Why then say the scribes that Elias must come first? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not. Then the disciples understood that He spake unto them of John the Baptist.
In Matthew 11:14-15, Jesus unequivocally states John the Baptist is the reincarnation of the prophet Elias:
Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Reincarnation is alluded to in John 9:34 in which the disciples ask Jesus why a man was born blind. The disciples asked, “Which did sin, this man or his parents?”
This passage implies the blind man had a previous incarnation where he had the opportunity to commit a sin whose karmic consequence would be blindness. Without reincarnation, how could the blind man commit a sin responsible for his handicap at birth? Jesus didn’t dispute the reasoning of the disciples, though he stated the blindness was so the “Grace of God” could be made manifest.
So why isn’t reincarnation taught or at least addressed in church?
To understand why, we must go back to ca. 250 A.D, when Origen, one of Christianity’s early theologians, wrote about the pre-existence of the soul and the concept of reincarnation. This was nothing new and/or heretical. His writings, based on early Christian Gospels (which numbered about 30 at the time along with hundreds of early parchments) merely elaborated upon the common, predominant Christian beliefs.
Father Origen taught the soul’s very source was God and the soul’s purpose was to become one with God through lessons learned in successive lives through what Origen termed the “transmigration of the soul.” He taught Christ came to show we could become like Him, and thus escape the cycle of birth and death as taught by other world religions.
While vehemently argued against by modern Christian apologists, it is clear Origen’s belief in pre-existence and the transmigration of the soul was common among many Christian sects, including the Gnostics. Sages who adhere to the doctrine of reincarnation included Simon Magus, known as the father of Gnosticism. His second century contemporary, Basilides of Alexandria, taught his followers that Gnosis (knowledge) was the climax of many lives of effort and taught that ‘men suffer from their deeds in former lives,’ indicating a Gnostic version of Karma. Theodotus, a follower of the Gnostic master Valentinus, taught that an element of Gnosis was understanding ‘what rebirth really is.’” 3
Reincarnation is revealed to the Apostle Paul, who in the Valentinian Apocalypse of Paul, takes a “mystical voyage through the heavenly realms. He witnesses a murderer punished by angels and who is then cast down to Earth to inhabit a new body.”4 Further, in the Secret Book of John, where “Jesus explains to the Apostle John that human souls are recycled by Jehovah, constantly thrown into ‘forgetfulness’ and ‘prisons’ (the physical body). When John asks him how a soul can become liberated from the Ouroboros, Jesus answers: ‘This soul needs to follow another soul in whom the Spirit of life dwells, because she is saved through the Spirit. Then she will never be thrust into flesh again.’”5
Beliefs in pre-existence and reincarnation persisted through Constantine’s attempts to unify the Christian church during the convening of the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. He was no theologian, nor did Constantine really care to any degree what basis would be used to forge the unity he desired. The purpose of the meeting was to resolve controversy within the Church over issues concerning the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) and “homoousios,” the concept that God the Son and God the Father were made of one substance. No decisions were made by the council regarding pre-existence or reincarnation during this third century convention.
Church Politics Rewrites Mainstream Christian Belief
Fast forward to the sixth century A.D.
The Emperor Justinian and Pope Vigilius disagreed on whether or not the teachings of Father Origen should be condemned as heresy. The Pope supported Origen’s teaching as consistent with the teachings of Jesus, the Messiah. Emperor Justinian wanted Origen’s works condemned and destroyed, but Pope Vigilius refused to sign a papal decree condemning the concept of pre-existence of the soul and Rebirth. There was a political reason why the Emperor was opposed. He reasoned, if only Christ had come from God, and God made brand new souls at the time of conception, then only the Holy Church could bring these souls to God. Justinian had the disobedient Pope arrested and sentenced to jail, but en route, Vigilius escaped, leaving Origen’s writings officially still uncondemned. 6
In 543 A.D., Justinian convoked the Fifth General Council of the Church, but with only six bishops of Vigilius’ Western Church attending, 159 bishops of the Eastern (Justinian-controlled) council produced 14 new anathemas against “heresy.” The very first one condemned the concept that souls pre-existed with God:
If anyone asserts the fabulous preexistence of souls, and shall assert the monstrous restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema.7
Their one-sided vote, ratified in 553 A.D., decided for all future Christian generations that pre-existence and reincarnation minimized Christian salvation. Additional anathemas stated that the “monstrous” theology was in conflict with the resurrection of the physical body (reanimation of dead bones on Judgment Day). The council invalidated the teaching because of ‘speculative use of Scripture’, finally ruling it out based simply on the idea that “we didn’t remember past lives.”8 Even though these events are historical facts, contemporary Christianity treats the “heretical” doctrine as though Jesus never taught it or that early Christians ever believed it.
While it is understandable in today’s evangelical environment to label everything not following standard Christian teaching as cultish, pagan, or of the Devil, I believe, despite historical evidence to the contrary, we should look both to science and testimonies of the Dead Saints to weigh in on the matter.
Tabula Rasa or Rebirth?
