Dictionary:
re·in·car·na·tion (rē'ĭn-kär-nā'shən)  |
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: reincarnation |
For more information on reincarnation, visit Britannica.com.
| Buddhism Dictionary: reincarnation |
Term generally avoided by writers on Buddhism since it implies the existence of an immortal soul (ātman) that is periodically incarnated in a fleshly host, a notion more proper to Hinduism. By contrast, Buddhism denies the existence of an immortal soul and does not accept the dualistic opposition between spirit and matter it presupposes. Accordingly, the English term preferred by Buddhist writers to designate the dynamic and constantly changing continuity of the individual from one life to the next is ‘rebirth’. Neither this term nor ‘reincarnation’ has a direct Sanskrit equivalent, and Indian sources speak instead of ‘rebecoming’ (Sanskrit, punarbhava) or ‘repeated death’ (Sanskrit, punarmṛtyu).
| Columbia Encyclopedia: reincarnation |
Bibliography
See J. Head and S. L. Cranston, ed., Reincarnation: An East-West Anthology (1961) and Reincarnation in World Thought (1967).
| Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia: Reincarnation |
The return to a new corporeal life of a soul (the incorporeal true self) that had previously been embodied and passed through bodily death. The idea of reincarnation—that the soul passes through a series of embodiments—stands in contrast to the dominant Western Christian idea of a single corporeal embodiment followed by resurrection (reunion of the soul with a spiritual body) and life with God in heaven. Reincarnation is often associated with, but is not necessarily connected with, transmigration, the idea that at death the soul might pass into the body of an animal, a plant, or even an inanimate object such as a stone. The belief in reincarnation was tied to moral categories in ancient religions, especially the Eastern concept of karma, which viewed the present life as the working out of consequences from previous lives. Future embodiments will also be determined by the consequences of this present life. One must remove oneself from the realm of consequences through spiritual activity or be stuck in the endless cycle of reincarnation forever. The belief in a form of reincarnation is fundamental to both Hinduism and Buddhism and had some popularity in the ancient Mediterranean basin. Pythagoras, for example, claimed that he was Euphorbus in a previous existence. In modern times, reincarnation has spread in the West through the efforts of French Spiritism and Theosophy.
Reincarnation in the East
The idea of reincarnation is usually associated with India. It is found in most of the forms of Hinduism; there are hundreds, with some variation in the different theologies and schools of thought. Basically, the soul is an immortal entity that has continuity through eternity, but falls into material existence and is trapped in the illusion that this physical world is ultimately real. Through multiple lives the soul becomes subject to karma, or consequences. Good karma leads to noble birth; bad karma to a lower birth, even to rebirth as an animal. The idea of karma and reincarnation was integral to social organization in the caste system and thus had practical application in everyday life. The caste system in turn dictated proper action that was sanctioned by the rewards and punishments of karma.
In the mainstream of Hindu thought—which found truth in the timeless eternal world beyond this world of illusion—while a favorable reincarnation was desirable, the ultimate goal was to escape the wheel of reincarnation totally. The means of such escape was spiritual discipline encased within a renunciation of the world. By withdrawing and concentrating on the spiritual realm, one ceased to create karma and dissolved old karma. Eventually, one could rid oneself of karma entirely and escape.
The essential soul is said to be pure and impersonal, part of a universal soul, but overlaid by illusions of individual egoism relating to desires and fears of the body and senses. The classic statements relating to reincarnation are to be found in the Hindu scripture Bhagavad-Gita, which stresses: "The soul is never born nor dies, nor does it exist on coming into being. For it is unborn, eternal, and primeval. Even although the body is slain, the soul is not" (2:20).
Buddhism emerged as a reform movement in Hinduism. It challenged the traditional Hindu system at a number of points, including its understanding of human life. In particular, Buddhism challenged the idea of a substantial soul that existed in and of itself apart from the body. The rather sophisticated understanding of the self in Buddhism is often likened to a candle flame. Obviously, as the candle burns down the flame will eventually die out. It has no existence apart from its burning. Buddhists suggest that reincarnation is as if, just as the flame is about to go out, it finds a new candle wick—a new body within which to burn.
In the nineteenth century, during the height of British rule in India, Christianity challenged Hinduism, especially as it existed in village temple worship. Christian leaders denounced animal sacrifice and the sexual promiscuity of some tantric groups, while slowly discovering the sophistication of Hindu philosophy. One of the responses to Christianity's invasion of the country, with the backing of colonial authorities, however, was a revival of philosophical Hinduism in light of new nineteenth century Western notions of progress, evolution, and moral striving.
In this new Hinduism of the nineteenth century, the succession of lives of the soul in different bodies is regarded as one indivisible life. The soul uses the experience of each incarnation as an opportunity for expiating sins in former lives, of balancing bad karma with good, and perfecting the soul through a process of evolution so that further incarnations will not be necessary and the individual soul can be absorbed in the divine plan. Until then, the body of the next life (whether human or animal) is shaped by actions in the present life. Moral striving is the means of gaining good karma. Ultimately, all lives may be seen as illusions of consciousness. This form of reincarnationist thought—which called for the good life, rather than the more traditional form calling for withdrawal from life— influenced Western visitors to India and was ultimately imported to the West through Theosophy and the various Indian teachers who successfully established themselves in the United States (notably Swamis Vivekananda and Yogananda).
Some religions, like Hinduism, teach that reincarnation is not always immediate, but that some souls may enjoy a period in a transitional state, either heavenly or purgatorial, before re-birth.
An idea of reincarnation, though not karma, is also found in some early Greek philosophy, including that of both Pythagoras and Plato. It actually emerges in the Mediterranean basin simultaneously with its emergence in India, around 600 B.C.E.
