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Hey, I'm just kinda wondering, what would be the force behind people being reincarnated?

Im young, but i think there are 5 natural elements, Earth air fire water and spirit. When you die, the elements in your body return to the earth, spirit included. Spirit... not YOUR spirit, but the spirit element, is released back into the universe, Earth returns to the earth, water soaks into the earth, air returns to the atmosphere, fire fades, and spirit goes back to the universe. I believe that we continue to exist in a thousand new beings, flowers, trees, people, pets. etc.

redwolfshadow: how very poetic... I agree with your physical body becoming part of many different beings. But I differ with the metaphysical spirit.

xxEternallyBluexx: That is not the simplest of questions. The force that guides our soul is I believe darma in the Buddhist religion, but don't quote my memory or religious study in the 6th grade. The force that causes reincarnation is the higher force to put it simply. To my knowledge the common belief of reincarnation is that we are reincarnated into a step of life we have yet to understand. Each life is created to teach your soul a lesson of life. once you have learned all life has to offer your soul unites with the higher forces, which I'd imagine to be a counsel of enlightened souls.

My Belief
As for my beliefs on the afterlife, it is a thought I don't think any other has expressed publicly except for a friend who was a x-ian. I believe that when the body dies your flesh is consumed my many beings, becoming part of their life. Your spirit/soul is released into the next plain of existence and you go to a "summerland" type location (pagan heaven if you will). As we are in this place we are given time to relive parts of our past lives, and meditate on what we have learned thus far. When we have come to a conclusion, we add it to the list of ever growing life lessons. This is where the higher forces send us into a new body, of any countless living creatures. When we are "born again" we have left the summerland, and thus locked away the ability to easily communicate with our past lives and lessons learned. In theory the cycle of life death meditation and rest, back to life is endless because I feel there are limitless life lessons to be learned.

I have been thinking about my beliefs alot, as usual, (I am more critical of my own beliefs than most people i know) and I was wondering how "ghosts" are seen if spirit just spills back into the pool of the universe? I have never interacted with a ghost, and personally wouldnt care to, but I do believe spirits can linger on earth. But, if the spirit just got poured back into the spirit-bin, how are spirits summoned back? It would be like pouring a glass of water into the ocean and then trying to get THE SAME water back out. The same goes for reincarnation. If a spirit is recycled into a new body, how is it summoned later?
NOTE- i am not exactly a supporter of summoning ghosts, "let sleeping spirits lie". I'm just curious about where the spirits are summoned from.

from what i hear of hauntings and ghosts there are three kinds, a polterguist that moves things around and such explanations of which abound from an uncontrolled telekinesis that comes to people in times of stress or great change such as adolescence, menopause ect... to demonic activity. There are repetitive hauntings which are the same event occuring every night or on the same day every year ect... these can be explained as something that happened and was so powerful that the very memory of it comes alive and repeats itself in a ghostly type form, and then there is the third kind which is the one where the spirit seems to be aware of events around them and they are conscious. Some poeple say that if someone dies violently or doesn't have a proper burial (cremation sending off of there soul whatever the ceremony involved) that the spirit itself can't move on, also there are angels and demons and faeries and other things to think about that would be involved in hauntings so the fact that there are hauntings doesn't disprove heaven or reincarnation because they might be souls that couldn't move on yet for some reason. The only thing they could be proof of is the absense of an afterlife, in my opinion.

I personally believe in reincarnation and that we learn something in every life. I also believe that there may be a place where one goes in between lives to meditate ect.. as was mentioned before.

I was actually making a reference to someone who within their own culture doesn't have their body taken care of in whatever way they wanted it to like as in mass graves ect...

At one point I was actually thinking about seeing what i could do about making sure my body was done like that for a while... I thought it would be the ultimate way to give back ect... as of right now I want to be cremated with a fourth of my ashes taken to a high place and scattered in the wind, a fourth thrown into the ocean, a fourth buried in a marked grave and a fourth thrown into an erupting volcanoe or a firepit so it could be engulfed in flame pretty often.