What Is Reincarnation?
Reincarnation, from the Latin "re" (again) and "incarnare" (to make flesh), refers to the belief that consciousness or the soul survives physical death and enters a new body to live another life. This cycle of birth, death, and rebirth is known as samsara in the Indian traditions that most thoroughly developed the concept.
The belief in some form of continued existence after death appears across virtually every human culture. Reincarnation specifically proposes that this continuation takes the form of a new physical life rather than a purely spiritual afterlife, making it distinct from concepts of heaven, hell, or a permanent spirit world. In most reincarnation traditions, the soul inhabits many different bodies over vast stretches of time, accumulating experience, wisdom, and spiritual growth with each lifetime.
The earliest textual references to reincarnation appear in the Rigveda and Upanishads of the late Vedic period (c. 1100 to 500 BCE), though the concept may be considerably older. By the time of the Buddha and Mahavira (c. 500 BCE), reincarnation was a well-established feature of Indian philosophical thought. From there, it spread through Buddhism to East and Southeast Asia, influencing billions of people's understanding of life, death, and purpose.
Reincarnation Across World Religions
Hinduism
In Hinduism, reincarnation is governed by samsara (the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth) and shaped by karma (the accumulated effects of one's actions). The atman (eternal self or soul) is considered imperishable and divine, passing from body to body as a person discards worn-out garments and puts on new ones, as described in the Bhagavad Gita. The ultimate goal of Hindu spiritual practice is moksha, liberation from the cycle of samsara, achieved through various paths including devotion (bhakti), knowledge (jnana), selfless action (karma yoga), and meditation (raja yoga).
Buddhism
Buddhism teaches rebirth (punarbhava) rather than reincarnation in the Hindu sense, because it denies the existence of a permanent, unchanging soul (atman). Instead, Buddhism teaches anatman (non-self): what continues between lives is not a fixed soul but a stream of consciousness, a constantly changing process of mental and karmic formations. This distinction is subtle but philosophically significant. The Buddhist goal is nirvana, the cessation of suffering and the end of the rebirth cycle, achieved through the Eightfold Path.
Hinduism: An eternal soul (atman) transmigrates. Liberation (moksha) occurs when the soul realizes its identity with Brahman (ultimate reality).
Buddhism: No permanent soul exists. A stream of consciousness and karmic formations continues. Liberation (nirvana) occurs through the cessation of craving and ignorance.
Jainism
Jainism teaches that every living being possesses an eternal soul (jiva) that is bound by karmic particles accumulated through actions, thoughts, and speech. Liberation (moksha or kevala) is achieved through strict ethical conduct, especially ahimsa (non-violence toward all living beings), austerity, and right knowledge. Jain cosmology describes an elaborate system of realms through which the soul can be reborn, from heavenly beings to hellish states to animal, plant, and even elemental forms.
Sikhism
Sikh teachings describe the soul (atma) passing through 8.4 million life forms before achieving human birth, which is considered the most precious opportunity for spiritual growth. The cycle of birth and death continues until the soul merges with God (Waheguru) through devotion, honest living, and service to others. The Sikh scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, frequently references the transmigration of souls and the importance of using human life wisely.
Other Traditions
Reincarnation beliefs appear in many traditions beyond the major Indian religions:
- Ancient Greece: Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato taught metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls
- Judaism: Gilgul neshamot (rolling of souls) appears in Kabbalistic tradition
- Celtic and Druidic: Ancient Celtic peoples believed in the soul's passage through successive lives
- Indigenous traditions: Many Aboriginal Australian, Native American, and West African traditions include concepts of soul rebirth
- New Age spirituality: Modern spiritual movements have widely adopted reincarnation as a framework for soul evolution
Karma and the Reincarnation Cycle
Karma (literally "action" in Sanskrit) is the mechanism that shapes the reincarnation process in most traditions. Every action, thought, and intention creates a karmic imprint that influences future experiences, either later in the current life or in subsequent incarnations.
