Tag: Reincarnation

Thinking About: Past Lives and Passed Lives

Have you been here before? Well, that requires a bit of belief in reincarnation – that your existence is passed from this life on to another one. That your current existence came from an existence previously here before. Attached to that is a notion that you stay on this mortal coil until you have learned all the lessons that you needed to. Then your essence gets an eternal rest, once you have completed that. Many folks cannot hold a belief in all of that, for whatever reason. Me? I believe in reincarnation. I believe in past lives as well. I don’t hold much countenance in the idea of counting into existences until certain lessons are learned, but I won’t completely discount the possibility. Why? Well, let’s explore that for a bit.

I do believe that I have been here before. There are folks that I have encountered that there’s that immediate connection with. I can’t explain it, but I believe there’s more than just chemistry that causes that. I have also gotten the same experience in various places that I have been. Again, many will explain that away as a chemical aspect within my body. Sure, I get that is what is happening, but why does it happen? Science has never been able to completely explain that away. So, I look at it as a kind of connection. Some of the people that I have connected in that fashion are long out of my life in this existence. Some of the places I have felt that “chemical reaction” are so far away that it is likely I will never have the chance to be there again. How can I explain that? Well, I call that something similar – Passed Lives. I’ll get to that in a moment.

Why do I believe in reincarnation? Because I believe that there is more to this existence than just being here, and then – poof – you’re gone. Just a memory for those who are still unfortunate to be here. Or a footnote in recorded history. So, that means that I believe I was someone historical, right? I’m a follow-on to Aleister Crowley? Sir Francis Drake? Some member of Egyptian royalty? No. Not really. I figure that who I am today is not that different from who I was in the past. So they had computers in the far distant past, right? Or my incarnations only go back to the time of Ada Lovelace?? Well, no. My personality is that of a technician and a troubleshooter. Not necessarily computers. But I can’t really tell you what I was in the past. See, I don’t do the past life journey stuff. I just don’t want to know.

As for the aspect of everyone going back and finding that they are someone important. Or the several hundred Aliester Crowley’s that are out there today. Well, everyone likes to believe that they were someone important. I’m not saying that they might not be those individuals. Just that I wonder where the average, everyday farmer working his fields in medieval England. Or the cart-wright that was mending the wagon wheels in the “wild” west of the United States? Surely, average minions such as these folk would make it to another incarnation in my theory? Certainly, they would. But let’s remember, very few people believe in reincarnation, much less look into it. They aren’t concerned with the Past. They are concerned with the here and now, just as those folks were doing in their time. As for all the Crowleys, perhaps Crowley had Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), and all these incarnations are individual reincarnations of who he was? Or maybe the folks who claim to be Crowley are all seeking attention? I don’t know, and honestly I don’t care. I don’t need to prove or disprove what I believe to anyone.

What about this “Passed Lives” thing? Well, this is not reincarnative (is that even a word?) theory. This is about the crossroads that we all encounter within our lives. You’ve been there before. I’ve been there before. There are choices that you make, which change your life drastically. When you look back, you will see where if you decided on this instead of that, your life would be far different than where it is today. Those choices that were not taken, I refer to those as “Passed Lives.” Or, if you prefer, alternate lives. That series of “what-ifs” we all have in our lives. How different would my life be if I had chosen to buckle down on my collegiate studies back in the mid-1980s? For reference, I graduated high school in 1984. I did not receive my first collegiate degree until 2003. There’s a lot of life lived in-between those two points, much of which was dictated by my decision to not throw myself into my original collegiate studies in earnest. I would never have joined the Air Force. In not joining the Air Force, I would most likely have not encountered Paganism. I would not have met all the friends that I encountered through the world of Bulletin Board computer systems. I could spend a long time looking at those Passed Lives. Sometimes, I do wonder what kind of person I might have been, had I traveled down those roads. However, I also remember that I like who I am now…so those wandering memories are best kept as the Passed Lives that they are.

