Reincarnation is a belief held by many cultures, which consists of the physical disappearance of a person; when they die, their entire essence, their soul, their energy, is reborn in another body, and this process occurs several times until they have reconciled their karmas. In this article, we will talk about it.
What is Reincarnation?
Reincarnation is the belief that after death, people are reborn in another body while retaining their soul or spirit; that is, they are born in another physical form after death. This belief is popularly grouped and goes by many different names:
- Metempsychosis comes from the Greek term arches which means after, successive and psyche which means spirit, soul.
- Transmigration which means to migrate through the soul.
- Reincarnation which means to incarnate again.
- Rebirth which means to be born again.
All these terms point out that the soul or spirit travels after death and appears in another body when it is born again, in order to continue learning all the lessons that life gives it; It also points to the existence of a parallel universe where the soul or spirit chooses to reincarnate, until achieving the elevation of the state of consciousness, which is achieved through lived experiences, which will encourage it to continue evolving. The same phenomenon of reincarnation, but without the belief in a soul or spirit, can be understood as:
- metensomatosis: comes from arches, which means after, successive and sumwhich comes from the body.
- Palingenesis or palingenesis: results from palin, which means again and genesis, which is understood as birth/beginning.
Almost all of humanity has this belief of reincarnation since ancient times, but those who use this theory the most are Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism, African and tribal religions of America and Oceania also tend to have these same beliefs.
However, Judeo-Christian religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam consider that the belief that a person dies and lives again or appears with another body, with a totally more evolved personality, is a heresy, but beyond all these positions the belief of reincarnation continues to subsist.
Eastern religions and traditions
There are religions often called Dharmic , which originated in Hinduism and assert that reincarnation exists, which is called the endless cycle or wheel of karma. They emphasize the importance of performing enough good deeds to achieve liberation or the end of the cycle.
In China and Japan, they also incorporate reincarnation into their countries' traditional religions and venerate their ancestors, as Japan does through Shinto , which notably influences popular contemplation, culture, and folklore in both countries.
Hinduism
In the mythology of the Brahmanic religion , they are certain that when the death of the body occurs, the soul or spirit leaves the body that has already deteriorated and is dragged away by the Yamadūta , who are the messengers who assist the God Lama , who is the one who judges the karma of absolutely all the souls that are in the universe.
Everything depended on good or bad actions, the soul reincarnates in a higher, intermediate or lower life. Including some states of existence, whether heavenly or hellish, and human life would be an intermediate state.
This continuous process is called Samsara, or more commonly known as wandering, and this terminology comes from the Sanskrit verb samsrí, which means to flow together, to wander. In contrast, Eastern cultures, when referring to wandering, associate it with greed, the pursuit of possessions, and also describe it as killing time, a life without meaning.
All souls make this journey, from the gods known as devas to insects. The meaning of a soul's journey within this universe is determined by its actions, its deeds. Hinduism states that the state in which the soul is reborn is determined by these good or bad actions, which are called karma , according to what they do in their previous reincarnations.
That is why the souls that have always done wrong will reincarnate in bodies that are inferior, such as animals, even insects, trees. You can also reincarnate in lower states of hellish experience or unhappy lives. This great weight that karma instills in us can be relieved a little by practicing yoga, because you can increase your consciousness, to very high levels, of course depending on the degree of yoga that you are practicing.
Also the practice of your good deeds, such as generosity, keeping calm and internal joy, and doing good even if we are treated badly. Deprive yourself of all the things that are going to hinder your growth of your soul, or that are even hindering communication with beings that are higher, so be grateful and generous.
This Hindu religious thought, along with the belief in transmigration, emerged as doctrine in its Indian religious texts, called the Upanishads , which replaced the ancient philosophical texts called the Vedas, a development that occurred between 1500 and 7600 BCE. The Upanishads were written between 500 BCE and 1600 CE.
This is why liberation from reincarnation in Hinduism, or samara, occurs after achieving expiation or overcoming the burden of karma—that is, all your actions, both good and bad. This process continues until the individual soul, or atman , achieves evolution and reaches Brahman, who created the universe and liberates you from the misfortune of repeated reincarnation.
