reincarnation/population

[xblue420x]

I am new to Paganism and the craft, but I've always had an idea of reincarnation. I picked up Ann Moura(Aoumiel)'s 'Green Witchcraft' at the library and started reading it last night. While reading on reincarnation a thought came into my head... What about the growing population? Hasn't the population been multiplying? And if so, how would they work together? If when we go to the Summerlands, we only rest and then come back, then how does the population keep growing? The only thing that I could think of to explain this is, maybe there are just so many spirits in the Summerlands who didn't come back for a long long time and they all came back at the same time.. I don't really know. That didn't make much sense to me, so any thoughts on this would be helpfull.
Have a great day. Blessed Be

[Haedis]

Here's my take on it (though I've never given this much thought) :

I believe that all animals have souls as well and that you can be reincarnated as a human one lifetime and another species in the next life. Since our population is growing so rapidly, we are killing off thousands and thousands of other animals by destroying their habitats and resources. The souls of many of those animals reincarnate into humans. The more our population grows...the more other species we kill off...the more souls that are "up for grabs" for humans. Rather grim, eh?

[xblue420x]

wow...Ya know, I never thought about that. I was trying to figure out the human part of it so much that animals and everything else didn't even come into my head heh.

[Mex]

:wave:Of course Haedis has only provided one of many views on reincarnation. You see some don't believe that animal souls can become humans in a next life or visa versa. I read a theory that souls are attending "life" school. They keep going back life after life until they have passed all the necessary tests to allow them to progress from grade to grade until they reach graduation status - e.g. Heaven or Summerland! With each new life begins a whole new grade of "student souls ". I like this theory because I am always going to places I know I haven't been to in this lifetime yet I am familiar with them. I also find that I just "click" with some people and feel as though I have known them all my life!:rotfl: Even some babies own that wise expression like they have been here before! :rotfl: Anyway food for thought!

BB

[Sequoia]

I think that there is life on more than one planet, more than one plane, and heaven's know how many souls are active, and how many are resting. . . who and when and where, do we really know?

My theory: the universe is bigger than we think. ;)

[Eeluna]

There are many possibilities--some we probably haven't even thought of. Who can really know what is right. My own thoughts on the subject are: Why can't new souls be born. There must be a time when everyone is brand-new. Some of us may have been soul-born thousands of years ago and some of us may have been soul-born in this lifetime.

[Storm]

I believe that some people are born with new souls. Say around the 4-6 month of preg a soul can claim it's body and become a part of that organisms energy. Thus that person is a reincarnate. If no soul claims it, the energy of it's own life form developes and a new soul is born.

[Storm]

Oh, I also am not sure our souls are eternal. I think we are reborn to reenergize. Just like human forms souls can be stronger or weaker so can their souls. The stronger the energy of the soul the longer you can hang around the "summerlands". I think that we are in general terms attached to this planet and its' energy. Perhaps some can move on but I think we have a bond with the planet that is not easily broken. Some souls eventually absorb back into that ONE energy force. Some go on and on. I think our souls are as beautifully and horifyingly imperfect as our selve in human form. As above, so below. I think higher consciousness can be born as lesser conscious life forms but lessers must evolve..may take many lifetimes. But sometimes things happen that aren't supposed to....so you never know. Anyway these are just my ideas. Take them as you will. They help me make sense of things.

[Phoenix Blue]

If every plant and animal can be thought to have a soul as well, then perhaps this is the source of reincarnating souls. It may explain a lot, too - think of animals that do not have what we consider to be human social constructs, but that are reincarnated into human bodies.

:) I can't take credit for that theory; it actually was thought up by some Shamanist acquaintances of mine. But it's a logical enough idea, to my mind at least.

[Demeter]

We don't have any solid information on the mechanics of reincarnation in the first place, so we really have no basis for "comparing" the number of souls to the growing population.

How do we know how many souls there are/may be? There are six billion plus people on the planet right now, but perhaps at the beginning of time twelve billion souls were made. Or more. That would allow a sizeable pool to be resting in Summerland at any given time while still allowing for the current population and then some. Some of them are probably still in mint condition in the back of the warehouse somewhere.

Perhaps souls are still being made, and not everybody is an "old soul."

Perhaps animals are getting upgrades.

Perhaps there are other planets and the populations there decrease and increase to balance ours.

Perhaps time is actually irrelevant to reincarnation and somebody could be reincarnated during one historical period in several different incarnations "simultaneously" (but in sequence during their personal time-line). (This would explain regressions where people report several different lives in the same historical period.)

Perhaps all, or any combination, of the above are true at once, which would lead to a potentially infinite number of human incarnations possible, therefore the entire population comparison is irrelevant.