arpr.htm A paper written for the Robert Ashby competition of ARPR on the subject:
IS THE PHILOSOPHY OF REINCARNATION COMPATIBLE WITH CHRISTIANITY?
Abstract:
This writer would opine the short answer as "Yes, the philosophy of reincarnation is compatible with Christianity, if and only if specific qualifications are considered to define this philosophy." The remainder of the paper will elucidate the specific qualifications, noting first that they are not presented as being universal.
For the sake of clarity and discussion, the underlying question of the definition of the word "incarnation" may be answered as follows. "Incarnation" implies that something other than flesh is somehow combined with flesh so as to give it sentient life. Christianity, by definition, is founded on the notion of charisma, so we have the notion of christening. It may be worth noting that THE NEW STRONG'S EXHAUSTIVE CONCORDANCE OF THE BIBLE has no entries under either "reincarnation" nor "incarnation". However, under the notes about Resurrection, there are numerous references. If one looks at this as a part of the reincarnation, then one may find some useful insights. While there appears to be a popular conception that the physical body is raised up, further reading shows otherwise. The first letter of Paul to the Corinthians sums up Christianity's views in Chapter 15, particularly as regards the manner of the Resurrection in verses 35 onward:
"A natural body is put down and a spiritual body comes up."
Nandor Fodor's ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF PSYCHIC SCIENCE defines "reincarnation" as "the return to corporeal life of beings who have passed over and spent a period of existence in the Beyond". The entry also includes remarks to the effect that St. Simon and St. Martin advocated it, along with Fourier and others.
The thing or event that is key to this notion is that of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life. One may then reasonably conclude that a philosophy of reincarnation involves an act that is vitally linked to the notion of a re-christening with spirit becoming flesh. Flesh is then to be considered as a vehicle for the spirit, akin to a notion of a driver who owns and operates a particular automobile for a particular time. The question then depends on how one defines what is reincarnated. Obviously, if persons were reincarnated wholly, then there would be no way for improvement of the species, so we would all still be cavepersons or worse.
At the other end of the life spectrum, the notion of death is qualified in Christianity with the notion of eternal life. If one considers only the mundane, then a question arises as to precisely what happens when a body dies, since there is oftentimes no physical difference between life and death other than the cessation of cardiac function for some reason. The question then becomes, "What kind of life?". One may hold to the popular notion of an eternal heavenly or hellish or purgatorial situation or place. On the other hand, one may consider other alternatives that involve a continual process of a separating from one incarnation and joining into another incarnation with links between incarnations. The basis for the process may be considered to be:
Of the three choices, one may disregard the chronological as lacking in purpose and overly restrictive. This writer eschews the term "past lives" in favor of "other lives".
The second choice may appear attractive at first glance; however, practical evidence would suggest otherwise. If one considers physical development or mental development, then one would expect that the species would be noticeably improved over time, regardless of the environmental factors, such as diet and selection. One may ponder the issue of "sexual improvement", as an Occam's Razor tactic, for who would care to argue whether maleness or femaleness is an improvement? If one considers the appearance of Christ to His disciples who did not recognize Him, one might ask if His reincarnated flesh or mind was improved. It would also ignore the meaning of the Christian doctrines, such as the underlying message of Pentecost, that is, a baptism of fire, rather than water. This then leaves the third alternative.
If one considers the spiritual development process in reincarnation, freed of the rejected notions of chronology or physical development, then one inherently accepts that any given spirit may progress through a series of incarnations. These are independent of chronology or physical conditions of the body or mind; however, they may be dependent upon the environments into which the spirit is incarnated.
If one considers scripture, then one may attempt to place the various clues found therein into the context of incarnations for spiritual improvement. As examples, one may consider the various spiritual Beings mentioned throughout the scripture, from the "elohims" of Genesis on to those who greeted the visitors to His tomb in the Gospel. The main gospel of eternal life inherently implies some form of sentient existence, which implies, at least in this writer's mind, some activity in the flesh, rather than only in the spirit.
This philosophy heavily implies that relationships are based on spiritual progress, rather than mundane factors such as family genetics or nationality. One may expect personal spiritual development as the main purpose, rather than reincarnating into higher levels of wealth, social status, or power in the popular sense.
For the sake of a "reality check", then, one might reasonably ask, "If so, then where or who are the reincarnations of well-known people?" This logically leads into the key question of the nature of that spirit that does the incarnating, commonly called the soul.
For the sake of brevity and the purpose of this paper, one may define the soul as the carrier of vital information, where "vital" connotes spiritual development. The question that then arises may be, "So why do persons apparently forget all that was learned in other lives and appear to start off with a blank memory?" Along with this question, one might also ask, "Given the many anecdotes regarding contacts with other lives, how is it that people seem to have some form of "universal interpreter" that translates from one language to another?" More fundamental than these two questions is that of the identity of the soul. If one uses the driver and vehicle analogy and postulates that the soul reincarnates into various mundane situations for spiritual progress, then what does one call the driver?
