To what degree am I me after being reincarnated?

Question

If I am born again into a new body without memories of being me from before, how am I me?
Surely that's someone completely different with no connection to me.

I mean like in that film "Heaven Can Wait". Warren Beaty gets to live again, in a different person's body, with none of his memories.
So in what way is it him?

Answer 1

What do you mean by "me"? As far as I can tell, this "me" is just a bundle of activity (karma) anyway, similar from point to point in time, but never the same. We are often confused into thinking there is a self because the human mind tends to confuse similarity with sameness.

From this perspective, every time one sleeps and reawakens, "they" are born anew. Sometimes this (may) requires an entirely new physiology (if reincarnation is actual). A good analogy (though certainly not perfect) is found in watching a game of pool. One ball is active, strikes another, and the energy activating the first ball is transferred, in part or in toto, to the next ball. The karma has gone from one medium to another.

Answer 2

Some behavioral patterns are carried forward during the reincarnation process; strong feelings and recurring reactions under certain conditions are also indications of behavioral addictions of previous lives.
It has also been reported that physical deformations, scars and disabilities that occurred during the time of death are ‘inherit’ to the new body from the previous life. Special talents may also be present. In some cases there are mental image pictures that come apparent under stressful situations and they seem to be out of time and place however there is also a vague feeling of association with the people and events in those memory glimpses.
People susceptible to hypnosis were able to give details about their previous lives like where they lived, what job they were into, family members and various other data.
In conclusion whether we realize it or not our past lives are actively present in every reincarnation cycle however your question is related to our egocentric self and not to the eternal being that survives the death of the body and assumes a new body going thru the reincarnation process or moves on to a higher plane of existence.
That ego-self dies along with the body…

Answer 3

Assuming that reincarnation existed--I'm atheist, so I don't believe in it--you're right, what "came back" wouldn't really have any connection to the old life, it would be essentially a new, different person. Reincarnation also has a problem in that the total population is growing, so new souls would have to be being created somehow, somewhere. So there's really no point in reincarnation.

We know for a scientific fact that one's memories, experiences, tastes, personality, quirks, dogmas, etc.--everything that makes you, "you"--are stored in the connections and pathways of your neurons. Minutes after you die, your neurons shrivel up from lack of oxygen, and all the information that defined you as a person, is lost. Like erasing data from computer memory, except that once your brain begins to decay the information is permanently irretrievable. So it would appear that nothing that defines who we are/were survives after death.

Kind of a bummer knowing that there's no afterlife, but for me it just makes life all that more precious.

Answer 4

You would not be the "you" you are now to any degree... If you are reincarnated then you wouldn't be the curent you, because you would be a new "you".

The reincarnated you would have no memory of the current you....

You would be an embodiment in a new form.

Several religions, including Hinduism, believe that the human spirit returns to Earth in different forms again and again as it strives for perfection.

Answer 5

The theory of it is that if you behave well, and thus your karma is good, your soul will be placed into a body of higher beings (ie humans, lower gods, semigods), whereas if you behave badly, your soul will be placed into a body of lower beings (ie animals, bugs. etc.) That is the only thing that connect you with the shell that your soul inhabits. So you still retain your soul, but your memory is losted forever. This is after all a theory created by the same people who created the Caste system, so you don't have to worry about not understanding it and all. =)

Answer 6

Interesting question, my sis always had a thing about legionaires hats for some strange reason, she saw a medium who told her in a previous life she was indeed a legionaire, i think on the whole if re incarnated you would still be you but only the you that you are at that moment in your present life.

Boy it's a deep question eh? well done.

Answer 7

.Well first of all when born again in my culture your surroundings are your connection all is known with peace in the spirit ,all will comeback Deja vu ring a bell

Answer 8

God brought forth individuations of God, termed "lifestreams," Genesis 1 "souls," "Spirit-sparks."

These have in miniature a portion of the Godhead as their unique individuation, and a unique divine plan. Like acorns, each soul has the potential to develop as a Son or Daughter of God.