In the fourth century, Plato's Phaedrus presents a reincarnation myth that seems to have been derived from the ophite religion. A preexistent soul falls from the realm of the gods into earthly existence, where it migrates from one body to the next for some ten thousand years before it returns upward to a place of judgment. Plato also introduced into Greek thought the possibility of a transmigration of the soul into an animal.
In Roman literature, the idea of reincarnation is found in the writings of Ennius, probably deriving from Greek thought. There is no trace of it in Jewish literature, although it later entered into some Kabalistic teaching. From Greek philosophy, it came into the Gnostic tradition, and from second-and third-century Gnosticism it passed to the Manichaeans and Cathari.
The theory underlying the concept of reincarnation differs from the eschatology of rewards and punishments in Christianity. Each individual soul will eventually attain perfection, although some will take more reincarnations than others, learning by painful experience, in one life after another, the inexorable laws of karma—of cause and effect. All actions involve consequences, some immediate, others delayed, others in future lives. We punish ourselves by our actions, and the very defects and difficulties under which we suffer offer scope for expiation and perfection.
The Jewish and Christian traditions were (and largely remain) inimical to reincarnation. All of the Christian theologians who spoke of reincarnation denounced it in no uncertain terms. The only break in the antireincarnationist view appears in the early writings of Origen, the third-century theologian who as a young man had converted to Christianity. Before his conversion he was an accomplished Platonist, and he attempted to integrate Platonic philosophy and Christian thinking in his earliest writings, which, if not affirming reincarnation, do speak of the preexistence of the soul and its possible transmigration. Origen later dropped his beliefs and in his biblical commentaries emerged as hostile to reincarnationist thought.
A major controversy involving Origen's early thought emerged in the sixth century surrounding a group of people who adopted Origen's early writings as part of their larger challenge to the Roman Empire. Thus it was that several councils reaffirmed the church's opinion on reincarnationist ideas and, in the style of the times, pronounced them anathema. In the early twentieth century, several proponents of reincarnation, primarily Theosophists working against the opposition of Christian leaders, countered with the story of a sixth-century plot. According to the idea, Christianity had taught reincarnation until the Roman empress Theodosia forced the church to edit the Bible and remove any reference to it. This theory shows a great ignorance of the history of the period and has no foundation in fact. In recent decades the primary presentation of this idea appeared in a book by Noel Langley, Edgar Cayce and Reincarnation, and has passed into New Age literature.
Theosophical Teachings on Reincarnation
The major conduit of reincarnationist teachings in the West during the twentieth century has been the Theosophical Society. According to Theosophy, the various manifestations in the flesh are merely small portions of one whole. The monad, the divine spark, or individuality, remains the same throughout the whole course of reincarnation and is truly a denizen of the three higher worlds—the spiritual, the intuitional, and the higher mental. In order to further its growth and the widening of its experience and knowledge, however, it is necessary for the monad to descend into the worlds of denser matter—the lower mental, the astral, and the physical—and take back with it to the higher worlds what it learns there. Since it is impossible to progress far during one manifestation, the monad must return again and again to the lower worlds.
The laws of progress, the laws that govern reincarnation, are those of evolution and of karma. The scheme of the evolution of life decrees that all shall sooner or later attain perfection by developing to the utmost their latent powers and qualities, and each manifestation in the lower worlds is but one short journey nearer to the goal. Those who realize this law shorten the journey by their own efforts while those who do not realize it, of course, lengthen the journey.
Karma decrees that both good and bad effects follow whoever caused them. Hence, what an individual has done in one manifestation he will benefit by or suffer for in another. It may be impossible that actions should be immediately effective, but each is stored up and sooner or later will bear fruit.
It may be asked why one long life in the lower worlds should not suffice in place of a multitude of manifestations, but this is explained by the fact that the dense matter that is the vehicle of these bodies becomes, after a time of progress, incapable of further alteration to suit the developing monad's needs and must accordingly be laid aside for a new body.
After physical death, the individual passes first to the astral world, then to the heavenly portion of the mental world. Most time is spent in the latter, except when descending into the denser worlds to garner fresh experience and knowledge for further development in preparation for passage into a higher sphere.
In the heaven world these experiences and this knowledge are woven together into the texture of the individual's nature. In those who have not progressed far on the journey of evolution, the manifestations in the lower worlds are comparatively frequent, but with passage of time and development, these manifestations become rarer and more time is spent in the heaven world, until at last, the great process of reincarnation draws to an end, and the pilgrims enter the path that leads to perfection.
Reincarnation and Spiritism
In France reincarnation was advocated before the time of Allan Kardec by several philosophers and mystics, such as Henri de St. Simon, Prosper Enfantin, Charles Fourier, Pierre Leroux, and Jean Reynaud. From an article by Alexander Aksakof in the London Spiritualist during 1875, it appears that Kardec adopted the doctrine of reincarnation from spirit communications that were received by the medium Celina Japhet. Japhet's mediumship was developed by one M. Roustan, a mesmerist who believed in reincarnation.
If the medium disclosed the doctrine under the effect of the mesmerist's belief, it is easy to understand how Kardec and his school could receive ample confirmation through automatists of his tenet that spiritual progress is achieved through a series of incarnations, always in the human race, that successive corporeal existences are the necessary steps to perfection and that the soul retains its individuality and memory after separation from the body.
The influence of the Kardec school was powerful and, by the appeal of its reconciliation with the apparent injustices of life, it bacame more popular than the teachings of the Spiritualist Z. J. Piérart and his followers, who denied reincarnation and relied on the same kind of evidence as that which the Kardecists produced. Indeed, Alphonse Cahagnet, who kept the earliest careful trance records in France, was the first to whom the communicators emphatically denied reincarnation, but admitted the existence of the soul anterior to its appearance on Earth.
