Reincarnation Theory

Hindu theory focuses on karma, and attaches this to the ego of a person. However, the ego does not appear to reincarnate, since the new-born baby has no memory of previous lives on Earth and neither does it have a mature mind. So Hindu theory explains karma but cannot explain reincarnation. Buddhist theory focuses on reincarnation, or rebirth, but has problems with explaining karma. According to Buddhist theory, only a bundle of personality characteristics reincarnate, and not an ego – so how can you attach karma to something that is not an ego? Buddhist theory explains rebirth but cannot explain karma.

Explanations of reality have two separate issues to describe: how reality functions (analysis of cause and effect issues) and why it functions (analysis of purpose and meaning). In Buddhism the mechanics of how the process of reincarnation happened were described, as in the concept of the Wheel of Life. In Hinduism the ethical reasons were produced for explaining the necessity of the process (that is, why it happened).

Using my understanding of the subconscious mind, I have produced the first theory that reconciles reincarnation with karma.

Reincarnation

I consider a simple cycle between Earth and heaven in order to explain my views (for the sake of simplification I ignore other states of existence such as hell and purgatory).

When a person “dies” on Earth, it is only the physical body that dies; consciousness remains “alive” but changes. Assume consciousness ascends to heaven; how is the ego affected? Negative states of mind cannot exist in heaven. Hence the subconscious mind cannot be attached to the ego whilst that ego is in heaven. So the ego ascends to heaven, without taking its sorrows and pain with it. In heaven the ego has the positive attitudes, beliefs and quality of character that were created on Earth.

In my view, the ego’s negative states of mind are detached from it and “put on hold” till it is time for the ego to leave heaven and be reborn back on Earth again. Then these negative states of mind are added back again to the consciousness that is reborn on Earth.

The core issue with reincarnation theory is to explain what happens to consciousness when it reincarnates back to Earth. The new-born infant has no memories and no language. Hence it doesn’t have a conscious ego. The ego that consciousness had in its previous life on Earth seems to have vanished. So what actually reincarnates on Earth?

There are two stages to understand in a cycle of reincarnation. Each stage represents a “death”. When a person dies on Earth, this is the death of the physical body. In heaven, the consciousness, now free of the physical body, inhabits a psychic or astral body. When it is time to reincarnate back to Earth, the astral body dies: this is the second death. Consciousness, now free of the astral body, enters a new physical body, that of the new-born infant on Earth.
So the two stages are:

a). Life on Earth
Earth is the realm of the physical body that consciousness uses. When the physical body dies, consciousness ascends to heaven.

b). Life in heaven
Heaven is the realm of the astral body that consciousness uses. When the astral body dies, consciousness is reborn on Earth and uses another physical body.

The purpose of the physical body is to enable consciousness to interact with the physical world. When it is time for consciousness to leave the physical world, the physical body is discarded and dies. Similarly, the astral body enables consciousness to live in heaven for a time. When consciousness leaves heaven, the astral body dies. So both the physical body and the astral body are simply the means to temporarily “house” consciousness in order that it can engage in the drama of evolution.

One way of thinking about consciousness is that it consists of ego plus subconscious mind. This view makes consciousness a binary reality when it sojourns on Earth. When consciousness is in heaven it consists simply of ego, without a subconscious mind. So in heaven consciousness is a unitary reality, which can be called a monad.

The Subconscious Mnd

My ideas on what occurs when consciousness leaves heaven in order to return to Earth were derived by a consideration of one of Sigmund Freud’s ideas. In the book Studies on Hysteria by Freud and Breuer [¹], they describe a particular state of mind they called “condition seconde” ( a state which was eventually called multiple personality). In this condition, the normal consciousness of the person fades away for a time and is replaced by a second consciousness. When the person returns to normal consciousness, he has no memory of the second consciousness, that is, he has amnesia with regard to the second consciousness.

I compared the second consciousness with that of a new-born infant on Earth, who has no memory of its past lives – a similar condition of amnesia. In my view, both states of mind are similar in that normal consciousness has become repressed, so allowing the subconscious mind to take centre stage.

