Metempsychosis

[From the Greek meta (change) + em (in) + psukhe (soul)] A fairly archaic word meaning reincarnation, which can often be found in books from last century, or very formal texts (e.g. the Encyclopedia Judaica). The Catholic Encyclopedia even has an entry for metempsychosis, though strangely the word reincarnation itself is not even mentioned once at their website!

Also, do read the many fascinating past life memories which have been submitted to the excellent Past Life Memory Bank which holds many people's past life memories - including amongst other things:

• Holocaust past life memories
• World War II past life memories
• Titanic past life memories
• Animal past life memories

Jenny Cockell had always been haunted by dream-like memories of a previous life she had lived as a young Irish woman named Mary Sutton - who died over two decades before Cockell was born, leaving eight children. After many years researching the clues given in her memories, she finally tracked down Mary Sutton's children and wrote a book about the experience, Across Time and Death: A Mother's Search for Her Past Life Children.

Comment by reincarnation expert Rabbi Yonassan Gershom:


"This is one of the most convincing reincarnation cases I've come across in a long time. Jenny Cockell not only had memories of a past life, she actually found her children -- now all grown up -- from that life. This story was featured on a number of U.S. TV programs when the book first came out, featuring both Jenny and the children from that life. Her still-living children, being devout Roman Catholics, do not believe in reincarnation per se, but went on record as saying that somehow, their mother "speaks through" Jenny, and they verified details of her memories. I met Jenny Cockell at a conference in Oslo, Norway, in 1994 and found her to be totally sincere and quite credible. I highly recommend this book!"

The area of children's past lives is quite remarkable - especially in western countries, where children have seldom been exposed to the concept of reincarnation. Often such memories can fade as some grow up, while others will be able to recall past incarnations all their life.

Thousands of cases have been documented by various researchers from around the world and some children are recorded as having described and their past life residence and recognised family members by name - even when these families live in a different district - and even successfully passed tests set by the identified family. What is remarkable here is that in most cases the children appear to have no incentive, financial or otherwise, to make such claims.

Dr Ian Stevenson, Director of Personality Studies at the University of Virginia, has devoted the last forty years to the scientific documentation of past life memories (without hypnosis) of children from all over the world - and has over 3,000 cases in his files.

The Children's Past Lives web site - cases, stories, research, and discussions describe how young children spontaneously remember their past lives.

Often the first hint about a past life people have is an inexplicable interest in a particular country, language, time period, historical event, etc. And often when presented with photographs or movie footage which related to their past life, they might feel an emotional rush and even identify themselves somehow with what they are seeing.

For example, an English TV documentary showed a American who had become so fascinated with the American Civil War that he had turned his house into a Civil War museum. Not surprisingly, under hypnosis he remembered being a soldier in the Civil War. This can be viewed by the sceptic as wishful thinking, but conversely it follows that a Civil War veteran would always have a fascination for that period - probably even into their next incarnation.

And an example of these obsessions with history which often seem irrational to the outsider are the current proliferation of military re-enactment groups all over the world, covering formations as diverse as medieval knights, through to soldiers of the American Civil War, WW1 and WW2.

Recurring dreams or nightmares are a common way people claim to be able to view their past lives. This can vary between vague dreams of an unpleasant nature with a recurring theme all the way through to vivid dreams where other participants can be clearly recognised. Good examples of such dreams can be found at the Shoah Dream Project.

Hypnosis has been used for decades as a tool for trying to discover past life memories. Even though it has been studied for at least 150 years, little is understood about the actual process by which humans can be hypnotised. The effect of hypnosis is to put the subject into a trance state where they essentially put themselves under the practitioner's instruction. The main advantage with this method for gleaning distant memories is that the subject's mind can be focused extremely sharply under trance, to the extent that the mind can be made oblivious to sensations of pain in the body.

Hypnosis is used for many different reasons, e.g. by police investigators trying to glean extra pieces of information from witnesses or by people trying to rid themselves of smoking habits or eating disorders. Occasionally it has also been used effectively in the place of surgical anaesthesia.

Unfortunately as with many things, the results vary greatly from person to person, with some people being very difficult to put under hypnosis while others can be put into very deep trances indeed. With respect to past life regressions, here too results vary greatly. Some people can have session after session without getting any significant results, while others can unleash a torrent of information the first time they go under.

Naturally one important prerequisite is having an experienced practitioner who can guide the session responsibly and try to ensure the subject answers all questions as honestly as possible.

• IARRT Directory of Professional Members - an international index of members of the International Association for Regression Research and Therapies.

