Is Belief In An Afterlife Meta-hedonism?
Your soul is who you truly are. You are a spiritual being having a human experience and a human being having a spiritual experience. The soul is eternal. You can deny that you have a soul. However, that won’t change the fact that you have an eternal soul.
The ego mind is the operating system that assists the mind and body to navigate the third dimension.
The ego mind conjures up constructs as entertainment in the density of the third dimension.
Meta-Hedonism is self-entertainment.
Hedonism is an ego construct that hypothesizes that pleasure and happiness are the primary or most important intrinsic goods and the aim of human life. [1]
A hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure (pleasure minus pain), but when having finally gained that pleasure, either through intrinsic or extrinsic goods, happiness remains fixed.
Ethical hedonism is the idea that all people have the right (free will) to do everything in their power to achieve the greatest amount of pleasure possible. It is also the idea that every person’s pleasure would far surpass the amount of pain. Ethical hedonism is said to have been started by Aristippus of Cyrene, a student of Socrates. He held the idea that pleasure is the highest good. [2]
Meta means about the thing itself. It’s seeing the thing from a higher perspective instead of from within the thing, like being self-aware. 2. A term used in MMO meaning the Most Effective Tactic Available. It’s basically what works in a game plan regardless of what you wish would work.
Many people say that they don’t believe in reincarnation because ‘it isn’t in the Bible’. Therefore, it may come as a big surprise to learn that there is a great deal about reincarnation in the bible “For those with eyes to see and ears to hear;” I realized this after I had many experiences exploring ten of my past lives, and read the Bible with a new understanding.
Consider these quotes from the King James Bible. One obvious quote is:
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Galatians 6:7.
Some people believe that this means that bad people will go to Hell. Even before I knew about the details of my past lives, I thought that was very unfair. Why would someone who has done reasonably minor sins be in the same place as really evil people? And I was sure that God was totally fair. Karma makes sure that “What a man sows, that shall he also reap.”
This may be one reason why some people do not want to believe in reincarnation, apart from the fact that it’s difficult to accept a truth that is opposite to what you were taught. Especially when you have no detailed memory of your past lives. If bad things that you experience are because of bad things you did in previous lifetimes, then you have no one to blame but yourself. There is no such thing as ‘bad luck’. The only option then is to take responsibility for whatever bad things you experience and ask God for forgiveness for whatever you did in the past that is causing this.
I discovered from experience that this is in fact the way it works. Here’s one example from a woman I know. I will call her Marianne. Marianne was having all kinds of legal trouble, where she was being dragged into court for ‘crazy’ reasons. She knew about Karma, so she finally realized that she needed to find out what the true source of her trouble was. She did a session with me and discovered that she had done various bad things to the people who were prosecuting her. She took responsibility for those bad things. And after that, these type of problems stopped occurring.
If bad things are going on in your life, my experience with myself and my clients is that one of the best ways to improve things is to do whatever you need to do to identify what you did in a past life. At the very least, realize that YOU DID SOMETHING, and give yourself forgiveness for what you knowingly and unknowingly did. (Or you failed to do something, which also caused harm). This can be difficult to do. It’s much easier to remember a past life where people did horrible things to you than one in which you did horrible things to other people. The feeling of guilt can be disconcerting – however, you need to find the courage to do it. There are few things that will improve your life as much.
If you notice you or someone you know is being subjected to an intense spiritual attack. There is an important quote in the bible
“…the curse causeless shall not come.” Proverbs 26:2.
That means that if you are experiencing bad things, it’s not because of ‘bad luck’. There is a solid reason those things are transpiring. It might mean that bad spirits were able to attack you because of a ‘spiritual hole”, some kind of emotional or spiritual reason the dark energy was able to attack you.
The majority of people from their experience with deliverance, that that cause was from a family line curse. However, if you look closely at family issues—some issues seem to be shared and others are not shared.
Whether you believe that the cause of the spiritual attacks is a harmful act that was done in a past life ask for forgiveness of that specific sin. And after that, the spiritual attacks will stop.
For those people who don’t believe in past lives because they think ‘it’s not in the Bible’, there are many Bible references about reincarnation.
One important episode is:
”And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jesus answered, “Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” John 9: 1-3
If the man’s blindness was caused by a sin that he did, since he had been blind since birth, the only possible time that he could have sinned was in a past life. The apostles obviously understood this. And Jesus did not contradict them.
It appears here as though the concept of reincarnation is totally known and accepted by the apostles and Jesus. Now, if that were the case, then it makes sense that nowhere does it say in the Bible that “Reincarnation is true”. Whenever I was with other people who had re-experienced their past lives, we didn’t say every day “Past lives are real”. But that knowledge affected our conversation with each other.
Note that nowhere does it say in the Bible that past lives are NOT real. Except possibly one place that is used to refute past lives:
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”Hebrews 9:27.
The question is, what is a man? I submit that a man is a spirit PLUS a body. And, yes, that combination of my spirit plus this particular body will die only once. But this doesn’t say that my spirit dies or that it can’t reside in another body, and become another ‘man’ – another spirit/body combination. My experiences in my past lives showed me that while I still have the same basic personality in each life, I was a slightly different person in each life, depending on what kind of body I had combined with the emotional and spiritual growth I acquired from the previous lives.
