What happens to an ‘old soul’ after many reincarnations?

[Planet13]

I recently came across an interesting idea about reincarnation that is sometimes associated with interpretations of the “Old Religion.”
Instead of seeing reincarnation as a punishment or a cycle to escape from, the idea is that a soul returns again and again in order to experience the full range of life. Each life would add another perspective — different circumstances, roles, struggles, and joys — until eventually the soul has experienced the many facets of existence.
In that view, the purpose of reincarnation isn’t moral purification but completeness of experience.
I find this concept fascinating because it would imply that, over many lifetimes, a soul might experience very different positions in life — power and powerlessness, wealth and poverty, happiness and loss — gradually developing a deeper understanding of existence.

I’m curious how others here see this idea.
Do you think reincarnation could be understood as a process of gathering experiences rather than escaping a cycle?

If reincarnation is about gathering experiences until a soul has lived through many aspects of existence, what happens to a very old soul that has already experienced most of what life can offer? Does it stop reincarnating, move to another level, or simply continue the cycle in a different way?

 

[Aldebaran]

Whether moral purification or completeness of experience... How can we achieve either if there is a memory wipe?

It doesn't matter if you're an old soul or a N00b soul—if there's a memory wipe, both start from scratch.
To add to the questions: why is there is a memory wipe that prevents growth or escape.

 

[Saint]

I'd say, the many facets of 'physical' existence in these cases, as there are countless ways, and the soul is managing more life at once, even beyond the physical, paralell to each other.

I also believe that the soul has nothing to do with 'moral purification', as moral itself is something 'humans' put into shape and word, and karma, for example just the consequences of an action; it doesn't try to teach you moral, it's more about responsibility, and what may happen if you live without taking it.
A soul may want eperiencing, learning and expanding itself, and in some cases, it is obvious that the 'task' a soul have to deliver is beyond just simple individual achivement, and has a wider range, with a group of souls involved, in co-operation for a greater matter. Sometimes, some of the participants are not even reincarnated, just one or a couple, while the connection is active. I've experienvced it in myself. Take it as landing on an abandoned island a group want to explore, and for strategic matters, one side of the group stay on the air, in their laboratories, helping and operating behind, while the other(s) are on the Isle physically, and doing their part.
Although, naturally, returning souls in one's life is common, and 'families of spirits' tend to navigate through lives together; not necessarily sticking together all the time, but often, swapping roles, the nature of connection, even. The one you married in a previous life can be your greatest enemy in the next, yet the soul carries no grudge, these are roles, and experiences the souls deliver.

I think, a soul can reincarnate any moment if there's a goal having to achieve, it doesn't even mean they'll 'stuck' in the reincarnation cycle if they 'fail to draw moral conclusions and live by it'. It can chose not to born in the next couple of hundreds years, or not at all, or it can chose to start the new one once it's went through the process, and found a new location, family, circumstances to pick and born into.
ㅤBecause yes, they can go as far as chosing this one and they can even re-arrange their decision, in the form of the child dying before it could even take it's first breath outside of the womb. It happens.

Truth is, many deaths are not accidental, and has nothing to do with unlucky outcome. If someone has to go, they has to go. Then they'll go the most unluckiest or even 'silliest' ways, and the ones who have to live, will survive a lot of unlikely things until they carried out what they need to. It proved me right so far, because I myself should not be alive, and it happened multiple times, going against the laws of the physical world.

what happens to a very old soul that has already experienced most of what life can offer

I think, that a soul won't turn into a 'very old soul' even if they went through thousands of reincarnations. Why? Because a soul's age often reaches beyond human existence, or the Earth's existence itself, therefore, you can see very old souls reincarnate first, even, but also, very young souls having over hundreds or thousands of incarnation, and yes, sometimes, you can still tell which soul is older, despite lived less lives than the younger one - but the opposite can also happen.

So I'd say, the age of a soul does not define which stage it is in the reincarnation cycle and when it can leave it.

I believe once the soul knows or judges that there's nothing to gain from a reincarnation in the given moment (or no one to co-operate with for a 'greater' or collective matter), it won't turn energy into doing so, and focus on other aspects, although, again, they do run multiple lives at once, because we have paralel lives on many level, and it is actually can influence each other, even, or informations seep through from one to an another.

My approach may not be popular neither true, but through my experiences, these are my conclusions on soul's existence on the material plane and I'm at peace with it, but of course, always open to hear out others, and experience more, to perhaps complete the puzzle, or re-arrange if I feel like it should be.

