I need to preface what I am about to admit by saying that I am a committed, Born Again (but not the fingernails-on-the-blackboard, shrieking, fire-and-brimstone, Southern-Accent kind of) Christian (yet, somehow, I am still an Orthodox Christian), but lately (past four or five years) been getting the impression that I Have Done This Before.

Like in a prior life.

Huh wah? Ain't no such thing, right? Alternatively, I KNOW that I have been a Union soldier, unable to share in the fierce pride of the failure of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg because I was killed at Fredricksburg, I was a Black woman who lived in the post-Civil War South, I was an Englishman or a Deutchlander in the Great War who was killed in one of 450 mind-numbing charges at implacable machine-gun nests, I was a U.S. Naval Aviator who was shot down and killed in the cockpit of my dive-bomber by an exceptionally skilled and doomed Japanese kid, a U.S. Army soldier who was killed in the line of duty in Vietnam, and now, I am Nicholas Horianopoulos, former Navy officer and failed Student Naval Aviator, gun owner, husband, Christian, and confused.

Anybody else have feelings they were Doing This Previously?

wow

tag



and, no.

Oh, this is so tagged.

Too many late night movies falling asleep on the couch?

I know how you feel, I believe that I was a smokin' hot lesbian in a previous life!


Then again, maybe it's just that my testosterone got re-routed to the wrong part of my brain.

ETA - I think Jesus just wanted you to have 2 lives.  One here and the next in heaven.  If you feel as you explained, perhaps you are using it as some kind of escape mechanism... who knows.

On the matter of reincarnation, In talking to a very good and close Thai friend that is Bhuddist,  If you get reincarnated, then you screwed up bigtime.  See, if you get reincarnated, you get sent back to do it again and try to get it right this time.

FWIW - spend a hours on some counseling sessions with your priest/pastor.  It' will be interesting to see what he says

In my past life I had money, women and free time - but that was just 5 years ago when I was single  

But other than some weird deja'vu moments; nothing serious.

I was a stud in a previous life.  Yup, stuck in a wall with sheetrock nailed to me, watching the world go by.

Reincarnation?  I hope so!  This one kinda bites sometimes.

I was well hung in my previous life.  So this time around, I got the opposite end of THAT spectrum.

Reincarnation is real. In a previous life, I was a free living bachelor. I spent my nights womanizing and carousing. I lived spontaneously. With each new day, I did whatever I felt like doing.

Then I got married and had children. My old life is now a distant memory. I do not resemble the man I once was. Yes, reincarnation is real. I didn't have to die to prove it.

So when and how do these feelings manifest? Dreams, church, random?

I had an ex that would have reoccurring vivid dreams of a life in the 1850's - I brushed it off until she would go into detail of a really boring but typical farm life - on a day for day time frame. If she was Cleopatra or something TVish, I would have brushed it off - but for her dreams to be of a day of sewing, tending cows etc did make me pause.

ive had only 2 vivid very real dreams....

both where when i was much much younger.......

both where about ww2"i believe in Europe"

this was before i ever read a book about it..

in fact i bet they spurred my interest...

on a side note on an old time life book

about Vietnam there is a pic of 3 grunts and one is a spitting image of my self..

freaked the shit out of me.....

so i say there is a possibility...dont know for sure

flame suit on......................

I believe that I was an asshole in a prior life...and as punishment, I am an asshole in this life as well.

If I had a former life it must have kicked ass in every way imaginable, because this one sure as hell isn't going how I'd like.....

I believe I was captured by the Japs in WW2.
I and several other GI’s had made a break. We were running through the jungle trying to get away from the pursuing Jap soldiers when one of the other GI’s tripped or fell and the Japs caught up with him and were standing in a circle bayoneting him.
I had made it into deeper cover but when I saw that, I turned around and ran towards the bastards yelling and screaming at the Japs… I don’t remember anything after that.

These were the earliest dreams I had as a kid.  I didn’t know until much later the Jap soldier preferred the bayonet to the bullet.  I think it might have been in the Philippines where this took place.

