Should You Plan for Your Next Incarnation?

We-as-ego doesn't really have a say in whether we reincarnate or not.

Even if we-as-ego decide not to, the Soul will choose to anyways, until the Soul decides that it's learned everything it wants to learn.

Therefore, the idea of "breaking the cycle" is meaningless.

Indeed, the idea presupposes that the cycle is involuntary, of which there is no evidence.

Hmm, a few quick words and entire schools of Eastern philosophy and practice are eliminated. If only everything was that simple.

Well, this is based on my own personal musings.

There are many things about Eastern philosophy that I agree with.

Reincarnation / rebirth is not on that list, as my own culminated ideas about reality conflict with those particular ideas.

They are religious ideas, I feel. And thus, ignoreable.

The only ideas I consider really of interest are the more abstract spiritual ideas that don't claim to explicitly "know" about the human condition, as I consider the majority of these said religious ideas nothing more than blindly repeated proclamations that haven't really been criticized, nor scrutinized.

Kind of like with many Western religions, which blindly adhere to certain ideas.

Perhaps our task here isn't a matter of doing great deeds, but of learning to stabilise our chaotic path.

I double-like this.

I double-like this.

Thanks.

Looking at it now, the word 'chaotic' is somewhat autobiographical, it does describe at least parts of my life pretty well.

You should realize that this is obviously not how I'm using the terms "we" and "us". I'm using them to refer to a person, whether it's you, or me, or Typos, etc, but in reference to either the whole of said person's existence, as Soul, or the incarnated portion of said existence, as the ego, per Carl Jung's definition.


The Soul is the unbounded Whole of a person's existence. It experiences what it's dissociated ego aspect experiences, in full. However, the ego aspect is not aware of its full existence. That is, the Soul circumscribes all of the aspects of the current incarnate human personality, but also contains all of the experiences and memories of its previous incarnations.

Your Soul is not separate from you. It is because of the ego's dissociation from its full beingness that the Soul can appear as "Other".

The Soul always runs the show, because it is you, but infinitely wiser in scope. But, for the Soul to truly learn, it needs its ego-aspect to be ignorant of the process.

The Soul is akin to the wise, ancient elder, while the ego is very much like a child, to use an analogy.

You seem to presume that your Soul is somehow detached, cold, heartless, but that's your ego talking, out of fear of what you aren't aware of. Your Soul always experiences what you-as-ego experiences. It is only ever the ego that experiences the illusion of separation.

This is an eloquent exposition of certain teachings that in various forms I also have been exposed to. They seem to make sense, regardless of conflicts with established religion. 

However, I think you underestimate the vast gulf that must exist between the soul and the human ego/personality.

I already suggested the worst-case extreme example of the African child dying of starvation and of AIDS transmitted from the mother. What about hereditary genetically-caused diseases? Certainly the great majority of humans don't experience such things, but as I have mentioned, the validity of a philosophy certainly can be judged by how well it handles extreme cases.

There are very many genetic diseases, that the soul with its great knowledge presumable could foresee with particular choices of parents.

The soul at the same time fully knows of the devastating suffering that will come to the resulting human ego/personality. Yet the soul still knowingly chooses these particular parents that carry the genes that cause these and many other horrendous conditions.

To see a little of the reality of this, here are a few examples, not even the worst that happen:

Cystic Fibrosis is a chronic, genetic condition that causes patients to produce thick and sticky mucus, inhibiting their respiratory, digestive, and reproductive systems. The median age of survival for all patients is 33.4 years. Symptoms of advanced cases include recurrent lung infections, emphysema, pancreatitis, liver disease and diabetes. 

Tay-Sachs disease is caused by a genetic condition carried by about one in every 27 Jewish people, and by approximately one of every 250 members of the general population. The condition is caused by a chromosomal defect similar to that of Down syndrome.  This disease gradually destroys the nervous system, frequently resulting in death by age five.

Huntington's disease is caused by a genetic degeneration of nerve cells in certain areas of the brain. There is no treatment to stop or reverse it. Symptoms of HD include mood swing, irritability, depression, and anger. The disease may affect a person's judgment, memory, and other cognitive functions. In some, there can be uncontrolled movements in the fingers, feet, face, or trunk, or problems with coordination or balance. The disease can reach the point where speech is slurred and vital functions, such as swallowing, eating, speaking, and especially walking, continue to decline. Some individuals cannot recognize other family members. Many, however, remain aware of their environment and are able to express emotions.

Progressive Myoclonus Epilepsy (Lafora Disease) is a rare hereditary metabolic condition characterized by myoclonic epileptic seizures, generalized tonic-clonic seizures, a strong tendency to have seizures in response to flashing lights. Vision loss and severe learning disabilities can occur, and people with this condition are expected to survive about 10 years after diagnosis.

