Post by Obscurus on Dec 18, 2016 21:52:48 GMT -5
I've been reading a book on spirit communication of late and I wanted to ask here about the nature of spirits. There are lots of theories about spirits and everyone seems to have an idea but what are your personal beliefs or opinions on the nature of spirits?
I definitely believe in spirits. I've communicated with spirits. I've received help from spirits. This said, I don't really know that much about what they are. Some occultists feel that spirits are a part of ourselves with no outside existence. They are an aspect of the subconscious mind that comes to the forefront during ritual. The competing theory is that spirits have an external existence of their own outside of the ritual setting.
Spirits with external existences are usually split into two main groups: human and nonhuman. Human spirits are shades of the dead, people that were at some point living and now aren't. Nonhuman spirits would be everything else; elementals, angels, demons, planetary intelligences, etc. I've never knowingly communicated with the deceased because it just didn't feel right. I seem to have no qualms about evoking nonhumans though.
An interesting twist here seems to depend on whether you believe in reincarnation or not. How can human spirits exist if reincarnation is the law of the universe? The theory explaining this is that human spirits are not actually the dead; they are just shells of the dead that have been inhabited by elementals or other astral nonhumans. They adopt the affectations of a deceased human being, pulling from that persons imprint in the Akashic records to assume their identity.
I'm not sure how I feel about that last bit so I'm asking here what your opinions are on the nature of spirits, human and nonhuman.
I definitely believe in spirits. I've communicated with spirits. I've received help from spirits. This said, I don't really know that much about what they are. Some occultists feel that spirits are a part of ourselves with no outside existence. They are an aspect of the subconscious mind that comes to the forefront during ritual. The competing theory is that spirits have an external existence of their own outside of the ritual setting.
Spirits with external existences are usually split into two main groups: human and nonhuman. Human spirits are shades of the dead, people that were at some point living and now aren't. Nonhuman spirits would be everything else; elementals, angels, demons, planetary intelligences, etc. I've never knowingly communicated with the deceased because it just didn't feel right. I seem to have no qualms about evoking nonhumans though.
An interesting twist here seems to depend on whether you believe in reincarnation or not. How can human spirits exist if reincarnation is the law of the universe? The theory explaining this is that human spirits are not actually the dead; they are just shells of the dead that have been inhabited by elementals or other astral nonhumans. They adopt the affectations of a deceased human being, pulling from that persons imprint in the Akashic records to assume their identity.
I'm not sure how I feel about that last bit so I'm asking here what your opinions are on the nature of spirits, human and nonhuman.