I told that story to my daughter a couple of years ago and she related a story about dreams she had about being crushed in a building collapse and having a wall come down on her and she was trying to hold it up but couldn’t.

Reincarnation is a common belief among most people of the world, there must be a reason.

I am not a religious person.

Quoted: I believe I was captured by the Japs in WW2. I and several other GI’s had made a break. We were running through the jungle trying to get away from the pursuing Jap soldiers when one of the other GI’s tripped or fell and the Japs caught up with him and were standing in a circle bayoneting him. I had made it into deeper cover but when I saw that, I turned around and ran towards the bastards yelling and screaming at the Japs… I don’t remember anything after that. These were the earliest dreams I had as a kid.  I didn’t know until much later the Jap soldier preferred the bayonet to the bullet.  I think it might have been in the Philippines where this took place. I told that story to my daughter a couple of years ago and she related a story about dreams she had about being crushed in a building collapse and having a wall come down on her and she was trying to hold it up but couldn’t. Reincarnation is a common belief among most people of the world, there must be a reason. I am not a religious person.

Well, I will be doing something stupid like driving somewhere, and I'll hear something on the radio or think of some movie's critical scene, and will get the fleeting impression that I WAS THERE, or that I HAD THIS HAPPEN TO ME BEFORE.

It's starting to freak me out a little.

How come everyone claims to have been something cool. Usually a soldier of some type or a person of stature and ALWAYS a part of some signifigant historical event? How come no one pops up with, "I was a baker as some store in some town somewhere, it sucked, then I died and became a groundskeeper"

Not a slam on the thread originator, just wondering.

I have had impressions or thoughts about other lives, maybe they are memories. Since I was a child(even before history class) I have been fascinated with The Roman Empire, Pirates, Life in Early America, WWII Germany and Vietnam.

I have had moments in my life where I have had a thought or memory brought on by something in the present of times gone by, people and places where I have never been in my life.

Have I had any previouse lives? I DON'T know for sure, the thought of reincarnation runs contrary to my religiouse views (Christian) but I have an open mind and some of my experiences are hard to explain *shrug*

I think you were a mental patient in a previous life who checked out before his treatment was complete.

eta: Memories are stored chemically in your brain.  If you did have a past life you would not remember it because your previous brain has long since turned to dust.

samsong, sounds like you need to shoot for a civilian job in your next life, you suck as a soldier.

Issues...

No.

HH

No.

 And while we're on the topic , Does anyone know any good anti-psychotic medications they can recommend ? You know, for a friend.

Can't say I've ever felt that way...

Quoted: How come everyone claims to have been something cool. Usually a soldier of some type or a person of stature and ALWAYS a part of some signifigant historical event? How come no one pops up with, "I was a baker as some store in some town somewhere, it sucked, then I died and became a groundskeeper" Not a slam on the thread originator, just wondering.

I suspect it might be related to the trauma of the event.  I don't know but I truely believe in that event and it was way before TV and me going to the movies.

This thread reminds me of one on my trucking forum, gay libtard started a thread about his alien abduction expereiences.  I'm not calling anyone gay, it's just kinda out there.

Well actually... I was previously Chuck Norris, yes thee "Chuck Norris", But God realized there was no killin Chuck,,,,and so it was that God created a living being (mortal) of a single bowell movement......Though it was still great, (and it was) it had to be mortal, lest the universe fall into the great vacume paridigm only speculated by that of an all knowing coaxial dimension only to collapse once again unto its own defiling bowell movement......

Well anyways, here I am and thats just the way its gotta be!

Quoted: I need to preface what I am about to admit by saying that I am a committed, Born Again (but not the fingernails-on-the-blackboard, shrieking, fire-and-brimstone, Southern-Accent kind of) Christian (yet, somehow, I am still an Orthodox Christian), but lately (past four or five years) been getting the impression that I Have Done This Before. Like in a prior life. Huh wah? Ain't no such thing, right? Alternatively, I KNOW that I have been a Union soldier, unable to share in the fierce pride of the failure of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg because I was killed at Fredricksburg, I was a Black woman who lived in the post-Civil War South, I was an Englishman or a Deutchlander in the Great War who was killed in one of 450 mind-numbing charges at implacable machine-gun nests, I was a U.S. Naval Aviator who was shot down and killed in the cockpit of my dive-bomber by an exceptionally skilled and doomed Japanese kid, a U.S. Army soldier who was killed in the line of duty in Vietnam, and now, I am Nicholas Horianopoulos, former Navy officer and failed Student Naval Aviator, gun owner, husband, Christian, and confused. Anybody else have feelings they were Doing This Previously?

