I think we are on the same page, but it has to do with the amount of information and awareness (consciousness) the body of the "life form" is capable of housing.

Most physical objects, (rocks trees, water, sand, plants, animals etc.) have a degree of consciousness. Through evolution, eventually sentience is achieved by the spiritual individual incarnating into these forms.

You didn't think you incarnated into just a human did you?

You probably started as a mineral consciousness.

Ok, I think I've found the biggest difference between our belief systems.

In my belief system, we (as spiritual entities) are eternal. We are not "born" or "created" and we do not "evolve". We simply "change locations and circustances".

As I understand it, in your belief sytstem, we (as sprititual entities) are "born/created" and go through a process of "evolution" that may eventually involve "giving birth to/creating" other spiritual entities that go through the same evolutionary process.

How's that?

I look at things through scientific discovery. But in the whole, I think you've forgotten one pertinent, primary point. I and others are believers and followers of the Almighty. Our and everything came into existence through Him.
Please feel free to disagree with me and create an entire scientific point. Time is manmade and possibly influenced but outside of our existence, things totally change. I don't know everything and know quite so little but I'll hand that over to the Creator. Time changes once our time is over. Any argument doesn't work for me. I've learned this and know it does change. I haven't proofread so forgive me if that isn't correct.

If you are "eternal," and you don't evolve then you are as smart and as wise and as powerful right now as you ever will be. That is depressing.

I don't know if we are eternal or if as spiritual beings we are "born" or come into being.

I just know that we incarnate as all forms and as we learn about those forms, we move to other forms until we occupy a sentient living form and become aware of who we are and we become aware enough to make conscious choices about what we like and where we want to go and be.

Sorry, didn't mean to frustrate you. If I misinterpreted something please correct me.

Ok, well maybe in a limited sense I guess I believe we "evolve". But I guess I think of it more in the sense of "getting back to where we started" more than "getting to someplace we've never been."

The "life as a game" analogy still holds. Yes we "evolve" through the game. But once we finish the game, there's no more game to play. And so we're in exactly the same shape as we were before the game - no game being played.

Yes, we play games. Spirits LOVE the games.

But if the whole point is to get lost to just get back where you started from then what's the point?

I believe we develop as individuals with our own likes and dislikes, and with our own interests and talents and we learn what we want to create and do. We learn HOW TO CREATE.

I think there are an infinite number of things to do and be and experience and we continue to do these things and we continue to learn more things and grow.

I don't think we just play a game of getting lost and then find our way back and then just start all over again.

And no we are not exactly the same after the game.

We have changed so much we are almost a different entity altogether.

I don't live my life and end it as the same person I was when I started. I change and I learn.

I don't live 1500 lives in this game and come out the same entity as I was when I entered.

I learn compassion, Love, creativity etc.

I learn things I would not have learned if I had not been through the game.

You know, I got so caught up in that game analogy I went farther with it than I intended.

Let me put it this way.

My fundamental belief is that we, as spiritual beings, are not dependent upon, but are capable of operating within, this space/time continuum, by choice.

Now I didn’t mean to say that the game ends after a single lifetime. Not necessarily in even a million or a billion lifetimes. It is not even necessarily ever "completed". There is not even any need for "completion" actually. "Completion” isn't really a factor. It doesn’t ever really “end”. You’re either playing or you’re not. That’s all. The only “evolution” is whatever you personally decide to set as goals within the game. But they are personal goals, not something that is imposed by anyone else or by the game.

Kinda like an amusement park. You can ride the rides and eat the food and watch the shows as much and as long as you want. There is no “end” to it. The only “purpose” is whatever purpose you decide for yourself. “Ride all the rides” or “eat at all the restaurants” or “wear a funny hat for an hour” or “ride the rollercoaster until you puke”. And you can leave and come back any time you want. Or you can stop and just sit in the shade for a while. It’s totally your choice. You decide when you start, when you finish, where you go and what you do.

Anyway, that’s my opinion.

I agree. They are personal goals, personal choices and personal experiences.

Time only appears to flow linearly, in reality it can flow both ways. Living creatures are forced to gaze into only one infinitely long reflective furrow of the universe and hence become "trapped" living in time in only one direction, in only one part of reality. If instead you focus all of your attention on the whole conglomerate of infinitely long reflective tunnels, you can then travel either direction in time, or just look in either direction, or even switch parts of reality that you are living in.

If time didn't exist then everything would happen at once.

Wow that's cool.

I think I may be living my life (this exact life) a second time.

It is like I rewound the holographic movie of my life and jumped back in it in the past at a crucial point and started from there to see if I could get a different outcome.

I woke up from a nap and I did not know where (in time) I was. My first question as I woke up was "Where am I?" I meant where in my life .. did I land.

A very strange first thought upon waking up from a nap.

Anyway, my second question was "okay, who am I married to?" I knew I was married twice in this life, and if I find out who I am married to I will know where I landed.

I looked around and recognized the apartment I lived in while married to my second husband. My third thought was: "Oh my God!"

Then all my current life memories came rushing in and I forgot where I was coming from or where I had just been. I had one major thought that seemed to be a message from my higher self. It was "I have got to divorce this man."

From there, I began my life over again. I don't remember what it had been like in that other time line, but I suspect it turned out real bad.

And then again maybe it was all just a dream. It's hard to know. Perhaps I am just loosing my grip on reality.

Ya'll are crazy. I gotta take a nap. See ya' later. Happy Holidays.

Personally, I don't look at time as having "flow" at all, any more than things arranged alphabetically have "flow". I think the apparency of "flow" is an arbitrary consideration, just as the "motion" of a movie is an aribitrary consideration. It is the similarity between one state and another that gives the apparency of time. If the differences are big enough, we think of it as "new" instead of simply "changed". Really, the difference between "changed" and "new" is nothing more than an arbitrary point on a gradient scale of differentiation(not the same)-association(similar)-identification(the same).

JMHO

it does for me, here, at this time, it is 3:38 pm, the 23 of December according to man and the lunar calender.

I don't think time exists for me. It is just these annoying clocks ticking that get on my nerves, and these people who have jobs and appointments and standard operating business hours.

I liked it better in Las Vegas where things were open 24 hour a day. But even there, banks and government offices were closed at night.

Well I guess people have to sleep sometimes.

Perhaps its our perception that is elastic? Time is variable, but not really elastic.

Move through space, and slow down through time.

Its an inverse function based only on relative velocity.

It appears like I move through space in my dreams and yet I don't. It's all in the mind.

What if this reality is the same thing? We don't really move through space. Space here is like the "space" we observe in our dreams. It is created by the mind. What if this is a dream-like reality?

there is no spoon