what are your beliefs about reincarnation?

Carl Sagan, who was a supreme skeptic on the matter of "paranormal' claims (and in fact founded a group to debunk claims of the supernatural), studied the serious evidence on reincarnation - such as the life of Dorothy Eady and the work by Dr. Ian Stevenson - and concluded that reincarnation is unquestionably a possibility.

In his book "Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark", Sagan wrote (pg 300): "At the time of writing there are three claims in the ESP field which, in my opinion, deserve serious study: ... (3) that young children sometimes report the details of a previous life, which upon checking turn out to be accurate and which they could not have known about in any way other than reincarnation. I pick these claims ... as examples of contentions that might be true."

Science hasn't yet invented the means to clearly and absolutely prove reincarnation, but awareness of reincarnation has been experienced by millions of people over the centuries. Before science had microscopes and telescopes, it knew nothing about germs and viruses, or black holes and star nurseries. Not so long ago science taught that homosexuality was a form of mental illness. Science is about exploration and discovery, and reincarnation is something only a few scientists are just beginning to question seriously.

My view is that everything and everyone is a small fragment of the Cosmos (all that is). We are each, in other words, tiny pieces of God. Not the "God" imagined by primitive men in the bible, but God as represented by infinite energy, and nature, and universal laws... a non-judgmental, non-intervening God whom we, collectively, all are.

We all began as blank canvases without personalities and knowledge, but by incarnating into temporal forms and interacting with one another in a corporeal environment we develop distinct consciousnesses, which evolve into individual identities.

The purpose of reincarnation is to experience free will (not just our own but also the free will of others with whom we have contact) and to experience the consequences of that free will. Not everything "bad" that happens to us is karma, but what *is* karma will always teach us something and is always constructive. We're here to learn, and to a large extent we design our own lives, the challenges we want to meet, the obstacles we want to overcome. The idea of a punishing spiteful deity is nonsense.

From the beginning Judaism has traditionally accepted reincarnation as fact: "Behold, all these things does God do -- twice, even three times with a man -- to bring his soul back from the pit that he may be enlightened with the light of the living." (Job 33:29) In other words, God would allow a person to come back to the world "of the living" from "the pit" (which is Gehenna -- there is no "Hell" in Judaism) a second, third or a multitude of times.

Proverbs 8:22-31 is *not* King Solomon channeling Jesus as Christians absurdly claim; it is Solomon's celebration of eternal life through reincarnation.

And Psalms 90:3-6 speaks of reincarnation: Thou turnest man back to the dust, and sayest, "Turn back, O children of men!" For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. Thou dost sweep men away; they are like a dream, like grass which is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Numerous NT biblical reference for reincarnation. Besides the most obvious (Truly, literally, you must be born again... no one goes up to heaven but he who came down from heaven ... how could that be any clearer?), there is "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" which is dismissed by the unaware who don't know that Jesus historically taught reincarnation and that reincarnation was simply assumed to be true by his followers.

According to the bible Jesus answered that the man was born blind so that Jesus could heal him. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that this could not be applied to every person who is born without sight -- it applied, according to the bible, to the one blind man whose path crossed Jesus.

The nonsense about "it is appointed that man dies once and then face judgment" that the unaware continue to drag out and throw at every question about reincarnation is just that: nonsense. It makes no sense as an argument against reincarnation. Reincarnationists do not believe that bodies are reanimated, or that "the man" returns after death.

Reincarnationists know that it is the spiritual energy of man that returns, inhabiting a new "man" (new body). Jews knew that; Jesus knew that. What do the critics think survives death to "face judgment"? The soul of course: the spiritual energy of the person who died. And it is the soul that reincarnates, not "the man." And the "judgment" is Gehenna, the spiritual stopover place where we contemplate our past life and make plans for the next.

Historically, *factually*, Jesus was a Reincarnationist, as were his original Christians. Matthew 5:48's "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" - with his statement "Ye are gods" - conveys his message that perfection and godliness are within the potential of every living being - but clearly not in one lifetime.

As Sagan observed, we are starstuff. We are the stuff of the Cosmos. New souls are being "born" all the time, like stars. We are not limited to incarnations on Planet Earth.