Lay off the Bud!!!  

Quoted: How come everyone claims to have been something cool. Usually a soldier of some type or a person of stature and ALWAYS a part of some signifigant historical event? How come no one pops up with, "I was a baker as some store in some town somewhere, it sucked, then I died and became a groundskeeper" Not a slam on the thread originator, just wondering.

A+ Wild    Good Observation...

Quoted: I have had impressions or thoughts about other lives, maybe they are memories. Since I was a child(even before history class) I have been fascinated with The Roman Empire, Pirates, Life in Early America, WWII Germany and Vietnam. I have had moments in my life where I have had a thought or memory brought on by something in the present of times gone by, people and places where I have never been in my life. Have I had any previouse lives? I DON'T know for sure, the thought of reincarnation runs contrary to my religiouse views (Christian) but I have an open mind and some of my experiences are hard to explain *shrug*

I'm Christian as well.  But is it Bible based AGAINST Reincarnation?  If so where?

"It is appointed to men, once to die, and thence to judgement."  Paul the Apostle.

Ops

I always felt that I was a male dog in a prior life because I love to hump the bitches. Woof Woof

i'm a helluva cook..

where do i come up with some of my secrets..
my mom couldnt cook a swanson dinner..

i never watched anyone..

i coulda been a 5 star chef at one time..

i can ride a horse..fairly well..
could i have punched doggies on a cattle drive??

Quoted: I have had impressions or thoughts about other lives, maybe they are memories. Since I was a child(even before history class) I have been fascinated with The Roman Empire, Pirates, Life in Early America, WWII Germany and Vietnam. I have had moments in my life where I have had a thought or memory brought on by something in the present of times gone by, people and places where I have never been in my life. Have I had any previouse lives? I DON'T know for sure, the thought of reincarnation runs contrary to my religiouse views (Christian) but I have an open mind and some of my experiences are hard to explain *shrug*

That makes two of us, except substitute medieval Britain for the Pirates and I was a kid during Viet Nam.  Suffice it to say your interests in certain periods relate to the times you may have been here in the past.  For example, I really like history,  I can tell you about all kinds of stuff related to WW-II. Stuff I never really studied but it just seems to come naturally to me.  But I could care less about the Civil War. Same goes for Rome or medieval stuff, I know a lot about it , but can't explain why I have such a draw to it or where the knowledge I have of it comes from.  

Have your (or anyone else) ever felt like you have met other people you knew from a previous life? Like when you meet someone for the first time and you take an instant liking to them and feel like you have known them forever.  Same for people you have just met or see from across the room for the first time but can't stand them before they even talk to you.  I not saying that it happens with everyone I meet, like or dislike, just certain people.  I have had a couple girlfriends that swear we knew each other in a past life.  

Yes, I do.  That's why I'm getting screwed in this life.  Pay back, purgatory and all that.

Quoted: Quoted: I believe I was captured by the Japs in WW2. I and several other GI’s had made a break. We were running through the jungle trying to get away from the pursuing Jap soldiers when one of the other GI’s tripped or fell and the Japs caught up with him and were standing in a circle bayoneting him. I had made it into deeper cover but when I saw that, I turned around and ran towards the bastards yelling and screaming at the Japs… I don’t remember anything after that. These were the earliest dreams I had as a kid.  I didn’t know until much later the Jap soldier preferred the bayonet to the bullet.  I think it might have been in the Philippines where this took place. I told that story to my daughter a couple of years ago and she related a story about dreams she had about being crushed in a building collapse and having a wall come down on her and she was trying to hold it up but couldn’t. Reincarnation is a common belief among most people of the world, there must be a reason. I am not a religious person. Well, I will be doing something stupid like driving somewhere, and I'll hear something on the radio or think of some movie's critical scene, and will get the fleeting impression that I WAS THERE, or that I HAD THIS HAPPEN TO ME BEFORE. It's starting to freak me out a little.

