Reincarnation

In these past few decades, the concept of reincarnation has caught on quite widely. Even men of science have been prompted to conduct extensive study and research in past-life experiences. The number of believers is noticeably increasing and the findings of research on the subject are becoming more and more impressive. However, no conclusive proof has been produced as of yet.

Psychiatrists have carried out hundreds of hypnotic regressions with pre-qualified volunteers. This is a process of digging into the subconscious of a person for possible memories from his previous lives. Volunteers have been chosen on the basis of their psychological health and neutrality on the subject of reincarnation.

Many of the volunteers have reported of vivid experiences during the sessions where they traveled back through time and saw themselves in many other cultures and situations. Others could relate only glimpses of their past lives. Only very few, about ten percent, are not able to recall a past life at all.

Among those that have seen their previous lives, the accounts generally have some semblance in their current lives. For example, a man who is having difficulty in his relationships with women saw, during hypnotic regression, that he was dominated by women in a past life. Likewise, a young woman who feels inexplicably uncomfortable with black people reported of a terrible past life in an African tribe.

But some people doubt the veracity of past-life recollections. They regard it as simply an excitation of deep dormant knowledge imprinted in the brain cells of the person by genetic coding. They say it is in very much the same way that certain features and traits of great, great grandparents manifest in young people down their lineage.

The issue of reincarnation is naturally interesting to the human mind. It offers the possibility of life itself simply being a phase in a continuous learning process. A lifetime of seventy five years, which is the average lifespan of a person, is too short a time for the many opportunities to search for love, self-fulfillment and happiness.

It doesn't make sense that just as we begin to learn from painful mistakes, we are too old to benefit from the wisdom. Life is so complex, so confusing at times and often so difficult that it seems unfair we get only one chance to master and comprehend this profound mystery.

It is still difficult to draw conclusions from current research on reincarnation. In the world of scientific study, overwhelming evidence is needed to validate a theory. The data so far gathered are mainly anecdotal, which means it heavily relies on people telling their stories. There is often no way to confirm the stories, since that requires intricate cross-checking of data from the various cited periods of past existences. This is not to mention the rigorous effort required for gathering data, if they exist at all. Science, as we know, is always being extremely careful and objective. Even members of the scientific community that have a growing bias for the reincarnation theory are not quick to jump into conclusions. It is precisely because reincarnation is what they would like to believe that they are particularly wary of declarations or data that seem to support their belief, lest their study will be suspect to partiality. There is also apprehension that reincarnation might give rise to psychologically unhealthy expectations in people fascinated with the idea. A person who had seen a successful past life may use it as an excuse for not trying to make the most of the present. Moreover, reincarnation-if there is really such a thing-might be very different from how we imagine it to be, maybe even incomprehensibly different.

Like, if we ask a child in kindergarten what profession he would want to pursue in later life, the answer would not be an educated one. He does not yet understand what struggles he would have to face in school to attain his choice. Such might be the case of our concept of reincarnation for now.

To date, reincarnation has already gained so much ground to be easily dismissed. Many lives have already been positively transformed by past-life recollections. At the very least, hypnotic revelations of past existences are simply deep revelations from the subconscious which in itself invites curiosity. At most, they are proof that, indeed, we had been here before.

What has surfaced so far on the subject of reincarnation is simply smoke. The thickerthe smoke gets, the more urgent the search for the fire will be.