Eternal existence: having access to all your soul has ever experienced, how do you feel about it? [Archive]

Shadowself

22nd October 2014, 13:36

I can imagine that a long life of eighty to over a hundredth years can seem as a very long stretch. I think I understand a little why old people tend to grow tired after so many experiences within reach of their awareness. But what if (future) life was such that all the memories of the past remained in between lives?

Wouldn't it be a burden to carry everything a long for so long? I personally feel some kind of relief in the prospect of having all of it erased once in a while. How do you feel about this?

It is a burden.

Full access to all memory is access to ALL. That would include death. Remembering your death or that of a loved one is not all it's cracked up to be. Be careful what you wish for.

Access to future life memory again is not all it's cracked up to be. It's burden alright. I've learned certain things cannot be averted no matter what you remember or see coming down the pike.

Probably the only thing you can change is your attitude toward this life and how given that knowledge you would proceed. Now THAT might avert and change a general direction given that prior knowledge as to how to proceed.

Cherish what you've got while you're here and live it to the fullest. Eternal is in this physicality a long time or no time. At least here you have a beginning and an end.

In eternal we never outlive the longing

k1inZ4DjEWc

blknwhite

22nd October 2014, 14:08

Interesting subject. This statement by J. Krishnamurti helped me immensely as I felt myself growing weary of life's sometimes runaway train of experiences.

"You cannot live without dying. You cannot live if you do not die psychologically every minute. This is not an intellectual paradox. To live completely, wholly, every day as if it were a new loveliness, there must be dying to everything of yesterday, otherwise you live mechanically, and a mechanical mind can never know what love is or what freedom is."

Joanne Shepard

22nd October 2014, 14:47

I just watched this on past life memories yesterday. I did a little more research on it and it seems that many many people have even more than memories of past life experiences.

I think its very interesting and very real.

I think that a little bit of the memory from a past life wouldn't hurt anything,,,,,,,,,,,,,, but to much memory could possibly distract you some,,,from progressing though this life, if you allow it to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mKGdK_JCcU&feature=player_embedded

TrumanCash

22nd October 2014, 14:50

I think the most significant thing that I have gained from recovering the memories of many past life incidents is knowing who I am. By this I mean who I am as an eternal spiritual being.

Also, memory does not ever get "erased". This includes past lives. We can shove it back into a closet or sweep it under a rug, but it's still there.

I have also released a lot of negative, emotional baggage in the process of recovering traumatic past life incidents that I will no longer carry into future lives. However, the memories are still there so I have that knowledge without being adversely affected by it. Also, it has cleared a lot of cobwebs from my awareness--like the feeling of getting really dirty, sweaty, muddy, wet, cold (or whatever) and then taking a nice hot shower. It makes you feel really clean inside.

It has also given me the knowledge of how the matrix works.

TLC

Skyhaven

22nd October 2014, 15:17

I think however there's great forward movement coming from having a clean memory slate. If one had bad memories of certain experiences one would probably avoid them right? While it maybe best not to. Maybe you got caught in some very bad circumstances and died of it, then when you come around again and the memories are still there, you might have a lot of trouble dealing with them when coming into a totally new environment.

The more I think of the implications the more I start to think there's some intelligent reason behind the loss of memory. Not in a negative way though... I somehow don't believe the memories are wiped out on purpose to get us in some kind of bad starting position. On contrary I can see a loving gesture in it.

sirdipswitch

22nd October 2014, 20:44

I remember it all. What an absolute blast it is. Yes I know who I am, where I came from and all that I have done. My biggest, most coolest life started with a blast, as I remeber with VIVID clarity, how tough it was to climb out of that egg. ccc.

Learning of my past, brought a whole new meaning to the term...

Blast from the past. chuckle chuckle chuckle.

Burden??? Hardly!!! Absolutely LOVIN, all 433 Trillion Years of it...

TRUST Me... it will change yer perspective on... stuff. ccc. :wizard:

Milneman

22nd October 2014, 20:52

sirdipswitch

22nd October 2014, 23:39

I can imagine that a long life of eighty to over a hundredth years can seem as a very long stretch. I think I understand a little why old people tend to grow tired after so many experiences within reach of their awareness. But what if (future) life was such that all the memories of the past remained in between lives?

Wouldn't it be a burden to carry everything a long for so long? I personally feel some kind of relief in the prospect of having all of it erased once in a while. How do you feel about this?