How Karma Shapes Rebirth
In the Hindu and Buddhist frameworks, karma determines the circumstances of each new birth: the family you are born into, your physical body, your natural talents and challenges, and the life situations you encounter. Positive karma (generated through compassionate, ethical, and selfless actions) leads to favorable conditions, while negative karma (from harmful, selfish, or ignorant actions) leads to more challenging circumstances.
Importantly, karma is not punishment or reward from an external judge. It is understood as a natural law, as impersonal as gravity. Actions have consequences that unfold according to their nature, and the soul experiences these consequences as part of its learning and growth process.
Karmic Patterns Across Lifetimes
Many spiritual traditions describe how unresolved karmic patterns create recurring themes across lifetimes. A soul might repeatedly encounter similar relationship dynamics, power struggles, or creative challenges until the underlying lesson is learned and the pattern is resolved. This concept provides a framework for understanding why certain themes seem to persist despite conscious effort to change them.
Scientific Research and Evidence
While reincarnation remains outside mainstream scientific consensus, a small but significant body of academic research has investigated claims suggestive of past-life memories, primarily at the University of Virginia's Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS).
The Stevenson Legacy
Dr. Ian Stevenson (1918-2007), a psychiatrist at the University of Virginia, spent 40 years systematically investigating children who spontaneously reported memories of previous lives. He documented approximately 3,000 cases across cultures, employing rigorous methods including in-person interviews, verification of claimed facts, and documentation of physical features (birthmarks and birth defects) that corresponded to the reported past-life person's injuries or death.
Stevenson's research revealed consistent patterns across cases worldwide. In approximately 70% of cases, the previous personality died from an unnatural cause. About 36% of children showed phobias related to the mode of death from the claimed past life. And roughly 30% of cases involved birthmarks or birth defects corresponding to wounds on the claimed previous personality.
Continuing Research
Dr. Jim Tucker, who worked alongside Stevenson before assuming leadership of DOPS research, has continued and expanded this work. Tucker developed a Strength of Case Scale (SOCS) to objectively rate cases based on factors including the number of statements made, the percentage verified, the involvement of written records before verification, and the absence of any connection between the families involved. DOPS maintains a database of over 2,200 carefully documented cases.
Research Limitations
Stevenson himself was careful to describe his evidence as "suggestive of reincarnation" rather than proof. Skeptics have raised concerns about confirmation bias, cultural expectations influencing children's reports, and the difficulty of ruling out all normal explanations (such as inadvertent information transfer). The research remains controversial within academic science, though it represents the most systematic investigation of reincarnation claims conducted to date.
Children Who Remember Past Lives
The most compelling evidence for reincarnation comes from young children (typically between ages 2 and 5) who spontaneously report detailed memories of previous lives. These cases share remarkable consistencies across cultures.
Common Features
- Early onset: Memories typically emerge between ages 2 and 5, when children first develop the language to express them
- Specific details: Children often provide names, locations, occupations, and family relationships of the previous personality
- Emotional connection: Strong emotions accompany the memories, including longing for the previous family, fear related to mode of death, or unexplained preferences
- Behavioral correspondence: Children may demonstrate skills, phobias, food preferences, or personality traits consistent with the claimed previous personality
- Natural fading: In most cases, the memories begin to fade between ages 5 and 8, roughly coinciding with the development of a stronger current-life identity
Verified Cases
In the strongest cases, researchers were able to identify the deceased person matching the child's descriptions before the two families met. Details provided by the child were verified through historical records, interviews with the deceased's family, and examination of medical or death records. While critics note that not all details in any case are verifiable, the overall pattern across thousands of cases is noteworthy.
Between Lives: The Interlife
Several spiritual traditions and modern regression therapists describe an interlife period, the time between death in one body and birth in the next. This concept has been explored extensively through Life Between Lives (LBL) regression work, particularly by Dr. Michael Newton, whose hypnotic regression of thousands of subjects produced remarkably consistent descriptions.
