I don't believe in reincarnation, per se. I believe that the idea we call "reincarnation" is based upon a limited perspective and an attachment to the individual self. What I personally believe is far simpler than reincarnation, namely that All Is One. I believe there is only One Soul (you may call this God if you choose) which merely appears as separate souls/selves/people for the purpose of creating experience.

Let me explain further. If All Is One, then there is one thing which this One cannot do, and that is experience anything. Experience requires separation, because in order to have experience, there must be something to experience. Oneness (the term I use for "God", since it implies both a state and a being) has all knowledge, obviously, but cannot experience it. It has the idea of compassion, but cannot be compassionate because there is no one to be compassionate towards. It has the concept of forgiveness, but cannot actualize it because there is no one else to forgive. Therefore, Oneness created the perspective of separateness within/from Itself in order to be able to experience that which, until then, was merely concept.

So what does this have to do with reincarnation? Well, in order to experience, we must completely believe in this perception of separateness. Part and parcel with this perception is the experience of linear Time, because in order to experience anything, there must be a progression of events. But sometimes, in order to experience certain things, a degree of pre-existing context is required, context not easily acquired in a single lifetime. Therefore a degree of this perception of separateness is dropped in some individuals, creating a connection or resonance with particular other individuations of Oneness, irrespective of where they exist in linear Time.

What this means to us (and without my penchant for 4-syllable words) is that certain time periods and lives of others resonate with us in order to create the context needed for us to have certain experiences. Sometimes we perceive this as a "past life" we have lived, other times simply as an affinity with a certain time period.

One thing this idea explains away that has always been an Achilles Heel to reincarnationists is the fact that more than one person often claims to have been a particular person in a past life. If we are each individual souls, how can more than one person have "past life memories" of being Shakespeare or John Lennon or Mary Magdalene? Yet more than one person claims to be the reincarnation of this or the other famous person all the time. OTOH, if All Is One, two people could easily have past life memories from the same historical figure, or 5 people, or 50, or 5000. Because, in truth, we have all been everyone and everything, and we merely resonate with whichever other individuation best creates the context we need to experience what we choose.

This also tosses the whole "learning" thing out the window. Living many lives in order to "learn" only makes sense if we are separate. But if All Is One, what is there to learn? All knowledge, all ideas, all "lessons" already exist to us, at our most basic level. We are not here to learn. Life is not a "school for souls". We are here to create ourselves as whoever and whatever we choose, and then to experience the results of those choices.

CS