Happy 2022!
Given the worldwide trajectory of the past few years, we’ve been saying it under our breaths, as if wishing will somehow jinx the entire year.
Instead, I choose hope: hope that intellect will win out over ignorance; that love will win out over hatred; that responsibility will win out over rampant disease, climate change, and so much more. No, the world won’t magically shift the mindset of the millions who reject logic and empathy. However, we as a worldwide society can and should let those people know they’re a minority, and their misery won’t be tolerated outside the constricted limits of their own hollow skulls.
For the record, I believe in reincarnation. To quote Crosby,Stills, Nash, & Young: We Have All Been Here Before. I have friends who also believe in reincarnation, too. And a few who…
Well.
I don’t like to mock anyone’s beliefs, provided they’re sincere. (Which is why I ignore the line for politically-driven garbage, which has no real religious connections.)
However, there are some people whose sincere beliefs wander so far from the beaten path it’s hard not to question them.
I’m only aware of one past life for myself where I was notable enough to show up in any kind of record books whatsoever. I wasn’t a king or a princess or a knight or an actress, though my family owned a generational business. Other than that, I’ve been a weaver a few thousand years ago in the Greek islands, a Native American boy who was killed by a mountain lion, an Irish woman who starved to death, and… Well, you get the picture. I had a life as the village midwife/herbalist/witch, when I had no children of my own. I was a redheaded man with limited intellect; in that life I was a butcher and ashamed I wasn’t smarter.
When I say limited intellect, I mean I had the vocabulary of a toddler. These days I’d be classified as on the spectrum.
I’m sure all the kings, prophets, composers, and so on have all reincarnated too, and their current incarnations are tooling around the planet. But I find it sketchy when someone claims to have been a whole string of internationally-renowned souls. Ramp up the skepticism when they claim to have been two famous people who were actually married to each other. And that’s only scratching the surface of the narrative.
At what point does faith cross into delusion? At what point do you consider recommending professional intervention (knowing it will be rejected, anyway)?
The subject fascinates me, and I’m always interested in hearing documentation on the phenomenon.
However, stupendous claims require stupendous proof. Unsubstantiated claims, when they’re so extreme, undermine credibility for reincarnation as a whole.
Part of me wants to suggest this person reconsider. I feel vaguely responsible – not for the beliefs, but for other facets of the situation. I wouldn’t hurt this person for the world. I just wonder if by saying nothing, I’m doing more harm.
I’ve followed ancestry information and was delighted to be able to trace some of the “greats and Grans” back into history. However, when I get notification of all the well known people in history, I draw the line of belief. I’ve love to find out about the real people and what their lives were. I’ve always felt I was a downstairs Irish maid either in England or the United States. I’ve also been told there was Indian blood in our line but never able to confirm.
Ancestry is a different animal. Birth lines are traceable and if your family history contains a few famous branches, it’s probably legitimate.
However – if you insist you’re Cleopatra reincarnated, and Hans Christian Anderson reincarnated, and Noah reincarnated, and Queen Victoria reincarnated, and Charlie Chaplin, and more reknowned names, and so on… that’s when your credibility slips.
I expressly chose names I’m pretty sure this person didn’t claim (other than possibly Cleopatra). Most of the people she says she was in previous incarnations are even higher profile than these.
Interesting…I haven’t believed I was reincarnated….yet>!