Here are the basic steps of how reincarnation works. It's probably different from what you think...
How Reincarnation Works. Photo from Unsplash/ Amy Humphries
When we’re talking about how reincarnation works, we’re obviously talking about souls. This is a spiritual subject, yes, but that doesn’t automatically make it a religious one. I believe there is some semblance of truth in most religions, but humans have a tendency to manipulate and distort things — especially when it means they can control other people.
A huge percentage of the world's religions, particularly some of the oldest ones, include a belief in reincarnation. (Even early Christianity, though a lot of people don't realize it.) For this reason alone, it's worth considering what is the truth that lies buried beneath the beliefs?
“I am not a religious person, but I found the place where we go after death to be one of order and direction, and I have come to appreciate that there is a grand design to life and afterlife.” (Michael Newton, PhD)
I won’t claim to be an expert on reincarnation, but I do enjoy sharing the information that made a believer out of me. Why? Because doing this research cured me of my crippling anxiety and shifted my whole perspective on relationships and life. Maybe it can help someone else, too.
For me, it took hearing about it from scientists and doctors and therapists to take it seriously. I needed to get information from people who could speak to my logical mind.
In the beginning I was reading about how reincarnation works just for fun. It was an entertaining concept. But the more I read books written by different authors in different times and places, all saying the same things, the more I started thinking holy shit, this stuff is real.
I would like to go into each of these sections in more depth in future posts, but this is the overview of how reincarnation works based on the info I’ve gathered.
“The manner of death may be different but what happens next is always the same… when you obtain the same descriptions from many different people, you have to assume it has some validity.” (Dolores Cannon)
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How Reincarnation Works: Death
You can’t talk about how reincarnation works without also talking about death. The interesting thing is that while so many people fear death, it is apparently a very easy — and even pleasant — experience.
“…death is nothing to fear… it is not a new experience but one they are well acquainted with… They will not go into the great terrifying unknown, but to a familiar place they have already visited many, many times.” (Between Death and Life, Dolores Cannon)
There are definite patterns described over and over again from children who spontaneously remember their past lives (and deaths) and from clients during hypnotherapy sessions. These same descriptions are also present in the vast majority of documented near-death-experiences.
Most people describe a sensation of being lighter, of floating in the air, usually above or next to their physical body. A lot of people feel happy and free, especially if they were experiencing pain up to the point of death.
“They usually can’t understand why the other people in the room are so upset because they feel so wonderful. The overall sensation is one of exhilaration rather than dread.” (Dolores Cannon)
"How ironic, that the one still physical grieves for the departed loved one, while that newly dead individual is joyfully becoming aware of connections with other existences, other loves…." (Dreams, Evolution, and Value Fulfillment, Robert Butts/Jane Roberts)
Some people are confused but most are merely disoriented. “…someone who has been murdered or killed unexpectedly in an accident often does not want to leave right away.” (Journey of Souls, Michael Newton, PhD)
They Hang Around for a Little While….
While there is eventually a white light and/or a tugging sensation pulling the soul to another plane, this doesn’t necessarily happen immediately. Generally people seem to hang around for a few days, at least until their own funeral. They watch and check in on loved ones. Intense grief can bother them because it blocks them out.
“...my subjects do recall frustration at being unable to effectively use their energy to mentally touch a human being who is unreceptive due to shock and grief.” (Journey of Souls, Michael Newton, PhD)
Worse than that, grief can keep them attached to the Earthly plane instead of allowing them the release to move on to the next step. When they do move on, they’re able to reconnect with other loved ones. (Sometimes this happens immediately, especially if the soul is disoriented and needs the support.)
“Usually a handful of souls will come that you have had close karmic connections with in former lifetimes. There’s always one or two or even more on hand that are in-between incarnations themselves. They will be there to greet you. And the person will recognize them due to his connection with them in the immediate past lifetime.” (Between Death and Life, Dolores Cannon)
How Reincarnation Works: In Between Lives
Some people have a hard time being open to reincarnation because they think it means heaven isn’t real. The assumption is that each new incarnation is immediate with no time between lives. Thankfully, that’s not how reincarnation works usually.
(What to know how long it takes to reincarnate? Read this.)
Between lives you are recuperating. You reconnect with loved ones, including people who died ahead of you in the last life and people you knew in previous lives. You also touch base with spirit guides and teachers.
“Many times when I regressed different subjects they would not be involved with a life. Their answers would reveal that they were in-between, on various spirit levels or planes and in different places. The most common of these was the school.” (Between Death and Life, Dolores Cannon)
(From another Dolores subject) “I’m studying life experiences and effects.. I put the pieces of my experiences together and compile them to make sense of my existence…”
This is a time for resting, learning, and planning your next life. That’s right. While it often feels like life is happening to us, it turns out we’re fully in control of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Turns out there’s a lot of truth to the Law of Attraction, too, but that’s a post for another day.
