Reincarnation

In many religions and philosophies, reincarnation (from Latin meaning "to be made flesh again"), refers to the belief that a part of a living being survives death to be reborn in a new body. This reincarnated self is often referred to as the Spirit or Soul, the 'Higher or True Self.' Reincarnation is an ancient and pervasive belief existing across time in diverse cultures and civilizations. Its genesis likely derives from the observation that life has natural cycles: night turns to day, winter to spring, etc., and from this observation, the inference was made that death is merely the continuation (or renewal) of cycles observable in nature (i.e., birth turns to rebirth) compatible with the changing and renewing seasons. For this reason, reincarnation was seen by many cultures and religions as the natural, logical pattern of life.

Today, reincarnation remains a central tenet within most of India's religions and many new age groups. Reincarnation is also an intrinsic part of many Native American and Inuit traditions, especially prior to Christianization.

However, many theologians and philosophers reject the doctrine of reincarnation as contradicting their religious teachings or philosophical logic. One powerful criticism of reincarnation is the argument that if reincarnation is real, then people should remember details of their previous lives. But, believers of reincarnation respond that while most of us cannot remember our own births in this lifetime, it does not mean that we were never born; the same logic applies to past births. Furthermore, it is alleged that some people actually do remember their past lives. As a result, some researchers such as Professor Ian Stevenson, have begun to explore the issue of reincarnation in a scientific way and have published suggestive evidence. Skeptics remain critical of his work and reincarnation in general.

Brief History

In India the concept of reincarnation is first recorded in the Upanishads (c. 800 B.C.E.), which are philosophical and religious texts composed in Sanskrit.

The idea was also entertained by some Ancient Greek philosophers. Among the ancient Greeks, Socrates, Pythagoras, and Plato may be numbered among those who made reincarnation an integral part of their teachings. At the end of his life, Socrates said, "I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living again, and that the living spring from the dead." Pythagoras claimed he could remember his past lives, and Plato presented detailed accounts of reincarnation in his major works.

In the Hermetica, a Graeco-Egyptian series of writings on cosmology and spirituality attributed to Hermes Trismegistus/Thoth, the doctrine of reincarnation is also central.

There seems to be evidence, however, that some of the earliest Christian sects such as the Sethians and followers of the Church of Valentinus believed in reincarnation, and they were persecuted by the Romans for this. Many Gnostic groups believed in reincarnation. For them, reincarnation was a negative concept: Gnostics believed that the material body was evil, and that they would be better off if they could eventually avoid having their 'good' souls reincarnated in 'evil' bodies.

The belief in reincarnation was probably commonplace among the Vikings since the annotator of the Poetic Edda wrote that people formerly used to believe in it, but that it was in his (Christian) time considered "old wife's folly." Reincarnation also appears in Norse mythology, in the Poetic Edda. The editor of the Poetic Edda says that Helgi Hjörvarðsson and his mistress, the valkyrie Sváfa, whose love story is told in the Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, were reborn as Helgi Hundingsbane and the valkyrie Sigrún.

Eastern Religions

Eastern beliefs regarding reincarnation are common and tied to presuppositions concerning the existence or non-existence of an enduring 'self.' There are important philosophical differences regarding the nature of the soul (also known as the jiva or atman) amongst the Dharmic religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Some schools deny the existence of a 'self', while others claim the existence of an eternal, personal self, and still others say there is neither self or no-self, as both are false. Each of these beliefs has a direct bearing on the possible nature of reincarnation.

Hinduism

According to Hinduism, the soul (atman) is immortal, while the body is subject to birth and death. The Bhagavad Gita states that: "Worn-out garments are shed by the body; Worn-out bodies are shed by the dweller within the body. New bodies are donned by the dweller, like garments."

The idea that the soul (of any living being including animals, humans and plants) reincarnates is intricately linked to karma, another concept first introduced in the Upanishads. Karma (literally: action) is the sum of one's actions, and the force that determines one's next reincarnation. The cycle of death and rebirth, governed by karma, is referred to as samsara.

Hinduism teaches that the soul goes on repeatedly being born and dying. One is reborn on account of desire: a person desires to be born because he or she wants to enjoy worldly pleasures, which can be enjoyed only through a body. Hinduism does not teach that all worldly pleasures are sinful, but it teaches that they can never bring deep, lasting happiness or peace (ānanda). According to the Hindu sage Adi Shankaracharya, the world as we ordinarily understand it is like a dream: fleeting and illusory. To be trapped in samsara is a result of ignorance of the true nature of being.