Sometimes, people who cannot find the source of a chronic physical or psychological problem seek relief via hypnotherapy. Many hypnotherapists who have been in practice for a number of years can attest to the fact that when people are hypnotised and are asked what the source of their problem is, they are sometimes confronted with details from what appears to be a past life. Many times, the patient will describe an incident which occurred in this apparent past life where and injury occurred or a illness set in - which relates closely to the current problem. Most interestingly of all, the problem will often clear up shortly after this session. And this pattern occurs irrespective of whether the hypnotherapist believes in reincarnation or not.

A good example of this can be found at Past Life Regression Therapist Ann C. Barham's web page where she relates how she originally discovered past life healing in a very personal way.

References and further reading:


• Hypnotic Regression to Previous Lives - a short statement by Professor Ian Stevenson (Virginia University) who has been one of the most active researchers into reincarnation.

Statistically, this is simply not the case. Many researchers have logged thousands of cases of reported past life memories and most of them describe being fairly ordinary types of people - mothers, soldiers, etc. Many past life experiences have been submitted to this web site and the vast majority describe past life scenes of very ordinary people. See past life memories submitted to this site

So where does this misconception come from? Possibly because the thousands of mundane past life memories are seldom worthy of note, while much attention is often given to the memories of being someone significant.

Having said that, there are definitely some people who claim to have been a famous person in a past life, but because past life memories can be so sketchy and history can often be so poorly and often inaccurately recorded insofar as the private lives of such people go, many cases appear inconclusive to the outsider.

For a Catholic, yes it is as the notion of pre-existence of the soul has been anathematised by the Vatican. However at one time it was also heresy to believe that the earth wasn't the centre of the universe and Galileo was put under house arrest until his death in 1642 because of his heretical views - views which have since been accepted worldwide.

What it comes down to is that the Christian Church is comprised of humans and, like all things human, is most certainly fallible. It has changed its mind many times on various matters over the course of history and no doubt will do so in the future. It often requires extraordinary humans to go against the status quo in pursuit of what they perceive to be the truth.

Statistics world-wide are difficult to obtain, but in the US the Gallup Organization made a survey in October 2001 of Americans' belief in psychic and paranormal phenomena. For this survey, they asked adults 18 and over amongst other things if they believed in "Reincarnation, that is, the rebirth of the soul in a new body after death". In the results, 25% said they did believe in reincarnation, 20% didn't know, 54% didn't believe in it and 1% had no opinion. Belief was only slightly higher among males than females, while it varied significantly between age groups: belief amongst 28-29 year-olds was at 25%, 30-49 year-olds were at 22%, while people 50 and over were at 28%.

(Click here for more details.)

There is a theory that many people physically should resemble their past life self. While this might seem at first to be impossible in terms of changing race or sex between incarnations, there are many human features which vary in fairly similar ways across all races and sexes. For example. a high or low forehead, fine or coarse features, thick or thin eyebrows, high cheekbones, etc.

While this would be unlikely to be an absolute rule, there are interesting cases people have put on the web such as the case of General John B. Gordon/Jeffrey Keene .

Judging from the details of large numbers of past life memories, it appears fairly unlikely that people reincarnate as animals or vice versa very often at all. If human souls did evolve from animal souls, it would seem that by far the majority of humans today had made this transition many, many lives ago. And as people who remember past lives seem to only remember human ones - even back to ancient times - it seems very likely that once a soul is in a human body, it will stay returning to human bodies as a general rule.

However there is definitely a small number of people who claim to have memories of being animals at some stage - see the animal past life memories section of the Past Life Memory Bank.

For an example, let's take the case of General George S. Patton who was fairly open about having what he strongly believed were past life memories. If Patton remembered his previous life as a Roman soldier, why wasn't his Latin better?

First of all, in his poem "Through a Glass Darkly", he openly admits that he had only fleeting memories of his past lives. He remembers being a Roman soldier and some flashes from that lifetime but he didn't remembered the lifetime with any great general clarity. In fact, he even admits that he can't remember exactly which battles he fought in many cases when he writes "I cannot name my battles, For the visions are not clear, Yet, I see the twisted faces / And I feel the rending spear." So he could recall some of the most memorable and often traumatic moments for himself as a human being, but many technical points - which can confuse many old soldiers - often eluded him. So I think perhaps we can forgive him for not being better at Latin.

Further to this - even when we ourselves think of a memory from decades ago, we find that words are often the first thing to be forgotten. We remember the gist of what was said, but how often can we remember the exact words used? It's mainly the strong emotions, the sights, the smells and tastes which are etched strongly on our memories. The names, places and dates and other facts however are many times hotly debated. So it seems to be with past life memories.

