Reincarnation:
           Not One but Many Lives

                    by Dr. Mark Pitstick

Four prominent men believed in reincarnation.  It just made sense, they said, and explained many mysteries of life.  It seemed to be part of a universal plan that conserves energy and knowledge from one lifetime into another.  They believed that a series of lifetimes allowed attainment of perfection, and found reincarnation to be a guiding light in their lifetimes.  These men are highly respected in American history, but you may not have known about their spiritual beliefs.  Who were they?  Benjamin Franklin, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and General George Patton. 

Reincarnation is the theory that we live not just one, but many lives.  These different incarnations can be in formed—with some type of body—or formless states.  Souls can experience life on planets like earth or on more ethereal realms. 

The amount of evidence for reincarnation is vast and varied.  I’ll briefly share three classic proofs: child prodigies, familiarity, and xenoglossy.  These phenomena have long been identified across cultures and further suggest the existence of previous lifetimes. 

Over time, a number of child prodigies have demonstrated amazing abilities in mathematics, music, and other fields.  Some have displayed virtuoso musical abilities despite little or no practice at that instrument.  Mozart, for example, composed a concerto at age four.  In How To Know God, Deepak Chopra, M.D., states: “People who spend time with geniuses and prodigies often find them unearthly, somehow preternatural, as if a very old soul has been confined to a new body and yet brings in experience far beyond what that body could have known.  It is easy to credit that some kind of former life is casting its influence on the present.”

Familiarity is another occurrence that is puzzling unless a greater nonphysical awareness exists across time and space.  Familiarity includes having detailed knowledge of a particular historical period, place or person one has never studied, visited or met.  For example, some people, upon arriving at a country or city for the first time, intimately know directions and locations of landmarks.  Even more common is the occurrence of meeting someone for the first time and having a strong sense of having known each other before.  This may partially account for the instant fondness or dislike we feel toward new acquaintances.  Familiarity is often exhibited during a past life regression or memories of past lives.

Finally, xenoglossy is the phenomenon of being able to speak one or more languages fluently without any exposure to them in the present lifetime.  In Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery, Cranston and Head relate the story of Dr. Marshall McDuffie, a prominent New York physician, and his wife Wilhelmina whose “. . . twin baby boys were found to be conversing among themselves in some unknown vernacular.  The children were eventually taken to the foreign language department of Columbia University, but none of the professors present could identify their speech.  However, a professor of ancient languages happened to pass by and was amazed to discover that the babies were speaking Aramaic, a language current at the time of Christ.”

There’s much more evidence that reincarnation, or something like it, is operative in our universe.  It makes sense to me.  The God of unfathomable love and justice that I know would give us not just one, but many chances to get it right.