Common Interlife Themes
- Life review: A comprehensive review of the just-completed lifetime, examining actions, choices, and their effects on others
- Soul groups: Reuniting with a cluster of souls who tend to incarnate together across multiple lifetimes, playing different roles in each other's lives
- Planning the next life: Choosing the circumstances of the next incarnation, including parents, body, challenges, and key relationships, based on the soul's learning needs
- Spirit guides: Receiving guidance from more advanced beings who assist with the soul's development
- Rest and recovery: A period of healing and restoration before the next incarnation
Soul Growth and Spiritual Evolution
In most reincarnation frameworks, the purpose of multiple lifetimes is soul growth, the progressive development of wisdom, compassion, and spiritual awareness through diverse experiences.
The Curriculum of Lives
Each lifetime is understood as offering specific lessons. A soul might incarnate as a leader in one life and a servant in another, experience wealth and poverty, health and illness, love and loss, each experience contributing to a more complete understanding of existence. Over many lifetimes, the soul develops empathy through having experienced life from many perspectives.
Soul Age
Some traditions describe souls as progressing through stages of development, from "young souls" focused on physical survival and ego development to "old souls" oriented toward wisdom, compassion, and spiritual service. This framework helps explain the wide variation in human consciousness and values without moral judgment, recognizing that all souls are on the same journey at different stages.
Liberation from the Cycle
All major reincarnation traditions describe an ultimate liberation from the cycle of birth and death, though they differ in their conception of what this liberation entails and how it is achieved.
Moksha (Hinduism)
Liberation comes through realizing the true nature of the self (atman) as identical with ultimate reality (Brahman). This realization can come through devotion to God (bhakti), discriminative knowledge (jnana), selfless service (karma yoga), or meditative practice (raja yoga).
Nirvana (Buddhism)
The cessation of suffering and the end of rebirth through the complete extinguishing of craving, aversion, and ignorance. Nirvana is described not as a place or a state of being but as the unconditioned, beyond all conceptual categories.
Kevala (Jainism)
Perfect knowledge and liberation achieved through the complete removal of karmic particles from the soul, attained through rigorous ethical practice, austerity, and right understanding.
Merger with the Divine (Sikhism)
The soul merges with God (Waheguru), ending the cycle of transmigration through devotion, naam simran (meditation on God's name), and living a life of service and righteousness.
Psychological Impact of Reincarnation Beliefs
Research has explored how reincarnation beliefs affect psychological well-being, particularly in relation to death anxiety and meaning-making.
A study examining devout Hindus found that religiosity and belief in reincarnation helped older adults cope with death anxiety (published in Psychological Studies, 2021). Participants who held stronger beliefs in reincarnation reported lower death anxiety scores, suggesting that the framework of continued existence across multiple lives provides comfort when facing mortality.
Research published in Frontiers in Psychology (PMC10704099, 2023) examined how afterlife beliefs, including reincarnation, function as a distal defense mechanism following mortality salience. The study found that reincarnation beliefs were significantly activated when participants were reminded of their own mortality, serving as a psychological buffer against existential anxiety.
However, the relationship is not uniformly positive. Some research suggests that past-life memory experiences can be associated with anxiety and PTSD-like symptoms, particularly when the memories involve traumatic content. The therapeutic integration of these experiences, whether through regression therapy or spiritual counseling, appears to be important for converting potentially distressing material into a source of growth and understanding.
Exploring Your Past Lives
For those interested in exploring the concept of reincarnation experientially, several approaches are available.
Past Life Regression Therapy
Guided hypnotic regression with a trained therapist is the most immersive method. Sessions typically last 90 minutes to 2 hours, with the therapist guiding you into a deeply relaxed state and then directing your awareness to past-life material. Choose a practitioner certified through recognized organizations such as the International Board for Regression Therapy.
Meditation and Contemplation
Deep meditation can sometimes spontaneously surface past-life imagery. Practices that quiet the analytical mind and open the intuitive faculties, such as yoga nidra, vipassana, or deep relaxation meditation, create conditions conducive to these experiences. Regular practice increases the likelihood and depth of such experiences.
