Cyclical time?

[Amethyst Rose]

I'm not sure how much of a discussion this will create, but I'm curious as to opinions.....

There are two different thoughts on the idea of a cyclical time frame, the one I want to talk about has to do with death and rebirth.....

That is, the idea that we live our lives over and over again. That there is no reincarnation, no heaven or hell, or no "nothing", but that when we die we are reborn as ourselves and live our lives over again. This has been used as one of the possible explinations for sensations such as deva vu, esp, divination, etc.

Soo..... what do you think? I personally think that that idea is a little scary because I really don't like the idea that I've been living this life forever, because things have happened in my life that I don't want to happen again.

[Ganga]

Sounds too science fiction-ish.

[Mithrea]

Amethyst Rose, could you please give some citations on these ideas? Who specifically believes this? Where did you come across this information?

[Amethyst Rose]

Well, I knew that I studdied this in a philosophy of religion class in university, but that was so long ago, when you asked for references I went, "Ohhh.....k......" hehe :) But I searched for about an hour, and this is what I came up with:

Even aristotle once said that time was circular, "What is eternal is circular and what is circular is eternal." is the quote....

But the philosophy that I'm talking about was widely followed by the Greeks, who belived that, "time [w]as cyclical - everything was re-born, every event would occur again. There was no ending." (taken from http://www.umich.edu/~engtt415/myth/)

A great article on this website: http://www.nobel.se/literature/articles/cullhed/ says that

"Pythagoras depicted history as one Great Year (in Latin: Magnus Annus). When such a world historical cycle came to an end, the sun, the moon and all other planets would return to their original positions. Exactly the same people would return to earth, all that had happened would happen once again."

[Valnorran]

Repeating the same life for an eternity? Sounds an aweful lot like hell to me.

[Haedis]

But wait...what about all the people who lived before we were born? Did they actually exist or are they just a part of our lives because we learned about them but they never actually were? And if they did actually live are they still stuck in say the 1600s repeating the same life over and over again? If that were true it wouldnt be really cyclical seeing as how there is the 1600s 1700s 1800's etc moving progressively.

(wow that didnt even make sense to me!)

[Mithrea]

Haedis, I see your point, but that made my head hurt :p

[Raevyn]

Well I personally couldn't see that - just because to me there's nothing to gain from reliving the same life over and over. Would the point be to "get it right", and by who's standards, and what would happen then? It reminds me of Groundhog's Day.

My belief is that our life energy dissipates or releases and becomes something else after we pass - it might be the energy of the wind blowing, or the leaves on a tree growing, or an animal, or a spirit guide or deity, etc.

[Haedis]

Yes, very much like Groundhog's Day.

And just think...if this theory IS true we're going to have to watch that horribly repetitive movie over and over and over infinitely just because we made the mistake of seeing it once! Actually I've seen the movie about 5 times which means I'll be forced to watch it....infinity x 5 times. grr I never liked Bill Murray to begin with!!!

[Chibi-Fallon]

That seems like it would kinda suck. Going round and round and round again. If nothing else it'd be boring.
Haedis, I really like your point. I think about that whole "how can I prove there was anything before I was born" thing a lot (English is boring what can I say). It's really crazy when you start to think about it.

[Illuminatus]

It's like an upward video game... look, I walk off to the left... and ta-da! There I am on the right!

The Universe doesn't act that way, though. It's more like a right-scrolling video game. Mario can walk forward, but he can't go back.

[Amethyst Rose]

I don't know about that. I think a very appealing reincarnation prospect is the idea that time isn't linear.... that I could die today and be reincarnated, say, as Cleopatra :)

I personally don't believe that time is linear....it'd be too boring that way :)

[Mithrea]

Originally posted by Illuminatus
It's like an upward video game... look, I walk off to the left... and ta-da! There I am on the right!

The Universe doesn't act that way, though. It's more like a right-scrolling video game. Mario can walk forward, but he can't go back.

I really like that analogy :)

[Illuminatus]

Originally posted by Mithrea
I really like that analogy :)

I really like your avatar! I'm so glad you changed it back, the other one frightened and confused me.

[Mithrea]

Originally posted by Illuminatus
I really like your avatar! I'm so glad you changed it back, the other one frightened and confused me.

I don't see what is frightening about her! :D

[Raevyn]

heh I love it.

*steals that av*

[Mithrea]

Originally posted by Raevyn
heh I love it.

*steals that av*

You're welcome to it :D