Several Lives
Published on AugĀ 20, 2015 (updated FebĀ 5, 2024), filed under philosophy (feed). (Share this on Mastodon orĀ Bluesky?)
I have no doubt that we live several lives, in more than just this reality system. (Iāve already said so; no YOLO for us.)
I have no doubt for thereās an entirely different belief system, an entirely different thought framework, that supports this model. (Iāve already been vague before, and apart from Jane Robertsā books thereās no single work, or other series of works, to point to.)
Here, though, I hope once more that isolating a single idea works without requiring to discuss and challenge too many commonly held ideas and beliefs. (Belief systems are rather complex.) That isolated single idea is the one of multiple lives, as opposed to one life. The way I thought this could be interesting to portray was by means of a quick comparison.
One Life | Multiple Lives | |
---|---|---|
Mindset | Very serious; life is literally a matter of ālife or deathā | Rather playful |
Role understanding | Victim, powerless | Actor, powerful |
Adverse conditions | Must be fought at all cost | Can be considered desired (without an excessive urge to judge and understand destructive individual choices) |
View of time | Limited, works against oneself | Unlimited (possibly illusion), thereās āall of it in the worldā |
Goals in life | Get the most out of it | Experience, learn, choose |
Meaning of life | None | Experience, learn, choose |
Responsibility | None, product of the environment | Large, for likely choosing life circumstances and lessons in advance |
This is no proof for anything here in the scientific sense of the wordābut we already know that the scientific method may be inherently limited and that weāve at no point in history understood everything (possibly not even much). So inviting science for a comment here is like asking a football enthusiast watching a game how it was like to score the 1ā0, when he has and can never have an idea for heās confined to his very particular role as an observer (erābut Iāll just keep that metaphor).
The most interesting thing about the comparison is probably the increase in meaning and freedom. The multiple lives model gives us a look at life that is much friendlier than common āwisdom.ā It actually makes sense, too, for it unites a great many fundamental experiences (like dreaming and out-of-body experiences) as well as elementary spiritual ideas (like reincarnation).
Running through these matters as some of you will be accustomed to seeing from me by now, Iād only want to add that I believe we all instinctively know that this one life here is not āit.ā That consciousness (which may be in everything) is not just a ācoincidence,ā and that even with our physical container (one part of our existence in this reality) falling away that consciousness would not just cease to be. We are no coincidence. We have a purpose. We matter.
Itās understandable that we so very much long for proof here. Especially since even if we had evidence, this reality would still feel so overwhelmingly, exclusively real (thereās actually the idea that this reality is the perfect illusion so that we can really learn), so that weād still doubt any ideas about more lives to live. But nowhere stands a sign saying, āeverything can be proven,ā nor āeverything must be proven.ā We appear to make some very strict, and rather very limiting, assumptions about life. Weāve talked about how the scientific method has boundaries, and how it constrains us more than anything in matters non-physical.
About Me
Iām Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and Iām a web developer, manager, and author. Iāve been working as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies youāve never heard of and companies you use every day, Iām an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for OāReilly and Frontend Dogma.
I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)