reincarnation, where did it come from?,is reinarnation true. (i do belive in reincarnation) but would like to know where it came from, everything has to come from something.


i have not really thought of this question long enough so i would like to hear your opinion first, thanks.

Reincarnation has been around practically as long as when mankind first thought/suspected the possibility.

It seems to have been a belief/consideration around the globe for thousands of years.

This might interest you from wiki (which isn't the best source- but I give it a B-C grade)>>I'm surprised by what I read here

Scientific research

Main article: Reincarnation research

Thomas Huxley, the famous English biologist, thought that reincarnation was a plausible idea and discussed it in his book Evolution and Ethics and other Essays. The most detailed collections of personal reports in favor of reincarnation have been published by Professor Ian Stevenson, from the University of Virginia, in books such as Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation.

Stevenson spent over 40 years devoted to the study of children who have apparently spoken about a past life. In each case, Professor Stevenson methodically documented the child's statements. Then he identified the deceased person the child allegedly identified with, and verified the facts of the deceased person's life that matched the child's memory. He also matched birthmarks and birth defects to wounds and scars on the deceased, verified by medical records such as autopsy photographs.[41][42]

In a fairly typical case, a boy in Beirut spoke of being a 25-year-old mechanic, thrown to his death from a speeding car on a beach road. According to multiple witnesses, the boy provided the name of the driver, the exact location of the crash, the names of the mechanic's sisters and parents and cousins, and the people he went hunting with -- all of which turned out to match the life of a man who had died several years before the boy was born, and who had no apparent connection to the boy's family.[43]

Stevenson believed that his strict methods ruled out all possible "normal" explanations for the child’s memories. However, it should be noted that a significant majority of Professor Stevenson's reported cases of reincarnation originate in Eastern societies, where dominant religions often permit the concept of reincarnation. Following this type of criticism, Stevenson published a book on European cases suggestive of reincarnation.[44]

There are many people who have investigated reincarnation and come to the conclusion that it is a legitimate phenomenon, such as Peter Ramster, Dr. Brian Weiss, Dr. Walter Semkiw, and others, but their work is generally ignored by the scientific community. Professor Stevenson, in contrast, published dozens of papers in peer-reviewed journals.[45]

Some skeptics, such as Paul Edwards, have analyzed many of these accounts, and called them anecdotal.[46] Philosophers like Robert Almeder, having analyzed the criticisms of Edwards and others, suggest that the gist of these arguments can be summarized as "we all know it can't possibly be real, so therefore it isn't real" - an argument from lack of imagination.[47]

The most obvious objection to reincarnation is that there is no evidence of a physical process by which a personality could survive death and travel to another body, and researchers such as Professor Stevenson recognize this limitation.[48]

Another fundamental objection is that most people simply do not remember previous lives, although it could be argued that only some, but not all, people reincarnate. Certainly the vast majority of cases investigated at the University of Virginia involved people who had met some sort of violent or untimely death.[49]

Some skeptics explain that claims of evidence for reincarnation originate from selective thinking and the psychological phenomena of false memories that often result from one's own belief system and basic fears, and thus cannot be counted as empirical evidence. But other skeptics, such as Dr Carl Sagan, see the need for more reincarnation research.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation

I think it all boils down to man's reluctance to accept that death is final .The thought horrifies him,so he invents all manner of things to make himself feel secure in the knowledge, that this is not all there is .Personally I can't see that reincarnation offers anything if you can't remember past lives


fullywired

Would you truly wish to remember all of them, what you had done, been, not done, not been.....

You may even find that something you had done would be unbearable if you remembered, perhaps it is a blessing things are not remembered.

What I mean is ,if you have no recollection of who you were ,then it is just the same as being dead .The person you were is gone ,nothing remains of your former self .So in my view there is nothing to be gained fron reincarnation


fullywired

i think what your asking is where and who thought of the idea, i know the ansewer. the idea of reincarnation came form hindu priest in india a long time ago (i don't know exactly when). they noticed how the trees and plants died in the winter only to return agian in the summer. they thought this must be true for every living thing, they die only to return agian at some time.