Death is a mystery; no one knows what will happen. Some people claim they see a white light as they die (Cuskelly par.4), but is it a sign that they are going to heaven? Or is it them being born again? While there isn't a definite answer for this; some people try to answer these questions,  just as others don’t need an answer to believe, because beliefs are just that: things people feel are true, but they can’t prove. People have different ideas about what happens after you die and reincarnation is one of the many theories.  There are inconsistencies about the differences between reincarnation and rebirth.  Reincarnation is the belief that the soul lives on after death in different bodies (Reincarnation), and rebirth is the belief that someone is born again, but rebirth does not support the theory that the soul lives on (Rebirth). But why would someone believe in reincarnation? Why believe in something that can’t be totally proven? Where did such belief come from?

History of the Belief
          One of the first people to explore the concept of reincarnation were the Egyptians. About 5,000 years ago, one of the first pyramids ever to be built was dedicated to King Djoser. Inside, on its walls, some spells and prayers were written – these would help King Djoser go through his journey of reincarnation (Beyond Death). Every single night,  “at nightfall Unas’ soul would reanimate his modified journey and make a treacherous journey, he would cross a lake of fire passing through gates guarded by demons and snakes” (Beyond Death 00:13:22).  If he did not have his sacred spells, he would not have been able to go through, and he would have been attacked and even eaten by the snakes. With the spells, “he could arrive and sit with the eternal gods in the starry heavens” (Beyond Death 00:13:47); legends say this was done by him everyday, and because of the journey he went through every night, the sun rose in the morning. Not everyone believes in reincarnation, but there are two specific religions do: Hinduism and Sikhism.

Religious Beliefs
          Hinduism believes in the soul living on and being reborn into one of three living entities: human, animal or plant. During one's life, good or bad karma is accumulated (USHistory), and that determines what form they will take on; “live a good life and death gets you a new body with the chance for an even better life” (Beyond Death 00:30:20). Hindus try to follow dharma which is the path to good karma. There are many things hindus do that affect their karma, for example: doing good deeds, thinking highly of the social classes or castes above their own, marrying inside of their own social class, and even eating meat affects their karma. Even though Hindus believe in the cycle of reincarnation, also called samsara, they place emphasis on escaping it with the use of the ultimate enlightenment, moksha, which is not achievable until after living many lifetimes. With the use of moksha they can arrive to their final destination, Nirvana, where Hindus reunite with their God (Beyond Death).  Moreover, Hinduism isn’t the only religion which follows this belief. Sikhism is not a very well known religion, but it is one of the only religions apart from Hinduism that believes in reincarnation; however, just like Hindus, Sikhs seek to escape it.  In order to escape the cycle, Sikhs are encouraged to pray.  300 years ago, when the last Sikh guru, Gobind Singh, was alive, people believed that inside him was the soul of all the past gurus, because according to their beliefs,  all the gurus had the same soul(Encyclopaedia). While the concept of rebirth in prominent in these religions,  they aren’t the only ones that believe in reincarnation.

Case Studies
          According to studies, children sometimes start to remember past lives between the ages of two to four, and memory of a past life will probably disappear, leaving the child with no memory of that around the ages of five to seven; however, there are some rare cases where children do not forget (Stevenson). There are many cases of people who have prophetic dreams, which are dreams where the person sees a pregnant lady who tells them that he or she will be reborn to her (Stevenson). Dr. Ian Stevenson’s study suggests that “about 35% of children who claim to remember previous lives have birthmarks and/or birth defects that they (or adult informants) attribute to wounds on a person whose life the child remembers” (Stevenson par 17), meaning the birth marks that someone is born with may connect to the way the person died on his or her past life. Dr.  Stevenson also connected reincarnation to people desiring sex changes because “former girls who were reborn as boys may wish to dress as girls or prefer to play with girls rather than boys” (Stevenson par 14). The kids who were girls in their past life may still be accustomed of being a girl and doing girl things, so they may want to stay the same way in their next life. Reincarnation was not only said to be connected to transgendered behaviour, but also to phobias that people develop in their lives.  “In 35% of cases [Dr. Stevenson] investigated, children who died an unnatural death developed phobias. For example, if they had drowned in a past life then they frequently developed a phobia about going out of their depth in water” (Stevenson par 12). A man in India began to say how as a child he “remembered the life of a man Maharam, who was killed with a shotgun fired at close range” (Stevenson par 33). This child was born with marks on his chest that resembled a healed wound. After looking into the autopsy of Maharam, it was confirmed that they had the same marks (Stevenson). There are many other cases that Stevenson looked into, for example,  a Turkish boy was born with a distorted and diminished ear on the right side of his face undeveloped due to a condition called hemifacial microsomia. This turkish boy said he remembered the life of a man who was shot and taken to the hospital where he died 6 days later. Dr. Stevenson investigated more about this case and checked the hospital reports where he found the man who the kid claimed was shot which caused injuries in his brain because the bullet had penetrated the right side of his skull (Stevenson). The cases of children remembering their past lives aren't just of birth marks or birth deformities, it can also be the child showing intense interest or knowledge in something.