@Aldebaran Whether moral purification or completeness of experience... How can we achieve either if there's a memory wipe?

Memory wipe is for the physical body. The soul already possess the knowledge and experience it needed, and it proceed.

Usually, it manifests as lessons/wisdom/knowledge they don't need to explose in the next life for decades, because it comes to them far quicker, so they won't spend a lifetime trying to chase it until they finally learn.
Be it a knowledge, wisdom, a view, or even skill. Have you seen kids having talent in some things adults fight for over 10-15 years to achieve? It happens quite often. Souls can carry knowledge, and if they feel like they walked the path to embrace and live it, in the next life, it won't be a struggle to gain that knowledge. Either growing up in an environment where this wisdom is given, or having a personality that, this time, draws the conclusion quicker than a lifetime.

Me and my mother is a good example of this. The conclusions that I draw as a 9 years old kid, it took her 50 years, and now she lives better. It's common.
Have you seen people drawing significant conclusions from their life on their death bed? Same thing. They won't struggle with it in the next, and have it wasted or missed.

This cycle is often (not always) reason why some people are already far ahead of others from young age too. They simply have a greater progression and they don't need to struggle with it in the next.

 

[Planet13]

Whether moral purification or completeness of experience... How can we achieve either if there is a memory wipe?

It doesn't matter if you're an old soul or a N00b soul—if there's a memory wipe, both start from scratch.
To add to the questions: why is there is a memory wipe that prevents growth or escape.

But even within one lifetime, most of what shapes us isn’t stored as clear memories. Early childhood experiences, emotions, habits, and patterns influence who we become, even though we can’t consciously recall most of them.
The “memory wipe” after a reincarnation might not actually erase everything. It might only remove explicit autobiographical memory, while deeper tendencies remain — things like intuition, temperament, unexplained fears, affinities, or ways of perceiving the world.
If we remembered everything from every lifetime, would we even be able to live a new life authentically? Each life might be meant to be experienced from a fresh perspective, not constantly filtered through thousands of previous identities.
So perhaps forgetting isn’t necessarily a barrier to growth?

 

[HoldAll]

Always assuming that each time you'll be reborn as a human, that the amount of suffering remains within tolerable limits, and that each incarnation will offer new and fulfilling experiences instead of one Groundhog Day after the other.

 

[Adelina]

I doubt that so many souls would choose life so full of misery, majority of people are constantly living in it.

Any rational being, if it was given a choice for reincarnation, would choose some kind of "cheat" to at least avoid constantly having to struggle for survival.

Starting from scratch each time is not amusing it all. That's why memory is constantly being erased - it is to "brainwash" soul into another act of slavery.

 

[Morell]

I find this concept fascinating because it would imply that, over many lifetimes, a soul might experience very different positions in life — power and powerlessness, wealth and poverty, happiness and loss — gradually developing a deeper understanding of existence.

Can you imagine the line of souls waiting to get incarnated as rich? Ultra rich? How long would have humanity to exist for every soul to experience the life of the elite?

I don't think that this is the case. But how things truly are, I do not know.

 

[Ohana]

I have a reason to keep going but somedays I wonder if reincarnation does exist. When is groundhog going to end? And then I think about it ending and I don't want it to end. I want to keep living but then what is existence?

We are a speck of a speck on a planet going the speed of millions of miles an hour.

But here's my idea of how reincarnation works without souls. People go into the ground then become the dirt then become the worm the become the bird that eats the worm. Then the cat that eats the bird then the ground again because cats are at the top of the food chain along with people. Then maybe they become the soil for a tree instead then termite or bug that eats the tree and so on and so forth.

If their are souls however their is an astral plane or something of other that happens. The soul probably gets "judged" and then sent down to live again till they choose not to. Then a new soul is born and takes it place. Thats why there's such a thing as young souls probably. Because I think after a while everyone has to be an old soul but not everyone is.

Ghosts hopefully are just emotionally residual energies because if they exist as conscious beings that means theres a possibility for souls to just get stuck and that means the whole system is mmm. Or maybe they choose to be ghosts and act as spirit guides because they are tired of living.

But then is their an end to someone's energy? What is death then if energy cannot be created or destroyed. It is like a spinning top but its been spinning so long what happens when it stops? Can it ever stop?

 

[Lucien6493]

I'd say, the many facets of 'physical' existence in these cases, as there are countless ways, and the soul is managing more life at once, even beyond the physical, paralell to each other.

