by Joe Martino, Collective Evolution
YOLO – a term used often these days, and while I get the sentiment it’s trying to get across, I still say: “Says who?”
What would your life be like or how would it change if you knew for sure that you would reincarnate into another intelligent being whether on this planet or another?
Reincarnation is an argued topic and for an understandable reason, how can we know FOR SURE materialistically whether or not it’s true? We don’t have undeniable proof, yet but we do have intriguing anecdotal accounts that could certainly cause anyone to question whether or not reincarnation is possible.
University of Virginia psychiatrist Jim Tucker is arguably the world’s leading researcher on the topic of reincarnation. In 2008, he published a review of cases that were suggestive of reincarnation in the journal Explore.
Jim describes a typical reincarnation case as something where the subject reports having a past life experience. Interestingly, 100 percent of subjects who report that they remember a past life are children and on average begin recalling their past life at around 35 months. The children can recall descriptions of events and experiences from their past life with remarkable detail. Tucker has pointed out that these children show very strong emotional involvement when they speak about their experiences; some actually cry and beg their parents to be taken to what they say is their previous family.
According to Tucker:
The subjects usually stop making their past-life statements by the age of six to seven, and most seem to lose the purported memories. This is the age when children start school and begin having more experiences in their current life, as well as when they tend to lose their early childhood memories.
You can read more about 6 extraordinary cases of reincarnation here.
What If Reincarnation Was A Fact?
Going back to the early question in this article about how life would be if we all knew reincarnation was real, I want us to truly think about how our lives and world would be different. Would we take small things that cause so much suffering as seriously? Is it the fact we think this is our only life that causes some of us to take things so seriously? Or is it something else? I ask because this question helps us to discover the root of so much of the self imposed suffering that we place upon ourselves in life.
I think this is important to reflect on because I ultimately believe that we have the power to live our lives in a state of peace. Maybe not 100% of the time in our current world, but most of the time. I believe it is our lack of understanding of ourselves, our thoughts, and our ego that stops us from moving beyond suffering. The stories we tell ourselves about why we do the things we do play a huge role as well.
I ultimately feel that if we knew we reincarnated we could still make the most of our experience here. It ultimately comes down to how aligned we are with our soul’s purpose, as opposed to what our minds are programmed to do. So often we chase things or do things based on what our minds are convinced to do from societal pressures, parental conditions, ideas built from wanting material things etc. When we don’t get aligned with who we truly are and what we are here to do we often don’t feel great within. This causes us to struggle a lot, make different choices, and ultimately not feel fulfilled. This is where the lack of purpose, what we call ‘laziness’ and so forth, comes from. The very thing we might fear would happen to us if we all knew reincarnation existed and suddenly we’d all sit around and do nothing.
I feel this is important to reflect on. Alignment and self awareness… key.
Alan Watts On Death
Probably one of the most powerful thoughts Watts drops in this video is this: ”We live in a culture where it has been rubbed into us in every conceivable way that to die is a terrible thing. And that is a tremendous disease from which our culture in particular suffers.”
Comments
In the end I know that
In the end I know that walking the streets of a culture that "believes" in karma is safer than non-karmic societies (if such a thing can exist). I also know I enjoy working with people who also agree with the idea of karma. Whether it is real, true or not doesn't matter much to me now. The results of our actions ismore important to concentrate on.
Good old Watts!
As Above, So Below
As Below, So Above