From: suzych@swcp.com
In article <3f549cee$0$6528$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>, "Christian
Task" wrote:
> "CAndersen (Kimba)" wrote in message
> news:cpi6lvce05dbab8nrqrek6bq1kc9n91sj2@4ax.com...
> > "Christian Task" wrote:
> >
> > > the NDE is only the brain's way of coping woth a stressful event
> >
> > That is a favorite doctrine of the "science"-believing pseudoskeptic, but
> > it makes absolutely no sense from the scientific point of view.
>
> What makes sense then? Even if the OOBE, NDE, reincarnation scenario is
> correct, and I'm not saying conclusively that it is not, we still have the
> problem of continuity of existence. This existence is the only one I know
> and if I die, go into an afterlife state and come back again, it's just the
> same as being extinguished forever. I can't remember any life other than
> this one, so what's the point? Eternal oblivion would feel exactly the same.
Yes, the NDE is brain activity -- the same way that my walking down the
steet and perceiving what I perceive is chemical and electrical activity
in my brain. You could say that my sense impressions of the quotidian
world are my brain's way of coping with quotidian stimuli (which we can
never get sufficiently "outside" of our own brains' function and limits
to assess "objectively"). Nobody knows *for sure* what's "really" out
there even in day to day experience.
As for continuity, the explanation that makes the most sense to me is
that I have a basic soul, an essential self, that persists off the
physical plane -- on the astral, say -- and which personifies itself
over and over, in different guises chosen for different circumstances,
and all of which it the essential soul remembers perfectly well and
mulls over between lives in the process of choosing the nature of the
next foray. When all the lessons of physical life have been acquired,
the essential soul is in possession of them all, integrated and
assimilated, and moves on to other stages of evolution.
The individual personality, developed and deployed for a particular
lifetime, *does* occasionally remember previous lives. There are plenty
of accounts of this, supported by what sure looks to me like reasonably
solid documentation: some children, particularly in cultures that accept
reincarnation as real, have given very convincing and verifiable reports
of memories from previous lives. Moreover, even adults benefit from
past life memories and insights through dreams, moments of deja vu,
artistic creation, and flashes of instant recognition which usually have
some bearing on and contribution to make to the current life's progress.
But you would NOT want to be born into a household in a fundamentalist
Islamic state (or a fundamentalist Christian or Jewish community, for
that matter) bringing all of your past life memories with you, would
you? You wouldn't make it past the first time you opened your mouth and
spoke words; at best you'd be locked up for life as a nut, at worst
"exorcised" until you went crazy or died. Nor would most of us be able
to concentrate fully on current concerns with a load of past-life
chatter going on in our heads -- coping with the distractions of the
present are more than enough for most. Also, there may be lessons I
need to learn about, say, selfishness, that I'm going to be able to
finesse if I have too clear an access to past life experience, thereby
avoiding the full impact of the present lessons.
Of course, if you are engaged in learning some lessons this time about
extreme attachment to current personality (as I guess most of us are,
one way or another, most of the time!), no explanation that I know of is
likely to satisfy except the standard Christian stuff about playing a
harp in Heaven for all eternity (talk about being driven crazy . . . )
--
Crow
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
|
