The concept of reincarnation is common in Eastern traditions, but not so much in the West. Some have argued that reincarnation is not mentioned in the Bible, so it must not be true. Even though the word reincarnation does not appear in the Bible, there are a couple of examples from interactions Jesus had with his disciples that were left in the New Testament that tells us that reincarnation was an accepted belief by Jesus and the disciples.

The first example is when Jesus saw a man that was blind from birth. His disciples asked him, who had sinned that the man should be born blind? The man himself or his parents?

Now, Jesus did not rebuke his disciples for this question, which they asked because they knew the law of karma and reincarnation. They knew it was entirely possible that the man could be blind because of sins committed in his previous life, because there would be no other time that he would have committed them since he was blind from birth.

One of the many examples where he did just that is on another occasion when they called him Good Master. “Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He didn't even answer the question, but rather said, “Why callest thou me good? There is none good but God.”

Not only was this an example of correcting them for calling the human person good, but it was also an example of Jesus letting the man who asked the question know that what was good in him was God. Jesus would not allow the idolatry of the human self, which is the outer expression of the God within.

Regarding the blind man and the disciples' question, Jesus did answer their question. He said that neither had the man nor his parents sinned, but that the man was born blind so that works of God could be demonstrated in him.

So, with this example, not only do we see that Jesus did not rebuke them for asking about the man's sin prior to being born, we also learn another reason why we might have the burden of an infirmity. We ourselves may have chosen to bear a particular karma of a loved one, or that of the planet, or bearing a burden solely for the same reason as this situation, that God should glorify himself within us through the healing process. It is not always our personal karma, and this is why we cannot judge ourselves or one another.

The second example in the Bible of reincarnation, which is even more direct, is when Jesus said about John the Baptist, “and if ye will receive it, this is Elias which was for to come. He that he hath ears to hear, let him hear.” So, Jesus was saying that John the Baptist was a reincarnation of Elias. So, if we have ears to hear, we will hear.

Not all Texts Were Allowed in the Bible

We need to also keep in mind that there were many texts circulating within the Christian community in the first two centuries. Some were determined by church leaders to be genuine and others not.

In 367 AD, one of the church fathers named Athanasius put forth the list of the 27 books for the New Testament. He was also the one who gave a complete listing of the 66 books that belonged to the canon of the church at that time, and not all books were allowed in. There are a number of other gospels that were omitted.

New Revelations

Then in 1945, the Nagamati texts were discovered, and they revealed information about the Gnostics, one of the early sects of Christianity, and their beliefs in reincarnation. They claimed to have knowledge of Jesus' secret teachings handed down to them by the apostles, and they also understood reincarnation. The Gnostics were ultimately destroyed by the Roman Orthodox Church because they were branded heretical. Their writings, which include some of the books that were eliminated from the final Bible canon, were destroyed, and their followers burned at the stake. So, what went into the Bible officially and what was prohibited was serious business back then.

Then there was Origen of Alexandria, who in the 2nd century was one of the most distinguished theologians for the early church. His writings included teachings of Jesus on reincarnation and the heavenly hierarchy, another fascinating subject that we will talk more about in future episodes.

Origen's books were widely used for more than a century—more than a century. They were criticized at the same time, however, and by the 6th century his writings were declared to be heresy and condemned, which resulted in the powers that be burning and destroying all of his writings, with only a very few remaining today.

So, we cannot claim authoritatively that reincarnation is not in the Bible, and in the light of the 1945 discovery of the Nag Hammadi text in Egypt, we cannot say authoritatively that Jesus did not teach reincarnation, and not to mention that the majority of the population of the earth believes in reincarnation.

There are also hundreds of cases of individuals that are born remembering exactly who they were, and in some cases, when the previous birth was recent enough, they have gone back to where they lived and have seen their family members or friends. Now, this is more common in the East, but there are dramatic examples of this in Western society also.

The normal process when we come into this world is that we lose our memory of who we were in past lives or in the spirit world. I think it's easy to understand why this is the case. It would be very distracting to be living one life while remembering a whole other lifetime, where your circumstances may have been much different in attachments to family and friends.

Imagine if you were a king in a previous life and then poor in this life, or if you were a man in another life and a woman in your current life, or vice versa. Most everyone who does remember at an early age, the memory fades as they get older, so they can focus on being who they are now.

Amazing Modern Examples of Remembering a Past Life

One of the most impressive and well-documented cases in the West is that of James Leininger.

He was born in 1998, and at age two, he started experiencing vivid nightmares that would make him scream out in his sleep, “airplane crash, plane on fire, little man can't get out,” and he would kick and claw on the covers like he was trying to kick his way out of something. This same nightmare kept recurring four to five times a week.

As he got a little older, his parents started questioning him, and little James told them that he was the man in the plane that had been shot down by the Japanese during World War II. He even identified the emblem of the Japanese planes of the rising sun, a big red sun.

James also had an obsession with airplanes, particularly World War II aircraft with propellers. He would crash his toy planes into the coffee table, knocking off the propellers, and in his car seat, he would put on imaginary headphones and face masks as if he was preparing to fly a plane. He even created a simulated cockpit in one of the family's closets and educated his mother on the parts of a toy airplane that he had.

