Single conciosness, in many reincarnations.

I'd like to share with you my beliefs about consciousness specifically, and reincarnation. My thoughts on this have developed over many years so it might be difficult for me to articulate it fully at times.

The core principle of my beliefs on this matter are that there is only a single consciousness, and that if other people do exist (as opposed to just being philosophical zombies) then they must be a reincarnation of the single consciousness. For example, once I pass away I may reincarnate into another person. the idea of there being more than 1 conscious entity seems incomprehensible to me. I have also used this to answer the common question of "why was my spirit put into this physical body, rather than someone else" the answer being that there is only one spirit that travels through different physical entities.

I suppose the main question isn't "why is MY spirit in THIS body", but instead "why am I THIS SPIRIT"

feel free to ask questions as I may not have made my thoughts clear enough to those new to my ideas.

I'm glad to see you've finally put this up Hedonologist!

Originally Posted by Hedonologist

I'd like to share with you my beliefs about consciousness specifically, and reincarnation. My thoughts on this have developed over many years so it might be difficult for me to articulate it fully at times.

The core principle of my beliefs on this matter are that there is only a single consciousness, and that if other people do exist (as opposed to just being philosophical zombies) then they must be a reincarnation of the single consciousness. For example, once I pass away I may reincarnate into another person. the idea of there being more than 1 conscious entity seems incomprehensible to me. I have also used this to answer the common question of "why was my spirit put into this physical body, rather than someone else" the answer being that there is only one spirit that travels through different physical entities.

I suppose the main question isn't "why is MY spirit in THIS body", but instead "why am I THIS SPIRIT"

feel free to ask questions as I may not have made my thoughts clear enough to those new to my ideas.

I have had the same idea myself, but have dismissed it because it does away with free will. If we are all reincarnations of the same spirit/soul then we live as everyone who has ever lived or will ever live. This means that actions taken by others are taken by us when we come back as that person, we have no choice but to take the action which affected us before.
For example: we live as a victim of a crime which affects us for the rest of our life. Later we are incarnated as the perpetrator of the crime. We have no choice but to do it; it has already happened.
I hope that I understood your idea. If I did I hope that you can see my point. If I didn't then I apologise. Please explain further.

Peace and love

Originally Posted by Graeme L. H.

I have had the same idea myself, but have dismissed it because it does away with free will. If we are all reincarnations of the same spirit/soul then we live as everyone who has ever lived or will ever live. This means that actions taken by others are taken by us when we come back as that person, we have no choice but to take the action which affected us before.
For example: we live as a victim of a crime which affects us for the rest of our life. Later we are incarnated as the perpetrator of the crime. We have no choice but to do it; it has already happened.
I hope that I understood your idea. If I did I hope that you can see my point. If I didn't then I apologise. Please explain further.

Peace and love

Me and Hedonologist are friends outside of the forum and have debated this opinion many times and what you've described is what I also see as a grey area in the theory.
Whilst I believe in the general principle I see it as more of a reincarnation based upon learning new lessons in one's spiritual journey and so they are 'allocated' a life experience based up their needs/requirements. Whilst that still doesn't quite answer the free will aspect I believe it at least accounts for it in that what we view as our 'lives' are really just metaphors for either large or singular lessons we need to learn on our own individual journey.

I can see what you mean and it does make sense. I've seriously contemplated this idea; it matches my view of time as a whole (see my post in "philosophy and theory) but I can't get past the free will barrier. What does Hedonologist think on that one?

You know after first reading your reply, my initial thought was that it doesn't contrast with free will, but then again, if you were to reincarnate into me say after your death, then the fact that 'you' would make this post has already been set in stone, therefore nullifying free will.

Personally I am not steadfast in my belief of free will anyway, in fact ever since I thought about it for the first time I have been a non-believer in free will so for me it was never really an issue. However very recently I have begun to question my thoughts on it and am more open to the idea of free will existing.

The thing in my theory that I am most certain about is the fact that there is only 1 consciousness. I find the idea of multiple consciousnesses being conscious at the same time incomprehensible, the way I see it. Either I am the only conscious being, with everyone being philosophical zombies, OR other people are real, but merely in a separate reincarnation of myself.

As an added note, I am also of the belief that this single consciousness is also the same consciousness as God/The Creator/The original consciousness

I totally agree with you, or I used to when I was younger. Now I still believe in one conciousness, "God" but think that we are all different parts of it. After death, when united to the One conciousness again, we share the memories/experiences of everyone else as we are all parts of the One.
I'd be interested to know what you make of that idea?

I think that idea of eventually having all the memories after death or every reincarnation is plausible, I've considered something like that before and think it could be true. I think Aidan108's thoughts are quite close to yours on that point.

The only issue I would have is that it implies there can be two consciousness experiencing at once (correct me if I'm wrong). Imagine from your perspective, why is your consciousness more real than mine? Even if you trust that I am real, you can feel that you're real whereas I'm just saying it (albeit truthfully)

Originally Posted by Hedonologist

The only issue I would have is that it implies there can be two consciousness experiencing at once (correct me if I'm wrong). Imagine from your perspective, why is your consciousness more real than mine? Even if you trust that I am real, you can feel that you're real whereas I'm just saying it (albeit truthfully)

"At once" is a term I don't accept. In my view Time is personal to us all. My "Now" isn't necessarily your "now". (I personally think that , as I am now 40 years old then so are you. So is everyone; Julius Caesar, William Shakespear, people who have not yet been born. From your point of view I would be your age. It@s a complicated idea and probably for discussion in a different thread).

Another way to think about it is to imagine your consciousness as the One. You are feeling hungry. At the same time you are thinking of the meaning of life. Your thoughts and your hunger are both individual parts of your conciousness existing simultaniously, yet both are as "real" as the other.

What do you reckon?

Originally Posted by Graeme L. H.

"At once" is a term I don't accept. In my view Time is personal to us all. My "Now" isn't necessarily your "now". (I personally think that , as I am now 40 years old then so are you. So is everyone; Julius Caesar, William Shakespear, people who have not yet been born. From your point of view I would be your age. It@s a complicated idea and probably for discussion in a different thread).

I've never really considered that we're all at the same stage of development dependant on the main 'observer', as you say in your case everyone being 40 years old etc. That sounds similar to a theory I worked out a few years ago where there is one 'central' entity which is a person and that is that person's actual conciousness so for e.g. I obviously perceive myself making me the TRUE me and what you see as me is merely your 'version' of me if that makes sense lol

I toyed with it for a while with it correlating with the Quantum Immortality principle where you yourself will continue to live for eternity whilst other people will see you die because obviously another person isn't fundamental to ones survival so according to this theory you could both attend my funeral and yet it will only be your version of me that is dead and the actual me writing this now will still be alive obviously in a universe where whatever killed me didn't occur/didn't work and vice versa with everyone else.

....You can see why I stopped thinking it over