Whether the choices that I made in this life or in another are good or bad – in the end, I am who I am today because of those choices. There are more choices that I will make in this existence that will continue to shape who I am. While I do believe that I have been here before, that I have a connection with some folks going into other existences, much like the wake left by a boat traveling over water – those ripples will fade. The energy of those ripples will flow to some distant shore, where the echoes of those Pasts will slide into the beyond. While I believe that the wake existed in the Past, there’s no need to dwell too long on where the boat has been. The till still needs to be manned, and the boat brought safely into the harbor.

–Tommy /|\

Tommy Was Here

Life is not a race. Its not about how fast you achieve something, its not about how many circuits you make around the sun while on this planet. Its about the experiences you have during this lifetime, during these circuits. I’ve been here before, at another time and place. And while I am aware that this is true, I don’t have to worry that I am unaware of the details. At that time, I was who I was. At this time I am who I am. And at a future time, I will be who I will be.

A short while back, this particular point manifested in my mind. Recently, I have been reading up on the concepts of past lives, reincarnation, and other similar perspectives. For those who are unaware, I am a firm believer in reincarnation. I believe we have all been here at one point or another. But where others will spout theories on the how and why of reincarnation concepts, I have no proof to back up my belief. I believe in the concept because it makes sense to me. I can certainly rationalize and expound upon it within my mind, but like most things in a religious or spiritual perspective – I have no desire to debate the issue. I will certainly sit and talk about the idea over a beer or two, but I have no desire to prove my understanding “right” or your understanding as “wrong”. I realize that for some folks that can seem unsettling, But I’m just not built to argue the rightness or wrongness of a concept for me beyond the point of my nose. So, let’s steer back to the point at hand…rather than argue whether the car we’re in is green or forest green, shall we?

When I took a long vacation trip up through the Rocky mountains to Glacier National Park, everywhere I drove seemed familiar to some degree to me. Every mountain seemed like home, every plain seemed familiar in my eyes. I know I have been there before. But that trip was my first to the area whatsoever. Two years later (last year) was another trip to the other side of those mountain ranges – Yellowstone National Park. Again, I got that feeling I had been here before – even though this was my first trip there. Even the alien landscape of Yellowstone seemed familiar, yet I couldn’t pinpoint why. In between those two trips was a trip to Mesa Verda, south of that area. And still, that familiar feeling of having been here before. I can’t explain the “why” of all of that, but I know the feeling of a place being “familiar”, and this was exactly that feeling.

So, I only found two concepts that might match. Either I was astral travelling in my sleep, or I had been here in a past life. And since I don’t think I could do much astral-style of work, even if I was hand-held and baby-stepped through a wonderful training on it – I could only hold one conscious perspective. Reincarnation and past lives.

I have heard tons of stories about past lives, some incredible – others spot-on. But when I have heard story after story of this person or that being Aleister Crowley or Cleopatra or some form of royalty or notorious individual….I can only come to two conclusions. Either the story I am being told about their past life is male bovine poo or these historical figures suffered from severe schizophrenia. And yet despite all of this type of evidence, I still believe in past lives and reincarnation, and I definitely cannot explain why I cannot be shaken from this belief.

Then again, what does it really matter?? I am not insisting that anyone else believe as I do. I am merely stating the way in which I see and interact with my existence on this issue. Besides, do I have to be able to spout endless vocal reams of theory, equations, and postulation to believe in something? No. Its what I believe. I can’t totally explain why, and don’t really see a need to do so. Nor do I really need to. I don’t need to dig into a past life to figure out if I made mistake in working some bargain with native peoples, and how I might work past it. I’m here. I’m now. I experience this. I was there. I was that. I did experience that. I remember it because its part of this existence. A previous existence has happened, but I don’t need to have a concrete connection to it. Just knowing it was there is enough, at least for me. A future version of myself exists as well, in another incarnation. But I truly believe that we don’t know much about our previous incarnations. So try as I might to compile information concerning what the future-me needs to learn from, its likely the future me won’t remember enough details to do much. And since I have no idea exactly who I will be in the future, I can’t just leave a note for him or her on the bathroom mirror for later. And honestly, it doesn’t matter. I existed here. And that, honestly, is enough.

