Power Point on eternal recurrence

1. Reincarnation,
Eternal Recurrence,
Cloud Atlas
Alicia Acevedo
Britteny Parten
Wendy Rubio-Abad

2. Reincarnation
By Alicia Acevedo
• “Reincarnation is the rebirth of the
soul after the body’s death into a
new physical body, which may be
human or animal as well as divine,
angelic, demonic, vegetative, or
celestial.” (Lewis, 303

3. Reincarnation is found in the religions of various
cultures all around the world.
Included among these are:
• Religions of India
• The Yoruba of West Africa
• Australian Aboriginal people
• Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders

4. Hinduism
• For Hindus, the goal is to
escape rebirth by suppressing
all desires except the desire for
perfect unification with the
universal self or with the divine.”
(Lewis, 303-304)

5. “This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned
nor dried. He is everlasting, present everywhere, unchangeable, immovable
and eternally the same.”
—Bhagavad Gita 2.24

6. The Yoruba
• Four important beliefs:
• I. God—“No one teaches a child God.”
• II. Karma—“When Mr. Lizard eats pepper, it is he who perspires and not Mrs.
Lizard.”
• III. Reincarnation—The Yoruba give their children names like Babatunde,
“Father has returned.”
• IV. Death—Death is not looked on as something to feared, but rather a chance
to live again.

7. Australian Aboriginal people
• “In every tribe without exception, there exists a firm belief in the reincarnation
of ancestors.” —Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen
(Cranston, 166-167)

8. Hawaii and the Pacific Islands
• Many people in the Pacific Islands believe in reincarnation, including
the Maori, the Tasmanians, Tahitians, Fijians, Trobriands, Solomon
Islanders, Marquesans, the tribes of New Caledonia, and the
Melanesians. (Cranston, 168)
• For the Hawaiians, in the religious philosophy known as Huna, there
were “three departments of the human being, a low, and middle, and
a higher self.” The low involved the emotions and the body; the
middle is a being of reason; and the High Self was the “source of
spiritual wisdom and power.” (Cranston, 169)

9. In many traditions concerning reincarnation, it is
believed that birthmarks are imprinted onto a baby from
their soul being reborn and are a result of scars or
wounds from a previous life. (Edwards, 135-138)

10. By Britteny Parten

11. Freidrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
German Philosopher whose writings were based on
• truth
• morality
• language
• cultural theory
• history
• power
• consciousness
• the meaning of existence

12. He states:
“God has already died at our hands and in
truth there is only one Christian, and he
died on the cross.”
He believes that faith in God devalues life.
He asserts that humanity must learn to live
without seeking comfort in supernatural
power.
Nietzsche and Christianity
Nietzsche has a strong objection to Christianity which stems from his views on morality

13. Nietzsche was not the first to encounter this
theory of Eternal Recurrence. Heinrich Heine
wrote “For time is infinite…All configurations
that have previously existed on this earth
must yet meet, attract, repulse, kiss, and
corrupt each other again…and thus it will
happen one day that a man will be born
again” (McDonald).
Nietzsche was mesmerized by Heine’s theory and
decided to adopt the theory and continue with his ideas.
The Start of Freidrich Nietzsche’s Theory

14. “What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into
your loneliest loneliness and say to you: "This life as you now
live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and
innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but
every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and
everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to
return to you, all in the same succession and sequence -- even
this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this
moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is
turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of
dust!" Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth
and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once
experienced a tremendous moment when you would have
answered him: "You are a god and never have I heard anything
more divine"? If this thought gained possession of you, it would
change you as you are, or perhaps crush you”
Nietzsche’s proposes this theory
(McDonald)

15. Nietzsche’s Eternal Recurrence theory asks
• How differently would one live if one did, in fact, face each day as though one would
have to live it over innumerable times?
• What different choices would one make?
• Would one really agree to sentence oneself to an eternal life of drudgery and boredom,
by making other choices, one could life of real mean and excitement and vitality?
• What is the meaning of MY life?
(Mark)

16. Nietzsche believes that man has only one task in life which is to live life passionately. The
term Eternal Recurrence was adopted as a thought experiment to test one’s willpower,
causing people to be able to endure the thought of reliving his/her entire life’s experience
over and over, with neither bitterness nor regret.
With also realizing that the pleasant elements and unpleasant elements in life occur again too because
the two are entangled (Kebede). The good comes with the bad.
Translating the message of his theory
(Saunders)

17. “The meaning of life then becomes living
life itself to the fullest, experience all it has
to offer; whether one then gets to live it
over again eternally isn’t really the point—
the point is to live it now.” (Mark)

18. Cloud Atlas
Reincarnation and Eternal Recurrence
By Wendy Rubio-Abad

19. Within the Novel we find that the protagonists of each story are born with a distinct birthmark.
A birthmark that ties them to their past life and actions.

20. Mitchell utilizes the recurring 'comet birthmark' to symbolize the reincarnation of the protagonists.
Robert Frobisher, “She plays with that birthmark in the hollow of my shoulder, the one you said resembles a comet- can't
abide the woman dabbling with my skin (Mitchell 85).”
Luisa Rey, “ Robert Frobisher mentions a comet shaped birthmark between his shoulder blade and collarbone. I just don't
believe in this crap. I just don't believe it. I don't (Miller 120).” “Luisa's birthmark throbs. She grasps for the ends of
this elastic moment, but they disappear into the past and the future (Mitchrell 430)
Timothy Cavendish, “(I, too, have a birthmark, below my left armpit, but no lover ever compared it to a comet. Georgette
nicknamed it Timbo's Turd (Mitchell 357).”
Sonmi-451, “I was fritened of incriminating myself, but only my birthmark provoked any passing comment. Xtraordinary. It
looks like a comet, don't you think? Hae-Joo Im made xactly the same remark, curiously (Mitchell 198).”

