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Famous People who believe in Reincarnation

Shiftkitty said:
Is this the only evidence that Ben believed in reincarnation? It sounds to me like he's subscribing more to the belief of being reborn again in heaven.
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There are not only more quotes, but when one reads more about Ben Franklin and his society, his essential philosophy becomes apparent.

"I look upon death to be as necessary to the constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning."
"Finding myself to exist in the world, I believe I shall, in some shape or other always exist."


"When I see nothing annihilated and not a drop of water wasted, I cannot suspect the annihilation of souls...I believe I shall, in some shape or other, always exist. I shall not object to a new edition of mine, hoping, however, that the errata of the last may be corrected."
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in the letter that he wrote to Miss Hubbard on the occasion of the death of his brother

Philadelphia, 23rd February, 1756.
I condole with you. We have lost a most dear and valuable relation. But it is the will of God and nature that these mortals bodies be laid aside when the soul is to enter into real life. This is rather an embryo state, a preparation for living . A man is not completely born until he be dead. Why, then, should we grieve that a new child is born among the immortals, a new member added to their happy society?


We are spirits. That bodies should he lent us while they can afford us pleasure, assist us in acquiring knowledge, or in doing good to our fellow-creatures, is a kind and benevolent act of God. When they become unfit for these purposes and afford us pain instead of pleasure, instead of an aid become an encumbrance, and answer none of the intentions for which they were given, it is equally kind and benevolent that a way is pro- vided by which we may get rid of them. Death is that way. We ourselves, in some cases, prudently choose a partial death. A mangled, painful limb which cannot be restored we willingly cut off. He who plucks out a tooth parts with it freely, since the pain goes with it; and he who quits the whole body parts at once with all pains and possibilities of pains and diseases which it was liable to or capable of making him suffer.


Our friend and we were invited abroad on a party of pleasure which is to last forever. His chair was ready first and he is gone before us. We could not all conveniently start together, and why should you and I be grieved at this, since we are soon to follow and know where to find him? Adieu,


B. FRANKLIN
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Taken out of historical context, some have argued that Franklin's writings reflect a belief in resurrection. However, historians of the period have no doubt that what he was talking about really reflect his belief that we, as enlightened beings, come back repeatedly.
 
Interesting quotes, though in some I see the recognition that energy is never lost, only reconfigured. (I think that starts to dip into quantum physics...) It wouldn't surprise me that he did believe in reincarnation, or at least didn't rule it out. I read that he joined every religion existing in Philadelphia just to keep his spiritual bases covered. Thanks for the quotes! I'll have to read more on the ol' boy!
 
Nietzsche


Reading a passage from one of Nietzsche's books is like entering an endless, unnavigable maze of chaos and confusion with no hope of ever getting out.


No wonder that God hater went insane.


Nietzsche reviled Plato as a 'Christian before Christ'.


Nietzsche could not possibly have imagined how accurate that statement is.
 
Plato


Yes Plato believed in reincarnation.


There's a progression of philosophical thought between Plato, Plotinus, and Saint Augustine.


In fact we can call Auggie the 'Christian Plato'.


I think Augustine tried to get the Church to accept some of the ideas from Plato's philosophy but he was apparently not successful. They took a wrong turning when they threw out the idea of reincarnation.


I have a book where Augustine tries to explain the idea of the Holy Trinity. Reading this book promises to be a mind bending experience.


I'm reading Augustine's Confessions now.
 
One famous comedian(there is a documentary coming out about him this year) stated in one of his that life is just a ride, and we take that ride again and again.


Here is the piece he said:




One of his most famous sketches when he talks about a "positive LSD Story" and I find it interesting that his sketch describes a very common thought about what the soul is(you can hear the sketch in the trailer below).




It must be noted that he tried various psychadelics and appears to be a very spiritual person despite his stance against religion. He seemed to hate organized religion and religious institutions yet wanted a person to be spiritual in their own right.


To be honest his "just a ride" speech shook me up and got me really interested in reincarnation. Before I always had a passing interest, but when I heard his words I felt as if he was telling a fundamental truth that was so simple yet so frightening at the same time.
 
