Chat with Marc Gafni 02/26/01 at Writerspace

Chat with Marc Gafni 02/26/01

Sara - We're chatting tonight with Marc Gafni, author of SOUL PRINTS : A JOURNEY OF MYSTICAL DISCOVERY. If you have a question for Rabbi Gafni, type ? and I'll call on you in turn.
Marc Gafni - you'll like it
Melanie J - Hello, Marc
Sara - Marc Gafni is a brilliant philosopher currently living in Jerusalem. He has become an important new voice on religion and spirituality. His weekly television program, which speaks powerfully to people from every background and walk of life, has become enormously popular in Israel (think Oprah). His new book SOUL PRINTS : A JOURNEY OF MYSTICAL DISCOVERY explores the individual blueprint of the soul--how each person seemed born to a different soul-driven destiny.
vaddra has timed out.
Lea - ?
Cel - anne, our next guest i
Cel - a Rabbi
Carrie - I can scan each of your pictures from your books, Or you can e-mail one to me!!!
DeloresF - Good night, guys
talpianna - I don't mean you shouldn't be idols; I mean a prof probably wouldn't approve.
Les - I've got to get to work, later!
Sara - Marc, welcome to Writerspace
Kiki - Doggies wanna go out........sorry, they are crossing their legs......goodnight!
Les - - 2/26 at 9:59pm EST
Sara - Hope you had a safe trip today!!
Kiki - - 2/26 at 9:59pm EST
Cel - Night Delores
bryony - Hi Marc ing from Australia
Sara - Can you tell us a little about yourself and your book?
talpianna - Definitely staying. Rabbi Gafni,
Catherine Spangler - ?
talpianna - Definitely staying. Rabbi Gaf,
Cel - I wonder if Cissy even has him on the phone yet
talpianna - Definitely staying. Rabbi Gaf,
Murialisa - lol cel!
Lea - Well all I am outtie
Lea -
Sara - Lea has the first question (Cathy is in line)
Lea - - 2/26 at 10:01pm EST
Melanie J - Nite Lea
Cel - Night Lea
Sara - yes, he is on the phone, Cel!!
DeloresF - - 2/26 at 10:01pm EST
Cel - Sara...sorry
Marc Gafni - Hi eveyrone, my name is Marc and I'm trying to engage in what I call a "soul print revolution." Soul print revolution means that we begin to think in soul print language. Soul print being the DNA of my soul. Just like everyone of us in this chat have a unique finger print, we also have a unique soulprint. Identifying my soul print and living in the world is the most incredible, gorgeous thing I can do in the world. So I've personally committed myself to helping spark a soul print revolution.
Sara - Cathy has the first question (no one is in line)
talpianna - Please put me in line.
Carrie - ?
Catherine Spangler - Shalom, Rabbi. What do you think about reincarnation?
Sara - np, cel -- remember long typing time
talpianna - Please put me in line.
Sara - Carrie has the next question (Talpianna is in line)
Camby - ?
Mari has timed out.
vadra - gnight all
talpianna - Melanie, it just isn't working tonite.
Melanie J - nite Vadra
Camby - G'nite vadra
Marc Gafni - Love reincarnation! The best! What does reincarnation mean? Reincarnation, my friend, Cathy means that it's not over when it's over and it didn't start at the beginning. What a stunning idea!
Melanie J - It wasn't important Talpianna. I was just teasing you
Catherine Spangler - ?
vadra - - 2/26 at 10:05pm EST
Sara - Carrie has the next question (Talpianna, Camby, Catherine in line)
Carrie - since souls can not be scientifically proven, how can you identify a soul print?
Marc Gafni - Reincarnation means--btw, reincarnation is a core idea in kabala--Reincaration means that all the people that I have significant soul-print encounters with in my life are part of my story. Every person I meet in a real way is not only a person I needed to meet but a person I may have met before.
Marc Gafni - Who knows, Cathy? Maybe we were married in a past life.
bryony -
talpianna - My computer is possessed by Julius, the evil
talpianna - My computer is possessed by Julius, the evil
Marc Gafni - okay - Carrie. One of the great idolatries of modernity is science. Love generally doesn't show up under the microscope, yet the core certainty of love's reality is a cornerstone, an axiom of our lives.
kamy - logged on - 2/26 at 10:07pm EST
kamy - evening
Catherine Spangler - I absolutely agree that there are few coincidences in life.
