Reincarnation

The question of the human existence is today increasingly asked in the following way: Do we live this life, and thereafter cease to exist? Do we live, and thereafter go to an eternal heaven or hell? Or do we live this life, and then return after a period in higher dimensions?

Author Søren Hauge: www.sophiaundervisning.dk

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The question of the human existence is today increasingly asked in the following way: Do we live this life, and thereafter cease to exist? Do we live, and thereafter go to an eternal heaven or hell? Or do we live this life, and then return after a period in higher dimensions? In spite of the materialistic science's distinctive impact and the influence of Christianity for thousands of years about 25% of the European population answer today that for them reincarnation seems to be the right answer to the question. Apparently there is a dramatic change of philosophy of life, which should give food for more than thought. For how can such an apprehension come so significantly into play in a part of the world, where neither religion nor culture has profiled the thought? It is not a matter of trend, but a persistent impress, which maybe only in modern time has been possible without fear of persecution, repression and discrimination. Below we will focus on some of the many perspectives, which the reincarnation idea opens for, and also show how the reincarnation gives us profound and satisfactory explanations of up to now unsolved mysteries.

The cyclic law

The word reincarnation is Latin and means "in flesh again". Sometimes the classic Greek word "palingenesia" is used, which in English means rebirth. The Greek word "metempsychosis" means "the soul's wandering from place to place", which normally is translated to "transmigration of souls". In this connection the word is often used with a negative charge, as if the reincarnation idea implies that the soul restlessly wanders from body to body. However, the common feature is the actual idea of repetition or cycle.

The idea of reincarnation is connected with the principle of conservation of energy and the cyclic lawfulness. The principle of conservation of energy can in this context be understood in this way: We cannot perish, but our energies can undergo transformation and change. As living beings we cannot cease to exist, as our inmost essence is divine and thus immortal, transcendent and outside time and space. Every living being is "a fragment of God" and the life stream consequently unquenchable. However, the outer idioms change. Therefore you may say, and rightly so, that we have only one life (that is the eternal), but we have many incarnations.

The cyclic law is one of the most fundamental laws that we are able to observe. It applies everywhere, from the largest to the smallest, and expresses itself simply in all existing things' pulsating, rhythmic interaction between activity and rest, extroversion and introversion. In nature we see the tide as a result of the moon's orbit. The entire solar system is one rhythmic movement, and the earth's slope and rotation result in the seasons' cyclic recurrence. Not only solar systems, but also star clusters and galaxies rotate, because the cycle is energy in motion. In our own body we feel the heartbeat's interaction between diastole and systole, and our breathing, hormone balance and cell rhythm indicate other pulsations, like the interaction of day and night and sleep and awake. Everywhere in our lives we witness periods of activity and rest, potentiality and actuality, latency and manifestation, introvert and extrovert exertion.

This simple and beautiful principle is so universal, that we often do not notice it at all. The flowers open in the sunlight in the morning and close again in the evening. Our own life has periods of intense rushes and dynamics followed by slow periods where the best thing to do is to retire into reflection and immersion. And society is one giant demonstration of rhythms and pulsations, from the traffic lights' constant change between green, yellow and red, to the day's recurring rituals in private life and job. One of life's most common features might be this cyclic expression, and the reincarnation principle is no exception. In some periods the human soul is retired into its essence and acts in higher dimensions, whereupon it returns to outer activity and tries its strength against new challenges. When the soul recurs outwards it makes an idiom of mental, emotional and physical matter. We then say that the soul is born and appears as a personality in the physical world. For a time it then displays its possibilities and tries to reach the planned aims, whereupon it discards its outer form by the so-called death, and withdraws to the higher dimensions. Reincarnation can be expressed in this simple way: It is the soul's pulsating breathing, a continued change between introvert recharging and extrovert activity. The consciousness reaches for the compact regions of manifestation to create and form, whereupon it withdraws to higher dimensions to assimilate and incorporate the gained experiences, so they become permanent qualities.

What is it that reincarnates?

It is a common, but incorrect apprehension, that it is the person's outer personality that reincarnates over and over. This would imply that the same mentality and the same nature have a status of immortal existence, and that it is only the physical body that is replaced. We would then almost resemble ourselves from life to life, maybe except from the various bodies. The mistake here is the identification of instincts, feelings and thoughts with our inner essence. Even though a person's character and capabilities, emotional constitution and instinctive habits definitely are important and very crucial, when we deal with human existence, these ways of expression are only partly and limited manifestations of something far greater and more extensive, that is our soul or inner consciousness, which is the reason for all the other aspects. In our inner nature we are far more than what we can express in one single personality at a time. We are souls that couch ourselves in personalities with mental, emotional and physical forms. Therefore it is the soul and not the personality that reincarnates, and the soul brings out a new personality each time with the inclinations and possibilities, which are partly the fruit from previous karma , and which are partly connected with the soul's evolutionary design.

