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Reincarnations and Links to Past Lives: Truth Revealed!

Throughout history and in various cultures, there has been a widespread perception of some form of existence after death. Most religious systems now place this belief at the centre of their doctrine. According to studies from various countries, the correlations between these afterlife beliefs and mental health, quality of life, or education levels are not correlated with one another or even have a positive association. As we proceed, we learn more about these startling facts about reincarnation.

A Brief Description of Reincarnation and Past Lives.

Reincarnation, also referred to as resurrection or transformation, is the philosophical or religious idea that, after biological death, a living being’s non-physical essence begins a new life in a new physical form or body. Reincarnation is a common approach that some religions theorize, in which a soul resurrects in the same body.

Most reincarnation theories hold that the soul is eternal and that the body is the sole thing that ages and becomes mortal. The soul is transmigrated into a newborn baby (or animal) after death to continue living. “Transmigration” means the soul’s shift after death from one body to another.

Reincarnation, also known as Punarjanma, is a fundamental tenet of Indian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, as well as some Paganist religious groups. However, some Buddhist and Hindu groups do not adhere to reincarnation and believe in an afterlife.

It can be found in various forms as an esoteric belief in many different streams of Judaism, some Native American beliefs, and the beliefs among some Indigenous Australians. However, most consider it in an afterlife or spirit world.  Historical Greek figures like Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, as well as many modern religions, all held the belief in rebirth/metempsychosis.

Although the majority of Christian and Islamic denominations do not believe in reincarnation, specific communities within these religions do; these groups include famous historical and modern believers of Cathars, Alawites, Druze, and Rosicrucians.

Recent scholarly research has focused on the historical connections between these sects and the reincarnation beliefs prevalent in Roman-era Greek philosophy, Orphism, Hermeticism, Manichaenism, and Gnosticism, as well as Indian religions. Numerous Europeans and North Americans have taken an interest in reincarnation in recent decades, and it is mentioned in many contemporary works.

Reincarnation
Photograph by: Karin Henseler/Pixabay

Research on Reincarnation and Past Life Beliefs and Perceptions.

Reincarnation is a common way to think about life after death, and it is an area of interest for several religious and belief structures. There are many different ways to interpret this idea, which can include the resurrection of a soul, an individual, a soul, a stream of awareness, or a form of being into another, a person or an animal. Reincarnation can be depicted as “the transfer of a human being’s energy to the body of some other human being” as a “soul purpose,” though.

Furthermore, reincarnation beliefs may affect people’s vision of the world, how they handle stressful situations, illnesses, treatment decisions and implementation, and how they recover from illnesses. On the contrary, reincarnation belief can also be connected to existential passivity, guilt, and psychological conflict.

The last few decades have seen the development of empirical studies of purported past-life memories (PLM), which go beyond socio-cognitive aspects of reincarnation belief. The description provided an investigation of the phenomenon of people who asserted purported PLM was started by professor of psychiatry Ian Stevenson (M.D.) from the Branch of Sensory Studies at the University of Virginia.

Stevenson spent nearly 50 years researching these incidents, known as Cases of Reincarnation Type (CORT), and over 2000 of them were documented. Past-life memory claims have been studied by researchers from various countries with various educational backgrounds (anthropologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and others) and demonstrated in various countries/cultures, such as Europe, India, Turkey, the United States, Brazil, Africa, and Sri Lanka. 

Additionally, some of these research have been recreated, and their results are generally consistent, allowing us to identify recurring themes in these cases. For example, children typically begin to talk about a prior life around the age of 35 months; 20% of children talk about the time between the two lifetimes (intermission episodic memory), and the median time between rebirth and death is 16 months; 75% of children talk about the mode of the previous life; and death.

How Accurate Are the Perceptions of Past Lives and Reincarnations?

Where the topic has been mentioned, there are concerns about whether and how such religious views might be framed within the discussion of science and religion, even though there has yet to be any scientific verification of the material universe of reincarnation. While some opponents of academic, cognitive science have charged that they are engaging in the form of pseudoscience, proponents of the field have asserted that they have actual evidence.

Other confirmed common characteristics included philias, unlearned skills, strange behaviours, birthmarks or congenital disabilities, statements about the last years of the claimed past existence, their names and the names of people they knew, as well as locations where they had lived.