After many births, every person eventually becomes dissatisfied with the limited happiness that worldly pleasures can bring. At this point, a person begins to seek higher forms of happiness, which can be attained only through spiritual experience. When, after much spiritual practice (sādhanā), a person finally realizes his or her own divine nature, i.e., realizes that the true "self" is the immortal soul rather than the body or the ego, all desires for the pleasures of the world will vanish since they will seem insipid compared to spiritual ānanda. When all desire has vanished, the person will not be reborn anymore.

When the cycle of rebirth thus comes to an end, a person is said to have attained moksha, or salvation. While all schools of thought agree that moksha implies the cessation of worldly desires and freedom from the cycle of birth and death, the exact definition of salvation depends on individual beliefs. For example, followers of the Advaita Vedanta school (often associated with jnana yoga) believe that they will spend eternity absorbed in the perfect peace and happiness that comes with the realization that all existence is One (Brahman), and that the immortal soul is part of that existence. The followers of full or partial Dvaita schools ("dualistic" schools, such as bhakti yoga), on the other hand, perform their worship with the goal of spending eternity in a loka, (spiritual world or heaven), in the blessed company of the Supreme being (i.e., Krishna or Vishnu for the Vaishnavas, Shiva for the Shaivites).

Jainism

In Jainism, particular reference is given to how devas (gods) also reincarnate after they die. A Jainist who accumulates enough good karma may become a deva, but this is generally seen as undesirable since devas eventually die and one might then come back as a lesser being. This belief is also exists in a number of other schools of Hinduism.

Sikhism

In Sikhism reincarnation is a central tenet. The Sikhs believe that the soul has to transmigrate from one body to another as part of an evolution process of the soul. This evolution of the soul will eventually result in a union with God upon the proper purification of the spirit. If one does not perform righteous deeds, one's soul will continue to cycle in reincarnation forever. A being who has performed good deeds and actions in his or her life is transmigrated to a better and higher life form in the next life until the soul of the being becomes godlike. From a human life form, if one performs the proper functions of a Gurmukh, the person can achieve salvation with God. One must cleanse the soul by reciting Naam, by remembrance of Waheguru and by following the path of Gurmat.

Buddhism

The Buddha taught a concept of rebirth that was distinct from reincarnation. The Buddhist concept of rebirth although often referred to as reincarnation differs significantly from the Hindu-based traditions and New Age movements in that there is no "self" (or eternal soul) to reincarnate. This concept was consistent with the common notion of a sequence of related lives stretching over a very long time, but was constrained by two core Buddhist concepts: anattā, that there is no irreducible ātman or "self" tying these lives together; and anicca, that all compounded things are subject to dissolution, including all the components of the human person and personality. At the death of one personality, a new one comes into being, much as the flame of a dying candle can serve to light the flame of another.

Since according to Buddhism there is no permanent and unchanging self (identify) there can be no transmigration in the strict sense. However, the Buddha himself referred to his past-lives. Buddhism teaches that what is reborn is not the person, but that one moment gives rise to another, and that that momentum continues, even after death. It is a more subtle concept than the usual notion of reincarnation, reflecting the Buddhist concept of personality existing (even within one's lifetime) without a "soul."

Buddhism never rejected samsara, the process of rebirth, but suggests that it occurs across six realms of beings. It is actually said to be very rare for a person to be reborn in the immediate next life as a human. However, Tibetan Buddhists do believe that a new-born child may be the rebirth of some important departed lama.

Daoism

Daoist documents from as early as Han Dynasty stated that Lao Zi appeared on earth in different persons in different times beginning from the time of Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. An important scripture of Daoism, the Chuang Tzu (4th century B.C.E.), states:

Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end. There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without a starting point. Existence without limitation is space. Continuity without a starting point is time. There is birth, there is death, there is issuing forth, there is entering in. That through which one passes in and out without seeing its form, that is the Portal of the Divine. (Zhuang Zi, 23)

Western Religions

Judaism

Reincarnation has been a part of Judaism since at least the time of Flavius Josephus' War of the Jews (C.E. 66-73). Flavius Josephus, the Roman-Jewish historian, writes about the Pharisees, "they say that all souls are incorruptible, but that the souls of good men only are removed into other bodies, — but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment."