As explained earlier, this can be alleviated by practicing yoga, and if this occurs after death, one transcends the material universe and unites with divine light—that is, the radiance emanating from Brahman— along with the belief in that individual soul, or atman. If you are enjoying this article, you might also be interested in: Gods of Buddhism
Jainism
Jainism is a religion that emerged after Hinduism and arose at the same time as Buddhism. In this religion , souls accumulate the fruits of their good or bad actions through everything they do in their past lives.
Even if a Jainist accumulates a lot of karma or good karma, it is possible that their soul will reincarnate into a semi-divine being; however, what practitioners of this belief desire is absolute liberation.
Sikhism
In this monotheistic religion, reincarnation is a belief encompassed within Hinduism. Sikhs believe that the soul must pass from one body to another to evolve, and this occurs when the soul is purified through good deeds, and thanks to this, the soul reincarnates forever.
This means that if people do good deeds like a Gurmuja , they will attain salvation with God. Therefore, you must recite the Naam , that is, the name of God, to follow the path of the Gurmuja.
Budismo
Buddhism emerged from Hinduism and spread throughout the Eastern countries, and made many reforms of its point of view until a new religion was established.
His vision of reincarnation is different, because he affirms and denies it at the same time. What he denies is that entity that can reincarnate, that is, that neither soul, mind, nor spirit can reincarnate. And he affirms by saying that a person appears according to the actions that he or she does, that is, reincarnation would be closer to rebirth than to transmigration.
Buddhists have a strong belief that through nirvana, the cessation of rebirth can be achieved. Now, within Buddhism there is also the Tibetan tradition, which very often uses reincarnation, but the Zen tradition largely ignores it.
Tibetan tradition teaches that one must go through the bardo, which is a transitional state followed by death, and this takes 49 days, as written in the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
“Buddhism can be differentiated from Christianity and other Western religions, as they have not thought of the notion of an immortal soul or rebirth. In the Milinda-pañja, the king asks many questions, and the sage who teaches the king makes a statement as to whether there really is a prolongation between the individuals and the I am you and you are me, so for him there is no such thing. transmigration. To understand this, one would have to know the subject of time and eternity.
The Milinda-pañja demonstrates the paradox with the analogy of one torch lighting another:
"Neither the candle nor the candle have alike, and yet one owes its existence to the other."
That is why Buddhism proposes nirvana to end the cycle of birth and even death. And the Mahayana school indicates that these cycles culminate after all living beings attain enlightenment. So reincarnation would be change within the course of a single lifetime; that is, the Self evolves.
Just as the child dies to make way for the adolescent, with other fears and desires, therefore reincarnation is the change of appearances, of identities, of truths and a change of personality. And all these things you get in the same life.
So there is no reincarnation after physical death, but in the course of the same life one dies a little and is also reborn. In this way you live in the present, without depending on time or the external.
Shinto
Shinto was identified as a religion after Buddhism arrived in Japan, which is why its beliefs were influenced by them, so they merged and that is why there is a mixture of shamanism and animism.
They already possessed knowledge of reincarnation and that, in a certain way, these spirits or souls are connected to living beings. Even so, Shinto has no concept of how salvation works, which is why the Japanese often turn to Buddhism for guidance on this topic. This religion of Japan transforms some of its mythical elements, which it calls karmi, and these are the beings that reincarnate with multiple missions.
Taoism
For the Taoists, the Tao is a higher principle that permeates the entire universe and that is why its nature is eternal, perpetual. That is why reincarnation exists because everything that has life flows through the Tao. The Taoist was not interested in exterminating this theory of reincarnation, rather he continues the path of the Tao, which ends when you become one with it, thus achieving immortality.
Religions and western traditions
When we hear the word “reincarnation”, we regularly associate it with ideas that originate from the Eastern world, with its specific mysticism dating back many years. Yet the West is no stranger to these beliefs.
classical greek philosophy
This story describes Diogenes Laertius, in whom Pythagoras recognizes a friend who died, but was reincarnated in the body of a dog that had beaten him:
“Pythagoras believed in the transmigration of souls, and thought when meat decomposed as something detestable, expressing that the souls of all living beings later jumped from death to other living beings. And in it he stated that the memories of him when he was in Troy in the times of Euphorbus, son of Panthus, that Menelaus was the one who murdered him. »
Plato was the first proponent of reincarnation among the Greeks, as discussed in his work Phaedrus . He describes how a human soul, depending on the truth it has discovered, will be reborn in one type of body or another. This is because souls must strive for perfection. In The Republic, he explains how the legendary warrior Er dies in battle but returns after ten days, where he observes the souls of all men, waiting to be reborn.