*The question asked requires that the premise of reincarnation be true. As of yet, I do not believe there is any empirical evidence to conclusively support this hypothesis. As such, the speculations that follow are just that...speculative. ;)

You should watch the video that Joanne Shepard posted. It's one of the better ones on reincarnation. Even the first 15 minutes is quite compelling. Definately gives one something to thinkabout. I enjoy reading about small children, that continually come up with things they could not possibly know, without being in that past life. There is tons of information pointing towards the reality of reincarnation when one chooses to look.

chocolate

23rd October 2014, 06:13

I was meaning to write here yesterday, but better later than never :).

I could start with laying out what I think about the popular notion of reincarnation and so on, together with what I think our memories are, and why there are there. But that will make everything quite lengthy, so here's the abbreviated version.

From my current perspective our memories are not exactly ours. They are more like acquired memories based on resonance, and some other specifics. In that sense what we think we remember is a very malleable concept.
Thinking in general is a process of dealing with some type of energy existing outside of our brains and beings. Thinking is both an internal and an external process. And can be influenced from outside forces, entities, energy, etc. Memories as a by-product of thinking then has most of its properties - can be influenced, edited, changed, etc.

I just read this morning one article about memories, and how they could not be what we think of them:
Your Memory May Be Edited (http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/edited-memories/)

Our memories are inaccurate, more than we’d like to believe. And now a study demonstrates one reason: we apparently add current experiences onto memories.

Study subjects examined the location of objects on a computer screen against a background of an underwater ocean scene. Researchers then showed the subjects a fresh screen with a different background, this time a photo of farmland. And the subjects had to place an object in the same position it was in on the original screen. And they always placed the object in the wrong position.

If one is acquainted with the concept of the different spheres of existence, physical as the most dense, existing inside of all the others ( also called astral planes ), it becomes evident that the realm of thought and thus memory is a sphere of itself, with rules of existence and engagement.

As of right now what comes to me as a valuable skill is the one of change. I had to change a lot of what I was assuming to be correct, and incorrect, or should I say I had to return to my initial stage ( before entering this lovely forum ) of testing the water before sipping from it.
Having this in mind I 'think' we should detach from our understanding of what reincarnation, past lives, past memories are, based on all of what our 'spiritual education' has given us to date.
I lack the latter, and that made all the difference for me when dealing with the subject.

:)

I will break my post here, but will come back.

chocolate

23rd October 2014, 06:42

I have no doubt we are eternal. I also have no doubt we live in a multi-layered way, all at once ( past, present and future), all of the above mentioned influencing one-another.
I have certain type of knowing-ness that doesn't have a logical explanation, and that is considered in popular terms to be the soul experience, the memory of which cannot be changed/influenced.
I also have glimpses of other knowledge and experience that is not mine, of that I am sure.
Based on that, and other facts and factors from my current life, I am certain I have lived other lives, but I have come here without the memories of them.
If one has the knowledge of the ~growth and development in the realms of soul life ( putting here only as a note what has been discussed as the ' higher-selves ' ) ~, then it becomes only natural to understand that it is possible that mentioned soul life to develop in cycles. After the completion of each one of them follows another, and at those points, I think, we are experiencing what some believe to be 'no memories of past lives', but having that certain type of knowlege and knowing-ness of which I wrote above. But at the same time all of the above comes with different needs, so that each life serves its purpose.

It is widely accepted that some of us, having more experience in the realm of spiritual practices, also called ' the awakened ones ' , ;) , retain their memories after death in a type of a body ( see here Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_concept_of_the_soul) for reference) .

But that is, in my view, a double-edged sword, which at one point might become a bit of a destructive tool to have.
That is why it is also widely discussed, here and everywhere in the true spiritual communities, the practice of living with certain level of detachment.

So, in short, I think some of us need to detach from the desire to retain memories of/from past lives, even the concept of having such memories/lives, for the sake of their own personal development onward.
And on another note, I feel we need to also detach from the desire to uncover memories of past lives during this life, because it is tricky, and makes quite a lot of mess, which might be only confusing/destructive at this point.

In one TV series the main character said:
" Every-body wants to be 'some-body', but in fact 'every-body' is a 'no-body' (loose quote).
I think there's great wisdom in that sentence with regard to this discussion we/you are having here.

For me, and from my point of view, there is no clean-slate start in the way mentioned in above posts.
There could only be a 'clean', in terms of clean and clear awareness, state of being.