Don't worry about it, you are only in the begining stages of insanity. Eventually you may even deny your current self...

(I fear we have lost another to the L(iberal)ight side )

Quoted: I need to preface what I am about to admit by saying that I am a committed, Born Again (but not the fingernails-on-the-blackboard, shrieking, fire-and-brimstone, Southern-Accent kind of) Christian (yet, somehow, I am still an Orthodox Christian), but lately (past four or five years) been getting the impression that I Have Done This Before. Like in a prior life. Huh wah? Ain't no such thing, right? Alternatively, I KNOW that I have been a Union soldier, unable to share in the fierce pride of the failure of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg because I was killed at Fredricksburg, I was a Black woman who lived in the post-Civil War South, I was an Englishman or a Deutchlander in the Great War who was killed in one of 450 mind-numbing charges at implacable machine-gun nests, I was a U.S. Naval Aviator who was shot down and killed in the cockpit of my dive-bomber by an exceptionally skilled and doomed Japanese kid, a U.S. Army soldier who was killed in the line of duty in Vietnam, and now, I am Nicholas Horianopoulos, former Navy officer and failed Student Naval Aviator, gun owner, husband, Christian, and confused. Anybody else have feelings they were Doing This Previously?

This isn't nearly as absurd as it may sound, there are all kinds of theories on this kind of stuff.  It won't hurt to research some of it.  There are many theories on reincarnation and the like, and there is quite a bit we don't know about human physiology and the universe we live in.  You may have not been those people but somehow been in tune with them on some level or another, or you could be a conglomeration of several different people or just parts of them.  

You could have an overactive imagination, keep in mind all of this is dependant on which theory you subscribe to.  In fact this type of thing could explain multiple personalities and some mental illness, however I wouldn't risk introducing thes ideas to them Psych docters lest they lock us up because we are "crazy."

Quoted: samsong, sounds like you need to shoot for a civilian job in your next life, you suck as a soldier.

That was my take on things.

Something makes me think I said,

"Crap. I gotta die for my country again?

Screw it. This time, I'm selling wireless phones for a living."

Wow, I amazed at the shittiness of some of the responses - everything from calling me "gay" and a "liberal" (labels that you wouldn't apply to me if you met me, I assure you) to asserting that I am insane or taking drugs.

Only like three respondents actually had substantive input.

Pathetic. Sometimes, ARFCOM really disappoints.

Quoted: I know how you feel, I believe that I was a smokin' hot lesbian in a previous life!

 ME too.  


I hope to Christ that we never dated back then, that would be cause you're ugly now.

For the last few years I've been trying to avoid religious discussions, because I piss people off.

I'll try not to this time.

Reincarnation is a common part of some far eastern religions.  It probably comes out of the ancient religion of the Aryans (either the invaders or first occupants of the Indus valley, depending on if you got your degree in these United States or India), this is commonly known as Hinduism these days, though as most of you are well aware, the religion over centuries has turned into a giant mess.

Interestingly enough Hinduism has commonality with the original religion of the upper Middle East, known as Judaism these days, back before the Jews had a concept of a heaven or a hell.  The Hindu believes he will be reincarnated based on karma until the world ends, then the universe reboots and he gets to do it all over again.  Originally middle easterners believed when they died, things would go back to pretty much the same as when they were born, or maybe you'd just sort of sleep someplace that was neither pleasant, nor unpleasant.  This was just accepted as a normal part of life in both cultures.

Then things changed, people said, "This blows chunks", mainly in the Middle East, and they came up with new philosophies on what must happen when you die.  Maybe some northmen, or somebody came around and said "you've got it wrong", when you die righteously you are rewarded, particularly in battle.  Later on we get the "what happens if you're naughty" bit.  But for the Jews, nobody could be all that naughty and they figured 12 months of torture/spiritual cleansing was probably enough.  Meanwhile in the Far East this dude called Buddha said "this Hindu thing ain't so great, in fact its hell on earth, there must be a way out of it".

