Heaven is A Place On Earth

I think it is interesting to explore and know other religions. Thanks to the internet, you can type a search word in many encyclopedias (such as wikipedia.org) and learn with amazements.

In scientology, it is believed that:

* Psychiatry and psychology are destructive fields which must be abolished.

* Spiritual beings ( thetans) live many lifetimes. Thetans lived among extraterrestrial cultures before becoming trapped in bodies on Earth. Thetans were brainwashed by these extraterrestrial cultures as a means of population control

* Thetans have existed for ???tens of trillions??? of years. During that time, thetans have been exposed to a vast number of traumatic incidents and have made a great many decisions that influence their present state. Thetans were conditioned by extraterrestrial dictatorships such as Helatrobus in an attempt to brainwash and control the population. These early events collectively are called "space opera."

* Xenu is the ruler of the "Galactic Confederacy." 75 million years ago Xenu brought billions of people to Earth in spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and detonated hydrogen bombs in the volcanoes. The thetans then clustered together, stuck to the bodies of the living, and continue to do this today. Isolating thetans and neutralizing their ill effects are neccesary.

The Church of Scientology has become a truly farcical cult! members of that Church cannot even speak honestly regarding their own philosophy. The concept of the "soul" as held in Scientology is not that one "has" a soul, but that one IS a soul. When you say the word "I" as in "I like grapes" or "I enjoy classical music" or "I feel tired" that which is saying "I" is in fact the human soul. The human soul is you, not your body or your mind or some sort of cosmic energy or whatever. The human soul is simply you yourself. because this is a fairly novel concept, the Founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard created a new term, that being "thetan", meaning the person themselves, not their body or mind. A very simple idea really. A thetan is immortal. A thetan may own and operate a body. The very idea of "past lives" or "reincarnation" is really therefore a false one. The truth is that "reincarnation" is just the fact that an immortal spritual being, a thetan has owned a succession of bodies from some point in the far distant past, up to the present. Thus it is farcical that a Church of Scientology member would deny emphatically that a baby could be a human being whose spiritual identity is that of someone who has gone before. How the heck would they know? Since L. Ron Hubbard lost his last body in 1986, it is highly unlikely that he would have hung around waiting for Katie Holmes to make a new body for him to operate. Why wait that long. It would be far more likely that he would have found a new body shortly after his death. Thus, given that Scientology is a philosophy that accurately describes the nature of the human "soul" as a thetan, then L. Ron Hubbard would be a young man or woman celebrating his or her 22nd birthday in 2008. The Church of Scientology certainly seems full of pretty crazy people these days, if they can't even be honest about the most basic concepts of their philosophy. The only people left now, who practice the actual philosophy of Scientology are protestant Scientologists. People who left the Church of Scientology because it has become a totally insane cult. These protestant Scientologists are called "freezoners". You don't hear too much about freezoners because they are regular, sensible people who quietly practice the philosophy of Scientology, not raving mad cultists who worship the almighty dollar like the Church of Scientology types.

Soul is the essence of your inner being. When you die, you cease to be! No heaven, no hell, no God, no devil, no kidding...Please get off your knees and join the human race...At the very top of the list of things that sound too good to be true you will find...Afterlife! Patrick Risk

Um, Kabbaalah is *not* a "New Age Movement" as you call it. It is the mystical aspect of Judaism.
If you bothered to do a bit of research, you might find that Judaism is a pretty old religion.
Maybe try to get your facts straight next time.

Well, if "Heaven is a Place on Earth", "Hell" must be several places on Earth also. If more and more Americans are tending to believe in reincarnation because "life in America gets better and better", what about all of the places where this is not happening? And what guarantee can a North American have that he/she will reincarnate in the USA again?

The concept of reincarnation means that ALL souls are given different opportunities in each lifetime.

