Reverse Karma

I once met this guy, who wasn't a total douche overall*, but who thought that doing good things made bad shit happen to him. He called it "reverse karma." He said it was his destiny to become a criminal, and that it would be the only way for him to achieve happiness.

I completely ignored him, and I carried on with what I was doing.

But it keeps nagging at me. I've done tons of stuff for other people that result only-at least in part- in my suffering through something terrible. Sometimes other people end up hurt. Exempla gratia, I ran into a girl I knew a long time ago. Basically, I set her up with this guy, and they were happy for a while. At the time, I was romantic Jesus. Turns out he was a rapist-type-person.

That's when I remembered Reverse Karma's doctrine: altruistic deeds bring harm to either the doer, or the one the action is done upon.

Is Reverse Karma a thing, at least sometimes?

No good deed goes unpunished, huh?
I think we are all just part of events, sometimes forced to, and the outcome of them is random* regardless of previous actions.
So no, I don't believe even in Karma, much less in reverse Karma.



*

I read the book of Job (I never took the time to actually read the bible until recently), and I was pretty much mind fucked. I want to believe in Karma, but after looking back at all the shit that has happened to my father (despite his attempts to be a good person), I would have to conclude that reverse karma is more likely to occur. As for me, I'll continue to follow my father's footsteps just so long as I'm prepared for the consequences. I believe the strongest people are the ones who don't mind carrying the weight of regret and misery (just so long as they don't bring other people down with them).

No offense brother, but that reverse Karma business sounds pretty ridiculous. You're just a victim of events you can't really prevent. On a side note, i believe Karma in general to be unnecessary. I like the idea of good things coming to good people. But to often has it become the motivator for doing good deeds, at all. When you let it dictate your actions, it becomes an exchange.

I can bring up a specific event, i saw a man drop his wallet, and he'd already gotten a good distance away from it. I picked it up and jogged over to him to return it. He was so grateful he actually gave me all the money in his wallet. I got a handshake out of it to, honestly the handshake meant a lot more to me than the sum of money i received. And i feel that my good action may influence him to do the same for others. That's my own kind of Karma, doing good, feeling good and hoping you left an impression. I never expected him to give me all his money, I wouldn't have been bitter if he hadn't.

No such thing as reverse karma.

No such thing as reverse karma as there's no such thing as Karma. If there's such a thing close enough to Karma it's the fact that whatever you do merits you impressions from everyone which you have no control over whatsoever. With that said, it doesn't mean doing good will give you always a positive impression. Sometimes doing good has its negative effects as people around you become suspicious of your intentions. Of course this is true for bad deeds as well depending on your peers, doing something bad can earn you a 'badass' reputation and increase your overall popularity which is a good thing. But I don't know, you see things like Karma and Reverse Karma can be given life by belief. If you and everyone around you believe in those things then it's highly possible that you're to perceive things around you as a result of those concepts.

I cease to believe in any religion and allowed myself to believe that my actions themselves to be the only thing to dictate my future. If i don't study, i'll get a bad future, it's that simple.

Karma itself is just a fragment that comes to my head time to time for me to do that little good things because it simply gives me the feeling that the day will be good. I don't do it daily, only in random intervals. There's no name for such a mentality, so i'd just adopt "karma" as it's name.

It's just your brain playing tricks on you, that you expect good things to come yet most of the time it turns out the exact opposite.

I know a guy who was a total dick, but his bad karma seemed to be deflected on to the people around him. he'd steal something, i get hit by a car. he beats someone up, our other friend's bank account disapears.

i think it caught up to him though, he's currently serving 25 to life.

Personally I don't believe in karma at all mostly on the basis that if it existed I would've been in some kind of horrible accident at this point. That aside, things don't always happen in life the way that we want them to or that we think they should, but that doesn't meant that they're a bad thing. What matters is how you deal with and learn from those "wrong" events. It's easy to have something go wrong and never try to fix it or to blame it on karma; what's hard is to push through what's happening and find something negative that you can actively change into a positive.

Karma is just as imaginary as any other spiritual force in the universe.

My advice? Don't worry about it. You'll be fine as long as you keep being a good person. Being a bad person won't change whats happening to you...in fact I would submit it would simply make things worse.

Karma does not exist.I mean if you do good deeds and then suddenly,you got bad lucks.It means that bad luck maybe good for you.
As an example,you helped a guy,then suddenly,you won a lottery.So, you're rushing to get the money.But the traffic jam
stops you for a very long period of time.And you got frustrated when the lottery shop closed and you don't get the money.Tommorow morning,you heard the guy that transferred the prize money is robbed and killed by some thugs.
Conclusion?Everything that happens to you have hidden benefits,you just don't see it.

How do I explain myself? I don't believe in Karma, but I do believe that what goes around comes around, but from the sound of it, Reverse Karma is just ridicolous.

If I was to believe Karma, I still wouldn't believe "Reverse Karma"

@OP, While what happned to you was just bad luck. Hurting people for self benefit mostly pays off, so yeah doing bad things does make one happy unless you have a conscience and feel bad about it.

Couldn't agree more. As an athiest I've got to add also that morality shouldn't be exchanged for some sort of cosmic reward, instead doing the right thing should just be the inherancy of human nature. Be good not to get some reward later, but because it's good. That's the long and short of it.

Can I ask a question though? In example, I found 50 dollar bill and I decide to keep it for myself, and after a while, I lost a 50 dollar bill (real life experience), would you call this karma or just a coincidence?

A small technicality here, karma does not quite determine consequences as a result of an action, but rather one's status in the reincarnation cycle. What you're actually look for is causality.

Coincidence.

But you are free to believe whatever you'd like to.

I'd like to mention the fact that if you found a 50 dollar bill and decide to keep it for yourself, that means someone else had to have lost that 50 dollar bill for it to happen.

Usually, when something good happens to you, something bad happens to other people. For example, you won the lottery, other people lost their money.
But then, there are exceptions when you FEEL good about yourself. For example, giving money to charity, you feel good, others receive.

Cycle of life I say.

Rather then karma, I believe in cause and effect.(same shit, but whatever)
Going off on the "lost 50 dollar bill"

Someone loses a 50.
You pick it up.
Now choices branch off, and you have a few choices.
1. You keep it and use it for personal gain.
2. You bring it to the police station lost and found(which is fucking dumb)
3. You donate it.

Disregarding option 2, either way you got, you still gain. 1 being monetary gain, and 3 being a "feel good" gain.

Someone did lose 50 bucks, and may it be your luck, karma, or whatever that you found that fifty, I don't think it'll effect anyone else, besides the person who lost the fifty.

---

Reverse karma? Naw, I don't believe in it. Every choice you make has an effect. Whether its good or bad, its your choice and its your way of life.

Karma? Naw, I don't believe in that either. What you do for "good" is for yourself. Whatever you gain is your own gain from you own actions(whether directly or indirectly) You do what you do, and you get what you get.

p.s: I get the feeling reverse karma is related to the butterfly effect.

Personally, I don't believe in Karma, only luck.