Celts
To understand the thinking of this European culture, it is necessary to highlight what Alexander Polyhistor emphasized in the 1st century BC, who commented the following:
"The Pythagorean doctrine prevails among the Gauls, instructing that the souls of men are immortal, and that after a certain number of years they re-enter another body."
The Roman general and politician Julius Caesar acknowledged that the priests of Gaul, Britain, and Ireland considered transmigration one of their main methods:
"They strive above all to convince the immortality of souls and their transfer from one body to another, whose affirmation they qualify as an enormous incentive for courage, placing the fear of death separately."
Judaism
Judaism, as well as Christianity, does not officially recognize this doctrine, even though it is mentioned within Kabbalah. The Zohar states the following:
“All souls are subject to translation, and men who do not know the way of the Lord, let them be consecrated; they do not know that they are brought before a court, when they enter this world as when they leave it. They are ignorant of the many occult rehearsals and rehearsals they have to go through.”
Christianity
Christianity unanimously opposes reincarnation, because they think that this is a doctrine that contradicts the Bible, but they still believe in the resurrection.
But some Christian currents, such as the spiritualists, believe in reincarnation, and in fact have accepted it. They also have the conviction that this doctrine can be verified in the sacred writings of the Bible, including in the primitive Christian tradition.
ancient christianity
Most Gnostics, though not all, accepted the doctrine of reincarnation, as it was a widespread belief within the cultural context of the time. In fact, some Church Fathers even discussed the topic in their writings, categorically rejecting it. Among them was Irenaeus of Lyons , who explored the subject in eight chapters of his work " On the Soul," examining its origins and highlighting the ambiguity of his arguments, which reveal both acceptance and rejection of the doctrine.
Hermeticism
Fundamentally, the doctrine of the soul in hermeticism thinks that the soul is the container where all the errors of men are poured and when they enter the body they are diluted, which can be elevated or punished depending on disrespect and even attachment to the passions corporal.
That is why souls must traverse all the elements to gradually purify themselves, reincarnating until they reach the choir of the gods, for this is the reward for those who are pious and close to God, those who serve others. But those who do not do this will live in sacrilege, will not be able to return to heaven, and will have to suffer reincarnation in various bodies. If you are enjoying this article, you might also be interested in: Mantras for Meditation
reincarnation research
The writer Ian Stevenson asserted that after investigating several children, they remembered a past life. He studied 2500 cases over 40 years, resulting in the publication of twelve books, including * Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation* and * Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect * . Stevenson systematically substantiated each child's statements and then, using the information they provided, was able to identify the deceased person.
Upon verifying all the details of the deceased person's life, they matched the memories provided by the child. Another detail he uncovered in his investigations were birthmarks and defects, which corresponded to the wounds and scars of the deceased, duly certified in their medical records. He also found autopsy photographs, which are described in his book, Reincarnation and Biology.
Stevenson dedicated himself to obtaining irrefutable evidence, providing the necessary explanations in his reports. He eliminated any normal occurrences to highlight each of the children's memories, but the vast majority of his reincarnation cases that this writer reviewed originated in Eastern societies, where this concept predominates within their culture.
When the criticism arose, he published a book about various cases in the West. In it, he includes other writers and researchers on the subject, reviewing Jim B. Tucker, Brian Weiss , and Raymond Moody.
But some skeptics also emerged, such as Paul Edwards , who analyzed some of these accounts, which he called anecdotal, and it was here that the skeptics claimed that the evidence of reincarnation originated from selective thinking and false memories, which sometimes arise from beliefs and fears, and for that reason cannot be accepted as empirical evidence.
Carl Sagan refers to Stevenson 's research cases in his book The Demon-Haunted World , which he presents as an example of empirical data, carefully collected, however, he categorized this explanation of reincarnation in these stories as stingy.
One challenge to these claims of reincarnation is that the vast majority of people have no memory of their past lives and that there is no mechanism that allows the personality to survive death after having traveled to another body and Stevenson as a researcher, acknowledge those limitations.