The possible causes of these memories—fantasies, children’s fraud, the socio-psychological requirements of reincarnationist family members, inherited memory, psychic perspective, cryptomnesia, paramnesia, or possession—have produced significant evidence, but there is much debate about them.

Therefore, it seems necessary to have a summary of what has been produced thus far to advance the PLM claims research field. This overview should focus primarily on data from educational studies published in scholarly journals, such as primary authors’ profiles, publications’ characteristics, countries/territories of studies, and methodological features.

To accomplish this, this article reports an original preliminary search, which is a perfect tool to figure out the scope or exposure of a body of research on a specific subject and give a vital sign of the amount of research as published studies as well as a broad outline of its emphasis.

Past lives
Photograph by: Heike Meier/Pixabay

As a result, the purpose of this study was to look into the quantitative and systematic features of epidemiological studies (case report, case-control, cross-sectional, and cohort) on spontaneous alleged PLM that were published in scientific journals that were archived in the most significant current scientific databases, as well as to identify the main scientific challenges for this field of research.

Can We See Our Past Lives?

Past life regression aims to retrieve what practitioners believe to be memories of previous incarnations or lives through hypnosis. Medical professionals generally view the practice as being discredited and unscientific, and experts typically view claims of repressed memories of previous lives as fantasies, delusions, or a form of confabulation.

Regression of a past life is frequently done in a psychotherapy setting or search of a spiritual experience. Although religious traditions that embrace reincarnation typically do not include the concept of repressed memories of previous lives, the majority of proponents of reincarnation adhere to beliefs about it only loosely.

Past-life used even the subject willing to answer a series of inquiries while hypnotized to reveal the identity and events of claimed past lives, a technique comparable to that used in retrieved memory treatment and one that, likewise, frequently distorts memory as a faithful audio of past events rather than a crafted set of recollections.

The use of hypnotherapy and provocative questions can leave the subject vulnerable to having misrepresented or false memories. Cryptomnesia and discussions, which combine experiences, knowledge, imagination, and recommendation or guidance from the hypnotist, are more likely the source of the memories than the recall of a previous existence.

Once they are formed, those memories become identical to memories based on actual life events for the subject.  Studies of past-life regression memories have shown that they comprise historical inaccuracies that come from popular culture today, books about historical events, or common historical beliefs.

Studies on people who had past-life regressions showed that the two most significant influences on the reported contents of memories were the subjects’ reincarnation beliefs and the hypnotist’s suggestions.

According to studies, past lives are probably made-up memories that were implanted using the hypnotic technique’s susceptibility. A 1976 analysis revealed that when suggested to go back in time past their birth, 40% of immediate psychological subjects defined identities and used multiple names.

Nicholas Spanos conducted several studies in the 1990s to investigate the nature of past-life memories. It was discovered that the descriptions of purported past lives were highly elaborate and had vivid, detailed descriptions.

This, however, does not imply that this therapeutic approach is practical. Patients showed that the experimenter’s expectations were most critical in determining the qualities of the disclosed memories because they were highly hypnotizable and had reported past-life memories.

In contrast to hypnotizability, the subjects’ expectations of remembering a past life and their beliefs about reincarnation were significantly correlated with how credible the subjects found the memories to be. According to Spanos’ research, past lives are social constructions created by patients trying to act “as if” they were somebody else.

Still, they have significant flaws that are not typical of tangible memories. Subjects in Spanos’ study drew on information from outside the experiment, including television, books, life experiences, and their desires and expectations set by authority figures to create these memories.  

In conclusion, it is proposed that memories of past lives are probably false and were probably implanted using the hypnotic technique.

Is Reincarnation Possible?

Reincarnation is typically a religious idea according to which a small number of people’s souls, minds, or consciousness is transmitted to a newborn. Although it seems unbelievable, some scientists think it is a concept that could work.

Reincarnation has long been a topic of discussion among humans. The widely spread cultural and spiritual views on reincarnation reflect this. After mental and physical mediumship, reincarnation was deemed the third most convincing proof of the continued existence of consciousness.

Since there are thousands of cases where a deceased person and the allegedly reincarnated person share striking similarities and synchronicities, reincarnation can be viewed as proof of the survival of consciousness. There are striking similarities that could be coincidences, but there aren’t many plausible other explanations.

