There are many objections or arguments from nonbelievers and skeptics against reincarnation. This is understandable. Let me try to address the strongest and most common objections.
1) Population growth. “Reincarnation theory holds that when a person dies, he returns to earth in another body to work out his or her karma. If true, then there should be the same number of people now as before. But population obviously grows. Therefore, reincarnation is not true.”
This objection is based on the assumption that everyone who is now on earth has been here before. This is not true. There are new souls coming to earth for the first time. That’s why the population is growing. Where were they before? They were in the spirit world, waiting to be incarnated on earth.
2) No memory of past lives. “If reincarnation is true and we have lived previous lives, why don’t we remember those lives?”
It is not true that we don’t remember our past lives. We do, for the soul never forgets. You see, there are two kinds of memory—conscious memory, and unconscious or subconscious memory.
An example of conscious memory: If I asked you what you ate for breakfast this morning, most people will be able to answer. But if I asked you what you were doing when you were three years old on Feb. 14, most likely nobody can answer.
But this memory remains in your subconscious mind. If I hypnotize you to go back to that time, you will be able to tell me what you did. I have, in fact, done this to a female doctor who was having a problem writing her name the same way on a checkbook. The bank kept returning the checks to her for validation. Hypnotic regression uncovered the reason for it, and freed her mind from a childhood trauma.
Wrong guy
3) It punishes the wrong guy. This objection says that reincarnation is not true because it punishes the wrong guy. “I have not committed anything wrong in this lifetime, never deceived, robbed or harmed anybody, so why was I born blind or poor or ugly or sickly? It’s unfair! I am being punished for something I never did. Somebody else did those bad things, not me.”
The answer: It is still the same soul or entity being “punished,” although now he is occupying a different physical body. You see, our physical body is like our clothes that we change after use. If you change your clothes tomorrow, will you be another or different person? You are still the same person but in different clothing.
4) It encourages sinfulness. “Belief in reincarnation is wrong, because it encourages sinfulness. Why? Because if you believe in reincarnation, you will be encouraged to commit as many sins as possible, because anyway you can make amends or make up for them in the next life.” This is what a Catholic priest told me.
On the contrary, I replied to the good priest that belief in reincarnation does the opposite. It discourages sinfulness or doing harm to others because you know you will come back to pay for it. People who believe in reincarnation also believe in karma, that universal law of justice which says, “Whatever you do will come back to you, nothing less and nothing more.” So you will think twice before doing anything wrong to your fellowmen.
The priest couldn’t say anything, and then I added, “On the other hand, I think it is Christianity that encourages sinfulness rather than belief in reincarnation.
“Why is that?” asked the priest?.
“Because in Christianity, if one commits a sin, all he has to do is to confess his sins to a priest. The priest gives him penance and absolution, and then he can commit a sin again.”
The priest shook his head and said I am a pilosopo.
5) No scientific proof. We have already cited at least two scientific investigations of reincarnation in last week’s column—one by psychiatrist Dr. Ian Stevenson, and the other by psychologist Dr. Helen Wambach. In addition, there are numerous books that have come out with verified anecdotes of past life memories.
E-mail jaimetlicauco @yahoo.com. Visit innermindlearning.com for online workshops.