Outside France, the doctrine of Allan Kardec was denounced by many Spiritualists. In the United States, Andrew Jackson Davis declared it to be "a magnificent mansion built on sand." But he also believed in preexistence and taught that "all souls existed from the beginning in the divine soul; all individuality which is, has been, or will be, had its pre-existence, has its present existence in creative being."
In England, William Howitt was the chief antagonist. He said that the doctrine was pitiable and repellent, and argued that if it were true there must have been millions of spirits who, on entering the other world, have sought in vain their kindred, children, and friends.
A very pertinent remark may be quoted from a published letter of the great medium D. D. Home: "I have had the pleasure of meeting at least twelve Marie Antoinettes, six or seven Marys of Scotland, a whole host of Louis and other kings, about twenty Great Alexanders, but never a plain John Smith. I, indeed, would like to cage the latter curiosity."
For its psychological import, it is also interesting to note that at the exact time of Kardec's death, Home claimed to have received the following communication: "I regret having taught the Spiritist doctrine. Allan Kardec." (See Home's book Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism, 1877.)
Among Spiritualists, those who favored reincarnation countered Home. His argument was no argument; reincarnation, if true, may not necessarily be a universal fact. It may not take place at once. In The Road to Immortality, by Geraldine Cummins (1932), the spirit of F. W. H. Myers, communicating from "the other side," admits reincarnation as an optional choice and as a necessity for "animal men," but not through a series of existences, and counters Theosophical notions of karma by a fascinating theory of group souls.
Regarding Howitt's objection it may be claimed that the double, in sleep, may establish meetings without recollecting them on awakening. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle pointed out that since reincarnation for the spirits is a question of their own future, they may not be more enlightened on it than we are on our own fate.
Reincarnation could be optional; it could be punitive. It could be imposed for the purposes of retribution or it could be undertaken for the fulfillment of a mission. The teachings of the spirit control "Imperator" through medium W. Stainton Moses admitted the possibility of reincarnation as another chance for souls that had sunk so low as practically to lose identity, and in the case of high spirits who descend with a mission.
The opposition to Kardec's philosophy in England was not universal; he had some followers. Theosophist Anna Kingsford translated many of his books. She believed herself to be the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, while her follower Edward Maitland believed that he had been St. John the Divine.
Reincarnation and Spiritualism
Outside France, Spiritualist experience offered little to support the theory of reincarnation. "John King," the famous control of the medium Eusapia Palladino, claimed to have been Palladino's father in a previous existence. "John King" claimed manifestation through many different mediums at different times, however.
The experiences of Carl A. Wickland and his wife in obsession cases did not bear out the theory. They were told by earth-bound spirits, brought into their rescue circles, that on passing over they had entered the auras of young children and obsessed them. The children, however, never ceased to struggle against these invaders. In those cases in which the Wickland rescue circle enlightened the obsessors of their error, the sanity of the patient quickly returned as the obsessing influence was relieved.
In the nineteenth century, however, hints of support for reincarnation began to emerge. Charles Richet gives one illustrative case from Les Miracles de la Volonté, by E. Duchatel and R. Warcollier: "A distinguished physician of Palermo, M. Carmelo Sa-mona, well acquainted with metapsychic science, lost his little daughter, Alexandrina, aged five, in 1910. Mme. Samona was wild with grief. Three days after she saw the child in a dream who said to her: 'I have not left you; I have become tiny like that,' designating some very small object. A fresh pregnancy was the more unlikely in that Mme. Samona had undergone a serious ovarian operation a year previously. On April 10, however, she became aware that she was pregnant. On May 4th it was predicted by Alexandrina, communicating by means of the table, that Mme. Samona would be delivered of twin girls, one of whom would entirely resemble Alexandrina. This came to pass. One of the twins had a mark on the left eye and another mark on the right ear with a symmetry of the face, precisely like the deceased child."
Among various automatic writing scripts, Frederick Bligh Bond, whose famous discovery of Edgar Chapel, Glastonbury Abbey, is described in his book The Gate of Remembrance (1918), noticed reincarnation claims in the communications he received through "Miss X." The old monks who communicated asserted that Miss X was one of the early Glastonbury monks and addressed her as "Brother Simon." Neither Miss X nor Bond believed in reincarnation when the script came through. The incident is referred to in Bond's book The Company of Avalon (1924).
Spiritualist J. Arthur Hill presented his reflections on scripts received by a Mrs. Cary (pseudonym), a British working woman of about 50. The scripts detailed episodes involving reincarnation. The impact of "Some Reincarnationist Automatic Scripts," in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (vol. 38), was weak, however, since no attempt had been made to verify the historic accuracy of the names. It was also noted that Cary was a Theosophist.
The Strange Experiments of Eugene Rochas
The feeling of déjà vu has often been cited as an argument for reincarnation. However, this phenomenon yields to a variety of explanations. More interesting than the rather vague feelings of déjà vu are claimed memories of past incarnations. Eugene Rochas was among the first to explore such memories. Rochas claimed that certain subjects, if put into hypnotic sleep by means of longitudinal passes, could be made to retrace the previous phases of their existence down to their birth and beyond "into the grey" and then into an even earlier state of incarnation. By means of transversal passes the subject was brought back to his normal state by going through the same phases in order of their time. If the transversal passes were continued, the subject was led into the future.
Marie Mayo, the daughter of a French engineer, was one of Rochas's subjects. She passed through various stages of hypnotic sleep into the first stage of lethargy, in which she was suggestible for brief moment, into the first state of somnambulism, in which she was not at all suggestible and retained the memory of what happened in her preceding state and in her waking life. She then passed into the state of rapport, in which she heard no one but the hypnotizer.
