I get it, SCECOP throws out a thought and watches Indigo and Prof “Fight it out” in the best sense the phrase can have when referring to a dialogue between irreconcilable positions (barring extraordinary new evidence)
SCECOP: First, if there have been say, sixty billion human bodies born that carried souls, and ten % are here now, then if reincarnation is at all frequent, we must be running short of souls. However, as the magafauna become extinct, tigers, buffalo, and the dodos have been filling the gaps, thus accounting for serial killers, american idol fans, and people who watch Maury Povich.
Second, I once, in a largely scientific but also highly personal mood, tried to arrange a seance to find the body of a murdered friend. The plan ganged agley, resulting in my becoming a Xian and getting married without getting even a glimmer of an answer (Except that “God” told me that if I had gone to Waco to see a prophet He had sent there, I would have found out (!?) )
I dislike “believing” in things. Its a slippery path, once I start I end up believing in everything.
The following is primarily addressed to Indigo's information, also to SCECOP, who asked. Prof, I am risking losing your respect here
. Please remember, this is my Shakespeare mode talking about the Beta hypotheses.
Still, I seem to be starting down that path now, as I have found four mathematical statements that, taken together and inflated with lots of animal spirits, seem to describe a 3 part set that would automatically generate everything else that is or could be, and could be equated with the Xian and or Hindu Trinities (See my math mysticism article in “Esoteric”. Epistemology is my worst vice.).
Leaving aside the question of the reality of pure math, a strong implication of this theory is that information is “real”. It is perhaps even the part of the noumenon we experience directly, as Platon thought. (I am aware of the dubious quality of information. I like Heinlein's view of “information” as consisting of “Fictons”. Personally I am make a further distinction between fictons and “dictons” (“from spoken”) meaning “communicated statements.” A ficton unspoken makes no sound. That's why I am blogging.
A secondary implication is that fictons are the content of awareness, and awareness is “real” and fundamental. This corresponds to the way I have experienced the universe. I suspect that awareness is implicit in everything, from photons to beyond galaxies, although I suspect any photon is “smarter” “more aware” than the universe itself.
This implies also, although much less strongly, that Awareness is, in some sense “more than mortal.”
With that said, I have justified to myself talking about how many angels can dance on a pinhead, or how many people can queue to reincarnate as Pamela Anderson or the Prince of Wales. My next big leap of faith would be to assume there is something worth examining in anecdotal evidence.
My model of the “soul”, the barakami, is outlined in the “If there is a soul...” topic. In my model, the barakami is, in miniature, a set of the body (ba), the memory (ra) and the unknown noumenon (ka) collectively making a kami. In your model, Indigo, the ra and ka seem to be, collectively, what you mean by soul.
Up to this point Twain has scrutinized everything Shakespeare has said. Beyond this point, its “Here be Dragons” These are the kinds of thoughts I have when I fall asleep. I must think and edit before Twain will let Shakespeare speak anymore. Peace, Love, and Wit.