Metal Reviews

Yes. Particularly in regards to souls in the context of evolution. If a soul exists, is it confined to the human species, and if so what point in human evolution is human enough. Otherwise, did dinosaurs have souls?

Regardless, the concept of the soul is an outdated Neoplatonic idea, commercialised and biblified by the Augustinian-Catholic philosophers to give it a bit of historic staying power.

The concept of rebirth is fundamentally flawed in the fact that, for it to have any meaning, every soul would have to have been created at the beginning of time itself. How many billions of human souls would there have to be in reserves, waiting until humanity's tally has grown big enough to get a chance at one lifetime?

It's just not a practical theory. As you said, 10% of your dreams is imagery and 90% is emotive response - perhaps your inner self (not your soul, mind ye) reacted fiercely to images you saw and shrugged off in the past.

Unless souls (I hate that term because of its religious association) are an evolutionary extension of the self; ie something which is grown and developed independantly and can also as a consequence die.

Think about that in terms of evolution for a minute. It is ridiculously illogical.

That's a Neoplatonic point of view, and is again in conflict with the principles of rebirth, ie. the soul re-entering a body vs. the body producing a soul.

Indeed it is. But then again the existence of life itself is just as illogical. The fact that we meatbags are here in an otherwise sterile universe is a perverse concept. We shouldn't be, yet we are. It makes no sense for us to be here, yet life has built its own little system within a greater (and dead) cosmological system.

I must confess I have not heard of neoplatonism, so I'll do a bit of research before commenting.

Conditions for life aren't too unlikely that it wouldn't be expected to occur somewhere, especially in such an infinite universe.

The idea of souls, however, is not just unlikely, it's impossible. It makes no sense whatsoever.

When I was thirteen I had dreams about having sex that were more realistic than anything I'd seen on tv...


7 billion? If you believe God is all knowing its not that much of a stretch to think he can predict how many humans there will be at any one time on Earth, and create enough souls for all of them.

Well what if he doesn't?

i once blasted a super realistic fart in a dream.

I had a dream that I was being chased by a murderer with the apple-of-my-eye and we got onto a bus and started driving and she fell asleep on me. Then I wondered if I had deoderant on.

Hm.
Slightly off topic, but not really.

I dream in 3rd person[I watch myself in the dream], and for the most part my dreams are silent.

Anyone else?

My dreams tend to be what happened during the day with a slightly difference. Although I did once dream about this train crash that was going to happen, and saved loads of peoples' lives, but you all know about that one...

My dreams always occur in several variations of several distinct locations. They are all linked, and I could possibly even draw a map. A lot of them involve me attempting to flee toward the dark and scary forest to evade persuers.

I'm like Zad in the sense that my dreams are often surreal takes on recent events.

You know those dreams where you're with one or more of your friends and they're behaving just like they do in real life? But for some reason there's this other dude among your circle of friends who doesn't actually exist in real life but in the dream you know him just as well as all the others?

I'm going to make a shitty White Noise-style horror film about it one day.

I always have dreams about strange shit happening on the way to and at school/work.

He's probably your gay lover from a past life.

a dream i've been having lately involves me being late for whatever it is i'm supposed to do that day. once i told myself in such a dream that it was "just another one of those 'late' dreams" and woke up (late) in another dream. you know, dreaming you're dreaming.

fucking crazy.