Surely the persons doing the suffering in such cases have the most legitimate right to speak on this issue. I think anyone dealing with these conditions would (if they were still able to talk) very strongly indicate that they themselves would absolutely never have chosen such a fate. That if it had been a choice it absolutely must have been "somebody or something else", a being that had no right to do this and certainly did not have their benefit in mind. In fact after making this suggestion you might have to duck a blow or a thrown cane.

That's true - there are such cases. I believe they are rare. My argument that no one in their right mind would choose a future life of great suffering still holds, but I assumed that in making this choice the person has full knowledge of the challenges the upcoming child and resulting adult would have to deal with. In the various teachings that is supposedly part of the choosing and decision process - "what do I need to work on, and what experiences would in dealing with them further my spiritual growth?".

These cases may be rare, but is there any credible evidence that some souls deliberately choose a miserable life? Nevertheless, I agree with that bolded part.

In many cases it would be obvious, and not require in-depth knowledge of genetics for instance, that the upcoming life would be very difficult - as for instance the extreme example I offered of the African child dying of starvation and of AIDS transmitted from the mother. It is hard to believe that the previous human personality would deliberately choose such a short and miserable existence. But short-lived children like this do in truth exist. Therefore whatever or whoever made the choice of such lives must necessarily not be the previous human personality, or at least not without major alterations or distortions such that it doesn't have the normal human aversion to pain.

In I Saw A Light And Came Here James G. Matlock writes that "we often return to our families, friends or compatriots" and "the subjects almost always reside in the same country as the previous persons". [page 268].

One possibility would be that sometimes immediately after physical death the previous human personality might be in some sort of cloudy or dazed state of consciousness, where he/she is only aware of the need to come back, and really doesn't make any sort of informed decision.

That may be possible. Or perhaps advanced souls can make better decisions, and undeveloped souls don't think consequences of their choices at all.

Yes, these have physical causes and are not generated by higher beings - they are part of the natural world. But that's not the point. The teachings clearly imply that in some cases "we" may deliberately choose a fetus that due to these physical causes will very probably grow into a child and maybe an adult who will experience great suffering. That is what needs to be explained - in such cases what does "we" really mean, and what information is available? The truth of a philosophy can be judged by how it handles extreme cases.

I don't believe in such teachings.

These cases may be rare, but is there any credible evidence that some souls deliberately choose a miserable life? Nevertheless, I agree with that bolded part.


I don't believe in such teachings.

There is some evidence for soul choice between lives of the parents for the next life. Though it is arguable whether some of it is credible.

There are many cases investigated and compiled by Ian Stevenson and colleagues of small children speaking of the immediate past life (where usually the death was traumatic via gunshot, knife, accident, etc.). In these thousands of cases there were some where the child recalled choosing his current mother and father, home, etc. They are more credible because of the great amount of empirical evidence of verified details of the last life.

And there is the work of Dr. Michael Newton, who discovered that during hypnotic past-life regressions, subjects that are in a super-conscious altered state were apparently able to remember what their soul was doing between Earth lives. Newton compiled thousands of cases that describe what goes on in the afterlife, how spirits communicate with the living, soul group systems, and including (most importantly for this discussion), how "we" choose our lives. These were apparent memories elicited from conducive subjects during altered state hypnotic regression.

Also, soul choice of the next life is a very common teaching encountered in the work of many modern psychic channelers. This may or may not have validity, but it is part of the prevalent "New Age" belief system.

That may be possible. Or perhaps advanced souls can make better decisions, and undeveloped souls don't think consequences of their choices at all.

Then some of the possibilities might be:

1. The soul/spirit is in a dazed condition when it makes the choice, and has no idea what it is getting into.

2. Advanced souls make better decisions including avoiding upcoming lives of suffering, while undeveloped souls don't even think of the consequences. This would imply that many if not most souls are "undeveloped", since there are so many evidently very bad such decisions.

3. Souls make these decisions considering human suffering unimportant compared with the soul learning obtained, implying a vast divide between soul consciousness and human consciousness, to the point where the human and the soul can be considered different beings.

4a. Souls don't make such decisions at all - the evidences of past life regressions, children's memories, etc. are false. The choice of next life is via an inexorable Karmic mechanism which has no regard to human suffering.
4b. The choice of next life is made by other advanced beings than the soul - angelic or otherwise.

5. There is no reincarnation - all the voluminous empirical evidence of thousands of verified small childrens' memories, veridical birthmaks, etc. is somehow false.

However, I think you underestimate the vast gulf that must exist between the soul and the human ego/personality.

No, I don't think I do.

I'm merely thankful that I am aware, that on some level, I chose the hell I go through on a daily basis. That I chose to be crushingly depression, and crippled by anxiety, that I cannot easily control. It gives me enough inner strength, somewhere deep within, to somehow... keep going. To see it all through.

Because I know that I chose to suffer amnesia as to why I suffer so.

