Is Reincarnation Real? | Unveiled

What happens after you die?  Does life after death exist? Which version of the afterlife is most  likely to be the right one?

For many, these are big questions but the answers are  quite simple; when this life ends we begin anew. This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the  extraordinary question; Is reincarnation real? Do you need the big questions answered?

Are  you constantly curious? Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one? And  ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!

Reincarnation is the belief that there is a lot  more to this life than just this life. The exact nature of it differs between belief systems but,  broadly, it says that when you die your soul - or something equivalent to your soul - will pass over  into a new, physical body. The body you have right now won’t last forever, but the inner essence  of your being will.

For many, it’s a fundamental aspect of reality, of spirituality,  and of how the universe really works. The word itself, reincarnation, is rooted in Latin  and translates as “entering the flesh again”. Some refer to it as transmigration.

A variation in  Ancient Greece was known as metempsychosis, while some describe it as a rebirth. For  many, reincarnation is a cyclical and eternal phenomenon; it happens over and over  again, potentially forever. In some versions, a soul can be reborn into the body of another  human being, but also into an animal, a plant, or even into some kind of transcendental figure. 

In both Buddhism and Hinduism - two of the most widely-followed religions where reincarnation is  key - it’s a process deeply interwoven with the concept of karma. The idea being that positive  thoughts and actions will breed positive karma, which will ensure a favorable outcome  when you’re reborn into your next life. For believers, the endless cycle  of reincarnation is also known as Saṃsāra - which roughly translates  to mean “a wandering world”.

As such, the ultimate end goal is to break free of Saṃsāra  in order to achieve absolute self-knowledge, enlightenment and liberation - the state of  being that Buddhists refer to as nirvana. It’s not as though reincarnation is  especially forgiving, however… and, in fact, one often vital part is the long and  continued experience of suffering. In Buddhism, the Bhavacakra (or, “wheel of life”) is a  central, visual representation of Saṃsāra, and is effectively what followers must break free from  to reach nirvana.

The wheel is in part divided into six sections (or realms) and many of those  realms are steeped in suffering. Physical pain, mental anguish, social injustice… these all  form part of the gauntlet that a reincarnated soul must run, time and time again. A similar  feeling is held by other groups in history, too, such as the Orphics.

Orphism is a religion  dating back to Ancient Greece, where reincarnation is again painted as more like a punishment  than a reward. The Orphics believed that when you died you either ascended to godliness… or  were cast back down to Earth via reincarnation. What’s disturbing is that some of the  claimed physical evidence we have for reincarnation also implies a great deal of  suffering in terms of whatever came before this life we’re all living right now.

Dr Jim B.  Tucker is a child psychiatrist at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. But he’s also  the director of the same university’s Division of Perceptual Studies, a branch dedicated to  “rigorously evaluating empirical evidence [to suggest] that consciousness survives death and  that mind and brain are distinct and separable”.

Through his work with the Division, and  through publishing various key texts, Dr Tucker has become a world authority on  children who remember their past lives. That is, children who say or do things that indicate that  something has been carried over from before to now. They might recognise someone they’ve never  met before; speak about an event they can’t possibly have known about because it happened  before they were born; or even directly reference how it was that they last died.

In some cases,  there are even reports of physical “birthmarks” that correspond with the claims that are  made. And, very often, particularly with regard to the past death, those claims involve  some kind of violent injury or fatal accident. One of Dr Tucker’s most high profile cases  first made the news in the mid-2010s.

Ryan, an American boy from the Midwest, claimed to  have once been an actor in 1930s Hollywood. His mother tracked her son’s story, as he  gave out more and more details over a short period of time. Ryan remembered also working  as an agent, and as a dancer in New York.

He recalled having had three sons, and he remembered  variously small details - including names of friends and significant addresses. Reacting to the  snippets of information that Ryan had given her, his mother reportedly bought books filled with  photos of 1930s Hollywood. They looked through them together until Ryan found a photo that he  claimed was of himself (working as an extra) and of another man named George.

The image  really was of a “George” - an actor at the time called George Raft - and many of Ryan’s  other claims could also be corroborated. Dr Tucker and Ryan’s family researched some more,  until it was discovered that the extra that he claimed he was… was a man named Martin  Martyn - otherwise known as Marty. Marty had been a bit-part actor, and then a dancer,  and then an agent; he also did have three sons.

According to numerous interviews given by Dr  Tucker, Ryan is hardly on his own. There are thousands of cases just like his, and that’s  not including the ones that are never properly studied. Unsurprisingly, there is something of a  taboo around past life remembrance.

