Forum: Story Recommendations

The Assitis weren't as bad as the Vogons.

Except, most of those "another timeline stories" are based on actual reincarnation beliefs (i.e. where information is passed to us from the 'Great Beyond'). You can argue about how realistic that is, yet it's often a viable element in a LOT of stories throughout time.

And I've also heard similar stories from those who've had one half of their brains die, and them transfer those brains functions to the other hemisphere, and also in research done into brain death, where they've been able to promote the whole 'bright light from the great beyond' by applying the same chemicals which occur during brain death.

It's a real thing, as is the whole 'mind leaving the body', it's not just some vague notion born out of nothing. I've actually know several people who've suffered those experiences (for some odd reason, they all seem to be drawn to me, so make your own assumptions about that). But mostly, since I've actively researched it, I'm more open to honestly considering and objectively evaluating their experiences rather than summarily dismissing them out of hand.

As always, different experiences, different perspectives. Or, you believe what you choose, while I'll believe what I've personally experienced, back by demonstrated scientific observations. So, you can believe them or not, as it ain't no skin off my back. ;)

Oh, I know. Actually, I do quite strongly believe in reincarnation myself, that and not much else. Or rather, I'm a radical agnostic when it comes to any beyond or higher beings and believe nothing of that is actually necessary. I have had a girlfriend who was head deep into "parapsychology" my sister's best friend went into Hare Krishna for a while (and come back out with the priest she married in tow), etc.

Myself, indeed, I do claim to have memories from previous lives, in a manner quite consistent with the classic eastern... hindu/Buddhist beliefs. But those are from times of long gone past (say, a viking berserker around ninth century, then a peasant girl raped to death in early teens during thirty years war maybe, but that's heavily constructed interpretation of the last two), you can't do much with those kinds of memories, disjointed, fleeting visions. And the technical problems with classic reincarnation, toddler brains can't store long term memories very well if at all, so by age of three or thereabouts you're as blank as they come fresh.

Historically, that's a mixed-bag. As sometimes they'll remember their past lives, sometimes they'll later recover the memories, yet often they won't. However, the Dali Lama's case in an exception rather than the rule, as it's normally other who seek them out, and just like hypnosis, there's a very real danger of 'projection bias', where you 'convince' the others of what you most them TO remember. (i.e. suggestibility).

I'm not saying the Dali Lama cases aren't true, just that they're incredibly problematic from an objective, scientific POV. (The same thing happens in many, many amnesia cases, where the victim's 'family' often 'projects' their wishes onto someone who truly isn't the person.

I lean toward a belief in reincarnation myself, though I can't say it's nearly as strong.

One personal experience has always puzzled me:

One day when I was skipping school (due to a sprained ankle, I think), I found a National Geographic to read. Hoping, no doubt, that it had some topless native photos...(don't judge, I was maybe 12 years old).

No luck there, but I did find an article about Lake Baikal which was slightly interesting. There was a photo of a ramshackle fishing village on the shore, and for some reason I got the most powerful "homesick" feeling I've ever had. Darn near cried.

I can't explain that, and have never had an experience like that again.

I've never been to Siberia, never lived on or near a lake, don't like to fish ... makes you wonder, don't it?

The road already taken or the one never taken? Or maybe little random bits of both? But, I've had vaguely familiar sensations reading the OLD National Geographics. Somewhere but there go I.

a viking berserker around ninth century, then a peasant girl raped to death in early teens during thirty years war maybe

Sceptics have noted how past life memories are never of boring lives like getting up, going to work, getting home and going to bed - rinse and repeat until death.

It's worse than that. You will get dozens of people claiming to have been the same famous historical person (say Cleopatra for example) in a past life. But no one ever says that they were Cleopatra's maid.

Even if I were to accept reincarnation, I'm not accepting multiple simultaneous reincarnations of a single person.

It's worse than that. You will get dozens of people claiming to have been the same famous historical person (say Cleopatra for example) in a past life. But no one ever says that they were Cleopatra's maid.

