What I want to know is if you are reincarnated, are you still you? Or do you have an entirely new identity? I'm confused on this because I have heard from some people, that you are reincarnated to live this life over, and over until you eventually do what your meant to do, and get it right. I've heard from others who say that when your reincarnated, you live a different life than the one you previously lived. I've also heard from a few, that you change from being human to being an animal with each life. So which is it? And why can't we remember living our previous life? How can we get this one right when we can't remember what went wrong in the last one? How do you know if you are reincarnated since it's lost to our knowledge in this lifetime? Told you I was confused....

I HATE REINCARNATION!!!!
Okay got that out of my system. Here goes to your questions.
1. Your soul is still you but your current personality has now joined the rest of your soul and in your new body you will have a new personality.
2. According to the Buddhist you can sink to the animal level.
3. You may have odd memories or old skills from your previous lives but you won't know where they came from.
4. Your soul remembers what has happened and in your subconscious you will know as well. That way you have the opportunity to learn from your past mistakes.
5. Some people claim they can hyptonize you and regress you to your past lives so that you might know about them.

That said I hate reincarnation. To me it represents the ultimate loss of self. You as you exist will no longer matter. Your personality is gone or dominated by the soul. Maybe I'm just selfish but I would prefer to stay me. Screw someone else I could care less if someone down the road learns from my mistakes and acheives Nirvana I want it for myself or not at all.

These are just my personal opinions...

I believe that each time we are reincarnated we lose our outside identity. Our bodies. But we keep our souls. It is our souls that are reincarnated.

I do not believe that humans can be reincarnated as snakes or rats or anything like that.

I agree with Velikovsky...The idea of 'reincarnation' is disappointing and seems such a let down. Personally, I think it 's just a trendy spiritual belief for all those sixties rich kids to snot with convention...Or, maybe for those who just can't grasp the possibility of an 'afterlife'.
Vimjams

Hmm. Im not sure about with all beliefs in reincarnation..but with the Hindu belief of reincarnation..there IS an afterlife.

Sorry, you shouldnt be so condescending of others beliefs. Chances are you know very little about them. Not to sound rude, forgive me if I do.

If you are refering to my comments NirmalaMaya...then I'm sorry if I am appearing rude (I seem to get that a lot from over sensitive souls). I don't believe that because somebody expresses a negative view about spirituality and/or religion they automatically become "condescending" ....That kind of talk used to send people to the stake for being 'witches' and heretics...Today, if you express a negative view about homosexuality...You are 'Homophobic'...If I express a negative view about being part of an (intergrated) Europe I am a 'zenophobe'...Am I allowed to be a expressive nonbeliever in anything?
Pray...You tell me where anybody exists (alive) who knows what there is to know about what this post is about (?)
Vimjams

When you die you can choose to be reincarnated or go on into heaven but if you fail to take a special shot then when you get back to Earth you'll have the memories of your previous life...

Seriously, I dunno what to think about these things yet... It would be cool if there was an afterlife but I dunno, I just haven't really given this idea much thought...

Whew! That's a relief ! I'd hate to be reincarnated as something like that!

My girlfriend believes diferently, but i think reincarnation is nothing more than people trying to justify their own deaths because they are scared of dying.

I'm not 100% sure if I believe in reincarnation. It doesn't coincide with all religions, although I know of a few that it does. It would'nt be bad to be reincarnated if you could remember your past life (and I was still born a girl ). I understand vinjams question (...You tell me where anybody exists (alive) who knows what there is to know about what this post is about), it would be so much easier for everyone to understand if there were such a person to answer all our questions. *sigh*
But there's not, so we can only guess. I don't like guessing, I want to know!!

You'll find out one day. Shame you wont be alive tho.

I saw that movie too Crow... That would be cool, if only that was for real....

Yup. Sad eh. Either way, you will be dead, your memories wiped. Reincarnation is kinda pointless in that aspect.

It's not really that your memory is wiped. You still retain all that information, it's just hidden deep into your subconscious.

At least that's what I believe

But I think that there's still that loss of personality. You're not really you anymore. Even if you had complete recall of your past lives wouldn't all the memories, different experiences and different personalities completely change you so that either way you're still not the same person you started out as.
Which is why I hate reincarnation, I accept it as a possibility but I can't stand that idea of loss of self.

Then maybe that's the reason for so many people in this world with psychotic behavior?

I thought that was TV and Video Games?

Well if you believe in such things there are several books that cover the subject in detail.

My undertanding is that your soul gets to choose what life it wants to accept for the next go around but that you have no conscious memories of any past lives. You are you and a spiritual level so to speak, but no you don't get to take your memories with you...

No fair!! I wanna know this life in my next one (if reincarnation is for real), so then I'll know what mistakes to avoid in my new life!

I also have an interest in reincarnation. It's mentioned a lot in the mangas I read. I think in some cases one can retain their memories. Maybe not completely but perhaps you can "experiance" them in dreams. I've sort of felt that way when I dream sometimes.

Sorry, it doesn't appear to work that way. I think that would take all of the fun out life anyway...

The whole idea is to learn as you go; being born like a little wise Yoda kind of ruins the need for growing and learning.