The idea of reincarnation, called gilgul, became popular in folk belief, and is found in much Yiddish literature among Ashkenazi Jews. Among a few kabbalists, it was posited that some human souls could end up being reincarnated into non-human bodies. These ideas were found in a number of Kabbalistic works from the 1200s, and also among many mystics in the late 1500s. Martin Buber's early collection of stories of the Baal Shem Tov's life includes several that refer to people reincarnating in successive lives.

Among well known (generally non-kabbalist or anti-kabbalist) Rabbis who rejected the idea of reincarnation are the Saadia Gaon, Hasdai Crescas, Yedayah Bedershi (early fourteenth century), Joseph Albo, Abraham ibn Daud, the Rosh and Leon de Modena. The Saadia Gaon, in Emunoth ve-Deoth, concludes Section vi with a refutation of the doctrine of metempsychosis (reincarnation). Saadia Gaon states that Jews who hold to reincarnation have adopted non-Jewish beliefs.

While many Jews today do not believe in reincarnation, the belief is common in Orthodox Judaism. Most Orthodox siddurim (prayerbooks) have a prayer asking for forgiveness for one's sins that one may have committed in this gilgul or a previous one.

Christianity

The overwhelming majority of mainstream Christian denominations reject the notion of reincarnation and consider the theory to challenge basic tenets of their beliefs. A number of Evangelical and (in the USA) Fundamentalist Christian groups have denounced any belief in reincarnation as heretical, and explained any phenomena suggestive of it as deceptions of the devil. Many churches do not directly address the issue, but indirectly through teachings about death and resurrection.

A few consider the matter open to individual interpretation due to the few biblical references that survived the purging of texts considered to be heretical in the founding years of Christianity as a church. New Age Christians contend that reincarnation was taught by the early Christian church, but that due to bias and mistranslations, this teaching was lost or obscured. Most of the philosophies associated with the theory of reincarnation focus on "working" or "learning" through various lifetimes to achieve some sort of higher understanding or state of "goodness" before salvation is granted or acquired.

Although the Bible never mentions the word reincarnation, it contains passages in the New Testament that could be interpreted to allude to reincarnation. In Matthew 11:10-14and 17:10-13, Jesus says that John the Baptist is the prophet Elijah who had lived centuries before, and he does not appear to be speaking metaphorically. However, it should be noted that Elijah never actually "died," but was "raptured" in a chariot of fire. Furthermore, the prophetic texts stated that God would send Elijah back to Earth, as a harbinger of Jesus Christ. Conversely, there are several passages through New Testament that Orthodox Christians interpret as openly rejecting reincarnation or the possibility of any return or contact with this world for the souls in Heaven or Hell (see Hebrews 9:27 and Luke 16:20-31)

Several Christian denominations which support reincarnation include the Christian Community, the Liberal Catholic Church, Unity Church, The Christian Spiritualist Movement, the Rosicrucian Fellowship and Lectorium Rosicrucianum. The Medieval heretical sect known variously as the Cathars or Albigensians who flourished in the Languedoc also believed in reincarnation, seeing each soul as a fallen angel born again and again into the world of Matter created by Lucibel (Lucifer). Only through a Gnostic 'Rebirth' in the Holy Spirit through Christ could the soul escape this process of successive existences and return to God.

Islam

Although mainstream Islam rejects the concept of reincarnation, a number of Sufi groups believe in reincarnation, as reflected in the following poem:

I died as mineral and became a plant,

I died as plant and rose to animal,

I died as animal and I was man.

Why should I fear?

When was I less by dying?

Modern Sufis who embrace the idea of reincarnation include Bawa Muhaiyadeen (see his To Die Before Death: The Sufi Way of Life) and Hazrat Inayat Khan.

Reincarnation has also been used to reconcile the Quran's apparent identification of Miriam, the mother of Isa as the sister of Aaron and daughter of Amran, all of whom lived well before the first century CE.

Another verse of the Qur'an that may support the theory of reincarnation is: "Thou [God] makest the night to pass into the day and Thou makest the day to pass into the night, and Thou bringest forth the living from the dead and Thou bringest forth the dead from the living, and Thou givest sustenance to whom Thou pleasest without measure" (Qur'an 3:27).