Many parents, understandably, don’t want their children  to have inherited memories of trauma. And, as Dr Tucker’s studies reveal that the average  age of death in the past life is just 28, and that almost three quarters of cases involve  a violent, frightening or unnatural death… it’s clear that recalling this kind of information  really could be traumatic. Even without that, though, it could also be true that many parents  may not even register that the “make believe” stories their children recall could actually  be grounded in real life, historical events.

As to how it all happens, Dr Tucker has  before spoken of a potential link with our growing understanding of quantum mechanics.  Today, we know that if you travel deep enough down into something - to the subatomic level and  beyond - then the laws of physics begin to fall apart. The physicality of anything doesn’t  truly exist until that thing is observed… and many argue that this could be the basis of  the separation of brain and mind; of body and consciousness.

The underlying point being that  perhaps consciousness doesn’t need the brain, and so can continue long after the brain is  dead. Again, this is something that Dr Tucker, as director of the University of Virginia’s  Division of Perceptual Studies, has long campaigned for; that consciousness  differs from our physical selves. Past life regression (or past life hypnosis)  is generally regarded as a pseudoscience.

While there have been hundreds of claims made by those  who have undergone it - that their past lives have been variously revealed to them - there are  precious few mainstream academics that subscribe to any perceived recollections being genuine.  Importantly, however, with most cases involving children, there is no hypnosis needed. And  usually very little by way of context to influence anything that a child might say.

In terms of  remembering past lives, this is about as close to the real deal as we’re ever likely to get. But,  what’s your verdict? Could it really be true that some part of us - the soul, to some - will one  day continue on inside another body?

Or are you unconvinced that that kind of transcendence could  ever really happen? Let us know in the comments! The traditional ideas on re-incarnation have  been revisited and rewritten in recent years, too.

We took a closer look at “The Egg”, a  short story published online by the author Andy Weir in 2009. That episode will follow on  directly from this right now, so be sure to keep the video running! Because, between the world’s  religions, the research of those like Dr Tucker, and the creative minds of those like Andy  Weir… that’s why reincarnation could be real.

Do you ever contemplate the universe and  feel totally overwhelmed? Do you ever wonder what difference you can make in something so  unimaginably vast? Well, hold tight, because according to one idea… it could be that, actually,  no-one is more important than you are, right now.

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the  extraordinary question; what is the egg theory? Do you need the big questions answered? Are  you constantly curious?

Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one? And  ring the bell for more thought-provoking content! The Egg Theory was born via a short story written  in 2009 by the US novelist Andy Weir.

Weir is also known for “The Martian” which was, in 2015,  adapted into a Hollywood movie starring Matt Damon… but perhaps “The Egg” is what will truly  enshrine him in the annals of theoretical science and philosophy. Weir himself has expressed some  surprise at the enthusiasm shown for his Egg idea, which he says took him less than an hour  to jot down before posting to an online forum. But really, in a modern world where  a “meaning” for life perhaps feels more and more difficult to understand… maybe it’s not  so surprising that the Egg should catch on.

So, what actually happens in the story? Weir’s  main character is known simply as “you”, and quickly you meet God, who’s referred to as  “me”. What follows is essentially a conversation between you and God, then, through which the true  nature of reality is revealed.

At the beginning, the bad news is that you’ve just died in  a car crash. God explains this to you, but also explains that you’ll soon be reincarnated  as somebody different - as a young Chinese girl, alive almost 1,500 years ago. God further reveals  that this isn’t your first reincarnation, either, far from it.

You’ve actually been brought back  countless times before… into countless different bodies, living in all Earthly locations, and  at all times in the past, present, and future. You then muse over the fact that this means  you were once the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Adolf Hitler, and even Jesus Christ. While God  reminds you that you’ve also been everyone else, too, including Lincoln’s assassin, Hitler’s  victims, and Jesus’ followers.

God continues, explaining further that, in fact, the  universe was made for you as a kind of structure through which you could live every  human life possible. The realization is that now (and actually always) you are (or have  been) so much more than just the person who died in the car crash at the apparent  beginning. Rather, you are everyone.

Everyone that’s been, and everyone that will  be. Essentially, the universe is for you. Finally, God explains what the thinking behind  all of this is.

The idea is that through being everyone you would learn that everything you do,  you do to yourself. Every time you hurt someone, you hurt yourself. Every time you help someone,  you help yourself.

