Coming Back From the Dead

Coming Back From the Dead

Following is an excerpt from My Life Journal, a work in progress:

Reincarnation is not supported by Christianity, but some world religions do believe we are reincarnated after death. Albert Einstein, Ben Franklin, and Mark Twain believed so. I wonder what they wanted to come back as. Each excelled in some way. Did they want to excel in a different way?

Do you think you will come back again?

Whatever your beliefs may be, speculating on what form people would be assigned if they come back is fun.

I know people who would make a perfect mad dog. Winston Churchill would have had to reincarnate as a bull dog as he so resembled one, a nice doggy if rather ugly. Or perhaps he was a bull dog who came back as a person.

Some would be a sweet, purring kitten. Or maybe an irritating cat who is all over you and won’t leave you alone.

How about the person who definitely will return as a snorting, pawing bull? And perhaps be more pleasant in that guise.

We’ve all been confined in a car or elevator with the person who will definitely make his next appearance in black with a white stripe down his back.

A gossipy, garrulous person would be a macaw or maybe a parrot, repeating all that they hear. That person who nods at everything you say, perhaps a woodpecker, a downy or a redheaded, or if that red hair is spiked, a pileated woodpecker.

And that slimy person? What else? A snake. We even call those types snakes (behind their backs, of course).

Using that criteria, the sly person would be a fox and the romantically forward person a wolf. And one who snaps at you could be either a fox or a wolf. Or a snapping turtle.

And the chauvinist, will he become a pig? Nah, he should come back as a female in a land that holds females as breeding stock and slaves without rights -- and live a long life. That would be real justice.

That prissy person with lips forever pursed in disapproval? A fish, of course! Maybe a bottom feeder.

Go ahead, start speculating. I know you want to.

After deciding what others will be, look at yourself. What form would you like to come back as if you were reincarnated? What would be your choice? Similarly, what form do you think you have earned while in this life?

In my next life, I’d like to be a rich and famous author who can afford a housekeeper, butler, and gardener.

If I must come back as an animal, I’d like to be something beautiful and free. But considering the story of my birth, I’ll probably come back as a monkey. Please though, may I be spared the indignity of a red behind?

And what were you in a former life?

I have said many times that I was Woman Chief in a former life. She was a Gros Ventre girl who was captured and adopted into the Crow tribe. She adjusted and became not only a full-fledged member of the Crow tribe but a warrior chief. In a twist of irony, she was killed by a group of warriors from her Gros Ventre people. And unfortunately, not honorably in battle, but in a wicked betrayal and murder.

When I first heard about her, I just knew her story. Why do I feel such an affinity for that woman and know her story, although only one or two paragraphs have ever been recorded about her?

I’ve had other experiences of deja vu, where from experience, I could not possibly know what I know. There is a theory of a knowledge pool left by our ancestors (in the sense that all people before us are ancestors). This knowledge pool surfs the air currents, and like radio receivers, we subconsciously pick up the signals when the conditions are right.

Perhaps you are aware of the old soul/new soul theory, as well. This one claims that if you don’t get it right the first time around, you will be sent back into the world again and again until you finally do get it right. If you have been reborn several times, you have an old soul and may subconsciously recall things, making you “smarter” than a newer soul, and explaining intuition and deja vu.

These beliefs, of course, are not supported by the Christian religion either, but one can speculate. Why do I get migraines? Was I killed violently with a blow to the head in a former life? Why have I had this inexplicable pain in my arm since I was a child? Did I suffer a compound fracture in another life? Why do I have this irrational fear of fire? Was I trapped in a burning building in an earlier life?

How did I know a particular fact as if pulling it from a hat? Could it be that I have lived many lives? Have I messed it up many times and been sent back time and again to get it right? Being a bumbler, it actually seems possible.

I may not believe these ideas, but I think it only fair to warn you, treat me nice or I’ll come back as your colonoscopy doctor and it won’t be pretty.