Questions: Is Reincarnation True?

I was emailed a while back concerning the topic of reincarnation. The questioner raised an issue that reincarnation as a theory has been shown to be consistent with modern psychological and scientific research. In order to tackle the question I have compiled and written the answer below.

What is reincarnation?

Reincarnation, literally "to be made flesh again", is a doctrine or metaphysical belief that some essential part of a living being survives death to be reborn in a new body. This essential part is often referred to as the spirit or soul, the "higher" or "true" self, "divine spark", or "I". According to such beliefs, a new personality is developed during each life in the physical world, but some part of the self remains constant throughout the successive lives.

The Psychological and Scientific Research

The most detailed collections of personal reports in favour of reincarnation have been published by Professor Ian Stevenson, from the University of Virginia, in books such as Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation and "Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects Volume 1: Birthmarks" and "Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects Volume 2: Birth Defects and Other Anomalies".

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.

Is reincarnation true?

The studies on reincarnation presuppose their very results. What I mean by this is that evidence is sought to prove reincarnation. In order to have an objective approach the evidences must be viewed in light of possible explanations, reincarnation being one of them.

I am going to use the following claims and discuss which are the most comprehensive:

1) Reincarnation is true due to sufficient evidence
2) Reincarnation is not true due to not enough evidence
3) Reincarnation is not true due to irreconcilable stronger evidence

First Point: On the first point one can make a claim that reincarnation is true by superimposing the theory on the evidence. However, it does not eliminate other explanations because the evidence is not consistent as can been seen below.

Second Point: The second point is a strong claim, as many philosophers such as Paul Edwards call reincarnation evidence 'anecdotal'. The most obvious objection to reincarnation is that there is no evidence of a physical process by which a soul or personality could survive death and travel to another body, and researchers such as Professor Stevenson recognize this limitation.

Additionally, some sceptics 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 sceptics, such as Dr Carl Sagan, see the need for more reincarnation research.

The strongest argument to indicate that there is not enough evidence for reincarnation is that the evidence is inconsistent. There may be many cases of children or adults that have successful recalls of 'past lives' but there are also many unsuccessful recalls of 'past lives'. So reincarnation cannot comprehensively answer the evidence of people recalling information and events about other people. Ian Wilson, another important researcher of past life recall, describes several such cases in his book Reincarnation. One of them refers to a person who lived during the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses III. Instead of indicating the name No for the capital city, he used the name Thebes, given by the Greeks much later. Moreover, a true ancient Egyptian could not have known the pharaoh’s name by a number, as the numbering of pharaohs was adopted by Victorian Egyptologists during the 19th century. Another fault was mentioning the use of the sestertius coin, which was introduced by the Romans a thousand years later.

The most famous false past life recall was Bridey Murphy. Bridey Murphy was a 19th century woman from Cork, Ireland, who began speaking through Virginia Tighe in Pueblo, Colorado, in 1952 when Morey Bernstein, a local businessman and amateur hypnotist, hypnotized her. Bernstein encouraged past life recall of his subject and she cooperated by speaking in an Irish brogue and claiming to be a 19th century woman in Ireland. Bernstein hypnotized Tighe many times after that. While under hypnosis, she sang Irish songs and told Irish stories, always as Bridey Murphy. Bernstein's book, The Search for Bridey Murphy, became a best-seller. (Tighe is called Ruth Simmons in the book.) Recordings of the hypnotic sessions were made and translated into more than a dozen languages.

Newspapers sent reporters to Ireland to investigate. Was there a red-headed Bridey Murphy who lived in Ireland in the nineteenth century? Who knows, but one paper--the Chicago American--found one in Wisconsin in the 20th century. Bridie Murphey Corkell lived in the house across the street from where Virginia Tighe grew up. What Virginia reported while hypnotized were not memories of a previous life but memories from her early childhood. Many people were impressed with the details of Tighe's hypnotic memories, but the details were not evidence of past life recall reincarnation. They were evidence of a vivid imagination or a confused memory.

Therefore reincarnation cannot provide an adequate explanation for all the evidence. It is inconsistent as recalling ‘past lives’ is not explained by the reincarnation theory, as people genuinely recall ‘past lives’ that are not true, false or imaginations.

A theory must be discarded if it fails to comprehensively account for the evidence.

Thrid Point: For me this is the strongest argument. As a Muslim, I believe in God and in the miracle of the Qur'an. This belief has strong intellectual foundations (please see www.theinimitablequran and http://www.time4truth.com/isthisrational.htm). So, if the Qur'anic teachings and philosophies can not be reconciled with the speculative reincarnation evidences, which one should I take? Obviously the strongest argument, which is intellectual foundations of Islam - conviction in the existence of a Creator and the miracle of the Qur'an.

The point here is philosophical. If the knowledge claims of the Qur'an are true due to their divine source, this knowledge is ilm ul-qati (definite knowledge) whereas the reincarnation evidences (as shown by points 1 and 2) are ilm ul-dhun (speculative knowledge). So what would you take? The definite or the speculative. Any wise man would take the definite.

Additionally Islamic theology can explain some of these evidences via the concept of the jinn. It is unnecessary to discuss this point, but I just want to highlight that there can be Islamic theological explanations.

Summary

1) Reincarnation is true due to sufficient evidence: This claim is false as there is not enough evidence. And the reincarnation theory does not comprehensively answer all the evidence which includes genuine false past life recall.
2) Reincarnation is not true due to not enough evidence: There is not enough evidence to conclusively prove reincarnation. Selective evidences seem to justify the theory however in light of all the research this theory does not account for false past life recall.
3) Reincarnation is not true due to irreconcilable stronger evidence: Islam has an irrefutable intellectual foundation. This strong belief cannot be reconciled with reincarnation. As a result, a thinking human being will take the strongest evidence, in this case Islam – as reincarnation has been shown to be speculative.

Following on from this discussion, points 2 and 3 seem to be the strongest claims regarding whether or not reincarnation is true.