Reincarnation

As per Hinduism, the life on earth is not a discrete one time event. It is just one episode in the play. There would be multiple appearances (births) before the soul finally takes leave from the cycle. The birth is not just limited to being born as human, it includes the births as the animals, plants, even as the divines who rule the parts of nature ! After-all, all these things have a life. The appearance of the soul in any of such forms is called reincarnation. After so many births when the soul is freed of any more reincarnation, it is in the state of mukti or liberation. This is the ultimate state.

karma

As the soul moves from one body to another, it carries forward something along with it, which is nothing but what it has accumulated performing various deeds. This can be thought of as a global account that each soul is associated with, irrespective of the place it is in currently. This account would have both the logs of good and bad deeds it performed similar to the credit and liabilities. This account is what is called karma.

This karma is further categorized. In the example let us assume the person on moving to the new place gets a new local account into which initially some of the credits and liabilities from the global account get transferred to start with. Subsequently till the person is in that location the day to day transactions occur onto that local account. Similarly from the global account of karma, which is known as prArabdham, some portion is transferred to the new local account when the soul reincarnates into a new body and this portion of karma is called sanchitham. In the day to day affairs the soul enjoys the fruits of the good deeds from the karma bank and suffers the fruits of bad deeds. In the process due to the deeds it performs the soul accumulates new good and bad karma to add to its account. This newly earned karma is called AkAmiyam. When the soul leaves that body the balance gets transferred back into the global account. The journey goes on.

Why is it so ?

In the life we see in this world, we work to get the results. The work is the action and the result is fruit of it. This is exactly what is karma. The fruit may come in a minute in a day, in a week, in a year or much much later that the delay may even make one forget the action that triggered the fruit got ! If there is no correlation between the action and the fruit, won't the world be in a mess ?! This theory would also explain why unexpected things happen - either good or bad. (As the situation undergoing due to the function of various past deeds.)

The reincarnation (in conjunction with karma) explains why some people never gets to see the fruits of their action in their life time and why some children die when they have committed no sin. When the karma exist one would have to undergo the fruits of it for which one may have to go through multiple births in multiple forms - plants, animals... The bank doesn't let you go unless the account is settled !

I believe strongly in reincarnation because I have had memories of past lives. There is 'evidence' out there, but people choose not to believe it. They say it's made up or 'from the devil'. For compelling evidence of reincarnation, read the book "Soul Survivor" by Bruce and Andrea Leinginger. That is just 1 of many.

There are many reference to reincarnation in the bible and much more that was left out of the bible. There will always be people that will argue what the passages mean. The Living Anne has quoted many of them, so I won't repeat them.

I believe we have a truly awesome God that lets us learn and grow as many times as we feel we need to. He loves us UNCONDITIONALLY...

~Peace~

I believe in reincarnation, that once a human dies, their soul goes on to another body, until that body dies, and the soul moves on again. I believe this cycle of "re-birth" continues until the soul has achieved moksha, which is difficult to define, but initially means being released from the cyrcle of re-birth due to self-realization.

But I'm not that arrogant- I know there's always that chance that something else happens after death, or nothing at all.

My belief in reincanation has also been since childhood. My mothers side believed in reincarnation as well but it was not discussed much.

i believe in reincarnation .Just think if we hav only one birth and all the actions we do in that birth would b evluated on the judgement day and we wil be sent to heaven or hell accordingly.It vil be cruel right.i think God wont do that

we r meeting so many people in our life each one has physical or mental problems.If we hav only one birth all should hav born without any problems.y there is difference?

If you believe in reincarnation you believe your spirit can take the form of another body..but if your spirit grows with you then how can you one day suddenly enter a new body with an old spirit? doesn' make sense to me

to not believe in it because there is no evidence that it exists is silly. what evidence is there that there is a heaven or hell, a Jesus or Mohammed or Abraham or Buddha. I believe in it as much as I believe in all the other stuff. WHO the heck knows what happens to us when we die. No one ever died and came back to tell us.

Obviously I don't believe in it. There's never been any evidence to show it is real.