Reincarnation

Reincarnation in Hindu art

Reincarnation (literally, "to be made flesh again") is believed to occur when the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, comes back to Earth in a newborn body. This doctrine is a central tenet within the majority of Indian religious traditions, such as Hinduism and Jainism.

Belief in reincarnation has ancient roots; the idea was entertained by some ancient Greek philosophers. During recent decades, a significant number of people in the West have developed a belief in reincarnation. Many modern Neopagans believe in reincarnation, as do some New Age movements, along with followers of Spiritism, practitioners of certain African traditions, and students of esoteric philosophies such as Kabbalah, and Gnostic and Esoteric Christianity. Feature films, such as Kundun, What Dreams May Come and Birth; contemporary books by authors such as Carol Bowman and Vicki Mackenzie; as well as popular songs, regularly mention reincarnation.

The Buddhist concept of rebirth, although often referred to as reincarnation, differs significantly from the Hindu-based traditions and New Age movements in that there is no unchanging "soul", "spirit', or "eternal self" to reincarnate. Additionally, while reincarnation generally implies the taking of a human form on Earth, Buddhist cosmology posits that people are reborn into many worlds, in which they take on varied forms.

Indian religions

Eastern philosophical and religious beliefs regarding the existence or non-existence of an unchanging 'self' have a direct bearing on how reincarnation is viewed within a given tradition.

In India, the concept of reincarnation (along with karma, samsara, and moksha) was likely first developed within the pre-Aryan non-Vedic culture, whose spiritual ideas greatly influenced later Indian religious thought. Buddhism and Jainism are continuations of this tradition, and the early Upanishadic movement was influenced by it. Reincarnation was adopted from this religious culture by Brahmin orthodoxy, and Brahmins first wrote down scriptures containing these ideas in the early Upanishads.

Hinduism

Main article: Reincarnation and Hinduism

According to Hinduism, the soul (atman) is immortal, while the body is subject to birth and death. The Bhagavad Gita states;

• "Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change". (2: 12-13)

and;

• "Worn-out garments are shed by the body; Worn-out bodies are shed by the dweller within the body. New bodies are donned by the dweller, like garments". (2:22)

The idea that the soul (of any living being with a consciousness) reincarnates is intricately linked to karma, another concept first recorded in the Upanishads. Karma (literally: action) is the sum of one's actions and the force that determines one's next reincarnation. The cycle of death and rebirth, governed by karma, is referred to as samsara.

Hinduism teaches that the soul goes on repeatedly being passed from body to body through the physical cycle of death and birth. One is reborn on account of desire: a person desires to be born because he or she wants to enjoy worldly pleasures, which can be enjoyed only through a body. Hinduism does not teach that all worldly pleasures are sinful, but it teaches that they can never bring deep, lasting happiness or peace (ānanda). According to the Hindu sage Adi Shankaracharya, the world - as we ordinarily understand it - is like a dream: fleeting and illusory. To be trapped in samsara is a result of ignorance of the true nature of our existence.

After many births, every person eventually becomes dissatisfied with the limited happiness that worldly pleasures can bring. At this point, a person begins to seek higher forms of happiness, which can be attained only through spiritual experience. When, after much spiritual practice (sādhanā), a person finally realizes his or her own divine nature—i.e., realizes that the true "self" is the immortal soul rather than the body or the ego—all desires for the pleasures of the world will vanish, since they will seem insipid compared to spiritual ānanda. When all desire has vanished, the person will not be reborn anymore.

When the cycle of rebirth thus comes to an end, a person is said to have attained moksha, or salvation from samsara. While all schools of thought agree that moksha implies the cessation of worldly desires and freedom from the cycle of birth and death, the exact definition of salvation depends on individual beliefs. For example, followers of the Advaita Vedanta school (often associated with jnana yoga) believe that they will spend eternity absorbed in the perfect peace and happiness that comes with the realization that all existence is One (Brahman), and that the immortal soul is part of that existence. The followers of full or partial Dvaita schools ("dualistic" schools, such as bhakti yoga), on the other hand, perform their worship with the goal of spending eternity in a loka, (spiritual world or heaven), in the blessed company of the Supreme being (i.e. Krishna or Vishnu for the Vaishnavas and Shiva for the dualistic schools of Shaivism). The principal Hindu Gods are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and their consorts Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati. While there is hardly any text describing reincarnation of Brahma and Saraswati, the rest of the Gods are known to have reincarnated in various forms under different circumstances. Lord Vishnu is known for His ten reincarnations, namely Dashavatars.

Jainism

Further information: Karma in Jainism and Jain philosophy

In Jainism, particular reference is given to how devas (gods) also reincarnate after they die. A Jain who accumulates enough good karma may become a deva but this is generally seen as undesirable since devas eventually die and one might then come back as a lesser being. This belief also exists in a number of schools of Hinduism.

