Do human beings live only once, or are we granted the opportunity to return
after death and experience many different lives? The question of reincarnation
has been examined for thousands of years and has been embraced in various
degrees by numerous religions. Scientists speculate that even the people who
lived during the New Stone Age (10,000B.C.E - 5,000B.C.E.) believed that once a
person died, their journey had not yet concluded (Christie-Murray p.16). Because
ideas about a society that lived so long ago are frequently not concrete and can
be difficult for present day culture to grasp, many scholars point towards
Hinduism as being one of the earliest religions to offer explanations of
reincarnation. Hinduism, originating sometime during the fourth millennium BCE
is the most ancient of the surviving great religions (Christie-Murray p.30). The
adoption of the belief of rebirth can be found in Hindu scriptures dating around
600 BCE As time progressed, suggestions of reincarnation began to be found in
Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, and Christianity. While this is certainly not a
complete list, or a statement that each of these religions embraces and in turn
teaches the theory of rebirth, it does shed light to the fact that among very
diverse beliefs and lifestyles there is a great desire to know what happens
after death. In addition to the search about what transpires posthumously, many
people see reincarnation as an explanation for many of the great questions about
life. Such as, why is there suffering in the world? is there a meaning to life?
how can child prodigies be explained? and are memories about past lives valid?
Following is a discussion of how the theory of rebirth can answer some of
life’s most difficult questions and provide supportive evidence collected
throughout the years for Western minds who find the idea of multiple lives
difficult to grasp. Religion in the Western region of the world is predominately
Christian. Among the people practicing Christianity, the idea that God is
omnipotent is very prevalent. However, the idea of the all-powerful God brings
up and interesting dilemma. If God is responsible for all that happens in the
universe, why is there widespread suffering? Is this God an unsympathetic God
and does he feel the need to punish some people? Many people cannot accept the
idea that the center of their worship would have cruel tendencies. Therefore,
many are of the belief that God is a loving and kind God. But if God controls
the universe with a loving hand, why have there been floods, deadly famines,
children born into poverty or deformed, and why do some people seem to live such
difficult lives? There are no clear answers to any of these questions. However,
reincarnation suggests the idea that there is in fact justice in the world.
“Ancient wisdom teaches that divine justice does rule the world and that there
is a meaning and purpose behind human life. Despite the appearance of injustice,
perfect justice is in fact insured to every human being by the operation of a
compensatory law, the law of cause and effect known in the East as Karma” (Hodson,
p.5). The Law of Karma is the law of causality extended in the world of human
action. More simply stated, every human action, mental, emotional or physical,
produces and exactly appropriate reaction. However, the reaction may not be
received in during the current life (Hodson, p.56). Therefore, suffering is an
expression of past deeds and a entrance to pending life experiences and is not a
result of God’s hatred or indifference, but rather a definite universal law.
Reincarnation offers the hope for a better future because it suggests that with
each “life” we gain more knowledge and are more prepared for the next life.
