Reincarnation.

[Steve Snead]

 I just thought I'd put  this out to see what thoughts others might have on this. I remember as a child lying in bed and having faces of people float across my thoughts or inner eye. The thing is these were adults that I didn't know in this life. They were not vague faces but were very clear and familiar. In time it stopped and now it is just a memory. Also, for full disclosure I always was a visual person and even as a child I would get a person "present life, not memory" in my mind's eye but I don't "think" it dismisses what I saw as a young child. Anyway, I was not raised to believe in reincarnation and I didn't think of it that way then. I also had the feeling that the kids I grew up with in elementary school were part of my "group" but again I had no teaching or theology or even knowledge of reincarnation. Yet in elementary school there was a girl who I was really drawn to and dreamed of. We did know each other back then but due to circumstance and different life paths we didn't connect as a permanent couple or even as life long friends. There always seemed to be a connection but maybe it was just me. Now, for the good news. I didn't and would never stalk her or anybody else. :-) So, I have lived my life and married and have a child. She has lived her life and married and has a family and we are in completely different circles and are over 150 miles apart in different areas of Alabama. Still, I have always had this knowledge that we are connected in some way. In recent years I have had a couple of dreams. Once she and I were in a (well, it seemed to be a big department store) It was in the 1930's or 40's or at least it seemed to be. I'm going by the clothing and feeling of the dream. It seemed that I had done something to stay close to her and we were embracing. But, I'm not sure that what "I" had done was nice to another person so I could be with her. Like I say I can't really honestly remember and dreams tend to fade after time. Then recently I had a dream where I waked into a place where she was talking. As I walked in she looked younger and I guess I was younger but this wasn't a past life dream. This was a dream. As I walked in there was electricity in the air, I could feel it. It was as if we made some kind of connection when we are in the same space. But, she was talking to another woman and then the other one left and she looked at me. She said "Steve" and the current was kind of strong. But, she was looking past me with a worried look on her face as if someone were behind me either in distress or going to cause distress. Anyway, I woke up and it has stayed with me.

 I write this just to see what some thoughts might be here about past lives and soul mates and group souls. Full disclosure here: I am a natural skeptic. I don't "believe" this proves anything. But, it is provocative and I am interested in reincarnation. Yes, it's like anything else. It can be taken to silly extremes and religions can be built around it. But, somehow I still come back to it. Anyway, just thought I"d put it out there and see if the group had any thoughts to share.

[Tharpa Doyle]

Steve your post sparked the following:  

Feeling the truth of One this morning- flashing past the blinders, the psychic and chemical barriers that keep us 'us'. If we can attenuate just a bit past those walls we feel the lives of others as our own. It's a spooky, deja vu feeling- I'm not quite sure it's not just imagination and maybe it is.

But maybe it isn't. We are all one mind, and if we dare to see all lives as our own we perhaps will go mad and perhaps completely open our hearts to the World. 

Sometimes music, a particular song, will spark that feeling- that strange intuition of another's life that is so alien and yet so familiar at once. We can peek around our blinders- blinders that serve a purpose to a point. But as we evolve, I think we will need to surrender our privacy- as our minds and hearts will be open, not closed.

If life is infinite, then in time we will have experienced everything, and maybe we 'already' have- beyond time and space.  We incarnate into Life itself.  

[Bruce Siegel]

Steve, I have a favor to ask. In the future, could you separate huge paragraphs like your first one into several (or even many) smaller ones? It's so much easier to read text that has lots of light and space around it. Tharpa's comment is a great example.

Thanks!

[Bruce Siegel]

I just realized something. Tharpa's text is not only divided nicely into small paragraphs, it's also formatted differently, with more spacious kerning and leading. How'd you do that, guy?

[Tharpa Doyle]

Bruce:  I don't know how I did that.  I cut and pasted it from my Facebook page.  

Kerning? Burning and keening more like it.  Wanting.  Behind closed doors- so many worlds.....

