Talk:Doctrine of Rebirth in Other (Non Dhārmic) Traditions

By Vishal Agarwal

Numerous traditional cultures subscribe to versions of rebirth and reincarnation. In modern times, the rapidly expanding community of New Agers and many other groups adhere to it as a core tenet. Below is a list of communities and individuals from non-Dharmic traditions who have believed in rebirth and reincarnation.

Some famous non-Dharmic tradition followers who subscribed to rebirth and reincarnation are:

Greek Civilization:

• Orpheus: Greek musician, poet, and prophet of the Orphic mystery religions, who preceded Pythagoras in time. He advocated that the soul becomes a prisoner in one body after another and attains freedom after reincarnating many times.
• Pythagoras (Greek philosopher-mathematician c. 580 – 500 BCE): He likened the soul to wax and said that just as wax assumes the form of the impression stamped on it, loses the form when melted and then acquires a new form of the new impression stamped, the soul too transmigrates from one body to another, assuming successively the forms of the bodies that it animates.
• Socrates (Greek Philosopher, ~470-399 BCE): Socrates is quoted repeatedly by his student Plato to the effect that we have a soul that has multiple lives.
• Plato (Greek Philosopher, 428 – 347 BCE): The idea of Reincarnation occurs repeatedly in Plato’s many works. He was a student of Socrates. Biographies of Plato also declared that he had claimed to recall a few of his past lives. Plato also believed that souls could transition from human births to animal bodies.

Roman Civilization: Roman philosophers were influenced by earlier Greek philosophers like Pythagoras and Plato.

• Cicero (Roman Statesman and Orator, 106- 43 BCE): In his Scipio’s Dream, he echoes the view of the Bhagavad Gita that perishable bodies are made alive by an inner abiding soul which is imperishable, and that one’s personality is due to the soul and not the body.
• Ovid (Roman poet, 43 BCE – 17 CE): He advocated the view that the soul transmigrates from one body to another, and that eventually the souls of animals also assume a human body.
• Plontius (Roman Philosopher of Neo-Platonism, 205-270 CE): He argued that inequalities from birth are due to acts committed in previous lives, just as Śāstras declare.

Druids:

• Their fearlessness as warriors was attributed to their belief in rebirth. Druids also borrowed money with the promise to repay it in the next life to the creditor.

Chinese Civilization:

• Pre-Buddhist Chinese philosophers like Lao-Tze (~600 BCE) taught their inner circle of disciples the doctrine of an eternal soul. Chinese records declare that Lao Tze appeared on this earth over many lifetimes, indicating reincarnation. His followers and other Chinese philosophers in the subsequent centuries also continued to advocate these doctrines.

Extinct Eurasian Religions:

• Manicheans believed in the rebirth of the dead.

African Cultures:

• In several African cultures, a newborn child is examined for signs that he or she is a reincarnation of a departed ancestor. In Sub-Saharan Africa, before the spread of Abrahamic religions, the belief in rebirth and reincarnation appears to have been widespread among numerous peoples in Africa like the Yoruba, Nandi, and Betsileo.

Indigenous South East Asian Cultures:

• Dayaks of Borneo subscribe to reincarnation.

Australasian Cultures:

• Researchers have noted that amongst Australian aboriginal tribes, belief in rebirth and reincarnation was widely accepted.
• Pacific Islanders like the Trobriand Islanders also subscribe to a version of reincarnation.

Native American/Inuit Cultures

• Several groups of Native Americans in the United States subscribed to reincarnation, and this was reflected in their funeral customs, their modes of expression, etc. Furthermore, they believed that the souls of humans could assume the body of an animal after death and vice versa, which is consistent with the Hindu Dharm as well.

Jewish Traditions

• Although the mainstream Jewish traditions do not subscribe to rebirth and reincarnation, several scholars of its Kabbalah tradition, from the 12th century. C.E. onwards, acknowledge and advocate this doctrine. This includes several Kabbalists who were also influential in mainstream Judaism.

Christian Traditions

• Early Christian Traditions accepted reincarnation but subsequently, after mid-century, it became unacceptable by Papal decrees. No mainstream Church has accepted reincarnation for the last 15 centuries in Christendom.
• Some Gnostic Christian traditions like Cathars from the 11th-14th century CE.

Due to the widespread acceptance of the doctrine of rebirth/reincarnation in the modern Western world amongst non-Dhārmics, attempts are made by numerous authors to declare that the Bible too affirms it and its exclusion from the Christian creed is a later and erroneous development. However, other scholars reject these claims with much justification -

“It is apparent from a careful study of the scripture that the Bible has next to nothing to say on the subject of reincarnation. Beyond the suggestion that some Jews of Jesus’ day seemed to hold to reincarnation or preexistent beliefs of some kind and some wordplay around Elijah being John the Baptist, it is clear that scripture simply doesn’t deal with the subject. What also seems abundantly evident is that Jesus did not openly, clearly, and unequivocally teach the concept. It simply isn’t there. Jesus seems far more concerned with redemption and resurrection than with reincarnation, and that is how he teaches. As such, efforts by reincarnationists to use the Bible in support of their beliefs are tenuous at best and positively dishonest at worst.”

Islamic Traditions:

• Reincarnation is vehemently rejected in mainstream Islam, but some Sufis (the mystical fringe of Muslim society) accept it.
• The only Muslim community in which reincarnation plays an important role is the Druze, found in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. However, the Druze are considered heretics (or even non-Muslims) by mainstream Muslims.
• Ismaili, a subsect of Shias and often from converted Sanatanis' sometimes subscribe to this doctrine. Sometimes, it is claimed that Alevi, another sect of Shias in Anatolia, subscribes to it secretly.

European Philosophers, Poets, Intellectuals in Modern Times:

• Giordano Bruno (Italian philosopher, 1548 – 1600)
• Francois Voltaire (French philosopher, 1694 – 1778)
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German poet and dramatist, 1749-1832)
• William Wordsworth (English poet, 1770-1850)
• Richard Wagner (German composer, 1813-1883)
• Leo Tolstoy (Russian novelist and social critic, 1828-1910)
• George Bernard Shaw (British writer, 1856-1950)
• Rudyard Kipling (English writer, 1865-1936)
• W. Somerset Maugham (English writer, 1874-1965)
• Carl Jung (Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist, 1875-1961)
• Robert Browning (English poet, 1812-1889)

American Intellectuals

• Benjamin Franklin (US statesman, philosopher, and inventor, 1706 – 1790)
• John Adams (US President, 1735-1826)
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (US philosopher and writer, 1803-1882)
• Henry David Thoreau (US social critic, writer, and philosopher, 1817-1862)
• Walt Whitman (US poet, 1819-1892)
• Mark Twain (US writer, 1835-1910)
• Henry Ford (US automobile pioneer, 1863-1947)
• Isaac Bashevis Singer (US novelist and short-story writer, 1904-1991)