Well Known People Speak About Reincarnation

Reincarnation is a central tenet of all major Indian religions, namely Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism. The idea of reincarnation is found in many ancient cultures, and a belief in rebirth/metempsychosis was held by Greek historic figures, such as Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato.

"While we tend to associate knowledge of reincarnation primarily with Eastern philosophies and religions that have held this concept and world view for thousands of years, the concept of reincarnation has flourished throughout the world in both ancient and modern times.  In some cultures and times, it has been part of the mainstream; in others, it has been part of the hidden tradition of conventional religion."  

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Reincarnation, Hammerman and Lenard, p. 7

"The last 30 years of the twentieth century have seen an enormous expansion in interest in reincarnation, both in the United States and around the world.  Recent findings through psychotherapy and the study of consciousness have supported many aspects of the esoteric world view and have confirmed findings from the ancient world."  

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Reincarnation, Hammerman and Lenard, p. 10

James Van Praagh

"The belief in reincarnation is found in almost every religion and civilization known to man.  It was certainly part of Roman times and referred to by several ancient Greek philosophers, most notably Plato.  The Egyptians' ancient religion shared a form of it as well. 

The belief in 'coming back' and returning to this earth is just as strong today and is gaining ever more acceptance in mainstream thought." 

James Van Praagh in the Foreword to Return From Heaven by Carol Bowman

www.vanpraagh.com

Walter Semkiw, M.D.

Walter Semkiw, M.D.

"It is my belief that evidence of reincarnation will lead to a science of spirituality, which in turn will help humanity evolve much more quickly and peacefully."

"It is [my] sincere hope and expectation that as [my] research is disseminated, conflicts based on differences in religion, race, nationality and ethnic origin will be mitigated."

"To creat a more peaceful world, evidence of reincarnation must be available to people of all cultures and in multiple languages.  [My] website is equipped with Google Translate, which means that [the] case studies are available in 104 languages. 

Participate in making the world a better place by letting your friends and associates know about our site:"

www.ReincarnationResearch.com

Quoted from Origin of the Soul and the Purpose of Reincarnation by Walter Semkiw, p. 4, 5

Voltaire

 “It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection.”

Dr. Brian Weiss

"We have all lived past lives.  All of us will live future ones.  What we do in this life will influence our lives to come as we evolve toward immortality."

"Our lives are not the result of random actions and events. 

Lifetimes are wisely and carefully scripted to enhance our learning and evolution.  We choose our parents, who usually are souls with whom we have interacted in prior lifetimes. 

We learn as children, adolescents, and adults, evolving spiritually as our bodies evolve physically. 

After our souls leave our bodies at the time of physical "death," our learning continues on higher planes, which are really higher levels of consciousness.  We review the lives we have just left, learn our lessons, and plan for our next life.  Learning does not end with the death of the body." 

Messages From the Masters, p. 11.

https://www.brianweiss.com

Ann Barham on Reincarnation and Early Christianity

Ann C. Barham

Ann Barham has a great explanation about the history of beliefs about reincarnation in the early Christian church.  Here is a link to her website:  https://www.pastlives.org/about-reincarnation/ .

SO INTERESTING!  CHECK IT OUT!  FINALLY AN EXPLANATION!

I love these thoughts of Ann's about reincarnation from her website: 

"There really is nothing to fear from the concept of reincarnation. Today over half the world's population espouses this belief -- for good reason.

There is a great sense of serenity that comes from knowing that the deepest parts of ourselves will always exist, that we are much more than just our current physical bodies, and that we have many opportunities to master human existence and learn the lessons we are here to learn.  For many people, the idea just makes sense."

From Shari:  When I first started exploring reincarnation many years ago, I wondered how the concept would fit in with the Christian faith in which I had been raised, especially since my father was a Presbyterian minister.  These paragraphs from Ann Barham's website explain that many in the early Christian Church accepted reincarnation.

"Many Early Christians Embraced Reincarnation"

"Why is it that Christian religions appear to be so opposed to the concept of reincarnation? As it turns out, this attitude is a departure from the origins of Christianity.

Nowhere in the Bible is reincarnation repudiated, in fact it appears to be a concept that Jesus and his followers took pretty much for granted. Jesus himself speaks of John the Baptist as the return of Elias (Matthew 11:14 and 17:11, Mark 9:11-13). We must look to the development of the Roman Catholic Church and its doctrines to understand how the concept of reincarnation lost favor in Christian tradition."

"The Council of Nicaea Omits Reincarnation"

"The first 300 years after Jesus’ death, there were many variations of Christian doctrine as the new religion spread throughout the Roman Empire. A number of factions developed, some believing in reincarnation, some not, and the factions were frequently in conflict.

