Introduction to reincarnation

This is the introductory welcome and orientation page to the broad topic of the process between the death and a new birth, also reincarnation. It includes many different aspects such as:

• the spectrum of death: at what age, young or old, and due to what cause people die (eg accident, disease)
• the various stages after death, how this is experienced (alone and in relationships with others), and what happens in a spiritual scientific understanding
• the influence of deceased souls on Earth
• the process of incarnation and physical birth in a spiritual scientific understanding
• the laws of karma or destiny
• the metamorphosis of the human being in the process between death and a new birth
• the doctrine of reincarnations in various cultures and religions, also historically
• an evolutionary perspective on the start and end of human physical reincarnation, and changes in the process over the various epochs
• the effect of the Christ Impulse and the Mystery of Golgotha on the process of reincarnation
• and many closely related topics such as oa the resurrection: what it is and how it is possible.

Aspects

• for a jumpboard page to the topic pages covering the differing topics in detail, see: Man's cycle of reincarnation
• In every cultural age (or previously sub-race), the human being has both a male and female incarnation, spiritually however these are counted together (1905-06-25-GA091)

• spiral path: Man's spirit development <-> path of the Sun <-> development of human races and cultural ages (see: zodiac clock)
  • Man's spiritual development is linked to the Sun, which moves through the twelve zodiac sign in some 26-31.000 years. Each zodiac sign corresponds to 2100-2600 years, offering different conditions and spiritual influences on Earth, and therefore different learning conditions for Man's soul. This way Man goes through twelve different perspectives through twelve different conditions in which to grow (with, as a general rule, (at least) 24 incarnations, 2 in each cultural age (or prev. sub-race) corresponding to a zodiac sign for the Sun in its journey along the ecliptic in a platonic year of some 26-31.000 years (see more on 25920). "A new cycle corresponds the occurrence of the same conditions. The development runs in a spiral, so that each time it starts at a slightly higher point." (1905-06-25-GA091)
• souls reincarnating today no longer descend into their physical bodies with the strength fed by ancient knowledge as was the case in earlier cultural ages (eg Greece) .. souls are rather empty and consume the bodies. If the soul is only filled with sensory percepts and/from external mineral science, destiny threatens that people in future incarnations become human automatons and their eternal core dies off (1921-01-16-GA203). See also I-less human beings.
• reincarnation not only happens for individual I's, but also for the separate individual bodies or bodily sheaths (1909-02-03-GA109 notes to lecture)
  • for more info, see: Principle of spiritual economy#Aspects

• the human Christ experience and impact of the Christ Impulse in the stages of this journey, see Christ Module 20 - After death
• not only the human I reincarnates, also the other elements of Man's bodily principles can be 're-deployed', see Principle of spiritual economy
  • "it is insufficient to speak only of the reincarnation of the I .. the etheric body and astral body can also be reincarnated" (1909-02-15-GA109)

That things are never simple and many other effects could be playing is ao illustrated by

• what is explained in 1924-08-08-GA237, regarding the confusion in karma being caused by the lack of alignment between angels.
• is the fact that souls can and/or will be able to make a choice regarding their karma towards others they are heavily indebted to, see 1922-11-19-GA218. This is related to Christ as Lord of Karma (see eg 1911-10-07/14-GA131).

  .. the following possibility will arise for mankind in coming time. When at the point of descending into a next earthly life, man will be able to say to himself: ‘This is the body I have been preparing; yet, having sent it down to Earth and having now received my Karma into the ether-body which I have drawn together from the Cosmos, I see how it is with this Karma. Through something that I did in former lives I see that I have gravely hurt some other human being.’ For we are always in the danger of hurting others through the things we do. The light of judgment as to what we have done to another man will be particularly vivid at this moment when we are still living only in our ether-body, having not yet put on the physical. Here too in future time the light of Michael will be working, and the love of Christ. And we shall then be enabled to bring about a change in our decision, — namely to give to the other man the body we have been preparing, while we ourselves take on the body he prepared, whom we have injured. Such is the mighty transition which will be taking place from now onward in the spiritual life of men. It will be possible for us of our own decision to enter into the body prepared perforce by another human soul to whom we once did grievous harm; he on the other hand will be enabled to enter into the body we prepared. What we are able to achieve on Earth will thus bring about karmic compensation in quite another way than heretofore. We human beings shall be able even to exchange our physical bodies.