---

Sorry, but again it became a long post.
( I have to practice briefness, may be )

TraineeHuman

23rd October 2014, 06:42

The way I understand it, who/what we really are is very, very different from what most imagine. This makes the question of: Do "we" reincarnate? a tricky one. Does that question even make sense if one doesn't know who/what one is? I claim to know that as a matter of fact yes, "we" do, but next time around maybe the being who's reincarnating will acquire a better understanding of who/what s/he really is in the first place -- rather than having barely a clue, which certainly seems to be the case for the majority of the population.

Skyhaven

23rd October 2014, 09:14

I know, It's really tricky to reason about these things because the truth of it all might be beyond our perspective. We have a linear mindset, and as such we tend to interpret things in a linear fashion. Then there is the notion of individualization for instance. We think all our experiences are individuated because our Ego can't stand the fact that all of our experiences might be just a facet of a collective base of experiences.

chocolate

23rd October 2014, 09:27

"That which you can see you cannot know, and that which you can know you cannot see"

For me it is not tricky (to reason) as much as it is firstly a matter of subjective perception, and then a matter of perspective.
Some of us have a more wide way of thinking, linear just being one part of it.
And I also don't especially enjoy the notion of the 'Ego' as it is widely discussed on the forum, and elsewhere. It has its own existential purpose, and trying to negate it shows a desire to be 'above' creation occupying (still) a human body- a bit of an existential contradiction.

Every time when someone tries to put the Ego label on someone or on me, makes me want to leave the conversation.

The way I have experienced gaining knowledge of my 'eternal experiences' is by just knowing that they are with me at all times. That is the part of me that feels a certain spark of inspiration around people, places, activities, etc., and also brings the feelings of heaviness, darkness and unpleasant sensation/perception around other (people or situations). If one's personal sense of self is finely tuned (which I am starting to think I have managed to accomplish to an extend) those type of small indications are what can be a part of the wisdom of the eternal soul, so no memory of a past life (per se) is required for me to feel 'eternal'.

Wondering 'IF (it is there)' or 'IF NOT' just puts an emphasis on lack for me, something that can happen when visiting a forum of this type.
Here there has been a lot of discussion of the existence of a higher self, connection with that and so on, but that in a way is more of a confusion than of actual help. That which has been called a 'higher self' and often referred to as the source of eternal wisdom/memory/etc., has been constantly present in my life, as I've mentioned in one PM not so long ago. The awareness of it being close-by is what has been changing with time. I think this is valid for everyone.

But on the other hand there are also a lot of other sides connected with having some knowledge about other lives as part of the conversation - in the areas of clearing health issues, drawbacks, talents of the lack-there-of, etc. At that point delving a bit deeper in what is considered a past life experience might be necessary/beneficial. But again, depending on who is doing the 'regression' and how, the search for truth may become dangerous and confusing. And that is why at this stage I was brought to the point where it was revealed that the only thing that matters is the personal perception and the personal feeling about a certain matter, heath or otherwise.

The sense of smell, my visual perception ( using the physical eyes ) and music, used sometimes all at once, are my tools to get in touch with the inner core, or the eternal self. In most cases the experience of drawing from that core is only beneficial, until another human decides to do the thinking for me, and then it gets to another stage where everything becomes a bit more transcendental. To use a fashionable term.
:)

animovado

23rd October 2014, 12:08

*The question asked requires that the premise of reincarnation be true. As of yet, I do not believe there is any empirical evidence to conclusively support this hypothesis. As such, the speculations that follow are just that...speculative. ;)

Maybe you get a glimpse if you look at the empirical evident findings of quantum mechanics.

Skyhaven, i believe as well that it's our linear mindset and the lack of detachment to our imprints and memories that makes it so difficult to deal with those ideas.
As long as we are just carrying or endure our life it will be a burden and therefore, the "cup of forgetfulness" might be quite useful to avoid further stress.

But it might be that the vibrational patterns of two "localities" match very well and they come together, hence we remember situations of our current or another current live, we're having a déjà vu and experience synchronicity.

Skyhaven

23rd October 2014, 13:13

The way I have experienced gaining knowledge of my 'eternal experiences' is by just knowing that they are with me at all times. That is the part of me that feels a certain spark of inspiration around people, places, activities, etc., and also brings the feelings of heaviness, darkness and unpleasant sensation/perception around other (people or situations). If one's personal sense of self is finely tuned (which I am starting to think I have managed to accomplish to an extend) those type of small indications are what can be a part of the wisdom of the eternal soul, so no memory of a past life (per se) is required for me to feel 'eternal'.

