Many people wonder if reincarnation exists
It's a very common belief in all eastern religion such as Taoism, Hinduism and Buddhism.
But what if we told you that it was once found in Christianity
But was removed from the historical record?
So if this is true Why isn't it found today
And who removed it
When you look at the history and dig
You'll find almost every major spiritual practice believe in reincarnation
And if reincarnation is real
What is the purpose
All of this and more on today's episode of Edge of Wonder
Welcome to Edge of Wonder
I'm your host Ben,
And I'm Rob
the topic of reincarnation has been on everyone's mind
since from as far back as we have books to record it.
On this episode we will explain what reincarnation is, the purpose,
and what religions have to say about it.
A lot of religions and even people have their own interpretations.
Some say that their previous lives don't have anything to do with this life
and some say it has everything to do with this life.
Most understand it as the soul which goes through all sorts of transformations until
it reaches its final journey where it ascends ending the cycle reincarnation
and at its final resting place.
Also eastern faiths believe that karma is a huge factor.
That when you do good deeds or act under the will of heaven or the universe
you will be rewarded in your next life.
You could become a king, an actor, a wealthy person, or someone very successful.
If you did bad deeds or hurt people,
then it is said that in your next life
the people will hurt you, cause the same amount of pain to you,
or you may have to be their servant your whole life, or always work for them.
Also maybe you were in love with someone and that person died
and maybe you vowed you would be together in your next life
which some people would say I found my "soulmate."
Also it is possible that a group of people could reincarnate together,
such as maybe a family would reincarnate as best friends
or all start a company together, etc, etc
Or maybe someone died too soon
and wishes to come back to a very similar life
or even know the same people.
There are all kinds of reason and explanations which could explain reincarnation.
But a more wild thought is, maybe you did hurt someone
and now that person reincarnated into a family member who is now part of your family
and always seems to be giving you a hard time.
You never know!
It could be why
These are just some possible explains to explain why we would reincarnate,
If you wanna know how
Keep watching for the next section
when we get into it
And if you are really curious
the Ancient Greeks believed this too
Keep watching and we'll get into that as well.
Let's look at how religion talks about it
What do religions say
In Buddhism many of them believe in something called the Sixfold Path of Transmigration,
this means that one would reincarnate into a human in one life,
and in the next one you could be an animal,
or could be a plant
and in some cases maybe even a lower level being.
Or in my case, a rock …
that's why everyone always tells me I'm as dumb as a rock.
Actually though this is true.
Not that people call me that I'm as dumb as rock.
But it's that if you reincarnate into a rock,
you could be in there for thousands of years …
and this is why you should cherish having a human body.
This cycle goes on and on with the goal of obtaining spiritual enlightenment
breaking the cycle of reincarnation
and ascending to heaven your final destination.
Or on the other end if you are doing evil deeds in your lives,
your final resting place would be a hell like place
or you would continue the cycle of transmigration
This is why many eastern religions teach so much about having a good moral character
and being compassionate and truthful to others
so when you do reincarnate
you will have even a better life in your next one and have more enjoyment
… which eventually will lead you to where you can truly transcend this existence altogether.
Otherwise you might end up as a pig
and get eaten by the people you harmed in a previous life …
no really that's a thing.
But Chinese culture is filled with stories
such as people who were good people
but in their next life became wealthy
and then became greedy because of that wealth
and then in their next life they became poor, or vise versa.
There are many sayings in asian cultures such as if someone is well off
people say "oh that person must have done good deeds in his previous life
and if someone is very poor
then they say the opposite
which is where karma starts to really come into play.
Most eastern religions and beliefs have accepted reincarnation
as the fabric of their belief systems.
However in most Western beliefs such as Christianity and Judaism
these are not widely accepted at all.
Nowadays most Christians don't believe in reincarnation,
however one of the greatest saints Saint Augustine,
wrote a book on the free choice of the will
and brings up reincarnation that shouldn't be neglected.
Author Geddes MacGregor, who wrote, "Reincarnation in Christianity"
claimed that early Christians did believe in reincarnation
and that the Bible also talked about it.
Some of the examples he gives of reincarnation is when Moses is talking to his people
he doesn't say to them "your children,"
but instead address them as "YOU"
possibly indicating that it will be them who will see and hear the coming Messiah.
