Should We Believe in Reincarnation?
In honour of the upcoming release
of my debut novel Cailín (which will
be released on March 17th, 2013) this month my blog posts will
relate to the some of the subject matter contained within the book. The principal of which my entire upcoming
series Anam Céile Chronicles is based
upon is the notion that we experience reincarnation and will indeed return
after our death from this life to live yet again in another one.
Natural life is cyclical. Day fades into night and turns back into day
as the sun rises. One season gradually gives way to the next. Over the passage of time, new generations are
born and old ones die. The continuous
succession of birth, death and rebirth permeates nature even though our own
lives seem linear. So it is no surprise
that some ancient observers looked at the seeming linearity of human existence
and decided that life, like the natural world, might actually be more cyclical
than linear.
Multiple religions,
philosophies and movements adopted the belief in cyclic life, or reincarnation.
From the Egyptians and ancient Greeks to the Native Americans, Buddhists and
Hindus to Wiccans, nearly all ancient religions and cultures do believe in the
idea of reincarnation. Philosophers Orpheus,
Plato, Pythagoras also all believed in reincarnation.
So just what is
reincarnation, how has the scientific community endeavored to study reincarnation,
what evidence is there to back it up and how do the beliefs of different
cultures differ?
What is Reincarnation?
Reincarnation, also called
transmigration or metempsychosis, is the concept that the soul, or some aspect
of the soul, is reborn into new lives. Depending
on the religion or philosophy, the soul can appear incarnate in humans, animals
or plants as it works its way toward an eventual escape from the cycle of
birth, death and rebirth. Most religions
and cultures which believe in reincarnation consider it the path to purity and
salvation.
We know from physics that
energy cannot be created or destroyed— it can only convert from one form into
another— and since we too are energetic beings, the end of our physical body
does not mean the end of our Soul and as a result merely moves on to another
form. Our life cycle will move on for us
at its own pace until we've learned our lessons for this life and until it is
time for us to depart. Rather than the
end, death of the physical body and the moving on of the soul is merely a
journey. For Pagans, death is a
transition of spirit, a transition to a new existence, a new state of
consciousness, but not a loss of individuality or consciousness.
Wiccans and Pagans
While some religions believe
that when you die, your soul goes to either heaven or hell—depending on how
much faith you had, or what kind of person you were in your life— there is one God
who serves as the sole judge; Wiccans feel one makes their own destiny.
The God and Goddess are always there to guide you in
life, rather than judging your actions— or more importantly, your soul. With no transcendent deity who acts as judge
and no concept of sin, logically no need for salvation exists. Rather than incentives to live a good life which
involve pleasing a god exterior to one's self, virtue and honor serve as their
own rewards and one engages in such behavior out of a sense of love and
personal pride.
That role instead lies with
Karma. They believe that when we are reborn into another body, based upon our
actions or deeds in our past life, we will receive them back triple fold in the
new life. Essentially, the role of Karma
is not to punish the soul, but rather to learn from it. Therefore, whether one realizes it or not,
they create their own destiny. Pagans
believe there are lessons set upon our path to help teach us about ourselves
and to overcome the karma we've created in a past life or an earlier time in
this life. Through that understanding we
grow in enlightenment and wisdom. There
is both positive and negative karma.
Until it can detach (let go
and let God) from the past life, the soul experiences this karmic cycle. When this occurs the soul has reached atonement
or ‘At-one-ment’. If the soul cannot let
go, it can ricochet itself back to the "conquered" life. This is why it is very important to learn how
to accept, and let go. Karmic
situations, especially negative karma, cannot be avoided, and usually are accompanied
by some degree of drama or trauma. These
are the situations which typically give one physical, mental and spiritual
concern, stress or grief.
It is by the resolution of
karma that we travel the path to divinity. This occurs in two ways. The first is in repaying and receiving our karmic
debts and credits. The second is in the karmic situations our soul has willingly
chosen to take on. We choose our own
life lessons or path for every reincarnation by selecting a path that would
challenge us and our previous experience, so that our spirit may grow and
learn.