That's what I think too! For me the details of memory aren't that important at all. Having memories erased doesn't mean that one loses the experiences, on contrary its all there just beneath the surface. It shines through in everything a person does, its embedded in a person's spirit.

rgray222

23rd October 2014, 17:20

I can imagine that a long life of eighty to over a hundredth years can seem as a very long stretch. I think I understand a little why old people tend to grow tired after so many experiences within reach of their awareness. But what if (future) life was such that all the memories of the past remained in between lives?

Wouldn't it be a burden to carry everything a long for so long? I personally feel some kind of relief in the prospect of having all of it erased once in a while. How do you feel about this?

If reincarnation is true and each of us has lived multiple lives than the question really begs to be ask...........when does it end. What is the ultimate destination of living all these lives. I can see the value of each life, no matter how great, sad, depressing, violent etc that each life can have.... but there must be a final destination. There must be a point when every lesson is learned, every consequence has been dealt with. Where does it all end up?

Michael Moewes

23rd October 2014, 17:43

Hi, from my opinion it is a blessing that we don't know our past lives as it is truely a nightmare to be able watching you dying in the most horrible ways. and to remember these people who have killed you in a past life. no way for me. and as the usual human being is very much attached to material things, how do you consider heritage.
as you can see, I can't get anything positive from this idea. I've been told from a tibetan master, that, in my last life, I have been a rich comerciant in Shanghai. so what would I've been done in the case that I'd remember all this life. would I had gone there to claim my belongings from the past life and so on. hurting those members of my family in the former and in the actual life?
absolute no go for me.
Stay healthy

I can imagine that a long life of eighty to over a hundredth years can seem as a very long stretch. I think I understand a little why old people tend to grow tired after so many experiences within reach of their awareness. But what if (future) life was such that all the memories of the past remained in between lives?

Wouldn't it be a burden to carry everything a long for so long? I personally feel some kind of relief in the prospect of having all of it erased once in a while. How do you feel about this?

Skyhaven

23rd October 2014, 18:14

I can imagine that a long life of eighty to over a hundredth years can seem as a very long stretch. I think I understand a little why old people tend to grow tired after so many experiences within reach of their awareness. But what if (future) life was such that all the memories of the past remained in between lives?

Wouldn't it be a burden to carry everything a long for so long? I personally feel some kind of relief in the prospect of having all of it erased once in a while. How do you feel about this?

If reincarnation is true and each of us has lived multiple lives than the question really begs to be ask...........when does it end. What is the ultimate destination of living all these lives. I can see the value of each life, no matter how great, sad, depressing, violent etc that each life can have.... but there must be a final destination. There must be a point when every lesson is learned, every consequence has been dealt with. Where does it all end up?

It's beyond our conception, I suppose.

Michael Moewes

23rd October 2014, 18:16

For me ,as a Buddhist, reincarnation is a truth. you just won't be so happy that your next life will be as a human being.
This is all up to your accumulated Karma. One teatching of the Buddha says.
To regain a precious human rebirth is as you imagine a huge ocean million times bigger than the oceans known on this planet.
I tis ocean lives a blind and very old turtle, wich resufaces every fivehundret years. on the surface of this ocean floats a life ring." as you know from ships" so the possibility that this turtle actually catches the lifering with her head, is the same for you to be reborn as a human.
This life is so precious, and so many people are wasting it with negativity. and don't forget we all have to go. and most of us doesn't know when this moment is happening. so don't waste this precious life with negativity but spend it with loving kindness and compassion. as you will have to justify what you have done in this life. this life is the result of the karma in your past lifes over countless eons. if you like to know where you're heading in the next one, look at your actions, phisically, verbal and mental.

I can imagine that a long life of eighty to over a hundredth years can seem as a very long stretch. I think I understand a little why old people tend to grow tired after so many experiences within reach of their awareness. But what if (future) life was such that all the memories of the past remained in between lives?

Wouldn't it be a burden to carry everything a long for so long? I personally feel some kind of relief in the prospect of having all of it erased once in a while. How do you feel about this?

*The question asked requires that the premise of reincarnation be true. As of yet, I do not believe there is any empirical evidence to conclusively support this hypothesis. As such, the speculations that follow are just that...speculative. ;)

Wind

23rd October 2014, 21:06

Do we want to remember our pasts as saints? Do we want to remember our past as murderers? Do we want to remember how we have killed others, how we lived with the burden and do we want to remember how in many different ways we have been killed? All of us have played so many different roles and now we just have another role to play. We all come from God, become our unique personalities and over eons of time we develop as soul and eventually start to attain higher states of being. We carry the residue such as traumas, skills, our unique traits from the past, but eventually all of that wil start to drop away once we start to become closer with the creator and realize that we are it. In the spirit world we will always remember and know our past and future lives and understand what we have done and what has been done to us and there is no guilt, no judgement there. Only everlasting unconditional love. That's how I see it.