Yet there are kids who remember details of life (and death) as fighter pilots in WWII, and those pilots were never "famous" or even mentioned in publications.

As for all of the Cleo wannabees - that's quite understandable. People who seek attention get more for being recycled "Cleopatra" than they would from being Cleo's maid. What better way to get attention than to claim something that can't be proven to be false?

Note that nobody claims to be the reincarnation of a fat, ugly old hag of a Queen, even though there were many throughout history.

The well-known fact that some people seek attention and are willing to lie to get it has no bearing on whether or not reincarnation is a thing.

Heck, even if they knew they were one of dozens of Cleopatra's maids, who would want to 'upgrade' that to something slightly less humiliating? Thus I see those as more forgivable human frailities.

Sceptics have noted how past life memories are never of boring lives like getting up, going to work, getting home and going to bed - rinse and repeat until death.

That's a weak argument. You probably couldn't tell me what you had for lunch on Jun 14,2008.
On the other hand, if you were in a car accident on that day, you probably would remember it.

Sometimes they are, as I've read about those who recalled being 'dung collectors' or simply struggle farmers barely scraping by. Again, it's more a case of 'selective focus'. We simply prefer it being someone famous, both the person and the public at large.

Note: I mistakenly entered "met" when it first posted, but I've never met anyone who's been reincarnated, simply known people who've seen souls entering and leaving the body. Yet I've always been fascinated by the subject.

But what is more interesting, is when someone claims to be reincarnated, when they're 'recalled' previous-life details were from a cubically accessible gravesite they could easily have visited. ;) Just sayiin'.

The issue with that argument is that people don't remember boring details. If we assume reincarnation was real, people aren't going to remember boring lives (or the boring parts of those lives) they'll remember the exciting/unusual/traumatic parts.

Point.

I do have kinda, constructed quite a story about that viking, but even that's his last raid and aftermath, not much else, and what there is, is kinda memories of memories, like flashbacks.

I haven't... it would be interesting someday, to travel looking for those black cliffs... on an island? with a monastery or something. We walked into a trap. I blamed... whoever that guy was, a cousin? I believed he betrayed us, had sent a warning somehow, wishing us, me? dead. We, a few survived, but it was insanely bloody. Then, at home, that guy had taken my girl in the meantime. So I went to his place, slaughtered everyone, kidnapped my girl back, took her hostage, she was mad and unhappy and... god, I loved her so madly, I ate her soul.

... fast forward, different girl, different outfits, different soldiers, uniformed, my point of view is hers... but maybe also her little brother's? More hers, but he's present. To the best I can tell, the violent death was the only notable event in the life of either.

Not how karma is supposed to work, darn too direct, too clean a caricature, I doubt it all for that alone. Constructed, invented... likely.

I have some more disjointed visions that could be attributed to around then and roughly there, but not to either directly. Could be one before those, could be another in the middle with nothing much left. Sailboats in the river, that kind of things, feelings. I get strange deja-vus sometimes, as if I had roamed shores of Baltics repeatedly. Then, I suspect, I may sometimes read place memories unintentionally, not my own, just random recordings, like ghosts, trapped in stones or whatever. Then, that past is long. For some peoples nothing much changed for a couple thousand years, half a dozen even.

Then there's that African kingdom, ruled by a sexy -- and oversexed -- queen. Crazy stuff. And I was, kinda in the court, but kinda nobody much. At most a minor general or something such, a warrior of some kind, but more into politics, and overruled more often than not. Not that I remember much, it's mostly photos and feels I struggle to interpret.

There's some disjointed stuff I highly doubt is from here, Earth at large, I mean, at all, but that mixes with dreams that I sometimes have so super vivid.

And then, my personal creation legend, artistic interpretation of a recurring childhood nightmare. Perhaps... an AI of a weapon of mass destruction somehow won a soul for having doubts. A single suborbital flight of doom roughly over the Nile lengthwise from the south, towards nowadays Iran or thereabouts. But to the left, the Sahara, the great desert as it is now, was all lush green as far I could see in my perfectly spherical vision...