Now you could if you're not familiar with this concept,
brush this off as their spirits seeing the coming Messiah,
but look at some of these other examples.
So there are a few more,
such as there was a common Jewish belief at the time
was that Elijah would return to "restore all things" before the Messiah appeared.
Jesus makes some statements about John the Baptist in the Gospels
which could be understood as references to reincarnation.
One of these are in Matthew 11:14:
"If you are willing to accept it,
he [John] is Elijah who is to come."
The other is 'But I tell you that Elijah has already come,
and they [the Jews] did not know him,
but did to him whatever they pleased."
and there are a couple more references to John.
MacGregor states that a lot more about reincarnation was mentioned in the bible
and even directly talked about and explained.
He states that: "the human soul does not return to earth after death,
but is resurrected as an individual personality to face judgment…"
He goes on "Second, it has taught that God forgives
and extends mercy in the face of human sin and shortcomings.
There is no forgiveness and little, if any, mercy connected with the idea of reincarnation.
Each soul pays the inevitable price for its own failings and misdeeds,
in hundreds or thousands of existences."
this is his way of explaining it, however,
he states that all of it was deliberately suppressed by the Catholic Church.
Now we are all asking why would they ever do that?
Of course the answer comes with a lot controversy and debate on both sides
but according to some scholars such as Author Gary J. McDonald,
he suggested that "The church elders wanted the general populace to believe
that it was only through the church and its elders
could anyone communicate with God or ever hope to reach heaven.
This kept all power within the church
versus within the people themselves.
And since the elders were men,
this kept women at a subordinate level as well.
So guys that is a loaded quote but by eliminating reincarnation
they can maintain their power and control.
And way later we already know the catholic church was corrupt
during the time of Martin Luther
when he break away from this form
and he formed his own sect
which the belief is that the church was deviating from the true teachings of Christianity.
Please understand and keep in mind that this is not a slight to the Christian belief.
The Catholic church is not the teachings of that faith,
it's just the entity that organizes that faith for that group of people
and they're human beings.
It isn't that Christianity has deviated,
it is humans in the church who are using the church for their own agenda.
Human beings make mistakes.
Like Christianity, most Jewish people don't really believe too much in reincarnation.
Or at least, we thought
However, most will be surprised to find that some Jewish websites such as Chabad.org
actually says that "reincarnation - the "revolving" of souls through a succession of lives,
or "gilgulim" - is an integral part of Jewish belief."
It mentions that the Torah (and on the Talmud),
and a seminal figure in Jewish history,
hints several times that
reincarnation is the key to penetrating the deep mysteries involved in the mitzvah of yibum
the obligation of the brother of a childless, deceased man to marry the widow
Uh say what?
That was a mouthful and I'm not sure I got that…
Now since neither Ben or I have much background in the Jewish religion
Or the words he was just saying
it is hard for us to comment on this,
but according to World of Judaica
the afterlife in Judaism is irrelevant.
So, a lot of Jews can't accept death as a finality.
This brings up the topic of reincarnation.
There is no mention of heaven in the first five books of the Old Testament.
So, if heaven isn't even a part of the afterlife in their culture
So, the question is: What happens to the soul,
or is death final and there is nothing beyond death?
So, reincarnation for many Jews solves the problem.
The soul then returns to complete God's work.
Now in the Kabbalah which means "receive"
but most people think of it as an ancient Jewish Mysticism
from the time of ancient Babylon,
does talk about reincarnation and the tree of life.
However, it is said that to this day,
that very few know the true teachings of what Kabbalah really is.
Now there are a lot of ancient cultures talking about reincarnations,
such as the Mayans, Egyptians,
but one culture we want to focus on here is ancient Greece.
Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras,
born around the year 580 BC,
stated that the soul was immortal,
and after the death it could own another body,
and sometimes even an animal's body.
This is where the Greek word metempsychosis,
meaning transmigration, came about.
As far as we know,
this is the first time that reincarnation was mentioned in the West
at least in this time period.
Plato, who was born about a century later,
taught that the soul is born many times,
even for 10 thousand years,
and then it parts to a heavenly world.
Socrates, Plato's teacher, said on his deathbed
"I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living again,
and that the living spring from the dead."