In this state she began to exteriorize herself, a half phantom formed at the left and a half at the right, the colors red and blue. In a successive state, the phantom halves united; the exteriorization of the astral body became complete but was attached to the body by a fluidic cord. In this state of exteriorization, the astral body assumed shapes in accord with the age in which the subject saw herself going through the stages of her life.
At age eight, she wrote her name in Arabic. At that age she had attended a school in Beirut. Beyond that birth she called herself Lina, the daughter of a fisherman in Brittany. She married at age 20. Her husband was also a fisherman; his name was Yvon, but she did not remember his family name. She had one child who died at the age of two; her husband perished in a shipwreck. In a fit of despair she had thrown herself into the sea from the top of a precipice. Her body was eaten by fish.
All this information was successively elicited. She first passed through the convulsions of drowning and then went back to her life as Lina, through the childbirth to girlhood, infancy, the state of "grey" and then spoke in a previous incarnation as a man, named Charles Mauville, who lived in the time of Louis XVIII. He was a clerk in a ministerial office in Paris, a bad man,
a murderer who died at age 50
Still further back, she was a lady whose husband was a gentleman attached to the court. Her name was Madeleine de Saint-Marc. Being brought back to the present by transversal passes Mayo successively reached her real age of 18 and then was pushed, by a continuation of the passes, two years into the future. Beyond this she could not go. She saw herself in a strange country with Africans, in a house far away from a railway station, the name of which she could not read. She could not give any precise information that could be used for identification.
Rochas was also possibly the first to explore the fact that similar visions occur if a hypnotized subject is moved into the future instead of into the past. He pushed Juliette Durand, a girl of 16, ahead nine years up to age 25, when she reported dying at Nice. After a time, she reportedly was reincarnated in the future as Emile Chaumette in a family of easy circumstances, studied for the ministry, and was appointed vicaire at Havre in 1940.
Rochas's research soon reached the same dead end as did most of those to follow. It could never be proved that the past personalities enacted by the subjects had really lived, even though they were often very plausible. In some cases, the places and the families spoken of existed, but the individuals could never be traced in parish registers or family documents and the incarnations swarmed with improbabilities.
Rochas rejected the idea that the accounts were the result of suggestion: "They certainly do not come from me, for I have not only avoided everything that could lead the subject into any determined path, but I have often tried in vain to lead her astray by different suggestions; and the same has been the case with the experimenters who have devoted themselves to this study…. Are we to assimilate these phenomena to mere dreams? Certainly not. There is in them a constancy, a regularity, which we do not find in ordinary dreams…. And besides, how are we to explain why physical causes, such as longitudinal and transversal passes should have absolutely certain effects on the memory of the subjects between the moments of their birth and that of their present life, and they produce phenomena which do not rest on any basis of fact. I believe that we must compare these manifestations with those which have been studied in the case of Mlle. Hélène Smith, and generally with all those which are provisionally attributed to spirits, and in which we see the true and the false intermingled in a way calculated to drive to despair those who do not reflect upon the darkness in which all observers have to struggle at the beginning of every new science."
Psychical Researchers and Reincarnation
When Allan Kardec died, Leon Denis and Gabriel Delanne became the main pillars of the reincarnationist school in France. The general evidence they relied on was fourfold: (1) infant prodigies, (2) spontaneous recollection of past lives, (3) exploration of memory under hypnosis, and (4) the claims announced of coming reincarnation.
They found a powerful supporter in psychical researcher Gustav Geley. His book From the Unconscious to the Conscious (1920) was described as a veritable Bible for reincarnation by Innocinzo Calderone, founder and director of the Italian review Filosofia della Scienza, which made a widespread international inquiry on reincarnation in 1913. Geley asserted, "I am a reincarnationist for three reasons: (1) because the doctrine seems to me from the moral point of view fully satisfactory, (2) from the philosophic point of view absolutely rational, and (3) from the scientific point of view likely, or—better still— probably true."
Reminding all that French thought was by no means unanimous on the subject, another distinguished representative of French psychical thinking, René Sudre, ranked himself definitely in the opposite camp, declaring in an article in Psychic Research (May 1930), "Even as I can admit the faith in survival from the religious point of view, I should in like measure reject as absurd the doctrine of reincarnation and I well understand how it is that the common-sense of the Anglo-Saxon refuses to bow to this teaching."
Modern Experiments in Hypnotic Regression
Through the twentieth century, reincarnation garnered its supporters with little fanfare. Then in 1954 the subject of reincarnation became the subject of a public controversy following the serialization of the story of Bridey Murphy in the Denver Post and the subsequent publication of Morey Bernstein 's bestselling book The Search for Bridey Murphy in 1956.
Bernstein was a businessman in Pueblo, Colorado, who had hypnotized a housewife, Ruth Simmons (the pseudonym of Virginia Tighe). In those sessions Bernstein probed Tighe's memories back to childhood and then, as it seemed, to an earlier life as Bridey Murphy, an Irish girl. The book stimulated "come as you were" social parties, pop songs, and a spate of amateur hypnotic sessions. More important, it launched attempts to find remaining traces of Bridey Murphy. As the controversy seemed to be reaching a dead end, the Chicago American published a series of articles that effectively disproved the claim that Tighe was really Bridey Murphy in a former existence. Not only had the evidence for a Bridey Murphy been lacking, but an Irish woman turned up from Tighe's early life who proved the likely model from which the past life could have been constructed. Today most people consider Bridey Murphy to have been a case of cryptonesia.
A few other experimenters in hypnotic regression techniques produced more convincing results. Among these is the British hypnotherapist Arnall Bloxham, who spent more than 20 years tape recording hypnotic subjects. These sessions convinced many that they presented actual memories of former incarnations.