A good example of how memories can remain but language can be completely lost comes to mind. Many immigrants who spend decades out of their country often forget their mother tongue completely if they have nobody to share it with. A BBC documentary aired in the 1990s where a Ukrainian man - who had spent the 40 or more years after the war in England - finally returned to Russia to visit his home town again. He had relied completely on English over those 40 years, but assumed his native language would return to him once he returned home. In the end, he was sadly mistaken and needed the services of a translator at all times. He would still of course remember many, many incidents from his early life, but no longer much of the language which had been used.

So from there it doesn't seem surprising then that most people who have past life memories - which are usually extremely brief and vivid "flashes" triggered at different times in their life quite outside their control - do not have any residual ability in the language of their perceived past life culture.

However, under hypnosis this can be a much different matter. One famous example of someone who, when hypnotised, could speak a language to a level he had not achieved and with a dialect he could not have known, was of film actor Glenn Ford - who spoke 17th century French while regressed to a past life.

If Paramanhansa Yoganada's book "Autobiography of a Yogi" is to be taken at face value, then the cycle of reincarnation can definitly be broken. His guru's guru, Lahiri Mahasaya, was said to have finally broken out of the cycle of rebirth by breaking free of the bonds of karma (see chapter 34). Perhaps this level of spiritual achievement is not even necessary to break the cycle for some, and possibly desire to exist somewhere else is simply enough. Of note, most religions which contain reincarnation usually see it as a limited cycle which doesn't go on forever - perhaps ending when the soul has fulfilled certain requirements.

The mystical school of Judaism is called Kabbalah and the teachings are said to have been handed down from teacher to pupil in an unbroken line going all the way back to Abraham. Kabbalists have over the centuries verified reincarnation (or gilgul as it is known in Hebrew) through their own perception of the truth via spiritual enlightenment.

The man most responsible for bringing reincarnation into more mainstream Judaism was Rabbi Isaac Luria, a great mystic whose teachings have been given status as a primary authority.

Accordingly, orthodox Jews have reincarnation as a mainstream part of their faith, though surprisingly it has not been a particularly well-known aspect of it at all outside the clergy.

References and further reading:


• Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572 also known as the ARI or the ARIZAL), renowned as the greatest Kabbalist of modern times and the only Jewish sage ever to be referred to as "the godly". It is said that at times, Elijah appeared in order to teach him, and that every night his soul ascended to heaven, escorted by angels asking which heavenly academy he chose to visit. He also was said to have the gift of being able to tell a person's good and bad deeds from looking at their forehead and he listed the reincarnations of various notable figures from the Torah (ie what is for Christians the Old Testament).
• Homepage of Rabbi Yonassan Gershom - a prominent writer on Jewish theology and cases of reincarnation, especially in respect to the Holocaust.
• Reincarnation and Judaism: The Journey of the Soul by DovBer Pinson
• Introduction to Kabbalah
• An article on the Baal Shem Tov, mystic and founder of the Hassidic movement and includes a story about his perceptions of reincarnation under the heading A Deep Understanding

(Also see the Shoah Dream Project - this site is a collection of (often recurring) dreams which people have about the Holocaust. While not specifically citing reincarnation as a cause, these dreams are similar to the ones had by many people who claim to remember a past life in the Holocaust.)

The system of reincarnation is outlined in the Upanishads, the ancient mystical writings which date back thousands of years and are said to be divinely inspired.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna explains some of the workings of reincarnation to the despondent Prince Arjuna before his momentous battle:


"As the soul, wearing this material body, experiences the stages of infancy, youth, manhood, and old age, even so shall it, in due time, pass on to another body, and in other incarnations shall it live again, and move and play its part. Those who have attained the wisdom of the Inner Doctrine, know these things, and fail to be moved by aught that cometh to pass in this world of change; to such Life and Death are but words, and both are but surface aspects of the deeper Being."

In addition, the predominantly Hindu mystical science of Yoga has produced mystic after mystic who claim to have confirmed the nature of reincarnation through their own mystical perception. (Click here for Bhagavad Gita version with commentary.)

References and further reading:


• The Bhagavad Gita (online) - the most well known book from the sacred Mahabharata text, filled with Krishna's explanations of the mysteries of life.
• http://www.hindunet.org/upanishads/
• Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. The story of the life of Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) which offers an insider's view of many of the great teachers, saints and traditions of yoga. A spiritual classic which has sold over a million copies. Click here for the online edition.
• Iyengar Yoga - a strict form of yoga which has helped many people have intense spiritual experiences. Recommended by the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who wrote the forewords to Iyengar's books Light on Yoga and Light on Pranayama - the Yogic Art of Breathing.
• Kundalini Yoga - a description and handbook for Kundalini Yoga published free on the Internet by Sri Swami Sivananda

The Buddha taught reincarnation and that incarnations depend on the quality of each preceding life (i.e. on one's karma). Though some disagree and say that he taught rebirth and not reincarnation, this is really only splitting hairs. The Buddhist view of the cycle of rebirth is much the same as the Yogic view - rebirth is the curse of the individual who must keep returning to earth to struggle through life, learning lessons and paying back their karmic debt. The goal of the student of Buddhism is the same as the goal of the student of Yoga - to achieve enlightenment and break the cycle of reincarnation.