Inspirational quotes

John 11:25-26

I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.498 is an overview diagram showing the process between death and a new birth, with some (non-exhaustive) references for the various phases. This can serve as a map to organize one's study coverage and initialize one's overall understanding based on the references that provide a starting point for the different phases and aspects.

As most schemas on this site, also this one originates from a pencil drawing made along the study process (DL 2016).

NOTE: this copy still contains an error in that names Mercury-A and Venus-A need to be switched around. The current astronomical names of the physical planets Mercury-A and Venus-A were swapped versus the sequence of the spiritual planetary spheres Venus-S and Mercury-S. see Planets#the different planets.

Schema FMC00.593: illustrates how the human being sheds off his lower bodies after death, and gives off the cosmos the fruits of the Earth. As a result of the incarnate life on Earth, Man contributes the seeds for future worlds, that are taken up and carried by the higher hierarchies. Thoughts and feelings create fields of activity for the Third Hierarchy (H3) and Second Hierarchy (H2).

The process of death like an exhaling out into the cosmos. A new birth is like an inhaling, bringing down the spirit germ into the physical body carried by the stream of heredity (see Schema FMC00.321 and Schema FMC00.331 and on Embryo in the womb).

During incarnated life on Earth, the forces from the higher worlds keep working in the human being - see also the double and the explanation in 1912-06-11-GA137 on Astrology#Inspirational quotes.

Schema FMC00.288 is a high level representation of:

• above: evolution of macrocosmos (solar system) and microcosmos (in this case Man's perspective as one of the spiritual hierarchies in development) - and especially the descent where Man received from the spiritual hierarchies, and the ascent in which Man starts to contribute and create, see Free Man Creator and Schema FMC00.055
• middle: the current situation with the cycle of reincarnation and descent into a human physical body (incarnate life, showing the seven year phases) and the life between death and a new birth, spent in the astral world and spirit world. See also Schema FMC00.237B that illustrates the correspondence between microcosm and macrocosm.
• below: our life of Earth is characterized by the daily cycle which is essential for understanding how Man 'functions' in terms of I-consciousness, sensory experience and incorporating life experiences between the different bodily principles (physical and etheric bodies, astral body and Human 'I').

Notes:

• for a full coverage with references of how these cycles relate, see the topic page 25920
• see also Schema FMC00.327 on IAO
• note this is a very early schema dating from first year of study 2013, still to be updated with embedded Schema numbers.

Lecture coverage and references

Overview coverage

Rudolf Steiner covered the process between death and a new birth throughout his 20 years of lecturing between 1904 and 1924. Besides the standard works (books), we can list some 45 lecture cycles that, relevant lectures taken together, contain an extensive foundation for study.

Similar as with the topic of the Christ and Mystery of Golgotha, the coverage is so vast that it's difficult to give an overview or provide a simple starting point. Fortunately, most any lecture is a starting place and one can organically broaden and deepen by reading up more and more lectures on the topic. Below is a short list to get started.

