The concept of soul is essential to understanding reincarnation. Though most people have at least a vague idea of the concept, it seems that even those who label themselves as "religious" have an unclear understanding about the soul itself. This is most likely a holdover from the medieval Church that severely, and sometimes punitively, discouraged such contemplation. However, " Is it not conceivable that our entire civilization is built upon a misinterpretation of man? Or that the tragedy of man is due to the fact that he is a being who has forgotten the question: Who is Man? The failure to identify himself, to know what is authentic human existence, leads him to assume a false identity, to pretend to be what he is unable to be or to not accept what is at the very root of his being. Ignorance about man is not lack of knowledge, but false knowledge. " (Abraham Heschel Who is Man? 1965). In order for there to be a belief in reincarnation, one must also have a belief in soul, for it is the soul that incarnates. If man is a soul, it is not unreasonable to suppose that he survives death. Is this not the basis for every religious belief in the afterlife? Even the most hardened of cynics and atheists must struggle with the thought that our consciousness screams that it cannot possibly be a mere chemical reaction of blood and matter. Wherefore explain thoughts, hopes or desires? ... imaginations or intellect, if that be the case?

There are two ways to prove a thing. One is to show how it follows logically from other things that are true. The other is just to simply produce the thing for examination, so that all may point and say, "there it is." Either is almost impossible in the question of soul. The belief in soul is essential to a belief in afterlife and thus in reincarnation. We must begin by assuming that we are "soul" and that soul exists. We point to the argument in the paragraph above as our means of explanation. Now, we must attempt to define that "soul," in order to have some agreement upon the nature of its existence.

If we assume that thoughts, emotions, ideas, imaginations and such have some origin outside the physical sphere, and we must for the sake of argument, else all thought, idea, imagination and existence would terminate when the electro-chemical processes of the brain cease. We move to the analogy of what the soul is, in relation to the body. It cannot be body, or it would cease when the body ceases. J. Paul Williams, in The Yale Review, developed the analogy of the candle: that is, snuff the candle, and the light goes out. However, a candle reflected in a mirror... move the mirror and the light appears to be gone, yet the candle continues to burn. So if we believe that the soul is reflected by the body, but not in the body, then it is rational to believe that soul can exist apart from the body.

Williams also advances that our arguments for experiential-based proofs fall short when considered in light of how limited our experience actually is, in regards to such readily accepted phenomena in science. For instance, who has actually experienced the atomic or sub-atomic reality? While we look at a rock, and accept that it must be composed of these tiny solar systems of particles, because we are told so and because that explanation is consistent with the workings of the universe that we can experience, we actually only experience the rock in a way that is limited by 1) our expectations of the experience, and 2) our conscious and/or unconscious acceptance of the limitations of physical senses. We might, in fact, if we were able to accept enlightenment and an expanded sense of things, experience that rock in an entirely different way.

So..."What is it that incarnates?" "What is the soul?" These questions are really nothing less than trying to the nature of all Being, of who and what we are, and what is the meaning and purpose and nature of Life. Since so much of our identity rests in our notion of the material body, and is continually reinforced through the material experience, the notion of ″a soul" can seem abstract at best, and in our most challenging moments it can seem almost pointless.

Edgar Cayce

For a moment, let us focus on a singular source; Edgar Cayce. Cayce has exerted much influence in the opening of Western, English speaking (particularly American) thoughts and ideas, and is often suggested as the primary catalyst behind the modern acceptance of reincarnation within Western culture today.

Cayce himself was, according to accounts, a nominally educated man from a farming family of strict, Protestant faith. Cayce himself was, according to accounts, a nominally educated man from a farming family of strict, Protestant faith. At an early age, Cayce felt he had a psychic ability. Later, as a young man, he experimented with hypnosis to treat a recurring throat problem. A vision of a woman telling him he would have unusual power to help people led him to diagnose and treat illnesses for people through his hypnotic meditations. By all accounts, he was remarkably successful. In 1910, the New York Times ran a story describing his psychic ability as described by a young physician to a clinical research facility Cayce supposedly remained a very religious man, teaching Sunday School in his church. According to his grandson, Cayce "always tried to attune himself to God's will by studying the Scriptures and maintaining a rich prayer life, as well as trying to be of service to those who came seeking help." He worked to reconcile his experiences and abilities, as well as convictions that immortal souls journeyed through more than one life on earth, with his Biblical understanding.