Lifebringer

23rd October 2014, 23:56

I have found that if I don't get over stuff I couldn't change or wrongs that were done to me, I feel like crap every time they pop up so, like a samarai, I see them feel them and send them around back to be chopped off of my existence.

chocolate

24th October 2014, 07:46

I was reading a book yesterday, I just picked up from where I had left few months ago. The book is called "The Science of Spirituality" by Lee Bladon ( quite interesting, and without the pretense of many new-age, self-proclaimed speakers as of now )
http://books.google.bg/books?id=I1SyiWwIA1YC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

I can't quote exactly, for the book is at home right now, but at one point Lee Bladon writes:
The soul sends a part of its energy field, its essence, to assist the human body in its Earthy life, and after death the essence returns to the soul and reunites with it. I think this is based on Michael Newton's life between lives research technique. So, in a way that is saying that everything the soul part has experienced and that has been embedded in its field remains as a memory, and is added to the memory of all other lives that soul has had. That also describes probably part of the notion of what the higher self is, discussed in threads here.
( see pages 37-38-39 for the exact text )

The author also writes about the many documented experiments and research on past lives, NDE, children's memories at an early age, etc. So as far as empiric data goes, for those who still need it, it is there, but I assume the interest for this data to be publicly available and scientifically supported is still lacking.

Shadowself

24th October 2014, 14:23

Remembering "eternal existence" from a standpoint of this human condition is indeed tricky. I eluded to it in my post.

Eternal has no "beginning" and no "end". Remembering past and present and future would be the "re-membering".

From a human perspective there would be a cosmic end point. Being "eternal" has none.

When one remembers eternal they remember the whole and human perspective has a difficult time doing this. Hence they use the arrow of time and work from the past(life) forward to the present.

Eternal has a future in this formula if you'd like to call it.

e·ter·nal
əˈtərn(ə)l/
adjective
adjective: eternal

lasting or existing forever; without end or beginning.

While we in the human condition remember the past(life), the sage sees the future.

Where a timeline exists enter the Relevant physical theory:

Causality
Chain reaction
Butterfly effect
Domino effect

Cause and Effect

In relative physical theory of the human condition exists the Infinite Field of Potential. Use time wisely says the sage. The futures potential awaits.

chocolate

24th October 2014, 17:37

To continue from my previous post.
In a way a soul holds memories of many soul-parts. I am intentionally not using some accepted philosophical/spiritual terms here, because at this point they just dilute the true meaning for me.
Those composite souls are like hubs for 'partial' individuated souls of people living Earthy lives. And in that way whatever memory one single individual, or the group of individuals keeping an essential part of the composite soul are given, and when, depends on the specifics of their composite soul.
In that line of thought, in a way having a memory of a specific life doesn't necessarily mean that you, the person with an identity on Earth, can identify with the life of the other person who's life you remember. This is the point where everything becomes a matter of perception and a matter of choice, to hold on to that 'idea' or not.
Oftentimes we tend to go in the direction of what brings happiness. If we were to assume that we remember a life with someone specific (soul essence) who has made us happy, it is quite possible that we will try to re-experience that happiness again, because in a way we know that we are a good match to that person. The opposite is also true. Having a memory of an unhappy life often leads to the avoidance of the person who has brought us that unhappiness.
Having no memory of a specific life gives a person much more freedom to live in accordance to their preferences and overall trajectory (choices) in the current life.

But that is not to say that if I know chocolate is bad for me I will try to avoid it. :)

---

I would say that may be we (those of us who remember, or who have started to remember) will learn with time to detach partially from some expectations, and use the memory(ies) and the information in a way beneficial to us and to everyone who's life is affected by ours.
At the beginning it is a bit disorienting, and confusion, but only until the moment when one realizes the grander scheme of things.

I personally don't think any of the mentioned concepts in this thread are beyond our current comprehension. Everything complex can be broken down to smaller parts of conceptual information that we can piece together, if we wish for that to happen.

If one can see the stillness of existence right now, there is nothing all that 'out of this world' that cannot be put in some sort of understandable frame.
I am a female, and I can sort of hold all of that in my emotional existence, so I would assume a man shouldn't have much problem then, right?
But I wouldn't be offended, if I don't see my words quoted somewhere on internet.

:)
Cheers.