I also believe that the soul has nothing to do with 'moral purification', as moral itself is something 'humans' put into shape and word, and karma, for example just the consequences of an action; it doesn't try to teach you moral, it's more about responsibility, and what may happen if you live without taking it.
A soul may want eperiencing, learning and expanding itself, and in some cases, it is obvious that the 'task' a soul have to deliver is beyond just simple individual achivement, and has a wider range, with a group of souls involved, in co-operation for a greater matter. Sometimes, some of the participants are not even reincarnated, just one or a couple, while the connection is active. I've experienvced it in myself. Take it as landing on an abandoned island a group want to explore, and for strategic matters, one side of the group stay on the air, in their laboratories, helping and operating behind, while the other(s) are on the Isle physically, and doing their part.
Although, naturally, returning souls in one's life is common, and 'families of spirits' tend to navigate through lives together; not necessarily sticking together all the time, but often, swapping roles, the nature of connection, even. The one you married in a previous life can be your greatest enemy in the next, yet the soul carries no grudge, these are roles, and experiences the souls deliver.

I think, a soul can reincarnate any moment if there's a goal having to achieve, it doesn't even mean they'll 'stuck' in the reincarnation cycle if they 'fail to draw moral conclusions and live by it'. It can chose not to born in the next couple of hundreds years, or not at all, or it can chose to start the new one once it's went through the process, and found a new location, family, circumstances to pick and born into.
ㅤBecause yes, they can go as far as chosing this one and they can even re-arrange their decision, in the form of the child dying before it could even take it's first breath outside of the womb. It happens.

Truth is, many deaths are not accidental, and has nothing to do with unlucky outcome. If someone has to go, they has to go. Then they'll go the most unluckiest or even 'silliest' ways, and the ones who have to live, will survive a lot of unlikely things until they carried out what they need to. It proved me right so far, because I myself should not be alive, and it happened multiple times, going against the laws of the physical world.


I think, that a soul won't turn into a 'very old soul' even if they went through thousands of reincarnations. Why? Because a soul's age often reaches beyond human existence, or the Earth's existence itself, therefore, you can see very old souls reincarnate first, even, but also, very young souls having over hundreds or thousands of incarnation, and yes, sometimes, you can still tell which soul is older, despite lived less lives than the younger one - but the opposite can also happen.

So I'd say, the age of a soul does not define which stage it is in the reincarnation cycle and when it can leave it.

I believe once the soul knows or judges that there's nothing to gain from a reincarnation in the given moment (or no one to co-operate with for a 'greater' or collective matter), it won't turn energy into doing so, and focus on other aspects, although, again, they do run multiple lives at once, because we have paralel lives on many level, and it is actually can influence each other, even, or informations seep through from one to an another.

My approach may not be popular neither true, but through my experiences, these are my conclusions on soul's existence on the material plane and I'm at peace with it, but of course, always open to hear out others, and experience more, to perhaps complete the puzzle, or re-arrange if I feel like it should be.


Memory wipe is for the physical body. The soul already possess the knowledge and experience it needed, and it proceed.

Usually, it manifests as lessons/wisdom/knowledge they don't need to explose in the next life for decades, because it comes to them far quicker, so they won't spend a lifetime trying to chase it until they finally learn.
Be it a knowledge, wisdom, a view, or even skill. Have you seen kids having talent in some things adults fight for over 10-15 years to achieve? It happens quite often. Souls can carry knowledge, and if they feel like they walked the path to embrace and live it, in the next life, it won't be a struggle to gain that knowledge. Either growing up in an environment where this wisdom is given, or having a personality that, this time, draws the conclusion quicker than a lifetime.

Me and my mother is a good example of this. The conclusions that I draw as a 9 years old kid, it took her 50 years, and now she lives better. It's common.
Have you seen people drawing significant conclusions from their life on their death bed? Same thing. They won't struggle with it in the next, and have it wasted or missed.

This cycle is often (not always) reason why some people are already far ahead of others from young age too. They simply have a greater progression and they don't need to struggle with it in the next.

We meet ourselves too, in different guises, like archaeologists digging up their own bones, even as some of those bones are still dancing. And why ever not? If we take the simultaneity of time as a given then, carrying the spiritual legacy of entire cultures with us like so many ancestors to ourselves, we are just too big to be contained and land as souls sprouting selves across time/space like aspen groves, trailing familiar spirits. I found one of my own graves like that once. On a hillside in rural Kentucky. Woman from Galway. She must have been a real terror too, so my sweet temper evidently precedes me like a curse. She taught me a lot about survival though and that our day to day lives are a mosaic of information exchanges across registers. We think of them as linear, concrete events in some arbitrary semblance of order, when in fact they are anything but. They are as permeable as sponges with pores to other frames of reference and it looks like our mundane experience because it is so seamlessly blended into our waking trances that we fail to see the whole ensemble for what it is. Like a ghost walks through our past and meets us on the morrow.

