Mysterious Universe

I found the the Amondawa’s concept of time fascinating, but not that
difficult grasp. The key is right there in the article. “For the
Amondawa, time does not exist in the same way as it does for us. . . . they live in a world of events, rather than seeing events as being embedded in time.” That is time is thus embedded in events, rather than the other way around as it is for us. The article mentioned that they do differentiate between wet and dry seasons, and didn’t say that had no concept of ‘the past’, but their past would be measured in terms of events; the wet season when my hut was swept away, or the dry season when my goat died, and so on. We actually do this as well when we easily remember a past event, but then need to connect it to something in order to recall the date of the event. For example, I’ve lived in a number of different places in my life, and could recount them in sequence without referencing a particular date. I can tell you about when I lived in a particular place, but may need to think carefully to recall the exact time. Speaking of past travels is also often done without reference to time specifics. “Remember when we went to X.” “You mean when we saw Y.” “No, the trip after that one.” We speak about, and think about, the past all the time with no necessary reference to time. 

Jenny Cockell: Why are such cases always classified as a ‘past life’. Could the soul of Mary Sutton just as easily communicated with Jenny for the purpose of ‘reuniting’ her children, as the priest had suggested. It seems that, in fact, the idea of ‘reincarnation’ is metaphorical, and that all alleged cases could be explained in other terms. I can’t accept that idea of reincarnation because for me it is too simplistic; I believe the reality of our souls, and of the world, is much more complex than that. In fact, I believe that what the soul experiences after death is so complex, and so different from our present reality that there is no way for us to grasp it in our current state, and that all of our ‘afterlife’ concepts are attempts to explain what is ultimately beyond explanation on this plain of existence.