We can use an image to illustrate the relation between the personality and the soul. The personality can be considered the house of the soul, the soul's residence. The house is constructed with a foundation, floor, walls, ceilings, windows and doors. Specific materials have been chosen and used for the building of a house with special qualities and possibilities. This is the soul's physical form, the outer body with its senses. If we go inside the house we will feel a certain atmosphere and an environment, which are conducive for certain expressions of life. This is the soul's astral or emotional expression. If we walk about in the house we will discover that it is arranged and furnished in a certain way with a number of organized functions in the various rooms. This is the soul's mental or intellectual form, the intellectual "furniture". Not two houses are identical and both atmosphere and arrangement will be unique from house to house. And here is an important point. We would never dream to mistake the resident for the house, even though the two are closely connected. The resident, who uses the house, is the soul, the inner consciousness, that constantly develops. The house is the residence of the soul, its instrument and form. Just as we can move from one residence to another, thus the soul renews the personality, when one mission has been completed and a new is to be prepared.

Another well-known metaphor is to call the personality the soul's clothing. The soul puts on clothes when it starts a work, and it will take off the clothes when the day is over and it is time for rest. The next morning a new day starts with new duties, and the soul will put on other clothes that have been cleaned and are more suitable for the coming challenges. The soul's clothing depends on its work and the special constitution required. Just as we should not mistake the clothes for the person, thus we should not consider the personality the core of our existence. Behind the physical, emotional and mental forms a consciousness lives and develops, and learns from the many incarnations' experiences, which sows and reaps and sows again, to harvest again new insights, characteristics, qualities and capabilities. We may have many intentions and emotional feelings, but these can change and we remain the same. Our identity exists on a very deep level. Behind the many intellectual models and emotional conditions is a soul-individuality, which continues to grow, and which contains lasting qualities such as growing wisdom and love, purpose and selflessness, insight and clarity.

Geographical range

It is often the western world's conception, that the reincarnation idea is an eastern phenomenon and therefore distant and irrelevant for our culture. The objection is not only a bad argument, but also directly false. There are not many apprehensions that are more universally spread than the reincarnation idea with its many variants. For the 700 million Hindus in India reincarnation is such a natural, deeply-rooted part of the culture, that for many it cannot cause any surprise or doubt. The hundreds of million believers in Buddhism also consider reincarnation a matter of course, though it may often be interpreted a little bit different than for the Hinduism. In the Far Eastern areas the idea is very spread and characterizes the populations in the Himalayas, Mongolia and China, especially via the Daoism and other religious traditions. The reincarnation idea is very common among the original tribal populations in Africa, where they often consider childlessness a curse that hinders rebirth. Everywhere among the aboriginals in Australia the idea is well-known, and sometimes they perceive the ancestors' nature in animals and other living creatures. In the Pacific Islands the idea is known among the Maoris, Tasmanians, Tahitians, the natives in the Fiji Islands, in Bali and Borneo. In America reincarnation has been admitted very long among the American tribes, e.g. the Iroquois, Algonquian, Creequian, Hopian and Mohavian. In the Middle East it has been a well-known idea for thousand of years, for instance among the early Gnostic movements, in the Orphic religion and among some of the greatest philosophers and poets from Plato and Pythagoras to Empedocles and Pindar. In Rome the idea was common for both Plutarch and Plotin. In Lebanon and Syria the idea is known by eg. the Druses, and among the ancient Egyptians reincarnation was an integrated part of the religious life.

After this tour it is natural to return to our own latitudes and ask the question, whether reincarnation is unknown in the European culture after all? First of all we can state that the entire Celtic culture, which before our calendar thrived especially on the British Isles, in northern France and Spain and to a certain extent also in the Scandinavian area, considered reincarnation a natural idea. The question is whether the idea was common in the North before Christian time, even though we have no written proves thereof. We will return to the Christianity later in this paragraph, however it is a absolute fact that groups among the first Christians accepted the idea as fully consistent with the Christian gospel, and the idea survives up over the centuries, in spite of persistent suppression from the Cathars, Hermetics, Neo-Platonists, Rosicrucians and many of the other spiritual movements that are set outside the Roman Church' favour. In modern times reincarnation has become a controversial issue among the Christians, and the number of Christian priests in Europe who have strong belief in the idea, is higher than officially acknowledged. Reincarnation has simply become a hot potato and a returning issue concurrently with the new age movements' and the eastern philosophies' spreading in the West in the second half of the 20th century.

Giordano Bruno believed in reincarnation

There are various "versions" of the karma conception, and here it is suitable to place the wisdom teaching according to certain extreme interpretations. One of these is what you may call the eastern "suffering-samsara-version", which holds that all life is suffering, that we are bound to the incessant wheel of life (samsara), and that fundamentally the world is an illusion . The binding to the wheel of life can only be ended by being released through enlightenment and transcendence. In this comprehension the world may easily appear as a misunderstanding, and the souls are trapped in the substance's cold grave. The perspective is then that the only way is the way out of this world. Another extreme interpretation could be called "the western new-age-happyology-version", where reincarnation is almost described as a super-optimistic joy trip that gets better and better, day by day. The development is one incredible lift for unceasing greater heights, which gives ecstasy, joy and incomprehensible peace. This perspective is almost naive and one-sided positive. There is not much room for the world's misery and existential suffering.

The wisdom teaching presents a perspective, which is almost halfway between the two extreme versions. It is true that life holds suffering and that the individual through the binding to the physical values becomes enslaved and unhappy. But it is also a fact that happiness is a motive for development, and that evolution is progressive. The human soul will not go backwards in development. What has once been gained can never be lost, and even though old karma may return later in life and inhibit the work of the soul, the greater perspective ensures that a continued development takes place. Consequently a horse will not reincarnate as a flower or a rock crystal, just as a person will not become a badger or a canary in the succeeding life. Like the biological theory of evolution shows a continued growth in complexity and multiplicity, also the esoteric teaching states that the consciousness is in a process of continued growth and development.