Western religions contend when a soul enters a human body it is a Tabula Rasa, (a “scraped tablet” in Latin, or as we call it a “clean slate.”) The assumption that we are at birth a tabula rasa is likewise an axiomatic problem of modern science.
However, there are glaring apparent exceptions to the tabula rasa assumption. Chief among them: The child prodigy. Chief among prodigies was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart whose life is well documented. He showed prodigious ability from earliest childhood. He was brilliant on keyboard and violin; he was composing from the age of five and performing before European royalty. There are thousands of such Mozart-like examples that seem otherwise inexplicable except as “memories” and special skills brought forward from another life into this life. And the examples proliferate thanks to the internet. Scarcely a week goes by without some new musical, sports or intellectual prodigy in the limelight. Even for us average humans, many of us, at some point in our lives, gravitate to fields of expertise and interests that cannot be explained by our education, social conditioning or genetics or any combination thereof. When it does occur, we know we have come “home.” Where did this love of and talent for music, art, science, math, or sports come from, if not from a previous life?
No matter if secular science dismisses and derides the notion, popular interest persists and even intensifies. The mainstream media, normally groveling before the secular directives of the day, grows rebellious when it is advised to ignore anything that smacks of the supernatural and the unscientific. This is especially true when popular interest is rampant, there is money to be made, ratings to be achieved, and while the unwelcomed evidence keeps on getting better and better, it reaches the point of unavoidability.
Children Who Remember Past Lives
In Life before Life by Jim B. Tucker, M.D., St. Martin’s Press, and Return to Life, Extraordinary Cases of Children who remember Past Lives, these two works present powerful evidence for
reincarnation. Case after verifiable case is presented in documenting the incontrovertibility of reincarnation as a fact of human existence.
Here is just one particular poignant story related by Dr. Tucker, the remarkable tale of 5-year-old Ryan, raised in a conventional Christian household.
Ryan’s mother, Cindi, grew up in a Baptist church. Her husband was the son of a Church of Christ minister. They had never been taught anything about reincarnation. Nothing was out of the ordinary in the family. Cindi was a county clerk deputy; her husband was a police officer.
When Ryan was four, he began talking to his mother about going to Hollywood. Often he would plead for Cindi to take him to see his “other” family home, and when she didn’t make the trip, he would cry. Ryan did other things that may have been recollections of a past life. She recalls when Ryan was playing, he would often shout “action!” and begin to direct imaginary movies. His parents didn’t take this play-acting very seriously, until he began having nightmares about an inability to breathe; he would grab his chest in sleep. Ryan told his mother when he was living in Hollywood, he felt his heart explode and then he died.
One night Ryan began to tell Cindi in detail what it was like to die. He described encountering an “awesome” bright Light—and related to her we will go to the Light when we die. He said “everyone comes back” and he knew Cindi before. He claimed he chose her to be his mother. Cindi picked up some old books about Hollywood, and showed them to Ryan. When they began to look through the books together, he saw the photograph of Rita Hayworth. He said he knew her and she used to make an iced drink called “Coke floats.”
Cindi came across another picture from a 1932 movie called Night after Night. Ryan got excited again and said, “Hey mama, that’s George. We did a picture together. And mama, that guy’s me. I found me.” The photograph was a picture of six men from the 1930’s and 1940’s, but Cindi couldn’t identify the man in the picture Ryan said was himself. Ryan subsequently identified other famous actors, including Marilyn Monroe, whom he called “The Mary lady.” He recalled a memory when he had been at a party and made a move to talk to her. He laughed and said, “One of the studio guys punched me in the eye” before he could reach her. Ryan said he liked being Ryan but he liked living in Hollywood too, living in a big house with a swimming pool outside, and making films.
Like some of the Dead Saint experiences discussed earlier in the chapter, Ryan also seemed to remember life before he was born. He described events during Cindi’s pregnancy he could never have known anything about. He said, “I saw it all from Heaven.” The family never identified who Ryan thought he was. He later began to forget about his previous life in Hollywood, which made him sad, but gradually he forgot the personality of his previous life experience, and became just Ryan.
Are Birthmarks Evidence of Previous Lives?
Dr. Tucker, following leads provided by earlier researchers, in Life before Life, researched children with large birthmarks who claimed to remember previous lives. He theorizes if the mind has lived before, part of its personality survives and can still enter the fetus to be reborn, transferring its memory into the fetus, affecting to some extent physical appearance, IQ, talents, memories and birthmarks. In his research, he discovered most previous life memories came to the surface between ages two and four.
Dr. Tucker worked with Dr. Ian Stevenson, who earlier theorized birthmarks were evidence of the mind carrying over traumatic memories of a major wound to the body. He documented cases where children remembered where the deadly instrument or weapon impacted their body in a previous life, which manifested on their bodies in this life in a skin lesion or birthmark where the trauma occurred. Dr. Stevenson noted, “The fatal wound does not always produce the most significant birthmark, so a factor other than the severity of the wound must be involved.”9 Presumably, the development of a birthmark involves the mental or emotional trauma surrounding the death in a previous existence. So why are not more people born with birthmarks provoked by previous-life emotional traumas?
