Should You Believe in Reincarnation?
WHILE under the influence of LSD, a man from Edmonton, Canada, would peer into a mirror. “I began to hallucinate and see what I believed were previous incarnations of myself. For instance, I saw myself as an evil warlord . . . responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. Once while observing such an evil person in the mirror, I heard a voice saying: ‘You’ll have to suffer for these evils that you have done!’”
Other things, besides the use of drugs, have led people to believe in reincarnation. When visiting new places, some get a strange feeling that they were there before, concluding that they must have lived before. Others report similar feelings after meeting total strangers. Hypnosis has also played a part. “Several psychiatrists practicing today have come to believe in reincarnation because some of their patients under hypnosis have recalled experiences of times before their own birth,” wrote R. Stemman in Spirits and Spirit World. The same doctrine forms the basis of the Hindu and Buddhist religions, whose members number well over half a billion.
Although long prominent in the East, reincarnation has recently become a popular topic for discussion in the Western world. It forms the plot of books and films. Many saw the recent Robert Wise film production Audrey Rose, based on a best-selling novel. The story depicted distressed parents who were led to believe that their beloved daughter was the reincarnation of another man’s deceased child.
“After death a person’s soul is reborn into another body,” reincarnationists say. Where did this belief originate and how does it affect people? Should you believe it too?
Where Did It Start?
The belief that after death a person’s soul passes on to another body is widespread and deeply rooted in mankind’s past. The Vendas, one of South Africa’s black tribes, believe in it, as do Australian aborigines, Araucanian Indians of South America and many others.
More than 2,000 years ago it was believed by ancient Greeks and Celts of Western Europe. At the same time Brahmin priests were teaching it in India. “Many scholars believe that the Hindu Brahmin in the East and the Celtic Druid in the West were lateral survivals of an ancient Indo-European priesthood,” comments the Encyclopædia Britannica.
One ‘ancient priesthood,’ central to India, Western Europe and Greece, was located in Babylon. Was reincarnation mothered there? Well, Babylonian religion included the annual mourning over a dead hero, Tammuz, or Dumuzi, whom they made into a god. “The kings who incarnated him,” wrote Professor Mircea Eliade, “annually celebrated the re-creation of the world. . . . Tammuz disappears, to reappear six months later. This alternation—periodical presence and absence of the god—was able to institute ‘mysteries’ concerning the salvation of men, their destiny after death. . . . Eventually, every human being could hope to enjoy this privilege.”
How Does It Affect People?
Could reincarnation bring confusion and suffering to parents, as depicted in the novel Audrey Rose? In India Dr. Vinoda Murthy investigated reported cases of “rebirth.” One involved a child who cried each night, saying that he belonged to another place. Eventually he was taken to a distant village, identifying a house and the couple in it as his own. “The story,” according to science-writer Radhakrishna Rao, “had a sorry sequel, for the boy became the centre of a heated dispute between two sets of parents.”
Connected with reincarnation is the belief that misfortunes in the present life are a punishment for things done in previous lives. This is referred to as “the law of Karma.” While discouraging some from doing harm to others, is this belief a positive force for doing good? The answer is reflected in the station of Brahmin priests, who lead a system of castes, which millions find burdensome and oppressive. Consider, too, Buddhist monks, who withdraw from society to live a life of seclusion. “If a person has been put into this world to redress the balance of his own wicked past, what business is it of ours to interfere and disturb the ordinances of God?” comments Man, Myth and Magic—An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Supernatural.
Investigating their “past lives” has brought some under the influence of dangerous superhuman forces. “I felt haunted by spirits,” wrote the man referred to at the beginning of this article. “At times I begged only to die and never be born again . . . I made several attempts to commit suicide.”
What Does the Bible Teach?
The Bible teaches that after death there is no invisible part that survives to be reborn as someone else. The soul is the person himself. For example, you can read in the Bible that after the first man was created, he was called a “soul.” Thus, when he died, that “soul” came to an end, as God had said: “In the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return.” Elsewhere, the Bible repeatedly shows that the human “soul” dies.—Genesis 2:7; 3:19; Joshua 10:32; Ezekiel 18:4; James 5:20; Revelation 16:3.
If nothing survives the body after death, what explanation is there for phenomena associated with the belief in reincarnation? The Bible shows that demons, angels who turned unfaithful, are responsible for this. (1 Timothy 4:1) As for the hope of life after death, you can firmly believe in the Creator’s ability to bring back “those who have been counted worthy of . . . the resurrection from the dead.” As Jesus assured: “The hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out.”—Luke 20:35; John 5:28, 29.
This information from God’s Word has brought comfort and relief to millions, including the once troubled man from Edmonton, Canada. Another, a former Hindu from India, expressed it like this: “According to reincarnation, one returns in this system, under these conditions where people grow sick and die. But the resurrection will take place after Jehovah God, by means of his Kingdom government, will bring an end to this corrupt system. Then, . . . sickness, mourning and even death will be things of the past!”—Revelation 21:3, 4.
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At times, some people get the feeling that they have lived before
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Law of Karma teaches “wheel” of endless rebirths