Sara - Talpianna has the next question (Camby, Catherine, byrony in line)
Sara - kamy, We're chatting tonight with Marc Gafni, author of SOUL PRINTS : A JOURNEY OF MYSTICAL DISCOVERY. If you have a question for Rabbi Gafni, type ? and I'll call on you in turn.
gerri - - 2/26 at 10:08pm EST
Sara - Well, I definitely agree with the idea about love and science!!
Cel - wb gerri
Sara - Gerri, We're chatting tonight with Marc Gafni, author of SOUL PRINTS : A JOURNEY OF MYSTICAL DISCOVERY. If you have a question for Rabbi Gafni, type ? and I'll call on you in turn.
gerri - HI
Melanie J - ?
Sara - Talpianna has the next question (Camby, Catherine, byrony in line)
Catherine Spangler - Hi Gerri and Kamy
Marc Gafni - In terms of the 2nd part of your question, how do I identify my soul print. First of all, a great question. Thanks for asking it. In essense, the entire book, SOUL PRINTS is about answering that question. In one sentence: there's something I call "soul print hints" which the universe sends me, in all shapes and sizes, which guide me in the process of soul-print identification. Learning how to hear, how to read those hints is the essense of the soul print path, and really the key to fulfilling my unique and personal destiny in the world. What could be more powerful than the realization that there's a song I can sing that is mine alone. There's a poem I can write that no one but me can write. There's a way of being in the world that reflects my unique essense. And what could be more devastating than the thought that I'm fully replaceable like a stone rippling in a pond, here today, irrelevant tomorrow.
talpianna - Marc, this is a bit off subject, but I've wanted to ask this question of a rabbi. Have you read Simon Wiesenthal's THE SUNFLOWER, about a death camp slave worker called to the bedside of a dying Nazi and asked to forgive him for his crimes against Jews. And what would be your answer as to whether he should? All the Jews whose essays were in the book said he shouldn't.
kamy - thanks sara
Lynsaysands - I saw a science documentary once where they were trying to prove a soul and weighed people as they died and they actually proved a difference of 7 ounces (on averge) that body weight drops on death and thought that might be the soul
kamy - - 2/26 at 10:10pm EST
Cel - - 2/26 at 10:11pm EST
Camby - wb Cel
Catherine Spangler - Lynsay, I've heard of similiar studies. There is evidence that the soul has weight.
Sara - Well, I don't think I am replaceable, or is that too egotistic? I have so many pieces of me that no one else has ever experienced.
talpianna - There is a book called THE SOUL TRIAL, about a lawsuit here in AZ about the will of a man who left about $1 million to anyone who could prove the existence of the soul.
Lynsaysands - That's not egotistical at all Sara, you are special. We all are.
Marc Gafni - I love you, talianna, but I can't believe you're talking about a different book! But I know that you're going to buy SOUL PRINTS and tell all your friends too. Now seriously, what the biblical position suggests is that I only have the right to forgive a person for what they did to me. If someone hurt you, certainly Gafni doesn't have the right to forgive them. Indeed, my mother, born in Poland, experienced the concentration camps first hand. She has the right to forgive. I cannot forgive for her. On a lighter note, I MAY --though I'm not sure--forgive you for not asking about SOUL PRINTS. (Just kidding) Indeed, sometimes the only way to hold the enormous evil of the Kingdom of the Night is to laugh out of one side of our mouths even as we cry.
Camby - I'd be interested in knowing this evidence Catherine. It brings all kinds of arguments from the Christian point of view.
Sara - Camby has the next question (Catherine, byrony, Melanie, Sara in line)
Carrie - gotta go, Thanks marc
Carrie - - 2/26 at 10:15pm EST
Cel - Night Carrie
Lynsaysands - night carrie
Marc Gafni - love to carrie
talpianna - Haven't found your book yet, Marc. We moles don't get out much. But some of the buddhist and Muslim commentators in the essays appended to the story said he should have forgiven for the sake of his OWN soul. I agree with you.
Camby - Hello Rabbi. Do you subscribe to the idea that religion and spirituality are separate entities? And if so, how do you combine them in an approach to the idea of a soul print? How would you choose which religion was the "correct" for lack of a better term path to embodying a soul? Did that make sense?