Later on we get Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, etc.  Btw, if you want to know what the religion of the lower Middle East was way back when, ask them Muslims to take the tarps off the big love hut in Mecca, bet you’ll find Sanskrit and multi-armed elephants on it.

50,000 years after we crawled out of Africa, what are we certain of?  Well we know energy/matter can't be destroyed, it can only change state.  We also know that the universe expands and contracts.  Some people say that Chuck Norris counted to infinity, twice, I would deny this, but I would run the risk of getting roundhouse kicked for my lack of faith.  j/k  Anyway, my opinion is the first two guesses on what happens after you die aren't any more valid or invalid than any of the other ones since then.

I quite frankly just don't care anymore.  Believe in whatever floats your boat.  My family has all types, pagans, people who believe in reincarnation on a limited Druze basis, people who believe in the Hindu variation, Sunday Christians, hard-core Christians, atheists, and whatever else.  But for me the history of religion is more interesting than trying to figure out how many angels/devils/jinn/shivas/popes can dance on the head of a needle.

Quoted: For the last few years I've been trying to avoid religious discussions, because I piss people off. I'll try not to this time. Reincarnation is a common part of some far eastern religions.  It probably comes out of the ancient religion of the Aryans (either the invaders or first occupants of the Indus valley, depending on if you got your degree in these United States or India), this is commonly known as Hinduism these days, though as most of you are well aware, the religion over centuries has turned into a giant mess. Interestingly enough Hinduism has commonality with the original religion of the upper Middle East, known as Judaism these days, back before the Jews had a concept of a heaven or a hell.  The Hindu believes he will be reincarnated based on karma until the world ends, then the universe reboots and he gets to do it all over again.  Originally middle easterners believed when they died, things would go back to pretty much the same as when they were born, or maybe you'd just sort of sleep someplace that was neither pleasant, nor unpleasant.  This was just accepted as a normal part of life in both cultures. Then things changed, people said, "This blows chunks", mainly in the Middle East, and they came up with new philosophies on what must happen when you die.  Maybe some northmen, or somebody came around and said "you've got it wrong", when you die righteously you are rewarded, particularly in battle.  Later on we get the "what happens if you're naughty" bit.  But for the Jews, nobody could be all that naughty and they figured 12 months of torture/spiritual cleansing was probably enough.  Meanwhile in the Far East this dude called Buddha said "this Hindu thing ain't so great, in fact its hell on earth, there must be a way out of it". Later on we get Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, etc.  Btw, if you want to know what the religion of the lower Middle East was way back when, ask them Muslims to take the tarps off the big love hut in Mecca, bet you’ll find Sanskrit and multi-armed elephants on it. 50,000 years after we crawled out of Africa, what are we certain of?  Well we know energy/matter can't be destroyed, it can only change state.  We also know that the universe expands and contracts.  Some people say that Chuck Norris counted to infinity, twice, I would deny this, but I would run the risk of getting roundhouse kicked for my lack of faith.  j/k Anyway, my opinion is the first two guesses on what happens after you die aren't any more valid or invalid than any of the other ones since then. I quite frankly just don't care anymore.  Believe in whatever floats your boat.  My family has all types, pagans, people who believe in reincarnation on a limited Druze basis, people who believe in the Hindu variation, Sunday Christians, hard-core Christians, atheists, and whatever else.  But for me the history of religion is more interesting than trying to figure out how many angels/devils/jinn/shivas/popes can dance on the head of a needle.

I have`nt had anything like mentioned above,But I did have a dream one time,that this girl broke into my house and she had 1 of my swords in her hand and i grabbed one.we both stood there,staring at eachother.then 3 -4 week later,i met her at a halloween party that i was hosting.she grabbed 1 of my swords off the wall,while i was showing a rare one i had...and to make a long story short...we`ve been together 5 years this coming august.

