Why do some people believe in this? I think reasons range from remembering past lives, the hope to be with loved ones again in another time, to some logic of seeing how nature recycles all atoms in some sort of way and feeling this is the way nature works. Like most beliefs I encourage people who "don't know" to try this on for an hour or two or a day and see - what does it make sense of if it is true? How does it sit with you if it is true.
Here is a summery of some things I see that it sheds light on if true:
If we live more than one life clearly there is a learning cycle that is longer than a life time. This seems to imply that the soul which takes more than one body over time, does retain some memory - if not of a life at least of its lessons. This to me also helps explain the evolution of humanity over time - a shared memory, not just passed down generationally, but in our shared soul.
It has important implications for morality. If we are to live repeatedly than the mistakes, or "sins" or evils we do have implications for our future live(s). I have heard this explained in at least two different ways:1) that as a punishment for actions in a past life we are born into circumstances that will punish us (a Hindu belief taken out to justify a caste system.) This then theoretically also explains why people suffer - although in a way that to western eyes looks like a blame the victim position.
The 2nd explanation is that we "choose" our next life as part of a past life review done "on the other side". Included in this idea is the sense that we arrive at some place of deeper wisdom, compassion and insight while united with the Light/God and that from that place of wisdom we choose the circumstances that will help us learn what we still need to learn or accomplish what we still need to do. (Some versions say we can see everything about the life we will live, other versions say we will see only the circumstances of our birth- parents, relatives, soci-economic status, country, environment, etc. and thus sort of take our "best shot" at getting the right set up for our spiritual goals.) As a therapist I know it can be quite "activating" for people to look at the idea that they chose their parents ("those SOBs! No Way I'm not a masochist!") But I find even in very abusive situations people are able to see lessons they learned, ways they were shaped that now serve them, or strange silver linings in the hand they feel they were dealt. (or chose?) In some cases it is actually amazingly freeing and healing to let go of a victim posture and embrace one's whole life, all of it as deliberate and meaningful. This second position also goes a way towards explaining suffering, but differently - as part of the classroom where we learn. And here I want to be clear that I do not assume that learning always occurs by positive instruction. If we burn our hand in a fire we also learn something.
So pick one that makes sense to you - so you got here in this life via that means....then what. If you are living many lives than the question of karma becomes newly meaningful. If you treat a sibling or spouse meanly or wrongly how does that show up in another life. I would imagine one unkind act has no real impact....but a lifetime - yep you got karma. One set of beliefs says we will pay in another life time but maybe not with that person but just with a similar situation. Another set of beliefs says we will be in lifetime after life time with that person (sometimes switching roles) till we "get it right"". It would seem to me that in either case to treat a spouse abusively either risks a life time in which one will be treated abusively by a spouse or like the movie ground hog day has us in "take" after "take" in a marriage with the chance to be abusive or not.... Either way in my mind the efficient course is to act with compassion, and justice now rather than putting it off to another life time.
It is strange to me that Christianity promotes right moral behavior by suggesting sins will be punished in the afterlife. I do not see this as powerfully motivating most Christians to act morally. Yet there is something about the idea that doing evil to another ruins your own karma that does seem to give people pause in their actions. Christianity also suggests that suicide is a sin and thus attempts to prevent the commission of this act. Perhaps this has stopped people from killing themselves. But reincarnation makes the claim that if you kill yourself you will simply return to a life with a similar circumstance or suffering and face the choice again until you learn how not to escape the problem at hand. This I have known to stop seriously suicidal people from killing themselves. Rather than being a path out of suffering it then reframes it as a path to vastly more suffering.
So those who are scientifically minded are always looking for proof for spiritual beliefs. I actually think reincarnation has more proof to it than many other spiritual beliefs. If one is not convinced that the Dali Lama is the same soul reincarnated for successive life times as that generations Dali Lama. (the proof being that a small child who is the next Dali Lama can pick out possessions of the former Dali Lama out of a pile of objects and answer questions about his life.) Then one might find interesting the following video clip of an American boy who kept telling his parents about dying in a plane over the ocean in a war, until he provided enough information that they were able to find the WWII records of his life, service and death, and reunite him with a still living sister. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Parents+Think+Boy+Is+Reincarnated+Pilot&search_type=&aq=f
The most convincing for me however is a story of an American woman who from a small child on drew pictures and talked of a family she had had in
So what would it mean for your spiritual life if you knew you had lived other lives?