Objections

The number of believers in a cause will never as such be a guarantee for its authenticity. The above-mentioned examples of well-known intellectual personalities do only serve to demonstrate that the European conception in this field may actually be different than the one we read about in the history books and hear about through intellectual figures. In the following we will have a close look on some of the objections that are often raised against the reincarnation theory.

1) Why does not everybody remember their past lives? This question is very understandable, and you may naturally wonder why certain people suddenly remember their past lives, whereas most of us do not seem to have access to such memories. Here it is very important to remember, that the fact is that it is not the personality that reincarnates, but the soul that manifests a new personality each time. This explains why not all of us have easy access to knowledge about our past lives. Our body as well as our emotional and mental nature are new in each life. Therefore we do simply not have any recall on our past lives. But still, some people are able to remember other existences. How is that? Here we have more possible explanations. First, a spontaneous or trained deliberate contact with the soul may give access to its comprehensive memory. In that case you may say that fragments of memories flow down into the personality and give knowledge of the past. There may also be events in this life that directly relate to past lives, which through resonance produce inklings or clear impressions of connections with past lives. Our personality is of course new in relation to past lives, but still it holds "water marks" or "blue prints" which are like echoes from the soul's previous experiences. These may be wholly or partly activated and in certain cases produce glimpses of our soul or just feelings, which relate to past lives. In this way some people may have access to more or less direct information on previous incarnations. Sooner or later everybody's soul contact will give direct knowledge of our many lives. Until we reach this mature state we will at most receive feelings, senses and glimpses of comprehensions.

2) We become more and more people! How does that relate to reincarnation? Another kind of objection is that the growing number of people on earth brings up the question where these "new" people come from. The answer is, that according to the esoteric sources the total number of human souls is far higher than the number of people who right now are incarnated in the physical world. In other words there are human souls in higher, inner conscious dimensions, who are not incarnated, but exist in the intervening period between two physical lives. It is stated in the esoteric sources - e.g by Alice A. Bailey and Annie Besant, that the total number of human souls is about 10 times the population of the world today (6 billion). That means that the growth in population permits a higher percentage of the total number of human souls to be in physical incarnation at the same time.

3) Fantasy is mistaken for reality: It is sometimes claimed that reincarnation experiences must be owing to a lively imagination , which in a credulous person is turned into realities, perhaps because of wishful thinking. But the objection that fantasy is mistaken for reality will be strongly reduced, if the person is equable and has a clear and distinct experience of something, which is just as much a fact as the other experiences in the everyday life, perhaps even more clear. Neither do we doubt other people's memories of what they experienced yesterday. If a person evidently claims to remember past lives, and if the exactness of this memory is significantly distinct and living, are we not compelled to allow for acceptance of the experience? A completely denial and exclusion that such reality can be possible show a very unscientific and prejudiced approach to the question.

4) Hallucination - unknown brain function: From a scientific point of view it may be stated that all kinds of reincarnation memories are expressions of biochemical reactions in the brain, which result in imaginative pictures that are hallucinatory. It is not just a matter of fantasies but unknown areas in the brain or incomprehensible brain functions that activate and generate mental illusions. Irrespective of the clearness of the experienced you may claim that it is pure brain productions with no foundation in fact. The answer to this is that such a conclusion more than anything else would be a premature conclusion based on presumptions and a materialistic background, which denies the possibility of reincarnation. As we will discuss later, scientific research is actually performed on the reincarnation phenomenon. Such a research must be compared with the statement of hallucinations and unknown brain functions, before any conclusions can be drawn.

5) Fear of death or psychical unbalance: You may also take a philosophical-psychological view of the question and state that it is a matter of compensatory fantasies, which simply counteract a reasonable fear of death and expresses a need of immortality. Thus the reincarnation idea provides hope of personal life upholding and then becomes almost a pathological reaction or at least an expression of strongly psychical unbalance. Naturally such causes may to some extent be evident, but it is seriously problematic to generalize individuals' unbalanced fantasies and to make a disease out of reincarnation experiences as such. There are no scientific examples that support this and therefore the objection cannot be used as a common argument against reincarnation.

6) Paranormal identification with others: The thought of paranormal identification with persons in former times reveals a willingness to make very complicated hypotheses, which may seem even more complicated and unlikely than the reincarnation idea itself. Sometimes this hypothesis is combined with the thought of "collective cell memory", where each individual person somehow carries the ancestors' experiences in his protoplasm and therefore mistakes the brain contact with these "knowledge pockets" for speculative interpretations of former lives. The question is very simple. If you are willing to operate with the hypothesis that events and destinies of former times' individuals can be relived in a modern person's consciousness with great clearness or be reactivated in the cells - even with such clearness that the person actually identifies himself with it and is able to relate to this existence - why is it then so difficult to accept that it in fact is this person's own soul memory? Does this unwillingness against the idea of rebirth not precisely reveal a bigoted and scientific prejudice?

7) A heathen and culturally unknown idea for the west: We have now come to the Christianity's massive and uncompromising refusal of the reincarnation idea. Actually it is a series of objections that we can only partly discuss here, but which will be supplemented later in this paragraph with testimonies to the reincarnation idea in the Christian tradition. The first form of rejection of reincarnation and karma can be shortly called the cultural argument. It is often stated that reincarnation and karma are not at all related to our culture. They are expressions of a Hellenistic-Indian mentality, which is far away from the entire Jewish-Christian culture, and which will never have fertile soil in the value context and human view that our culture is based on. They are so to say foreign bodies that must be rejected by the healthy, Christian society.