Buddhism

Main article: Rebirth (Buddhism)

Gautama Buddha taught a distinct concept of rebirth constrained by the concepts: anattā, that there is no irreducible ātman or "self" tying these lives together; and anicca, that all compounded things are subject to dissolution, including all the components of the human person and personality. At the death of one personality, a new one comes into being, much as the flame of a dying candle can serve to light the flame of another. Transmigration is the effect of karma (kamma) , volitional action. Instead of a fixed entity, what is reborn is an "evolving consciousness" (M.1.256) or "stream of consciousness" (D.3.105), whose quality has been conditioned by karma.

Buddhism suggests that samsara, the process of rebirth, occurs across five or six realms of existence. It is actually said in Tibetan Buddhism that it is very rare for a person to be reborn in the immediate next life as a human. This depends on the karmic potentialities (or "seeds") they have created with their actions and upon their state of mind at the time of death. If we die with a peaceful mind, this will stimulate a virtuous seed and we shall experience a fortunate rebirth; but if we die with a disturbed mind, in a state of anger, say, this will stimulate a non-virtuous seed and we shall experience an unfortunate rebirth. This is similar to the way in which nightmares are triggered by our being in an agitated state of mind just before falling asleep.

Tibetan Buddhists believe that an accomplished or realized practitioner (by maintaining conscious awareness during the death process) can choose to return to samsara and exist within, but no longer uncontrollably bound to, the cycle of rebirth. In this way, many lamas choose to be born again and again as humans, and are called tulkus or incarnate lamas.

Skeptic Carl Sagan asked the Dalai Lama what would he do if a fundamental tenet of his religion (reincarnation) was definitively disproved by science. The Dalai Lama answered; "if science can disprove reincarnation, Tibetan Buddhism would abandon reincarnation... but it's going to be mighty hard to disprove reincarnation."

• See also Anatta, Vajrayana, Mahayana, Theravada, Tulku

Sikhism

Sikhs believe that every creature has a Soul; on death, the Soul is passed from one body to another until Liberation. The journey of the Soul is governed by the deeds and actions that we perform during our lives. If we perform good deeds and actions and remember the Creator, we attain a better life. On the contrary, if we carry out evil actions and sinful deeds, we will be incarnated in “lower” life forms – snakes, lions, zebra, monkeys, hippopotamus etc.

The Karmas of a person will definitely have their effect, both good and bad. No worldly power can change the course of their movement. But according to the Sikh thought, the Almighty God, with his Grace, may pardon the wrongs of a person and thus release him/her from the pangs of suffering. Reincarnation, simply stated, is the law of cause and effect: reincarnation does not create any caste or differences among people: past and present life's actions simply have a bearing upon a specific individual. Reincarnation in no way makes one superior to another.

Theosophy

The Theosophical Society, the first institution in the modern west to spread the concept of reincarnation, draws much of its inspiration from India. The idea is, according to a recent Theosophical writer, "the master-key to modern problems," including heredity.

In the Theosophical world-view reincarnation is the vast rhythmic process by which the soul, the part of man which belongs to the formless non-material and timeless worlds, unfolds its spiritual powers in the world and comes to know itself. It descends from sublime, free, spiritual realms and gathers experience through its effort to express itself in the world. Afterwards there is a withdrawal from the physical plane to successively higher levels of Reality, in death, a purification and assimilation of the past life. Having cast off all instruments of personal experience it stands again in its spiritual and formless nature, ready to begin its next rhythmic manifestation, every lifetime bringing it closer to complete self-knowledge and self-expression. However it may attract old mental, emotional, and energetic karma patterns to form the new personality.

Taoism and the Native American nations

Taoist documents from as early as the Han Dynasty claimed that Lao Tzu appeared on earth as different persons in different times beginning in the legendary era of Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. The (ca. 3rd century BCE) Chuang Tzu states: "Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end. There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without a starting-point. Existence without limitation is Space. Continuity without a starting point is Time. There is birth, there is death, there is issuing forth, there is entering in."

Reincarnation is an intrinsic part of many Native American and Inuit traditions. In the now heavily Christian Polar North (now mainly parts of Greenland and Nunavut), the concept of reincarnation is enshrined in the Inuit language.

The following is a story of human-to-human reincarnation as told by Thunder Cloud, a Winnebago shaman referred to as T. C. in the narrative. Here T. C. talks about his two previous lives and how he died and came back again to this his third lifetime. He describes his time between lives, when he was “blessed” by Earth Maker and all the abiding spirits and given special powers, including the ability to heal the sick.

T. C.’s Account of His Two Reincarnations

I (my ghost) was taken to the place where the sun sets (the west). ... While at that place, I thought I would come back to earth again, and the old man with whom I was staying said to me, “My son, did you not speak about wanting to go to the earth again?” I had, as a matter of fact, only thought of it, yet he knew what I wanted. Then he said to me, “You can go, but you must ask the chief first.” Then I went and told the chief of the village of my desire, and he said to me, “You may go and obtain your revenge upon the people who killed your relatives and you.” Then I was brought down to earth. ... There I lived until I died of old age. ... As I was lying [in my grave], someone said to me, “Come, let us go away.” So then we went toward the setting of the sun. There we came to a village where we met all the dead. ... From that place I came to this earth again for the third time, and here I am. (Radin, 1923)

Western religions and traditions

Sculpture title "Rebirth" on display on Genova Street in the "Zona Rosa" in Mexico City.