Well, i'm not really sure WHAT I bleieve about reincarnation.  I don't think its as simple as the Hindus think, where we jsut go to sleep and wake up as someone else.  Then again, I don't think its as complex as the Buddhists either.

One thing to consider is the population EXPLOSION mankind has gone through in the past 100 years.  More people alive today than have EVER lived in human history I read somewhere.  There are definately mroe of us than at any one point though.  This means that not everyone could have had even one past life, and makes me think multiple past existances to be a bit far-fetched.  Then again, if its not limited to human existance, maybe it would work.  

Perhaps what we're feeling - and we're feeling something - is a sort of "racial memory".  We remember traumatic events via a mechanism we dont' understand yet.  That's why everyone remembers violent deaths, and great events much mroe often than being a peasant.  That sort of makes sense.

O well, I know there's a God, and I know that there is good and evil in this world.  I'm not so sure on the whole Jesus thing, i reserve my judgement.  In the meantime, I'll try to live my life rigtheously, and see what happens when the time comes.

If I did have a past life, I must have seriously pissed the big guy off during it, because I am getting paid back in spades in this one.  One of the huge appeals of Christianity is that you only have to put up with this B.S. once.  Yeah, yeah, you should be grateful for life and all...well, no one freaking asked me about it before hand and I'm not having fun right now.  If they had and I had known anything about it, I would have told them to stuff it.  It's just like a draft, only I don't get to go home to a better place in 365 and a wake up.  The term of service is 60 years IF I'm lucky, longer if I'm not.  And I'm not lucky.

To those guys who believe in reincarnation...you poor, poor bastards.  At least I have a light at the end of the tunnel to look forward to.

You should change your screen name to Almond Joy.

"Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't."

ummm I doubt I had a prior life. I've read about them and every time I do, I think "those people have read too many romance novels."

I had a life prior to marriage and children.

I was born in 1962 but I always seem drawn to the 1940's.

In fact, when I am around WWII aircraft, especially bombers used in the Pacific like B25's and B24's, there is a strange familiarity that I've felt ever since I can remember. I can almost feel what it must have been like cruising over the water going from island to island and the humid tropical heat and sand.

Maybe that also drew me into aviation (but it could have been the plane rides with my dad).

Don't know if that means anything but I've always wondered about reincarnation.

An old girlfriend who was kind of into mystical stuff told me that I had an "old soul".

Who knows....

Fly safe,

Flyer

When going to a new place, I've had the feeling occasionally that I've been there before. But I think that sort of deja vu is more likely to be one part of your mind racing forward and the rest catching up a split second later rather than I lived a life previous to this one. If I did, I must have been really bad judging by the way I'm getting shafted in this life.

Quoted: Well we know energy/matter can't be destroyed, it can only change state.

This is absolutely true.  When you look at the universe - and realize that it is all interconnected, it can truly boggle the mind.  So many things unexplained and every discovery yields new questions.

Samsong -

Check this guy out:

www.brianweiss.com/

I was given his book to read.  In all honesty, I only read a little of it because of the "I was here, I was there" at times of importance.  He speaks of being there when Jesus was on his way to the crucifiction, etc.

Was he?  Who knows?  But it did turn me off from reading further.

He does talk of others who were more or less average folks and the interesting part was that he showed how unresolved issues from past lives had pronounced effects on their current lives.

Check him out and make your own conclusions.

Quoted: When going to a new place, I've had the feeling occasionally that I've been there before. But I think that sort of deja vu is more likely to be one part of your mind racing forward and the rest catching up a split second later rather than I lived a life previous to this one. If I did, I must have been really bad judging by the way I'm getting shafted in this life.

I get deja vus ALOT. I sometimes dream about something, and it sticks with me, and a year or two later, I just go whoa, been here before, or this scene looks awful familiar.

Reincarnation, I don't know about. No one can prove it one way or the other. Anecdotal stories may have some value, but frankly, we don't know enough about the brain, let alone if we have an undying "soul" to prove anything.

I admit it is more comforting to think/hope that we somehow go on upon death, but to prove it?