The argument as such is not very good, because if reincarnation and karma are facts, it is quite unimportant where in the world it has been believed in. It is true that reincarnation and karma very intensely have been excluded from the European culture's mainstream for many centuries, just as it is true that Galileo had to declare to the Holy See that the earth does not revolve round the sun. Consequently the cultural argument does not seem very convincing, especially when you consider that the idea of reincarnation and karma in spite of this persistent resistance has actually survived in Europe, completely independent of the Eastern traditions and apprehensions. The argument that reincarnation is an unchristian thought corresponds to saying that it is wrong to celebrate 25 December because we in Denmark celebrate 24 December. Things do not become untrue because they are unaccustomed. For several centuries the reincarnation idea has been eagerly fought and directly cursed through the Christian church' institutions. Suppression and criminalization of a certain issue are rarely convincing arguments for its untruth.

The church has claimed that the reincarnation idea goes with a quite different view of life, where the individual is part of God, and where the Creator is not a personal Father, but an impersonal power. Thus Creator and Creation arguments are used against reincarnation, as the thought of rebirth is considered incompatible with the Christian theology about God and Creation. Another Christian objection can be called the mortality argument, which states that the individual dies, when he dies. Certain religious circles will claim that we do not go on living as conscious souls after death, because we cannot exist without a body as soul and body should be inseparable. It is then maintained that because God does not forget anyone, he/she will be held in His memory and recreated on the Day of Judgment. According to this quite special and peculiar - you might even dare to say materialistic - Christian comprehension, it is asserted that there is no psychic nor spiritual life beyond the physical world. Death is definitive. The human being can only exist as a person as long as it is in a body, because God has in an instant created it as an indivisible unit of mind and matter. One thing cannot do without the other, and upon the Day of Judgment mankind will live forever in a transformed physical body.

To this it can be said that the Christian interpretation first of all is far from what has been prevailing Christianity for many centuries. Millions of Christians have confidently died in full assurance that the redeemed will live a Heavenly life in the world to come, not having to carry a fleshly body any longer. Certain religious movements thus consider the world after the Day of Judgment a transformed material life, just opposite former times' Christianity, which showed a spiritual dimension, where the individual would live in an non-physical resurrection body. Furthermore it must be emphasized that thousands of testimonies tell how people through out-of-body experiences, paranormal incidents or near-death experiences have experienced that they can indeed exist outside the physical body. The mortality argument therefore seems only to be of theological interest.

Another Christian argument against reincarnation and karma might be called a sin-and-mercy argument. The argumentation is that there is absolutely no spiritual evolution where mankind learns through gradual experiences. The original sin is transmitted from Adam and Eve to the entire human race , which cannot by itself be cleaned from it. We have all departed from God's intention of the Creation and we are now abandoned the possibility of an undeserved salvation. We are all sinners, which we can all be assured of by looking at the world today. We are completely in the hands of God and his intervention, and all spiritual intentions of evolution are fundamentally manifestations of pride, as we will then end up believing that we are the Lord ourselves. Fortunately we will not get what we deserve, as in that case everything will literally go to hell. God, however, is good and he will give us much more than we deserve. That is exactly the evidence of God's almighty goodness, which has nothing to do with karmic justice and development through reincarnation. Even though we constantly create misery around us, God's mercy is able to transform the sin into glory through forgiveness and mercy. And karma and mercy from God can never be united, it would be stated.

An answer to that would be that it all depends on your point of view. It is easy to point out the incorrectness of the world and the greed, blindness and narrow-minded materialism of mankind. But to deny that no evolution takes place and that evolution automatically would imply pride, is a point of view without much weight. You may answer to that, that the view of the world being infested with original sin since Adam and Eve, undoubtedly has suppressed and tormented innumerable people during the centuries, and that it exactly on the strength of the Christian preaching has given thousands and thousands fear of life, complexes, neuroses, inferiority complexes and especially horrors of death. When you deny that the human being's inner heart is healthy and good, and in stead preaches sin and repentance it is also very likely that you deprive him of the possibility of developing integrity and human qualities.

The final Christian objection that we will present here could perhaps be called the resurrection argument. What is the reason for the Crucifixion and the Resurrection - it may be objected - if each individual person can be developed through life upon life? That would make the sacrifice of Christ on behalf of mankind totally unnecessary, the suffering that is also called the substitute atonement. The esoteric basic view is that Christ by his specific and symbolic sacrifice gave his "life blood" and in an exceptional way relieved by supporting and transforming the collective karma of mankind. He identified himself from within with each individual human and creature on this earth, and thereby brought his light of love into the common human dimension and at the same time he became a guiding star for the individual person. In this way he actually became "substitute", but his work has thus not in advance forgiven or revoked all other people's later troubles. By his life drama he brought a light into this as well as the non-physical world. This light is like a tone in the background, which continues to elevate, transform and guide all other beings' development on this planet.

And thus the Resurrection is a gift to all of us during our course of development, as we eventually, through the many lives, approach the way of sanctification and directly follow the Master's footsteps. The mystic Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ have in this way released a flood of love and light, which increasingly flows into the existing worlds with relief and support for all creatures under development.