Additionally, the severity of a few of the instances and the correlations among them may indicate that something other than random chance is at work.

How does reincarnation occur, assuming it is real? The idea of a soul may not always be involved in reincarnation. Reincarnation is a controversial theory. We will never be able to prove that something doesn’t happen or get solid proof that it does. Reincarnation is not proved beyond a reasonable doubt by the instances that have been explained so far, either individually or collectively, but they offer evidence that it may exist.

Examining the falling asleep, dreaming, and waking processes can help one understand past and upcoming lives because they are similar to death, the transitional state, and rebirth. When we sleep, our coarse inner winds congregate and disappear within, and our minds gradually become more and more delicate until they finally change into the highly subtle minds of the whole light of nap.

Past lives
Photograph by: Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke/Pixabay

We encounter a sleep cycle, and to others, we appear dead, whereas the light of a nap is manifest. Our minds gradually become more and more grotesque as the clear light of nap fades, and we progress through the various stages of the dream state.

Finally, our standard memory and cognitive functioning abilities are restored, and we awaken. When this occurs, our dream world vanishes, and we are capable of seeing the world of the awake world.

What Happens to Us After We Die?

When we die, we go through a similar process. As we pass away, our winds dissipate inwards, and our minds become increasingly subtle until the very delicate mind of the natural light of death manifests.

The experience of death’s clear light is very equivalent to that of deep sleep. After the light of death has faded, we enter the intermediate state, also known as bardo in Tibetan, which is an imaginary state that takes place between rebirth and death. The transitional state ends within a few weeks or days, and we are reborn.

The presence of the transitional state stops when we take rebirth, and we see the reality of our next life, just as when we awaken from sleep, the fantasy world vanishes, and humans perceive the reality of the waking state.

The connection between our psyche and our current body remains intact after the light of sleep has ended, whereas it is broken after the natural light of death. This is the only significant distinction between the processes of sleeping, fantasizing, and waking and those of death, transitional state, and rebirth. If we think about this, we can become convinced that there are past and potential lives.

Can We Believe in Reincarnations and Past Lives?

Given the strength of spiritual practice, many Buddhist meditators have developed the capacity to recollect their own past lives and those of others. Buddhism teaches rebirth, or resurrection, depending on his own firsthand experience.

We can eventually achieve a similarly intense level of concentration through meditation. Once we do, we can experience rebirth to confirm its veracity personally. However, until that time, the only thing we can comprehend rebirth is to depend on explanations like those given in Buddha’s teachings.

As our mental capacity grows, we will eventually be able to effectively interpret our past and future lives if we adhere to the law of karma and accept the teachings of the Buddha on rebirth.

However, if we willfully reject the presence of reincarnation and karma, we will not make an effort to prepare our minds, and as a result, we will never have firsthand experience of rebirth.

The Charavakas, a materialistic philosophical school influential during Buddha’s lifetime, contended that the five human senses could feel anything that exists. They concluded that resurrection does not exist because they lack the sensory means to perceive past and future lives.

Many people today claim that they only believe in things they can physically see and reject the notion of hidden realities like reincarnation. This point of view needs to be more profound. Instead of relying solely on unaided sense perception, most historical and scientific expertise is based on the logical implication from experiments.

Even though we can’t directly see atoms, far-off galaxies, or past events, we can still infer information about them. Similarly, we can infer our past and future lifestyles through logical reasoning even though we cannot see them.

Resurrection
Photograph by: Victoria Watercolor/Pixabay

Conclusion

Understanding the existence of previous lives will make it easier to comprehend the existence of subsequent lives. There are five ways to comprehend our prior existence: Recognizing the spectrum of the mind, taking into account the wide range of mental imprints that kids are born with, reflecting on dreams, considering cases of people who have memorable moments of past existence, and finally, applying scriptural authority are the first four steps.

It is not hard to comprehend that we have lived before if you consider these five points of view with an unbiased view and good motivation. But even a living Buddha couldn’t convince us to believe in reincarnation if we have already made up our minds that it doesn’t and are only considering these arguments to disprove them.

For more, read: ‘Criminology: Looking into the Future! Changes and Improvements Expected.’

 

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