Another question is, what is “the judgment”? Many people may jump to the conclusion that this is referring to the FINAL judgment. But it doesn’t say ‘final’. I believe that this is referring to another kind of judgment. This is the one that many people who have been clinically dead and then come back to life have reported. (The term for dying and then coming back to life is a “near-death experience”). Many near-death experiencers have reported that after their ‘death’ they were given a ‘life review” and mentored on their good and bad deeds. And then were instructed to return to their body, because they needed to complete the mission they started in a body.
Possibly the strongest references to reincarnation are the following:
And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John (the Baptist) ….
“For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist….
For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Mathew 11: 7-15
“And his disciples asked him, saying, “Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?”
And Jesus answered and said unto them, “Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.
But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed.”
Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. Mathew 17: 10-13
Jesus is clearly saying that the spirit that was Elias was reborn as John the Baptist. To continue this particular discussion, I will quote a piece from an excellent article I found on the internet (I changed only the quotes to match the King James Bible. Note that the names “Elijah” and “Elias” are the same name):
“As for the John the Baptist-Elijah episode, there can be little question as to its purpose. By identifying the Baptist as Elijah, Jesus is identifying himself as the Messiah. Throughout the gospel narrative, there are explicit references to the signs that will precede the Messiah.
“Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” (Malachi 4:5)
This is one of the many messianic promises of the Old Testament. One of the signs that the true Messiah has come, according to this passage from Malachi, is that he be preceded by a forerunner, Elijah.
Although the Bible also contains other reincarnation passages, these Elijah-John passages constitute clear proof of reincarnation:
1. The Old Testament prophesied that Elijah himself (not someone “like” him or someone “similar” to him, but Elijah himself) would return before the advent of the Messiah.
2. Jesus declared that John the Baptist was Elijah who had returned, stating bluntly “Elijah has come”.
Now, based on these passages alone, either (A) or (B) is true:
(A) John the Baptist was Elijah himself, meaning that Elijah had reincarnated. If this is true, then reincarnation belongs in Christian theology, and the West’s entire doctrinal interpretation of “Life After Death” in general, and the “Last Day Resurrection” in particular, needs to be be radically revised, or…
(B) John the Baptist was not Elijah himself, meaning that Elijah himself had not returned.
If this is so, then either:
(1) The Old Testament prophecy about Elijah returning before the Messiah failed to come to pass (meaning that Biblical prophecy is fallible), OR
(2) Jesus was not the Messiah.
Basically, it comes down to this simple question: What do you want to believe?“ We experience what we believe. If we don’t believe we experience what we believe, then we don’t, which still means the first statement is true.” ~Harry Palmer One of the following A, B, or C, is logically true:
A. Reincarnation is true.
B. Jesus was not the Messiah.
C. The prophecies of the Bible are unreliable.
As sure as two and two make four, one of the above is true. At least, the passage in which Jesus says in no uncertain terms that John was Elijah is “overt” and direct:
“But I say unto you, That Elias is indeed come.” (Mark 9:13)
The following verse is used to refute the John the Baptist/Elijah reincarnation connection. The Bible tells us that John the Baptist was possessed,
“… the spirit and power of Elias.” (Luke 1:17)
Those who refute this reincarnation connection say that John the Baptist merely came in the spirit and power of Elijah. However, this is a perfect description of reincarnation: spirit and power. This is reincarnation – the reincarnation of the spirit. The Bible itself states that John the Baptist possessed the spirit that had previously lived in, and as, the man Elijah – not his physical being and memory, but his spirit.
John carried Elijah’s living spirit, but not his physical memory. And since John did not possess Elijah’s physical memory, he did not possess the memories of being the man Elijah. Thus, John the Baptist denied being Elijah when asked:
And they asked him, “What then? Art thou Elias?” And he saith , “I am not”. “Art thou that prophet?”. And he answered, “No”. Then said they unto him, “Who art thou? That we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?”
He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him, “Why baptizest thou then, of thou be not Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?”
John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.” (John 1:21-27)
But Jesus knew better, and said so in the plainest words possible:
… Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John (the Baptist) ….“For this is he, of whom it is written…Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist….For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias…He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Mathew 11: 7-15
It comes down to this: Jesus said John was Elijah, and John said he wasn’t. (Editor’s note: Maybe like most of us John did not remember his past lives).
Which of the two is to be believed – Jesus or John?”
Source: http://worldvisionportal.org/WVP…
I highly recommend reading the entire article.
Many people wonder, if past lives are real, then why can’t we remember them? I would ask those people, how much of THIS lifetime do you remember? What did you do on May 6, 1996, 2000, 2010, 2012, and 2016? I have worked with people who could remember some of their past lives quite well. These people tend to be younger. If you listen to young children and are open to the concept of past lives, you may realize that some of what they are saying or some of their knowledge or abilities that seem to have come from ‘nowhere’ came from past lives.
I had a client who during the session discovered committing suicide in a previous life, and she also obviously did not stay in any particular spiritual place forever. Note: I am NOT recommending suicide EVER as that is problematic to the soul and all who know the person. I am writing this to comfort anyone who knows someone who committed suicide.
I am here only to be truly helpful. I hope in some respect this information will assist you in your journey.
Source:
- “Hedonism”. Stanford University.
- Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. 6. p. 567.