Another analogy is offered for clarification. If one considers the profession of acting, one may then imagine a concept where a primary person has a sub-personality or secondary role as a bread-winner who is employed as an actor. As an actor, the person may have various tertiary sub-personalities and acting roles.
As an example, consider the person of Archie Leach, who was employed as an actor named Cary Grant, who played various roles on screen. Cary Grant then "incarnated" when Archie was employed as an actor in various roles for the personal purpose of developing a repertoire. None of the character roles depended upon a sequence of time or physical or mental development; however, as Cary Grant developed his acting skills, so his performances improved. One may then define the secondary person as an OverSoul, that is, over the various character roles. The various character roles may have souls that may incarnate in various situations akin to a series. The notion of the actor analogy may be extended to include companies of actors who may incarnate as groups of individuals, sometimes referred to as "Soul Families". Behind the scenes, the company may provide support if the form of translating and other functions. On the other hand, one might try to imagine the confusion that would arise if Cary tried to use a script from one play in another play. This analogy gives a clue as to the answer to the question above regardingthe memories of other incarnations. One may then ask, "Well, if this is so, then what should I conceive as my own OverSoul's name?" The only meaningful response to such a question might be to simply ask the OverSoul.
Given these analogies, then one might imagine what the repertoire of spiritual development might be. One might conceive lesson plans based on understanding human nature and spiritual nature. The anecdotal lore suggests that simply fully understanding the meaning of simple human traits may be the mortar that holds the matrix together. The traits may manifest in subconscious urges, feelings of deja vu, or other non-verbal means that are universal in nature. Examples of traits may be in terms of human behaviors in situations, such as "verity", "humility", "sacrifice", and so on. In the general scheme of human behaviors, the tendency would be towards the commonly known virtues that culminate in altruism and the notion of the benefits to all concerned. These manifestations may be augmented and enhanced by various other ways, such as consciously seeking personal development or interacting with others. The old saw about walking a mile in the other person's shoes is directly applicable. When a person learns a trait, the way is then open for that person to guide others in the trait, acting as a Spiritual Guide for those who seek to advance along the path.
The issue of Spirit Guides is, in itself, part and parcel of the reincarnation philosophy, since it introduces the notion of levels of development. In short, one may conceive of a system wherein individuals develop spiritually and become Spirit guides. The writer would further express the notion that guiding, per se, may be accomplished in the mundane as well as the spiritual.
This then affords a view of the meaning and purpose of individual lives as situations that provide the spirit with a stage and role for learning traits for developing the personality. It also provides a logic that may help to partially explain the anecdotal experiences of reincarnation experients.
If one postulates that the purpose of life is learning traits, then one may conceive that, rather than experiencing a "past life", the experient makes contact with another life that helps the learning. Thus, any given person, such as John Smith, does not have any "past lives", but, rather, the incarnated OverSoul grows with learning. With a larger repertoire, any Soul may then enhance understanding of other persons and thereby give a richer meaning to his or her own life.
Ultimately, if John Smith were to experience contact with another person's life so as to subjectively feel as if he were the person, then the question arises," Did John Smith have a past life or does the other person have a future life as John Smith?". In either case, the meaning is lost. The actor analogy would illuminate the futility of the question. It is obvious that a character in any one story would have no relationship to a character in any other story. This point is emphasized so as to open the door to the notion that incarnations are a match between the needs of the soul for developing and the mundane temporal situations and conditions that exist. Thus, a soul may incarnate in any mundane temporal time sequence, including simultaneous incarnations.
The well-known work of the researchers at the University of Virginia detailed in CHILDREN WHO REMEMBER PAST LIVES describes data that may give some clues. This writer's analysis of the reported time between incarnations shows a marked tendency for them to occur twenty lunar months apart. One might deduce that ten months are used for leaving one life and another ten months is used for reincarnating. One might speculate that anecdotes involving revenants are rooted in the existence of the revenants in this period between incarnations.
One may reasonably expect that spiritual progress will result in greater affinity with the Holy Spirit and its works.
With the foregoing as a basis for defining "The Philosophy of Reincarnation", the main question is then re-addressed, that is, "Is this compatible with Christianity?". By exception, this writer finds no disagreement with the Gospels. Specific agreement with Gospel is inherently impossible, because of the extremely limited treatment of the subject.
The main message of the Gospel, that Christ overcame physical death and reappeared in the flesh on several occasions, is considered sufficient to make the case. Obviously, if one were to ignore the promise of eternal life, then the whole reason for His life is lost. If one goes beyond Gospel to determine whether or not reincarnation is compatible with Christianity in the broad sense of the history of the community of people who self-described themselves as Christian, then the scope of discussion expands almost infinitely. If one considers St. Paul's letter, then a philosopher might think of the matter in terms of space-time continua wherein the mundane is synchronized to a specific space-time and the spiritual is able to changed ("glorified") so as to be able to fit into various continua.