However, other verses of Quran that seem to discount repeated lives:

• "From the (earth) did We Create you, and into it Shall We return you, And from it shall We Bring you out once again" (20:55).
• "And Allah has produced you from the earth, Growing (gradually), And in the End He will return you Into the (earth), And raise you forth (Again at the Resurrection)" (71:17-18).
• "Nor will they there Taste Death, except the first Death; and He will preserve Them from the Penalty Of the Blazing Fire" (44:56).
• "Is it (the case) that We shall not die, except our first death, And that we Shall not be punished?' Verily this is The supreme achievement! For the like of this Let all strive, Who wish to strive" (37:58-61).

Modern and Contemporary Perspectives

Modern thinkers

During the Renaissance, a new flowering of public interest in reincarnation occurred. One of the prominent figures in the revival was Italy's leading philosopher and poet Giordano Bruno, who was ultimately sentenced to be burned at the stake by the Inquisition because of his teachings about reincarnation.

During the classical period of German literature metempsychosis attracted much attention: Goethe played with the idea, and it was taken up more seriously by Lessing, who borrowed it from Charles Bonnet, and by Herder. It has been mentioned with respect by Hume and by Schopenhauer.

Irish poet and Nobel Laureate William Butler Yeats proposed a novel theory of reincarnation in his occult treatise A Vision. According to his view, reincarnation does not occur within a framework of linear time. Rather, all of a person’s past and future lives are happening at once, in an eternal now moment; and the decisions made in any of these lifetimes influence all of the other lives (and are influenced by them).

Anthroposophy

Reincarnation plays an important role in the ideas of Anthroposophy, a spiritual movement founded by Rudolf Steiner. Steiner described the human soul as gaining new experiences in every epoch and in a variety of races or nations. The unique personality, with its weaknesses and abilities, is not simply a reflection of the body's genetic heritage. Although Steiner described the incarnating soul as searching for and even preparing a familial lineage supportive of its future life, a person's character is also determined by his or her past lives.

Anthroposophy describes the present as being formed by a tension between the past and the future. Both influence our present destiny; there are events that occur due to our past, but there are also events that occur to prepare us rightly for the future. Between these two, there is space for human free will; we create our destiny, not only live it out, just as we build a house in which we then choose to live.

Anthroposophy has developed various spiritual exercises that are intended to develop the capacity to discern past lives and the deeper nature of the human being. In addition, Steiner investigated the karmic relationships of many historical individuals, from Karl Marx to Julian the Apostate.

Theosophy

Modern theosophy, which draws its inspiration from India, has taken reincarnation as a cardinal tenet; it is, according to a recent theosophical writer, "the master-key to modern problems," including heredity.

Scientology

Past reincarnation, usually termed "past lives", is a key part of the principles and practices of the Church of Scientology. Scientologists believe that the human individual is actually an immortal thetan, or spiritual entity, that has fallen into a degraded state as a result of past-life experiences. Scientology auditing is intended to free the person of these past-life traumas and recover past-life memory, leading to a higher state of spiritual awareness. This idea is echoed in their highest fraternal religious order, the Sea Organization, whose motto is "Revenimus" or "We Come Back", and whose members sign a "billion-year contract" as a sign of commitment to that ideal. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, does not use the word "reincarnation" to describe its beliefs, noting that: "The common definition of reincarnation has been altered from its original meaning. The word has come to mean 'to be born again in different life forms' whereas its actual definition is 'to be born again into the flesh of another body.' Scientology ascribes to this latter, original definition of reincarnation."

The first writings in Scientology regarding past lives date from around 1951 and slightly earlier. In 1960, Hubbard published a book on past lives entitled Have You Lived Before This Life. In 1968 he wrote Mission Into Time, a report on a five-week sailing expedition to Sardinia, Sicily and Carthage to see if specific evidence could be found to substantiate L. Ron Hubbard's recall of incidents in his own past, centuries ago.

Edgar Cayce

American mystic Edgar Cayce promoted the theory of both reincarnation and karma, but wherein they acted as instruments of a loving God as well as natural laws - the purpose being to teach us certain spiritual lessons. Animals are said to have undifferentiated, "group" souls rather than individuality and consciousness. Once the soul evolves through a succession of animal incarnations and achieves human status, it is not then reborn in animal form. Cayce's view arguably incorporates Theosophical teachings on spiritual evolution.

