The Great Debators © discussion

I think its bs but would be uber cool if it were true

I think its real...I feel like I was Napoleon in my past life...

THats great....

sorry...But, I went to a psychic, and I believe everything they say...

Why is it that people who think they were reincarnated always think they were a king or queen, but never a farmer or shepherd? Afer all, there have been a lot more shepherds and farmers than kings and queens.

It's easier to pretend to be a famous person because details of their life are more widely known, so it's easier to impersonate them.

This would first require a belief in the soul, which there is no real evidence to support this claim other than people's feelings.

So no, this doesn't happen in the real world either.

No. Is there any physical evidence to suggest this is true?

I believe in it....a psychic told me I was someone powerful and important in my past life....so, i'm thinking Napoleon...he was awesome....but, its possible, I think

Provide me with peer reviewed, documented scientific experiments, that show psychic abilities are true please.

You make two claims here and one seems to be based on the conclusion of the other.

Sorryz.....Its just what I believe....and I totally think its real....how do I explain it? I have no idea..

If you want to explain that something is happening in physical reality, you need to provide evidence that this is so. Saying a "psychic told you" doesn't provide evidence this is so unless there is already evidence out there that psychics are real.

As I have never read any documentation validating that psychics are real, I am not inclined to trust your assertion.

Humans can technically believe whatever they want, but if you want to assert that something is REALLY happening, you need to provide evidence that it is.

true true...I guess...but, whatever....it doesnt matter...

Psychics, palm readers, and so forth tend to tell you things you want to hear, either so you come back and pay them more money or to build up and reinforce their reputation. Think back to your reaction when the "psychic" said you were someone important in a past life. Remember how you felt? What your opinion of the "psychic" was? How many friends did you tell, and if money was involved how much business did you send his/her way? Now imagine how things would have gone if the "psychic" had said "nope, you've never been reincarnated, i'm not picking up much of anything significant about you."

I didnt pay the psychic anything...she did it for free...

That sounds weird but thats me...

yeah, actually....its not pretend...she guessed I had a brother and that my step-dad had cancer...it was all true!!!

Cancer is so common. It's not a big leap to take a risk and say a family member has it.

Yeah, Lauren's right. You really need to understand the probabilities of Cancer in order to believe that kind of claim. I don't remember what they are off hand, but the chances of someone having had cancer in their family is quite probable.

Plus, the psychic probably said "someone in your family has had a major illness" and you blurted out "yeah my brother and step-dad had cancer OMG you're good."

They bait you into giving them more information. That's how they appear so knowledgeable.

No, actually...she did not...And my brother doesn't even have cancer....she even said he has autism, which he does...so there!

To be honest, I would actually have to have been there to believe the psychic. It's no offense to you or your recollection. I would just want to ask the psychic far more penetrating questions etc. I hope you know what I mean.

yeah, i do...and, I just believe that, and I cant really stop myself from it. Im more of a paranormal person, than a spiritual, and things like this sort of fascinate me, and draw me in. Which, is what they want, obviously. Im not saying every psychic in the world is correct. Im not saying that they are always right. You take a chance, and sometimes, you find out mroe about yourself than you thought you knew...to me, thats interesting.

That's true. One thing I am very sure is false is that ghosts exist. And this is only because I know what it means in the context of physics, what someone is claiming a Ghost is.

Wow, see ive seen plenty of ghosts...I know tthey are there, and it just totally fascinates me. I read a lot of paranormal research, so i'm kind of familiar with the lowdown of it all. Thats sort of the only "other-worldly" thing I believe in. And when I say paranormal, i dont mean like sparkly vampire dudes and werewolves and stuff. Talk about dumb...ugh, teens and their stupid obsessions. But, I know a lot of people dont believe in ghosts, but I do, and I sort of expereienced one, and ever since then, its been that way like "Yeah, they exist, and they are watching, for sure" when anyone asked me. I know it sounds crazy...

One thing science has learned over the years is that humans are very terrible at making observations. I know the "it happened to me" concept can be very powerful. But a lot of times you can't actually trust your own senses or perspectives in certain situations.

My point here is that if that claim is true, then we would be able to study it, because there is something physically happening in reality. All studies of "ghosts" by legitimate scientific practices (no, Ghost Hunters International does not qualify) have come up with nothing.

Wow...true, true...and i'm not saying that "just because I saw it, its true"...I just think...its possible...

That's fine, but doubting your own experience is always a good idea. And then explore the possibilities with that outlook.

yeah, and its happened a few times, but still...I sort of stop myself sometimes and think "Did that really happen?" and I have no explanation, so...

clarinet_friend13 wrote: "yeah, and its happened a few times, but still...I sort of stop myself sometimes and think "Did that really happen?" and I have no explanation, so..."

Admitting that you have no explanation is an excellent place to stop, without drawing any conclusions until you can investigate further. For example, i've seen a UFO. I'm not going to jump to the conclusion of little green men though, because the fact that i can't explain it doesn't mean that there's not a good explanation. For one thing, even though it didn't look anything like a plane, we were very close to an airport at the time. For another, i've since noticed that airplanes very often don't look like airplanes from certain angles (for example, i've watched three lights hovering in the air, apparently motionless, until i watch long enough to see that they're actually three planes in a landing pattern waiting for their turn at the runway). I have no way to go back and check on that UFO now, but it seems pretty likely to me that it was just a plane.