Metempsychosis (Greek: μετεμψύχωσις) in the Greek language means "transmigration of the soul", especially its reincarnation after death, wherein an individual incarnates from one body to another, either human, animal, or plant. Another term sometimes used synonymously is Palingenesia. The former term has been used by modern philosophers such as Schopenhauer and Kurt Gödel and Nietzsche..

The Orphic religion, which held the doctrine, first appeared in Thrace in north-eastern Greece and, about the 6th century BC, organized itself into private and public mysteries at Eleusis and elsewhere, and produced a copious literature. . Orpheus, its legendary founder, is said to have taught that the soul is divine, immortal and aspires to freedom, while the body holds it in fetters as a prisoner. The soul is breathed into the human body through the Aither (air) where in the human host it atones for sins of Titan heritage. Death dissolves this, only to re-imprison the liberated soul after a short time. The wheel of birth revolves inexorably, the soul alternates between a separate unrestrained existence and fresh reincarnation, round the wide circle of necessity as the companion of many bodies of men and animals. Orpheus proclaims the message of liberation, the need of the grace of redeeming gods and of Dionysus in particular and of ascetic self-purification, until the soul has completed the spiral ascent of destiny to live for ever as God from whom it comes.

The earliest Greek thinker with whom metempsychosis is connected is Pherecydes of Syros; but Pythagoras, who is said to have been his pupil, is its first famous philosophic exponent. Pythagoras probably brought Orphic doctrine from North-Eastern Hellas to Magna Graecia and instituted societies for its diffusion. Several ancient sources affirm that Pythagoras claimed he could remember his past lives. An association between Pythagorean philosophy and reincarnation was routinely accepted throughout antiquity.

Plato presented a detailed account of reincarnation in his major works, particularly the Myth of Er. In Plato's Phaedo Socrates, prior to his death, states; "I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living again, and that the living spring from the dead." However Xenophon does not mention Socrates as believing in reincarnation.

In the Republic he tells how Er, the son of Armenius, miraculously returned to life on the twelfth day after death and recounted the secrets of the other world. Men were seen passing into animals and wild and tame animals changing into each other. After their choice the souls drank of Lethe and then shot away like stars to their birth. There are myths and theories to the same effect in other dialogues, the Phaedrus, Meno, Timaeus and Laws. In Plato's view the number of souls was fixed; birth therefore is never the creation of a soul, but only a transmigration from one body to another. Plato's acceptance of the doctrine is characteristic of his sympathy with popular beliefs and desire to incorporate them in a purified form into his system. Aristotle, a far less emotional and sympathetic mind, has a doctrine of immortality totally inconsistent with it.

The concept underpins Plato's ideas concerning innate knowledge. Plato may have incorporated this concept from two Greek religious groups that preceded him: the Pythagoreans or the Orphics. Plato taught that "all learning is but recollection" because we have innate knowledge of universal ideas (e.g., everywhere, a triangle has 3 sides—hence its universality) from the past experiences of our immortal soul. This soul, according to Platonic thought, once separated from the body, spends an indeterminate amount of time in "formland" (see The Allegory of the Cave in The Republic) and then assumes another body. Therefore, according to Plato, we need only recall our buried memories to manifest innate knowledge.

In later Greek literature the doctrine appears from time to time; it is mentioned in a fragment of Menander (the Inspired Woman) and satirized by Lucian (Gallus 18 seq.). In Roman literature it is found as early as Ennius, who in his Calabrian home must have been familiar with the Greek teachings which had descended to his times from the cities of Magna Graecia. In a lost passage of his Annals, a Roman history in verse, Ennius told how he had seen Homer in a dream, who had assured him that the same soul which had animated both the poets had once belonged to a peacock. Persius in one of his satires (vi. 9) laughs at Ennius for this: it is referred to also by Lucretius (i. 124) and by Horace (Epist. II. i. 52). Virgil works the idea into his account of the Underworld in the sixth book of the Aeneid (vv. 724 sqq.). It persists in antiquity down to the latest classic thinkers, Plotinus and the other Neoplatonists. In the Hermetica, a Graeco-Egyptian series of writings on cosmology and spirituality attributed to Hermes Trismegistus/Thoth, the doctrine of reincarnation is central.

Norse mythology

Sváfa holding the dying Helgi in their first incarnation of three.

Reincarnation also appears in Norse mythology, in the Poetic Edda. The editor of the Poetic Edda says that Helgi Hjörvarðsson and his mistress, the valkyrie Sváfa, whose love story is told in the Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, were reborn as Helgi Hundingsbane and the valkyrie Sigrún. Helgi and Sigrún's love story is the matter of a part of the Völsunga saga and the lays Helgakviða Hundingsbana I and II. They were reborn a second time as Helgi Haddingjaskati and the valkyrie Kára, but unfortunately their story, Káruljóð, only survives in a probably modified form in the Hrómundar saga Gripssonar.

