My current view on past lives is undecided, but that hasn't stopped me from forming a few hypotheses about it. Let's assume, for a moment, that I believe in reincarnation:
You've noticed that a very few people shine, right? While most people just fade to gray at a short distance, there are a few people who amaze you, humble you, even scare you a little? Intelligence may be part of it, but there seems to be a spiritual quality as well, even if they don't admit to being especially spiritual. (One of my friends has met Buckminster Fuller -- not only was he an amazingly thinker, but he brought out the best thinking in everyone around him.)
These are the people who got the old souls. These are the people who have had over 150 years well-lived -- they live differently because, on a subconscious level, they've learned all the trivial lessons already and moved on to the important ones.
The people who have younger souls are the dim lights... though that's perhaps no more fair a comparison than giving an algebra test to a preschooler and the Senior Class valedictorian and comparing their scores.
Note that I say that people with older souls shine -- I do not say that they are necessarily better. Not all of these lives are going to have been good. A whole lot more people have lived on this planet than our censuses (censi?) would suggest -- they just didn't live long enough to be counted. Anyone who has had a few reincarnations has also probably had at least one as a child or infant who died way too young... in addition to a few more that were painful, brutish, and short.
(I'm assuming that a human's soul is given to him either at the moment he sees daylight, or the moment he is named. If a soul is given at the moment of conception... well, that makes things even more complicated.)
If I may switch to Christian terminology for a moment? All the great saints are possessed of greater souls. So are all the blackest sinners.
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Date: 2006-03-08 01:09 am (UTC)You've noticed that a very few people shine, right? While most people just fade to gray at a short distance, there are a few people who amaze you, humble you, even scare you a little? Intelligence may be part of it, but there seems to be a spiritual quality as well, even if they don't admit to being especially spiritual. (One of my friends has met Buckminster Fuller -- not only was he an amazingly thinker, but he brought out the best thinking in everyone around him.)
These are the people who got the old souls. These are the people who have had over 150 years well-lived -- they live differently because, on a subconscious level, they've learned all the trivial lessons already and moved on to the important ones.
The people who have younger souls are the dim lights... though that's perhaps no more fair a comparison than giving an algebra test to a preschooler and the Senior Class valedictorian and comparing their scores.
Note that I say that people with older souls shine -- I do not say that they are necessarily better. Not all of these lives are going to have been good. A whole lot more people have lived on this planet than our censuses (censi?) would suggest -- they just didn't live long enough to be counted. Anyone who has had a few reincarnations has also probably had at least one as a child or infant who died way too young... in addition to a few more that were painful, brutish, and short.
(I'm assuming that a human's soul is given to him either at the moment he sees daylight, or the moment he is named. If a soul is given at the moment of conception... well, that makes things even more complicated.)
If I may switch to Christian terminology for a moment? All the great saints are possessed of greater souls. So are all the blackest sinners.