Posted by giveawayboy on July 21, 2004 at 14:16:46:
In Reply to: Re: C.S. Lewis excerpt posted by j mc on July 21, 2004 at 12:40:30:
: I've heard "past life" people say these images are links to old lives...but as I don't believe in past lives, I don't buy it. I've also heard spiritualists say these images are pieces of thought from other entities that we pick up on subconsciously-- either other living people, or dead people, or other spirits altogether. You can think what you want, but it's an interesting concept... that our minds are not as private as we may think. Then again, maybe it's just our own creative ability patterned after the prime creative ability of God. The whole made-in-image thing. If God's imagination can spark actual independent existence, then perhaps ours can at least take on a limited life of it's own. Tolkien talked about this in some of his essays and lectures. The concept also shows up in the Silmarillion regarding the creation of the dwarves.
: I tend to think our thoughts are often an amalgamation of influences from all kinds of places that resurface in sometimes unidentifiable new forms.
I like the way this girl in Richard Linklater's WAKING LIFE puts it. She's not too sure about reincarnation, but believes that we may have some share in the memory of all time. This she felt could explain why some people come up with beliefs about reincarnation. Personally, I find that is alot like G.K. Chesterton's Democracy of the Dead idea. That there is indeed one eternal conversation going on outside the current era which contains us. And I also feel agree w you that our minds may not be as private as we wish -- or that there might be one substance of mind out there which we all dip into with individual brains. Or one common experience of life which we all partake in in separate bodies. I think in western culture we tend so easily to divide, define, separate, categorize, describe and discuss. In eastern culture there is more emphasis on substance than objects and on harmony rather than individuality.
peace, Bill