fandomhigh | Magical Theory 101 (Monday, 03/20/2006, 5th Period)

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magical theory

Magical Theory 101 (Monday, 03/20/2006, 5th Period)

"Lots of people believe in reincarnation--the idea that the soul moves on after death, and is eventually reborn into a new body, with a clean slate on life. The concept started out with the thought of the soul being reincarnated as the infant of one of its relatives from its past life. This? Kinda was how family resemblances were explained, since no one had a clue about DNA or heredity. Pythagoras was the first one to really define it, as he taught that the soul was immortal, even though the body wasn't. He believed that the soul rested in the Underworld between lives, and drank from the waters of the Lethe so as to forget the previous life before embarking on the next one. Plato took that one step further, and said that the soul was impure when embodied.

Plato? Kinda iffy on that one in my book, but then again, that view that the material world is corrupt is kind of an old one.

The concept of reincarnation is pretty old hat in Eastern society too, and it's similar. The soul goes through a series of incarnations. Eventually? You were removed from the cycle of reincarnation. Once you'd earned it, anyway, by transcending materialism. I'm simplifying.

Here's a nice, long, interesting ~~wiki entry~~ handout for you on the subject.

A lot of people, however, don't believe in reincarnation. Here's a handout for you on the skeptics and how they feel about reincarnation.

What I'm mostly interested in, though? Is how you feel about it."

Useful Links:
Ms. Calendar's Voice Mail
Ms. Calendar's E-Mail

OCD threads ~~are coming soon~~ are up!!

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...

Kiki signs in.

Paige signs in

Bel signs in.

Piper signs in.

Xander signed in,glanced around the room, and relaxed, maybe. Just slightly, as he took stock of which if his fellow students were in this class, and which, thankfully, weren't. Still? Not gonna hear a lot out of him today.

Maia signed in

Sakura signs in ~~and congratulates mun for remembering classes this week, even if late~~.

OOC: You know, you can post any time during the week and I'll still count it.

Krycek signed in.

...

This is kind of a tough subject for Paige, she doesn't know all that much about whitelighters, but has the feeling that when she dies she'll just become one of those. But then she also has a wierd feeling that maybe she has been here before ~~as the evil enchantress~~

"I guess reincarnation could happen, I mean a lot of people have the feeling they're been here before, and like have memories of stuff that never happened to them right?" she suggests

"I wouldn't say a lot of people do," said Jenny. "But some people do feel like that, yes. Have you ever heard of False Memory Syndrome, though?"

"You mean where someone suggests a memory to you and you believe it?" she asks

"That's a somewhat simplified version of events, but, yes," said Jenny. "Some people believe that's what occurs when an individual states that they have memories of a past life."

She thought for a moment, "you'd be able to check if that was the deal though wouldn't you? I mean I've heard of cases where people remember things they couldn't possibly have known about."

She thinks for a moment, "or is this a sort of suggestion under hypnosis kinda thing? Where the person doing the regression suggests something to the person being regressed when they're in like a trance?"

"And some of those cases have actually been disproven," said Jenny. "Sometimes people construct past lives out of half-remembered historical facts learned during childhood, for example. Mind you, I'm not saying reincarnation doesn't exist. But I am saying that when attempting to prove or disprove reincarnation, you've got to be extremely careful."

Jenny nodded. "That's a very good example. Someone in a trance is extremely suggestible, and, in fact, much past-life regression is done with people in trances."

Paige smiled, she sometimes felt a little out of her depth in this class.

She nodded thoughtfully, "yeah I guess that makes sense, I know I don't remember everything I was taugh when I was younger, so something could trigger that and make me thing I lived it."

Kiki shifted uncomfortably in her seat as Ms. Calendar introduced the day's lecture, and then sat still with her hands in her lap, fingers knotted together beneath the desk, for the rest of it. She was over much of it, but there were still times when the feeling came rushing back to her, the sensations of how she'd been ripped from the black void of pain and plunged into the white void of release, and how she had known in that split second that she had died. She stayed silent, uncertain what to say.

"Reincarnation, Kiki?" asked Jenny, trying to prompt her to speak.

Kiki flailed internally, looking quickly down at her desk. It was something she had thought much about over the past month, but without resolution, and the thought of her discussions with Professor Chaucer about Dante's punishment for witches - damnation to the 8th level of Hell - sprang to her mind. They had long spoke of it; indeed, they had devoted some two or three weeks to it and it had comprised more of her independent study discussions than any other work or topic. And the more they spoke of it, the more Kiki became convinced that Dante had written an erroneous, although compelling, work. But there was a doubt, always a doubt, in her mind - she had not been dead long. Not long enough, that is, to take her to what Dante would see as her final and eternal condemnation. Kiki raised her head; she had to answer something.

"As for reincarnation, specifically," she said slowly, "I haven't seen enough evidence either way to rule it out or believe certainly that it exists, although I'm more than willing to say that it is possible, particularly in a town like this." Her voice became a little more flinty. "One thing I know I certainly do not believe in is the notion that a person - or a soul - only gets one opportunity to go through life and get it right, and that the outcome of that one chance is eternal blessing or torment. Those are not the judgements of a just or merciful god."

"Well, I'm not going to make value judgments on anyone's religous beliefs," said Jenny. "Thank you for giving your opinion, Kiki."

Kiki gave a small nod, and looked back down at her desk. She stayed quiet the rest of the class.

"I always believed the soul moved on to the afterlife once death occurred," Piper said with a shrug. "But I suppose reincarnation is possible. ~~My fandom can't seem to make up its mind about that~~."

"Haven't made your mind up about it yet?" asked Jenny. ~~Your fandom does that a lot, I've noticed.~~

~~Unlike our fandom, of course!~~

~~Our fandom? Is totally better than Charmed at that. Which is a scary, scary thought.~~

"I don't see any reason why it couldn't happen - we know souls exist, at least where we come from," Xander said quietly. "But I don't think we ever actually met anybody who we could prove was reincarnated, even with all the other stuff we've run across." He shrugged.

"It's a difficult thing to prove beyond all reasonable doubt," said Jenny. "Which is one of the reasons we're covering it here. The flaws in the theory behind reincarnation need to be looked at, as well as any arguments for reincarnation."

Xander nodded, but didn't actually offer either argument or flaw.

"Demons don't reincarnate," Bel said. "They go to the Wastelands when they're vanquished and that's it. Except on Halloween. Then they can come back for a day, but not as a reincarnation, as themselves."

"So, yeah, not really reincarnation, you're right," said Jenny. "What're the Wastelands?"

"Just the place that demons go when they die," Bel explained. "Their bodies are destroyed and their powers get sucked up by ~~the worms from 'Tremors'~~ the Beast. Plus demons don't have souls, so there's nothing really left to reincarnate even if it was possible."

"I believe in it." Maia said in a very matter of fact tone. "I think though that maybe sometimes people are not reincarnated until their loved ones have died that they knew in life. I got to speak to my mother once and so I know she hasn't been reincarnated yet."

"You're a medium?" asked Jenny.

"Oh no ma'am, there used to be one who lived here in town. Allison Dubois. She was a medium." Maia said recalling her friend who had moved back to Arizona with to be with her family.

"Well," said Jenny. "Didn't know that one. Thanks, Maia."

Krycek was very quiet, but actually looked somewhat thoughtfully disturbed by the discussion, as opposed to blank as he usually was when confronted with topics he knew more about than he should.

Sometimes Jenny really wondered about that blank look.

Especially when he was around Elizabeth during Psych 101.

...

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Magical Theory 101 (Monday, 03/20/2006, 5th Period)

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After Class

OOC