Reincarnation and Christianity

It is wrong to claim that reincarnation cannot have anything to do with Christianity, but it is very much correct, that the reincarnation idea cannot be accepted in a Christian context without this having consequences for the theological apprehensions. In the following we will show that in a number of areas quotations from the Bible and Christian arguments speak for the reincarnation idea's compatibility with the Christian teaching and culture. Let us begin with the quotations.

In the Gospel according to St John, beginning of chapter 9, it is said about Jesus: "And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying: "Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?". How could you be able to sin before birth if you are created by God by conception and have not experienced anything but the uterus' protecting surroundings? Theologians may answer that it is a matter of original sin, but the Holy Writ does not use this expression. Jesus never talks about original sin. It is a technical term used by the theology.

Jesus answers his disciples that the man's blindness is neither due to a sin (bad karma ) from himself nor his parents, but that he has been born blind so he can experience the miracle of recovering his eyesight as a grown up. The answer is therefore surprising, but it also implies that the man may have sinned before birth and thereby, through bad acts in a past life, have brought blindness upon himself in this life.

In the Gospel of Matthew, 17:11, the disciples ask about Elias from the Old Testament, and Jesus answers: "Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, that Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them." Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist." It is difficult to conclude other than John the Baptist actually being the Prophet Elias, who has returned, i.e. reincarnated. That John the Baptist denies it (John 1:21) does not explain away the words from Jesus. It is not unusual that persons cannot remember their reincarnations, and it is commonly accepted among Christians that the words of Jesus carry greater weight than the words of others. Theologians may here object that this is to be interpreted in a figurative way. John the Baptist comes "like Elias", he "reminds of" Elias and "acts as Elias", an enthusiastic servant of God. You may refer to the Gospel of St Luke, chapter 1:14-18, where the angel proclaims the birth of John the Baptist for Zechariah, and where it is said: And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias." Elias is - according to this argumentation - congenial with, or simply blesses, John the Baptist. But such a conclusion seems hasty, because as early as in the Old Testament there are prophecies in Malachi's book about the arrival of Elias (Malachi 4:5-6): "Behold, I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." In the previously mentioned Gospel of Matthew Jesus says: "And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Matthew 11:14). Jesus emphasizes the importance with the words: "If you are willing to accept it" and "he who has ears, let him hear", just as he does not say "look like Elias", but specifically maintains that he "is Elias", that he "has arrived, just as Malachi predicted. That there was a common expectation that Elijah and the others of the old Prophets might appear, is verified by the following quotation from Matthew: "When Jesus came into the coasts of Cæsarea Phillipi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: Some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets." (Matthew 16:13).

As far back as we have testimonies it is a fact that there has been violent disagreements and refractoriness within the religious movements, also concerning the idea of reincarnation. The early Church' great synods between 325 and 787 were also characterized by intense internal struggles, condemnations and prohibitions, even in some cases riots took place and illegal resolutions were made. But the unrest started as early as in the time immediately after the beginning of the Gregorian calendar. The many Gnostic movements, mystery religions and competing sects were a continuous challenge for some of the early Christians, who furthermore opposed a militant Roman dominion. Certain Christians saw consistence and inner connections between the gospel of Christ and related spiritual movements. Others refused any form of syncretism and insisted that Christianity should be kept pure and immaculate.

Right from the beginning there were different movements, which in time fought against each other, and it finally resulted in powerful alliances and the establishment of a prevailing church structure. There were losers and winners, which Elaine Pagels has so clearly described in the book "The Gnostic Gospels". With the Emperor Constantine the Great's assumption of power the Roman Empire was christianised and the church finally established as a powerful institution. One of the Fathers of the Church Ireneus (second century) repudiated in his work "Against Heresy" reincarnation and many other apprehensions as incompatible with Christianity. Nevertheless there were still adherents within the church, at least in the first centuries, and another of the Fathers of the Church St Clement of Alexandria (150-220) was very likely subscribed to the reincarnation teaching.

Also St Justin Martyr (100-165), one of the Fathers of the Church, pointed at the deeper, esoteric comprehension of Christ and maintained that the soul lives in a human body several times, but it cannot remember its past lives. One of the most significant patristic figures, who emphasized the repeated lives, was Father of the Church Origenes (185-254), who had considerable influence on the church history. As a very natural thing he held that: "The souls has neither beginning nor end… Any soul is born into this world, strengthened by its defeat from its past life… Its work in this world determines its place in the world following this". It has been discussed whether Origenes talks about physical rebirth, or he means that the soul is merely born into other dimensions. Irrespective of the result, Origenes describes a progressive movement towards the reunion with the divine, which implies that the soul repeatedly appears in a manifested character, which conditions are results of previous acts. In other words repeated lives controlled by what has been called karma in the East, the cause-effect principle. The neo-platonist and Father of the Church Synesios (370-430) also believed in the teaching of repeated lives, just as the contemporary Christian philosopher Kalkidios. Among the Christian Gnostics Basilides was a significant teacher in Alexandria already about the year 125. He said that his enlightenment came from Matthew and Peter via the latter's disciple Glaucos.

