Are we all reincarnations of the same person?

[Maia]

I once heard of someone doing past life regressions that involved previous incarnations that happened in the future, meaning that the succession of incarnations doesn't necessarily correspond to the progression of time as we know it in the mundane universe. This could mean that there could be simultaneous incarnations of the same person walking around, and, further, that we are all incarnations of the same person.

[Sulischild]

This could mean that there could be simultaneous incarnations of the same person walking around, and, further, that we are all incarnations of the same person.

I've read this theory somewhere before (on this forum, I think).

It makes my head hurt.  And, from an ego-ish human perspective, I look at some of the awful people I've known and go 'Nooooooooooooooooooo!!  I can't be them!'

But it doesn't actually contradict the theory of reincarnation I've read up on and sort-of believe (insofar as I even understand it).  The idea with that is that as we come back, time and time again, we experience things from all perspectives - oppressor and oppressed, teacher and student, parent and child.  So were we to actually come back to the actual same situation from the other participant's point of view... well, that's actually quite an efficient way to manage it.

Journey of Souls is one of those 'spirit world explained through past life regression' books, and in it there's some talk of the one soul being incarnate in two places at once.  I can't remember though if that was explained through time travel, or the soul dividing into parts, or not explained at all, and I don't have the book any more so I can't check.

[Tana]

I once heard of someone doing past life regressions that involved previous incarnations that happened in the future, meaning that the succession of incarnations doesn't necessarily correspond to the progression of time as we know it in the mundane universe. This could mean that there could be simultaneous incarnations of the same person walking around, and, further, that we are all incarnations of the same person.

 
Well, this all depends highly on the way you see the matter of reincarnation and souls.
If one believes in individual souls (that 'you' stays 'you') through different life times, then the above is not possible.

If one thinks on the other hand about the different souls and parts that make up a being in a more fluid way (like f.ex. what makes up your soul in this lifetime goes back to a big giant soul pool, without being an individual thing anymore) then the idea of parts and bits of this soul walking around in different incarnated beings is not at all far fetched.

[Maia]

Well, this all depends highly on the way you see the matter of reincarnation and souls.
If one believes in individual souls (that 'you' stays 'you') through different life times, then the above is not possible.

If one thinks on the other hand about the different souls and parts that make up a being in a more fluid way (like f.ex. what makes up your soul in this lifetime goes back to a big giant soul pool, without being an individual thing anymore) then the idea of parts and bits of this soul walking around in different incarnated beings is not at all far fetched.

 
Even if we have individual souls as in your first example, the above is still possible if we accept that reincarnation happens in a different timeline to the one that we experience in everyday life. My most recent incarnation might have happened 100 years in the future, on this theory. It follows that it is theoretically possible that there is only one soul. Our task would be to find out which order it incarnates through all the people who have ever lived.

I must say though that while it is an interesting subject for discussion, I don't actually accept it. I have had readings done and all my past lives took place in the past. They were all female and blind as well, which probably tells me something about what my future ones are going to be like. Assuming those readings were accurate, that is.

[RandallS]

Even if we have individual souls as in your first example, the above is still possible if we accept that reincarnation happens in a different timeline to the one that we experience in everyday life. My most recent incarnation might have happened 100 years in the future, on this theory. It follows that it is theoretically possible that there is only one soul. Our task would be to find out which order it incarnates through all the people who have ever lived.

As long as there is no overlap in the lifespans of the different incarnations of a soul, this could work.

[Maia]

As long as there is no overlap in the lifespans of the different incarnations of a soul, this could work.

 
Why is it necessary that there should be no overlap?

[RandallS]

Why is it necessary that there should be no overlap?

If there is an overlap, you'd have the same soul in two bodies.

[Maia]

If there is an overlap, you'd have the same soul in two bodies.

 
That's true, but in it's own timeline the soul would be doing this at different times, so it would only be simultaneous from our mundane perspective.

[Darkhawk]

I once heard of someone doing past life regressions that involved previous incarnations that happened in the future, meaning that the succession of incarnations doesn't necessarily correspond to the progression of time as we know it in the mundane universe.

 
Even if it's true, it pretty clearly doesn't actually have any significance in the lived, material world: a whole lot of people are pretty awful at recognising even glimmers of human kinship, especially with people who differ from them in some way.

[SunflowerP]

Even if we have individual souls as in your first example, the above is still possible if we accept that reincarnation happens in a different timeline to the one that we experience in everyday life.

 
I note that Tana specified "individual souls (that 'you' stays 'you')", though.  If individuality of personality persists across incarnations, it's not possible, because patently we don't all have the same personality.

Sure, one could argue that personality shifts, however gradually, through experience, and that differences in personality are only the result of what point on the incarnation/experience arc this hypothetical collective soul is at in a given incarnation.  But that really does amount to an argument against the persistence of individuality of personality.

Sunflower

[Euryalus]

I once heard of someone doing past life regressions that involved previous incarnations that happened in the future, meaning that the succession of incarnations doesn't necessarily correspond to the progression of time as we know it in the mundane universe. This could mean that there could be simultaneous incarnations of the same person walking around, and, further, that we are all incarnations of the same person.

 
I would be careful with this line of thinking: removing free will entirely opens up a massive can of worms.  All people being reincarnations of the same soul is an interesting thought experiment, but is untestable, contradicts common sense, and has a number of disturbing implications.  Plus past life regressions revealing a reincarnation of a soul from the future sounds very special-snowflakey, and thus raises a number of red flags beyond the philosophical ones.

[EJay]

As long as there is no overlap in the lifespans of the different incarnations of a soul, this could work.

 
I don't see this as a problem.  I believe our soul/essence/being/whatever exists outside time-space and time-space is like a curling ribbon that intersects our soul/essence/....

Where it intersects is how we experience the here and now, so i have no problems with the idea that the ribbon can intersect with more than one part of our soul at the same place, hence we can have an incarnation in more than one body at the same time.

[EJay]

I once heard of someone doing past life regressions that involved previous incarnations that happened in the future, meaning that the succession of incarnations doesn't necessarily correspond to the progression of time as we know it in the mundane universe. This could mean that there could be simultaneous incarnations of the same person walking around, and, further, that we are all incarnations of the same person.

 
As I said in my reply to Randall, I have no issues with simultaneous incarnations since I believe we exist outside of time-space.

I can even logically believe that we could all be incarnations of the same person, but my ego gets in the way and says, "God forbid!!"