Edgar Cayce (and others) speaks of the soul as "bonding" with the body, or "becoming one" with the body for the duration of its life. This seems, though, to be an accommodation to physical-based sense; less than metaphysical and more of a limitation of three-dimensional thinking. Most teachings and sources do not deal with soul in this way, insisting rather that the soul is always separate and rather "looking out" through or from the body; that is, inhabiting rather than infusing.

"What is life? IT is a manifestation of a soul. Remember that the soul is made up of body, mind, and soul." Cayce reading 4047-2. [Cayce's readings are identified with two numbers. The first is an anonymous number given to the person for whom the reading was given. The second is the number of the reading. In other words, Person number 4047, the 2nd reading.]

Cayce surprised himself and everyone around him, when at a reading of an individual in 1923, he closed the session with the words, ″He was once a monk." Though Casey had been successfully treating and diagnosing physical ailments under hypnosis for years, accurately and specifically detailing care and cause for which he had no education or waking knowledge, Cayce had never considered the possibility of reincarnation, nor had he studied other religions. He was, after all, a strict Protestant. He had already struggled mightily with his peculiar ″psychic" ability in regards to his religion; yet he was convinced of its goodness and its help for people even if it didn't have a place in the strict orthodoxy of Christian Protestantism. This new reference, then, demanded an explanation and exploration that he would not shy from.

Building and structuring questions designed to clarify and illumine the initial readings, Cayce pursued a course of readings for information that could be verified, and for which he had no knowledge, and which would indicate knowledge of past lives. Looking for first Biblical substantiation, he then turned to philosophers of the ages, and after some years came to the personal conclusion that reincarnation was a valid philosophy. Upon his conclusion, he began an entirely new type of reading for people, and these specifically centered on reincarnation and past lives. Over the next 21 years he gave a total of 2,500 readings for approximately 1,500 people.

These readings offered discourses, comprehensive portraits of personality traits and mental, emotional and physical patterns that arose from past lives. The readings wove a tapestry of connectedness among people who ″...returned to earth again and again in an ever-changing configuration of relationships with one another." At the very least, Cayce's readings provide one of the largest collections of written material in support of the theory of reincarnation. Cayce's intent (as well as that of the Association For Research And Enlightenment, an institute based on his work) was that the readings and the promotion of the idea of reincarnation help people lead healthier, happier and more constructive lives by illustration of the laws of karma and ″understand and to claim a spiritual heritage far richer than most of us would dared to have imagined for ourselves."

Cayce's readings would indicate that we are connected to the God who has made us...that our essential selves are not alone and have not to do with us alone. At the essence of each individual is ″spirit," which is that part made in the image and likeness of God.

The second major premise is that we are individuals—not only part of the larger reality from which we derive our being, but also with an individuality of consciousness. With this consciousness we have the capacity to shape and pattern our spiritual essence into unique expression, through the use of mind. That is, with mind we literally create our reality. The third aspect of our nature is that we are endowed with free will, that we choose which of the mind's creations we will activate at every moment of experience. (Note that the questions put forth are never really concretely answered).

Throughout Cayce's readings, the predominant concept iterated again and again, is that "thoughts are things" and that "mind is the builder." Another huge point in Cayce's understanding, is that the soul bonds to the material/physical body. That is, becoming incarnate means temporarily being one with the physical form; and as long as we are one with the physical form and the subsequent material existence, then the only direct knowledge we have of ourselves comes through our consciousness while we are in our body. So, then, can the soul really be harmed by physical damage? For those not conscious (or "aware") of their soul and true self, the temptation is to know themselves only through the physical existence, that is, position with a company or corporation, status within a community, name, and etc. These physical/material labels, for such they are, are not our true selves. Only through conscious awareness of our true selves can we shed the limitations of experience that we are creating around us. This idea of "submerging spiritual identity in matter" rather conflicts with most traditional reincarnation doctrines that are more along the lines of "infusing materiality with spiritual identity."