During the controversial second synod in Constantinople in the year 553, the Emperor Justinian succeeded in imposing a damnation of the reincarnation teaching. This has made it terribly difficult for the Christian adherents of this teaching to state their views up until today. Pope Vigilius had actually been imprisoned by Justinian for eight fully years, when the latter decided to call in a synod. Except from the six western bishops from Africa all the participating bishops were from the Eastern Church. There were no represents from Rome present, and even though the now free Vigilius was in Constantinople, he did not want to participate in the meeting. This was due to the circumstance that Justinian refused to comply with a request that bishops from the Eastern and Western churches should be equally represented. In spite of the synod's invalid nature it has still had influence in posterity, and it has thus been held that a condemnation of a.o. Orignes and his reincarnation faith was good Christianity.

The wording of one of the excommunications was directly: "If anyone asserts the unbelievable teaching of the souls' pre-existence and the thereby succeeding outrageous re-formation, he shall be excommunicated." With excommunication was meant a public church curse, which implied excommunication, i.e. exclusion from the church. And as salvation at that time was considered inseparable with annexation of the Church of Christ, excommunication meant in other words that you were left to damnation. Thus it has called for both courage and integrity to stick to your "heretical" views.

Still the faith in the soul's pre-existence and future development has survived on a limited scale within several Christian churches. It has been risky to express your conviction loudly, but nevertheless some did. You cannot claim that our own hymn writer B.S. Ingemann believed in reincarnation in a current sense, but there is no doubt that he tended to extraordinarily indogmatic conception. He believed firmly that the soul existed before conception, and that it fully consciously raised itself from the earthly connexion upon death and did not fall into a deep sleep of the soul until the Day of Judgment, which many of the Christians at that time meant. This can be seen in his expressive description of heaven:

"There is my home, from which I come, where the spirit has listened to the song of seraphs, and dreamed of salvation before I was born. There is my home, whereto the spirit turns when it raises itself on eagle's wings from grave and death." That Ingemann really pushed the limits of death and the established theology can be emphasized by the following statement: "But if the soul does not attain under the sun what it wants - then there are other suns and other stars". There is nothing surprising about the disputes between Ingemann and the church representatives at that time. Still he has for a long time been one of the most loved hymn writers in Denmark. But also many other representatives for Christianity have dared to adhere to their diverging views despite of potential costs. Let us therefore give a number of examples that may illustrate the recurring topicality of the subject.

The British theologian, Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680), who in the Age of Enlightenment influenced the movement in England called the "Cambridge Platonists", in a simple way asked the question, which at that time in Europe was strongly provocative, if not even fatal: "Which other conclusion can we arrive at than that the soul itself is the direct subject to all this diversity, and that it has entered this body with preconceived opinions and some built-in ideas, which it has acquired in another?".

The Swiss born poet and prelate, Johann Peter Hebel (1760-1826) reached the same conclusion in his vivid questions and reflections. For is it not characteristic how some people have special talents in one direction, as if they have trained or acquired it through past efforts? Hebel dared to say, almost with the spontaneous astonishment of a child: "Do we not see gifts, certain talents, that develop with effortless ease? What if we had possessed these talents once before? …inexplicable sympathy, preference for the history of special periods, people and localities. Have we been there before…?

The American priest and scientist, William R. Alger (1822-1905), decided in the 1850'ies to write a work of immortality. His theory was that the idea of reincarnation was an untrustworthy delusion. But as his research and reflection proceeded, he changed his view in the case and ended up defending the idea of reincarnation with enthusiasm. In his recognized and important work he states a.o.: "One must admit that of all the suggestive and delicate forms of belief in a future life, none is as widespread as this idea. It is in majority, as it down through the ages has been maintained by half of humanity with such a strong conviction, that it is almost unprecedented. At first glance the most striking about this teaching about the soul's repeated incarnation is the circumstance that the belief in it constantly appears in all parts of the world... The thoughts it holds are so wonderful, its method so rational, the reflections whereto it raises the thought so magnificent, and the perspectives that it opens so comprehensive and significant, that the study of it brings us into complete harmony with the great, sublime conception of immortality and with a cosmopolitan assertion of a providence that manifests itself to everybody".

Arthur P. Shepherd (1885-1968), who was canon at the cathedral in Worchester, England, has presented the following thoughts of mankind's possible, continued spiritual development through many earthly lives: "If we look upon reincarnation as the process through which mankind's evolution takes place, in our unprejudiced thinking, we will there find the answer to the new world situation's problems… Realizing the reincarnation process, new hope and understanding can be found, when we comprehend how insufficient a single earthly life is, and see how people often slave under physical, mental or moral absences or bad external circumstances. Finally, there is the certainty that mankind has never been alone during all this. Christ, whose incarnation on earth the gospels tell about, has always watched over mankind's course of evolution, and since his descent to our earthly life, He is always with us and can be found by those who seek Him".

Again and again we meet the thought that it seems grotesque that we in one single life down here must have so different conditions, whereupon we might live in salvation in the world to come. Does it not seem more than peculiar that the Kingdom of God should be a common reality for people who have lived almost incommensurable lives? No one can object that many people reject the idea that some live a life in incessant torments, whereas other become "full of years", smiling - when we furthermore are told that God might give them the same divine eternity. For which reason or divine right are some to be left to torture, painful diseases, loss, loneliness and misery, whereas others almost sigh with well-being, when they thereafter may enter the same divine Kingdom of God? Is this not a curious proposal for the meaning of life? The British priest and author, Leslie D. Weatherhead (1893-1976) has with great distinctness seen that our development down here in the physical world naturally has to influence life after death: "The intellectual Christian does not only demand that life has to be just, but also that there has to be a meaning to it. Is the reincarnation idea of any help here? I believe it is. Let us assume that a very depraved or totally materialistic person dies, and that he, from a religious point of view, has totally wasted his earthly life. Would his transfer to a spiritual level make the necessary arrangements? Would that not be the same as letting a person, who has never given himself the chance of understanding music, hear an eternal concert…? ..If I do not pass the examinations of life, which can only be passed when I live in a physical body, would I not have to return again to pass them?"

