Reincarnation question

[nancylebov]

A common way of discrediting reincarnation is to claim that everyone who remembers a past incarnation says they were someone famous. However, I've met a moderate number of people who say they remember past lives, and all the memories were of quite ordinary lives.

Of the people you've met who say they remember past lives, what's the famous/not famous proportion for the past lives?

Comments

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I would guess that about 2/5 of the people I've interacted with claim to be a famous named person. The other 3/5 have all claimed to have been important, persecuted, died young, etc, without being someone I've heard of or perhaps were not real people. I've never encountered anyone who had an ordinary past life. i.e. peasant farmer.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

you said "died young" in the same catgory with "important" i take it they were also claiming to have been important? most historical people died young (by modern standards) especially the poor

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Well like, "Oh I was a noble and I was killed in a battle," or the like. Or another that sticks out was someone who claimed to have been an Aztec killed by Pizarro. Lots of traumatic and dramatic deaths part of big events.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

ah.
not most of the folks i know. closest to that is "i was a minor noble" (and they meant MINOR) and i got sick and dies after a bad winter.....

most of the rest of the ones i know claim middle or lower class by modern standards.

they also dont chat about it casually....

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I think you missed the bit that made me remember that Aztec one. Pizarro was later and in Peru, not Mexico.

Also I think you might not appreciate how rare even minor nobles were. Even in Poland, which had the largest noble class of any nation in Europe, they comprised no more than 12% of the population. The noble class usually made up 1% of the population or less in middle ages. I remember reading a study that showed 0.79%. It's rather funny that a person even is a minor noble "like the middle class" when they were about as rare as minor movie actors in America.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

of the various people i know who recall past lives with any clarity...

1 remembers a past life where she was moderately well known. (she also recalls a few where she was a servant or poor)

20+ remember past lives where they were at best what i would call "middle class" which includes up to very minor nobility in certain time periods.

all of those people, PLUS many others, have flashes or partial images they think trace to past lives, but are not clear. most of them are not indicative of great wealth or power.... since the most common "past life" memory in those cases is how they died, it can be hard to tell....

[lpetrazickis.livejournal.com]

I've never met anyone who claimed such a thing.

[madfilkentist]

I only know one such person, and that one claims to recall a past life on another planet; therefore nobody we've ever heard of, anyway.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

That would be the same one I know, likewise the only one for me.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I don't say I remember past lives, but I have things in my mind that feel like memories, but that never happened to me. None of them involve being famous.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

I know quite a few people who claim to remember past lives, some of them with great specificity of detail. Not one of them claims to have been someone famous.

[gildedacorn.livejournal.com]

The only person I know who has spoken to me about specific past lives (as opposed to a general belief in reincarnation)claims to have had psychic powers and battled a Power of Evil in each reincarnation.

I think that counts.

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

Among those whom i know who make such claims, highest-class claimant is High Priest(ess) or Medieval Merchant class.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

All I got is vague memories of something before. One is obviously from a Space Ship of all places! I have no idea why.
I think why most of it is very vague, think back to when you were younger, how much do you remember? Now make the distance 100 years, 1000 years. How much would you remember? And don't forget the veil of death to bring in further fog.
So unless you did something Spectacular or had something Spectacular happen to you, ie you were someone famous, died in battle, did something Great, your chances of remembering much are pretty dim.
Just saying.
My space ship memory is seeing stars out of a space ship and feeling that deep pain because we were leaving, never to return. Yep, something Spectacular that would definitely hit the psyche hard. I also have a dim memory of zero G, which was Great Fun! The rest is lost in the fog of time.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

oh, and just for the record?

i have memories i cannot explain, because they have NO way of having happened to me
i have instant "click" affinities with some things......

but no, i dont recall enough to say for sure "this was a past life" or it wasnt. but none of it seems to be a solid sign i was anyone important if i was in a past life....

[tleventer.livejournal.com]

Had my astrology chart done a few years ago and the last half of the 90 minute "results" session was talking about past lives. She said I'd had quite a few and quickly went through them. I don't think I can remember them all but here is a sample:

Indian, probably cherokee. Good with horses and in that respect "wealthy" but not a chief or anything. Died at a moderate age when during some kind of chase (not sure if battle or hunting) horse stumble and rider was thrown.

stable manager near Wales. Not the owner, just the one who hired (and fired) the hands and looked after the horses.

child who was given to the church during the time when christianity was starting to take hold in europe. Essentially given to slave labor.

disgruntled priest who immigrated to the Us but was bound by church law on who he could help (he did it anyway).

village story teller, southern US indian tribe.

a town scribe, very early, near Greece if I remember correctly.

fairly rich playboy type.

I'm definitely missing a couple. I dunno... all the "lessons" or "life callings" just seemed to make sense to me when I was told about them. Of course this was after listening to her talk about my astrological chart for 45 minutes with a LOT of "WOW!" moments.

Coming 'Round Again

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

I don't think I was ever famous. But I have met one or maybe two people who feel too familiar, too easy; like I know them before we meet in this life. I was informed repeatedly by someone I loved for 6yrs. that I was born middle-aged. My mother says she knew I was an old soul from the start, though she won't recant that her first husband was my father.

My current sweetheart is one of those who feels too familiar for this to be our first dance together. I knew that at first meeting. He has his own ideas about past lives. He also regularly assumes I know things about him that I don't, and is surprised by the things I do know, as am I. My mate is very old and long around. He doesn't talk much. No clue who I've been before, but it's okay. Should it become important, I'll figure it out.

I've never met anyone who claimed to be anyone famous before, or if I did, I didn't believe them and forgot about it.

A little late, but...

[mammasteed.livejournal.com]

I have one distinct memory. It MIGHT be a past life memory. Then again, it might be a fantasy I concocted for myself once upon a time, which has stuck with me. It is a mere snapshot moment, though I know an awful lot about who I was at that moment.

I am wearing one of those big dresses, like you see on Southern belles in movies set pre-war between the states. It's a little too fancy and too impractically shaped to be a colonial daily wear outfit, though it's possible I was dressing in my best for a party. If I were on a rich plantation, however, it would be a fairly casual dress. It's all relative. I don't know. I will say that it is a blue calico print and that I think I look darling in it. My hair is coiled in ringlets.

I am speaking to a man who is my father. He is informing me that a particular gentleman has asked for my father's blessing. My father has granted this blessing. Of course, the gentleman in question has not yet asked for my hand from me. I am aware that I should be thrilled, and that everyone thinks I should be thrilled. But I am terrified. Absolutely terrified.

I am absolutely, positively a virgin at this moment in time.

What happened after that moment, I couldn't say. I might have died young. Or I might have lived to a ripe old age. I might have married that guy, I might have married someone else, or I might have stayed a spinster. I might have had twenty kids or none.

[landley.livejournal.com]

If time travel is possible (I've been watching a lot of Dr. Who recently) then think about what that would say about reincarnation. Maybe there's only one actual consciousness being _everybody_, one after the other. So the only people who haven't had a past life as Abraham Lincoln are the ones who haven't been him _yet_.

Rob