If suffering is an unavoidable part of life, many people can’t help but ask is
life worth living? Is there a purpose to human existence if it can be extremely
painful or just end suddenly? In broad terms, it can be said that the purpose of
life is the evolution of the human soul (Hodson). The process of growth through
physical experience continues until death and is continuous throughout different
bodies. The time and how the death occurs is governed by the Law of Cause and
Effect. The final stage of the cycle occurs when the soul is free from desire
and is perfectly happy with life and everything that has been experienced. At
the end of the journey, “the [soul] is reabsorbed into the higher self from
whence it came” (Hodson p.53).This is often referred to nirvana or
enlightenment in Eastern religions. In Christianity this idea is expressed by
St. Paul in Ephesians 4.13, “Till we all come in of the faith, and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, into a perfect man, into the measure of the
fullness of Christ”(Hodson p.5). This attainment is represented for every
person in the Bible, “Be ye therefore of perfect, even as your father which is
in Heaven is perfect” Matthew 5.48 (Hodson p.5). Christianity does not embrace
reincarnation and teaches that once a person dies, their soul can go to Heaven,
Hell, or in some cases Purgatory. However, a single life span, even when there
are a variety or experiences of, the attainment of physical, intellectual, and
spiritual “perfection” would be impossible. A person would need to
experience both the life of an animal and a human as well as both sexes and
different races and lifestyles to be able to grasp the vast diversity of the
universe (Hodson). Therefore, the reaching the fullness of Christ would be
impossible in a single life. When a child is born, it is a time for family and
friends to guess what is in store for this new life and what kind of person the
child will grow to be. But, does this child begin with a blank slate or is it
full of experiences of past lives. This question come into the foreground
especially when dealing with the issue of child prodigies. How could a child of
8 conduct an eighty piece orchestra or a poor, uneducated boy of the age of 13
discuss complicated mathematical theorems with top mathematicians? Reincarnation
offers the idea that the inexplicable skills are the result of the incarnation
of people who had mastered the skills in a prior life and they are now being
expressed at an early age in the child (Hodson). Among children without
extraordinary talents, there are questions about what accounts for the
personality differences between children of the same parents, living in the same
household. Genetics and environment play a huge role in who we are, but there is
also the issue of what we have experienced in our past lives. Every decision we
make, even if considered instinct, is a result of prior knowledge stored in the
self-conscious (Algeo). Another striking endorsement for reincarnation is the
existence of people who have memories of events completely unrelated to
themselves which are considered to be recollections of their past lives.
Accurate memories of a past life are due to transference of experiences from one
body to the next. The validity of the accounts are very controversial because it
is often difficult for scientists to prove whether or not a person is actually
have a memory or are creating the memory. However there have been hundreds of
documented cases where the only explanation is reincarnation. One such case is
the widely publicized account of a Colorado housewife named Ruth Simmons.
Simmons began to have memories of her past live as a woman living in Ireland
named Bridey Murphy. Simmons was put into a trance known as hypnotic regression
by well-known hypnotist Morrey Bernstein and gave an account of her life. She
named her hometown of Cork, her husband’s name and people she worked with.
Because Bridey Murphy was not a famous or well-known individual it was difficult
to find corroborating evidence, but enough was found to be accurate to deem her
experience most to be most likely a remembrance of a past live (Algeo). There
are many objections to reincarnations in the Western world in addition to those
which have religious connotations. The statement, “I don’t want to come here
again” is often said by people when the idea of rebirth is spoken of. However,
this statement is made without the consideration that you do not return to the
same life and are not even in the same body. The true self cannot die, only the
body. The body has a beginning and an end but the soul is eternal. Sir Edwin
Arnold expressed this idea in his translation of The Bhagavad Gita: Never the
spirit was born; The spirit shall cease to be never; Never was time it was not;
End and Beginning are Dreams; Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth
the spirit forever; Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of
it seems (Hodson, p.10). While the memory of past lives can be used as evidence
to support the idea of rebirth, those that do not have the memories ask how can
past lives exist if I cannot recall them? To that question, one can answer that
there are many things that have existed that we do not remember. Memories of
one’s own birth, first steps, and learning to read and often not present, but
one cannot deny that those events occurred. If every mundane detail of every day
and life was recalled our brains would be so cluttered. The lack of memories
also allow for new experiences. Even though one may not remember their past
life, the experiences are forever ingrained in their soul. To reach this
knowledge, one must be able to separate from the physical self and attachments
and when this separation occurs, one can become aware of their past. “The
fruits of the past lives are expressed however, in each new personality as
instinct and inherent “gifts” as sympathies and antipathies and as the voice
of conscience (Hodson p.29)”. According to Carl Jung, the fact that people
speak about reincarnation means that it exists. The question of rebirth will
most likely always remained unanswered but there is enough evidence to embrace
it as a possibility. Reincarnation is widely excepted as a fact in Eastern
cultures and it will be interesting to see if the Western biases can be
eliminated. If Western culture accepts the ideas of karma and rebirth the
effects on society could be very drastic. People would become aware that
everything they do has an effect on there life, both current and future.
Hopefully, each member of society would appreciate how everything is
interconnected and strive to act in a just manner and gain valuable experiences
as they continue of the journey of lives.