I already suggested the worst-case extreme example of the African child dying of starvation and of AIDS transmitted from the mother. What about hereditary genetically-caused diseases? Certainly the great majority of humans don't experience such things, but as I have mentioned, the validity of a philosophy certainly can be judged by how well it handles extreme cases.

There are very many genetic diseases, that the soul with its great knowledge presumable could foresee with particular choices of parents.

The soul at the same time fully knows of the devastating suffering that will come to the resulting human ego/personality. Yet the soul still knowingly chooses these particular parents that carry the genes that cause these and many other horrendous conditions.

To see a little of the reality of this, here are a few examples, not even the worst that happen:

Cystic Fibrosis is a chronic, genetic condition that causes patients to produce thick and sticky mucus, inhibiting their respiratory, digestive, and reproductive systems. The median age of survival for all patients is 33.4 years. Symptoms of advanced cases include recurrent lung infections, emphysema, pancreatitis, liver disease and diabetes. 

Tay-Sachs disease is caused by a genetic condition carried by about one in every 27 Jewish people, and by approximately one of every 250 members of the general population. The condition is caused by a chromosomal defect similar to that of Down syndrome.  This disease gradually destroys the nervous system, frequently resulting in death by age five.

Huntington's disease is caused by a genetic degeneration of nerve cells in certain areas of the brain. There is no treatment to stop or reverse it. Symptoms of HD include mood swing, irritability, depression, and anger. The disease may affect a person's judgment, memory, and other cognitive functions. In some, there can be uncontrolled movements in the fingers, feet, face, or trunk, or problems with coordination or balance. The disease can reach the point where speech is slurred and vital functions, such as swallowing, eating, speaking, and especially walking, continue to decline. Some individuals cannot recognize other family members. Many, however, remain aware of their environment and are able to express emotions.

Progressive Myoclonus Epilepsy (Lafora Disease) is a rare hereditary metabolic condition characterized by myoclonic epileptic seizures, generalized tonic-clonic seizures, a strong tendency to have seizures in response to flashing lights. Vision loss and severe learning disabilities can occur, and people with this condition are expected to survive about 10 years after diagnosis.

Surely the persons doing the suffering in such cases have the most legitimate right to speak on this issue. I think anyone dealing with these conditions would (if they were still able to talk) very strongly indicate that they themselves would absolutely never have chosen such a fate. That if it had been a choice it absolutely must have been "somebody or something else", a being that had no right to do this and certainly did not have their benefit in mind. In fact after making this suggestion you might have to duck a blow or a thrown cane.

Of course they have the right to speak on these issues. No-one can explain to them why they are suffering... it is only once they die, that they will be able to understand why they chose such a life. From an ego-perspective, they may well feel as if they didn't choose such a fate, but that is due to deliberately imposed amnesia as to why they chose it.

It may well feel like it was "somebody or something else", from the ego's confused perspective. And that's completely okay.

Because at the end of the day, they will understand why they chose that life. They will know what purpose it served them.

The most painful of trials can often yield the most significant of results in the growth of the Soul, as it can truly understand what it's like to suffer, and feel absolutely alone.

The most painful of trials can often yield the most significant of results in the growth of the Soul, as it can truly understand what it's like to suffer, and feel absolutely alone.

This made me feel...

But at the same time, strangely not. 

Then some of the possibilities might be:

1. The soul/spirit is in a dazed condition when it makes the choice, and has no idea what it is getting into.

The Soul is above this, I think. The ego might get dazed and confused, but the Soul may allow its ego to make the choice, just to see what happens, out of curiosity.

In the New Age community, there is the idea of different Souls having different numbers of incarnations, depending on what it's desires are. Some Souls apparently don't spend very long here, while others will continue for many hundreds of lifetimes. As to why... no ego knows.

2. Advanced souls make better decisions including avoiding upcoming lives of suffering, while undeveloped souls don't even think of the consequences. This would imply that many if not most souls are "undeveloped", since there are so many evidently very bad such decisions.

Advanced Souls may well decide to put themselves through hell, if it serves a purpose of seeing whether it can overcome a gritty, hard trial, or if they want to directly understand the pain and suffering of those around them.

Underdeveloped souls may well decide to avoid suffering, and opt for the good life, not paying much attention to suffering of other incarnated Souls around them. And then perhaps find it unsatisfying, in the end. That in itself, can help the Soul grow.

3. Souls make these decisions considering human suffering unimportant compared with the soul learning obtained, implying a vast divide between soul consciousness and human consciousness, to the point where the human and the soul can be considered different beings.

I don't agree.

The Soul doesn't consider its ego's suffering unimportant ~ it is, most often, important in order for the Soul to grow in certain ways, for to learn whether certain approaches are a good idea, or to strengthen the Soul in some way, to see how far it can push its ego without breaking.