 

[Firetree]

I recently came across an interesting idea about reincarnation that is sometimes associated with interpretations of the “Old Religion.”
Instead of seeing reincarnation as a punishment or a cycle to escape from, the idea is that a soul returns again and again in order to experience the full range of life. Each life would add another perspective — different circumstances, roles, struggles, and joys — until eventually the soul has experienced the many facets of existence.
In that view, the purpose of reincarnation isn’t moral purification but completeness of experience.
I find this concept fascinating because it would imply that, over many lifetimes, a soul might experience very different positions in life — power and powerlessness, wealth and poverty, happiness and loss — gradually developing a deeper understanding of existence.

I’m curious how others here see this idea.
Do you think reincarnation could be understood as a process of gathering experiences rather than escaping a cycle?

If reincarnation is about gathering experiences until a soul has lived through many aspects of existence, what happens to a very old soul that has already experienced most of what life can offer? Does it stop reincarnating, move to another level, or simply continue the cycle in a different way?

I call this 'the white school ' - life and incarnation is about gathering experience and incarnating in it as a choice . The 'Black School' is more one of avoidance and wanting not to incarnate in the future ... to 'get beyond it all ' - this also leads to obscure reasoning about why we came here in the first place ( a fall or some 'fault' ) .

I see our evolution as similar to what you describe ; a rising series of circles of experiences , creating a spiral pathway 'up' , to fail in one of those experiences - like a needle on a record, it skips and jumps and that 'circle' needs to be repeated .

The traditional view beyond that , in many traditions is there is a choice ; to beyond this series of cycles of development , or to stay and assist others ; the Bodhisatva in the east and the 'Rosicrucian' * in the west .

* and I dont mean the mail order version .

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 10:24 PM

Whether moral purification or completeness of experience... How can we achieve either if there is a memory wipe?

It doesn't matter if you're an old soul or a N00b soul—if there's a memory wipe, both start from scratch.
To add to the questions: why is there is a memory wipe that prevents growth or escape.

Its needed for the dynamics within each incarnation , so we come as a relatively blank canvass , but as you probably know, it isnt the same for everyone . Many , especially at a young age , have previous memories that fade as they age . And of course many come to know as they develop through life .

In some magical systems tuning into this knowledge is essential ... how can you add to your 'mission' , if you dont know what it is ?

The other factor is , also in some magical traditions ; memory needs to be downloaded on to that aspect that does survive , it will not do to just 'remember ' with those short term physical aspects of awareness . . . as they will pass along with those aspects ..... we need to 'download to the Immortal Osiris ' aspect of ourselves .

It needs to get through .... to be implanted . Think of it like this ; there are plenty of superficial things you are going to forget about everyday ... for some , even the most important lessons they seem to forget casually , even over and over again ... but some of us have deeply implanted memories that we carry with us for life .

And sometimes even that ' immortal ' aspect of ourselves is unclear or confused .... even still, there are ways we are 'taken care of ' ;

Spoiler

Eg . There was an horrific murder here recently , It was a guy in his 30s . A fairly well known , most happy guy , he was homeless and was camping out . He was doing what most of the 'kids' were up to ; hanging out , trying to get by and doing some drugs .

After his murder , he was 'flying around' the area a bit ; he didnt seem to have realized what had happened . He wasnt in shock or panicking or anything , it was like he was on some amazing new drug experience , he seemed to be enjoying cruising around checking everything out , amused at the 'hallucination' yet curious about this new experience and its seeming 'reality ' . That happened for a couple of days . Last time I checked on him , he is not here but appears to be walking across country inland , still amused . Then he finds the remains of this ancient log canoe carved out of a single tree trunk . He thinks it's great , what a find . So he sits in it to get a feel for it , hangs on to the sides and it starts sliding along the ground .

Off it goes towards the western horizon and then up , up ... into the stars .

Last seem , still smiling , enjoying the view and his 'hallucinations' as he floats off through space , watching the stars pass by .

When he gets to the 'other side' of the 'river' .... his 'situation' will become clearer .

 

[rice candy]

My interpretation is that all souls are forced to reincarnate until they find a way to break through the cycle. The method involves some sort of deity relationship work, transcendence, or some adjacent situation or power to be at play.