After writing my most recent hub on reincarnation, I was inspired to write a follow-up Hub on the topic of fictional reincarnates, a theory that's controvercial even amongst those who have a very liberal belief when it comes to reincarnation. This is the belief that one is a reincarnation of a fictional character, most often a person's favourite character.

Related to this are the otakukin, a group of people who follow this belief but who take their claims from Japanese culture, often anime or manga. The word comes from a mix of the Japanese word otaku (literally meaning "you", but most commonly used as a derogatory way of referring to someone who is obsessed with something, particularly anime) and otherkin, people who believe that their souls and thus behaviour share more in common with various animals than humans.

While this theory isn't very popular, and often even openly mocked by some, it's still prevalent enough in culture -- especially Internet culture --, to be worth documenting.

The two theories behind fictional reincarnation go hand-in-hand, and often aren't too hard to take seriously on their own. But sometimes when people realise what these two theories mean when connected, believing it involves taking a step outside what we know and trust of reality, and that's too much for most people to handle.

And no one can be blamed for this. We all pick and choose our personal beliefs, and some things just don't mesh with what we believe in. But personally, I don't believe that this belief is one to be mocked. Whether or not I believe it is irrelevent. But to some people, this belief is as integral to their lives as a Christian's belief in God, and ought to be treated just as respectfully.

Now that that disclaimer is out of the way, on to the theories.

The first theory is that there are countless realities all around us. Alternate reality theory is not new, and it has featured in many aspects of popular culture, from movies to books to television shows. This theory states that for every action a person takes, there is an alternate reality formed elsewhere where that person did not take that action. This leads to infinite alternate realities in existance, most of which are quite similar to our own (because really, how vastly different can a reality be where we just didn't brush our hair one morning, or we ate chicken for supper instead of fish?), and for the most part, they aren't that important. But some of the realities are very different. A common example of this is the sort of "what if" scenario where people ask things like, "What would have happened if Hitler had won World War 2?"

More drastic examples would be things like, "What if aliens from another galanxy had visited this planet in the 1400s, lived among us openly, and radically influenced our culture from that point on?" Or "What would the world be like if some species of dinosaur had survived and evolved alongside humans?"This is the stuff that great stories are made of.

This is exactly what great stories are made of, according to the second theory that comes along with the concept of fictional reincarnation. Many people believe in what is commonly called the ether, a collective unconscious collection of sentient experience that everybody has some access to, however limited. Strange dreams of other places and other people, ideas for detailed coherent stories, all that stuff is believed to have been inspired by thoughts and experiences that were pulled from the ether.

Putting these two theories together, some people believe that many popular TV shows, movies, books, and so on were originally inspired by thoughts that came to someone through the ether. So ideas like the Star Wars universe, the Final Fantasy video games, the Night World book series all contain actual truth, albeit truth that came from an alternate reality that is completely separate from our own.

If you combine this idea with the theory that souls are not bound to specific times and places and can travel about at will, it follows that the souls of so-called fictional characters, who are in fact real somewhere else, could be reincarnated in our time and our reality. Any time or reality, really, but since this is the only one I know on a first-hand basis, it's the one I'm addressing.

In my other article on reincarnation, I mentioned a few common ways through which people have accessed their past-life memories. Regression hypnosis and dreaming are the most common ways. Few people, but enough to be notable, have reported memories that match up with that has been described in various characters from popular fiction.Often these things are dismissed as false memories, or a perceived connection to a favourite character in that fiction, and perhaps most often that's what actually happens.

But there's also an equal chance that these memories came from reality. A different time and different place, even different dimension of reality, but the memories themselves are real ones, and the past life that is remembered actually transpired.

Or so popular theory goes.

Multiple realities can also explain why many people have claimed to be the reincarnation of the same character. They are, but each character is one from a different reality in which they exist, perhaps with differences so minor that they're virtually identical and do not diverge from canon (another term for the accepted events within a fandom) in the slightest.

(This could also explain why numerous people here all claim to be Cleopatra, Napoleon Bonaparte, and all drowned on the Titanic.)

Like most cases of controversial beliefs, there are people who truly believe it, and people who claim they do just so they can stir up drama. This can make it very difficult for people who have a genuine belief to gain any credibility. For every person who truly believes that they were someone we know as a fictional chatacter, there are at least two people who make the claim just to get people riled up and to get some attention.

It's been my experience, when talking to people about their beliefs and experiences, that those who truly believe often keep quiet about it. They know how strange it's going to sound, they know how few people will believe them, and their experiences are ones that they keep to themselves. They don't desire attention or fame from what they claim they once were. They just want to live their lives like anyone else. Why would they open their mouths and talk about experiences that would leave three quarters of listeners with the impression that they've gone off the deep end?

This isn't to say that everybody who keeps quiet remembers a "fictional" past life, or that everybody who speaks up is just lying to get attention. As with everything, there are exceptions. Sorting out the truth from the lies is always going to be difficult.

But the first step is in taking people seriously. Even if you yourself don't actually share the belief, if somebody in all seriousness tells you a rather exceptional belief of their own, it's best not to mock them, not to tell them they're crazy or lying or stupid. Beliefs are tricky things, and often there's about equal proof for them as well as against them, and far much more that's just plain inconclusive.

Maybe you yourself have those memories deep down and aren't consciously aware of it. Many believers I've talked to have said their experiences started with nothing more than a strong feeling of connection to a particular character. It was only after spiritual and personal exploration and development that things changed, become deeper and more concrete, and at a certain point, they started to wonder if the connection they felt was due to the fact that they shared the same soul.

Then again, maybe you just like a certain character because they're likable. Who can say?