The belief in reincarnation was probably commonplace among the Vikings since the annotator of the Poetic Edda wrote that people formerly used to believe in it, but that it was in his (Christian) time considered "old wives' folly":

Sigrun was early dead of sorrow and grief. It was believed in olden times that people were born again, but that is now called old wives' folly. Of Helgi and Sigrun it is said that they were born again; he became Helgi Haddingjaskati, and she Kara the daughter of Halfdan, as is told in the Lay of Kara, and she was a Valkyrie.

The Druids

Although Julius Caesar recorded that the druids of Gaul, Britain and Ireland had metempsychosis as one of their core doctrines, there is no indication that it was significantly related to that concept among the Greeks.

Judaic monotheism

Judaism

Rabbi Yirmiyahu Ullman wrote that "Reincarnation is an ancient, mainstream belief in Judaism". Rabbi Avraham Arieh Trugman states that Jewish tradition supports reincarnation though the idea has only been openly discussed in the last five centuries. There is no reference to reincarnation in the Talmud or any prior writings and most Jews do not believe in it but it is found in oral tradition (qabala) concerning the meaning of the Torah.. Reincarnation, called gilgul, became popular in folk belief and is found in the Yiddish literature of Ashkenazi Jews. Several of Martin Buber's early collection of stories of Baal Shem Tov refer to successive lives. Most Orthodox Jewish prayerbooks have a prayer asking for forgiveness of sins committed in this gilgul or a previous one. Qabalists see the Zohar, the key text of Qabala as mentioning the idea, that the idea that human souls could reincarnate into non-human bodies is found in Qabalistic works from the 1200s and among mystics in the late 1500s.

Ullman and Rabbi Shraga Simmons see the idea intimated in Deuteronomy 33:6, following the ancient commentator Onkelos, who interpreted 'Let Reuben live and not die…' as meaning that Reuben should merit the World to Come directly, and not have to die again as result of being reincarnated. Deut. 25:5-10, and Isaiah 22:14, 65:6 are also cited. Nachmanides (Ramban 1195-1270), saw the idea in Job’s saying 'God does all these things twice or three times with a man to bring back his soul from the pit to…the light of the living' (Job 33:29,30)."

Other well-known rabbis who are reincarnationists include Rabbi Yonassan Gershom, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, Talmud scholar Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, Rabbi DovBer Pinson, Rabbi David M. Wexelman, Rabbi Zalman Schachter, and many others, too numerous to mention. Among well known (generally non-kabbalist or anti-kabbalist) Rabbis who rejected the idea of reincarnation are Saadia Gaon, David Kimhi, Hasdai Crescas, Yedayah Bedershi (early 14th century), Joseph Albo, Abraham ibn Daud, the Rosh and Leon de Modena. Saadia Gaon's Emunoth ve-Deoth refutes the doctrine, calling it a non-Jewish beliefs.

• See also Gilgul

Christianity

Mainstream Christian denominations have rejected the notion of reincarnation but some of the earliest Christian sects such as the Sethians and followers of the Gnostic Church of Valentinus believed in it. Some Christians contend that reincarnation was taught by the early Christian church, but due to bias and mistranslations, these teachings were lost or obscured. Geddes Macgregor argued that the Early Church Father Origen taught reincarnation.

The New Testament has passages that have been taken to allude to reincarnation. In Matthew 11:10-14 and 17:10-13, John 1:21, the Jews ask John the Baptist if he is Elijah and John replies that he is not. However this is a special case as Elijah was taken bodily up to heaven in a whirlwind and a chariot of fire, and Malachi 4:5 [1] states that God would send Elijah back to Earth as a foreunner of the Messiah. According to Luke Jesus and John were born respectively to barren Elizabeth and Zacharias; Jesus, firstborn of Mary, was the first to rise from the dead, visibly demonstrating his power over death. Other passages seem to reject the possibility of any return or contact with this world for souls in Heaven or Hell.

During the Renaissance there was new interest in reincarnation. Marsilio Ficino (Platonic Theology 17.3-4) argued that Plato's references to reincarnation were intended allegorically but Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake by the Inquisition because of his teachings about reincarnation.

A few modern churches indirectly address the subject through teachings about death (see Particular judgment) or consider the matter open to individual interpretation due to the few biblical references that survive.

Among modern Christian-oriented teachings, the Anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner describes the human soul as gaining new experiences in every epoch and in a variety of races or nations. Though Steiner described the incarnating soul as searching for and even preparing a familial lineage supportive of its future life, a person's character is also determined by his or her past lives. Some events occur due to our past, others prepare us for the future. Between these there is space for human free will. Steiner investigated the karma of many historical individuals, from Karl Marx to Julian the Apostate. Anthroposophy has developed various spiritual exercises that are intended to develop the capacity to discern past lives.