Below are some starting points selected to initialize one's understanding by studying a number of complementary perspectives:

• books:
  • 1904-GA009: Theosophy
  • 1910-GA013: OES or Outline of Esoteric Science
• selected lecture cycles
  • first phase
    • 1912-GA135 - 5 lectures
    • 1912-GA130 - 3 lectures (karma)
    • 1912/13-GA140 (various) - 20 lectures - excellent
    • 1912/13-GA141 - 10 lectures
    • 1914-04-GA153 (Vienna) - 6 lectures
  • second phase
    • 1923-08-GA227 (Penmaenmawr) - 4 lectures (8th to 11th) - excellent
    • 1923-11-GA231 (The Hague) - 3 lectures - another perspective
    • 1924-05-GA236/239 (Dornach/Paris) - 5 to 6 lectures
    • 1924-06-GA239/240 (Stuttgart/Breslau) - 5 lectures

The above lists a total of some 62 lectures to start with (first phase 44, second phase 18), that will provide a good basis and foundation.

Notes about Rudolf's Steiner coverage

1/ At the end of 1912, Rudolf Steiner gave an extensive courses GA140 'Investigation of life Between death and rebirth' and GA141 'Between death and rebirth', and he positions that he had been doing extensive research for a periode of two years, so 1910-1912. He thereby complements earlier descriptions already give in works such as Theosophy (1904) and Outline of Esoteric Science (1910).

2/ In the period between end 1923 and mid/end 1924, Rudolf Steiner comes back to this with a fresh new and coverage, clear and condensed in Penmaenmawr (1923-GA227) and from a different angle in The Hague (1923-GA231). He then picks it up with extensive coverage the as part of the 80+ Karmic Relationship lectures in 1924 - see overview Schema FMC00.265 (see also Karma research case studies).

3/ It is interesting to note that, as GA140 and GA141 provide a foundational coverage with 30 dedicated lectures, one might expect that this would be thé reference that Rudolf Steiner continues to refer to later.

However this is not the case, and there is one cycle that Rudolf Steiner doés explicitly refer to again and again when covering the process between death and a new birth. That is the Vienna cycle of April 1914, held between 9 and 14 April, published first already in 1914 and 1928 as the then 'Zyklus 32' and later as part of the small six-lecture cycle in the GA as GA153, so 1914-04-GA153.

The cycle is different because it is about the inner experience of Man between death and a new birth, so rather than descriptive, or conceptual-intellectual, the human inner experience of the process id described. The cycle builds up to this with the first four lectures and then culminates in the two unique lectures of 1914-04-13-GA153 and 1914-04-14-GA153. The first covers ascent from death to midnight hour, the descond descent from midnight hour on.

Rudolf Steiner keeps referencing this cycle and lectures, because never again did he give such beautiful intense description that we can 'feel our way into', which is obviously the whole purpose of such description: to feel and not just to think and intellectually process the information.

Reference extracts

190X-GA034

from 'Essays on Anthroposophy from the Journals “Lucifer” and “Lucifer-Gnosis” 1903-1908'

“Are two successive incarnations of a person similar to each other, so that, for example, an architect is born again as an architect, a musician as a musician?”

This may be the case, but it does not have to be. Such similarity does occur, but it is by no means the rule.

It is easy to get the wrong idea in this area because one thinks about the laws of reincarnation in terms that are too closely tied to outward appearances. For example, someone loves southern regions and therefore believes that he must have been a southerner in a previous life. Such inclinations, however, have nothing to do with the causal body. They are only of immediate significance for the one life. What works from one incarnation into the next must be seated deeper in the core of the human being.

For example, let us assume that someone was a musician in one life. The spiritual harmonies and rhythms that are expressed in tones reach into the causal body. The tones themselves belong to the outer physical life. They are located in the parts of the human being that arise and pass away. The Kama-manas body [the intellectual or emotional soul], which is once the appropriate apparatus for tones, can be the appropriate apparatus for the contemplation of numerical and spatial relationships in a subsequent life. And a musician can become a mathematician.

It is precisely through this fact that, in the course of his incarnations, Man becomes a universal being by going through the most diverse activities of life. But, as I said, there are exceptions to this rule. And these can then be explained by the great laws of the spiritual world.