According to Cayce, we incarnate to become companions and co-creators with God, and God wants peers who have chosen him freely just as he has chosen them. Reincarnation provides the opportunity for us to become such companions and co-creators. God creates us in ″immature form" so that we may ″grow up" spiritually into unique, adult companions to Him. All of our experiences, life after life, are an opportunity to grow into our fullness as spiritual beings. ″When we remember that it is God whom we are growing up to join, can we wonder that it takes more than the span of one life?" Lynn Sparrow, a student of Cayce's work and an author of several books based upon his readings, writes in Reincarnation: Claiming Your Past, Creating Your Future (1988) that the soul should be thought of in a child/parent analogy, where the child inevitably takes a detour into rebellion. This rebellion is [in essence] the physical lives that we live before yielding and rejoining the Creator.

Some other Cayce particular points are as follows: ″The arena of choices." This experience put into the analogy of a practicum, where we have the chance to practice skills learned in spirit mode, within a ″real-life setting." We learn through experience that the constructive act is that of love and harmony; "The Guidance system of Love." Karma is not "bad karma" or "good karma," rather it is neutral. We don't say that the Law of Gravity is punishing us when we fall. However, the law of cause and effect is the natural expression of the ultimate goodness and harmony of this universe. Our destructive choices run natural to the harmonious flow and thus are discordant and bring discord into our lives. Because we are ignorant of our spiritual selves and our past lives while in the body, we cannot see always the immediate effect on our actions. For example, helping out a neighbor with your last ten dollars doesn't insure that next week you'll win the lottery. The two points essential to understanding karma is that 1.) we have chosen all that happens to us, and 2.) we can grow through every experience that life brings our way; "The Destiny of Soul" To be "spiritual companions of God" is the ultimate goal. There is no annihilation of self, but rather that we come to know ourselves as our true selves, devoid of the material and physical limitations, we know ourselves as God knows us, losing the false selves of ego and personality, and become spiritual beings who share the love, creativity, peace and joy with God.

"In the beginning all souls were as a unity to the God-Force. ...There is no law causing man to separate himself from his Maker. There is no cause except man's own indulgence or neglect." Cayce 3660-1. "In the beginning..." Sparrow and the A.R.E. (the Association for Research and Enlightenment) encourage us to read the following as either a myth of great proportions or as the literal truth. Either way, she claims, the message and values communicated are the same.

We were created as souls before the physical universe came into being. We were given formative power over ourselves "...in order that we might be fully realized." We were free to create, play and explore the universe, endowed with the creative capacity of mind and the choosing freedom of the will. We could literally create with our minds. As we moved through God's creation we came into contact with the physical world that was coming into form. "Throughout the planes of reality were four, five, six and untold others of dimensional universes." "Coming into the earth..." But we were fascinated with the earth. "Perhaps it was the thrill of seeing the creations of our minds take three dimensional form." Interjection: why would spiritual beings that existed beyond our known limits of time and space become fascinated with the smallest, most limiting situation. "The allure was irresistible to our souls." Our desire to participate in materiality became an obsession, and we lost our awareness of ourselves as souls. "Adam..." God "adapted" a pre-human physical form to be the perfect vehicle for souls entering material existence. Thus, Adam and Eve became the first two souls to inhabit human bodies.

"What is truth today may be tomorrow only partially so to a developing soul." Cayce 1297-1. The soul may return as many times and as often as it chooses. The presence of other souls with whom an experience began may be a kind of condition for choosing. Cultural and political climates also have to do with the lesson at hand.

Cayce insists that our experience in reincarnation is limited to the human form. The number of souls...conditions on Earth suggest that this experiential plane is providing the best arena for working out current problems, but there are other planes.

Sparrow wrote in Reincarnation: Claiming Your Past, Creating Your Future (1988), a section entitled, "The Human Body: Key and Clue to the Human Soul." It begins with idea that a club foot, blindness or some other physical deformity "...naturally gives rise to the inference, in the thinking of a reincarnationist, at least, that there was some past-life cause, probably cruelty, that gave rise to it." It goes on to say that it also might, "....be indicative of some correspondingly disproportionate or proportionate use of it in the past, and hence some disproportionate or proportionate attitude deep in the psyche." This runs counter to what we know of Cayce's religious convictions, as well as to most reincarnationist doctrine, as well as the teaching of Christ, particularly in his healing of the maimed and crippled. For example, in healing the "man who was blind from birth," Jesus says, "neither this man hath sinned, nor his parents, but that the glory of God might be made manifest." This sentiment is more along the lines of most spiritual teachers holding reincarnationist beliefs. While the Law of Karma might often bestow an ailment or physical disability with karmic retribution, they would not be speaking in terms of "attitude of the psyche" or necessarily draw a direct correlation of a club foot with someone who "kicked people around" in a previous life.