References and further reading:

• Lord Buddha - a summary of the Buddha's life by Sri Swami Sivananda
• An Overview of Buddhism at the Wikipedia online encylopedia.

Although mainstream Islam tends to reject reincarnation, once again experience of the mystic branch of the religion - in this case the Sufi movement - is very supportive of reincarnation. Like many mystic organisations, the Sufis see the one truth in all forms - in Christ, Mohammed, Ahura Mazda and Ahriman and are influenced by the writings of many different religions.

Druze

The one sect which above all others fully accepts reincarnation is the Druze sect of Lebanon, Palestine (including Israel) and Syria.

From early 2001, the National Geographic Channel aired a documentary showing a reincarnation researcher and a reincarnation sceptic investigating various cases of Druze children who each claimed to remember their respective families from a previous life - though with varying levels of detail. Although the cases were not conclusive, it highlighted the phenomenon which is certainly not limited to this culture.

References and further reading:


• What is Sufism? by David Berry, New Humanity Times - including mention of reincarnation.

There was - and still is - widespread belief in reincarnation in American Indian tribes. The Dakota tribe taught that man reincarnated and in between those lives he lived with the Gods and received instruction in magic and healing. Many of the Indian medicine men claimed to remember past lives.

References and further reading:


• Amerindian Rebirth: Reincarnation Belief Among North American Indians and Inuit by Dr Antonia Mills

In early Christianity, many varying beliefs flourished - including reincarnation in some quarters. For example, the Essenes (from whom we have the Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran) believed in the pre-existence of souls - a belief later anathematised by the centralised church. Also the Catholic Encyclopedia itself states that

"St. Jerome tells us that metempsychosis was a secret doctrine of certain sectaries in his day, but it was too evidently opposed to the Catholic doctrine of Redemption ever to obtain a settled footing."

(Metempsychosis is another term for reincarnation.)

Under the Roman emperor Constantine, Christianity was taken as the official state religion and a central doctrine was formed at the Council of Nicea in 325AD. However, disagreements over various points of doctrine continued. In 553AD, the second Council of Constantinople was convened by Justinian and Pope Vigilus and concluded with anathemas against Origen among other things for his belief in the pre-existence of souls - which finally shut out any possibility of room for reincarnation within Christian belief.

However some sects - particularly the early Gnostics and the later Cathars of 13th century France - did believe in reincarnation and often paid the price. In the middle ages, Rome launched a brutal crusade against the Cathars of France causing the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children. Also the cruel and bloody Inquisition effectively put an end to all dissent within the Christian empire with a ruthlessness which, in addition to its infamous use of torture, even saw thousands of Jews (including converts to Christianity) deported en masse out of Christian lands.

Because of this extreme intolerance of diversity of views, understandably there has over the centuries been little debate over the subject inside mainstream Christian circles. Even these days, any member of the clergy would be placing their position in jeopardy if they openly gave reincarnation any credence, while at the same time mystics over the ages have been very guarded indeed in their own experiences and insights into the afterlife.

As the mystic wisdom of fairly well every other religions seems to support reincarnation, I decided on a hunch in 2001 to contact a prominent teacher of Christian mysticism to see what his views were on reincarnation. My idea was that being a mystic, he should be able to access the true nature of things directly without being constrained by blind faith or church dogma as is the case with members of the clergy. His reply is below (though his name is withheld for obvious reasons).

"All of the saints connected with the Church bypass the issue of reincarnation as well as other subjects that would get them thrown out of the Church. I mention it in [my material] but don't really take a stand on it. I believe the doctrine to be true but I do not have anything but fleeting memories to verify what I believe on this subject."

(To date I am still searching for an advanced mystic of any religion who can actually state based from their mystical insights that reincarnation does not occur.)

Also of interest, Edgar Cayce, known as the "sleeping prophet" and arguably the most famous Christian mystic of the 20th century, brought reincarnation further into mainstream consciousness with over 2,500 of his 14,0000 readings mentioning reincarnation. Although most of his readings focused on remedies for physical ailments, he soon began to speak about past lives - and he regarded these beliefs as perfectly compatible with his deeply-held Christian faith, as do many Christians of today.