Longing.  Waiting.  Thinking: if...... 

.......15% or so of reality is fucked up, isn't that about right?  Would we want any less?  In the movies, about 15% of the characters are evil.  We pay to watch that shit, and we mostly enjoy it.  The reason we nailed Jesus to the cross was because he was blocking our view.  Ruining the movie, knocking over the projector.  That fuck.  (Jesus, I do love you) 

Is there a serious problem with reality or not?  Do people who finally get out of hell realms decide 'hey.......that was awful.  I was so scared.  Let's do it again!!!' 

So, also, is the One many or the Many one?  Does Manyone care? 

I've been reading all the 'extraordinary NDEs' on NDERF.ORG and it's not just an education, it's a transmission!  Totally changed my life.   Read a hundred, like a retreat.  No dogma- at least not much.  The real deal Dream.  

[Steve Snead]

I certainly will. It's a problem I seem to have. My wife is always pointing it out to me. But then I start writing and rambling and there ya go. :-) But, I will try because as passionate as I might get on some subjects. If another person can't read them, then my point gets lost. I have a blog and I have done the same thing there. Anyway, point taken. :-)

[Steve Snead]

Tharpa, it's interesting that you talk about the dream. This might be a good place to post something that happened to me some years ago. Now, it's been many years so I'm sure my memories of it aren't perfect. But, here goes:

I am "dreaming" but I wake up and look back at my body on the bed in some sense. I am aware that I am dreaming. I am waking in a landscape that is read and well, let me put it this way. Several years later I saw some of the pictures of Mars that were taken by one of our probes. I remember thinking "Wow, that looks a little like the dream landscape that I was in. Not saying it was Mars, because I don't think it was. I'm just saying that was kind of how it looked.

 I am walking and someone is there beside me. I get the sense that he is wearing a robe but it has been several years now. We are walking and talking and I am thinking about the meaning of life. I know that I can ask and that he can tell me. So, I ask him "What is the dream?" Now, with this question I"m not asking him about the  dream I'm in. I'm asking what is life? Who/What is God? Is there life after death? What happens when we die? Where do we come from? Where are we going?
 In other words "What is the dream?" meant what is life?
 
He then looks at me and says "You ask too much."  Which meant of course that he wasn't "telling" me. I felt a single tear run down my cheek. I woke up and found an actual tear running down my cheek.

Since that time I have changed some of my views of what life is. I feel like we are all asleep here. This is the dream.

[Steve Snead]

I just got up and no coffee yet. I should have read before I posted. I just noticed I used "Read" for Red. Waking for walking. I hope the intent is still clear. I'll proof read it better next time I post. :-)

[Tharpa Doyle]

Steve- great dream.  Reminds me of a lot of NDEs I read- except in those many are given the keys to understanding The Dream- it's just that they can't bring it back, and are often told as much.  

Lately, in talking to friends and strangers, I'm finding out just how common some kind of paranormal experience is for most people.  Reading 500 or more NDE stories was a real education for me.  I've been advising people to do it ever since.  A good place to start is the 'extraordinary NDEs' page on NDERF.ORG. 

When I was in my late 20s, one night I lay down to go to sleep.  I was still awake, when suddenly and with horror I realized 3 'women' were at the foot of my bed, doing something to me.  They were dark, witch like.  I resisted, they tried harder, I resisted with all my might- but I lost the battle and got pulled out of the top of my head like a silk handkerchief and went flying across the sky.  As I was propelled, I looked down and saw the real landscape I knew so well.   Anyway, I got back in my body somehow- I don't remember that part- and spent the rest of the night in terror.  I never knew I had a hole in the top of my head!   

[Bruce Siegel]

Yes--the intent is clear, Steve, and thanks for being kind to my eyes. :o) 

Your experience reminds me of one of my deepest journeys in non-ordinary consciousness. As I emerged from trance, the words I found myself saying were: How clear it is. This life is a story within a story, a dream within a dream.