1905-06-25-GA091

'The incarnation process in connection with heavenly conditions'

computer translation

If you follow the sun as it rises, you will see that it does not rise at the same point every day, but that it rises at a certain point in spring and then gradually moves forward. This [point] is determined by a sign in the [zodiac]: Now the sun rises in the sign of Pisces, earlier it was in the sign of Aries, still earlier in the sign of Taurus, and if we continue to trace the circle backwards, we come to the sign of Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius , Capricorn, Aquarius

Around the year 800 BC, the sun began to rise in the sign of Aries or the Lamb. The constellations are so far apart that they always make up about one twelfth of the circle. The sun moves from one constellation into the other. In the year 1800, the sun moved into the constellation of Pisces, so it took 1800 + 800 = 2600 years to move from one constellation to the other.

This is always linked to major transformations on Earth. Significant cultural changes are always taking place. The changes in the Earth's conditions are naturally connected with the fact that the sun has a great influence on the Earth. Everything that is called the mental in Man is connected with the sun, everything physical with the Earth. When Man lives on Earth, [he is dependent on the Earth and develops according to Earthly conditions]. 2600 years ago, Man absorbed other things than he does now; then he was trained as an athlete, for example, now as a scribe.

Conditions are also changing on the sun. We can say that for the sun, for the Earth, the changes have great significance.

When Man is spiritually embodied, he lives in the conditions of the sun, in the spirit world. He is connected with the gravity of the Earth as long as he is on Earth. If he dies, he will enter into contact with the heaviness of the sun. The moon is in between, it is connected with the astral body, forms the intermediate stage between Earth and sun - Kamaloka.

The incarnations have the purpose that Man really goes through what he can go through. The incarnations are not haphazard, but the human being is connected with the sun's existence so that he develops mentally in the same way as the sun moves in its [ecliptic].

In 12 times 2.600 years, i.e. in 31.200 years, the sun goes once around through all the constellations. This is also the time in which Man undergoes his mental [spirit] development. He goes through twelve stages in a cycle and then always encounters different stages on Earth in which he learns new things.

Female and male are counted together occultly, so that he has to go through twenty-four incarnations.

This is the law of the space between new birth and death. This also coincides approximately with the formation of races. A new race always arises between two such [constellations].

In every race the human being has incarnated twice, as a man and as a woman. He finds different conditions and learns in different ways. There is no pedantic regularity in the incarnations, because it depends not only on the inner circumstances of the human being. [When the Earth needs someone, such regular patterns are broken]. On the whole, therefore, this cycle of individuality only generally coincides with the racial cycle.

The intervening period is also connected with the laws of heaven. Man comes to Kamaloka because his astral body is still connected with the drives and desires that he can only satisfy on Earth, in the physical body. This is how long it takes for a person to get out of the habit of wishing. Man has been perfected in his present physical form by the separation of the moon. His instinctive life is therefore connected with the moon. The urge towards the physical body is implanted by the moon and is connected with the powers of the moon.

Therefore, Man is embodied with the sphere of the moon as long as these urges last in him. A lunar cycle lasts eighteen years. This is also the time that Man must remain in Kamaloka.

All these deeper truths are expressed in the religious-ritual formulas, and this way we also have the gateway to so-called astrology.

A new cycle corresponds the occurrence of the same conditions. The development runs in a spiral, so that each time it starts at a slightly higher point.

1908-09-12-GA106

Here we must touch on something that can be said only among students of the science of the spirit. It is customary for people, even for theosophists, to conceive the mysteries of reincarnation in much too simple a way.

One should not imagine that a soul that is embodied today in its three sheaths was embodied in the same way in a foregoing incarnation, and again in one before that, always according to the same scheme. The secrets are much more complicated.

Although H. P. Blavatsky took great pains to show her intimate pupils how complicated these secrets were, the matter is still not rightly understood today.

People think simply that a soul goes into a body ever and again. But it is not so simple.

Often we cannot fit a historical figure into such a scheme if we wish to understand it correctly. We must go about the matter in a much more complicated way.

