Reincarnation and the Law of Karma

We feel that such ideas are simply attempts to assign a universal, intuitive belief to only a select group of people. We do not believe that the doctrine of reincarnation ever "originated" in any specific place as a brand-new, distinct teaching. Rather, we believe it arose whenever and wherever humans reached a level of intellectual development that allowed them to conceive of a "something" that lives after death. Regardless of how this belief in a "ghost" In this context, "ghost" refers to the human soul or spirit that survives the body. began, it must be admitted that it is found among all peoples and appears to be a universal idea.

Alongside this, among primitive peoples, we find that there is—and always has been— a more or less vague and indistinct idea that somehow, some way, and at some time, this "ghost" of the person returns to earthly existence and takes on a new physical form—a new body. This is where the idea of reincarnation begins: everywhere, at a certain stage of human mental development. It develops alongside the "ghost" idea and seems connected to that concept in nearly every case.

When humans evolve a little further, they begin to reason that if the "ghost" is immortal, survives the death of the body, and returns to take on a new body, then it must have lived before its most recent birth, and therefore must have a long chain of past lives behind it. This is the second step. The third step occurs when people begin to reason that their next life depends on something done—or left undone—in their present life. Upon these three fundamental ideas, the doctrine of reincarnation has been built.

The occultists original: "occultists"; those who study hidden or spiritual "sciences" claim that in addition to this universal, intuitive idea, humanity has periodically received instruction from certain advanced souls who have moved on to higher planes of existence. These are now called the Masters, Adepts individuals who have mastered a specific spiritual path or attained high wisdom, Teachers, Race Guides, and so on.

But whatever the explanation may be, it remains true that humans everywhere and in all eras seem to have worked out two main points for themselves: first, the idea of a "ghost" that survives after the body dies; and second, that this "ghost" has lived before in other bodies and will return again to inhabit a new one. There are various ideas regarding "heavens" and "hells," but underlying them all, this idea of rebirth persists in some form.

Soldi Emile Soldi (1846–1906), a French archaeologist and sculptor who wrote about the origins of art and religious symbols., the archaeologist, has published an interesting series of works dealing with the beliefs of primitive peoples who have long since vanished from history. He shows, through surviving fragments of carving and sculpture, that there was a universal idea among them of a "ghost" that lived after the body died, along with a corresponding idea that some day this "ghost" would return to the scene of...