Bill Hicks was a comedian whose time had come, but for too short a time. He died in 1994 of pancreatic cancer. I'm glad they're making a movie about his life and his messages.
 
The phrase "God hater" made me think of an old story my father used to tell us of a man who spent every day of his life denying God. That there was no God was always in the forefront of his mind. When he died, he found himself standing before the Great White Throne as God himself ushered him into Heaven.


"I don't understand!" the man cried. "I spent my whole life denying you! Why do I get into Heaven?"


"Because," God said, "I was always in your thoughts."


Just a little bit OT, but I thought I'd share.
 
Well his experience wasn't quite like former atheist Howard Storm's.


Howard had an NDE (near death experience) and he believes he went into hell for awhile.


Howard recounts his harrowing experience in this book:


My Descent Into Death and the Message of Love Which Brought Me Back by Howard Storm (2001)


I would say the true explanation for the behavior of people like Jeffrey Dahmer will not be found in psychology. It will be found in the spirit world as Howard found out.
 
I think psychology has a long history of struggling between 'religion' and 'science' searching for a happy medium between the two.

Wikipedia: The word psychology literally means, "study of the soul" (????, psukh?, meaning "breath", "spirit", or "soul"; and -????? -logia, translated as "study of" or "research").
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To write a history of psychology is to write a history of the soul, which is no less than the story of humankind from the beginning. We usually say that scientific psychology starts with Aristotle (who first approached the problem of dreams 'psychologically'), but pre-and nonscientific psychology have been, and still are, 'soul science' and the source of all psychology. Otto Rank "Introduction: Psychology and the Soul"
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Ok, this does not mean she believes in reincarnation, but Kate Beckinsale was being interviewed on The Late Show with David Letterman to promote her new movie 'Underworld: Awakening' and she and Letterman had an interesting exchange. Kate was telling Letterman a story about an experience that scared her and the following was said...


Kate - "I was having 'Vietnam' flashbacks about it for weeks afterwards."


Letterman - "Were you in Vietnam?"


Kate - "I feel like I was."


The conversation moved on from there. I thought it was interesting. Of course, it was a harmless exchange and doesn't mean anything. They were not discussing reincarnation, and it was said in a half-joking manner. But how often do people say things in a half-joking manner but deep down they really mean it.


In addition, the United States' military actions in Vietnam lasted until 1973. Kate Beckinsale was born into her current life in 1973. Could Kate Beckinsale be the reincarnation of a Vietnam casualty? You never know. ;)
 
Gary Busey is shown on Celebrity Wife Swap Episode 2, he and his wife speak openly about their many lives together. They swap with Ted Haggard and his wife.


I found it to be a very interesting episode, to say the least ...
 
Reposting this from another similar topic I replied to:


On the subject of John Lennon - I found this interesting interview with Yoko Ono in which she recounts the moment John told her that he had been her great-grandfather in a prior lifetime. I think this ties in with the subject, although apparently Yoko's great-grandfather, while not well-known outside of Japan, had been a prominent figure in the history of Japan:

The family’s money had been made several generations earlier by her great-grandfather Zenjiro Yasuda: this would intrigue Lennon when they returned to Japan in the 1970s. During one of their visits, he picked up a Japanese news magazine that contained a feature on prominent Japanese figures who had shaped the country into a modern industrial and economic powerhouse.
“It was about all these people who influenced and affected Japan in history,” Yoko remembers. Lennon knew nothing of Yasuda, but as Yoko told him more, he paused to reflect.


Yasuda had refused the offer of a baronetcy from the then emperor; generations separated the two men, but only a few years before his visit to Japan, Lennon had handed back his MBE in protest against the British role in the Biafran war and support of America in Vietnam. Yoko says that he looked at a portrait of Yasuda and said: “That guy is me in my past life.”


“He just said that out of the blue,” Yoko recalls. “And I said, ‘Don’t wish for that. Because he was assassinated.’ ” She found out years later that her great-grandfather shared a birthday with her late husband.
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Link: http://imaginepeace.com/archives/10408
 
Mama2HRB said:
Gary Busey is shown on Celebrity Wife Swap Episode 2, he and his wife speak openly about their many lives together. They swap with Ted Haggard and his wife.
I found it to be a very interesting episode, to say the least ...
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Telling me about that episode to me in the car one day, my friend had a spontaneous recall of his past life. He didn't recognize it as such, but I knew what he was talking about and how it related to our previous lives together.


