It’s always interesting that people who believe in it generally think that they were an Alexander or Napoleon, or at the least someone noble of note. Statistically you’d probably be more likely to recall endless generations of mundane toil as a Chinese or Indian peasant if there was anything in it.
“But where does the energy go?”
“My ghod, you’re right! IEEEEE! I am being haunted by the ghosts of thousands of Duracell batteries!!”
Or, you were a Duracell battery in a past life!
Or someone who died of an illness in childhood.
Cite???
I was a believer in a previous life, but not in this one.
Ram a railroad spike through someone’s head. You will find that their behavior and cognition is affected.
If a non-material soul existed it why would brain damage alter behavior?
In addition, drugs, sleep deprivation and many other physical things modify thinking and perceptions. Further pointing to a physical processes creating consciousness.
Further, there is zero evidence for consciousness to exist without a brain. There is no reason to imagine that it can do so. It would be like suggesting that the copy of Windows that’s running on your computer can run without the hardware. Smash your computer with a sledge hammer. Dash it to bits. Be sure to shatter the hard drive.
Where is the copy of windows that you were just on? Is it still running, in space?
That is begging the question.
There is no evidence to the contrary. There is as much evidence for all of these propositions:
Each of us have an eternal soul and when we die we get reborn into different creatures.
Each of us have an eternal soul and when we die we go to heaven or hell depending on our deeds.
Each of us have an eternal soul and when we die we all go to hell to be forever tortured no matter what we did or who we worshipped.
None of us have an eternal soul, however, we do have a soul that gets continuously regenerated every second or so.
Namely, no evidence. There is no reason to believe the particular hypothesis of an eternally reborn soul over any other one.
Saying “our consciousness arises from our physical bodies” is a scientific statement. It is as proven as any other scientific proposition is: namely, so assuredly true that it would be foolish to not provisionally agree. Of course there is a very very small chance that it is incorrect, but scientists will acknowledge this if you press them.
But scientific statements cannot make such qualifications regularly. Otherwise papers would be rife with such statements as “and thus multiplying by the universal gravitational constant, g, our theorem is proven, unless, of course, tomorrow g is twice what it was yesterday.”
My premise is assuming that my conclusion is true? I’m not an expert in formal logic, but I’d think what I’m saying is:
Premise: Only things with brains have demonstrated consciousness. Damaging brains, alters consciousness.
Conclusion: Brains produce consciousness.
It’s not my fault there is no evidence for consciousnesses existing without a brain to support them.
I’d say that the evidence is very good that there were past lives, so in that sense I believe. Oh, I suppose I could actually be the only person in the universe and you all could simply be constructs, and all of human history just a construct…heck, even Occam, who I’m using to parse this could simply be a construct…but seems too complicated to me, so I’ll just stick with my belief in past lives.
Now, if the OP meant ‘do I believe that I lived a past life’, i.e. that incarnation happens, well…no, I don’t believe it. I concede that it’s possible, but I’ve seen zero evidence, so my default is disbelief.
From the OP:
I know people who have phobias about crashing in an air plane yet have never flown, and people who have phobias about falling off of cliffs yet have in fact never fallen off a cliff. It’s hard to believe that you’ve NEVER been hurt by fire, since just about everyone has been burned at some time or other in their life, but you really don’t require that to have a phobia of something.
For example, the OP could have been really scared as a little kid by a TV/movie scene involving fire, and simply not remember it anymore.
I have a few strong memories of being in the Klondike Gold Rush. Past life or did I watch too much Sergeant Preston as a kid? Clue: I named my first dog King, after his lead dog.
ETA: Either way, I just totally dislike Alaska and use having no “memories” of after the Rush as indicating I died there, but it’s probably because I don’t like cold or mosquitoes.
I read it as the human brain and consciousness is analogous to computer hardware and software, computer software doesn’t exist without the hardware, therefore consciousness doesn’t exist without the brain.
Ah, that’s not what I meant, I was trying to draw an analogy. Sorry for being fuzzy.
Nope. I didn’t mean to imply I think I had a past life. I was talking about the fear with someone and they said that they thought I had been hurt by one in a past life. It got me thinking about past lives in general and if they really do exist. I myself tend to think they don’t but I do think it would be kind of cool if it did.
I have knoticed too that most people who think they have past lives always think they were heroes or famous or something really special, not just a normal person. Maybe it’s another form of trying to live vicariously, but through a “former self” instead of someone else.
Based on what evidence? The whole premise? Ridiculous woo BS.
I think reincarnation is possible. And I am in good company with these beliefs. Mark Twain believed in it. Lots of people in the world do. If it is true, I think I was an Egyptian male and a female dancer. That is about as far from who I am now as I could get.
I’m not certain, but I think the belief in reaching Nirvana is based on the idea that you won’t have to come back anymore. Now if reincarnation means that you come back in a lower form, this may be the last trip around for some Dopers.
My Buddhist ex-gf claimed to remember past lives (they were fairly not-outstanding, but respectable). Apparently the memories came first (dating back to early childhood), then the Buddhism followed. She was valedictorian at a major university, then made a fortune in business, then retreated to a monastery, left, then dated me while devoting her life to compassion via grad school --> medical service. She wasn’t nuts in the least but instead more articulate and successful than (most of) you guys. How come you all have problems and she doesn’t? Whether or not past lives make sense, she had everything else figured out. Still, I was never entirely convinced, nor entirely not-convinced. You had to be there. It wasn’t that big of a deal. One could certainly describe her as accumulating lots of positive karma, even if only for lack of better terms.
Maybe it’s just the crowd I run with but the only Buddhists I know who remember past lives are white people raised Christian who became “enlightened”.
My wife was raised Buddhist in Japan and when I asked her if she remembered any past lives she looked at me like I had 3 eyes and said neither she or anyone she grew up with ever spoke or remembering past lives.