Here is another clear refrence to reincarnation in the Bible, in the words og the Archangel Gabriel:

"...And the angel said to him: Do not fear, Zacharias, for your prayers have been heard; and your wife Isabel will bear you a son, and you shall name him John. And he will convert many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God; and will preceed him with the spirit and the virtue of Elijah, so that he may reconduct the hearts of the fathers to the sons" (Luke 1:13)

I am sure those who are interested in reincarnation might enjoy reading some of the posts in Carol Bowman's forum: www.childpastlives.org

In reality, there is no discrepancy between reincarnation and Jesus's teachings, only with the versions established by the "official" church. Here is probably the most well known passage in the New Testament related to Jesus stating that John the Baptist was a reincarnation of the prophet Elijah:

"Why do the they say that Elijah must first return? And Jesus answered them: It is true that Elijah must come to reestablish all things; but I declare to thee that Elijah has already come, and they knew him not, but did unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall the Son of Man suffer of them. And his disciples understood that he spoke of John the Baptist..." (Mathew 17:10)

Re-birth is a fact, but only Indic/Buddhist dharma and philosophy can boldly declare it. There are wealth of scientific evidences of rebirths, as human history has revealed to us. Rejecting what is truth just because of some belief reasons will make no difference to what is truth; truth will always unfold itself.

However, one need to understant the law of karma and reincarnation properly. One don't reincarnate forever. The cycle of reincarnation or births and deaths (Samsara) is transcended when the Yogi/devotee merges with the Absolute and identifies fully with his/her own true Self or Higher Self or Soul or Atman. This final union or Yoga is the goal of life and of all spiritual practices.

Please have a glance here:
Karma and Reincarnation
http://www.vedanta.org/wiv/philosophy/karma.html

For thorough understanding of Karma and Reincarnation, one need to carefully read and understand the Bhagavad Gita. You may read it here: http://www.asitis.com/

Bharat

Re-birth is a fact, but only Indic/Buddhist dharma and philosophy can boldly declare it. There are wealth of scientific evidences of rebirths, as human history has revealed to us. Rejecting what is truth just because of some belief reasons will make no difference to what is truth; truth will always unfold itself.

However, one need to understant the law of karma and reincarnation properly. One don't reincarnate forever. The cycle of reincarnation or births and deaths (Samsara) is transcended when the Yogi/devotee merges with the Absolute and identifies fully with his/her own true Self or Higher Self or Soul or Atman. This final union or Yoga is the goal of life and of all spiritual practices.

Please have a look:
Karma and Reincarnation
http://www.vedanta.org/wiv/philosophy/karma.html

For thorough understanding of Karma and Reincarnation, one need to carefully read and understand the Bhagavad Gita. You may read it here: http://www.asitis.com/

Bharat

Once again, a common misconception is stated without question. In every eastern religion that teaches it as truth, reincarnation is a problem, not a good thing. Hinduism and Buddhism are all about how to AVOID being reincarnated. The goal, called "Nirvana" by Buddhist, is NOT to come back again. Westerners tend to look at reincarnation as a neat idea, coming back to this mortal realm (though in a different "coil" each time) again and again, enriching the mortal experience with the variety of incarnations. To eastern faiths, this mortal realm is the great problem to which religion offers a solution: NOT coming back again.

Now when we look at all those people believing in Re incarnation.. we know there is something wrong. I really agree with the Now and Here theory. We Americans don't go through real problems (poverty deseases) that would define and transform our spiritual selves much. We are hoping that we wil get more time over here, continuing to enjoy the riches.... exactly like Brahmins in their Golden times.. if you don't lack anything, you can blame others who don't have, for their own problems.. see. "you are going through this trouble (or born as a lower being) because you did something wrong in your last life. ".

What about all the amoebae and worms that dies every minutes. Are they being recycled to some higher forms bacause of their godd deeds (Karma) too?

Reincarnation is just a concept to justify the wrong doing of those who believe in reincarnation. How do you evaluate virtue and bad deed? We can't. How do we equate the injustices in this world? We can't. As for the scientologists, human being have limited capabilities due to the fact that we are all mortal. Heaven is a place full of bliss. I don't believe in reincarnation and scientology. Heaven is definitely not this earth. There is GOD and religion to guide the human being. We will be resurected, how, when and why? ...it is not our problem. GOD has His ways of doing things.