Henry Ford

Henry Ford was convinced he had lived before, most recently as a soldier killed at the battle of Gettysburg. A quote from the San Francisco Examiner from August 26, 1928 described Ford's beliefs:

I adopted the theory of Reincarnation when I was twenty-six. Religion offered nothing to the point. Even work could not give me complete satisfaction. Work is futile if we cannot utilise the experience we collect in one life in the next. When I discovered Reincarnation it was as if I had found a universal plan I realised that there was a chance to work out my ideas. Time was no longer limited. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock. Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives. Some are older souls than others, and so they know more. The discovery of Reincarnation put my mind at ease. If you preserve a record of this conversation, write it so that it puts men’s minds at ease. I would like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life gives to us.

The New Age movement

There are people who say they remember their past lives and use that knowledge to help them with their current lives; the belief in this kind of occurrence is central to the New Age movement. Some of the people who remember, say they simply remember without any effort on their part. They simply "see" previous times and see themselves interacting with others, occasionally even different creatures besides people themselves.

Popular western culture

Reincarnation seems to have captured the imagination of many in the West, and the idea of reincarnation receives regular mention in feature films, popular books, and popular music. A great many feature films have made reference to reincarnation, and notable films include:

• Audrey Rose (1977)
• Birth (2004)
• Dead Again]] (1991)
• Defending Your Life (1991)
• Fluke (1995)
• Karz (1980)
• Kudrat (1980)
• Kundun (1997)
• Little Buddha (1993)
• Mahal (1949)
• Reincarnation (2005)
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
• The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975)
• The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964)
• What Dreams May Come (1998)
• Om Shanti Om (2007)

Many popular books have made reference to reincarnation. These include several books by Vicki Mackenzie and Carol Bowman, as well as others on the reference list below.

Notable popular songs or albums which refer to reincarnation include:

• "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg" by Iron Maiden
• "The Reincarnation Song" by Roy Zimmerman
• Eternal Caravan of Reincarnation by Santana
• The Reincarnation of Luna by My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
• Highwayman by The Highwaymen
• Tommy by The Who
• "Galileo" by The Indigo Girls

Reincarnation is subject of Thursday's fictions, a cross media work which has transmigrated across the delivery platforms of stage spectacle (1995), book (1999), film (2006), 3D online immersive story word in Second Life (2007), and machinima series (2007).

Scientific Research and Skepticism

Scientific research

Thomas Huxley, the famous English biologist, thought that reincarnation was a plausible idea and discussed it in his book Evolution and Ethics and other Essays.

The most detailed collections of personal reports in favor of reincarnation have been published by Professor Ian Stevenson, from the University of Virginia, in books such as Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation. Stevenson spent over 40 years devoted to the study of children who have apparently spoken about a past life. In each case, he methodically documented the child's statements. Then he identified the deceased with whom the child allegedly identified, and verified the facts of the deceased person's life that matched the child's memory. He also matched birthmarks and birth defects to wounds and scars on the deceased, verified by medical records such as autopsy photographs.

In a fairly typical case, a boy in Beirut spoke of being a 25-year-old mechanic, thrown to his death from a speeding car on a beach road. According to multiple witnesses, the boy provided the name of the driver, the exact location of the crash, the names of the mechanic's sisters and parents and cousins, and the people he went hunting with — all of which turned out to match the life of a man who had died several years before the boy was born, and who had no apparent connection to the boy's family.

Stevenson believed that his strict methods ruled out all possible "normal" explanations for the child’s memories. However, it should be noted that a significant majority of Professor Stevenson's reported cases of reincarnation originate in Eastern societies, where dominant religions often permit the concept of reincarnation. Following this type of criticism, Stevenson published a book on European cases suggestive of reincarnation.

There are many people who have investigated reincarnation and come to the conclusion that it is a legitimate phenomenon, such as Peter Ramster, Brian Weiss, Walter Semkiw, but their work is generally ignored by the scientific community. Professor Stevenson, in contrast, published dozens of papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Skepticism

Some skeptics, such as Paul Edwards, have analyzed many of these accounts, and called them anecdotal. Philosophers like Robert Almeder, having analyzed the criticisms of Edwards and others, suggest that the gist of these arguments can be summarized as "we all know it can't possibly be real, so therefore it isn't real" - an argument from lack of imagination.

The most obvious objection to reincarnation is that there is no evidence of a physical process by which a personality could survive death and travel to another body, and researchers such as Professor Stevenson recognize this limitation.

