“Infinite Potentiality and Actual Manifestation”
Deepak Chopra answers some deep questions on his site. Here is a recent Q/A on the subject of reincarnation:
Question:
If there is one infinite being (and everything is an infinite possibility) then why do we need Reincarnation (individual souls having experience over and over?) We are either one infinite possibility having this experience or we are a soul having many experiences. (term soul being one continuous being.)
Answer:
Putting aside the issue of whether we need reincarnation for the moment, your question seems to boil down to why does infinite being need to do anything—create, know, evolve—if it is already everything?
The best answer I can give you is what the enlightened sages of the past have said about this, namely, that there is a distinction between infinite potentiality and actual manifestation. Just as there is a difference between the potentiality of a redwood tree in seed form and the full grown redwood tree…
[the complete answer can be found here]
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MG on 02 May 2009 at 5:00 am #
Nell Gavin (author of ‘Threads: The Reincarnation of Anne Boleyn’) wrote an interesting essay on reincarnation, suggesting we look to Physics and the other sciences for answers. It’s food for thought, and raises some interesting questions. The article is at
http://www.nellgavin.com/reincarnation.htm.
Here’s an excerpt:
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Fact: The laws of Physics state that energy cannot be destroyed. Thought is energy. Therefore, thought cannot be destroyed.
Conclusion: The individual energy pockets of thought, feeling and experience that comprise our individuality (our “souls”, to use a common term) cannot be destroyed. Therefore our souls are eternal. If our souls are eternal, they must still exist after death.
Note: The characteristics of energy invalidate any argument that states there is no life after death. In order to take up that argument, one would have to prove our current understanding of Physics is incorrect.
Fact: Energy has definable, measurable, predictable patterns of behavior. The entrance of a soul into a physical body is a process that must be subject to as yet undiscovered laws of Physics because the process occurs in the physical world. Inhabiting a body is an accepted and widely recognized behavior for this pocket of energy.
Conclusion: Physics allows the human body to contain a soul. Since this process occurs at least once per individual (and billions of times over all, taking the world’s population into account) this soul behavior is very likely a pattern that can occur an infinite number of times for the same reason any valid Physics experiment can be reproduced an infinite number of times…
To prove that reincarnation is not true: We must identify the specific laws of Physics that define the conditions under which the soul enters the body. Then we must identify the laws that prevent indestructible energy from engaging in this behavior more than once, and explain why this behavior is an isolated behavior – “used up” after one occurrence – instead of infinitely repeating in a recurring pattern when those conditions are present, which is more typical of energy behaviors.
Until we do that, we must assume energy can repeat this known behavior, just as energy can repeat other known behaviors, and can inhabit successive human bodies over time. At the very least, we must remain open-minded to the likelihood that nothing prevents energy from engaging in this behavior repeatedly – and your soul from returning – until we can use God’s Works (the sciences) to prove otherwise.
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Reincarnation may be just a mundane occurrence in the physical world, ruled by laws of the sciences, and nothing to feel frightened of, threatened by, or upset about. At any rate, it’s more likely true than not, if you give it any thought at all.