Coming Back Again… and Again

CEBU, Philippines – 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 yet.

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

Many of the volunteers report 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 10 percent, are not able to recall a past life at all.

Among those that saw 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 has seen, during hypnotic regression, that he was dominated by women in a past life. Likewise, a young woman who feels inexplicably uncomfortable with black people reports 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 just a phase in a continuous learning process. A lifetime of 75 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 people begin to learn from painful mistakes, they are already too old to benefit from the gained wisdom. Life is so complex, so confusing at times and often so difficult that it seems unfair that we get only one chance to master and comprehend this profound mystery.

It is yet 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 hardly a 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 these 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 people imagine it to be, maybe even incomprehensibly different.

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

Whether hypnotic revelations of past existences are simply deep revelations from the subconscious which in itself invites curiosity or these are proofs that, indeed, one had already been here before remains a mystery. But many lives have already been positively transformed by supposed past-life recollections.

To date reincarnation has already gained so much ground such as to be easily dismissed. What has surfaced so far on the subject of reincarnation is simply smoke. Thicker as the smoke gets, the search for the fire must continue more fervently.