Born Once, Born Twice

“My life often seemed to me like a story that has no beginning and no end. I had the feeling that I was a 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.” – Carl Jung Reincarnation.

How can we be sure it exists? Of course, one could say we can never know anything for sure. But, why would this notion of living multiple lives be so surprising to the Western world?

“It is not more surprising to be born twice than once” (Voltaire). 

Answers are available to us. All we need to do is step back and observe them through the eyes in which all truths can be explored: Nature, Science, Religion and Experience.Evidence of the cyclical nature of our human lives can be found in all four of these aforementioned domains if we take a moment to explore and acknowledge it. Nature is an endless cycle of creation and destruction. Look at the life of a simple drop of rainwater. When a raindrop hits the top of a mountain, it trickles down, eventually forming a stream, and then a river, and then flowing into the ocean until one hot sunny day when it evaporates. But, its life is not over. It does not simply disappear. It will condense to form a raincloud and once enough condensation has collected, it will fall back to Earth to be recycled. Water is not destroyed nor created anew. In fact, watch the progression of any plant or creature to see what is given is taken back and then given life once more – giving rise to the term ‘the circle of life’.

In science, the law of conservation says that energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but only transfers from one form to another (The First Rule of Thermodynamics). Einstein’s theory of special relativity (E=mc2) asserts an energy mass equivalence. We are made up of atoms which are mass; therefore, simply – we are a form of energy. So if we are energy, this means we can be neither created nor destroyed. However, every minute on this planet someone is born and someone dies. Where does the energy for our consciousness come from and where does it go? I refer back to the first law – energy only changes forms. So even though we die we are not dead, and even though we are born we are not created – we are just changing forms and recreating ourselves, in a continual motion of shifting energies.

Do you still think that there is more to us than just rules that govern nature or science? Look to God, the universal intelligence. What is the central teaching of every religious scripture? What is the pathway to understanding God and the universe? “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (Bible, John 4:7-8). Although this is a Christian quote, all religious texts point to the same answer – Love. God created humans due to his love for them (Bahá’u’lláh father of the Bahá’í faith). Our bodies, our world, our universe are examples of extreme perfection and dedication of this love. How could God create all this with infinite time and space only to give us a short finite lifetime to experience it? That would not be love, nor does that allow perfection. And, this idea of perfection is why we continue to come back life after life. It is through experiencing that we learn how to improve and see ourselves through the eyes of God. Each lifetime we come closer and closer to reaching this. “The souls must re-enter the absolute substance whence they have emerged. But to accomplish this, they must develop all the perfections, the germ of which is planted in them; and if they have not fulfilled this condition during one life, they must commence another, a third, and so forth, until they have acquired the condition which fits them for reunion with God” (Zohar, Kabbalistic text). We return to learn and love until one day we reach perfection and God itself.

Finally, draw your attention inwards. “We all have some experience of that feeling, that comes over us occasionally, of what we are saying and doing having been said and done before, in a remote time – of our having been surrounded, dim ages ago, by the same faces, objects, and circumstances” (Charles Dickens). Dickens is describing that mysterious feeling of deja-vu. Have you ever met someone for the first time and felt this unexplainable knowing and comfort? You were inexplicably drawn to them becoming instant friends or lovers. Or have you met someone for the first time and felt oddly uncomfortable and scared for no apparent reason? Dr. Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia compiled over 1200 research cases of children who claimed to have recalled details of their past lives. His meticulous research presented evidence that such children had unusual abilities, illnesses, phobias and philias which could not be explained by the environment or heredity and instead required reference to past life experiences. Looking at our own emotional experiences, we may begin to feel that there are more dimensions to us than what there appears to be.

In conclusion, the support for reincarnation is everywhere – in science, in nature, in religious scriptures and even in our own human experiences. But, have you still not been convinced? That’s okay. For now, just live with the desire to live again – for this is a freeing and empowering belief that changes your perception of life for the better. A belief in which no good deed is ever wasted, no one is ever really gone forever and no mistakes are ever really made which cannot be corrected. A belief wherein only loving truly matters and the bad is but a fleeting memory, bringing sense to an otherwise senseless world. It is a chance to start anew.

Reiki Grandmaster Jess Neat