LAD: Reincarnation

1. LAD: Reincarnation Mr. DeZilva

2. Living after Death in Physical Form: Reincarnation • Reincarnation, also known as rebirth • The individual continues to live after death in some sort of bodily form • Being reborn into this world after death into a new physical body

3. Hindu beliefs in Reincarnation • Each person has an essential self known as the atman • This self is eternal and seeks unity with God • In the Upanishads (Hindu sacred text), it says that spiritual wisdom comes when people recognise the ultimate identity of the atman with the divine • God manifests himself in the atman of each individual • Once this manifestation is realised, there is no need for the atman to continue in the cycle of rebirth  it has attained its release, this is known as moksha • The physical body is nothing more than a vehicle for the atman

4. Hindu beliefs continued • Hindus believe that the process of rebirth is controlled by the law of karma • Each deliberate action from a person has consequences (fruits) (good act = good consequences) • The Karmic fruits attach themselves to atman and keep it in the cycle of birth and rebirth (samsara) • The quality of one’s future life is determined by how the individual acts in their current life • For example, if someone is poor or disabled, this could be because they acted morally bad in their past lives

5. Implications for Hinduism • Everyone is where they are in their current life because of their own actions of a past life • Seems like there is no compassion for the poor • However, everyone has an atman and has a connection to the divine • Concern for the well-being of others is important • The beggar at your gate or the refugee you see on the news might be your own parent or child in the past or future lives.

6. Buddhist beliefs in Reincarnation • Buddhist have no belief in the soul or a God • Anatta  the Buddhist belief that there is no self and that the sense of self is an illusion (soullessness) • A person is made up of the five skandhas (aggregates or strands), beyond which there is no essential self • Matter, sensation, perception, volition (acts of will), and consciousness • All of these are merged together to make a person who attracts karma • The wise person is one who realises that any sense of atman is an illusion

7. Implications for Buddhism • Like Hinduism, also believe in Karma and Samsara • What is it that is reborn, then, if there is no self? • Buddhist say that the person is neither the same nor different • The analogy of the lighted candle which in turn lights another candle (the two flames are neither the same nor different, but the energy from one candle begins the flame of the next) • What does Karma attach its fruits to if there is no essential self? • One is not freed from their evil deeds • Mango analogy from The Questions of King Malinda

8. Western beliefs in Reincarnation • Pythagoras (570 BC to 495 BC) • Greek Philosopher and Mathematician • Claimed to have memories of past lives • Believed that as an individual passed through a successive life, they also gained in wisdom and in virtue to live on in another life • Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790) • "I look upon death to be as necessary to the constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning." • Mark Twain (1835 – 1910) • "I have been born more times than anybody except Krishna."

9. For both Hindus and Buddhist • Karma works with perfect justice • It is seen as natural law, and that whatever happens, no matter how long removed from a previous terrible action, will always be just.

10. Evidence for Reincarnation • Ian Stephenson wrote Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation (1974) • The book explores 20 cases in which there is apparent evidence that an individual is the reincarnation of someone else who lived in the past but has died. • Chose to study children, as opposed to adults, and found that children had “memories” of past lives and these memories had an unusual resemblance to the lives of deceased people that they had never met

11. Examples from Stevenson • Swarnlata, a child in India described a house that she used to live in (but she never had), sang songs she has never learned, spoke a language she did not grow up speaking and recognised people she had never seen. • She resembled the deceased daughter of a family in every fashion, even greeting the family members with “a warm affection” • Other examples will be provided later

12. Stevenson’s explanation • Strong evidence supports that the children would not have been lying or trying to fraud the research since they had nothing to gain from the “lies.” • Cryptoamnesia The memory of the subconscious • A person thinks they remember something, but in fact, has heard about it from another source. • Genetic Memory Similar to how a bird can “remember” to build a nest at a young age. Something instilled in a child that they just “know” • Extra-Sensory Perception  Paranormal and telepathic links potentially occurred, but still wouldn’t explain the “remembering” of events

13. Criticism of Reincarnation (rebirth) • These examples that Stevenson provides could be examples of culturally influences • John Hick directly critiques Stevenson by saying that these cases of Reincarnation take place in countries and cultures that already have a strong belief in reincarnation • Christianity, Judaism, and Islam would find that reincarnation contradicts with the teachings of the Bible or the Qu’ran. • If reincarnation is true, then it takes away from the importance of the one valuable and special life to live that these religions believe in and promote.

14. Further Criticisms • John Hick further suggests that reincarnation may be explained by some kind of extra-sensory perception • The dead person leaves behind some kind of psychich traces (what he calls husks) enabling a memory of a previous individual or of a life (further explained in replica theory) • Issue of Identity • Shared memory is not the same as identity. It is impossible for two different individuals to be in any way “the same person.” It is a contradiction