21. “Luisa stands, entranced, as if living in a stream of time. 'I know this music'...'Where have I heard it before?
(Mitchell 408-409).”
Luisa Rey remembers Zedelghem and all its inhabitants further demonstrating that she is Robert Frobisher's
reincarnation.

22. “Rome'll decline and fall again, Cortes'll lay Tenochtitlan to waste again, and later, Ewing will sail again, Adrian'll be blown to
pieces again, you and I'll sleep under Corsican stars again, I'll come to Bruges again, fall in and out of love with Eva again,
you'll read this letter again, the sun'll grow cold again. Nietzsche's gramophone record.
When it ends, the Old One plays it again, for an eternity of eternities (Mitchell 471).”

23. Cloud Atlas is organized in a circular structure demonstrating the continuum of time, showing the limited
amount of events that occur throughout history before they repeat themselves.

24. Eternal Recurrence
“Mr. D'Arnoq's preferred theorum, that the Moriori were once Maori whose canoes were wrecked upon these
remotest of isles... after centuries or millennia of living in isolation, the Moriori lived as primitive a life as their
woebegone cousins of Can Diemen's Land...Art's of boatbuilding ( beyond crude woven rafts used to crossthe
channels betwixt islands) & navigation fell into disuse (Mitchell 11).”
In this telling of the forgotten knowledge that the Moriori once possessed Mitchell explains the fate of Zachry and
his people in Sloosha's Crossin' An' Ev'rythin'.

25. Because these cycles repeat themselves you are bound to live these events over and over again unless you act
contrary to your intuition. Fundamental changes in the cycle of events can only occur when an individual focuses on
living life instead of trying to predict the future.
“If you could see the future, like you can see the end of Sixteenth Street from the top of Kilroy's department store,
that means it's already there. If it's already there, you can't change it. Yes, but what's at the end of Sixteenth street
isn't made by what you do. It's pretty much fixed, by planners, architects, designers, unless you go and blow a
building up or something. What happens in a minute's time is made by what you do (Mitchell 401).”

26. David Mitchell ensures to include a comet shaped birthmark on each protagonist with the exception of Zachry.
In contrast, the film gives all of the protagonists a birthmark, which varies in location. The film utilizes the
birthmark as a visual symbol to connect the main characters through out the film. For this reason in the film
Zachry is given a birthmark. Another visual symbol utilized in the film is the use of repetition. The cast is utilized
several times as different character within the movie. This repetition helps the viewer connect the previous story
to the following one. Yet, this was not intended to signify that each character was a reincarnation of itself.

27. Cloud Atlas Sextet' theme is played repeatedly, which helps unify the main character of each
story to it's reincarnated soul in the next story. One prime example is the use of the Cloud Atlas
theme song during Zachry and the chief Abbess' conversation before his journey with Meronym.
The theme song starts during the mentioning of Sonmi's name and continues when the Sonmi's
story begins (Thorpe).

28. Reincarnation and eternal recurrence are major themes that factor heavily in how Cloud Atlas is structure
both as a story and as a statement. Protagonist, actions, and events all intertwine to make the story of a
whole world who's lives are destined to relive life over and over again.

29. Works Cited
Bhagavad Gita. Web. 9 April 2015. http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/
Cloud Atlas. Dir. Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski. Perf. Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent.
Warner Bros. Pictures, 26 Oct. 2012. DVD.
Cranston, Sylvia, and Carey Williams. Reincarnation: A New Horizon in Science, Religion, and Society. New York,
N.Y: Julian Press, 1984. Print.
Edwards, Paul. Reincarnation: A Critical Examination. Amherst, N.Y: Prometheus Books, 1996. Print.
Kebede, Admassu. The Doctrine of the Eternal Recurrence. April 2010. Web. April 12, 2015.
<htttps://suite.io/admassu-kebede/2ew020w>
Lewis, James R. “Reincarnation.” Encyclopedia of Afterlife Beliefs and Phenomena. Detroit: Gale Research Inc.,
1994. 303-304. Print.
Lomax, Harvey. Nietzsche and the Eternal Recurrence. PhilosophyNow.org. 2000. Web. April 12, 2015.
<https://philosophynow.org/issues/29/Nietzsche_and_the_Eternal_Recurrence

30. Works Cited Cont.
Mark, Joshua. Nietzsche’s Theory of Eternal Recurrence. April 2009. Web. April 12, 2015.
<https;//suite.io/Joshua-mark/1cs32t8>
McDonald, Matt. Eternal Recurrence. Lmu.edu. Web April 12, 2015.
<https://myweb.lmu.edu/tshanahan/Nietzsche-Eternal_Recurrence.html>
Mitchell, David. Cloud Atlas. New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 2004. Print.
Saunders, Emily. Eternal Recurrence. Tvtropes.org. Web. April 12, 2015.
<http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EternalRecurrence>
Thorpe, Craig Ryan. “Cloud Atlas and the Music that Transcends Time.” Academia, May 2014.
Web. 11 Apr. 2015
Wilkerson, Dale. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). Web. April 12, 2015. <http://iep.utm.edu/nietzsch/>