From this analogy, I consider that at the time of the death of the astral body, the ego is repressed so that it is no longer evident. The conscious ego is repressed and becomes part of the subconscious mind that is added back to consciousness as it awaits rebirth on Earth. When rebirth to Earth occurs, the consciousness of the infant consists of the subconscious mind of its previous Earth life augmented with the newly-repressed ego (which has been made subconscious). Hence when the infant is born, all it has is a subconscious mind – it has no conscious mind.

The central task for the infant is to create a new ego. The new ego is gradually created using the material in the subconscious mind, together with the influences (both good and bad) coming from the parents and other significant people in its environs.

The consciousness being reborn on Earth comes with the abilities, beliefs, attitudes, strengths and weaknesses that the previous ego had from the previous life on Earth. The new ego that is eventually created uses this material to fashion itself. The previous ego, now part of the subconscious mind, helps in the creation of the new ego. The influences coming from the parents and other people have the effect that the new ego will be different in various ways from the previous ego. Hence in each life on Earth, the ego changes and is never a replica of the previous ego.

In heaven there is unity of the conscious mind, since the subconscious mind is absent.
At rebirth on Earth, there is unity of the subconscious mind, since no conscious mind is present.

Multiple Incarnations

The process of reincarnation requires a person to live numerous lifetimes on Earth. To describe how ego evolution functions in cycles of reincarnation, pick any particular life on Earth as a convenient starting point. The ego of that life we can call ego one, or ego-1.

1). Ego-1 is the current ego of our starting point on Earth
At the end of the Earth life, the physical body dies. Consciousness ascends to heaven. Eventually consciousness is reborn back to Earth. So one complete cycle of reincarnation has occurred.

2). On Earth, consciousness creates ego-2
Ego-1 is subconscious. At the end of the Earth life, consciousness ascends to heaven, followed eventually by a rebirth back to Earth again. So another cycle of reincarnation has occurred.

3). On Earth, consciousness creates ego-3
Ego-2 is now subconscious. Both ego-1 and ego-2 augment the subconscious mind. Once more, consciousness ascends to heaven, followed eventually by a rebirth back to Earth again.

4). On Earth, consciousness creates ego-4
Ego-3 is now subconscious. Hence the subconscious mind is augmented by ego-1, ego-2, and ego-3. Again, consciousness ascends to heaven, followed eventually by a rebirth back to Earth.

5). The reincarnation cycle continues until there is no longer any need to be reborn on Earth
At that point, the reincarnation cycle will occur between heaven and a higher level of reality than Earth. The higher level will be a psychic world (that is, non-physical). There are many levels to reality: the physical level of Earth is just one of the lowest levels.

In my view, when an ego is added to the subconscious mind, it gradually fades in importance. Gradually all the subconscious egos blend together in the melting pot of subconsciousness.

Ensuring Change

When being reborn to Earth, why is the existing ego made subconscious? The primary reason seems to be to ensure that the infant has no memories of past lives. Hence it has no memories of its previous failures, limitations, and sorrows. This ensures that the ego which will be created can have a fresh start, in many ways. The influence of the previous ego on the new ego will only be subconscious, and not conscious, thus enabling the new ego, if circumstances are harmonious, to rise above the difficulties that the previous ego experienced. In order to facilitate the evolution of consciousness, the person must be able to change his states of mind, if necessary, when he is reborn on Earth. He will not do so if he is encumbered with conscious memories of failures, sorrows and limitations. Yet he has to be sensitive to the kinds of difficulties he faced in previous lives in order to guide his new life in ways that can overcome them. The answer is that the old ego is made subconscious, thus preventing old memories from hindering the creation of a new ego.

[¹]. Freud, Sigmund and Breuer, Joseph. Studies on Hysteria, by Penguin Books, 1974 and 1986. [1]

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.	Problems with Theories of Reincarnation and Karma When I was 30, I heard a talk on the theory of reincarnation. I had never heard of this theory before then. It at once struck me with tremendous force that it must be true. It seemed to be the spiritual basis of justice. After that introduction, I tried to find further details about these ideas. Over a period of many years all ideas about reincarnation that I read remained unsatisfactory to me. Theorists past and present had little understanding of the subconscious mind and so the theories that they produced were incomplete. In fact it seems to me that the traditional doctrines of Indian theorists could not actually reconcile reincarnation theory with its complement, the theory of karma (or ideas of spiritual justice).
Sub - Headings
Reincarnation
The Subconscious Mind
Multiple Incarnations
Ensuring Change
References