The Concept Of Karma

The word and the concept seem to arise from the Eastern Indian Hindus, who hold that "Karma is the idea of a completely moral universe in action and practice." The present condition of each individual's life is the exact product of what he has wanted and got in the past; and equally, his present thoughts and actions determine his future states.

The Cayce readings (or at least his students' and followers' authorized interpretations of his readings) present a list of "propositions that can be regarded as fundamental to the understanding of human destiny and to a system of reincarnationist psychology:

1. Karma must not be regarded as purely negative. It has two aspects: continuative and retributive.

2. According to the continuative aspect, any action that does not go counter to cosmic economy or cosmic law tends to continue in its effect. Effort is never wasted.

3. Thus: Talents and abilities, cultivated in one life, tend to persist in succeeding lives. Sometimes their expression may be inhibited, however, by other karmic life circumstances.

4. Also: Traits of character, interests and attitudes toward religion, race, politics, sex, animals, etc. tend to persist in succeeding lives. Introversion and extroversion tend to persist also, unless karma steps in or unless efforts are made for ambiversion.

5. According to the retributive aspect of karma, any action that is "evil," or harmful to the well-being of any other unit of life, is exactly "punished" in a manner proportionate to and appropriate to the original harm done.

6. Three kinds of retributive karma could be distinguished in the Cayce readings: Boomerang a man who blinded others in the past finds himself blind in the present; Organismic, a man who eats to excess in one lifetime can suffer from digestive weakness in the next; Symboloic, a person who "turned deaf ears to cries for help in a past life is literally deaf in the present."

7. Retributive karma operates at both the physical and the psychological level.

8. Mockery and criticism of others can invoke psychologocia and physical retribution; one suffers the same thing that one has mocked or criticized in others.

9. Infidelity to a mate in the past can result in one's experiencing infidelity from one's mate in the present.

10. Great loneliness or isolation can result from suicide in the past.

11. Karma is sometimes "in suspension," so to speak, for several lifetimes. Cruelty committed in Atlantis, for example, may remain unpaid in five or six intervening lives, and may finally be met in the present life.

12. The suspension of karma seems to be necessary for three basic reasons: 1) the cultural epoch must be appropriate to the payment of the debt. 2) The entity needs to develop sufficient inner resources and strengths to handle the karma. 3) The entity may be able to pay the debt only in association with other entities and therefore must wait until such time as they are incarnated also.

13. Mental abnormalities can be traced in some cases to past-life experiences. Thus phobias of animals, closed places, water, and so on, are sometimes due to terrifying experiences or even death associated with those phobia objects. Mental disease is sometimes due to possession or obsession by discarnate entities (entities, that is, who are not currently in earth incarnations).

14. Every soul has freedom of will. Freedom of will is interfered with by the karmic laws of life only when the will has been misused, selfishly or in excessive sensuality.

15. A soul is magnetically drawn, so to speak, to parents who can give it the bodily heredity and the environment it needs for the fulfillment of its new life task. Physical heredity exists, but it is subservient to psychic heredity.

16. The unconscious includes the record or the buried memory of every experience the entity has ever been through, in all of its many existences.

"It is important to note that all these generalizations or laws are seen by Cayce in a cosmic frame of reference, one which acknowledges that God exists and that every soul is a part of God; that human life is purposeful and continuous and that it operates under law; that love fulfills the law; that the will of man creates his destiny; that his mind has formative power; and that the answer to all his problems is deep within himself."