I was so flabbergasted to hear it, I nearly drove off the road OMG


I think your mind picks up on things even if you're not aware of it.
 
It seems like confirmations can come out of the blue when you least expect it. Be careful driving .. you never know when a past life could pop out in front of you ;)
 
Totoro said:
Telling me about that episode to me in the car one day, my friend had a spontaneous recall of his past life. He didn't recognize it as such, but I knew what he was talking about and how it related to our previous lives together. I was so flabbergasted to hear it, I nearly drove off the road OMG. I think your mind picks up on things even if you're not aware of it.
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I find it interesting how many people, especially children, have past life recall while riding in a car. Carol talks about this in her first book.
 
I think it would be interesting too if there were a thread about famous people who did NOT believe in reincarnation. For example, Tom Hanks - of Cloud Atlas fame - said recently that reincarnation was "a bunch of baloney and malarkey".


Another well-known t.v. presenter is also a non-believer of reincarnation, and he has been 'proven' wrong.


There was also a t.v. series a number of years ago investigating unsolved crimes here - one covered the murder of man with a highly scientific mind. During that soul's dealings with the psychic, the psychic has a laugh on camera about his reaction to dealing with a psychic from the spirit world. When the cameraman asks her what she is laughing about, she relays back that the spirit has told her he would never have consulted with her while he was living because he "never believed in this stuff". Her response, to the spirit, is "yes, but you're here talking to me now". The murdered man wasn't a famous person as such, but it was an interesting perspective from someone in the afterlife. There may be a you-tube video of this somewhere.
 
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firebird said:
I think it would be interesting too if there were a thread about famous people who did NOT believe in reincarnation. For example, Tom Hanks - of Cloud Atlas fame - said recently that reincarnation was "a bunch of baloney and malarkey".
Another well-known t.v. presenter is also a non-believer of reincarnation, and he has been 'proven' wrong.


There was also a t.v. series a number of years ago investigating unsolved crimes here - one covered the murder of man with a highly scientific mind. During that soul's dealings with the psychic, the psychic has a laugh on camera about his reaction to dealing with a psychic from the spirit world. When the cameraman asks her what she is laughing about, she relays back that he would never have considered consulting with her while he was living because he "never believed in this stuff". She had responded back "yes, but you're here talking to me now". The murdered man wasn't a famous person as such, but it was an interesting perspective from someone in the afterlife. There may be a you-tube video of this somewhere.
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Deborah said:
Henry Ford who built the first motor car in 1896 when he was 33 years old. In an interview, when he was 26 years old by the Hearst newspapers -- April of 1938 -- he was quoted to say:


------------------
Love,
Deborah

Lifes experiences weave a tapestry of knowledge
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Please add to this list! These are 62 of well known believers in reincarnation, improving and influencing other people’s level of responsibility and liberation, hence making the world a better place: Albert Schweitzer, Alexander the Great, Alicia Keyes, Allan Watts, Aristotle, Axl Rose, Barack Obama, Benjamin Franklin, Carl Jung, Carl Sagan, Cesar, Churchill, Dalai Lama, Dante, Eckhart Tolle, Edison, Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gandhi, General George Patton, Glenn Ford, Goethe, Gustav Mahler, Henry Ford, Jack London, John Lennon, John The Baptist, John Travolta, Julius Cesar, Lady Gaga, Louise Hay, Madonna, Mark Twain, Miguel Ruiz, Napoleon, Nietzsche, Oprah, Patrick Swayze, Paulo Coelho, Phil Collins, Plato, Princess Diana, Reba McEntire, Richard Gere, Richard Wagner, Salvador Dali, Schlegel, Schopenhauer, Schrodinger, Shakespeare, Shirley MacLaine, Socrates, Stevie Nicks, Thomas Edison, Tina Turner, Travolta, Tolle, Tolstoy, Voltaire, William Blake, Wayne Dyer, Willie Nelson...
 
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