From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

External links

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Academic

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  Kluwer Academic Publishers - Journal Of Near-Death Studies
  
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  The International Association for Near-Death Studies, Inc
  
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  University of Virginia Health System - Division of Personality Studies
  
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  University Of Wales, Lampeter - The Alister Hardy Society Religious Experience Research Centre
  
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  University of Southampton News Release - Research body will shed more light on near death experiences
  
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  University Of Wales, Lampeter - Press Releases: A Near Death Experience?
  
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  Susan Blackmore - Near-Death Experiences: In or out of the body? Article from Sceptical Inquirer, 1991
  

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On-line sites and articles

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  The Website of PMH Atwater - one of the internet's most comprehensive sites on near-death phenomenon.
  
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  CSICOP Online - Have You Seen "The Light?"
  
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  The Ketamine Model of the Near Death Experience: A Central Role for the NMDA Receptor, Jansen, Karl
  
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  Jansen, K. L. R. (1996) Using ketamine to induce the near death experience: mechanism of action and therapeutic potential. Yearbook for Ethnomedicine and the Study of Consciousness (Jahrbuch furr Ethnomedizin und Bewubtseinsforschung) Issue 4, 1995 (Ed.s C. Ratsch; J. R. Baker); VWB, Berlin, pp55-81.
  
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  Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF)
  
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  Near-Death Experiences and the Afterlife
  
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  Crank.net page on NDEs
  
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  The Campaign for Philosophical Freedom - The secular scientific case for survival after death
  

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-death_experience"

Reincarnation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Past Lives redirects here. For the Black Sabbath album, see Past Lives (album).

Reincarnation, as a doctrine, sometimes confused with transmigration of souls, is the rebirth in another body (after physical death), of some critical part of a person's personality or spirit, namely, the Ego. The natural process is considered integrative of all experiences from each lifetime. A human being always reincarnates as a human being according to the doctrine. "Transmigration" is a separate and different theory that considers the process to allow inter-species embodiments. Its occurrence is a central tenet of Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Surat Shabda Yoga, some African religions, as well as various other religions and philosophies. Most modern Pagans also believe in reincarnation.

It has traditionally also been understood to be akin to the Buddhist concept of Rebirth, but it has always been clear that the two concepts are very distinct - Buddhism teaches that there is no self to reincarnate. There is an alternate view, based on a different set of inherent assumptions, that the teachings of Buddhism as a religion might stress one aspect, the teachings of Hinduism might stress another aspect, but that an advanced Buddhist and an advanced Hindu would directly perceive the phenomenon of reincarnation identically.

Contents [hide] 1 Origin of the belief 2 Reincarnation in Eastern religions and traditions 2.1 Hinduism 2.2 Buddhism 2.3 Jainism 2.4 Ayyavazhi 3 Reincarnation in the First American Nations 4 Reincarnation in Western religions and traditions 4.1 Classical Greek Philosophy 4.2 Judaism and kabbalah 4.3 Gnosticism 4.4 Christianity 5 Contemporary movements and thinkers 5.1 New Religious Movements 5.1.1 Common Variations in the belief 5.1.2 Scientology 5.2 Reincarnation in contemporary thought 5.2.1 Evidence of reincarnation 5.2.2 Objections to reincarnation 5.2.3 Another theory of reincarnation 5.2.4 Jane Roberts 5.2.5 Reincarnation and the New Age movement 6 See also 7 References 8 External Links

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Origin of the belief

This doctrine has its roots far back in primitive culture. According to some scholars, this idea developed out of three common beliefs: (1) that man has a soul, connected with the breath, which can be separated from his material body, temporarily in sleep, permanently at death; (2) that animals and even plants have souls, and are possessed to a large extent of human powers and passions; (3) that souls can be transferred from one organism to another. (This idea still has adherents in many schools of Hinduism, the oldest of extant modern religions)

Alternatively, some consider that reincarnation as a phenomenon (not simply a belief) has been occurring through history, and has been discovered and re-discovered by societies both primitive and advanced.

Transmigration of human souls into non-human bodies is implied in totemism.

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