Reincarnation and Parapsychology
Renewed popular interest in reincarnation also led to serious research by parapsychologists, most notably that of Ian Stevenson, of the Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Virginia. Stevenson collected cases from around the world of people, primarily children, who remembered an immediately previous life, and was able to provide some convincing evidence when confronted with the actual locations and people in those former lives. His book Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation was initially published by the American Society for Psychical Research as the society's Proceedings for September 1966. It presented similar cases, each investigated personally by Stevenson on field trips to Alaska, Brazil, Ceylon, India, and Lebanon. Additional cases were documented in subsequent volumes.
Stevenson's research received mixed reactions. Many of his parapsychologist colleagues, having given up on the possibility of doing survival research, had moved away from that whole area of research. A few actively attacked his cases as representative of biased sources and the imposition of Stevenson's own well-known prior commitment to a belief in reincarnation. However, they remain the best contemporary attempt of psychical research to compile evidence on so complex a subject.
Sources:
Banerjee, H. N., and W. C. Oursler. Lives Unlimited: Reincarnation East and West. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1974.
Bernstein, Morey. The Search for Bridey Murphy. Garden City,N.Y.: Doubleday, 1956.
Duncasse, C. J. A Critical Examination of the Belief in a Life after Death. Springfield, Ill.: Charles Thomas, 1961.
Ellwood, Gracia Fay. Psychic Visits to the Past: An Exploration of Retrocognition. New York: New American Library, 1971.
Fisher, Joe. The Case for Reincarnation. New York: Bantam,1985.
Guirdham, Arthur. The Cathars and Reincarnation. London: Neville Spearman, 1960.
Head, Joseph, ed. Reincarnation in World Thought: A Living Study of Reincarnation in All Ages. New York: Julian Press, 1967.
Head, Joseph, and S. L. Cranston, eds. Reincarnation: An East-West Anthology. New York: Julian Press, 1961. Reprint, Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Publishing House, 1968. Rev. ed. Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery, an East-West Dialogue on Death and Rebirth. New York: Julian Press/Crown Publishers,1977.
Holzer, Hans. Born Again: The Truth about Reincarnation. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1970. Reprint, London: Bailey Bros. & Swinfen, 1975.
Leek, Sybil. Reincarnation: The Second Chance. New York: Stein & Day, 1974. Reprint, New York: Bantam, 1975.
Osborn, Arthur. Superphysical: A Review of the Evidence for Continued Existence, Reincarnation, and Mystical States of Consciousness. Rev. ed. New York: Barnes & Noble; London: Frederick Muller, 1974.
Pierce, Henry W. Science Looks at ESP. New York: New American Library, 1970.
Rochas, Eugene. Les Vies Successives. N.p., 1911.
Stevenson, Ian. Cases of the Reincarnation Type. 3 vols. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1975-80.
——. Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation. Rev. ed. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1974.
Story, Francis, and Nyanaponika Thera. Rebirth as Doctrine and Experience. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society,1975.
Underwood, Peter, and Leonard Wilder. Lives to Remember: A Case Book on Reincarnation. London: Robert Hale, 1975.
Wilson, Ian. Mind out of Time? Reincarnation Claims Investigated. London: Gollancz, 1981. Revised as Reincarnation? Balti-more: Penguin Books, 1982.
| Quotes About: Reincarnation |
Quotes:
"Reincarnation: People coming back to life at quitting time."
- Source Unknown
| Wikipedia: Reincarnation |
Reincarnation, literally "to be made flesh again", is a doctrine or metaphysical belief that some essential part of a living being (in some variations only human beings) survives death to be reborn in a new body. This essential part is often referred to as the spirit or soul, the "higher" or "true" self, "divine spark", or "I". According to some beliefs, a new personality is developed during each life in the physical world, but some part of the self remains constant throughout the successive lives.[1]
Belief in reincarnation has ancient roots. This doctrine is a central tenet within the majority of Indian religious traditions, such as Hinduism (including Yoga, Vaishnavism, and Shaivism) and Jainism. The idea was also entertained by some ancient Greek philosophers. Many modern Neopagans also 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. 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" (or eternal self) to reincarnate.
During recent decades, a significant number of people in the West have developed a belief in reincarnation.[2] 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.
Some researchers, such as Professor Ian Stevenson, have explored the issue of reincarnation and published evidence of children's memories of earlier lives in peer-reviewed journals and elsewhere. Skeptics are critical of this work and say that more reincarnation research is needed.[3]
Contents |
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. There are large differences in philosophical beliefs regarding the nature of the soul (also known as the jiva or atman) amongst Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Jainism that do accept such an idea.
The concept of reincarnation (along with karma, samsara, and moksha) was first developed in India by non-Aryan people outside of the caste system 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.[4][5][6][7][8][9]
According to the scriptures, the Buddha taught a concept of rebirth that was distinct from that of any known contemporary Indian teacher. This concept was consistent with the common notion of a sequence of related lives stretching over a very long time, but was constrained by two core Buddhist 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.[10][11]
Since, according to Buddhism, there is no permanent and unchanging self (identity) there can be no transmigration in the strict sense. Buddhism teaches that what is reborn is not the person but that one moment gives rise to another and that this momentum continues, even after death. It is a more subtle concept than the usual notion of reincarnation, reflecting the Buddhist concept of personality existing (even within one's lifetime) without a "Self". 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.[12]
Buddhism suggests that samsara, the process of rebirth, occurs across five or six realms of existence.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15]
Tibetan Buddhists also believe that a newborn child may be the rebirth of some important departed lama.
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."[16]
According to Hinduism, the soul (atman) is immortal, while the body is subject to birth and death. The Bhagavad Gita states that:
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. (Verse 2:22)[17]
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. [18]
Hinduism teaches that the soul goes on repeatedly being born and dying. 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.[19] 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.[20]
When the cycle of rebirth thus comes to an end, a person is said to have attained moksha, or salvation from samsara.[21] 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).[22] The principal Hindu Gods are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and their consorts Brahmani, Lakshmi and Parvati. While there is hardly any text describing reincarnation of Brahma and Brahmani, 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 Dashavataras.