Every time you’re kind or mean, happy or sad, selfish or selfless, you’re  actually being all those things as everyone. Every human experience that ever was  (or will be) is your experience. And, when you’ve lived every human life possible -  today and in history and in the future - then, so the story says, you will become a god just  like the one you’re currently talking to.

Only then will you have infinite wisdom of what it  really means to live. And so the story ends. For the reader, there’s perhaps a clear moral  message here, as it’s implied that you should always try to think, act and be your best side. 

Not just because it’s in your best interests, but because it simply is you. Everything  is you, so would you rather everything was good or bad? However, perversely, the story  also relies on the realization that all bad people are essentially your responsibility,  too.

This is a wide open thought experiment, then, with endless conclusions that could be  reached. Meanwhile, the entire thing doubles up as a journey toward your ultimate enlightenment,  and your ascension to god status. This is how Weir pitches the universe as an Egg, because it’s where  you grow and develop until you reach that stage.

There are some schools of philosophical  and scientific thought that this story could fall into. Or at least that it blurs  boundaries with. Eternalism is a philosophy of time wherein the flow of time doesn’t  really exist.

Instead of the universe, your life and everything else moving  through time (with the past behind it, the present always here, and the future to  come) eternalism says that all those states of time are real together. Time is more a box  to open up and look into, rather than a one-way road down which to travel. In Weir’s story, this  is one of the first major revelations for “you”, the main character.

When you reincarnate in China  1,500 years ago, it’s not exactly as though you’ll have traveled back in time… it’s more like you’ll  have opened the book of time at a different page. Next, there’s the theory of Open Individualism,  another key concept in “The Egg”. Broadly, this is the idea that you are everyone.

Or  that everyone is you. There have been many variations to it coined over recent decades,  but again it usually relies on the dismantling of the flow - or passage - of time. Time, as it’s  commonly understood, doesn’t really exist for the open individual, or how else could it be that you  could be anyone else, at all?

Instead, and by some understandings of it, it might be said that you -  your “self” - exists like a sheen over the world, applying itself to all. Or, that every apparent  individual person is, in fact, linked simply by their shared experience of being here. It might  feel as though all of us are different, but actually we’re not at all… at the most fundamental  layer.

We’re the same. Literally, the same. Theories of Open Individualism don’t usually  lead to the final point of Weir’s story, however - when it’s explained to you (by  God) that once you’ve lived as everyone, you too will become a God.

Here, “The  Egg” takes a more theological turn, with similar concepts appearing across most major  religions, but especially in Hinduism. While most religions have some form of “God the Creator” -  an all-seeing, all-powerful entity - in Hinduism there’s the Brahman. This is a kind of topmost,  metaphysical layer that rests over everything else, including Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva - the  trinity of supreme Hindu gods.

The Brahman is unsurpassable. It’s the ultimate truth of all  things. It never changes, can never be changed, and represents the ultimate reality in Hindu  thought.

One reading of Weir’s story could perhaps cast the God figure within it as something close  to the Brahman… although the implication is that even it exists somewhere else, so Weir doesn’t  quite tie up reality in exactly the same way. But what’s your verdict? Do you subscribe  to the Egg Theory?

Would you like to but can’t quite bring yourself to accept  it? Of course, it’s not as though this is something that could ever provide proof  of itself. It’s an idea proposed by Weir, and a blending of various other approaches to  life, as well.

Similarly, there are perhaps some signs of us building in some aspects of  “The Egg” with regard to our future lives, as we currently appreciate them. The hive mind,  for example, is an often-cited advanced technology that human society could be moving towards. A  unifying something that enables us all to think, understand, and perhaps even feel the same  things.

Usually it’s pitched as though it’s a path toward ultimate efficiency… but  could it also lead to a greater wisdom, and effectively fast track us (you? me? ) toward  the Egg’s end point?

Toward living every human life possible? Or would a hive mind actually  take us further away from that total truth? When it comes to future technology like  that, it’s easy to steer ourselves into an early dystopia.

But, really, and  while interpretations obviously differ, that’s probably not the main takeaway from  the Egg Theory. Instead, this is an idea more about the boundless possibilities for  life… and it’s a re-pitching of the universe, with you at the heart of it. But not “you” you…  not exactly.

Because, if the Egg rings true, then you are me… and I am them… and they are us.  You, me, he, she and they are growing as one, and there’s literally all the time (in the  past, present and future) in which to do so. What do you think?

Is there anything we missed?  Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you subscribe  and ring the bell for our latest content.