Reincarnation
Reincarnation is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. In most beliefs involving reincarnation, the soul of a human being is immortal and does not disperse after the physical body has perished. Upon death, the soul merely becomes transmigrated into a newborn baby or an animal to continue its immortality.
Reincarnation is a central tenet of the Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Although the Abrahamic religions do no generally accept reincarnation as part of their doctrines, it does occur as an esoteric belief in some streams of mystical Judaism and Christianity. Belief in reincarnation is commonly-held among practitioners of New Age spirituality.
Definition
The word reincarnation derives from a Latin term that literally means "entering the flesh again." Reincarnation refers to the belief that an aspect of every human being (or all living beings in some cultures) continues to exist after death. This aspect may be the soul, mind, consciousness, or something transcendent which is reborn in an interconnected cycle of existence; the transmigration belief varies by culture, and is envisioned to be in the form of a newly born human being, animal, plant, spirit, or as a being in some other non-human realm of existence.
Differences
Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism disagree in their assumptions and theories about rebirth:
- Hinduism: the soul exists and holds the unchanging eternal essence of a living being.
- Jainism: the soul exists and this soul is involved in the rebirth mechanism.
- Buddhism: there is no soul and realization of the non-self is nirvana.
History
The concepts of the cycle of birth and death, saṁsāra, and liberation partly derive from ascetic traditions that arose in India around the middle of the first millennium BCE. The first textual references to the idea of reincarnation appear in the Hindu Upanishads of the late Vedic period (c. 1100 – c. 500 BCE), predating both the Buddha and Mahavira.
The texts of ancient Jainism that have survived into the modern era are post-Mahavira, likely from the last centuries of the first millennium BCE, and extensively discuss the doctrines of rebirth and karma. Jaina philosophy assumes that the soul exists and is eternal, passing through cycles of transmigration and rebirth. After death, reincarnation into a new body is asserted to be instantaneous in early Jaina texts. Depending upon the accumulated karma, rebirth occurs into a higher or lower bodily form, either in heaven or hell or earthly realm. Freedom from this cycle is achieved through enlightenment.
The early Buddhist texts assert that the nature of existence is a "suffering-laden cycle of life, death, and rebirth, without beginning or end.
European history
Around the 11–12th century in Europe, several reincarnationist movements were persecuted as heresies, through the establishment of the Inquisition in the Latin west. These included the Cathar church of western Europe, the Paulician movement, and the Bogomils in Bulgaria.
During the Renaissance translations of Plato, the Hermetica and other works fostered new European interest in reincarnation.
By the 1800s, popular awareness of the idea of reincarnation was boosted by the Theosophical Society's dissemination of systematised and universalised Indian concepts and also by the influence of magical societies like the Golden Dawn. Théodore Flournoy was among the first to study a claim of past-life recall in the course of his investigation of the medium Hélène Smith, published in 1900.
More recently, many people in the West have developed an interest in and acceptance of reincarnation. Many New Age movements include reincarnation among their beliefs, including in Wicca and Scientology.
In Indian religions
Hinduism
Hindu traditions assert that the body dies, but not the soul, which they believe to be eternal, indestructible, and blissful. In the afterlife, based on one's karma, the soul is reborn as another being in heaven, hell, or a living being on earth (human, animal). This reincarnation continues, endlessly in cycles, until one embarks on a spiritual pursuit, realizes self-knowledge, and thereby gains mokṣa, the final release out of the reincarnation cycles.
Jainism
In Jainism, the reincarnation doctrine, along with its theories of saṃsāra and karma, are central to its theological foundations, as evidenced by the extensive literature on it in the major sects of Jainism, and their pioneering ideas on these topics from the earliest times of the Jaina tradition. Reincarnation in contemporary Jainism traditions is the belief that the worldly life is characterized by continuous rebirths and suffering in various realms of existence.
There is no retribution, judgment or reward involved but a natural consequences of the choices in life made either knowingly or unknowingly. Hence, whatever suffering or pleasure that a soul may be experiencing in its present life is on account of choices that it has made in the past.
Buddhism
The Buddha asserted that karma influences rebirth, and that the cycles of repeated births and deaths are endless. Different traditions within Buddhism have offered different theories on what reincarnates and how reincarnation happens. The cycle stops only if nirvana (liberation) is achieved by insight and the extinguishing of craving.
Some Buddhist traditions assert that vijñana (consciousness), though constantly changing, exists as a continuum or stream and is what undergoes rebirth.
