Reincarnation, literally “to be made flesh again”, is a doctrine or mystical belief that some essential part of a living being (in some variations only human beings) survives death to be reborn in a new body. This essential part is often referred to as the Spirit or Soul, the ‘Higher or True Self’, ‘Divine Spark’, ‘I’ or the ‘Ego’ (not to be confused with the ego as defined by psychology). According to such beliefs, a new personality is developed during each life in the physical world, but some part of the being remains constantly present throughout these successive lives as well.

Belief in reincarnation is an ancient phenomenon. This doctrine is a central tenet within the majority of Indian religious traditions, such as Hinduism (including Yoga, Vaishnavism, and Shaivism), Jainism, and Sikhism. The idea was also entertained by some Ancient Greek philosophers. Many modern Pagans also believe in reincarnation as do some New Age movements, along with followers of Spiritism, practitioners of certain African traditions, and students of esoteric philosophies such as Kabbalah, Sufism and Gnostic and Esoteric Christianity.

The Buddhist concept of Rebirth although often referred to as reincarnation differs significantly from the Hindu-based traditions and New Age movements in that there is no “self” (or eternal soul) to reincarnate.

During recent decades, the concept of reincarnation has captured the imagination of a significant minority of people in the West with films such as Kundun and Birth appearing in popular culture, alongside a great number of books exploring the subject – based largely on the research of Ian Stevenson

Christianity

Some Christian denominations reject reincarnation mainly because they consider the theory to challenge a basic tenet of their interpretation of Christianity. Many churches do not directly address the issue and leave the matter open to individual interpretation due to the few biblical references which survived the purging of texts considered to be heretical in the founding years of Christianity as a church. Most of the philosophies associated with the theory of reincarnation focus on “working” or “learning” through various lifetimes to achieve some sort of higher understanding or state of “goodness” before salvation is granted or acquired. Basic to Roman Catholicism is the doctrine that humans can never achieve the perfection God requires and the only “way out” is total and complete forgiveness accomplished through the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross wherein He took the sins of mankind. There seems to be evidence however that some of the earliest Christian sects such as the Sethians and followers of the Gnostic Church of Valentinus believed in reincarnation, and they were persecuted by the Romans for this.

A number of Evangelical and (in the USA) Fundamentalist Christian groups have denounced any belief in reincarnation as heretical, and explained any phenomena suggestive of it as deceptions of the devil. Although the Bible never mentions the word reincarnation, there are several passages through New Testament that Orthodox Christians interpret as openly rejecting reincarnation or the possibility of any return or contact with this world for the souls in Heaven or Hell (see 9:27 and Luke 16:20-31)

The Bible contains passages in the New Testament that seem to refer to reincarnation. In Matthew 11:10-14and 17:10-13, Jesus says that John the Baptist is the prophet Elijah who had lived centuries before, and he does not appear to be speaking metaphorically.

There are various contemporary attempts to entwine Christianity and reincarnation. Geddes Macgregor, wrote a book called Reincarnation in Christianity : A New Vision of Rebirth in Christian Thought. And Rudolf Steiner wrote Christianity as Mystical Fact.

Several Christian denominations which support reincarnation include the Liberal Catholic Church, Unity Church, The Christian Spiritualist Movement, the Rosicrucian Fellowship and the Lectorium Rosicrucianum. The Medieval heretical sect known variously as the Cathars or Albigensians who flourished in the Languedoc believed in Reincarnation, seeing each soul as a fallen angel born again and again into the world of Matter created by Lucibel (Lucifer). Only through a Gnostic ‘Rebirth’ in the Holy Spirit through Christ could the soul escape this process of successive existences and return to God.

**All information was obtained from www.wikipedia.org**

There are 4 basic ways in which a spirit or ghost may manifest itself. The one that most people think of but is probably the least common is a visual apparition. For the investigator, catching something like this on film is the holy grail of evidence. In this form of manifestation the ghost or spirit appears in physical form. They may look like a normal, living person, a semitransparent wispy figure, or anywhere in between. Visual apparitions may also be of animals or objects.

The second form of manifestation is through sounds. These may be disembodied footsteps, the sounds of doors opening and closing, music, or speech. Often, in the cases where speech is heard, it is muffled conversations from an empty room and there are many reports of people hearing their name being called. These are of course just a few examples

In the third form, scents or smells are detected. Often times there are reports of smelling flowers or cologne. Pipe, cigarette and cigar smoke scents are very common as well. These scents usually do not last long. Typically, someone will catch a brief smell and about the time they recognize it, it is gone.

The last form is tactile. Like the others this can take several forms as well. A common example is feeling a cold spot in a room. These spots are believed to be caused by a spirit absorbing the energy in a room to assist in further manifestation. Heat is just another form of energy and when used by a spirit can drop the temperature 10 degrees or more. Sometimes it is a small area that is affected and sometimes a whole room. Tactile manifestations can also take the form of being touched, like a hand on the shoulder or a poke in the side. Sometimes hair is pulled or a piece of clothing is tugged on. These are generally very slight but can be forceful in nature.

These different ways a ghost or spirit may manifest may happen individually or together. The combinations are as varied as the hauntings they are associated with.