While some individual Christians believe in reincarnation, the only major push for reincarnation from within official Christian circles has been from the Army of Mary, a Catholic sect which is based in Quebec, Canada. The founder of the organisation, Marie-Paule Giguere, is said to be a mystic who receives divine messages, at least one of which affirming reincarnation. As is to be expected, church authorities have put pressure on the sect to conform but all attempts to rein them in have been to no avail. In fact since it become controversial the organisation seems more popular than ever and claims to have a membership of 25,000 people worldwide. For more details, see the following links:
http://www.rickross.com/groups/armyofmary.html - introductory articles
http://www.religioustolerance.org/army_mary.htm - a summary description
http://www.catholicdoors.com/isit/isit11.htm - church condemnation
http://www.communaute-dame.qc.ca/ - the official website

References and further reading:


• The Bible: Revised Standard Edition - online at the University of Michigan
• Christian reincarnation - the long forgotten doctrine - exploring the place of reincarnation in early Christianity
• Reincarnation - The Key To Christianity by Allan Cronshaw Jr. The prologue to his upcoming book on the lost early belief in reincarnation by the Jewish followers of Jesus. Plus various articles including Did Jesus teach reincarnation and the pre-existence of the soul?

Christian personalities and organisations which teach reincarnation

More and more today, there are prominent Christian individuals and groups who teach about Christianity and reincarnation too. The following is only a small selection but will be added to over time:
• Judy Goodman - trained hypnotherapist, clairvoyant and lecturer.
• JJ Dewey's essay on Eternal Lives, the story of how a prominent Mormon fought the concept of reincarnation even though he kept discovering more and more evidence of it - until a point where he claimed to receive direct revelation that his evidence was correct.

Don't some Bible verses conflict with reincarnation?

Various bible verses appear at first glance to strongly conflict with the concept of reincarnation. However, on closer examination this is often due to simple false assumptions that the reader has made. People may well ask why the Bible doesn't clearly explain such issues (as well as many other mysteries). Some light may be shed by Prov.25 1-2 which states It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.

Heb.9 [27] And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment

This verse is often cited as discounting reincarnation, and can easily appear to do so at face value. However, on closer inspection, it can be noted that the term "man" refers to the unique combination of the spirit (or "soul") and the physical body itself. In reincarnational thought, a man from one life is not the same man as from his previous life, as only an aspect of the spirit is common to both - and certainly not the physical body. Hence with reincarnation, men do in fact only die once, then when they return, they return as different men (or women) with a completely new physical body. So this verse is in fact quite compatible with reincarnation when viewed in the strictest possible sense - as it is only the soul which does not die.

Psa.78 [39] He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return

Here as with the previous verse, the flesh component of a human would never return in the case of reincarnation, hence this line does not preclude the concept either.

Are there any Bible verses which support reincarnation?

The Bible does not explicitly describe reincarnation, but it certainly does appear to suggest reincarnation in places. Some Christians state that reincarnation cannot occur, otherwise the Bible would explicitly mention it. Unfortunately there are many workings of nature - including genetics and the theory of relativity - which are not clearly outlined in the Bible, so it is extremely unlikely that the mere absence of a detailed description of a phenomenon is irrefutable proof that the phenomenon does not occur.

Moreover, Jesus plainly stated that the general masses (unlike the disciples) were simply not ready for all the mysteries to be imparted to them, and probably never would be:

Matthew 13
[10] Then the disciples came and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?"
[11] And he answered them, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
[12] For to him who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
[13] This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
[14] With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says: 'You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive'.


Verses mentioning the return of Elijah

The most significant mention by far is when Jesus announced that John the Baptist was Elijah, which is highly significant as it was foretold in the Old Testament that Elijah would precede the messiah.

Note that Malachi said:

Malachi 4
[5] "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes".

Not someone like Elijah, or someone inspired by Elijah - as many people claim - but Elijah himself. And then John denies he is Elijah when people ask who he is. (If there were no reincarnation then why would they even ask, one wonders?) John denied being Elijah (below) because he was not aware of the fact. However Jesus later confirms that he was indeed Elijah.

And that's exactly how reincarnation is often described as working: the more advanced mystics can see who a person was in previous incarnations, the lesser mortals (even ones as great as John the Baptist) mostly don't.

Note that Malachi also says that God would send Elijah - and the New Testament confirms that John was this same man, sent from God....

John 1
[06] There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
...
[21] And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" And he answered, "No."
So John claims he is definitely not Elijah.

But Jesus disagrees:

Matthew 11
[13] For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John;
[14] and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.
[15] He who has ears to hear, let him hear.


Obviously, many people are not "willing to accept it". Note that the point is stressed as being difficult one to accept, and its significance is further stressed by verse [15].