Down the Rabbit Hole –A Short Look at Reincarnation Theory

Writing is a ton of hard work. Even when its not writing for a book. Or a magazine article. Or a research paper. Its hard when its just a blog post. Or a journal entry. It can certainly be somewhat tough to get the words in your head to flow through your fingers and through the keyboard. Honestly, its tough to come up with coherent topics at times. Which is why you are getting the blog post you are currently perusing. Because I cannot find the right way to say everything that is swirling in my head at the moment.

Its not like there’s not a ton of topics that could be written about. The trans-gender bathroom issue. But then again, I think everyone under the sun has covered that topic in about as many different manners possible. There’s the American politics scene. But then again, I would like to keep my dinner in my stomach, and not splayed all over my iMac monitors. There’s the shoddy manner in which my Texas State Attorney General is playing politics, religion and morality with his elected position. But all I can really do is hope that voters remember what tyranny REALLY looks like when they go the polls in the next election cycle. And to just be frank, I’d rather the voters make their own choices when it comes to things like that. I try very hard not to be preachy about politics these days.

But all of those topics are just “meh” for the most part. Definitely pots to leave off the stove. My interests are going back towards reading again, and mostly on topics like Celtic and Irish history, along with parts of Roman history. But none of that really lends itself to good topic writing. There’s only so much you can write about reading history…and to be honest, I’m not trying to dove-tail a lot of it into today’s societal outlook. There may be a few parallels, but nothing that I can conclusively lay a postulation upon. After all, my own thoughts are that today’s societal environment is today – what happened in the past is a different time frame and concept.

Which leads me down a different trail of thought. In approaching each day is a new moment in time, I realize that each moment is unique and will never come again. There will be similar points in time, but only similar. Each would be unique. If I look deep enough, I can find distinctive differences between the two points in time; even though each is quite similar in tone and feeling to the other. Which leads me down another thought path — perhaps the same can be said about each individual, in fact I believe that to be true. No matter how similar two people are; they are different people. But then, that makes me wonder aloud about the reincarnative process. If, as I do believe, many incarnations of each being happen on this plane of existence, would the returning individual be the same as they were before?

Let’s go with a totally out-there perspective:  many, many, many people have claimed to be a reincarnation of the famed ceremonial magician Aliester Crowley. Would they have to be EXACTLY like Crowley in their current life? Or would they possess only a certain aspect of Crowley’s, which would be combined with the rest of who they are?? Could they be a mixture of several different beings, melded together into a new essence?? Or just certain parts of various beings that are combined together to create a new matrix for this new incarnation?

This is why I don’t really like the idea of looking back into my potential past lives. And yes, I do believe that there are past lives within who I am. No, I don’t believe that every (or even ANY) of those past lives are of royal blood, or some “significant” individual (as “significant” as any individual can and would be – that’s a potential topic for another time and blog post). I’m just not all that convinced that knowing who or what I may have been in my past lives would be of any use or significance in today’s environment. As I said before, each moment may seem similar to one in the past – but each moment is unique. Knowing who I was or what role I had played in the past may be an interesting academic perspective…but I am unconvinced that it would play a helpful role in the “me” of today, beyond a “gee whiz” factor.

…and this is what I mean. This little rabbit hole lead me to here. Just be typing and thinking. Is it significant?  Perhaps not. Maybe it opens a perspective or a thought-provoking moment for you. perhaps it doesn’t. Much like John Beckett‘s “Nine Thoughts” perspective on his blog…I believe that this may wind up being a semi-regular feature. Down the Rabbit Hole…a glimpse into a random topic that’s on my mind. Perhaps, next time, we may explore the philosophical difference between the National League’s (American Major League Baseball) non-use of the Designated Hitter. Or maybe we will take a trip into the kitchen and look at some food creation I decided to create (and I make STRANGE food combinations just for the Nine Hells of it all). But regardless, thanks for reading…hopefully you found some of this fun and amusing. Not really sure of the informative part of it though…  🙂

 

–T /|\