Griffin:
This reminds me of something I thought of lately. I never succeded to find an occasion where Daniel explicitly said whether he believes in rebirth, but he gave some hints in the direction that he does. I don't know about Kenneth. Although we rely on those people as experts in the field of meditation (which they are), maybe they really aren't sure about some methaphysical topics, such as whether rebirth is real...
I can "swallow" the notion of parapsychological abilities ("powers") and even "beings" from other realms. But the idea of rebirth is something that I remain highly suspicious of. Especially if we talk about traditional view that you can be reborn as an insect etc. For me, that just makes no sense whatsoever. Rebirth doesn't fit into my view of reality. That may mean that my view is too limited, but I don't see how rebirth/karma can bee found in any segment of our lives, when everything can already be causally explained by genes and circumstances.
There is one interesting alternative explanation for instances of "seeing past lives": there is a collective conciousness we can tap into and experience memories of people from the past. Culadasa has this view, and he backs it up by saying that he experienced visions of different "past lives" that were happening simultaneously (both "reincarnations" were living at the same moment).
PS Pardon my spelling errors, english is not my native language
I'm replying more to the thread as a whole than specifically to this, but my reply addresses views of rebirth.
I don't know whether or not rebirth after death is real, but I do know that in Buddhism (some traditions anyway) rebirth is not something that happens to a soul. There is noone separate and continuous to experience it. Only patterns are reborn. It's like waves and ripples that go on even thought the water molecules differ. We leave waves and ripples all the time, so rebirth of our patterns is already ongoing. I don't see why there should necessarily be much different with the patterns that are into play at the moment of death. Awareness is something that tends to happen, not a thing, and it seems to manifest as streams, like separate channels on the radio where programs change. Maybe that channel stays somewhat intact (even radio channels have some overlap and the frequency may differ geographically, so it's no entirely distinct anyway). I don't see why some patterns couldn't follow to a different program just like they may effect programs in other mindstreams/channels (as it's all dialogical/interdependent). Regardless of whether or not the same mindstream continues (which should not be confused with a soul), everything we do has ripple effects on the world. I care about those. I don't want others to suffer because of my issues.
