Does reincarnation and pantheism imply panentheism? (beliefs, soul, creation, experience)

[bflydad]

I have been struggling for a long time to decide if I believe in pantheism or panentheism. However, earlier today I was thinking about reincarnation, which I do believe in, and began thinking that reincarnation might imply transcendence which would imply panentheism (given at least pantheism).

Here is my thought process: if reincarnation occurs then souls must exist someplace prior to (and after) inhabiting bodies. Since reincarnation implies souls maintain coherence (in some sense of the term), these souls must exist outside of the universe. I'm not sure that I can prove this statement although it feels like an argument could be made for it.

Does anyone have thought on this?

thanks
-Butterfly

[mostly harmless]

Well, I believe that when we die..we go back to the source (which I call God and Goddess) we hang out with others who have gone before and decide if and when we are going to come back...what our theme for that particular life will be and who we will be 'working' with...then we reincarnate...life is a learning process...sometimes we teach and sometimes we are taught, sometimes we play the good guy and sometimes the bad...there is always going to be something to experience..and the Lord and Lady are right there with us experiencing life and supporting us when we ask..

[Kungfuzed]

Originally Posted by bflydad

I have been struggling for a long time to decide if I believe in pantheism or panentheism. However, earlier today I was thinking about reincarnation, which I do believe in, and began thinking that reincarnation might imply transcendence which would imply panentheism (given at least pantheism).

Here is my thought process: if reincarnation occurs then souls must exist someplace prior to (and after) inhabiting bodies. Since reincarnation implies souls maintain coherence (in some sense of the term), these souls must exist outside of the universe. I'm not sure that I can prove this statement although it feels like an argument could be made for it.

Does anyone have thought on this?

thanks
-Butterfly

It's interesting. Usually people will try to decide on the existence of a paticular God first and then get more specific about other beliefs later. But you seem to be starting with a paticular belief, reincarnation, and trying to determine the nature of God based on assuming reincarnation is true.

Why must souls exist outside of the universe? Can mortal souls live and die and be reborn within the universe?

[cardero]

Originally Posted by bflydad

I have been struggling for a long time to decide if I believe in pantheism or panentheism. However, earlier today I was thinking about reincarnation, which I do believe in, and began thinking that reincarnation might imply transcendence which would imply panentheism (given at least pantheism).

Here is my thought process: if reincarnation occurs then souls must exist someplace prior to (and after) inhabiting bodies. Since reincarnation implies souls maintain coherence (in some sense of the term), these souls must exist outside of the universe. I'm not sure that I can prove this statement although it feels like an argument could be made for it.

Does anyone have thought on this?

thanks
-Butterfly

I’m not sure if we are thinking along the same lines but I kind of been pondering this too. Some of these beliefs include that our souls are assigned but not not inhabiting these bodies (sort of a very responsive remote control frequency) with sleep providing our bodies with rest and our souls some time off (with the dreaming being a very large break room).

[Dr. Nosophoros]

I haven't died yet so I couldn't tell you but I'd be wary of anyone that claims they have and has wisdom to share, in some Middle Eastern and Asian countries there are people that will claim stone statues drink milk from a spoon, in the U.S. and other "developed" nations some people claim to see images of their deities in freshly washed windows or in burnt toast.

[Random]

Pantheism, the idea that the physical universe is idenitical to GOD, is simply a perceptive and intellectual error: a wrong belief, if you like.

Why? Because GOD is a holistic being, and the pantheists view is necessarily incomplete. There is more to the Cosmos than 3-dimensional planar "realities", which we know well.

Panentheism is the view I hold. GOD exists within and simultaneously without His creation. This allows for repeated transcendence of the World-matrix by souls that might otherwise be mired in the illusion of decay and "accidentally" annihilate themselves by cultivation of attachments to Forms that empty the Consciousness of its content upon death and thus destroy it (Consciousness being what consciousness is conscious OF). Spirit is Awareness: the rest you should be able to work out for yourself.

Reincarnation is a fact, like the emptiness of Space is a fact but for the bodies that occupy it. Panentheism is consistent with the recurrence of existential aggregates that constitute a soul in constant motion and transition.

That soul is you.