Parable of the talents

One parable that many people have found very difficult to understand is the parable of the talents.
Matthew 25
[14] For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them.
[15] To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey.
[16] Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents.
[17] In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more.
[18] But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
[19] Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.
[20] The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, "Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents."
[21] His master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master."
[22] Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, "Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents."
[23] His master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master."
[24] And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, "Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.
[25] "And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours."
[26] But his master answered and said to him, "You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed.
[27] "Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest.
[28] "Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents."
[29] For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.
[30] Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.


It is highly unlikely that it is to be taken literally (the talent was a unit of currency), as Jesus's preachings are non-materialistic. If as most see it, it is referring to what we make of our sojourn on earth, then what is the point of it?

As mainstream Christianity promises, the good believers will end up spending eternity in heaven. However this parable perplexingly speaks of misery for those who do not make the most out of the "talents" they are provided with - even, in the case of the unfortunate servant, if they only mean to do the right thing.

Reincarnationists easily resolve this issue as the lesson appears to relate directly to the idea that in each incarnation we have to learn lessons and evolve upwards in terms of knowledge and experience. If we simply stagnate and let our "talents" (i.e. skills and opportunities) go to waste, we run the great risk of returning much worse off in our next incarnation.

Matt 5:5 "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

Many Christians find this verse hard to fathom, as meek people certainly often inherit little during their lifetime. And if they are to spent eternity in heaven, then this inheritance is even less likely. However if they are to return in another incarnation, it becomes quite possible to understand. (Though whether there is such a reincarnation pattern where meek people are rewarded in such a way can only be speculated upon.)

Matt 26:52 "Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword"

Another difficult verse for mainstream Christians, for as we know this is often not the case at all in reality - many soldiers who have killed people in battle quite often die peacefully of old age. However with reincarnation, this can be viewed as a powerful statement of how karma can work across incarnations.

Luke 9:18 "Who do the people say that I am?"

Luke 19
[18] Now it happened that as he was praying alone the disciples were with him; and he asked them, "Who do the people say that I am?"
[19] And they answered, "John the Baptist; but others say, Elijah; and others, that one of the old prophets has risen."


Why would anyone say that Jesus might be any of these people from the past, unless reincarnation were possible? This passage strongly suggests that the general populace of the time did not think reincarnation inconceivable, especially if they thought that an "old prophet" could rise again by being reborn into a new body...

Just as interesting is the terminology used - in this instance, "risen" is used here specifically to mean "reborn".

John 3 "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

This controversial chapter might appear at first glance to be speaking about reincarnation, as it does seem to be talking about the idea of rebirth in a way that ordinary people could not understand. However it differs in two significant respects.

Firstly, Jesus says that no one can see (verse 3) or enter (verse 5) the kingdom of God unless he is born again - of water and the spirit. However if reincarnation were the only criteria for seeing or entering the kingdom of God, this is hardly worth mentioning - as in the view of most reincarnationists, almost everyone alive even back then would have had many previous incarnations.

However then Jesus goes on in verse 11 to imply that he and his disciples have seen and entered the kingdom of God themselves and they had testified to what they have seen - but how could people without this ability comprehend the heavenly experiences they were talking about?

To understand what Jesus was referring to here, it's useful to have read the works of the greatest Christian mystics to try to find some similarity of experience - as these people are the spiritual descendants of Jesus's disciples. One excellent match we find is in the book by St Catherine of Avila entitled "Interior Castle". In this book, she describes how she visits the spiritual realms in a deep trance. From her description of wildlife and wonderful freedom of travel, this sounds almost exactly like the astral or out-of-body travel practiced for centuries by mystics of all faiths - Jewish, Buddhist, Tibetan, Shaman, etc. Their experiences are often so incredible and difficult to understand for people who cannot experience them that until westerners started writing on this topic over the last 30 years, few westerners would have given it any credibility. Even many orthodox Christians are fascinated by the tales they hear from people who have had the very similar near-death experiences, otherwise known as NDEs.

The last question remains - what has being born of water and the spirit got to do with any of this? In the last few years the technical aspects of out of body travel have been understood far better than before and it is now accepted (at least in metaphysical circles) that in order to astral travel, a person must first use their natural in-built ability of the non-phsyical components of their body to create an "etheric double". This is an identical thinking and feeling copy of the spiritual components of a person. Then through intense meditation or by extreme will-power, the natural bonds holding this duplicate inside the confines of the physical body are relaxed and the etheric double is "projected" out. From there it is free to wander the spirit realms, receiving its power from an infinitely stretchable energy cord which always extends back to the human body. Once the journey finishes for whatever reason (say the person is disturbed or the double returns to the body), the double's memories are usually integrated back into the person, allowing them to remember what happened.