"You do indeed choose your own environment and your own life circumstances. And before this life you have already set those challenges that you will meet. But you also are endowed with free will and there is no punishment except [for] those of you who choose to punish yourselves." (The Early Class Sessions: Book 2, Jane Roberts)
All of this is, of course, only until you finish your physical reincarnation cycles. Eventually you will move up to higher planes of existence.
A Note about Karma
This is something I will definitely discuss more in the future, but I bring it up now because so many people associate reincarnation with karma. Here are a few quotes to contemplate:
The basic idea of karma is not punishment. Karma presents the opportunity for development; to make use of opportunities that were not taken advantage of, to fill in gaps of ignorance, to enlarge understanding through experience, to do what should be done." (The Early Sessions: Book 8, Jane Roberts)
“Something violent like a murder committed in the heat of passion will take several lifetimes to pay back. And those ways of repayment are as numerous as the times it has been done. It depends on the individual karmas of the people involved. Generally what happens is that in their future lifetimes they will continually be involved in a close relationship of some sort with the person they murdered.
"And is usually, in the first few lifetimes, an antagonistic type relationship. Because the person who was murdered finds that for some reason they fear or hate this person and doesn’t understand why. And meanwhile this person, the murderer, feels compelled to know them and be around them because he wants to make up for what he did in a past lifetime.” (Between Death and Life by Dolores Cannon)
If you hate another person, that hate may bind you to him through as many lives as you allow the hate to consume you. (Seth Speaks by Jane Roberts)
“Animosities also seem to bind. I have already mentioned some cases in which a subject remembered the previous life of a person who had quarreled with, or had even been injured or killed by, one of the subject’s parents.” (Children Who Remember Previous Lives by Ian Stevenson, MD)
How Reincarnation Works: Being Reborn
It seems death is much easier and more enjoyable than birth. Many people describe physical experience as unpleasant. They are used to being light and free whereas being a human is heavy and dense.
Many report feeling “trapped” and “cramped.” Supposedly, part of the reason babies sleep so much is because they’re trying to adjust to physical life.
“The shock of birth of course is worse…After death there is no instant struggle, where birth on your plane involves a pressing, agonizing attempt to get one’s bearings, and learn new patterns of behavior, when there is no time… to make any mistakes at all." (The Early Sessions: Book 1, Jane Roberts)
“They are aware of everyone’s thoughts and they don’t like being separated from the mother. Their first cries are in frustration at being unable to communicate with these strange creatures in this environment. Then softly a wave of forgetfulness seems to sweep over them as their responses dull and the memories of the other planes and other existences fade away.” (Dolores Cannon)
(Want more information on why we usually don’t remember our past lives? Read this.)
Entering the New Body
When do you enter the new body? Sometimes before birth, sometimes at birth, sometimes a little after.Then you don’t have to be in the baby’s body before it is born? No. Some do not enter until days after the baby has been born… (Between Death and Life, Dolores Cannon)
"Until the new personality enters, the fetus regards itself as a part of the organism of the mother. This support is suddenly denied at birth. If the new personality has not entered earlier to any full extent, it usually does so at birth, in order to stabilize the new organism. It comforts the new organism, in other words. The new personality, therefore, will experience birth to varying degrees according to when it has entered this dimension.
"…When the child, particularly the young child, is sleeping, for example, the personality often simply vacates the body. Gradually the identification with the between-life situation dwindles until nearly full focus resides in the physical body." (Seth Speaks, Jane Roberts)
“My patients tell me that the soul does not enter the body right away. Around the time of conception, a reservation is made by the soul…The soul who has reserved that particular baby’s body can then come into and out of the body, as it wishes. It is not confined… the attachment is not complete until around the time of birth, either shortly before, during, or just afterward.” (Only Love Is Real, Brian Weiss, MD)
Books You Should Read
My posts always end up so much longer than I intend them to be. Honestly, this information just scrapes the surface of how reincarnation works. I’m putting together more in-depth posts, but I recommend that you check out these books for yourself!
FYI, these are affiliate links, which just means that I get a tiny percentage if you happen to purchase any of the books while using my links. (It doesn’t cost you anything extra.) Even if you don’t purchase, you can still click the links to read more about the books.
Journey of Souls by Michael Newton
The Nature of Personal Reality by Jane Roberts
Between Death and Life by Dolores Cannon
The Early Sessions: Book 1 by Jane Roberts
Children Who Remember Previous Lives by Ian Stevenson, MD
Only Love Is Real by Brian Weiss, MD
Seth Speaks by Jane Roberts
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