Another fundamental objection is that most people simply do not remember previous lives, although it could be argued that only some, but not all, people reincarnate. Certainly the vast majority of cases investigated at the University of Virginia involved people who had met some sort of violent or untimely death.

Some skeptics explain that claims of evidence for reincarnation originate from selective thinking and the psychological phenomena of false memories that often result from one's own belief system and basic fears, and thus cannot be counted as empirical evidence. However, other skeptics, such as Dr Carl Sagan, see the need for more reincarnation research.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Scientific Publications

• Edwards, Paul, Reincarnation: A Critical Examination ISBN 1-57392-921-2
• Shroder, Tom (1999). Old Souls: The Scientific Evidence for Past Lives.
• Stevenson, Ian (1980). Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation, second (revised and enlarged) edition, University of Virginia Press. ISBN 9780813908724
• Stevenson, Ian, Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects ISBN 0-275-95283-5
• Stevenson, Ian, Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation, revised edition ISBN 0-7864-0913-4
• Tucker, Jim, (2005). Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives, ISBN 0-312-32137-6
• Van Lommel, Pim. (2001). "Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands." The Lancet. 358: 2039-45.

Other Publications

• Alegretti, Wagner, Retrocognitions: An Investigation into Memories of Past Lives and the Period Between Lives. ISBN 0-9702131-6-6, 2004.
• Archiati, Pietro, Reincarnation in Modern Life: Toward a new Christian Awareness. ISBN 0-904693-88-0
• Bache, Christopher M., Lifecycles, Reincarnation and the Web of Life, 1991, ISBN 1-55778-645-3
• Bowman, Carol, Children's Past Lives, 1998, ISBN 0-553-57485-X
• Cerminara, Gina, Many Mansions: The Edgar Cayce Story on Reincarnation, 1990, ISBN 0-451-03307-8
• Childs, Gilbert and Sylvia, Your Reincarnating Child: Welcoming a soul to the world. ISBN 1-85584-126-6
• Prophet, Elizabeth Clare, Erin L. Prophet, Reincarnation: The Missing Link in Christianity, 1997, ISBN 0-922729-27-1
• Ramster, Peter, In Search of Lives Past, ISBN 0-646-00021-7
• Rinehart, Robin, ed., Contemporary Hinduism, (2004).
• Roberts, Jane Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul, 1972, ISBN 0-553-12077-8
• Steiner, Rudolf,Karmic Relationships: Esoteric studies, 8 volumes, various dates, Rudolf Steiner Press. ISBN 0-85440-260-8 and others.
• Steiner, Rudolf, Manifestations of Karma. ISBN 1-85584-058-8
• Steiner, Rudolf,Reincarnation and Immortality. ISBN 0-8334-1706-1
• Steiner, Rudolf,Reincarnation and Karma: Two fundamental truths of existence. ISBN 0-88010-501-1
• Steiner, Rudolf,A Western Approach to Reincarnation and Karma : selected lectures and writings; ed. and intr. by René Querido. Hudson, NY : Anthroposophic Press, c1997, ISBN 0-88010-399-X
• Semkiw, Walter, Return of the Revolutionaries: The Case for Reincarnation and Soul Groups Reunited, 2003, ISBN 1-57174-342-1
• Taylor, Michael, "Master of the Rose", Comstar Media LLC, 1997-2007, ISBN 1-933866-07-1
• Weiss, Brian L., Only Love is real: the story of soulmates reunited, 1996, ISBN 0-446-51945-6
• Weiss, Brian L., Many Lives, Many Masters, 1998, ISBN 0-671-65786-0
• Werner, Karel, A Popular Dictionary of Hinduism (Curzon Press 1994) ISBN 0-7007-0279-2
• Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn, Messages from Michael on the nature of the evolution of the human soul, 1979, ISBN 0-872235-26-2

Yeats, William Butler, A Vision, 1937, ISBN 978-0020556008

External links

All links retrieved Dec. 9, 2007.

• Essenes and Reincarnation
• Audio file of Jewish view of reincarnation
• Carol Bowman, "Families Reincarnating Together"
• Division of Perceptual Studies, University of Virginia
• Problems in the Theory of Karma: Karma & Reincarnation - a philosophical examination
• Reincarnation: Socrates to Salinger
• reincarnation
• Study: Belief In Reincarnation Tied To Memory Errors

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