Does anyone here believe in reinarnation?

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^^I sometimes get upset when people are so disbelieving and almost downright mean about things like this. Oddly enough, when people start saying to me 'Science proves this, Pysics proves that', I just stare at them, say 'Okay...' and laugh to myself so much inside.
^Thank you! I believe that God/Great Spirit is literally Love, so there is no punishing or 'wrath', as they say.

Every account that I've read was based on hearsay, and not on any specific data.

I once made up a fantasy story for 3rd grade about having been attacked and hacked to death by soldiers in the courtyard of my palace, only to haunt the site for the next 49 years, and come back as a child with psychic powers to take revenge on the grand-children of my murderers. Then, about a decade later, I read a true account of a Korean queen known as "Empress Min". My story and the historical account had enough similarities that the 3rd grade teacher contacted me to ask me what else I could "remember" about my "past life".

I asked her how her grandparents were doing. She never called back.

A vivid imagination is all that it takes to make up an alleged account of reincarnation. A gullible mind is all that it takes to believe it.

^Please stop. Try to respect other people's beliefs and take care not to anger anyone by verbally dismissing their beliefs. I knew responding to this thread wasn't such a good idea. Bye.

Disagreement is not abuse. Citing lack of evidence for a claim is not abuse. Saying that claims can be explained by a vivid imagination, a rich fantasy life, or even divergent "brain wiring" are not abuse, either.

Personally attacking an individual for believing in something unproven - or for expressing disbelief in someone else's beliefs - is abuse, however; and I simply refuse to do that.

Believe what you will; just expect others to believe otherwise.

So go ahead and tell your stories. Don't let me stop you.

No. Reincarnation is not possible.

^^I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I should not have...I'm sorry.

Jains, most of them anyway, believe in reincarnation. I'm new to Jainism and am still having problems accepting some of the more "ethereal" concepts like heaven, hell, karma, the soul, and reincarnation. I suspect if I suspend disbelief and simply ran with the flow I can "buy" all those concepts, albeit vague in their existence.

However, there is a Jain concept called 'Anetkavada' - the acceptance of disparate beliefs. That is, you don't have to prove to me that heaven or hell or even God exists. If you believe, I accept your belief.

I do know, however, that matter cannot be created or destroyed, merely altered, and if the spark that gives and maintains life - the soul - is transient from body to body since new bodies are born and die everyday, then I'll accept there is some possibility of reincarnation. I can't prove my soul in its former life was a tapeworm or water lily but I'll accept it.

I have a hard time believing in anything beyond the life that we currently live because people do not want death to be the end of their existence. That there could be (and I believe there is) an end to a person's existence is a scary concept and I think that it is this fear that drives so many views of the afterlife.

That being said, there is one idea that I have heard about that rings as a possibility to me. Before talking about it, I want to bring up my view of the world even before I heard about this. I have observed and experienced things that can't currently be explained scientifically (dreaming of things before they happen, having things say what I am thinking a little too often or vice versa and other 'coincidences' that seem a little too spot on.) I believe that there is a connection between all living things in their world, including through their consciousness.

The idea that I heard is that, when people die, their consciousness breaks down and pieces of it can reform with that of others to form a new one when a baby is born. Sometimes, big enough chunks can survive across from one life to the next that they can recall events from their previous lives.

Matter gets recycled within natural systems completely, along with energy that is not lost to entropy in the process. If there is the connectivity that i believe exists, it's hardly an unreasonable idea that peoples minds would be recycled in a similar fashion. Heck, maybe some of it even gets channeled into still living people, too (it would certainly give credence to how so many people think that a relatives presence is still felt even after they have died.)

As for karma reincarnations, i do not believe in them. I don't think it would be a process where people are rewarded or punished for what they did in past existences. Furthermore, Asperger's Syndrome or Autism aren't necessarily a bad thing, just different than normal. If you look around on the site, you will find a wide range of talented people, including but not limited to artists, scientists and mathematicians. In fact, there are many famous historical figures whom are suspected of having disabilities like these.

But, lets consider the possibility that you are right and not only does reincarnation happen, but it is based on a reward/punishment based system and having Asperger's indicates that you are lower on the reward spectrum than a nuerotypical person. How do you know that you are being punished after some previous human life, rather than rewarded from a previous life as an animal to join humanity (if humanity is actually considered a higher rung and not just an assumption made on human bias).

The Jainism concept is that the number of souls are infinite. Like existence itself, Jains believe the world was always here and will always be here; ie, there was no creator god. Souls themselves do not born or die, just the bodies they inhabit which gives that particular congregate, organic matter life, whether it is a tree or dog or river. The Jain concept is also that all souls vary their size in the bodies they inhabit and that's why ahimsa, non-violence, is the number one tenet of Jainism, that all souls are equal.

I believe in reincarnation. I believe that I was a soldier in my past life. I don't need scientific data to know this, because I feel it in my soul. I feel that not everything needs to be backed by scientific data.

If reincarnation exists, it's merely being in possession of a new living being's brain. There probably is no karma. Just as you arbitrarily were born when and where you were, the next life will also be so. But even if it is true, then our current brains will be destroyed and we won't have any memories of a past life in the new one. We may as well be born as someone that goes completely against our current views and way of life, ans tragically won't know it. Most likely on another planet and/or another reality.

Or get this: When you die you die for real and when your parents had sex you were conceived.