          There is a case of a boy named James who loved airplanes and knew everything about them, especially World War II planes.  He then began to have nightmares where he would say, “airplane crash on fire, little boy can’t get out” (ABC). James later began to remember the life of a World War II pilot which coincidentally was named James who died in a plane crash – he even knew that he flew a corsair and he mentioned something about a Natoma boat where he would usually land his plane. James's father did not believe him at first, but after hearing the detailed stories coming from his child, he decided to do some research. After some investigation James's father found that the pilot did exist, he in fact flew a corsair and he served above the Natoma bay. James did not only know about planes, but he also knew the faces and the names of all of James,the pilot’s friends (ABC). Reincarnation is a suspicious topic due to the fact that it might not be happening to many people, but that doesn’t stop some people from having hope that there is such a thing.

Why believe?
          Reincarnation is not exactly a conspiracy theory, but it is very similar due to the fact that it is something that people believe in and have many different approaches to. People try to explain them or even prove them but it is nearly impossible to actually acquire evidence. People who believe in conspiracy theories are sometimes obsessed with being unique; they feel like they know something or they have access to something that not everyone does, and “the conspiracy theory offers the chance of hidden, important, and immediate knowledge, so that the believer can become an expert, possessed of a knowledge not held even by the so-called experts” (Hogenboom par 13). People don’t like the idea that something bad can happen very unexpectedly, and that they can’t control or explain it, so they create conspiracy theories (Hogenboom). In a way, people who believe are mostly afraid of death, so they create beliefs to protect themselves from fearing the inevitable (Life and Death). “Conspiracy theories help people make sense of the world when they feel out of control, are anxious or feel powerless if their needs are threatened” (Hogenboom par 14) In other words, it makes people think or feel like they have more control than they actually do. In life, it may stress some people out when their knowledge of a topic is restrained, and that is because people are “literally addicted to answers” (Hogenboom par 14) , they can’t deal knowing that they can’t get the answer to something, so they create their own answers to ease themselves from knowing that they won’t be able to know the truth.

          Reincarnation is a very controversial topic because some people believe in it, but most people don’t. There are many stories of people who claim they were reincarnated which created doubt in people. At the end, the most influential thing is religion. Religion influences the lives of most,whether it is Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism or any other religion.  Overall, people believe in reincarnation because they are influenced by personal stories, religion, studies conducted and because everyone has the necessity to know everything and they can’t deal with not knowing something, therefore they create theories. The fact that there are such open topics in the world that will probably never be closed or resolved make many people crazy and desperate to find any answer.

Citations:

ABC Primetime. YouTube.NetHoler 10 July 2011.

“Beyond Death” The story of God with Morgan Freeman, season 1 , episode 1, 13.Apr. 2016. Netflix.

Cuskelly, Claudia. “PROOF of Afterlife? Doctors Unlock MYSTERY of the Tunnel of Light You See When You Die.” Express.co.uk, Express, 26 Mar. 2017.

Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Overview: The Religion of Sikhism.” Newsela | Primary Sources: Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Newsela, 20 Sept. 2017.

Hogenboom, Melissa. “Future - The Enduring Appeal of Conspiracy Theories.” BBC News, BBC, 24 Jan. 2018.

“Life and Death: On Fearing the Unknown • MindPodNetwork.” MindPod Network, 28 June 2015.

“Reincarnation | Definition of Reincarnation in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries.

“Rebirth | Definition of Rebirth in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries.

Stevenson, Ian. “Dr. Ian Stevenson's Reincarnation Research.” Near-Death.

USHistory. “ The Rise of Hinduism.” Newsela | Primary Sources: Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Newsela, 27 July 2017.