Dr. Stevenson cites evidence of the power of the mind in Reincarnation and Biology. In his study of birthmark cases, he suggests it may be an effect similar to stigmata wounds exhibited by unusually devout individuals that correspond to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus, as described in the Bible or paintings. St. Francis of Assisi may have been the first recorded stigmatic, but since his time more than 350 cases have been documented.
Dr. Stevenson reports that stigmata cases were initially thought to be miracles. Yet they were often observed in individuals who could hardly be described as ‘saintly,’ even though in many cases they were reported to be engaged in intense religious practice. They have come to be regarded as psychosomatic in origin.”10 He concluded a believer’s mental image of Jesus’ wounds produced very specific changes to the skin to match their mental image.
This actually happened to David Berry, a good friend and teacher who taught with Paul Solomon. He recounted a class on Good Friday in 1979, where eight students developed stigmata marks, bleeding wounds Christ received during the Crucifixion. One of the classmates, Jane, a Catholic, prayed to experience Easter as our Lord experienced it and discovered the palms of her hands were bleeding. The rest of the class who saw her wounds, all woke up on Easter Sunday with swollen, non-bleeding scabs on their palms. Some were very painful and lasted several days before disappearing. Berry was shocked. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before.
Carmel’s NDE cites this psychosomatic phenomenon: our physical body (our DNA) records past and present thoughts:
I became extremely aware the body is completely a recording system for memories and events from not only this life, but past lives where there is unfinished business.11
There are literally dozens of references to reincarnation that could be lifted from the pages of my near-death research. Several Dead Saints remember Jesus explaining the concept of reincarnation to them during their NDE. Cathleen, John and Cara’s NDE recollections are typical.
Cathleen walked with Jesus during her NDE, and asked him several pointed questions about whether we live one life or many:
He (Jesus) asked me if I was now aware that I was dead.
I said, ‘Well, yes. I guess I know I’m dead.’
I asked Him, ‘Please tell me.’
He took me to the entrance of a hall. We stood and looked down this long hall and there were millions and millions of doorways leading off this hall. He made me aware there were many choices available to me and that that choice was the very answer to the question I had asked. The choice was up to ME. He made me understand I could choose to stay where I was, I could choose to walk down the hall and pick a door. He made me aware picking a door would be my exit out of Heaven and I would be born again out of the womb of some woman somewhere on Earth.
I asked Him, ‘But how do I know what door to pick?’
His reply was merely that the door I picked is my choice. He could not reveal what that life would be like. It would be a mystery.
I asked Him, ‘Do we HAVE to pick another door and live over and over?’ That in itself would be Hell to me because what I had experienced, in large part, was very sad and distressful. He told me some people choose to go back again and again. He doesn’t want them to. He wants them to stay with Him, but He understands my feelings. He explained when we choose to leave Him He removes all memories of previous lives because He doesn’t want us distressed.
He means for life to be a good thing for all of us. He then reiterated all my choices and again infused me with His love.
He then asked, ‘Now, why would you want to leave me?’ I don’t remember responding.
He asked, ‘Now, how do you feel about being dead?’
I said, ‘It really didn’t bother me that much, but my only regret was I hadn’t had the chance to say good-bye to my parents.’
The very next thing I became aware of, amazingl
y, remarkably, astoundingly, was that once again, I was in my old body without realizing I had made my choice.12
John’s NDE occurred in 1994 when he was 18. His health troubles began when a lung collapsed and he was hospitalized. The doctors could find no apparent reason for the event other than he had a history of cold infections and asthma. About a month later, during sleep, he was dreaming he was on top of a cliff and fell. The moment he landed, he felt he had stopped breathing. That is when he realized, he had died and his NDE began. He discovered he had lived as a well-known musician:
I asked, ‘Am I dead?’
I didn’t even question if it was Jesus because I just knew it was Him. I felt peace and love in the presence of the Light shape of Him.
I asked Him at that point, ‘My name isn’t Jim. Why was I called that?’
And Jesus replied, ‘A mistake was made and it isn’t my time.’
In that second or for that second I assumed they had called the wrong person up, but then something compelled me to ask, ‘Is there reincarnation? And if so, was I reincarnated and who was I?’
Jesus responded to me, ‘That there is and I was reincarnated, but that’s not what’s important.’
I then asked if I was an [undisclosed famous musician]?
[While it is] something I perceive of as weird now, because, I had very little knowledge of Him before the NDE. Looking back now, it seemed like the thoughts were put in my conscience to ask Jesus, so He could respond.
He responded, ‘Yes, but it wasn’t important, because reincarnation isn’t as we perceive it.13
Cara’s NDE is interesting, not only because she realizes she has reincarnated several times, but that she didn’t believe or disbelieve in reincarnation. Like many other Dead Saints, Cara sees our planet as a school:
There were no limitations such as space or time in the spirit world. I was aware of the big picture regarding the past, present and future. I was aware the Earth School experience was one part of my evolution.
The Dead Saints Chronicles: A Zen Journey Through the Christian Afterlife Page 37