In Jainism, particular reference is given to how devas (gods) also reincarnate after they die. A Jainist 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 other schools of Hinduism.[23]
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, ghosts, animals, etc. The person who has evolved to spiritual perfection attains salvation – union with God.
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.[24] 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.
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."[25]
Among the ancient Greeks, Socrates, Pythagoras, and Plato may have believed in or taught the doctrine of reincarnation. Several ancient sources affirm that Pythagoras claimed he could remember his past lives.[26] An association between Pythagorean philosophy and reincarnation was routinely accepted throughout antiquity.
In Plato's Phaedo dialogue, 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, our other main informant of Socrates' life, does not mention the latter as believing in reincarnation.
Plato presented detailed accounts of reincarnation in his major works. It may be questioned whether Plato's accounts, such as the Myth of Er, which also contain many fabulous details irrelevant to reincarnation, were intended to be taken literally. Marsilio Ficino (Platonic Theology 17.3-4) argued that Plato's references to reincarnation were intended allegorically.
In the Hermetica, a Graeco-Egyptian series of writings on cosmology and spirituality attributed to Hermes Trismegistus/Thoth, the doctrine of reincarnation is central.
The overwhelming majority of mainstream Christian denominations reject the notion of reincarnation and consider the theory to challenge basic tenets of their beliefs. Certain churches indirectly address the subject through teachings about death (see Particular judgment). A few consider the matter open to individual interpretation due to the few biblical references which survived the purging of texts considered to be heretical in the founding years of Christianity as a church. New Age Christians contend that reincarnation was taught by the early Christian church, but due to bias and mistranslations, these teachings were lost or obscured.[27] Many of the philosophies associated with the theory of reincarnation focus on "working" or "learning" through various lifetimes to achieve some sort of higher understanding or state of "goodness" before salvation is granted or acquired. Basic to Traditional Christianity is the doctrine that humans can never achieve the perfection God requires and the only salvation is total and complete forgiveness accomplished through the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross wherein he took the sins of mankind. There seems to be evidence however that some of the earliest Christian sects such as the Sethians and followers of the Gnostic Church of Valentinus believed in reincarnation, and they were persecuted by the Romans for this.[28]
A number of Evangelical and (in the USA) Fundamentalist Christian groups have denounced any belief in reincarnation as heretical[citation needed], and maintain that any phenomena suggestive of it as deceptions of the devil. Although the Bible never mentions the word reincarnation, there are several passages through New Testament that reject reincarnation or the possibility of any return or contact with this world for the souls in Heaven or Hell (see Hebrews 9:27 and Luke 16:20-31)
The Bible contains passages in the New Testament that could be taken out of context to allude to reincarnation. In Matthew 11:10-14and 17:10-13, John 1:21, the Jews ask John the Baptist if he is Elijah and John replies clearly that he is not, implying that Jesus' reference was meant in a figurative sense (which is what most Christians accept). It should be noted that Elijah never actually "died," but was "raptured" in a chariot of fire. Furthermore, the prophetic texts stated that God would send Elijah back to Earth, as a harbinger of Jesus Christ. As cousins they were born respectively to barren Elizabeth[29] and Zacharias;[30] Jesus, firstborn of Mary and Joseph,[31] was the first to rise from the dead visibly demonstrating his power over death.[32]
There are various contemporary attempts to entwine Christianity and reincarnation. Geddes Macgregor, wrote a book called Reincarnation in Christianity: A New Vision of Rebirth in Christian Thought, Rudolf Steiner wrote Christianity as Mystical Fact and Tommaso Palamidessi wrote Memory of Past Lives and Its Technique which contains several methods which are supposed to help in obtaining memories from previous lives.[33]
Several groups which consider themselves to be Christian and support reincarnation include the Christian Community, the Liberal Catholic Church, Unity Church, The Christian Spiritualist Movement, the Rosicrucian Fellowship and Lectorium Rosicrucianum. The Medieval sect known variously as the Cathars or Albigensians who flourished in the Languedoc believed in Reincarnation, seeing each soul as a fallen angel born again and again into the world of Matter created by Lucibel (Lucifer). Only through a Gnostic 'Rebirth' in the Holy Spirit through Christ could the soul escape this process of successive existences and return to God.[citation needed]
The American psychic Edgar Cayce, who considered himself to be Christian both in and out of trance, supported the idea of reincarnation. While in trance he would give "life readings" in which he would discuss the previous reincarnations of his subjects.[34]
Many Gnostic groups believed in reincarnation. For them, reincarnation was a negative concept: Gnostics believed that the material body was evil, and they believed that they would be better off if they could eventually avoid having their 'good' souls reincarnated in 'evil' bodies.[citation needed]
While ancient Greek philosophers like Plato and Socrates attempted to prove the existence of reincarnation through philosophical proofs, Jewish mystics who accepted this idea did not. Rather, they offered explanations of why reincarnation would solve otherwise intractable problems of theodicy (how to reconcile the existence of evil with the premise of a good God).[citation needed].
Reincarnation appeared in Jewish thought some time after the Talmud. There is no reference to reincarnation in the Talmud or any prior writings.[35] The idea of reincarnation, called gilgul, became popular in folk belief, and is found in much Yiddish literature among Ashkenazi Jews. Among a few kabbalists, it was posited that some human souls could end up being reincarnated into non-human bodies. These ideas were found in a number of Kabbalistic works from the 1200s, and also among many mystics in the late 1500s. Martin Buber's early collection of stories of the Baal Shem Tov's life includes several that refer to people reincarnating in successive lives.[36]
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, in Emunoth ve-Deoth, concludes Section vi with a refutation of the doctrine of metempsychosis (reincarnation). While refuting reincarnation, the Saadia Gaon further states that Jews who hold to reincarnation have adopted non-Jewish beliefs.