So, how to stop reincarnation
Now depending on what you believe
this could be different for each person,
however, most people believe that doing good deeds and being kind
will lead to a very good situation in your next life.
However, to truly break the cycle,
most eastern religions talk about a term ... "cultivation."
Now there are many understandings of what cultivation is.
How Rob and I would describe it to you is that
Cultivation is a process of raising your level of selflessness—
your character, by way of a method of body, spirit and mind.
While bringing in energy from the universe into your body
and by following principles of the specific discipline that the teacher or master has
with the goal of reaching enlightenment.
Now most eastern religions believe that one lifetime is not nearly enough
to reach enlightenment
which is why they believe in reincarnation,
so that the soul will always carry with it
everything it learns in each lifetime
even though we may not remember everything specifically,
while in your own physical body.
However, this also creates a situation where the soul could do bad deeds
and thus make it harder and harder for it to practice cultivation
which would result in a very big loss
once the cycle has completed for that soul.
But why does reincarnation happen
So some of you might be thinking, ok
but I don't want to reincarnate anymore
why does it even happen
This is not an easy question to answer.
Also this could be different for every single person out there.
Maybe you choose to be here
Maybe you were asked
Maybe you were sent here
Maybe you made a commitment to someone, or many someones,
or maybe you needed or wanted to learn something
Or maybe you came here from somewhere else
and wanted here to see what it was like to be human
The point is there are endless possibilities
and it is better not to focus on why,
but instead ask what you are supposed to do now that you're here.
Like what are you supposed to learn
And I'm not talking about reading a school book.
I'm talking about learning spiritually.
Or who are you supposed to help
What are you supposed to do
What is it that you are truly looking for
Asking more questions to yourself
will help you figure out what it is that you are meant to do
So Rob what do you think about reincarnation
Reincarnation is definitely real in my opinion
There's too many weird things that
I've had Deja Vu in weird places too many times
And felt like I've been there
Not just like a "oh I just feel like I've been there"
I remember specific things
and it freaked me out
So for me I feel like reincarnation is absolutely a thing
And I think there is a really huge big reason
why we are all here
And for us to not believe those things
And not pay attention to especially people who have remembered their past lives
I think it's a shame right
We should learn those things
And we should know more about them
What do you think
I didn't believe in past lives at all
And it wasn't until I actually started seeing some of mine
A couple of them
That I was just like this is crazy
And I felt connected to it my whole life
One of them
I saw myself as this sailor and was on 3 ships or whatever
I didn't really think too much about it at the time
I was just okay
It was a long time ago
And I was a navigator and I was really good at mapping,
all the stars and everything
The funny thing is
If I were to explain the story about like 20 years ago
Everyone would be like oh this is great
But now I probably would be hated
But I really think I was Christopher Columbus' navigator
Oh really
As soon as I went online and saw his photo
That's what I knew right away that this was me
He looks exactly who I saw in my vision
Juan de la Cosa
Look at this photo of him
Looks just like Ben
So he was like a genius of the stars
That's what I saw
He actually created the first world map
And I've always obsessed with sailing and maps ever since I could remember
That of course there is this whole controversy with Christopher Columbus and everything
So I'm saying like whom I'm not hated
I don't…
I don't think I was Christopher Columbus
We could have reincarnated together in many lives
In which case maybe Christopher Columbus could be possible
For the record I don't think I was
That I believe fully
When you have a strong connection with somebody
It's most likely because you've had a lot of past lives
That's what I believe,
so we've must had a lot of past lives
Probably
Maybe you killed me in the past life
I was a ninja For sure
Anyway so what do you guys think of this episode on reincarnation
There's a lot of people who have really strong different beliefs all across the board
The purpose of this episode wasn't to offend anyone
or insult their specific religious belief at all
We just really wanted to dig in here
And find whether or not all of these different religions said the same thing
And what we've found was evidence that actually did
We just want you guys to know that
I mean like I said
I never believed in reincarnation until like I said I started seeing these
And there's a lot more
But I don't want to get into all the stories
Takes too long to tell
It would be a long episode if we starts talking about this
Guys, make sure to hit like and subscribe
And please hit those notification bells
And until next time
We'll see you out on the edge of Juan de la Cosa
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