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Reincarnation has been the talk for thousands of years. The gospels say when the Christian Master (Jesus) asked " Whom say the people that I am? , " One answered " Jesus was John the Baptist returned. " It was well known by then John the Baptist had been decapitated long before. Others said " He was regarded as the reincarnation either of Elias or of Jerimias. " They both had been dead for centuries. This indicates how popular the subject was then, also among the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Irish, and Indians on the American continents, in a time when religion did not concede of the belief in reincarnation.
Jesus never denied the truth of reincarnation (Cooper intro. v-vi). In the past, it has been a very controversial issue and will continue to be widely debated. However, reincarnation is the key to our very existence and the truth to life. " Reincarnation is the means by which hosts of evolving lives, of all degrees of development, are brought into association with evolving physical forms of all degrees of complexity" (Cooper 14).
The basic belief is that the soul cannot be reincarnated into the body of an animal. Humans are not reborn directly after they die either (Cooper 20 - 21). According to Irving S. Cooper, in past lives we have been painfully suffering because we were passionate, willful, and at times cruel. But after many centuries we began to stop wrong-doing. We have grown through contact with the people around us, the regulation of the law, and through the pressure of physical being its self (Cooper 16).
There are many objections and " logical arguments" to the question of reincarnation. One of the objections being: progress can be achieved by humans without having to return to this planet (Cooper 48 - 51). Some of the logical arguments are: one life on earth is useless in millions of cases, it makes the achievement of perfection attainable (Cooper 59 - 78). There is however more direct information that favors the belief in reincarnation. Because we cannot remember our past lives, there is no way of knowing if we in fact lived them. However, the first three or four years of our present life have been entirely blocked out of our memory.
We know we must have been alive and conscious then because we are alive and conscience today. We do not have any personal proof of the situation as far as memory goes. All details have also been forgotten. Not only in those three to four years but more recently as well, such as earlier today. The brain lets us forget a great amount of detail. For example: " we are careful not to put our fingers into boiling water. " Why?
Not because we have made the mistake recently but because many years ago before we can remember, we suffered painfully when we threw our fingers into the boiling water. It had to have caused such a horrid pain because of our present caution (Cooper 80 - 83). There are many proofs to reincarnation. Instinct can logically explained by reincarnation. A new born chick, just hatched from the egg, runs for its safety when it sees the shadow of a hawk grace across the ground. The experience from past lifetimes lets the baby chick escape from danger instinctively (Cooper 85).
It is said that when a child takes to a certain interest, like music, it is supposedly a sign that in a past life, they were musicians. This is also true when a child grasps certain instruction quickly. Maternal instinct is often times found in girls and sometimes in boys. A child playing with dolls is most likely recalling memories of an actual maternal experience from a past life (Cooper 85).
Reincarnation can also be used to explain many otherwise unexplainable things, such as the following: Ability/ Talent Each person has a certain talent that they have an exceptional ability for naturally. Usually this is a talent that has tied over from many lives. In order to keep a talent in working order, it must be facilitated. If we don?
t use it in one life and let our opportunities slip by, then in the next life we are impaired by physical inability though still have the yearning for the talent (Cooper 88). " Vice or Virtue" The voice of conscience is really the memory of past decisions concerning right and wrong. A crude person has little conscience because his past experience has been so little. Criminal parents can not stop virtue from being revealed in a child neither good parents keep bad from sneaking into their children (Cooper 89). Genius Genius is not caused by heredity or the influence of parents either. Genius results when a soul of wide experience along a certain line- math, music, painting, etc. - is brought into incarnation in a physical body of extreme sensitiveness (Cooper 89 - 90).
Masculine Women/ Feminine Men Masculine women and feminine men basically occurs when a soul has lived as a male or female for many lives and is suddenly switched into the opposite sex (Cooper 90 - 91). Unaccountable Fears " Half-memories" from a previous life when we suffered from a terrifying event such as drowning (fear of water) or being burned (fear of fire) (Cooper 91). Sudden Friendships When people touch or see each other for the first time yet they intuitively have a strong bond that neither disappears nor improves, have a mutual trust, are quick to sympathize and are readily understanding, and includes loving sacrifice, are the results of many life times of friendship. Two people who have loved one another in the past cannot be kept apart.
They are brought together over the centuries and the relationship becomes more and more beautiful (Cooper 91 - 92). The Feeling of Familiarity of Having Known a Place Before All too often, there is someone who receives an eerie feeling that they are strangely at home in a foreign city and while walking, can instinctively know what is around the next corner (Cooper 92). The Detailed Memory of Past Lives There have been many cases where a person is placed under hypnotic regression and has been able to go back to past lives and explain about how they lived in that life and who they were. This procedure has been known to be very consistent and truthful accounts. There is one minor problem with reincarnation. Human souls are said to be running out.
In the twenty-first century, there will be more people alive than have ever lived before. When that time comes, souls from the animal kingdom will have to be upgraded such as we were thousands of years ago. But for the moment, " new pupils" are not entering the " World-School" (Cooper 56). In conclusion, " our greatest joy should be in learning how to make others healthier, happier, and wiser here on earth, and that our greatest privilege is to take part in hastening the spiritual unfolding of our incarnated brothers" (Cooper 52).
Reincarnation, by explaining the otherwise unexplainable, is the key to our existence and the truth to life. 545 Cerminara, Gina. Many Mansions. New York: William Morrow & Company, INC, 1975. Cooper, Irving S. Reincarnation. Wheaton, Illinois: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1972.
Cranston, Sylvia, and Carey Williams. Reincarnation: A New Horizon in Science, Religion, and Society. New York: Julian Press, 1984. Edit, Betty J. Embraced by the Light. New York: Bantam Books, 1994.
Reply, Betty. A Veil Too Thin: Reincarnation Out of Control. Malibu & Scottsdale: Valley of the Sun Publishing, 1984.
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