In an attempt to consolidate his crumbling Roman Empire, the Emperor Constantine in 325 A.D. offered his official support to Christians if they would settle their differences and establish a unified set of beliefs.

The resulting Council of Nicaea put together the foundation of the Roman Catholic Church and established a new doctrine, from which reincarnation was omitted. Christians were subsequently instructed to drop any belief that was not covered in the doctrine.

However, the belief in reincarnation did not disappear easily, and in fact persisted for centuries afterwards.

In the early 13th century, the Pope launched a crusade against the Cathars, a reincarnationist Christian sect in Italy and Southern France, and wiped them out completely. This, and the ensuing Spanish Inquisition with its fatal intolerance for any deviance from strict church doctrine, was finally effective in forcing Christians to give up their belief in reincarnation – at least publicly."

Here is the title of Ann's book about past lives published June, 2016:

The Past Life Perspective: Discovering Your True Nature Across Multiple Lifetimes

Famous People Who Believe(d) in Reincarnation:

Edgar Cayce

Reincarnation is the belief that each of us goes through a series of lifetimes for the purpose of spiritual growth and soul development.  The past merely provided a framework of potentials and probabilities and an individual’s choices, actions, and free will in the present determines the actual experience lived this time around.
 
Reincarnation is a concept that encompasses not only Eastern thought but also all of the major religions of the world.  It’s a concept that can allow us to have more compassion for one another.  It’s a way we can begin to look at all facets of life purposefully…. www.edgarcayce.org

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The soul comes from without into the human body, as into a temporary abode, and it goes out of it anew as it passes into other habitations, for the soul is immortal.”  “It is the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but only retire a little from sight and afterwards return again.  Nothing is dead; men feign themselves dead, and endure mock funerals…and there they stand looking out of the window, sound and well, in some strange new disguise.”

Henry Ford

“Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives.”

“I am in exact accord with the belief of Thomas Edison that spirit is immortal, that there is a continuing center of character in each personality….For thirty years I have leaned toward the theory of Reincarnation.  It seems a most reasonable philosophy and explains many things.  …This belief in immortality makes present living more attractive.  It gives you all the time there is.  You will always be able to finish what you start.  We are here in life for one purpose—to get experience.  We are all getting it, and we shall all use it somewhere."

Benjamin Franklin

“I believe…that the soul of man is immortal and will be treated with justice in another life, respecting its conduct in this.”

 “I look upon death to be as necessary to the constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning.”

Franklin wrote this epitaph at age 22 but was never used:  

The Body of B. Franklin, Printer, Like the Cover of an Old Book,

Its Contents Torn Out And Stripped of its Lettering and Gilding,

Lies Here Food for Worms, But the Work shall not be Lost,

For it Will as He Believed Appear Once More

In a New and more Elegant Edition Revised and Corrected By the Author                                              

George Harrison

“Friends are all souls that we’ve known in other lives.  We’re drawn to each other.  That’s how I feel about friends.  ‘We must have met somewhere before, you know'.”

Carl Yung

“My life often seemed to me like a story that has no beginning and no end.  I had the feeling that I was an historical fragment, an excerpt for which the preceding and succeeding text was missing.  I could well imagine that I might have lived in former centuries and there encountered questions I was not yet able to answer; that I had been born again because I had not fulfilled the task given to me.”

Jack London

“I did not begin when I was born, nor when I was conceived. 

I have been growing, developing, through incalculable myriads of millenniums…All my previous selves have their voices, echoes, promptings in me….

Oh, incalculable times again shall I be born.”

John Masefield

“I hold that when a person dies

His souls returns again to earth;

Arrayed in some new flesh disguise

Another mother gives him birth

With sturdier limbs and brighter brain.”

General George Patton

General George S. Patton believed that he had been a soldier in many previous lives, including in the service of Alexander the Great.

"So as through a glass and darkly, the age long strife I see, Where I fought in many guises, many names, but always me."

Arthur Schopenhauer

19th century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote:

“Were an Asiatic to ask me for a definition of Europe, I should be forced to answer him:  It is that part of the world which is haunted by the incredible delusion that man was created out of nothing, and that his present birth is his first entrance into life.”

Socrates

"I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living again, that

the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the dead are

in existence."

Count Leo Tolstoy

“As we live through thousands of dreams in our present life, so is our present life only one of many thousands of such lives which we enter from the other more real life and then return after death. 

Our life is but one of the dreams of that more real life, and so it is endlessly, until the very last one, the very real, the life of God.”

William Wordsworth

"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting.

And cometh from afar.

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home."

Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

William Wordsworth. 1770–1850