Crescas writes that if reincarnation were real, people should remember details of their previous lives.[citation needed]
The belief is common in Orthodox Judaism. Indeed there is an entire volume of work called Sha'ar Ha'Gilgulim[37] (The Gate of Reincarnations)[3], based on the work of Rabbi Isaac Luria (and compiled by his disciple, Rabbi Chaim Vital). It describes the deep, complex laws of reincarnation. One concept that arises from Sha'ar Ha'gilgulim is the idea that gilgul is paralleled physically by pregnancy.
Many Orthodox siddurim (prayerbooks) have a nightly prayer asking for forgiveness for sins that one may have committed in this gilgul or a previous one, which accompanies the nighttime recitation of the Shema before going to sleep.[38]
Though mainstream Islam rejects the concept of reincarnation,[39] a number of sufi groups believe in the concept of dawriyyah (cycles) which has many points in common with reincarnation, claiming that this concept is mentioned in the Quran (Koran), the central religious text of Islam:
Mainstream interpretations of this verse either relate this to the worldly human life and the consequent resurrection in the hereafter, or, in the esoteric (Sufi) tradition, dying to oneself (giving up the ego) within an earthly lifetime and thereby finding new life through God.[citation needed]
Shi'a Muslims also believe to Raj'a that can be understood as a limited reincarnation. Most Ismaili Shi'a Muslims completely accept the idea of reincarnation.
Some Sufi groups suggest that mystics and poets in the Islamic tradition have celebrated this belief:
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.[41]
Reincarnation has also been used to reconcile the Quran's apparent identification of Miriam, the mother of Isa as the sister of Aaron and daughter of Amran, all of whom lived well before the first century CE.[citation needed]
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:
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 survival of the concept of reincarnation applies across these nations in varying degrees of integrity, as these countries are now sandwiched between Native and European traditions.[citation needed]
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 wife's folly":
During the 1990s Thomas W. Clark, founder of the Center for Naturalism, published a metaphysical argument for a type of naturalistic-compatible form of reincarnation. It is entitled: "Death, Nothingness and Subjectivity". It is not the conventional or traditional concept of reincarnation, Mr. Clark termed it "Generic Subjective Continuity". The paper was published in the Humanist and republished in "The Experience of Philosophy". His argument states that "nothingness" is never an experienced actuality for conscious beings, and therefore subjective experience does not cease at death, as the common secular conception holds, but relocates into other conscious beings, where no supernatural entity literally transmigrates from one being to another. Another philosopher and author, Wayne Stewart, also created an argument directly parallel to Mr. Clark's entitled: "Metaphysics by Default" in 1999.
During the Renaissance, a new flowering of public interest in reincarnation occurred. One of the prominent figures in the revival was Italy's leading philosopher and poet Giordano Bruno, who was ultimately sentenced to be burned at the stake by the Inquisition because of his teachings about reincarnation.[43]
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. It has been mentioned with respect by Hume and by Schopenhauer.
Irish poet and Nobel Laureate William Butler Yeats proposed a novel theory of reincarnation in his occult treatise A Vision. According to Yeats’ view reincarnation does not occur within a framework of linear time. Rather, all of a person’s past and future lives are happening at once, in an eternal now moment; and the decisions made in any of these lifetimes influence all of the other lives (and are influenced by them).
Hermann Hesse, Literary Nobel Prize, 1946, expressed a viewpoint of "...reincarnation as a mode of expression for stability in the midst of flux."
Reincarnation plays an important role in the ideas of Anthroposophy, a spiritual movement founded by Rudolf Steiner. Steiner described the human soul as gaining new experiences in every epoch and in a variety of races or nations. The unique personality, with its weaknesses and abilities, is not simply a reflection of the body's genetic heritage. 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.
Anthroposophy describes the present as being formed by a tension between the past and the future. Both influence our present destiny; there are events that occur due to our past, but there are also events that occur to prepare us rightly for the future. Between these two, there is space for human free will; we create our destiny, not only live it out, just as we build a house in which we then choose to live.
Anthroposophy has developed various spiritual exercises that are intended to develop the capacity to discern past lives and the deeper nature of the human being. In addition, Steiner investigated the karmic relationships of many historical individuals, from Karl Marx to Julian the Apostate.[44]
The Theosophical Society which draws much of its inspiration from India, was the first institution in modern times responsible for widely spreading the concept of reincarnation in the West. It has taken reincarnation, as well as karma and spiritual evolution, as one of its cardinal tenets; it is, according to a recent theosophical writer, "the master-key to modern problems," including heredity.[1] In the Theosophical world-view, the soul in man is originally pure, but it lacks self-consciousness and its powers are potential. Reincarnation is the vast rhythmic process by which the soul in man unfolds its spiritual powers in the world of form and gets to know itself.
First, the soul descends from its sublime, free, spiritual realms, to inhabit a baby form. While living in a human form, it gathers experience through its effort to express itself in the world. After the lifetime is over, there is a withdrawal from the physical plane to successively higher levels of Reality, in what we call death. It involves a process of purification and assimilation of the wisdom from its past life experience. Finally, having completely withdrawn and cast off all instruments of personal experience, it stands again in its spiritual and formless nature. After that process is finished, the soul is ready to begin its next rhythmic manifestation and to descend into matter in a new effort to unfold its spiritual nature and to gain consciousness of its divine origin and nature.