As time went on, little James revealed that the man in his nightmares was also called James, that he flew a plane called a Corsair, that the plane he flew took off from a boat, and that the boat's name was the Natoma. He said that the Corsair would veer to the left on takeoff, and that the Corsair had a tendency to blow tires out upon landing.

When his parents took him to the Lone Star Flight Museum, they were surprised to see little James walking around a Corsair, conducting a flight check like a pilot normally does before boarding his aircraft. His mother mused that her son, who was not even potty-trained, yet he knew details of World War II aircraft of that era.

Eventually, James gave his parents his previous name in that lifetime, which was also James—James Huston Jr., and he also gave names of those who he flew and served with during the war. Of course, the most convincing evidence was when he gave specific details about himself and other folks in that life, details that were later corroborated by those still alive.

His father tracked down two of the surviving pilots who witnessed James Huston's plane go down, and they confirmed that an anti-aircraft shell knocked the propeller off of Huston's plane, which explained why little James would knock propellers off his toy planes. They also validated that Huston's plane caught fire and that Huston went down with his plane.

James' father, through all of his research into what James was telling him, came to personally know surviving veterans as well as about those who did not survive at Natoma Bay. He so greatly admired the Natoma Bay veterans that he created a memorial to commemorate them. And here's where it really gets interesting.

At the inauguration of the memorial, in which many of the Natoma Bay veterans attended, James recognized one of his previous Army buddies when he heard his voice, and then he recognized others there and talked with them about their life together. James' parents also located James Huston's sister, Anne Huston Barron, who was 84 years old. James spoke to her by telephone, and in the conversation he gave many personal details of James Huston's life which Anne confirmed as accurate.

For example, James told Anne that he called her Annie. Anne confirmed that only James Huston called her Annie. James told Anne that they had a sister named Ruth, which was correct, and gave the correct years between him and his siblings' ages.

He said that their father was alcoholic and smashed things when drunk, and that he had to go into rehab for alcoholism, which Anne also confirmed. And to get very detailed, James said that he and Anne, as children, had matching portraits done by the same artist named Daryl, which were gifts from their mother. Anne confirmed these facts too. You know, even the hardcore skeptic would have a hard time chalking these things up to coincidence.

Just as amazing is that James also said that he picked his parents while he was still in the spirit world, which we know that actually happens before a soul reembodies. He told his parents that he saw them when they were vacationing at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu. He called it the Big Pink Hotel in Hawaii, which the Royal Hawaiian is. In fact, his parents were at the Royal Hawaiian five weeks before his mother became pregnant with him, and they had never told James about their Hawaiian vacation.

This story really makes it difficult for people to dispute the reality of the life before and after death in other realms.

It's my understanding that little James found final closure when he and his family returned to the exact place in Iwo Jima that his plane had gone down in the water, which he identified for them. He was then able to make peace with his past, and at that point his nightmares ended.

Another example is Cameron McCauley, born in Scotland.

Since the age of two, he told his mother he was from an island just off the west coast. He constantly talked about a white house on the island where he once lived. He also talked about a black and white dog and his other dad. He even remembered his other dad's name, Shane Robertson. Cameron said that he died by being hit by a car. Every day Cameron would tell his mother that he really misses his other mother.

So one day the family decided to visit the island where Cameron claimed he was from. Cameron took them directly to the house, and the family was speechless because the house was exactly as Cameron would draw. They decided to knock on the door, and the owners of the house were in fact the Robertsons.

Cameron knew all the family members and the family photos, and there were a lot of pictures of the black and white dog. Now as Cameron got older, he started to lose his memories of this past life, but he still remembers that when he died he got to go through a hole and ended up in his current mother's tummy.

There are many more cases like this that you can research. We have Jesus teaching and we have some of these poignant examples of the continuity of life and the soul's journey into the physical world.

I would emphasize that it's not important that you remember your past lives. What is important is to recognize that the reaping of what we sow in one life may not show up until the next life, or even many lives later.

Without the understanding of karma and reincarnation and how it works out in the physical world, it's difficult to understand some of the things that happen. Why are some people born into a certain country or to rich parents and others to poor parents? And the list goes on. So what might seem like an injustice is really an opportunity to learn and grow and overcome previous poor choices.

Or as mentioned earlier, what seems like negative circumstances may not be personal karma at all, but rather an opportunity to lift others in a particular society or race or ethnic group. We simply cannot know exactly when we don't have access to the history of an individual person.

But what we do know is that we are accountable for our actions and limiting circumstances are our opportunity to overcome and grow, and this opportunity to overcome is very important on the spiritual path. Being accountable is also in the Bible. Even though we can be forgiven and there is mercy, there is also justice.

Jesus said, “For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law till all things be accomplished.” We are accountable for every word, thought, and deed, and we cannot judge ourselves or others because we do not always know the bigger picture.

In our next episode, we're going to learn about ways that we can create positive karma and balance any negative karma we may have from this life or previous lives.

Until then, keep an open mind, a generous heart, and a powerful spirit.

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