Heaven

Well I was taking a materialist approach to reincarnation. I'm agnostic to the concept of reincarnation in the traditional sense. I do believe that our "souls" live on in this world through the people and things that we have touched eventually all things return to "the source" however.

I don't know if that clarifies anything.

Pardon me for being persistent, but...

We have agreed that the material elements of our being will be recycled - here on Earth. We also agree that something returns to the "source".

If we accept both of those premises, we must also agree that there is something non-material in our composition.

I contend that our "soul-consciousness" doesn't actually return to the source (which I call Universal Intelligence or Cosmic Consciousness) but is in constant communication with the source, even if we are not aware of the connection.

In this theory, the material body is merely a vessel for the soul-consciousness for the brief time we spend on this plane. Since the brain is also material, it is not fully aware of the "real" person dwelling inside the body. The brain controls the body, but not the spirit.

One of the problems that arises from the belief that the soul is eternal and is all that survives death, is the issue of moving our thoughts from the brain to the soul. Otherwise, our thoughts would cease when the body and brain die. But, if the soul is in constant contact with the source, the transfer of thoughts would be on-going. Then there would be no need for a heaven, since the channels of communication have always been open and the source does not need the soul to "report back" at the time of material death.

Meanwhile, we all seem to have a desire to get our brain to recognize our real self - our soul. Meditation and contemplation are methods of "soul-searching", aren't they?

The brain could well operate as a kind of bio-neural transceiver which constantly transmits itself into this "source" for all we know. It's more or less the kind of thing I always vaguely believed in though I was never sure what form of religious belief it was meant to be. The interesting upshot of this is you're never really "inside" your body it just seems that way.

Paul Anthony wrote:

Pardon me for being persistent, but...

We have agreed that the material elements of our being will be recycled - here on Earth. We also agree that something returns to the "source".

If we accept both of those premises, we must also agree that there is something non-material in our composition.

I contend that our "soul-consciousness" doesn't actually return to the source (which I call Universal Intelligence or Cosmic Consciousness) but is in constant communication with the source, even if we are not aware of the connection.

Yes, I've looked into the "the brain as transceiver" / remote mind model. It has its merits and I wouldn't rule it out but at this point I prefer the panexperiential model.

Paul Anthony wrote:

Meanwhile, we all seem to have a desire to get our brain to recognize
our real self - our soul. Meditation and contemplation are methods of
"soul-searching", aren't they?

Yes I agree but the term "soul" is one of those nebulous terms that seems to have many different meanings.