From such a view point, which covers vast periods of time, what is called a lifetime is as a day in the life of the true spiritual human being. This spiritual entity moves forward on a vast pilgrimage, every lifetime bringing it closer to complete self-knowledge and self-expression. According to Theosophy, then, that which reincarnates is the part of man which belongs to the formless non-material and timeless worlds. It is neither the physical body and all of its characteristics, nor the emotional nature, with all its personal likes and dislikes, nor the mental nature, with its accumulated knowledge and its habits of thinking, that will reincarnate. That which is above all these aspects is that which reincarnates. However, when the formless essence of a human being begins its process of reincarnation, it attracts the old mental, emotional, and energetic karmic patterns to form the new personality. Thus the soul with the added powers developed during its previous lives and the post-mortem process of assimilation, deals with the old hindrances or shortcomings it was not able to work out in its previous lifetimes.
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."[45]
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.
American mystic Edgar Cayce promoted the theory of both reincarnation and karma, but wherein they acted 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. Once the soul evolves through a succession of animal incarnations and achieves human status, it is not then reborn in animal form. Cayce's view arguably incorporates Theosophical teachings on spiritual evolution.[citation needed]
Eckankar offers a mix of Eastern and Western thought and reincarnation is a basis of this teaching.[46][47] 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".
Seth, purportedly a discarnate entity channelled by the psychic Jane Roberts from 1963 to 1984, said that both humans and animals reincarnate, after which they move on to other planes of existence. He said that time is a "root assumption" of the physical plane, and that all lives are actually lived simultaneously in a "spacious present" which includes all past and future events. According to Seth, humans are multi-dimensional beings who have inner selves, outer selves or egos, and dreaming selves (among others). With each new life, a new outer ego is born which, when it dies, becomes part of the gestalt of souls which constitutes the entire self.
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.[48]
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. The most detailed collections of personal reports in favor of reincarnation have been published by Professor Ian Stevenson, from the University of Virginia, in books such as Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation and "Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects Volume 1: Birthmarks" and "Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects Volume 2: Birth Defects and Other Anomalies".
Stevenson spent over 40 years devoted to the study of children who have apparently spoken about a past life. In each case, Professor Stevenson methodically documented the child's statements. Then he identified the deceased person the child allegedly identified with, and verified the facts of the deceased person's life that matched the child's memory. He also matched birthmarks and birth defects to wounds and scars on the deceased, verified by medical records such as autopsy photographs.[49][50]
A boy in Beirut spoke of being a 25-year-old mechanic, thrown to his death from a speeding car on a beach road. According to multiple witnesses, the boy provided the name of the driver, the exact location of the crash, the names of the mechanic's sisters and parents and cousins, and the people he went hunting with – all of which turned out to match the life of a man who had died several years before the boy was born, and who had no apparent connection to the boy's family.[51]
Stevenson believed that his strict methods ruled out all possible "normal" explanations for the child’s memories. However, it should be noted that a significant majority of Professor Stevenson's reported cases of reincarnation originate in Eastern societies, where dominant religions often permit the concept of reincarnation. Following this type of criticism, Stevenson published a book on European cases suggestive of reincarnation.[52]
There are many people who have investigated reincarnation and come to the conclusion that it is a legitimate phenomenon, such as Peter Ramster, Dr. Brian Weiss, Dr. Walter Semkiw, and others. Professor Stevenson, in contrast, published dozens of papers in peer-reviewed journals.[53]
Some skeptics, such as Paul Edwards, have analyzed many of these accounts, and called them anecdotal.[54] Philosophers like Robert Almeder, having analyzed the criticisms of Edwards and others, suggest that the gist of these arguments can be summarized as "we all know it can't possibly be real, so therefore it isn't real" - an argument from personal incredulity.[55]
The most obvious objection to reincarnation is that there is no evidence of a physical process by which a personality could survive death and travel to another body, and researchers such as Professor Stevenson recognize this limitation.[56]
Another objection is that most people do not remember previous lives. Possible counter-arguments are that not all people reincarnate, or that most people do not have memorable deaths. The vast majority of cases investigated at the University of Virginia involved people who had met some sort of violent or untimely death.[57]
Some skeptics explain that claims of evidence for reincarnation originate from selective thinking and the psychological phenomena of false memories that often result from one's own belief system and basic fears, and thus cannot be counted as empirical evidence. But other skeptics, such as Dr Carl Sagan, see the need for more reincarnation research.[58]
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:
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.[59] In particular, Patton believed he was a reincarnation of Carthaginian General Hannibal.[60]
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 the following Indian films:[61]
On Indian television, reincarnation has also appeared as a main theme in the following Indian soap operas and serials:
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. A great many feature films have made reference to reincarnation, and notable films include:[62]
Many popular books have made reference to reincarnation. These include several books by Vicki Mackenzieand 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
Also of note are:
Notable popular songs or albums which refer to reincarnation include:
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| Translations: Reincarnation |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - reinkarnation
Nederlands (Dutch)
zielsverhuizing, wedergeboorte, nieuwe belichaming
Français (French)
n. - réincarnation
Deutsch (German)
n. - Reinkarnation, Wiedergeburt
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μετενσάρκωση, μετεμψύχωση
Italiano (Italian)
reincarnazione
Português (Portuguese)
n. - reencarnação (f)
Русский (Russian)
перевоплощение
Español (Spanish)
n. - reencarnación
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - reinkarnation
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
化身, 轮回说, 转世
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 化身, 輪迴說, 轉世
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 다시 육체를 부여함, 영혼 재래[설], 재생
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 霊魂再来, 再生, 化身, 再来
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) تجسيد, تقمص
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - גלגול נשמות, גלגול
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| Buddhism Dictionary. A Dictionary of Buddhism. Copyright © 2003, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more |
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| Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. Copyright © 2001 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Quotes About. Copyright © 2005 QuotationsBook.com. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Reincarnation". Read more |
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