Dream Work
Past-life material sometimes surfaces through dreams, particularly recurring dreams set in unfamiliar time periods or cultures. Keeping a detailed dream journal and setting the intention before sleep to receive past-life information can facilitate this process.
Journaling and Self-Inquiry
Reflecting on unexplained fears, strong affinities for certain cultures or time periods, recurring life patterns, and inexplicable skills or knowledge can provide clues to possible past-life connections. While this approach is less dramatic than regression, it cultivates a reflective relationship with the concept of reincarnation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there scientific proof of reincarnation?
There is no definitive scientific proof, but there is a significant body of research. The University of Virginia's Division of Perceptual Studies has documented over 2,500 cases of children reporting verifiable past-life memories. Dr. Ian Stevenson and Dr. Jim Tucker published their findings in peer-reviewed journals. The evidence is described as "suggestive of reincarnation" rather than conclusive proof.
Do all religions believe in reincarnation?
No. Reincarnation is central to Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism but is generally rejected by mainstream Christianity, Islam, and Judaism (though Kabbalistic Judaism includes the concept of gilgul neshamot). It also appears in various forms in ancient Greek philosophy, Celtic traditions, some African religions, and many Indigenous spiritual systems. Modern surveys show that roughly 25-30% of people in Western countries express some belief in reincarnation.
Why do most people not remember past lives?
Most spiritual traditions explain this as a natural protective mechanism. Carrying the full weight of memories from many lifetimes could overwhelm current-life functioning and prevent fresh engagement with new lessons. In Buddhism, the forgetting is attributed to the trauma of death and rebirth. Some traditions suggest that the "veil of forgetting" is deliberately placed so that each life can be approached as a new learning opportunity without being overly influenced by past experiences.
Can you be reborn as an animal?
This varies by tradition. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism all teach that the soul can be reborn in animal form, particularly as a consequence of extremely negative karma. However, many modern spiritual perspectives and some Hindu schools hold that once a soul reaches human consciousness, it does not regress to animal form. New Age and Western spiritual traditions generally focus exclusively on human-to-human reincarnation.
How many lives does a soul live?
Most traditions describe the number as potentially vast, spanning hundreds or thousands of lifetimes until liberation is achieved. Sikhism speaks of 8.4 million life forms the soul may pass through. Some channeled sources describe souls living anywhere from several dozen to several thousand human lifetimes. The number is generally understood as being determined by the soul's individual learning pace and the complexity of its chosen growth path.
Do soulmates reincarnate together?
Many reincarnation traditions describe "soul groups," clusters of souls that tend to incarnate together across multiple lifetimes. Within these groups, souls play different roles for each other: a parent in one life might be a child, sibling, friend, or romantic partner in another. These recurring connections are said to serve mutual karmic learning and soul growth. The concept of soulmates within reincarnation is more fluid than the Western romantic ideal, encompassing many types of deep connections.
What happens between lives?
According to various traditions and regression research, the soul enters an interlife state after death where it reviews the completed lifetime, reconnects with soul groups, heals from the physical incarnation, and eventually plans the next life with the guidance of spiritual mentors. The length of this interlife period is said to vary, some souls reincarnate quickly while others rest for extended periods. The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol) provides one of the most detailed traditional descriptions of this between-lives journey.
References
- Tucker, J. B. (2005). Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives. St. Martin's Press.
- Stevenson, I. (1997). Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect. Praeger.
- Li, J., et al. (2023). Coping with mortality salience: the role of connection thinking and afterlife beliefs in Chinese context. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. PMC10704099.
- Gaur, S., & Sharma, N. (2021). Religiosity and belief in reincarnation help older adults cope with death anxiety. Psychological Studies.
- Nahm, M. (2021). The mystery of reincarnation. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 55(Suppl 2), S282-S286. PMC3705678.