1909-02-03-GA109 notes to lecture

freely translated

Reincarnation not only happens for individual I's, but also for the separate individual bodies or bodily sheaths. It is important to point out such things. .. Erroneous views may have fatal consequences not only for beginners but also the more advanced when they believe that this or that Individuality is incarnated in this or that Personality. A stop can be put to such when one knows that also individual members of the bodily structure can reincarnate.

1909-02-19-GA109 notes to lecture

freely translated

Today there no human beings who does not have a part of an earlier etheric or astral body as part of its constitution. These are more complex questions of reincarnation .. An error in the matters and questions of reincarnation has serious damage as consequence. It does less harm for beginners as for the most advanced.

1912-11-03-GA140

In the domain of spiritual science — using the word in its true sense — investigation is difficult and full of complications.

Suppose a man with good sight goes to some district in Switzerland, climbs a high mountain and then, when he has come down again, gives you an accurate description of what he has seen. You can well imagine that if he goes to the district again and climbs higher up the same mountain, he will describe what he has seen from a different vantage point. Through descriptions given from different vantage points it is obvious that an increasingly accurate and complete idea of the landscape will be obtained. Now people are apt to believe that if someone has become clairvoyant, he knows everything! It is by no means so.

In the spiritual world, investigation always has to be gradual — ”bit by bit,” as it were. Even in respect to things that have been investigated with great exactitude, new discoveries can be made all the time. During the last two years it has been my task to investigate even more closely than before the conditions of life between death and rebirth, and I want to tell you now about the findings of this recent research.

1912-11-18-GA140

In spiritual scientific research one cannot check often enough the facts one has repeatedly investigated, and about which one has spoken, for they are facts of the spiritual world that is not easily accessible and comprehensible to man. There is a constant danger of misinterpreting in one way or another, and events may be viewed incorrectly. This is the reason the results obtained must be checked again and again.

The principal events of life in the spiritual world have, of course, been known for thousands of years, yet it is difficult to describe them.

I am deeply grateful that recently I had the opportunity to concern myself more intimately again with an important aspect of spiritual science, namely, the realm of life between death and a new birth. It is not so much that new facts come to light, but that one has the possibility to present things in a more exact and accurate way.

So today I would like to speak of the period that for super-sensible perception is of the utmost importance, that is, the period between death and rebirth. I will not deal so much with the period immediately following death, the kamaloca period, descriptions of which can be found in my writings, but with the succeeding period, the actual sojourn of man in the spiritual world between death and rebirth. This description will be prefaced briefly by the following remarks.

1917-11-28-GA072

... I would like to refer to the statements of those people who approximately say the following repeatedly:

why investigating that which is beyond death? Why investigating this everlasting in the human soul?

If I die, I realise how the things are, I can quietly wait for this.

Nothing is wronger than this. Spiritual research shows if it meets the souls after death that they live in such surroundings as they have prepared them between birth and death for themselves. Here in the sense-perceptible world we live in the sensory surroundings. After death, we live in that spiritual of which we have become aware between birth and death. That what was not there for us between birth and death does not exist for us as an outside world after death. Our inside world becomes our outside world - this becomes a great law of spiritual knowledge, as far as we have consciously recognised it not with vision but with that which our common sense has accepted from vision. We have only that as an outside world after death what we have had as an inside world between birth and death.

If we get mental pictures only between birth and death that are associated with the outer sense-perceptible world, then such mental pictures form our surroundings after death. Because I would like to show that spiritual science attains concrete results, I do not want to shy away from pronouncing what many people regard as ridiculous even today, but the things must be pronounced. If we have attained mental pictures of the outer sense-perceptible world only, it is our inside world during the physical life and then it will be our outside world after death. This implies that those souls, which have not attempted to realise that behind the sense-perceptible world the spiritual world is, are banished into the earthly-sensory sphere after death until they give up the belief that there is no spirit what is much more difficult after death. Hence, the souls that do not acquire this consciousness will be retained in the earth sphere after death. They can be found there by those who have taken the way to them with spiritual research.

