(2024-02-24, 11:02 PM)nbtruthman Wrote: [ -> ]I just ran across what appears to be an amazingly similar explication to yours of the nature of the soul and the reincarnation process, in a book by Dr. Oliver Lazar titled “Beyond Matter.” Prof. Dr Oliver S. Lazar is a medical doctor and a professor of computer science. He apparently had an experience in which the spiritual world revealed itself to him after the tragic accidental death of a girl who seemed to be a stranger to him. It was a profound spiritual/psychic experience. This book won the Scientific and Medical Network Book Prize 2023.
https://www.amazon.com/BEYOND-MATTER-exp...696&sr=8-1
From the Amazon summary: "In this book Dr. Lazar examines current research into the subject of our origins and existence from a scientific, philosophical and spiritual perspective and reports on an emerging paradigm shift in our society. With the world's largest empirical study on afterlife contacts with 500 participants, but also with his criticism of current doctrines on the origin of life and the theory of evolution, he shakes the materialist world view."
Excerpts from the book:
Interesting... though I do not share his interpretations. I guess it's his way of trying to understand them through his existing understandings.
Quote:"...basically, we all have a higher self, a kind of main soul in the spiritual world, which contains all our aspects from previous and future lives. This main soul always remains in the spiritual world, and when we incarnate only parts of this main soul are extracted, combined and formed into a new individual human soul. This constellation of soul parts is unique and will only exist once in this form. However, this human soul of an individual is permanently in contact with its main soul rather in the way of a radio link. If one has lived one’s life as this unique person, all one’s soul parts will return to the main soul complete with one’s new experiences after death. So, when I die one day as Oliver the soul aspects that made me up will merge again with my main soul. There I am stored eternally as Oliver and will never incarnate again in this constellation. In these circumstances no one need to fear that the soul of a loved one has already reincarnated and can no longer be encountered. In a new incarnation new parts of my main soul would again be combined and a new individual would be formed. This new individual soul would then also carry the experiences and memories of me (Oliver).”
In my experience, the "main" soul, as he puts it, isn't separate from our incarnate existence. There's no "extraction", "combining" or "forming" ~ there is a veil of forgetfulness, yes, dissociation, yes, but the incarnate aspect isn't somehow separated. It's just not aware of its root existence, due to the nature of perceiving through a physical form.
Quote:“. . . It is hard to understand this in our present human state when we all perceive ourselves so clearly as individuals on earth. I imagine it in such a way that when we return to our main soul, we will become aware that as human beings we have actually only slipped into a role. We will perceive ourselves as a whole main soul, but we can slip back into the respective roles of our lives at any time.”
The "main" soul is a superset of an incarnation, so of course it has all of the experiences and memories. The human incarnation is an aspect of it.
(2024-02-24, 11:02 PM)nbtruthman Wrote: [ -> ]This description is also quite close to the system as explained in many readings by the noted spiritual channeler Ron Scolastico. It appears that this "the oversoul is what survives" theory is being confirmed by multiple psychic sources.
"Over-soul" doesn't feel quite right... it implies a separate existence from this one, when that's not really true. It only appear that way to us incarnates, who are unable to see the full picture, due to the veil of forgetfulness and the dissociation that comes with physical incarnation.
(2024-02-24, 11:02 PM)nbtruthman Wrote: [ -> ]Unfortunately, as I have mentioned, this scheme as described seems to teach that what ultimately survives physical death is a vast "oversoul" of some sort with also a vastly different personality, goals, and purposes than the just incarnated human personality which is unique to that physical life. It looks (to me at least) to essentially be another different being. The just incarnated human personality is temporary and only "survives" as memories in the oversoul, not as a sentient conscious human personality.
Yes, with that sort of description, it would imply that, but it feels like a very shallow picture. The human personality is not lost upon expanding back into whole soul upon death ~ there is merely a reawakening to everything you had forgotten. The incarnate self isn't somehow crushed and reabsorbed in a somehow cold, pitiless manner, as if it were just a tool being used and abused. That doesn't match my intuitions at all.
Rather, the incarnate self is a part of the soul itself, a part the soul is fully conscious of, though the incarnate self is not aware of that, so it can appear "cold" and "distant".
(2024-02-24, 11:02 PM)nbtruthman Wrote: [ -> ]So apparently we can forget about having real personal "survival" and an afterlife. What will then "perceive itself as a whole main soul" just isn't the human personality. It isn't "you", it's somebody else that survives.
The human personality isn't lost ~ it becomes aware of everything that it forgotten before incarnation. The whole soul experiences the incarnation's existence in real time, as if there were no separation, as the whole soul is informed by all of these experiences at once. There is nothing to lose, as the whole soul is already going through everything we are... no, more, as the soul has full knowledge of all of the unconscious and subconscious stuff happening in our minds that we aren't aware of.
(2024-02-24, 11:02 PM)nbtruthman Wrote: [ -> ]I can only point out in argument that this picture seems to conflict drastically with the empirical evidence of reams of NDE accounts of consciousness continued for a time in an expanded but still human personality form after (tempory) death, and also a considerable number of verified mediumistic communications with apparently surviving deceased human personalities. It's not immediately clear how to reconcile these kinds of paranormal data with the "what survives is the oversoul" doctrine, other than to introduce several collateral hypotheses which would invoke the Occam's Razor principle of parsimony.
This issue appears to be unresolvable at present.
The whole doctrine is very unsatisfying with its distant, cold and impersonal representation. It paints a very bleak picture, frankly. One that doesn't make sense in the light of my reported experiences at all. The soul isn't distant, cold or impersonal ~ it directly experiences everything its incarnation does.
Now that I think about it... I recall having encountered my higher self ~ both in a male sense and a female sense. The male sense was of a figure completely overshadowed by a most brilliant light, though I could sense a strong calmness to it, along with a solid, unyielding strength. The female sense was of a cosmos that was full to the brim of love and compassion and understanding, a knowing of everything I was going through.
The higher self appears like this because our dissociation from the whole makes it appear separate from us ~ we cannot comprehend it as a greater part of our existence, as we cannot recall it due to the veil of forgetfulness. The separation doesn't exist, except from our perspective. There is no separation for the soul ~ we are merely an incarnate aspect of it.