|
|
Post by dolly on Apr 25, 2008 12:07:39 GMT -5
something AB said in esquire's thread brought to mind something i've pondered quite a bit in the past year or so. I think to some extent many devs, for whatever reason, identify on a very deep and strong level with your struggle against the world. How we came to be in such a place, at such an early age is completely unknown to me. I do know that there is some sense of identification and an understanding that transcends personal experience. How that 'understanding' got there in the first place, is the ultimate question. has anyone else ever considered or wondered if there may be a "past life" connection to our dev feelings? i don't even know where i stand on the whole "past life" thing with any certainty, but i do know that when i have been with wheelers (male or female) there is a feeling of familiarity that i just can't seem to put my finger on. and, as AB said so perfectly... "an understanding that transcends personal experience". just tossing it out there to see if i'm the only one who has wondered about this? |
|
|
|
Post by Claire on Apr 25, 2008 12:50:10 GMT -5
I was also struck by that comment of AB's.
Do you mean that this understanding stems from you having been disabled in a past life? I have heard this hypothesis many, many times. I don't personally buy it, since I don't believe in reincarnation, period. It could make sense, but I tend to think of it as something neurological and not spiritual.
|
|
|
|
Post by dolly on Apr 25, 2008 20:38:17 GMT -5
Do you mean that this understanding stems from you having been disabled in a past life? yes, either disabled or closely involved with disability in some way. i sometimes feel that someone very close to me may have been or i was very involved professionally in some way. i'd guess more the former than the latter. that is, if past lives do exist. i always loved the quote from eleanor roosevelt when asked about reincarnation. she said "it would be no more bizarre for me to show up in another lifetime, than it is bizarre for me to show up in this one!" what got me thinking about this originally was that whenever i spend time with a particular guy i know (quad) i always have this strong feeling of deja vu wash over me. it would explain that "understanding" and familiarity i feel with other wheelers too. i'm generally very spiritually curious, so i thought it might be interesting to ask. however on the practical side, it wasn't all that long ago that folks with SCIs didn't live for very long. so who knows. and it could be the deja vu relates to him as a person rather than his disability... lol AB's comment just stirred up my thinking about all this stuff again. |
|
|
|
Post by natasha on Apr 25, 2008 21:36:29 GMT -5
I personally totally believe in reincarnation and read a few books about it...
Believe in it even since I was actually very young.... And yea, I actually wonder about this before!....Is not such a crazy thought to have in my opinion..To the ones that believe in reincarnation and understand the whole concept is a very strong possibility....
|
|
|
|
Post by Ciao Bella on May 1, 2008 23:36:31 GMT -5
that's a really interesting thought Claire. I say interesting because, we all know that a supposed explanation for devs is that they've been exposed at a very young age to people with disabilities and were somehow "rewired" to keep seeking that environment. And although I have, at one point, believed in reincarnation and past lives (I actually have been regressed a couple of times, and used to go to a psychic reader but this is another story altogether LOL), I have never thought of past lives being a possible explanation for dev tendencies/feelings/etc.
