Editing Reincarnation (section)

===New religious and spiritual movements===
{{Paranormal|state=collapsed}}

====Spiritism====
[[File:Tombe Allan Kardec.JPG|thumb|upright|Tomb of [[Allan Kardec]], founder of spiritism. The inscription says in French "To be born, die, again be reborn, and so progress unceasingly, such is the law".]]
[[Kardecist spiritism|Spiritism]], a [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualist]] philosophy codified in the 19th century by the French educator [[Allan Kardec]], teaches reincarnation or rebirth into human life after death. According to this doctrine, free will and cause and effect are the corollaries of reincarnation, and reincarnation provides a mechanism for a person's spiritual evolution in successive lives.<ref name="Hess2010">{{cite book |author=David J. Hess |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oGxsfV-lTtEC&pg=PA16 |title=Spirits and Scientists: Ideology, Spiritism and Brazilian Culture |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-271-04080-6 |pages=16–}}</ref>

====Theosophy====
{{See also|Theosophy#Reincarnation and karma}}
The [[Theosophical Society]] draws much of its inspiration from India.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Theosophical Society {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/philosophy-and-religion/other-religious-beliefs-and-general-terms/miscellaneous-religion/theosophical-society |access-date=2023-12-09 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> In the Theosophical world-view reincarnation is the vast rhythmic process by which the soul, the part of a person which belongs to the formless non-material and timeless worlds, unfolds its spiritual powers in the world and comes to know itself.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Chajes |first=Julie |title=Reincarnation in H.P. Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine |year=2017 |pages=66–90}}</ref> It descends from sublime, free, spiritual realms and gathers experience through its effort to express itself in the world. Afterwards there is a withdrawal from the physical plane to successively higher levels of reality, in death, a purification and assimilation of the past life. Having cast off all instruments of personal experience it stands again in its spiritual and formless nature, ready to begin its next rhythmic manifestation, every lifetime bringing it closer to complete self-knowledge and self-expression.<ref name=":0" /> However, it may attract old mental, emotional, and energetic ''karma'' patterns to form the new personality.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Bruce F. |title=Ancient Wisdom Revived: A History of the Theosophical Movement |publisher=Berkeley: University of California Press |year=1980 |isbn=978-0520039681}}</ref>

====Anthroposophy====
[[Anthroposophy]] describes reincarnation from the point of view of Western philosophy and culture. The ego is believed to transmute transient soul experiences into universals that form the basis for an individuality that can endure after death. These universals include ideas, which are intersubjective and thus transcend the purely personal (spiritual consciousness), intentionally formed human character (spiritual life), and becoming a fully conscious human being (spiritual humanity). [[Rudolf Steiner]] described both the general principles he believed to be operative in reincarnation, such as that one's will activity in one life forms the basis for the thinking of the next,<ref>See e.g. ''Reincarnation and Karma'' by Steiner</ref> and a number of successive lives of various individualities.<ref>Steiner, ''Karmic Relationships'', volumes 1–6</ref>

{{blockquote|Similarly, other famous people's life stories are not primarily the result of genes, upbringing or biographical vicissitudes. Steiner relates that a large estate in north-eastern France was held during the early Middle Ages by a martial feudal lord. During a military campaign, this estate was captured by a rival. The previous owner had no means of retaliating, and was forced to see his property lost to an enemy. He was filled with a smoldering resentment towards the propertied classes, not only for the remainder of his life in the Middle Ages, but also in a much later incarnation—as Karl Marx. His rival was reborn as Friedrich Engels.<ref name="Hammer2003">{{cite book|first=Olav|last=Hammer|title=Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EZYsPQgBNioC&pg=PA495|year=2003|publisher=Brill|isbn=90-04-13638-X|page=495}}</ref>|[[Olav Hammer]]|Coda. On Belief and Evidence}}

