posted March 08, 2008 02:36 PM         

What a beautiful choice for your very first post

I'd like to say yes...
Really, I've no clue however.

Hmm?

I'll think on this a bit more...

It brings to mind a movie entitled: Fluke
That I watched sometime back in the early 80's ... Goes along the lines of a man reincarnating into a dog. He ends up with his previous family and works real hard to nurture and protect them. Note: He remembers his life as a man. He remembers his wife and son...

Also brings to mind a silly little episode of "Friends" where the guitar girl believes a cat she's found is actually her mothers spirit. She has a very difficult time believing otherwise and returning the cat to it's rightful owner who lost it.

posted March 08, 2008 03:29 PM         

Looking forward to hear more about of what you think about the subject*

posted March 08, 2008 04:42 PM         

Personally, I don't believe humans and animals are inter-changeable for souls. I believe that human souls have and will always be humans and animal souls have and always will be animals.

posted March 09, 2008 12:45 PM         

The only way to know, is to try to remember past lifes i believe*

posted March 09, 2008 05:29 PM         

Yesterday, I was thinking exactly the same thing. One of our cats acts as if he is a human being, and a royal one at that too

posted March 09, 2008 05:32 PM         

And if it is you, I am so happy!!! Yippee! I am so happy you have found this place!

I have your children's pictures!

The first time we ever met we spoke of Alien's eyes!!!

Is it YOU???

Nothing could be so perfect as finding you again!

LOVE YOU ~

My e-mail is nephthys@linda-goodman.com

posted March 10, 2008 06:45 AM         

I do 100% believe in reincarnation as a reality.
I have both experienced it and have recollection of it
A previous life within my same family no less (aprox.40 yrs.later)
You can read more on this in that link already in your hands

Next we must assume one believes that an animal has a spirit or soul
(I absolutely do...)
I would hope anyone frequenting this particular forum echoes this opinion.

Next we must agree that one spirit or soul is interchangeable with another physical form
This may take some adjustment with control issues for most...
ei: Is one spirit or soul more worthy than another or superior?

*If this is not the case why couldn't any body be it animal or human form be an option for rebirth?

*If this is the case then could one be punished or rewarded by such a interchange?
Karma and the like play in here..

Quick Note: Judaism also supports this idea:

according to Rabbi Jeffrey Wolfson Goldwasser

"Judaism does have a tradition of reincarnation, or gilgul neshamot. This belief is primarily associated with the mystical tradition of the Zohar and was further developed by Rabbi Isaac Luria, known as the Ari, in the sixteenth century. There is a reference to this belief in the prayer said before the bedtime reading of the Shema, in which we declare forgiveness for all who have wronged us "bein b'gilgul zeh bein b'gilgul acheir," that is, "whether in this incarnation or another incarnation."

According to Luria, the purpose of reincarnation is to give each neshamah ("soul") an opportunity to repair itself and to repair the world. In this process, a neshamah can ascend to higher and higher levels in its relationship with God. However, according to Luria, a neshamah can be reincarnated in a lower state if it behaves badly in a particular lifetime.

Luria believed that everything in the universe is invested with a spiritual aspect, including plants and animals. However, Luria states that the human neshamah is spiritually higher than all of these because only human beings can make choices in response to their relationship with God. Luria states that it is possible for a particularly evil person's neshamah to be reincarnated as an animal as a form of punishment."

Also Ancient Greeks and Indians support this theory of animal and human interchanging...
Do a quick google search to find thousands of supporting references here, LOL!

I am reminded here of a quote posted by a friend here.

"Our sense of reality is defined by the doors of our perception, and what we focus on becomes our experience"

And a famous, much older one:

"Thought becomes matter"

If for example, a animal is in this thought pattern (has a desire to be human) who's to say that as spirit, this is not an option?

Some Famous Quotes Of Interest Here:

Jalalu Rumi (Islamic Poet of the 13th century)

"I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as a plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?"

Arthur Schopenhauer (Philosopher)

"Were an Asiatic to ask me for a definition of Europe, I should be forced to answer him: It is that part of the world which is haunted by the incredible delusion that man was created out of nothing, and that his present birth is his first entrance into life."

General George S. Patton

"So as through a glass and darkly, the age long strife I see, Where I fought in many guises, many names, many forms, but always me."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The soul comes from without into the human body, as into a temporary abode, and it goes out of it anew it passes into other habitations, for the soul is immortal." "It is the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but only retire a little from sight and afterwards return again. Nothing is dead; men feign themselves dead, and endure mock funerals� and there they stand looking out of the window, sound and well, in some strange new disguise."

Leo Tolstoy

"As we live through thousands of dreams in our present life, so is
our present life only one of many thousands of such lives which we
enter from the other more real life and then return after death. Our life is but one of the dreams of that more real life, and so it is endlessly, until the very last one, the very real the life of God."

Jack London (author, best known for book Call of the Wild)

"I did not begin when I was born, nor when I was conceived. I have been growing, developing, through incalculable myriads of
millenniums. All my previous selves have their voices, echoes,
promptings in me. Oh, incalculable times again shall I be born."

Benjamin Franklin

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

Other sources on this subject you may find of interest:

Egyptians believed in reincarnation or the transmigration of the soul.
Excerpt:
"Gradually the concept of a soul developed with a further realization that the soul departed the body at death and entered the body at birth. Soon it was thought the soul leaving a dead body would seek another body to enter, or enter an animal of a lower life form. It was also thought the soul left the body during sleep. This soul was pictured as vapors that entered and left through the nostrils and mouth."
__________________________
This Lady claims to deal with Animals and thier previous incarnation issues
go about 2/3 rd of the way down this page. She is well known and well respected Internationally as an Animal Communicator and psychologist.
__________________________
A very Interesting Read Here

__________________________
REINCARNATION AND ANIMALS
THEOSOPHY, Vol. 59, No. 3, January, 1971
__________________________

I hope this helps those that are on the fence a bit with this?

And a final note: How is it that we are so very connected with other living things (such as animals) to the point of communicating with, nurturing, nourishing, receiving from and giving love to if they are not also connected in spirit. If each spirit is connected... How can one or another distinguish separateness.

My thoughts: (only by the physical forms in which we choose)

posted March 11, 2008 03:47 PM         

fieryscales thanks for your welcome*
Your cat seems to be a very charming soul* It's true, cats have their own personality*