crocodile deathroll

Is there something really appealing about reincarnation, or is it just wishful thinking?

I have observed how beliefs in reincarnation emerge in cultures totally independent of each other. And I would not at all be surprised if a civilization in a distant planet in a very distant galaxy would adopt the same belief patterns much more readily than ones similar to the Judeo-Christian belief systems. Why this is so is simple, it's more plausible.

However I very much doubt if anyone can recall the events of those previous lifes, because to the best of our knowledge the brain is all there is to preserve memories. So when you die you be totally oblivious to the fact that you ever existed in the first place. So you would be in a state being subjectively identical never been born at all in the first place. I am more unequivocal about the past life amnesia question. Past life amnesia is total. But because we cannot remember any previous life does not mean that we have not lived that previous life
So we might have forgotten what we have experienced rather than not have had any previous life at all. I do not remember a single day before I was 2 years of age but that does not mean that I did not exist before of was 2. It is the fact that our brains are underdeveloped at birth which explains amnesia in all of us as infants.

This is where I suspect there is a preservation of psychological structure in the universe to make it possible to begin a life in the first place. I suspect this because our brains are all made of matter that in not unique to each of us, as a carbon atom in your brain is identical to a carbon atom in yours. So without the brain to preserve you life's memories you default back to being at one with all matter that constitutes all living brains before they acquired memories. I suspect it is the universe's homogeneity of matter is what preserves the psychological structure in the universe.

My theory is that when you die then with all you memories forgotten, you will never know that you have lived at least one life and being an atheist I do not believe there is any God or deity to remind you that you have ever lived or have any control over you like a cosmic scrutineer so you can live only one possible life.

So with physical matter being so homogenous there is a gestalt switch mechanism that preserves your sense of self when the processes that booted your sense of self into existence becomes paralleled by another brain.



like in this rat man scenario. The simple line drawing on top you see the image of a man because your mind switched to man like images.
But if you gaze at the line drawing below you see the image of a rat. This is a property of the psychological structure in the universe as it enters the threshold of consciousness, it has the potential to switch off all the other perceptions and just be orientated to one worldline. Then when you die you default back to this earlier general psychological structure only to randomly switch off perceptions and reorientate yourself along another worldline like it is a first life experience.
So it is really impossible to subjectively die because you can never observe your own death.



Croc

[ December 20, 2002: Message edited by: crocodile deathroll ]</p>