Scientific Research in reincarnation

You can discuss the reincarnation question from various points of view. One of these is to look upon it from a religious perspective, as we have just done. We can note that such and such a number of people believes in reincarnation as a reality. But no matter how many people believing in something, belief does not result in reality after all. Another point of view is to theorize about the subject and describe various speculative hypotheses of how we think reincarnation may be a reality. The crux of the matter is however, whether reincarnation can be discussed based on directly experience. In that case the question is no longer a matter of faith or a hypothetical thought, but on the contrary a question of immediately experienced reality.

It is an inevitable fact that numerous people have clear and extremely detailed memories that only seem to find a satisfactory explanation in past lives. It is often children who in amazingly ways are able to tell about past lives, and in a number of cases it has been possible to trace the place where the child maintains to have lived, and hereafter check details, which the child in no way can have had access to in this life. Studies show that children most often speak of past lives in the age between two and four years, and generally the ability to remember is reduced on to the age of seven. Also hypnotic experiments with grown-up persons by regression techniques have produced amazing results, which have been documented in books and in movies. These testimonies have not yet lead to serious scientific investigations on a larger scale, except from a few pioneers, who for decades have worked to surround the subject with respect. In recent years there has been a growing interest in the subject, especially because of Dr. Ian Stevenson's admirable and most meticulous research in past lives, which now because of the overwhelming number of testimonies is noticed around the world. Ian Stevenson is professor of psychiatry and used to be leader of the psychiatric department at the University of Virginia. He is now president of the department of personality studies at the same university. He has spent more than 40 years on studying cases that provide scientific material for the studying of memories of past lives, and he has more than 3000 examined cases in his archives. Even some of the most persistent sceptics agree that Stevenson's research produces some of the best testimonies so far on reincarnation up to today.

His research started in 1960, when he was studying a case with a child from Sri Lanka, who maintained to be able to remember a past life. Since then he has travelled the world and interviewed the many implicated persons with all kinds of cross checks and controlling investigations, when residence and family circumstances could be informed. In the late 1960'ies he published "Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation (the book was published in Denmark in 1970), which contains a number of typical and very different cases. Subsequently he continued his research and published other books, among others "Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect". In 1997 Stevenson then published the great two-volume work: "Reincarnation and Biology - A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects". In volume 1 he primarily describes birthmarks and in volume 2 he concentrates on deformities and other anomalies, which children are born with, and which - similar to birthmarks - cannot always be related to inheritance or events during pregnancy or birth. In the comprehensive work there are hundreds of pictures, which connect these features with past lives. The investigations have shown that birthmarks and deformities can be "impressions" or reminiscences of wounds or accidents in past lives. Inexplicable pigmentations in the skin can as an example result from injuries from past lives. Stevenson has studied the Native Americans in Alaska, who often have "prophetic dreams" of souls reincarnating. The Tlingit Native Americans and the Igboes in Nigeria often look if the newborns have physical feature that may indicate a recent deceased, and thus reincarnating person's characteristics. This is also part of Stevenson's investigations.

Another area that he has investigated is the relation between phobias and incarnation memories. In a series of 387 children, who maintained to be able to remember a past life, phobias appeared in as many as 141 cases. That is 36%. The phobias nearly always corresponded to the manner of death in the past life. Some times the phobias appeared even before the child began to speak and in none of the cases it was a matter of imitating a living member of the family. It could for instance be a previous death by drowning, which resulted in hydrophobia in this life. Or if a child had been shot, it would show an unusual fear of rifles or loud bangs. Previous accidents in cars or other means of transport could appear as phobias in connection with traffic. Sometimes children, who remember past lives, want to eat other food or wear other clothes than what is custom in the concerned country. Such and many other examples appear from Stevenson's comprehensive research.

In her book "Children's Past Lives - how past lives memories affects your child", Carol Bowman writes about the four characteristic signs, which accompany the trustworthy child, when it describes real reincarnation memories. First of all the child will tell about the memories in a factual way, which clearly differs from children's normal imaginative way of inventing and fantasizing. When children fantasize they mix up things because the fantasy is a game, and the stories change on the way. In reincarnation memories there will be coherent details, and the child will not speak of it as when it is a matter of a fairy-tale or a game. Secondly the memories will appear to be persistent and almost always unchanged over long periods. In other words there are coherence and consistency in the described details. Thirdly the child will express a knowledge that cannot derive from its present life, and which therefore cannot be based on experience, if you only believe in one life. Finally the child will behave and have characteristics, which clearly conform to the described.

You may discuss how many testimonies it takes, and how comprehensive research is necessary in order to state with traditional, scientific evidence, that reincarnation is a proved fact. However, there is no doubt that the research performed by Stevenson and other pioneers, thoroughly clears the way for new perspectives and surrounds reincarnation with greater respect as such. In every possible way we must encourage further research to be commenced, so that the subject not only concerns the area of faith, but also the areas of perception and facts.