References and further reading:


• Interior Castle (online version) - St Teresa of Avila's relatively short manual on spiritual travel. An amazing gem which has been long overlooked and seldom understood.
• Astral Pulse - the web site of Robert Bruce, veteran mystic, and the western world's leading expert on astral travel. A great deal of his manuals and guides are available free at this site and there are also discussion forums available for people requiring a few extra tips.

This is the slowest but perhaps the most rewarding way. Using traditional methods, there is first meditation - which is promoted in most religions in the world (though tends to be called "contemplation" in Christianity). The goal is generally to get more in touch with your inner spiritual self which is said to be more accessible when the mind is at peace and free from everyday thoughts. While meditation offers relief from stress and other benefits, many people have reported having past life experiences during deeper meditation sessions as well as other kinds of psychic phenomena.

You could also take up Yoga (or perhaps Tai Chi) and also do Pranayama, the Yogic spiritual breathing exercises (or Chi Gong). The main advantage here is that you can do a lot of it free from a book, but at some stage you would need to seek out a good teacher to get you up to an advanced level. Here Yoga has a great advantage inasmuch as it has flourished throughout the world, and a well-recommended teacher should be available in any city of a reasonable size. One year might be the minimum time required for getting some psychic ability, but you need to be committed and motivated.

One very new technique to open onesself up psychically is Robert Bruce's excellent New Energy Ways technique. This is very well documented and the guide is competely free and on the internet here and often updated with new information. The technique is quite simple and delivers noticeable results quickly, and has a good emphasis on safety. One of the best things about it is that there is a free online forum where anybody can register and exchange experiences and ask questions. Note that as with any technique like this, regular meditation is a good accompanying practice.

References and further reading:


• LearningMeditation.com - a free and simple guide to getting into meditation and what to expect.
• The Astral Pulse - Robert Bruce's website with many articles and training guides.
• Iyengar Yoga - a strict form of yoga which has helped many people have very intense spiritual experiences. Recommended by the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who wrote the forewords to Iyengar's books Light on Yoga and Light on Pranayama - the Yogic Art of Breathing.
• Kundalini Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda

There are various similar methods that people can practice on their own to try to access past life memories. Once such exercise can be found here. This works much like meditation or "self-hypnosis" and may take many nights of practice to get results from - depending on the person of course.

Also there are now many past life regression cassettes and CDs available - see the Self-regression cassette and CD courses section below.

This is the simplest solution, but it can be expensive - especially if you require many sessions to fill in the hazy details. What you can do is go though the phone book and call various hypnotherapists and find one who has years of professional experience and especially a lot of experience with past life regression. If therapists don't fit the bill, maybe they can recommend someone, as they should know other people in the field. Also try to get an arrangement where they only charge you if they can actually hypnotise you - then you at least get some kind of guarantee that it won't be a complete waste of money. Remember that you might be hard to hypnotise, so do not ever assume that they can get you under. (Asking the local police dept which hypnotherapists they use might even be a good first step.) The best person would be someone who has been in the business for 20+ years, has done lots of past life regressions and has a professional-looking workplace. Try to avoid someone who's just starting out in the field. Paying more for a person with more experience is usually a good idea - especially if you hear that they have a good reputation.

Note that regression comes with no guarantees of successfully recalling a past life.

Here are the main problems:

• you might be very hard to hypnotise
• once hypnotised, you might not be capable of recalling past lives (yet)
• the hypnotherapist might take a bad approach and ask leading questions which cause you to invent details. This is less likely with a therapist who has a lot of experience with past life regression.

Hypnosis allows you to focus your mind far better than when you are in normal waking consciousness. However it still requires a small amount of psychic skill which most people will have in one way or another, even if it has never been apparent. If you are already getting resonance, you should hopefully have a head start.

Not that some regression therapists don't actually hypnotise you, but try to induce a light trance where the subject is still in full control of themself. This method is less effective for retrieving past life memories than hypnosis, but is more suitable for people who do not like the idea of being hypnotised and giving control of themselves to someone else.

A cheaper method might be to get a book on hypnosis from the library, then get together with somone else who is interested in the idea of past life regression - and whom you trust - and then take turns trying to hypnotise each other. The advantages here are that you will learn to relax, possibly learn a new skill, and if it works, you can try it as often as you like - as it can take many sessions to get a clear picture of someone's past life.

• IARRT Directory of Professional Members - an international index of members of the International Association for Regression Research and Therapies.