These souls were brought forth in groups or mandalas of souls

Each lifestream, or Genesis 1 soul, has repeated incarnations or embodiments in Matter, which is not the soul's native clime.

Thus, "man" is a compound Idea in Mater, Matter...soul and body.

Each lifetime is like a day: morning's inspirational birth, freshness, hope, learning and earning, retiring to what purgatorial/heavenly dreams and Teaching may come.

(You might like to read "Men in White Apparel," Ann Ree Colton, who researched this process well.)

Each lifetime develops the character of the soul, or soulfield, which is an ordained extension of the lifestream into Matter.

At the close of day/life, one's waking subconscious becomes one's dreaming/passing on's conscious. At the best, the soulfield coherence in the dream or post-passing state maintains its lucidity, unto Second Heaven octave and Universities of the Spirit. ("The Masters and Their Retreats," Mark Prophet, describes this very busy ongoing activity.)

Stronger characters retain more of their soulfield coherency unto the soul's return into the "parent lifestream." If naught remains at that level, that live's "soul is lost." (This is a fairly dire circumstance, basically related to "the soul that sinneth [fails to incorporate and demonstrate lessons of divine Love, Purity, Mercy, Truthfulness, Joy, Mindfulness...] into its beingness, perishes.") (Check "Climb the Highest Mountain," Mark Prophet, re this.)

So a strong soul experience, e.g. Saint Thomas a Beckett's, may find some significant correspondences with a succeeding, God-ordained embodiment-initiative (e.g., in this lifestream's course, Saint Thomas More).

However, as both Roman Catholic and Tibetan Buddhist doctrine teach, no soul returns per se. Each lifetime or embodiment initiative is a new, God-ordained initiative. If one is aware of past-life tendencies ("samskaras"), one is karmically responsible for maximizing their good, eliminating the negative. "Reborn in the West: The Reincarnation Masters," Vicki MacKenzie, " "Life before Life," Jim Tucker, M.D., "Expecting Adam," Martha Beck, Ph.D., "The Beautiful Story of a Master," Louise-Marie Frenette, "Education Begins before Birth," O. M. Aivanhov, "Autobiography of a Yogi," Paramahansa Yogananda, "Beyond the Ashes: Cases of Reincarnation from the Holocaust," Rabbi Yonassan Gershom, "Babies Remember Birth," David Chamberlain, Ph.D., "Entering the Circle" and "The Master of Lucid Dreams," by psychiatrist Olga Kharitidi, are all examples of work in this field of discovery.

It is worth noting that many delusionary or partial "memories of past lives" also crowd the field. As with many failed or partially-true theories in various sciences and courts of law, so too there are signal-to-noise ratios. Logically, even one evidential case of reembodiment is sufficient to falsify the claim that no reembodiment occurs. Again, the definitions of God's image "lifestream" and ordained "soul-initiatives" are important at the outset, to avoid semantic confusion.

The general caution regarding any guru or teaching is also valid: "prove all things, hold fast to that which is good and true."

So, to answer your question in a very complex field: it is rare for anyone to have past live memories, although children tend to more than realized. These memories tend to fade by about the 4th-6th year.

Such things as having prolonged eye contact child-mother in first 45 Minutes of post-birth life sustains consciousness at significant recall levels; absent this, the child's consciousness (as measured by mris, etc.) "shuts down" for several Months, before regaining to the level it was born with--a kind of Mercy.

So, typically in the West with rather "Kamikaze" delivery methods, many babies will retain only very strong emotional, therefore somewhat-colorable "memories" of an immediately prior life's closing moments.

Http://www.coasttocoastam.com radio guests occasionally speak to this topic. The books noted are topflight, and will bring words as cups of Light to your question.

cordially,

j.

Answer 9

lf you mean Reincarnation you come back as 'you' - if you mean Rebirth - then all that survives from the previous life is the karma

Answer 10

The spirit is the mind. It never dies.