Reincarnation – What Is It?

What about Re-incarnation?

This topic bobs up from time to time. Certain people have, under hypnosis, given very detailed descriptions of alleged past lives. The respected author, Ian Wilson, researched the Holy Shroud of Turin - the alleged burial-cloth of Jesus Christ. As a result of his studies he concluded that it is genuine. Soon after this, he made a similar study of re-incarnation. His conclusion was that the alleged hypnotic memories of past lives, when investigated intelligently (and not on a radio talk-in programme) have always shown fatal errors of fact. It is all an illusion.

But whether re-incarnation is a fact or not, is a very serious issue regarding our eternal destiny. The Catholic Church tells us that God the Father sent His Son to teach us how to please God and get to Heaven, and that His Son died on the Cross to give us the Mass.

The teaching from the Son of God was: “ it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27). We are given just one life here on Earth - and is that such a bad idea? - for the purpose of obtaining Eternal Life with the Source of all Goodness and Love.

This topic does have practical consequences. In countries where this belief is widespread, there is little motive for taking care of the poor and destitute. Christ told us, “As often as you do these things to the least of these your brethren, you do it to Me”. But if the destitute person has been sent back as a punishment for a bad past life, why should we help him?

The Other Side