I was recently reminded of one of my favorite metaphors that seeks to explain the nature of consciousness:
Consciousness is like water. Take the ocean, for instance. It has many different regions, all the seven seas (and more), as well as the rivers, streams, and creeks that lead into it. On the ocean, countless waves arise and become distinct, individual identities, time and time again.
They will last for a while but inevitably disperse, again becoming part of the greater whole. So too are we, our conscious selves, formed out of the collective consciousness, to "ride the wave" of actual, real-life experience. We may take the form of any living thing in existence, at any period in time. Consciousness, or the soul, does not abide by our current understanding of the laws of spacetime.
The reason we have such great difficulty remembering any part of our other lives is that compared to the amount of consciousness contained within one living being, the amount of consciousness as a whole is so much greater, it washes out the most recently lived experiences as soon as the shard returns to the whole. Just as there is undeniably a difference between the way a jellyfish perceives the world and the way a human perceives the world, there is a difference in that entity's stored log of experiences. So we, as humans in our current life, would have a very hard time recalling and making sense of a previous life as a vastly different life form (bird, plant, bug, bacteria, etc.), which can make it seem as if our souls are only capable of being reincarnated as other human beings, but I do not believe that is the case.
Quote:
Originally Posted by snake
You guys are f*cking nuts. All of you.
|
Please snake, tell us, what do you believe? I am curious