The theory or idea of reincarnation is a key belief of various peoples’ spiritual beliefs/practices, perhaps influencing the most people through its being a fundamental part of the Hindu religion. Reincarnation, the idea that our spirits have existed and continue to exist in various forms and/or bodies (i.e., incarnations) in the past, present and future, can help explain many phenomena of human experience. Indeed, when the Reincarnation theory/idea is combined with the theories/ideas of Karma and String Theory (to be discussed a bit later), persuasive support is created for the existence of supernatural and paranormal activity. Now that science has pursued some study of the supernatural/paranormal and is close to being able to possibly proving the existence of multiple dimensions (again, more later and elsewhere in this discussion) we are probably on the verge of the ability to definitively prove and demonstrate paranormal/supernatural activity.
O.K., so what about reincarnation? If one has lived multiple past lives it becomes logical that a person, or soul, can be born with extraordinary talents or skills that just “appear” one day. It has been common throughout history to find people who have musical, artistic, scientific and other aptitudes that they were not taught but rather seem to have “arrived” (i.e., were born) with. Why does a child show the talents of a Mozart, the aptitudes of Leonardo DaVinci or the unusual skills of Edgar Cayce? Extraordinary talents and high levels of proficiency are not easily explained by genetic or evolutionary processes. Additionally, it is common for people to feel a strong sense of familiarity with certain places, people, situations, time periods in history, other cultures etc. If we are
“cycling” through reincarnations then it makes sense that we can encounter, and learn from, people, places and multiple experiences and gather this “database” of knowledge and experience and “collectively” use it at some point.
Psychics and spiritual leaders such as Sylvia Brown, Edgar Cayce and Parmahansa Yogananda describe reincarnation as a path to spiritual awakening and eventual fulfillment. It has been alleged that the Bible originally contained many references to reincarnation but early church leaders who edited Bible content removed them to provide church followers with a greater sense of urgency concerning one’s salvation. If a person believed they lived an “infinite” number of lifetimes they might be inclined to slack off on their religious practices and progress.
Reincarnation is like a wheel turning around and around taking us on a spiritual journey. Whether a person (or spirit) progresses or digresses depends upon their actions in each lifetime. Here we must introduce another concept which is intimately connected to reincarnation and which we are about to discuss further: karma. Karma is an integral part of the belief system of eastern religion/spiritualism, particularly the Hindu religion. While we will give the reader an overview of how reincarnation and karma work and how this relates to supernatural occurrences, it should be noted that these are part of belief systems and practices which are personal in nature and each person makes during and/or after they have found the spiritual path and practice which is best for them.
So, what is karma? If reincarnation is a wheel that turns round and around, then karma would be a way of determining the wheel’s direction. Karma is often looked at as a “payback system” i.e., “what you do to others will be done unto you” but there is more to it than that. Most simply put, however, karma is the reaction one gets from one’s actions. It is a form of cosmic justice, which does not deal with god and bad, but rather, is simple action/reaction. As one’s actions generate karmic reaction a person accumulates momentum to progress either forward or backward in their spiritual progress. Karma, while most often connected to eastern religion/philosophies, can also be found in the Bible. Christian churches and traditions interpret the Bible in ways, which often use out-of-context quotations to justify certain actions and/or goals. For example, “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” can easily be interpreted as referring to karma. Since it doesn’t refer to who plucks out the eye or pulls the tooth it seems to simply say how justice works rather than to be justifying punishment or revenge as popular interpretation might have it.
When one life is over and another is ahead, i.e., reincarnation is in progress, where that life will begin in terms of talents, abilities, status etc. will be greatly influenced by karma. Karma will not only dictate the starting place o one’s life it also has major influence over ongoing life experience. Free will also contributes greatly in determining life-direction. According to Edgar Cayce and others free will an influence, direct and even, at times, override karma. O.K., so how does this relate to the supernatural? We’re getting there…
If a person reincarnates and there is an after-life existence, then whatever it is that makes up the essence of that person, often called the soul, must go somewhere to continue its existence and await its karmic direction. Science and belief converge here and, while science cannot yet conclusively prove the existence of an afterlife, it is getting closer and closer through such fields of study as quantum mechanics and, particularly string theory, to demonstrating the clear plausibility that there are places where a soul or spirit can be found. By various experimental and technological methods we may be able to show clear evidence of this.
So we may have located our departed relatives and friends out there in the “spirit world” awaiting reincarnation and their karmic fate(s), but how might it be that we see or experience their presence in our space and time? Why are some of them so bothersome in particular, like, for example, that weird kid down the street who always used to leap in front of moving vehicles until the day he ended up underneath a large truck, and who now is seen wandering in the street on the night of the anniversary of his demise, frightening his former neighbors? A good scientific explanation may be had through science proving the existence of other, possibly multiple, dimensions. This exciting possibility may come about through further exploration and experimentation in the fields of Quantum Mechanics and String Theory, which have become popular in the study of physics. So, let’s take a look at these…
This discussion is only intended to give the reader an idea of how physics’ study of Quantum Mechanics and String Theory may help prove the existence of supernatural phenomena, life after death etc. These ideas/theories can be confusing and quite involved, but we will make it quite simple and basic for our purposes.
Quantum Mechanics was devised as a means to explain the very small world at the subatomic level (i.e., the world of that which is smaller than an atom). Einstein’s theory of relativity and other explanations of electromagnetism, gravity and related large-scale properties of the universe did not cover behaviors of the subatomic level. While Quantum Mechanics (theory) is complex and has many fascinating things to say about life in the tiniest world, for purposes of relating to supernatural events probably the most interesting is that most anything should be possible and can happen given the right conditions and/or time. For example, if a person pushes against a wall long enough, conditions will eventually exist whereupon that person will physically pass through that wall! A “catch” to this (if that’s how one sees it) is that it may take nearly an eternity for the right conditions to come about, so one might have to have patience. Nonetheless, in the quantum world about anything can happen anytime! Materials can change form, disappear, pass through apparent solid matter and other stuff, which can chill and thrill!
String Theory may be the theory that overrides Quantum Theory (Mechanics) and both explains and unifies the world of the subatomic with the larger world of gravity, electromagnetism et. al. String Theory proposes that the universe is built up of extremely tiny strings which vibrate in ways which dictate composition and behaviors of things in our universe (as well as possibly others). By all calculations, String Theory requires multiple dimensions to function in the way it has been proposed. There is debate about how many dimensions but the consensus seems to favor ten or eleven. What’s exciting is that, through experiments to be conducted at the soon-to-operate CERN particle accelerator, the existence of these dimensions may be evidenced if scientists are fortunate enough to find a particle or particles named Kaluza-Klein particles. The discovery of Kaluza-Klein particles could open the door to the proving of there being other dimensions and maybe universes! Plenty of “space” for supernatural events and entities!