definitely "disolving" into the light, so that only nails and hair remain, no corpse.

It's great to hear input from you guys. Thanks @Arman and @Epiphany_Inspired !!! At this point my focus is on getting 100% better. Though progress is slow, I definitely know that I am on my way to come back stronger. I appreciate your response here. It's good to hear reassurance once in a while! There really is something perfect about all of this, like an elevation of consciousness that is happening all by itself, whether or not I want it to. I guess nature is set on resolving the problems it made for itself. There's this newfound awareness, this indescribable pleasure in this whole process knowing that SOON everything probably will be OKAY. I just recently rediscovered an old analogy that I came up with and previously found resourceful. I thought I'd share it for anyone going through something similar. "Having a concussion is like running with bricks on your back, and as with running with bricks on your back, once you remove the bricks you always return stronger and faster." I think what I was hinting at was that pain is TEMPORARY but lessons are ETERNAL. There's absolutely no way I could go back to a "normal" life now. While the knowledge, wisdom, and ideas being talked about here are incredibly eye-opening and powerful, they also come with a huge burden of KNOWING. I can't just forget about something like enlightenment! I can't just go back to living life like my friends and family. It's complete unconsciousness. I guess as most people here warn, the greatest fear I have is self-sabotage, and the idea that I might somehow backslide. While this could be possible, I feel like my evolution and reincarnation are permanent. In other words, the lessons I have learned from this experience are permanent. I will continue to post with updates and comments. I hope more people will contribute to this topic. While the conversation was perhaps sparked by talk of concussions, I think everyone here is hinting at something larger going on with all injuries and dark phases. A kind of Katabasis... I hope to hear more stories, ideas, and discussion! But I think @Epiphany_Inspired put it best: Thanks, Joey

@Echoes God is not nothingness or emptiness. These two words emptiness and nothingness are taken from a religion called Buddhism, which is an atheist system of thought. Buddhist dont subscribe to the concept of God a creator, they are stuck inside the material universe and the aim is to free the relative person from dualistic "thinking" and call this void in the mind "emptiness" . Buddhism is a humanistic philosophy that has been subject to many changes over its history, meaning that is a man made religion. It is essentially based on pantajalis yoga sturas, and is related to a bunch of religious ideas floating around at the time, one of which was the popular enlightenment misconception "chitti vritti narhodha" - which means that in order to reveal the nature of reality, one must rid themselves of their mind. Nobody has ever become enlightened using this method. It is good for preparing the mind for enlightenment, but its not quite right as a statement of enlightenment itself, because the enlightened self is beyond thought, is beyond the person, is beyond experience, it is nir-guna (free FROM experience) whereas nir-vana is the extinction of experience itself. So God is actually "fullness" it is the Self, and the Bhraman which you mentioned. Brahman is the one sentiency that pervades existence, the knower, the SEER, the conscious indweller behind the mind, witnessing the mind of all sentient beings (Atman). It is not human specific, it is the all pervading substrate, the knower in all subtle bodies - animals and plants all have subtle bodies, and therefore are all Atma. Atma refers to Brahman when we look at the world through the conventional perspective that there are many "Atmans". Brahman is when you look at life from the perspective of the one self, when you understand that YOU ARE the sentiency, the all pervasive consciousness that looks out through every "other" apparent beings eyes. Brahman realization is when you understand that there are no others, that there is only one principle operating here - you, consciousness associated with and deluded by many different bodies and minds. We dont know, we will never know the why or how, that is for Bhraman as the creator to know. Human beings will never know this because really we will always only ever be Atmans, the knowers of self knowledge revealed in a specific subtle body. Enlightenment takes place in the psyche of the human being, so we are bound by that instrument and its limitations. But your confusion lies in the fact that you confuse the Buddhist No-thing with the Hindu Bhraman, Bhraman is not no-thing, it is the witness with the power to create. Same answer to previous question, we dont know why. Donald Trump and Ramana Maharshi, from the perspective of Brahman are the same Bhraman, the individual stories of each person are irrelevant. They are forms appearing in Bhraman, they arise, are sustained, and dissolve like everything else. IF you are ignorant and take these two characters to be their individual stories and dont see them as yourself, then there is a duality between them, but when we die we just die, reincarnation is not actually a thing, it is just being "reborn" into another ignorant thought that has been generated by believing in yourself as a separate person with separate karmas to live out. Once you realize who you are, you will understand that you were never born ad you dont die, only the physical bodies and the thought stories associated with these characters are the things that die. But it doesnt matter because all the material aspects are just mechanics.