The highest deed that one
has done in the life just past is the point of reference by which a soul
measures its growth, progress and learning. Some souls that have not had many lives and do
not have as much to process and judge themselves on return to the next life very
quickly. All souls who have determined
that they need to return to the body will do so, when they are ready.
Although each incarnation
will surely carry its measure of suffering and sorrow, also will it bring about
the joy of new relationships, new experiences, new wisdom and insights.
Wiccans believe that upon
death of the physical body, the soul goes to a place termed the Summerlands, a
paradise where one experiences happiness and sensual pleasures. All people— except the
spirits who remain behind lost and wandering— go to the Summerland, even the
wicked. The Summerland will be different
for everyone, their own version of Shangri-La. There, they can be reunited with their loved
ones, look over those they left behind on Earth, and take time to recuperate
from life. Our time in the Summerland is
spent processing and reflecting upon the previous lives lessons, recovering
from the hardships endured, and then planning our next life. The Summerland can function as a destination
between reincarnations (a place of rest and renewal) or as the ultimate
destination, when a soul eventually stops reincarnating. Some feel that it
goes to a spiritual realm where the Deities reside, until it's time to
reincarnate. Still others feel that the soul
wanders the Earth until it's time to be born again.
Most Wiccans agree that when
the soul is ready, it is are reincarnated.
Based upon which lessons the soul wishes to learn in the next life, it may
choose what form it takes and even a little about its situation. The soul may even choose lives of hardship in
order to learn their lessons, although they don't get to plan specifically what
the circumstances will be.
Rather than a Hell, most do
believe that a soul may be punished for the harm it does. Some believe that one may be kept from
reincarnating, or reincarnated into an undesirable life as a means of
punishment. There are other Wiccans who
believe this, as well as Wiccans who don't.
Like Buddhists, some Wiccans believe the point of living is to learn and
to perfect your soul, until you reach an enlightened existence.
Buddhists
Buddhists believe in the
notion of reincarnation, with some similarities, as well as differences. Like the Wiccans, they also believe in the
role of Karma. It operates in the
universe as the continuous chain reaction of cause and effect. It is not only confined to causation in the
physical sense but also has moral implications. A good cause equals a good effect; a bad cause
equals a bad effect. In this sense karma
is a moral law. Human beings are constantly
giving off physical and spiritual energy, which as stated in the Law of
Physics, energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be transformed. Similarly, spiritual and mental action is
never lost, rather it is transformed. Thus Karma is the law of the conservation of
moral energy.
By actions, thoughts, and words, humans release their
spiritual energy to the universe and, in turn, are affected by influences
coming in their direction. Therefore, we
are the sender and receiver of all these influences. With each action-influence one sends out and
at the same time, receives, one is changing. This changing personality and the world he
lives in, constitute the totality of one’s karma.
Unlike the notion of fate, karma can be changed and is
within the control of the bearer of it. Because
we are conscious beings, we can be aware of our karma and thus strive to change
the course of events.
Traditionally, Buddhism teaches the existence of the
ten realms of being, which may be viewed as psychological states. At the top is Buddha and the scale descends as
follows: Bodhisattva (an enlightened being destined to be a Buddha, but
purposely remaining on earth to teach others), Pratyeka Buddha (a Buddha for
himself), Sravka (direct disciple of Buddha), heavenly beings (superhuman,
angels), human beings, Asura (fighting spirits), beasts, Preta (hungry ghosts),
and depraved men (hellish beings).
These ten realms may be viewed as unfixed,
nonobjective worlds, as mental and spiritual states of mind. These states of
mind are created by men's thoughts, actions, and words. Man is at the same time capable of real
selfishness, creating his own hell, or can be truly compassionate. Man is characteristically placed at the
midpoint of these ten stages; he can either lower himself abruptly or gradually
into hell; or through discipline, cultivation and the awakening of faith rise
to the Enlightened state of the Buddha.
Scientific Explanations and Studies
So is there any credibility to the belief in
reincarnation?
The general air of skepticism in the modern
westernized world has not prevented researchers from exploring the potential
for the possibility of reincarnation. Dr.