Catherine Spangler - What a great question, Cambry!
Marc Gafni - Great question!
Camby - thanks Cathy
talpianna - Catherine, I was with my father when he died. A couple of minutes after he was declared dead, his body exhaled a deep sigh. I ran for the nurse, who said it was a normal after-death phenomenon. The exhalation of air could account for the weight difference.
Cel - Sheesh Camby...I'm impressed!
Camby - LOL Cel. I have my moments
Catherine Spangler - Talipianna, I was with my mother when she passed also. And you're right about the exhalation. I don't profess to know the answers.
Marc Gafni - First, religion and spirituality are indeed separate even as they are they same. Now, what the hell does he mean by that? Okay, picture a symphony. In the symphony, every person plays their unique instrument. The diversity of sounds merging all the instruments played at once emerges as the sound of music. Now, spirituality is the music that emerges from the entire symphony. Religions each represent a different instrument in the symphony. Now, my soul print is actually about my own unique music. Religion is but an instrument to express the music of my soul. When religion becomes the end instead of the means, then religion becomes idolatrous. (more..
talpianna - logged on - 2/26 at 10:21pm EST
talpianna - logged on - 2/26 at 10:21pm EST
Camby - ? (getting back in line coz I have a rebuff to the first part of his answer!)
Cel - wb anne
Marc Gafni - My soul print, that is, the unique melody of me, which comes from not my outside stuff (my job, my body, my hair, my bank account) but from my inside stuff (my hopes, my memories, my dreams, my grandiosity, my unique silliness as I sing a rock concert with a broom handle as my microphone) all the stuff that makes me who I am and allows me to play my melody in the world, THAT is the expression, not of my ego, as Sara mentioned before but of my soul print. Follow this one, my friends: the language of God is you and me. Each one of us in this chatroom but literally each and every one of us, is an expression of some unique face of divinity without which the world would be so much poorer. Wow!!!!!
Sara - yes, Camby!!
Sara - Catherine has the next question (byrony, Melanie, Sara, Camby in line)
Marc Gafni - is re-butt an erotic word I'm not familiar with?
Sara - reBUFF
Camby - LOL That's rebuFF!
Sara - as in make shiny, no, we won't go there!!
bryony - Marc, believing in reincarnation is one thing but can our actions in one life, determine what happens in the next. Basically I'm asking if what goes around comes around. I know Buddhists (sp) believe this. If I'm a dirtbag in this life, will I be a cockroach in the next?
talpianna - Incidentally, the result of the soul trial was that the money was divided between several reputable psychical research societies and university departments of parapsychology.
Catherine Spangler - Rabbi, do you believe that we each have a special lesson to learn in each life time? What about free will? Is there such a thing as a soul mate (I know, three questions, but I had to ask)
Cel - LOL
Marc Gafni - well then my question still stands...
bryony - Sorry, it posted early, ignore it.
talpianna - Lining up again, Sara
Sara - ah, gee, cissy!! what are you telling him about us??
Catherine Spangler - I like your question, bry.
bryony - Am I still after Cathy Sara?
Marc Gafni - I'm just reading him what you type!
Sara - yes, bryony
Sara - Byrony has the next question (Melanie, Sara, Camby (rebuffing), Talpianna in line)
Sara - SRHEN
Ginger has timed out.
Lynsaysands - Maybe he hopped on the net before this and looked up some of the archives <G>
Murialisa - LOL Lynsay!
Sara - oh, my gosh, Lynsay!!! HE could have!!!
Marc Gafni - Catherine: First, there is a unique invitation in every life. The Hebrew word for "time" means invitation. There's an invitation to growth, to pleasure and to transformation which is unique to every lifetime. That's why it's so critical to live my story and now someone elses.
talpianna - Incidentally, the result of the soul trial was t hat the money was shared by several re
talpianna - I guess Camby works out--she's really buff!
Catherine Spangler - Oh, that's a scary thought. Woodchippers, axes, editor's hips . . .
Cel - Oh Lynsay...bite your tongue. The Rabbi might think none of us have a soul if he read some of the Lolly transcripts.
Sara - I hope that was NOT someone else's
Lynsaysands - Penis sizes and sex, oh dear
Melanie J - If a soul has a sort of DNA does that mean we have an emotional manifest destiny?
bryony - Have another drink Lynsay
talpianna - Maybe he'll do a cut-rate group exorcism on the side.