Tertullian also raises an objection to reincarnation, citing its inconsistency with the gradual growth of the population. This reasoning has been challenged, as there is compatibility between the growth of the human population and the hypothesis of reincarnation. In Argentina, many groups emerged calling themselves "past life research workshops ," and in 2017 they published their work.
western popular culture
In the course of the XNUMXth century, Western cultures have been very flexible on this subject, probably because of the great diversity of their tastes and beliefs.
On the other hand, the situation that some Europeans and Americans were experiencing, due to the economic chaos that was taking place at that time, plus the political problems were proportionally affecting their thoughts and ideas regarding life and in this way, many questions arose about suffering and its existence.
It was very conducive to the American and European nobility to prevent some religious thoughts that were emerging at that time, especially the young people who were being influenced by this religious current and because of this, a consensus was sought.
In this way, reincarnation turned around and the explanation of all social injustices began to open up, which were the result of a single scientific explanation and was what we know as karma.
Both the United Kingdom and the United States had many Eastern sects that placed great emphasis on neutralizing politics and above all giving an explanation of all the disastrous facts of social and personal life, looking for a truth that had to be found in oneself, in order to transcend to a better life.
In this way reincarnation also arises among the aborigines of the United States, where their beliefs are that each man travels along the red path or the black path and when we die a long journey is made, which ends in a first path that is to leave to be born and die in order to retire in the center of all things.
That is why people who have lived a life full of hatred, perversity, selfishness have to pay in some way, since they have to be reborn so that they pay for everything they once did in their past life.
modern thinkers
There are many modern thinkers who disagree with reincarnation, among them René Guénon , who in his book "The Spiritualist Error" points out that this doctrine is Western and has absolutely nothing to do with Eastern doctrines such as metamorphosis or the passage of souls:
"Reincarnation is a thought referring to Kardecist spiritualism that has been accepted by other neo-spiritualist establishments."
In France, some of the leading spiritualists, such as Piérart and Anatole Barthe , stated that spiritualism had made reincarnation a belief. This belief was first adopted by Theosophy, then followed by Papusian occultism, and its influence continued to grow in other schools.
Some people think this representation is a modern chimera originating from Western cultures; others see it as a social concept. For some French socialists who lived in the mid-19th century, this idea represented an explanation for the inequality of social conditions. Meanwhile, spiritualists maintain their position and have sought to disseminate the explanation to all people who experience intellectual or physical inequalities. And the Hindu orientalist Ananda Coomaraswamy asserts in his book " Vedanta and the Western Tradition":
“I am not saying that a belief in reincarnation has never been held in India. I say that such a belief can only have resulted from a popular misunderstanding of the symbolic language of the texts; and that the belief of modern scholars and Theosophists is the result of an equally simplistic and uninformed interpretation of the texts.”
The mixed being falls apart in the cosmos; there is nothing that can be perpetuated as an awareness of being. The elements of the psychophysical form break down and pass on to others as an inheritance. That is, a process that has been occurring throughout life, and that this Hindu practice is also propagated, as is the case of the rebirth of the father towards a son.
This is how he lives with his children and grandchildren, both direct and indirect. This Indian doctrine of reincarnation is similar to the Greek doctrine of metasomatosis , a Christian doctrine that arose earlier, when Adam existed. From this originates the transmission of psychophysical characteristics, which others call our inheritance due to original sin, or, in metaphysics, our inheritance due to ignorance. The philosopher describes this as the innate capacity to know in terms of subject and object.
Reincarnation is a concept that suggests individual souls return to other bodies here in this world. This is not a dogmatic Indian doctrine; it is simply a popular belief. Or as Dr. BC Law says:
" It goes without saying that the practitioner rejects the notion that an ego passes from one embodiment to another."
Nine Physical Evidences of Reincarnation
Apart from reincarnation, some religions have mentioned some cases where it can be shown that the soul can indeed pass from one body to another new body.
The following are some stories that may need scientific investigation, but despite this, it could raise some doubts even for the most skeptical.
Cravings
In some places in Asia, after a person dies, relatives mark him on a place on his body, usually with soot, so that his soul reincarnates again in the same family. This culture has the belief that this mark when a baby is born becomes a birthmark
The Journal of Scientific Exploration has mentioned many cases of babies born with birthmarks that bear a strong resemblance to the marks left on a deceased relative. Among these findings is the case of the Burmese baby who called his grandmother by the name her late husband used to call her, in a very distinctive way.
Baby born with gunshots
Ian Stevenson , a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia, focused on the study of some defects that children had when they were born and that had no apparent cause.
