A Brief Explanation Of Reincarnation
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
As a general statement, reincarnation is the belief that the same soul can incarnate into different physical bodies to experience multiple lives on the physical plane over a course of time. The purpose of these lives is to learn the lessons enforced by one’s actions through the law of "karma,” until such time that the soul has reached a stage of "enlightenment” such that it has no karmic debts and is at peace and oneness in harmony with the universe. To put it another way (as the Encyclopedia Britannica does), "Reincarnation: the belief that the soul survives the death of the physical body and returns to life as a new body, again and again, for the purpose of its own development.” This belief (reincarnation) has been associated widely and primarily with Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, and its adherents make up roughly two-thirds of the world’s population. Some western thinkers, such as Plato, Kant, Emerson and Wordsworth for example, have supported the idea; however, it has been largely rejected and/or ignored by the Judeo-Christian cultures.
The truth is that a surprising number of distinguished thinkers of every era have considered the problem of reincarnation. However, such testimony and "evidence” as exists hardly establishes reincarnation as a fact. Reincarnation is a belief, and often a religious belief, that is, not merely one of a philosophy of life and existence, but one that is tied to one’s concept of the Creator and Creation. For that reason, one must look distinctly and as impartially as possible at the writings and logic supporting reincarnation, as well as to include the objections to the reincarnation theory by such thinkers as Aristotle, Freud, Julian Huxley and other well-known writers.
The word "reincarnation” comes from the word "carnal” which means flesh. The actual Latin word origin translates as "meat or flesh.” So "incarnate” means literally "encased in flesh” or "encased in meat.” Reincarnation means then, that a person’s being, or soul, is encased in a new material body of flesh and blood after one’s previous material body has died. Reincarnation is also called the transmigration of self from an old or useless body to a new body. As we shall see, transmigration may include the body of an animal or insect; however, in most cases the word "reincarnation” is used to refer only to human incarnations.
Though reincarnation is usually referred to as a philosophy, the belief in the law of karma is inevitably acknowledged as the force behind reincarnation. In order to free oneself from the karmic cycle, it is necessary to reach a state of purification from the baser, aggressive tendencies and achieve a love for all things. The path to doing this invariably involves a belief in a higher, supreme being, so in turn reincarnation is often tied very closely to religious beliefs. We will mention more about Karma and the Law of Karma further on, but here let us build the basic blocks for discussion of reincarnation.
Today, as the boundaries of East and West have and continue to blur, the idea of reincarnation has become more widely considered. Different studies cite anywhere between thirty to sixty percent of the population being at least open to considering the idea, and roughly twenty-five percent actively believing in it. That is just the United States. India would contain yet a higher number of active believers. There are multiple and complexly integrated reasons for this new open-mindedness. Though not all are listed here, and certainly not all are universal, it is nonetheless worth considering a few more general conditions in order to develop a healthy, interpretive approach to any unprovable, subjective matter of belief and faith.
First, as mentioned above, there is an increasing globalization of culture and thus a blurring of traditional lines that separate cultures and thus their belief systems. Just as matters of cuisine, fashion and the like become assimilated; it is natural that belief and value systems would achieve some degree of assimilation and absorption, if for no other reason than the ideas become less strange and foreign. Second, and as a part of this mixing of the cultures, is that the role of the Catholic Church has steadily diminished over the last thousand years. Whereas it was in the interest of the church to maintain a stranglehold of sorts on people’s thinking, the idea of reincarnation was rejected. The important and controlling factor was that the Church’s subjects had but one chance to tow the "party line” so to speak, in order to avoid eternal damnation. That official line involved a spiritual hierarchy that demanded absolute adherence to and dependence on the priests of the Church. Third, and partially owing to the second point, is that the scriptural texts of the New Testament, those documents upon which the Christian faiths base their meaning, mission and existence, focus centrally on the metaphors of re-birth and being "born again,” in addition to the culminative and literal resurrection of Jesus Christ. As literature and ideas become more available to the masses, ideas and interpretations of such passages as “Ye must become as a little child…,” or “You cannot pour old wine into new skins; rather pour new wine into new skins” allow alternate or even individual interpretation, rather than complete and unflinching reliance upon the authority of a church figure to determine and explain what the Bible passages mean.
There is also another point to be made, and that is that the globalization of cultures and economies has destroyed many of the traditions upon which our own (Western Judeo-Christian) culture is based. The style of elitist individual and corporate collusion with government, and the subsequent creation of a type of "serf” or “servant” class who is not in control or their own destiny, nor has a cultural or economic commons (in the form of a community) to fall back on, is almost precisely the type of society that gave rise to the religions that first promoted the idea of reincarnation. The idea of multiple chances at having a good life is a natural hope that springs from the economic, cultural and spiritual barrenness that modern society now faces. Also, there is, with the widening and sharing of knowledge bases, more phenomenons that are widely known and can be used as substantiation for the possibility of reincarnation.