Sara - Byrony has the next question (Melanie, Sara, Camby (rebuffing), Talpianna in line)
Marc Gafni - What about free will?? Free will, of course, is a reality of our lives. But only--and this is one of the most mystical ideals of the kabala--but only in relation to tomorrow. I have free choice, I can choose any path, any person, any direction for tommorrow. But in terms of yesterday, I need to know that every place I've been I needed to be. And in some deep sense, it couldn't have been any different than it was. That is the great paradox of mystical thinking. Try and receive it, not through your scientific logical mind but in a higher place, the place of your "silence," what we call your higher will.
Murialisa - so do you guys want to write my next philosophy paper? you're much better at this than i am
Catherine Spangler - I've never heard of a Rabbi doing an exorcism. Although I'm sure mine has been tempted on numerous occasions.
Melanie J - Sorry, Sara, the computer took my question early
Sara - hmm, reconciling to our pasts! That is something hard for me to do.
Marc Gafni - I absolutely believe in a soul mate, although there's not only one, there are many people who could possibly be your soul mate, each one will challenge you and invite you to a different path of fulfillment and growth, and if you'll allow me in the gentle and sweetest way I indeed bless you to find your soul mate and your soul mate to be privileged and honored to find you.
talpianna - Boethius explained free will's compatibility with God's omniscience as God, being outside of time, perceiving all of time simultaneously.
Lynsaysands - Just think of it this way Sara, your past has made you who you are, even the bad stuff. You wouldn't be you without it, and we love you, so even the bad stuff was good ultimately
Sara - I understand, Melanie -- you have a copy of it for your turn?
Catherine Spangler - Thank you, Rabbi, I've already been blessed with a beautiful soul mate. I hope the same for you.
Marc Gafni - done with that question
Marc Gafni - done with that question
Melanie J - Yep
bryony - Sorry about the out of place post. I asked that if our actions in one life, affect what happens in the next. If I'm a dirtbag in this life, will I be a cockroach in the next? I guess I'm asking if there's a spiritual nemesis for each soul print. I know Buddhists (sp) believe in ongoing actions affecting future lives. Please tell me I'm making sense here.
talpianna - And, not to be overly modest, I read Boethius in Latin and in Middle English (Chaucer's translation).
Sara - You mean you don't lie awake at night and wonder why on earth you did something 10 years ago, and then wonder how different your life would be?
Sara - I understand, Melanie -- you have a copy of it for your turn?
Catherine Spangler - Sara, I personally believe we are guided to experiences we need to have.
Lynsaysands - It would be a waste of time Sara, I just try to learn from it and not do it again....hopefully
Catherine Spangler - Talpianna, I am *very* impressed.
Sara - Catherine, I think I believe that as well. It is just that I still manage to not be completely reconiled to them
Melanie J - I'm impressed, too. No wonder you think Lollies are light weights
Sara - Melanie has the next question (Sara, Camby (rebuffing), Talpianna in line)
Marc Gafni - You're definitely making sense. I'm not sure that dirtbags and cockroaches are related. It could be that you were a princess in the last life who forgot to ask the names of her servants and wasn't able to see them beyond the service that they offered her. So in this life, you could be either a servant or a princess again. One of the key issues in reincarnation is not to worry about it. That is to say, the task of kabbalah, the focus is always on the reality of this world. And it's important not to get lost somewhere in past life research. This world certainly offers enough to keep us busy. At the same time, the knowledge that there's more to life than life expresses itself in this reality is the beginning of enlightenment.
Catherine Spangler - You may have to come back a few more life times until you get it right.
Melanie J - Does the soul come with a sort of DNA? A Manifest destiny? Was Bryony born to be a spiritual cockroach ?
talpianna - Catherine--"guided to experiences that we need to have"? How does that apply to, say, the kids killed at Columbine High?
talpianna - Catherine--"guided to experiences that we need to have"? How does that apply to, say, the kids killed at Columbine High?
talpianna - Catherine--"guided to experiences that we need to have"? How does that apply to, say, the kids killed at Columbine High?
Sara - Melanie, is that your question?
bryony - Thanks very much Melanie!!!
Melanie J - Yes, it is

Go on to Part 2