In order to function normally, a body needs three things:
heartbeat, respiration and brain activity. But what of the life force? That’s
something altogether more mysterious. I’ve never been convinced that heartbeat,
respiration and brain activity produce life, only that they provide the
necessary conditions for the life force to function in concert with a body. I
can’t prove this, of course, it’s just a conviction I’ve never been without for
as long as I remember back in childhood.
I know a doctor who believes that the life force is a
fragment of the universal energy, and that when we die that fragment simply
rejoins the cosmic soup. But suppose consciousness remains with the life force
when it vacates the body, and suppose that consciousness retains the concept of
individuality, which would seem likely. Then we have the concept of soul to
grapple with.
People occasionally ask me why I’m so convinced of reincarnation,
or whatever term a particular tradition cares to use. Maybe I’ll answer that in
a blog post one of these times, but for now I’ll quote Edgar Allan Poe:
But it is mere
idleness to say that I had not lived before – that the soul has no previous
existence. You deny it? – let us not argue the matter. Convinced myself, I seek
not to convince.
~ Berenice.
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