Nowadays many CDs and tapes are available. Below is a selection of audio courses made available by some of the more prominent researchers in the field. While a well-trained past life regression therapist is almost certainly a better option, these audio course do have the advantage of allowing people the possibility to try some past life exploration inexpensively and in their own time.
• MyPastLife.com by Andrew Parr. A very good induction with the choice between a very structured regression or a more free-format regression. The difference here is that as well as eing abl to order a CD, you can also order a much cheaper MP3 download which you can have within minutes. Recommended.
• Past Life Regression by Dick Sutphen. A basic introductory regression plus a more advanced session where the listener chooses what to explore. (Available on CD and cassette.)
• Ultra-Depth Past-Life Regression by Dick Sutphen. A deeper past life regression which has a 40-minute induction process. (Available on CD and cassette.)
• Exploring Your Past Lives by William Buhlman. A five-CD set comprising guided meditations, hypnosis and instructional discussions, presented in a home workshop format. (Available on CD and cassette.)
• Spiritual Progress Through Regression by Brian L Weiss, M.D.. The author of the best-selling book "Many Lives, Many Masters" and Chairman Emeritus of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami, Bryan Weiss is a leading name in past life regression. He has various audio courses containing guided meditation and past life regression available for a reasonable price at his site linked above.

• A very interesting site is the excellent Past Life Memory Bank which holds many people's past life memories - including amongst other things:
  • Holocaust past life memories
  • World War II past life memories
  • Titanic past life memories
  • Animal past life memories
• Another index of past life memories is at healing.about.com where memories are again sorted into categories like nationality, profession and historical era.
• The Axis Past Life Homepage is one of the stranger past life memory repositories, where people who have past life memories mainly from the German side of World War 2 relate their experiences and feelings including:
• A Waffen-SS Panzer-corps officer on the Russian front
• A woman's journal of how she discovered her past life as a high ranking Nazi party official, and how it affects her present life
• A woman's memories of being a German Red Cross field nurse
• Feelings of being a Wehrmacht officer on the Eastern Front
• Memories of being Josef Mengele - battlefield surgeon then later concentration camp doctor
• Rittmeister's Past Life Site - many detailed past life memories as a German fighter pilot in World War I, who has since found other people who recall past life incidents from the same era.
• Multiple past life memories - from Babylon, China, France and England (click the Next button to move between pages).
• Ebionite slaughter - Allan Cronshaw's vivid memory of the slaughter of his Ebionite community by Roman troops in the 4th century.
• Leutnant's Memories - past life memories of being a German fighter pilot in World War I (hosted on the Rittmeister's website).
• Boelcke.org -- The Page from the Past - where history and reincarnation meet face to face. Journals of her past lives as 1st Sgt. James Butler, one of Custer's troopers; and Capt. Oswald Boelcke, a WWI German fighter ace. Including links to help you understand reincarnation and historical events as well.
• Titanic's designer reincarnated - excerpts from Williams Barne's book about his memories of being Thomas Andrews in his previous life, plus a review by Rabbi Yonassan Gershom.
• General John B. Gordon/Jeffrey Keene - an Assistant Fire Chief's journey to discovery of his past life as a senior confederate figure - who was also involved in fire-fighting.
• Ann C Barham's personal past life experience. She is a certified regression therapist.
• An American Indian's mystical experiences - a near-death experience plus memories of a past life as an SS officer.
• I Was In the Civil War by Robert M Stone.
• Silent Guns - A Civil War Past Life Memory by Ivan Granger
• Rob's Civil War past life memory triggered during Cranio-Sachral balancing

Related links

• The Rainsnow Project - many articles on reincarnation (and other topics) by past life researcher and all-round good guy, J Rainsnow.
• Reincarnation and the Holocaust FAQ maintained by Rabbi Yonassan Gershom - contains Frequently Asked Questions regarding his work with people who believe that they died in the Holocaust during World War II and have been reincarnated.
• The Shoah Dream Project - this site is a collection of (often recurring) dreams which people have about the Holocaust. While not specifically citing reincarnation as a cause, these dreams are similar to the ones had by many people who claim to remember a past life in the Holocaust.

Researchers working in the field of reincarnation

• Dr. Ian Stevenson, Director of Personality Studies at the University of Virginia, has devoted the last forty years to the scientific documentation of past life memories (without hypnosis) of children from all over the world - and has over 3,000 cases in his files.
• Professor Erlendur Haraldsson, Professor of Psychology, University of Iceland, Reykjavik. Has written many articles on the subject of reincarnation for the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, Journal of Scientific Exploration amongst others.
• Dr Antonia Mills, Associate Professor, University of Northern British Columbia. Author of Amerindian Rebirth: Reincarnation Belief Among North American Indians and Inuit
• Dr. Adrian Finkelstein M.D., author and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA (Los Angeles area) with 20 years of research and therapy in the field of past, present, inter- and future lives exploration to heal body and soul, individually and in groups.

Organisations

• Internation Association for Regression Research and Therapies (IARRT) - the largest professional organization for regression practitioners.