The American mystic Edgar Cayce, in Edgar Cayce on Karma, promoted reincarnation and karma as instruments of a loving God as well as natural laws - the purpose being to teach us certain spiritual lessons. Animals are said to have undifferentiated, "group" souls rather than individuality and consciousness.

• See also Cathars/Catharism, Gnosticism

Islam

The concept of dawriyyah (cycles) has many points in common with reincarnation, claiming that this concept is mentioned in the Quran (Koran), the central religious text of Islam:

"How can you deny God, when you were dead and God gave you life? Then God will cause you to die, and then revive you, and then you will be returned to God." (Quran 2:28)

Some Sufi groups suggest that mystics and poets in the Islamic tradition have celebrated this belief:

"I died as mineral and became a plant,

I died as plant and rose to animal,

I died as animal and I was man.

Why should I fear?

When was I less by dying?" Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi (Persian Sufi)

Modern Sufis who embrace the idea of reincarnation include Bawa Muhaiyadeen (see his To Die Before Death: The Sufi Way of Life). However Hazrat Inayat Khan has criticized the idea of reincarnation as unhelpful to the spiritual seeker's quest for unity with God, as it focuses the aspirant's attention on the past and the future, rather than achieving spiritual transcendence in the present moment.

Another verse of the Qur-an that may support the theory of reincarnation is: "Thou [God] makest the night to pass into the day and Thou makest the day to pass into the night, and Thou bringest forth the living from the dead and Thou bringest forth the dead from the living, and Thou givest sustenance to whom Thou pleasest without measure." (Quran 3:27)

Some verses of Quran that seem to discount repeated lives:

• "And say not of those who are slain in the way of Allah. "They are dead." Nay, they are living, though ye perceive (it) not."(The Quran, 2:154).
• "From the (earth) did We Create you, and into it Shall We return you, And from it shall We Bring you out once again." (The Quran, 20:55).
• "And Allah has produced you from the earth, Growing (gradually), And in the End He will return you Into the (earth), And raise you forth (Again at the Resurrection)." (The Quran, 71:17-18).
• "Nor will they there Taste Death, except the first Death; and He will preserve Them from the Penalty Of the Blazing Fire." (The Quran, 44:56).
• "Is it (the case) that We shall not die, except our first death, And that we Shall not be punished?' Verily this is The supreme achievement! For the like of this Let all strive, Who wish to strive." (The Quran, 37:58-61).

Sinan ibn Salman ibn Muhammad, also known as Rashid al-Din Sinan, (r. 1162-92) subscribed to the transmigration of souls as a tenet of the Nusayri faith.

• See also Druze, Ya’furiyya Shia

Contemporary perspectives

Naturalistic reincarnation philosophy

During the 1990s American philosopher and founder of the Center for Naturalism, Thomas W. Clark, published a paper entitled "Death, Nothingness and Subjectivity" in which he argued for a naturalism-compatible form of reincarnation. This does not posit the existence of a supernatural soul. Clark termed the idea "Generic Subjective Continuity". Clark uses a thought experiment on personal identity to illustrate the concept.

But of course the difficulty here is that it seems arbitrary, or simply false, to say that TC/rad's experience instantly follows TC's last experience if there is no connection of memory or personality, but only some bodily continuity. (And if we wish, we can imagine that drastic changes in body as well are engineered during the unconscious period, so that TC/rad looks nothing like his predecessor.) The objective facts are that TC has a last experience, then sometime later TC/rad has a first experience. But despite the lack of personal subjective continuity, despite the fact that we may decide at some point on the continuum of change, (in memory, personality, and body) that TC no longer exists to have experiences, experience doesn't end for him, that is, there is no onset of nothingness. What we have instead is a transformation of the subject itself, a transformation of the context of awareness, while experience chugs along, oblivious of the unconscious interval during which the transformation took place. It's not that TC/rad's experience follows TC's in the sense of being connected to it by virtue of memory or personality, but that there is no subjective interval or gap between them experienced by either person. This is expressed in the fact that TC/rad, like TC, feels like he's always been present. However radical the change in context, and however long the unconscious interval, it seems that awareness--for itself, in its generic aspect of "always having been present"--is immune to interruption. ~ Thomas W. Clark

Scientology

See also: Scientology beliefs and practices.

Past reincarnation, usually termed "past lives", is a key part of the principles and practices of the Church of Scientology. Scientologists believe that the human individual is actually an immortal thetan, or spiritual entity, that has fallen into a degraded state as a result of past-life experiences. Scientology auditing is intended to free the person of these past-life traumas and recover past-life memory, leading to a higher state of spiritual awareness. This idea is echoed in their highest fraternal religious order, the Sea Organization, whose motto is "Revenimus" or "We Come Back", and whose members sign a "billion-year contract" as a sign of commitment to that ideal. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, does not use the word "reincarnation" to describe its beliefs, noting that: "The common definition of reincarnation has been altered from its original meaning. The word has come to mean 'to be born again in different life forms' whereas its actual definition is 'to be born again into the flesh of another body.' Scientology ascribes to this latter, original definition of reincarnation."