Lopez, in his forward to Wentz's translation of the Tibetan Book Of The Dead, points out that the Buddhist doctrine holds that every intentional act, whether it be physical, verbal or mental, leaves a residue in its agent. That residue will eventually produce an effect at some point in the future, an effect in the form of pleasure or pain for the person who performed the act. Thus, Buddhists conceive of a moral universe in which virtuous deeds create experiences of pleasure and non-virtuous deeds create experiences of pain. These deeds not only determine the quality of a given life but also determine the place of rebirth after death. Depending on the gravity of a negative deed (killing being more consequential than criticism, for example, and the killing of a human more consequential than killing an insect) one may be reborn as an animal, a ghost, or in one of the hot or cold hells, where the life span is particularly lengthy. Rebirth as a god is the result of a virtuous deed, and is considered very rare; the vast majority of beings in the universe are said to inhabit the three unfortunate realms of animals, ghosts, and the hells. Rare still is rebirth as a human who has access to the teachings of the Buddha.

In The Secret Doctrine, Madame Blavatsky put forward a different theory of reincarnation, said to be based upon the ancient Book Of Dzyan, written in the secret language of Senzar. Here, she describes a system of seven rounds. The earth has passed through three rounds during which it has evolved from a spiritual form to its current material form. The earth is currently in the fourth round. Over the final three rounds it will slowly return to its spiritual form.

The universe according to this doctrine, is peopled by souls (or monads), themselves individual and ultimately identical with the universal oversoul. These monads are reincarnated according to the law of karma. During the present fourth round, these monads inhabit the earth in the form of seven races. Rather than the races as we learn them in sociology and biology classes, Blavatsky asserts that the first of these "root-races" was of spiritual essences; the "Self-born," who had no physical form and inhabited the Imperishable Sacred Land until it sank into the ocean. (Though why a race of spiritual essence without physical form would be bothered by this is unexplained.) A second race, also without physical form, inhabited the North Pole. The third root race [Lemurians] were the first humans, but lacked the sense of taste or smell, and were destroyed when their entire continent was destroyed by fire. The fourth race was the Atlanteans, whose civilization ended in a great flood. The last sub-race of Atlanteans was absorbed into the fifth race, the Aryans, whose early sub-races included the Greeks, Egyptians and Phoenicians. These Aryans supposedly defeated the other remnants of the Atlantean race (the "yellow, and red, and brown and black") and drove them into Africa and Asia.

Since the Atlanteans, Blavatsky contends that a finite number of souls or monads, has reincarnated again and again, and will continue to do so throughout the entire cycle of evolution. Only rebirth as a human is possible, in this doctrine; however, animals may reincarnate as a higher species, never vice versa.

Sri Chinmoy, in his book, Death & Reincarnation. Eternity's Voyage (1996) writes of karma thusly: "In one lifetime on earth we cannot do everything. As long as we remain based in the world of desire, we will continue to be reborn into it. It is only the achieving of selflessness and contentment of our at-one-ment with God that frees us from the cycles of rebirth and death in the physical world. Suffering in this life may not necessarily be from bad karma, or some past wrong. Perhaps our soul wants to experience suffering, or enter the depth of pain just to know what pain is." He continues by saying, however, "The law of Karma is, ‘as you sow, so you shall reap.'" It seems like a contradiction in terms, but karma may not be as cut and dry as "an eye for an eye" thinking. Karma, since truly it is just an educational structure, can provide for "experiential" lifetimes just so that something can be experienced just for the sake of the experience itself. A science student is often taught how to do something wrong in an experiment, in a safe and controlled way, so that he or she knows what happens when he or she may be experimenting with more dangerous chemicals later.

If we do something wrong, either today or tomorrow, in the physical world or the inner world, we will get the result. The law of karma is inevitable and binding. However, there is divine Grace. To have done something in ignorance, and to become aware and through genuine repentance and cries for forgiveness, karma can be nullified. Grace is actually the only way out of karma. Otherwise it will keep going around and around in a circle. Karma cannot actually be fully "paid." Only by realizing that one is on a wheel of rebirth and death, going around in circles of learning, can one be freed from karma. At that point, there is no more necessity for karma, for in the end the purpose of karma was to "wake up" and realize oneself as eternal consciousness, independent of form and a physical body. Once this is realized, karma is a moot point.