Nevermind....ugh

I just joined the group and this debate is almost 2 months old but not Closed; so I'll pitch in.

I just published an ebook novel where the plot was built on past life regression... PLR is about the only potential proof of reincarnation as some of the other debaters here said is required for validation.

At the time I started laying out the book, I didn't know whether PLR and past lives were real or not, but I thought it was a cool plot idea, so I ran with it. But if you write about it, you have to understand it, so I did a lot of research on it 3-5 years ago. I hired some hypnotherapists shrinks, who had supposedly been trained in PLR, to "take me back". Then I started self-regression sessions; not as good as a shrink doing the regression, but still got a LOT of visions (and it is a lot cheaper) :-) .

The results FREAKED ME OUT. I was even able to validate some of the things I "saw", of which I didn't know existed. Of course, there is always the skeptical argument that I read an article on it when I was 10 years old... or such; which could be true, too, but doubtful.

I don't really KNOW if reincarnation is true or not; I don't have proof. But I am now surely convinced of it after doing these PLR sessions. I also put a lot of "stock" into the background research and experiences by Weiss, Newton and Wilson (assuming their work is not fabricated).

I have CD recordings of all my sessions, so I know the hypnotists did NOT lead me; it was completely wide open - they only prompted to go to previous lives and the subconscious mind took it over from there. I could really feel the subconscious mind fighting it at first. But after a while, it got easier and you just "went for a ride"; a bit like watching a movie. The "memories" (if that is what you call it), are more vivid than what I remember doing just last week. It is still vivid after several years.

I can only describe it as freakish. You just don't want to accept the possibility that it is true.

I totally understand the skepticism like Alan's UFO comments. I wrote down all my "past life memories" from the research I did (if that is what it is), but I don't talk about it, not even my wife, for fear of chastisement and skepticism. :-)

Anybody else ever go try a PLR with a shrink or hypnotist?

btw, I'm not too hep'd up on the physic crap... I think most all of them are scammers... Even that one guy you see on TV who "talks to the dead" for people in the audience. Bunk.

I'm more inclined to believe you're brain is coming up with answers to questions rather than you actually had a past life. From what I've read about this kind of stuff people are "amazed at how they have always been drawn to doing something", because apparently in a past life they did it? I don't know... I'm more willing to say "this is an interesting phenomenon of the brain" rather than "past lives exist". Because in order for them to exist you must prove that a soul also exists. There's no suggestion, at all, that such a thing does exist. So, before I jump to the conclusion of past lives, I would rather be careful and prove everything required for such a thing to be true. Some psychological stuff is pretty wishy washy, because even though the person didn't "lead you", there's nothing to suggest that the brain can't lead itself making all kinds of wild things up. Human brains are extremely good at filling in gaps for questions and even going so far as to make up false memories (and no, you don't need to be schizophrenic to do this).

Adam wrote: "I'm more inclined to believe you're brain is coming up with answers to questions rather than you actually had a past life. From what I've read about this kind of stuff people are "amazed at how th..."

Adam,
We are right in synch... I totally agree with you. This is why I qualified that I don't know if multiple lives are real or not. It could all be a pure creative figment of our minds. When a person is regressed, the mind may see a gap and get creative in filling it in.

This is absolutely what I thought even after the first few times I regressed. After that, I didn't want to argue with myself so I just kept going along and enjoyed the little fantasy ride (or whatever it was).

The thing that got me, was after having regressed to several lives, several times (or fictitious lives - if that was it), I gathered enough details and started to seek out what/ where it was. That is when I got into head scratching that there might be something to it. I was surprised at what I found, as far as correlations between what I saw and what physically exists/existed.

As to the requirements of proof, I now have more proof (in my mind) that we live multiple lives (as part of our existence on this earth), more so than ANY proof that a GOD exists, or that Jesus Christ is the son of God or Mohammad is the extension of Allah or that the Jews are the chosen people or that Garuda will strike you down in Bali... or... or... or...

All of this religious gumbo that creates 98% of all wars and killing, where billions of people for thousands of years have been totally sold a bill of goods by religious empires.... of which there is absolutely NO proof that any of their religious claims are substantiated in ANY way, whatsoever. :-)

I have to smiley face that last sentence because I expect the "wrath of God" will come upon my comment for asking for proof from our religions, as we would expect from the theory that we all may live multiple lives.

Although it is interesting to note that most of those religions USED to believe in multiple lives (of which their loyal subjects took it on face value) - perhaps until it threatened the empires' power base.
OUCH, darn, did it again. :-)
sorry - can't help it.

You know, I did that same bashing thing about religions in my book draft until my first professional editor's review made me take it all out. :-)

Apologies in advance to religious folks on the forum. We all have to believe what we want to believe to make our journey through this life a little easier.

Lynn