Meaning, perspective and coherence

One of the crux of reincarnation is that this cyclical reversion answers many of the questions, that otherwise will remain unclarified, and offers new perspectives to mysterious coherences, which are not satisfactory discussed by neither the prevailing Christianity nor the materialistic science. Reincarnation and karma tell us that there are coherences between events from the past and the present conditions, just as it often is the same souls that are involved in more time epochs' events. We will also be enlightened about how the future is created, and the key to growth of the good always lies in the perception of our possibilities here and now. The reincarnation perspective holds a number of ethical consequences, which we will describe briefly.

a) Justice: We can no longer say that the world is ruled by blind and incidental powers. With the karmic lawfulness we have a key to the cause and effect relationship, which connects all existing, from the largest to the smallest. There is a meaning to the "madness", and we have a right to ask the question: "Why?" and expect an answer, - if not now then at a later time. With the cyclical lawfulness we know that we are fellow players in a development drama, which expands epoch upon epoch, and that we cannot be exposed to anything that are not part of a learning process. Everything has a deeper sense and serves a higher purpose, even though we cannot recognize it at present. With absolute justice there are no absolute tragedies and even the greatest catastrophes are at sight turned to precious perceptions. He, who now loses, shall later win the triumph that seemed so unattainable. Everyone is included by the divine plan and thus also by the care, which the divinity shows to the seed set to sprout. Life is the cosmic gardener, who nurses and nourishes all embryos, so that they can grow to flowering maturity.

b) Joint responsibility: We can no longer look upon former times' fatal confrontations and dramas and say, that "it has nothing to do with me". We are all fellow participants in the historical processes, and maybe we have exactly, in past existences, been part of the changes that we now read about in the history books. We often speak of that it is important to create a good world for the coming generations and future children. Now we may add that these children also could be ourselves! Our karmic, joint responsibility and mental commitments are a result of cosmic solidarity and fundamentally the unit from which all creatures originate. We are able to evince practical solidarity with all living, because life is one. There is only one life, the divine, which pulsates in all existing, and we can therefore fully and completely maintain that we are all "in the same boat". It is therefore uselessly and without perspective to think of oneself and only seek one's fortune. We are at any time fellow creators of each other's happiness and misfortune, and we do well to choose the right. My actions as a human being are decisive, and I am highly self-determining. My outside world is my co-world, and my fellow creatures are my family. Therefore the conflicts of the world are mine as well, and I must contribute to the growth of the unity. Active sympathy and practical good will are therefore natural consequences of knowledge of the reincarnation law's work.

c) Equality: There are no qualitative differences between souls. We are all on the way, and even though some souls have had more incarnations as human beings, this does not make them more valuable in the divine household. We are all souls and only time separates us regarding development. In moral and development respects we are placed various places on the life ladder, and those who have come farther may lend those behind them a helping hand, just as they themselves are supported by the ones in front. In this way the life chain is one uninterrupted movement of experiences transformed into enlightenment and wisdom in the seeding process. Wonder children and geniuses are souls, who in past lives have developed talents, which they in this life can show with unusual performance, but we are all equal because all of us are children of the same God, living expressions of the same spiritual source. We are where we are, and we are all on the way towards greater development and awakening. Talents are self-taught and not only an expression of blind inheritance and accidental environment. We grow in mould chosen by ourselves and come into flower in consequence of the spirit's unquenchable aspiration .

The great epic - the many chapters

Finally we can look upon the reincarnation law and the developing souls in the larger, meaningful perspective. One life is an act on the great stage of life, one chapter in the soul's giant epic, and each experience is a learning process in the school of life. Nothing is fundamentally wasted, as each effort is useful in the process of development. We will at any time learn what is possible under the circumstances, and everything will sooner or later bear fruit. The worst catastrophes and tragedies of today will be turned into the dearly bought experiences of the next day, which will sharpen the consciousness, so that mistakes can be avoided in future, and so that no one has to suffer the distress in the past any longer. No living creature is unimportant, no matter how bashful they may seem to be. Everything in the Creation has significance - everything is of value - and we can only measure this value with the individual creature's own criterion.

This perspective brings great comfort, for the spirit of mankind cannot be crushed. The success of life is ensured, and even the most serious delays cannot hold back the tide of life. The river of life flows towards the sea, and in the long run every resistance will be followed by comprehension and acceptance. There is every reason to trust that everything happens for the best, just as we can have faith in life, because the divine guidance will direct everything towards completion. We can also feel the gratefulness because life is the gift, which continuously gushes from the spiritual innermost creating sources. Everything created shows abundance and fruitfulness, which are quite overwhelming for both senses and mind.

The experience of other people's dignity and beauty becomes possible, when we no longer look for the appearance, but direct our attention to the unique consciousness, which are being developed in our fellow human beings. Each of us is unique and unrepeated divine sparks, on the way. We share a common destiny as we work for the divinity expressing itself completely.

And in the last resort the reincarnation perspective points backwards to this instant. The present is the only real. What I did in the past resulted in the existing conditions, and what I do here and now creates the future. The fulfilment of the existence is a treasure that can be found in this moment. It is thus not relevant what we have been and what we are about to be. It is our work now that counts, our completion of this life's work, and we are all, each in our own way, about to wake up for mastery.