====Modern astrology====
Inspired by [[Helena Blavatsky]]'s major works, including ''[[Isis Unveiled]]'' and ''[[The Secret Doctrine]]'', [[astrology|astrologers]] in the early twentieth-century integrated the concepts of [[karma]] and reincarnation into the practice of [[Western astrology]]. Notable astrologers who advanced this development included [[Alan Leo]], Charles E. O. Carter, [[Marc Edmund Jones]], and [[Dane Rudhyar]]. A new synthesis of East and West resulted as Hindu and Buddhist concepts of reincarnation were fused with Western astrology's deep roots in [[Hermeticism]] and [[Neoplatonism]]. In the case of Rudhyar, this synthesis was enhanced with the addition of [[Carl Jung|Jungian]] [[depth psychology]].<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Jutta |last1=Woods |title=The Theosophical Heritage in Modern Astrology |journal=The Mountain Astrologer |date=2013 }}</ref> This dynamic integration of astrology, reincarnation and depth psychology has continued into the modern era with the work of astrologers [[Steven Forrest (astrologer)|Steven Forrest]] and Jeffrey Wolf Green. Their respective schools of Evolutionary Astrology are based on "an acceptance of the fact that human beings incarnate in a succession of lifetimes".<ref>{{cite web |author=Steven Forrest and Jeffrey Wolf Green |title=About Evolutionary Astrology |url=http://www.forrestastrology.com/about-us/about-evolutionary-astrology |access-date=22 November 2014}}</ref>

====Scientology====
{{See also|Scientology beliefs and practices}}

Past reincarnation, usually termed '''past lives''', is a key part of the principles and practices of the [[Church of Scientology]]. Scientologists believe that the human individual is actually a ''[[thetan]]'', an immortal spiritual entity, that has fallen into a degraded state as a result of past-life experiences. Scientology [[Auditing (Scientology)|auditing]] is intended to free the person of these past-life traumas and recover past-life memory, leading to a higher state of spiritual awareness.

This idea is echoed in their highest fraternal religious order, [[Sea Org]], whose motto is "''Revenimus''" ('We Come Back'), and whose members sign a "[[Billion year contract|billion-year contract]]" as a sign of commitment to that ideal. [[L. Ron Hubbard]], the founder of Scientology, does not use the word "reincarnation" to describe its beliefs, noting that: "The common definition of reincarnation has been altered from its original meaning. The word has come to mean 'to be born again in different life forms' whereas its actual definition is 'to be born again into the flesh of another body.' Scientology ascribes to this latter, original definition of reincarnation."<ref>{{cite web |title=Scientology Church & Religion – What is Scientology? |url=http://www.scientology.org/html/opencms/cos/scientology/en_US/news-media/faq/pg016.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060613231607/http://www.scientology.org/html/opencms/cos/scientology/en_US/news-media/faq/pg016.html |archive-date=13 June 2006 |work=Scientology}}</ref>

The first writings in Scientology regarding past lives date from around 1951 and slightly earlier. In 1960, Hubbard published a book on past lives entitled ''[[Have You Lived Before This Life]]''. In 1968 he wrote ''[[Bibliography of Scientology#Mission Into Time|Mission Into Time]]'', a report on a five-week sailing expedition to Sardinia, Sicily and Carthage to see if specific evidence could be found to substantiate L. Ron Hubbard's recall of incidents in his own past, centuries ago.

====Wicca====
[[Wicca]] is a [[neo-pagan]] religion focused on nature, guided by the philosophy of [[Wiccan Rede]] that advocates the tenets "Harm None, Do As Ye Will". Wiccans believe in a form of karmic return where one's deeds are returned, either in the current life or in another life, threefold or multiple times in order to teach one lessons (the [[Threefold law|Threefold Law]]). Reincarnation is therefore an accepted part of the Wiccan faith.<ref>Encyclopedia of Wicca and Witchcraft, Raven Grimassi</ref>{{full citation needed|date=December 2016}} Wiccans also believe that death and afterlife are important experiences for the soul to transform and prepare for future lifetimes.{{citation needed|date=December 2016}}