Ian Stevenson, Ph.D., an academic psychiatrist, is well known for his work in
the research of reincarnation. Until his
death in 2007, this former chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and
Neurology investigated over 3000 independent stories of children who claimed to
have memories and know people from their alleged past lives. Stevenson founded the Division of Personality
Studies under the University of Virginia's department of psychiatry and
neurobehavioral sciences. The lab focuses
on examining children who remember former lives, near-death experiences,
apparitions and after-death communications, out-of-body experiences and
deathbed visions.
Stevenson, who often called reincarnation the
"survival of personality after death," saw the existence of past
lives as a potential explanation for the differences in human condition. He believed past experiences plus genetics and
the environment could help elucidate gender dysphoria, phobias and other
unexplained personality traits.
Stevenson's reincarnation studies focused on young
children, usually between the ages of 2 and 5, who had inexplicable phobias or
detailed memories about a previous life. He would attempt to corroborate the facts the
child presented with the details of a deceased person's life. Sometimes he made startling connections
between memories and lives. One Lebanese
boy studied by Stevenson not only knew where a deceased stranger tied his dog
but also that the man had been quarantined within his room— a fact the family
attributed to his pulmonary tuberculosis.
Facial recognition software confirmed that there was
in fact a facial resemblance to their prior incarnation. Some possessed birth marks on places where
they allegedly suffered fatal wounds from in their past life. Often there were dramatic and sometimes
bizarre lesions, such as malformed digits or missing limbs, misshapen heads,
and odd markings.
What seems to be more than mere chance is that children were able to accurately
identify former acquaintances and relationships they had with people in their
prior lives. Most impressively was a
Lebanese girl who was able to remember and identify 25 different people from
her past life and the interpersonal relationships she had with them. His best findings were put together in a book titled
Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation.
The book consists of detailed case reports that included lists of every person Stevenson
had interviewed, along with lengthy tables in which each statement the child
had made about a previous life was listed along with the informant for that
statement and the person or persons who verified that it was correct for the
life of the deceased individual.
Over the course of about four decades, Stevenson studied 2,500 cases and
published books and articles on his research. He claimed he merely wanted to suggest
reincarnation was plausible, not to prove it absolutely. Despite this stipulation, Stevenson’s work was
largely rejected by the scientific community, although he was widely accepted
by the mainstream community. The
potential for piecing two lives together with coincidences rather than facts
and the inability to perform control experiments opened his research to
criticism.
The American Journal of Psychiatry said there were
‘‘cases recorded in such full detail as to persuade the open mind that
reincarnation is a tenable hypothesis to explain them’’. As a review in the Journal of the American
Medical Association stated, ‘‘In regard to reincarnation he has painstakingly
and unemotionally collected a detailed series of cases from India, cases in
which the evidence is difficult to explain on any other grounds.’’
Is this all a figment of a child's imagination that happened to be perfectly
verified with specific details time and time again through investigation by
mere coincidence? Or did ancient
teachings have something right? Do we
really have souls that temporarily reside within our bodies?
And yet another, an absolutely incredible story you
have to see!
The boy who lived before: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-boy-who-lived-before
The Boy Who Lived Before: www.ianlawton.com/cpl2.htm
Documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX1JpOXUnVs
News.com: http://www.news.com.au/news/quantum-scientists-offer-proof-soul-exists/story-fnenjnc3-1226507686757
Psychology Today Article: Does the Soul Exist? http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/biocentrism/201112/does-the-soul-exist-evidence-says-yes
PDF summary from the peer-reviewed Journal of Scientific Exploration: http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_22_1_tucker.pdf
Psychology Today Article: Does the Soul Exist? http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/biocentrism/201112/does-the-soul-exist-evidence-says-yes
PDF summary from the peer-reviewed Journal of Scientific Exploration: http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_22_1_tucker.pdf
"Life will give you whatever experience is most
beneficial for the evolution of your consciousness." ~ Eckhart Tolle
"All that we are is a result of what we have
thought, it is founded on our thoughts and made up of our thoughts." ~ Buddha
© 2013 Rosalind Scarlett
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