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Reincarnation, literally meaning, "to be made flesh again", and is the belief that some essential part of a living being (in some ways only human beings) survives death to be reborn into a new body. This is referred to as the Spirit or Soul, the 'Higher or True Self', 'Divine Spark', 'I' or the 'Ego' (not to confuse you with the ego definition by psychology terms.) According to these beliefs, a new soul begins again for each life in the physical world, but some part of the being remains constantly present throughout these successive lives. Is it possible that our past portals are our doorways to reincarnations? Is this the bus we get on when it's time to hit the next stop?

Belief in reincarnation is an ancient phenomenon. However, we have adapted it into our society, as there are many good reads on the subject itself. It is just as fascinating as ghosts only more so, by ways of thinking that we could recycle ourselves like a can of Coca Cola! The majorities, who believe, come from Indian religious traditions, such as Hinduism (including Yoga, Vaishnavism, and Shaivism), Jainism, Sikhism, Ancient Greek philosophers and many modern Pagans. Some New Age movements, along with followers of Spiritism, practitioners of certain African traditions, and students of esoteric philosophies such as Kabbalah, Sufism and Gnostic and Esoteric Christianity, also believe. I am out of breath just naming the list. The concept of Rebirth (reincarnation) comes from the Buddhist. New Age movements feel there is no "self" (or eternal soul) to reincarnate. As you can see, every culture has its way in describing their thoughts and beliefs on this topic.

During recent decades, significant minorities of people in the West have developed a belief in reincarnation. It appears in the field of entertainment, contemporary books and popular songs: where the subject reincarnation is, regularly mentioned, as well as "coming back" or "I have been here before". Some researchers, such as Professor Ian Stevenson and Dr. Hans Holzer Ph.D., have explored the issue of reincarnation and published suggestive evidence. Some skeptics are critical of their work and others say that more reincarnation research is needed. For all we know, there's a UFO portal station, lingering about space in some alien named Henry in charge!

Like reincarnation, there is pre-incarnation, which is the belief of reborn in a new body. Oppose the reborn with former personality, pre-incarnation is the reborn with future life's new soul. Futurist visionaries are the examples of pre-incarnational thought. I feel this could be my actual generation of thirty somethings. The belief in reincarnation was probably commonplace among the Vikings, since the annotator of the Poetic Edda wrote that people used to believe in it, but that it was in his (Christian) time considered "old wife's folly."

In a fairly typical case, I quote a true story to show one example. "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."- Professor Stevenson.

It was felt that this strict method 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.

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 and Dr. Hans Holzer from Life Beyond: Compelling Evidence for Past Lives and Existence After Death, recognize this. 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. Again, we are left to our own devices whether or not we believe. If you experience it you believe even if it is based in past, present and future lives. Having some sort of belief in anything is comforting even if it is intangible, and based on feelings, emotions from digging deep within yourself. We have too many negatives in this world not to believe in something positive!

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. So, the need for more reincarnation research will always be at hand, as with any other stormy topic under the paranormal umbrella. Always be well-Alexandra Holzer.

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