For shit's sake and giggles I have claimed to maybe be the Meleager. A kinda minor Greek mythology hero, sometimes mentioned as one of the Argonauts, but more famous for chasing Atalanta and thus the Calydonian Boar Hunt. He allegedly died when his own mother burned the piece of wood his soul was attached to. But as the myths go, there's quite few inconsistencies. And no, I'm not at all versed in that lore, but if I have to pick, it kinda rhymes.

Those sound like interesting stories.
Given how fallible memories are, the setting that seemingly isn't on earth is how I'd expect people to remember any previous lives they had - remembering some information, but with the background so distorted as to be fantastical.

The Sahara was green not that long ago. One theory is there was a change in the earth's polar tilt compared to the sun, ending it. Herodotus was aware of the green Sahara.
Perhaps your sub orbital weapon was used, impacting in what is now the Hiawatha Crater, tilting the earth, reversing the gulf stream, drying out the Sahara, melting the North American ice sheet and in the worst example of unintended consequences ever, made Portland possible.

The 1970s and 1980s were different. Very different.

No doubt about that.

True.

But every generation has its Modine Gunch.

Fiction is always about our shared valued and impulses. As they say, Non-fiction can be as strange as it wants, yet fiction has to feel real, or no one will ever believe it (i.e. theirs a higher threshold of acceptance, and thus a greater need for 'grounding' a story, no matter how extreme, in our most shared human values.

Yet those "Walmart Whales" are all a product of our modern times. Back in those long-ago times, very few could afford to eat well, and those who dared get that fat, were often the first eaten. Sabertooth's always prefer the fattier, slowing moving of prey. Fleet of foot means your genes are more likely to survive over time.

In the older case, the status was different, as the wealthiest could show off their wealth, while in modern times, they can highlight their better access to finer foods, as well as their access to 'personal trainers' at the beck and call.

In the end, it's all about showing off and distinguishing between the well-to-do and the common masses. Living in food 'deserts' certainly doesn't help.

Oh, I never thought you were. I was just explaining why, for those who haven't already discussed this issue endless.

I've always been an expert on over explaining everything. Again, there's no off switch on either my motor-mouth or my runaway thoughts. I literally can't corral them, as they have a mind of their own and I'm merely the vessel they've chosen to wreck their havoc. Yet, they still reward me for my efforts, so I can hardly cry over my fate.

I've truly enjoyed and appreciated my 'whack-a-mole' brain. ;)

Yes. That would even be true in the early 1900's. "Sturdy" women were good marriage material, since having lots of kids - like 12 or 14 - wasn't unusual.

And nowadays, those "Sturdy" women are just as valuable, as they can keep their no-good loser smuck hubbies in line. ;) I've know quite of few of those, and I've always preferred strong women than pushover, dumb broads.

Which, is why I write about them so often. Once more, the more things change, the more they stay … ;)

Actually, having known many women who went through those episodes, most of those more recent 'birthrate drops' are do to women finally decided to have children in their fifties, and then not being able to.

Thus the 'successful birth ' numbers drop because of that, not just because of weight issues.

Well stated. Kudos! As a Rubenesque goddess lying flat on her ass her legs over their heads is … well, in certain circumstances, it could work. ;)

Logically,there would be one Thousand Cleos.

No, there's nothing logical about that. How is that more logical than there being new souls over time?

According to classic reincarnation theory, there ARE no 'new souls'. The vast majority simply never remember jack squat, which helps, since most of us started as worms, amebas or dung beetles. Given those options, pretending to be Cleo herself sounds better and better, doesn't it?

Just, so consider and chuckle the next time you consider the latest dung-beetle's claims. Any one can claim to be whatever they want, yet it don't make it so.

Hmm, not that I actually believe, but as a point of logic, assume everyone reincarnated. If there are one million people in the world when Cleo was alive, and then later in time you are up to one Billion. Logically,there would be one Thousand Cleos.

Who says that when Earth's population was a million, there was only a million souls on and around Earth? Could that number not be larger, say 50 billion?