Reincarnation - Do we Get a Do-Over?

Personally, I vote yes on this one. I believe we come back, and agree with my Hindu friends whose religious tradition teaches that we are reborn until we get it right! I accept the Buddhist teaching that says we have millions of lives before we are ready to get off the wheel of death and rebirth. Many children have reported they remember past lives--this has been well-documented. I believe we “are made flesh again”—the definition of reincarnation. I believe we have past life experiences that dictate our present day lives, and that many people, through past life regression, have been able to remember their past lives and learn from them. I believe past life memories can sometimes help people understand and heal painful issues they are dealing with. And, for this reason, past life hypnosis has been used as a tool for healing. The key word here is “believe,” because I have no direct proof, but I’m certainly not alone here. I’m just one of many millions of people in on the planet who believe life is a continuum, and we (or our souls or some part of us) continue being reborn into human bodies until reaching a state where we have learned enough and gained enough wisdom we no longer need to become stationed here—some call this state Liberation or Enlightenment, especially Indian mystics. I just like to say, we keep coming back until we’ve learned enough or are allowed to (not sure by whom), get out of Purgatory and go someplace better! And, by a better place, I hope for, at the very least, a planet where there is no global warming and corporations don’t run everything and it’s a lot easier to make a living!

In the early 70’s, while attending The University of Iowa and learning a form of meditation, called Transcendental Mediation,that was very popular back then (and was even made famous by the Beatles), my meditation teacher read a passage from the Bhagavad-Gita (“Song of the Lord’’ - Indian scripture that is considered both allegory and history by millions) that referred to being reborn. For me, it was as if a light went off in my head as my teacher explained this fascinating theory of rebirth, or reincarnation, as an evolutionary process of the soul. Up until that moment, I had always felt something missing from my very limited philosophical toolkit that religion had never addressed or satisfied. I just instantly bought it! Souls, he explained, continue to refine, to gain wisdom, and learn lessons until they are ready to merge with some Absolute field some call God. I don’t claim to know anything. Because to me it’s all too much of a Great Mystery to really talk about with any level of certainty! But I do believe (okay, have faith if you will) in some kind of purpose or continuity of life. I have, in meditation, experienced something that feels like it goes on forever, and where I forget about wanting to scream at someone who recently pissed me off. So I’m buying it. What have I go to lose but fear of death (okay, granted at times coming back a whole bunch of times is unappealing).

Most world religions accept the doctrine of reincarnation, and Christianity has failed to answer so many of my questions. I want to know why we are connected to some people and not others. Why are we born into our families, and why do we choose our friends and our spouses? Have we known them in past lives, and are we working out some kind of past karma with them? What about love at first site—did I know him before, and all of that. Is it quid pro quo time? Is this what is meant by, "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction?" Is the reason my brother and I can't find peace related to some past life? I just feel in my gut I have been here before, been around the block, been tied to the wheel; sometimes it feels like way too many times.

The Eastern religions have long accepted the theory of reincarnation and most of the world buys it. It’s a very large club. Many say they remember their past lives, and there are always those fascinating stories of both children and adults who say they remember themselves as other people with other families living other lives, and research shows they are describing real people and real places. And for the many people who actually remember their past lives, they don’t need proof or science. They don’t care what others think because they know or think they do.

Is Reincarnation in the Bible?

"Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." (Gen. 9-6) If every murderer must himself be killed, it makes sense this reactive process requires more than one lifetime.

Even the early Christian Church accepted the philosophy of rebirth before it threatened to challenge its dogma. Just think about the early Gnostics and Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and St. Jerome—all believers in reincarnation and its twin karma. But of course, the Second Council of Constantinople decided to declare it heresy in A.D. 553. A lot of sound ideas became heretical such as, “the world is not flat.” And so many great Western minds have embraced it. My favorite is this quote from the Jesus Christ in the Pistis Sophia, the Gnostic Gospels,

"Souls are poured from one into another of different kinds of bodies of the world."

As I say, I don’t know much of anything. What I do know is this, for some reason, I love flowers. I love animals, and I deplore meanness, greed, and wanton destruction of the earth, disregard for human suffering, and overall 21^st Century Madness (okay not limited to this century – let’s say, Madness Throughout all Known History. I compare the world to the Matrix in the famous movie—we are plugged in and getting out is not always pretty. Sometimes you wish you took the blue pill. And because I long for a gentler place, I want to get off the wheel even if it means merging with something more Absolute. In that way, I’m not exactly a fan of reincarnation or of returning here over and over until I am cured of selfishness, meanness, and bad manners. But, I do believe.>