One of the cases reported was that of a Turkish boy, who apparently had traces or traces of the life of a man who had been killed with a shotgun, with a shot to the right region of his skull. The boy was born with the ear on that side very deformed and the face on his right side was far behind, these defects are registered one in 6.000 children and one in 3.500 children individually.
Patient who 'killed' his son and 'married' him
Brian Weiss , a psychiatrist from Miami, wrote in his book about a patient named Diane who, under hypnosis, recalled being a young American settler during the conflict with the Native Americans. She recounted how she and her baby were hiding from the Native Americans, and how she unintentionally drowned her child, trying to stifle his cries so they wouldn't be discovered.
Many months passed after Diane , a nurse at the hospital, was hypnotized. She fell in love with a patient who had the same crescent-shaped birthmark her baby had in a past life. Dr. Weiss claims to know of many people with asthma who have memories of drowning in past lives. If you're enjoying this article, you might also be interested in: Man and Nature
Reincarnated and with the same writing
Taranjit Singh is a Hindu boy who, when he was two years old, used to say that his original name was Satnam Singh . He also said that he was born in a village a few kilometers from his home. He recounted that he was a ninth-grade student who died in a traffic accident. At the time of his death, he had 30 rupees in his wallet, and his books were stained with his blood.
When his father Ranjit heard all these fantastic stories, he investigated whether there was indeed a young man named Satnam Singh in that village. During his investigation, he was told that everything was true, and that the young man had even died because a motorcyclist ran him over.
Ranjit went to find the family, who confirmed all the details his son Taranjit had mentioned, and he successfully identified Satnam in a family photo. The boy was then taken to a forensic handwriting expert named Vikram Raj Chauhan, who compared the notes in the deceased young man's notebook with those of the child, and found many similarities.
born speaking swedish
Professor Stevenson conducted studies on a 37-year-old American woman who, after undergoing parapsychological regression, began to speak Swedish.
In this regression, the woman claimed to have been a Swedish citizen named Jensen Jacoby . Her vocabulary consisted of approximately 100 words, and experts confirmed that her accent was a mixture of Swedish and Norwegian. When her family members were interviewed, they ruled out the possibility that she had learned a Scandinavian language.
memories of monasteries
In his book, a Californian psychiatrist named Adrian Finkelstein recounts the story of a boy named Robin Hull who spoke to his mother in a language they didn't understand. An Asian languages professor identified it as a language spoken in northern Tibet.
Robin, who is a preschool child, narrated that he studied many years ago in a monastery and there he learned that language. That is why the professor traveled to Tibet, where he located the monastery that Robin described in his story. Which was in the Kunlun mountain range.
Burns of a Japanese soldier
Ian Stevenson conducted another investigation into a Burmese girl named Ma Win Tar , who was born in 1962 and when she was three years old identified herself as a Japanese soldier who was captured by the Burmese, tied to a tree and burned alive.
This girl had congenital defects in both of her hands, her middle and ring fingers of her right hand were glued, that is, joined to the rest of her hand, she was also missing several of her fingers and her wrists had marks very similar to a burnt rope .
scars of his brother
There are references that Kevin Christenson died of cancer in 1979. A fracture in one of his legs caused metastasis, and chemotherapy was administered through an incision in his neck. He had a tumor that caused his left eye to bulge slightly, and also a nodule in his right ear.
After twelve years, his mother had divorced and remarried and had a baby whom she named Patrick , who looked very much like his deceased brother; most amazingly, he possessed a mark very similar to the cut that was made on Kevin.
He also had a nodule in the same place as his brother, and to everyone's surprise, Patrick had a problem with his left eye—he was diagnosed with corneal leukoma. And when the boy started walking, he limped, even though there was no reason for him to walk that way.
Like father like grandson
In 1992, John McConnell was shot . His daughter Doreen had a son named William , who, when he was five years old, was diagnosed with pulmonary atrophy, a congenital malformation of the pulmonary valve that slows the flow of blood through the lungs to be oxygenated.
The boy recovered after several surgeries and treatment. Everything the boy had was similar to what his grandfather had after the shots he received in the back that punctured his left lung where the pulmonary artery from his heart ran.
And one day before leaving for school, William told his mother: "When you were a child and I was your father, you misbehaved from time to time, but I never hit you."
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