In Abrahamic religions
In Judaism
The belief in reincarnation developed among Jewish mystics in the medieval world, among whom differing explanations were given of the afterlife, although with a universal belief in an immortal soul. The Kabbalistic text, the Zohar, first published in the 13th century, discusses reincarnation at length.
The practice of conversion to Judaism is sometimes understood within Orthodox Judaism in terms of reincarnation. According to this school of thought in Judaism, when non-Jews are drawn to Judaism, it is because they had been Jews in a former life.
In Christianity
Some Christians believe that certain New Testament figures are reincarnations of Old Testament figures. For example, John the Baptist is believed by some to be a reincarnation of the prophet Elijah, and a few take this further by suggesting Jesus was the reincarnation of Elijah's disciple Elisha. Other Christians believe the Second Coming of Jesus will be fulfilled by reincarnation. The Catholic Church does not believe in reincarnation, which it regards as being incompatible with death.
In Islam
Most Islamic schools of thought reject any idea of reincarnation of living beings. It teaches a linear concept of life, wherein a human being has only one life and upon death he or she is judged by God, then rewarded in heaven or punished in hell.
However, some Muslim minority sects such as those found among Sufis, and some Muslims in South Asia and Indonesia have retained their pre-Islamic Hindu and Buddhist beliefs in reincarnation.
Pagan beliefs
Julius Caesar recorded that the pagan druids of Gaul, Britain and Ireland had metempsychosis as one of their core doctrines:
The principal point of their doctrine is that the soul does not die and that after death it passes from one body into another... the main object of all education is, in their opinion, to imbue their scholars with a firm belief in the indestructibility of the human soul, which, according to their belief, merely passes at death from one tenement to another; for by such doctrine alone, they say, which robs death of all its terrors, can the highest form of human courage be developed.
Modern Wiccans believe in a form of karmic return where one's deeds are returned, either in the current life or in another life, threefold or multiple times in order to teach one lessons (the Threefold Law). Reincarnation is therefore an accepted part of the Wiccan faith. Wiccans also believe that death and afterlife are important experiences for the soul to transform and prepare for future lifetimes.
Demographics of belief
Academic psychiatrist Ian Stevenson reported that belief in reincarnation is held (with variations in details) by adherents of almost all major religions except Christianity and Islam. In addition, between 20 and 30 percent of persons in western countries who may be nominal Christians also believe in reincarnation.
Demographic survey data from 1999 to 2002 shows a significant minority of people from Europe (22%) and America (20%) believe in the existence of life before birth and after death, leading to a physical rebirth.
Scientific examination
While there has been no scientific confirmation of the physical reality of reincarnation, where the subject has been discussed, there are questions of whether and how such beliefs may be justified within the discourse of science and religion. Skeptic Carl Sagan asked the Dalai Lama what he would do if reincarnation were definitively disproved by science. The Dalai Lama answered, "If science can disprove reincarnation, Tibetan Buddhism would abandon reincarnation."
Past life memories
Over a period of 40 years, psychiatrist Ian Stevenson, from the University of Virginia, recorded case studies of young children who claimed to remember past lives, and published twelve books. In his cases he reported the child's statements and testimony from family members and others, often along with what he considered to be correlates to a deceased person who in some ways seemed to match the child's memory. Stevenson also investigated cases where he thought that birthmarks and birth defects seemed to match wounds and scars on the deceased.
Stevenson's claims have been subject to criticism and debunking, for example by the philosopher Paul Edwards, who contended that Ian Stevenson's accounts of reincarnation were purely anecdotal and cherry-picked. As the vast majority of people do not remember previous lives and there is no empirically documented mechanism known that allows personality to survive death and travel to another body, positing the existence of reincarnation is subject to the principle that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."
Past life regression
Some believers in reincarnation (Stevenson not among them) give much importance to supposed past-life memories retrieved under hypnosis during past life regressions. This method was popularized by psychiatrist Brian Weiss, who claims he has regressed more than 4,000 patients since 1980.
Such "memories" have been documented to contain historical inaccuracies originating from modern popular culture, common beliefs about history, or books that discuss historical events. The use of hypnosis and suggestive questions can tend to leave the subject particularly likely to hold distorted or false memories. Rather than recall of a previous existence, the source of the memories is more likely confabulations that combine experiences, knowledge, imagination and suggestion or guidance from the hypnotist.
Past-life regression has been critiqued for being unethical on the grounds that it lacks any evidence to support its claims and that it increases one's susceptibility to false memories. APA accredited organizations have challenged the use of past-life regressions as a therapeutic method, calling it unethical.