BTW: I didn't see myself nor the people around me as disabled in any of the past lives I've "seen"
|
|
|
|
Post by Claire on May 2, 2008 8:43:44 GMT -5
Not my thought...Dolly's thought.  You've just given me a very interesting insight into why so many people with BIID are devotees. It's off-topic, but I just made a connection I hadn't made before. Thanks for that. |
|
|
|
Post by Ciao Bella on May 2, 2008 16:46:02 GMT -5
It's good to have helped one way or the other Claire |
|
|
|
Post by ruthmadison on Jan 7, 2011 19:48:26 GMT -5
something AB said in esquire's thread brought to mind something i've pondered quite a bit in the past year or so. I think to some extent many devs, for whatever reason, identify on a very deep and strong level with your struggle against the world. How we came to be in such a place, at such an early age is completely unknown to me. I do know that there is some sense of identification and an understanding that transcends personal experience. How that 'understanding' got there in the first place, is the ultimate question. has anyone else ever considered or wondered if there may be a "past life" connection to our dev feelings? i don't even know where i stand on the whole "past life" thing with any certainty, but i do know that when i have been with wheelers (male or female) there is a feeling of familiarity that i just can't seem to put my finger on. and, as AB said so perfectly... "an understanding that transcends personal experience". just tossing it out there to see if i'm the only one who has wondered about this? Sorry to bring up old threads, I'm reading back through everything! I was raised Hindu and have always believed in reincarnation (plus, with my dad as a scientist to me reincarnation fits the evidence better than any other theory). It seems an extremely likely explanation for devoteeism to me, though having an explanation doesn't change the present. I don't know if in a past life I was disabled or I was married to someone disabled, but I think one of those things must have happened. But here I am now, being as I am and dealing with it as it is now. I had absolutely no connection to disability as a child and I had dev tendencies as a toddler. My mom and I talk about this sometimes and she also believes it stems from a past life. Of course, she thinks it is part of my karma that I am supposed to be moving past or getting rid of. |
|
|
|
Post by BA on Jan 7, 2011 21:08:43 GMT -5
I was raised Hindu and have always believed in reincarnation (plus, with my dad as a scientist to me reincarnation fits the evidence better than any other theory). It seems an extremely likely explanation for devoteeism to me, though having an explanation doesn't change the present. I don't know if in a past life I was disabled or I was married to someone disabled, but I think one of those things must have happened. But here I am now, being as I am and dealing with it as it is now. I had absolutely no connection to disability as a child and I had dev tendencies as a toddler. My mom and I talk about this sometimes and she also believes it stems from a past life. Of course, she thinks it is part of my karma that I am supposed to be moving past or getting rid of. I find that fascinating. From the book and the depiction of the Jewish guilt, I would have thought you were at least half-Jewish (as I was/am). I also am well aware of the phenomenon of "Hindu guilt" as I have a very close co-worker who is Hindu and has two as yet unmarried daughters ;D The entire karma concept intrigues me though. |
|
|
|
Post by ruthmadison on Jan 7, 2011 21:20:00 GMT -5
I was raised Hindu and have always believed in reincarnation (plus, with my dad as a scientist to me reincarnation fits the evidence better than any other theory). It seems an extremely likely explanation for devoteeism to me, though having an explanation doesn't change the present. I don't know if in a past life I was disabled or I was married to someone disabled, but I think one of those things must have happened. But here I am now, being as I am and dealing with it as it is now. I had absolutely no connection to disability as a child and I had dev tendencies as a toddler. My mom and I talk about this sometimes and she also believes it stems from a past life. Of course, she thinks it is part of my karma that I am supposed to be moving past or getting rid of. I find that fascinating. From the book and the depiction of the Jewish guilt, I would have thought you were at least half-Jewish (as I was/am). I also am well aware of the phenomenon of "Hindu guilt" as I have a very close co-worker who is Hindu and has two as yet unmarried daughters ;D The entire karma concept intrigues me though. I have a complicated religious history! My mother was raised Catholic, so she has that part of it that sort-of got passed to me. I also grew up in an area with a high Jewish population and all my friends growing up were Jewish. As I'm sure you noticed, I made Elizabeth half Catholic and half Jewish! I didn't want to complicate the story with another layer of my own strange life. Truth is stranger than fiction, and being a non-Indian Hindu is another experience that I can claim as my own! The thing about karma is that it is the direct consequences of actions. For every action that you perform, there is a natural consequence and it will happen, there is no avoiding it. According to Hinduism, there is perfect and complete justice in the world. However, and this is a big however, it is never about punishment. The consequences, the karma, are always learning experiences. Everything that we experience in life is there for us to grow and learn and be happier. Not everyone understands that concept. Where I grew up it was popular to believe that gay people were born that way because of some error in a past life and that in order to correct it, they should live a celibate life and wouldn't be gay in the next one. I used to think that too (since as a kid you pick up what's around you). Back when I thought that I could control my devoteeism and live a celibate life myself. I discovered that was a horrible sentence to pronounce on someone. I could never expect anyone to do that. If someone chooses to, it is his or her choice, but it should never be expected! I do not believe that I should not express my devoteeism in order to make it go away for the next lifetime. I believe that following what brings me peace and joy is the right action, and expressing my sexuality does that. (Of course, I have my dark moments too, as many people have expressed). |
|