The first writings in Scientology regarding past lives date from around 1951 and slightly earlier. In 1960, Hubbard published a book on past lives entitled Have You Lived Before This Life. In 1968 he wrote Mission Into Time, a report on a five-week sailing expedition to Sardinia, Sicily and Carthage to see if specific evidence could be found to substantiate L. Ron Hubbard's recall of incidents in his own past, centuries ago.

Eckankar

Eckankar offers a mix of Eastern and Western thought and reincarnation is a basis of this teaching. It teaches that the soul is eternal, and that it either chooses an incarnation for growth, or that an incarnation is given to it because of Karma. Similar to early Christian thought from the philosopher Origen, Eckankar postulates that the soul is perfected through a series of incarnations until it arrives at "Personal Mastery".

Neopaganism

Today, most Wiccans, Witches, Occulists, and Modern Traditional Pagans seem to have the common belief that when one dies they do not always move on to a different plane of existence, but that they are reincarnated into another human, animal, or living creature. Some, Wiccans in particular, believe when they die they move onto a place called Summerland, temporarily, to rest and prepare for their next incarnation. Many Pagans believe that they will incarnate many lifetimes, until they have experienced all there is to experience, until they move on to a higher plane of existence. The ethnic neopagan Lithuanian faith, Romuva, accepts reincarnation as the most probable form of existence after death.

Parapsychological research

Main article: Reincarnation research

Ian Stevenson was best known for investigating reports of young children who had claimed to remember a past life with events that occurred during a previous life, ultimately publishing more than 2,500 case studies over the course of his lifetime. According to Stevenson, the memories normally occur between the ages of three and seven years then fade shortly afterwards; he compared the memories with reports of people known to the deceased, attempting to do so before any contact between the child and the deceased's family had occurred, and searched for disconfirming evidence that could provide alternative explanations for the reports aside from reincarnation. Stevenson believed that the best evidence for reincarnation was the existence of birth marks and deformities on children when they occurred at the location of fatal wounds in the deceased, but also claimed unusual behaviors such as phobias for the thing that killed the deceased, and in some cases the mother having a dream in which the deceased announces their intention to reincarnate in the child, were also evidence of reincarnation. He conducted research on the subject throughout the world, including North and South America, Africa and Asia. The vast majority of cases investigated by Stevenson's group involved people who had met some sort of violent or untimely death. Stevenson's work tended to polarize opinion: While his supporters saw him as a misunderstood genius, others thought him gullible and superstitious. Stevenson was noted for his methodological rigor, but his conclusions regarding his research gained little or no support within the scientific community.

Popular culture

Indian popular culture

Reincarnation is a common theme in contemporary Indian popular culture, particularly in Hindi cinema which has dealt with reincarnation since long before the theme appeared in Hollywood films. Reincarnation has appeared as a main theme in numerous Indian films.

Western popular culture

Main article: Reincarnation in popular western culture

"Metempsychosis" is the title of a longer work by the metaphysical poet John Donne, written in 1601. The poem, also known as the Infinitati Sacrum, consists of two parts, the "Epistle" and "The Progress of the Soule". In the first line of the latter part, Donne writes that he "sing[s] of the progresse of a deathlesse soule".

Metempsychosis is mentioned and is a key plot device in Edgar Allan Poe's 1832 short story, "Metzengerstein". Poe returns to metempsychosis again in "Morella" (1835) and "The Oval Portrait" (1842).

During the classical period of German literature metempsychosis attracted much attention: Goethe played with the idea, and it was taken up more seriously by Lessing, who borrowed it from Charles Bonnet, and by Herder.

In a letter to his friend George Whatley written May 23, 1785, Benjamin Franklin put forward his theory of reincarnation:

I say, that, when I see nothing annihilated, and not even a Drop of Water wasted, I cannot suspect the Annihilation of Souls, or believe, that [God] will suffer the daily Waste of Millions of Minds ready made that now exist, and put himself to the continual Trouble of making new ones. Thus finding myself to exist in the World, I believe I shall, in some Shape or other, always exist; and, with all the inconveniences human Life is liable to, I shall not object to a new Edition of mine; hoping, however, that the Errata of the last may be corrected.