Chinmoy presents the following illustration of a man who wants to become a millionaire. He becomes a millionaire, but has no peace of mind because his sense of self and security are based in having that million dollars. What if something happens to it? What if I lose my money? Therefore his sense of security is no security at all. It is based in the transient nature of physical desire. Only when we subjugate ourselves to become one with the Divine Purpose do we achieve the enlightenment that frees us of the cycle of reincarnation.

The Tibetan Book Of The Dead

The Western world knows of this ancient book from a translation by W.Y. Evans-Wentz (Oxford University Press, 1960, 2000). First transcribed in 1927, it is less a scholarly work, per ser, than a book of cultural wisdom and religious teaching. The English speaking world found the book both astounding and earth-shattering when these teachings appeared in print. Despite its flaws (in the translation, and in Evans-Wentz personal biases of theosophy which somewhat taint the original text) it remains the main, purest source of the reincarnationist teachings. The text comes from a group called the Mahatmas, a secret order of enlightened masters also referred to as the Great White Brotherhood. The brotherhood was a group that had once lived throughout the world, but had congregated in Tibet to escape the onslaught of civilization.

The Mahatmas instructed Madame Blavatsky (a turn of the century theosophist) in the practice of "Esoteric Buddhism," of which the Buddhism being practiced in Asia, including Tibet, was a corruption. Blavatsky attempted to found a scientific religion, one that (progressively for the time) attempted to accept the new discoveries in science, geology and archaeology while at the same time proclaiming the ancient and esoteric system of spiritual evolution more sophisticated than Darwin's scientific theory. This Theosophical Society enjoyed great popularity in America, Europe and India in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

The text describes the process of death and rebirth in terms of three intermediate states of "bardos." (Life Between Life) The first, and briefest is the bardo of the moment of death when, at the end of a process of sensory dissolution that presaged physical death, a profound state of consciousness, called the clear light, dawns. If one is able to recognize the clear light as reality, one immediately achieves liberation from the cycle of rebirth. If the clear light is not recognized at that time, the consciousness of the deceased person moves into the second bardo (which appears to be a completely Tibetan invention) called the bardo of reality. The disintegration of the personality brought on by death again reveals reality, but in this case not as the clear light, but in the multicolored forms of a mandala of forty-two peaceful deities and a mandala of fifty-eight wrathful deities. These deities appear in sequence to the consciousness of the deceased in the days immediately following death. If reality is not recognized in this second bardo, the third bardo, the bardo of mundane existence dawns, during which one must again take rebirth in one of the six realms of gods, demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, or in hell: consciousness is blown to the appropriate place of rebirth by the winds of past karma.

One of the purposes of the Tibetan Book Of The Dead, is, as the title suggests, a meditation to be read to the dead or dying so that he or she would hear how to find liberation in the intermediate state, or, if that did not occur, to find a favorable place of rebirth, ideally in a pure land. The book also is the foundation for a series of meditational and ritual practices based on one of the central premises of the text: that death is not something to fear, but instead provides a rare opportunity in which the reality that is one's true nature (often obscured by the mental and physical processes of incarnation) becomes manifest upon the dissolution of these mental and physical processes at death. Liberation is achieved by recognizing that reality.

The Tibetan Book Of The Dead points out that, "so long as the mind is human, so long as it is individualized, so long as it regards itself as separate and apart from all other minds, it is but the plaything of Maya, of Ignorance, which causes it to look upon the hallucinatory panorama of existences within the [physical world] as real, and thence leads it to lose itself..."

In his preface to the second edition, Evans-Wentz points out that the various churches of Christendom, Greek, Roman, Assyrian, Anglican, and more, all fall into the camp of the reincarnationists rather than the scientists when it comes to the problems of confronting death and dying. While science is limited in its abilities, and in fact can offer no suggestion, comfort or resolution beyond the death of the physical body, every religion suggests the comfort of re-birth and the afterlife, albeit not necessarily through reincarnation.

The eminent psychologist Carl Jung wrote a preface to one of the printings of the Tibetan Book Of The Dead, and actually suggests in some of his other writings, that his famous archetypes may have their roots in the level of pre-incarnate awareness, that is, the archetypes are essential qualities that are devoid of personality. In other words, Jung envisioned his famous archetypes as fitting more within the framework of the soul state, that of essential being without human personality, than within human psyche and psychology.