Reincarnation

Reincarnation is the belief that the eternal, immaterial essence of a living being, commonly called the "spirit" or "soul," is not only capable of surviving death but also can be reborn into a new physical body and return to life on Earth. The concept appears in numerous faith traditions, most notably Hinduism, but it is also part of the secular consciousness. Cases of people remembering details of supposed "past lives" have persisted for centuries and have recently become a topic of scientific and psychological inquiry.

Reincarnation in Hinduism

In Hinduism, reincarnation is guided by a concept known as samsara and is closely related to karma. Samsara is the process through which human souls are transferred into new states of being after death, while karma is the idea that the consequences of individuals' actions accumulate over the course of their lives, ultimately determining their souls' immediate destinies.

Stated simply, Hindus believe that a person's just actions result in the accumulation of good karma, while unjust actions lead to bad karma. The state of a person's soul is evaluated upon death, and those who have accumulated good karma are elevated to higher, spiritual forms of being, while those with bad karma are returned to Earth as lower life-forms, such as plants or animals.

According to Hindu beliefs, karma can only be generated during life as a human being. All the bad karma attached to a soul must be exhausted before the soul can return to Earth in human form, at which time the person will have a new opportunity to live a just life. Similarly, spiritual beings elevated to the heavens are spending their good karma during their time in the higher plane and will also return to Earth in human form once it has been depleted.

Furthermore, the souls of persons who have accumulated bad karma will be relegated to one of five lower life-forms, depending on the amount of bad karma they must expend. Ranked from lowest to highest, the five lower life-forms include aquatic life, plants, reptiles and insects, birds, and animals. Thus, a soul returned to life as a plant will become a reptile or insect in its next life, then a bird, then an animal, before finally returning as a human being. The samsara cycle is considered painful and undesirable, and as such, devout Hindus strive to avoid relegation to the lower life-forms by accumulating enough good karma to enter the heavenly spiritual plane.

Reincarnation in Other Religions and Faith Traditions

As a spiritual concept, reincarnation has recurred throughout human history, and while its exact origins are unknown, there is evidence of its presence in the oral and written traditions of civilizations dating back thousands of years. Reincarnation appears in the traditional belief systems of tribal societies around the world, and scholars report that it was a feature of numerous ancient European cultures, including the Celts, Druids, Gauls, and Teutons.

While reincarnation is sometimes cited as a tenet of Buddhism, this is actually a misinterpretation of Buddhist beliefs. According to Buddhists, individuals do not have a soul or even an identifiable self, and they do not possess an eternal inner essence that survives death. However, Buddhists do believe that human beings, and all other life-forms, possess an inherent energy, which is released upon death, passing back into the world where it eventually takes another shape.

The world's three other major religions—Christianity, Islam, and Judaism—all fundamentally reject the notion of reincarnation. Christians believe that souls are admitted to heaven or banished to hell after a person's death, a belief shared by Muslims. In Judaism, the souls of the righteous departed await resurrection, while the souls of evil and unjust people will not be granted spiritual rebirth.

Secular Concepts of Reincarnation

In secular society, the idea of reincarnation typically manifests through accounts of people who claim that they can remember having lived previous lives. Such memories can appear at any point in life, though they frequently surface during childhood. The most compelling such cases involve people who are able to recall highly specific details of past lives, including things that could not possibly be known to them.

One particularly well-documented case involved a four-year-old American boy named Ryan Hammons, who began to recall a past life as a Hollywood actor and talent agent. As his memories became increasingly vivid and detailed, his parents began to research his claims, ultimately matching them to a man named Marty Martyn, who died in 1964—more than forty years before Hammons's birth. After enlisting the help of a University of Virginia researcher named Jim Tucker and contacting Martyn's family, Hammons was able to confirm more than fifty specific details about Martyn's life that he had no way of knowing, ranging from specifics of his career to descriptions of items he kept in his home.

Scientific Study of Reincarnation

While the Ryan Hammons–Marty Martyn case is unusual, it is not unique. Researchers have studied thousands of similar claims, with Tucker's research being considered one of the most comprehensive scientific studies on the subject ever undertaken. Tucker's multiyear study uncovered several distinctive trends in cases of alleged reincarnation.

Tucker's findings revealed that the majority of children who recall details of past lives are between the ages of two and six, with approximately 70 percent of the claimants stating that they died of violent or unnatural causes in their previous lives. The median amount of time that elapsed between the individual's death in a past life and supposed rebirth into his or her present life was sixteen months, and 20 percent of those who participated in the study claimed to be able to remember events that took place between death and rebirth.

While a small percentage of such cases remain unexplained, the prevailing consensus in the scientific community is that the existence of reincarnation has not been, and likely cannot be, definitively proven.

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