Thomas Huxley, the famous English biologist, thought that reincarnation was a plausible idea and discussed it in his book Evolution and Ethics and other Essays. Irish poet and Nobel Laureate William Butler Yeats proposed a novel theory in A Vision, according to which rebirth does not occur within a framework of linear time. Hermann Hesse, Literary Nobel Prize, 1946, expressed a viewpoint of "...reincarnation as a mode of expression for stability in the midst of flux." Henry Ford was convinced he had lived before, most recently as a soldier killed at the battle of Gettysburg. A quote from the San Francisco Examiner from August 26, 1928 described Ford's beliefs:

I adopted the theory of Reincarnation when I was twenty-six. Religion offered nothing to the point. Even work could not give me complete satisfaction. Work is futile if we cannot utilise the experience we collect in one life in the next. When I discovered Reincarnation it was as if I had found a universal plan I realised that there was a chance to work out my ideas. Time was no longer limited. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock. Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives. Some are older souls than others, and so they know more. The discovery of Reincarnation put my mind at ease. If you preserve a record of this conversation, write it so that it puts men’s minds at ease. I would like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life gives to us.

General George S. Patton was a staunch believer in reincarnation and, along with many other members of his family, often claimed to have seen vivid, lifelike visions of his ancestors. In particular, Patton believed he was a reincarnation of Carthaginian General Hannibal.

Metempsychosis is referred to and recurs as a theme in James Joyce's modernist novel, Ulysses (1920). In Joycean fashion, the word famously appears, mispronounced by Molly Bloom, as "met him pike hoses."

Reincarnation seems to have captured the imagination of many in the West, and the idea of reincarnation receives regular mention in feature films, popular books, and popular music.Many popular books have made reference to reincarnation. These include several books by Vicki Mackenzie and Carol Bowman. In addition there is the bestselling suspense reincarnation series by novelist M.J. Rose which includes The Reincarnationist (2007), The Memorist (2008) and The Hypnotist(2010). This series has inspired the FOX TV series Past Life

The belief in past lives and the use of perceptions and knowledge of these to help with one's current life is central to the New Age movement. Notable individuals within this movement who have spoken about reincarnation include Jane Roberts and Walter Semkiw.

See also

• Samsara
• Bhavacakra
• Raaz Pichhle Janam Ka
• Afterlife (see also Birth, Life, Death)
• Xenoglossy
• Near-death experience and Life review
• Past life regression
• Planes of existence
• Soul mate
• Subtle bodies
• Pre-existence
• Rosicrucianism
• Spiritism
• Shanti Devi
• Arthur Flowerdew
• Joan Grant
• Zalmoxis

References

Scientific Publications

• Edwards, Paul, Reincarnation: A Critical Examination ISBN 1-57392-921-2
• Shroder, Tom (1999). Old Souls: The Scientific Evidence for Past Lives.
• Stevenson, Ian (1980). Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation, second (revised and enlarged) edition, University of Virginia Press. ISBN 9780813908724
• Stevenson, Ian, Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects(in 2 volumes) ISBN 0-275-95283-5
• Stevenson, Ian, Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation, revised edition ISBN 0-7864-0913-4
• Tucker, Jim, (2005). Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives, ISBN 0-312-32137-6
• Van Lommel, Pim. (2001). "Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands." The Lancet. 358: 2039-45.
• Braude, S.E. (1992). "Claims of Reincarnation: An Empirical Study of Cases in India". The Journal of Parapsychology. 56 (4). Retrieved 27 January 2008.

Other Publications

• Abd-ru-shin, In the Light of Truth - The Grail Message. ISBN 1-57461-006-6
• About Reincarnation: There are five ways to understand that we have lived before
• Acharya, Pt. Shriram Sharma, Template:PDFlink, 1999.
• Alegretti, Wagner, Retrocognitions: An Investigation into Memories of Past Lives and the Period Between Lives. ISBN 0-9702131-6-6, 2004.
• Archiati, Pietro, Reincarnation in Modern Life: Toward a new Christian Awareness. ISBN 0-904693-88-0
• Bache, Christopher M., Lifecycles, Reincarnation and the Web of Life, 1991, ISBN 1-55778-645-3
• Boulting, W. Giordano Bruno, His Life, Thought, and Martyrdom, London: Kegan Paul, 1914.
• Bowman, Carol, Children's Past Lives, 1998, ISBN 0-553-57485-X
• Bowman, Carol, Return from Heaven, 2003, ISBN 0-06-103044-9
• Cerminara, Gina, Many Mansions: The Edgar Cayce Story on Reincarnation, 1990, ISBN 0-451-03307-8
• Childs, Gilbert and Sylvia, Your Reincarnating Child: Welcoming a soul to the world. ISBN 1-85584-126-6
• Doore, Gary, What Survives?, 1990, ISBN 0-87477-583-3
• Gyatso, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Joyful Path of Good Fortune, pp 336–47, Tharpa Publications (2nd. ed., 1995) ISBN 978-0-948006-46-3
• Gyatso, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Living Meaningfully, Dying Joyfully: The Profound Practice of Transference of Consciousness, Tharpa Publications (1999) ISBN 978-0-948006-63-0
• Gyatso, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Transform Your Life Tharpa Publications pp 23–9, (2001, US ed. 2007) ISBN 978-0-9789067-4-0
• Head, Joseph and Cranston, S.L., editors, Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery, 1994, ISBN 0-517-56101-8
• Jefferson, Warren. 2009. “Reincarnation Beliefs of North American Indians: Soul Journeys, Metamorphoses, and Near-Death Experiences.” Summertown, TN: Native Voices. ISBN 978-1-57067-212-5
• Heindel, Max, The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception (Part I, Chapter IV: Rebirth and the Law of Consequence), 1909, ISBN 0-911274-34-0
• Heindel, Max, The Rosicrucian Mysteries (Chapter II: The problem of Life and its solution), 1911, ISBN 0-911274-86-3
• Heindel, Max, The Rosicrucian Fellowship, Template:PDFlink, 2001.
• Josephus, Flavius (C.E. 66-73). George Lyons (ed.). "Book II, Chaper 8, Verse 14". wesley.nnu.edu. Retrieved 2009-11-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Leland, Kurt. Otherwhere: A Field Guide to Nonphysical Reality for the Out-of-Body Traveler. Hampton Roads Publishing (2001). ISBN 978-1571742414
• Leland, Kurt. The Unanswered Question: Death, Near-Death, and the Afterlife. Hampton Roads Publishing (2002). ISBN 978-1571742995
• Lönnerstrand, Sture, I Have Lived Before: The True Story of the Reincarnation of Shanti Devi, 1998, ISBN 1-886940-03-7
• Newton, Michael, Life Between Lives: Hypnotherapy for Spiritual Regression, 2004, ISBN 0-73870-465-2
• Newton, Michael, Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives, 2000, ISBN 1-56718-499-5
• Nicholson, R.A. Rumi, Poet and Mystic. London: Allen & Unwin, 1950.
• Nikhilananda, Swami. Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, (8th Ed. 1992) ISBN 0-911206-01-9
• Prophet, Elizabeth Clare, Erin L. Prophet, Reincarnation: The Missing Link in Christianity, 1997, ISBN 0-922729-27-1
• Palamidessi Tommaso, The Memory of Past Lives and Its Technique, ed. Archeosofica, 1977
• Palamidessi Tommaso, Reincarnation And Christianity
• Ramster, Peter, In Search of Lives Past, ISBN 0-646-00021-7
• Rinehart, Robin, ed., Contemporary Hinduism, (2004).
• Roberts, Jane. Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul, (1972). ISBN 1-878424-07-6
• Roberts, Jane. The Nature of Personal Reality. Prentice-Hall (1974). reprinted (1994) Amber-Allen Publishing. ISBN 1-878424-06-8
• Roberts, Jane. The Oversoul Seven Trilogy. Amber-Allen Publishing (1995). ISBN 1878424173 Edition: Paperback; May 1, 1995 (originally published as three separate books: The Education of Oversoul 7 (1973). The Further Education of Oversoul Seven (1979). Oversoul Seven and the Museum of Time (1984).
• Semkiw, Walter, Return of the Revolutionaries: The Case for Reincarnation and Soul Groups Reunited, 2003, ISBN 1-57174-342-1
• Semkiw, Walter, Born Again: Reincarnation Cases Involving International Celebrities, India's Political Legends and Film Stars, 2006, ISBN 81-85250-37-5
• Steiner, Rudolf, Karmic Relationships: Esoteric studies, 8 volumes, various dates, Rudolf Steiner Press. ISBN 0-85440-260-8 and others.
• Steiner, Rudolf, Manifestations of Karma. ISBN 1-85584-058-8
• Steiner, Rudolf, Reincarnation and Immortality. ISBN 0-8334-1706-1
• Steiner, Rudolf, Reincarnation and Karma: Two fundamental truths of existence. ISBN 0-88010-501-1
• Steiner, Rudolf, A Western Approach to Reincarnation and Karma: selected lectures and writings; ed. and intr. by René Querido. Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, c1997, ISBN 0-88010-399-X
• Steinpach, Richard, Hidden Connections Determine Our Earth-Life, 1988, ISBN 1-57461-013-9
• Taylor, Michael, "Master of the Rose", Comstar Media LLC, 1997–2007, ISBN 1-933866-07-1
• Weiss, Brian L., Only Love is real: the story of soulmates reunited, 1996, ISBN 0-446-51945-6
• Weiss, Brian L., Many Lives, Many Masters, 1998, ISBN 0-671-65786-0
• Werner, Karel, A Popular Dictionary of Hinduism (Curzon Press 1994) ISBN 0-7007-0279-2
• Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn, Messages from Michael on the nature of the evolution of the human soul, 1979, ISBN 0-872235-26-2

External links

• Discussion concerning Transmigration from the Vedic perspective
• Do We Live More than Once?
• Dharma, Transmigration & Reincarnation in the Vedas
• Rebirth according to Buddhism
• Did Plato Believe in Reincarnation?
• Wandering Souls: The Doctrine of Transmigration in Pythagorean Philosophy, by Dr. James Luchte
• The Columbia Encyclopedia: Transmigration of souls or Metempsychosis
• The Catholic Encyclopedia: Metempsychosis
• Jewish view of reincarnation
• Did Plato Believe in Reincarnation?