1921-01-16-GA203

souls reincarnating today no longer descend into their physical bodies with the strength fed by ancient knowledge as was the case in earlier cultural ages (eg Greece) .. souls are rather empty and consume the bodies. If the soul is only filled with sensory percepts and/from external mineral science, destiny threatens that people in future incarnations become human automatons and their eternal core dies off (1921-01-16-GA203). See also I-less human beings.

The important thing here is that even today's incarnated soul has no real relationship with ancient wisdom and with what goes on through the rest of life which is already fed, even grafted in school, in some or other form coming from sense perceptible observations.

What is really presenting itself here if one considers the inner aspect?

Within our body we have the soul which has been in previous lives yet we come to some extent into our body without having any relationship to what the soul had experienced in a previous life. Throughout various earthly lives — as a necessity for the development of freedom — the soul developed in such a way that it was emptied of all it had absorbed before, in order not to have a relationship any longer to anything taken up earlier and thus have available capacity for what is actually living in the world at present. Our soul no longer brings with it anything from former earthly lives. We do bring results of our moral qualities with us but basically not what has lived in us from earlier earthly lives from which any kind of innate knowledge of world secrets could result. Today souls do not enter bodies in the same way it happened in Greek times. Souls who incarnated during the Hellenistic time entered life with still some old empowered knowledge which enlivened the body with soul spiritual life forces.

Today this is not the case. Today the soul enters the body in a way which is consumptive. To an ever increasing degree this is the case; the souls which are born today has some destructive influence and lame the body, gradually dragging death forces through it. If evolution is to continue this way it will lead to the undermining and decline of earthly life. People would become weaker and weaker in their will forces. People will appear less and less able to have a grasp for detecting active impulses. People will gradually go through life like automatic detectors.

How sad this is that we have to see the future in this way, and how seldom it happens that people are inwardly fired up through lively ideas. How often we find that people at present can be said to suffer from a soul sclerosis, turning out dead ideas and only allowing their minds to accept tradition and thus becoming machines.

It is really like this: if we go with an unprejudiced attitude through life and observe how people are placed in life, we can basically not differentiate, one person from another, amongst dozens of them. We can actually not tell them apart. We talk to A, to B, and then with C and they all say the same thing. Each one individually believes in having said something particular, but we can't find any particular difference between them, they all say the same thing. We actually only have one kind of human being in a variety of copies, and we can ask ourselves: Are we not being deceived — isn't what we talked about today the same as yesterday's conversation? This corresponds completely to the observation of consecutive earthly lives in relation to our present earthly life. The soul no longer brings with it what it had in earlier lives, which went from one earthly life to the next and ever again appear, although with a decreasing power which is like an innate wisdom. That is no longer there. When we consider such souls and their connection to the external, sense perceptible scientific observation, then we see they are packed with transitory wisdom; with a wisdom which when expressed in imaginative ideas, is regarded as transitory. In order to conceal this fact by a terrible illusion, the old “Law of conservation of matter” in the nineteenth century was reinvented by the “Law of the conservation of energy.” This law was made up to conceal that there is nothing which can be conserved in nature, that everything is transient, even matter and energy. Nothing is left over for the soul when it is reincarnated in the future as a human machine; the soul being crammed with sensory observation and scientific material, because this fails to exercise anything alive and gives no fructifying power to the soul.

The soul born today comes over from an earlier earthly life, eager to be fructified by something which in turn will help it progress in its next earthly life. However the absorption of knowledge stemming only from the perishable offers a soul death; murders the soul. This is something which must be considered in all earnestness today, when the idea continues that non-understanding can relate to obsolete dogma, that only laming, deadening can come through non-spiritually penetrated scientific knowledge, and that the soul must experience a second death, suffer a soul death. It depends on individuals and on humanity, to rejuvenate their souls. Humanity dare not choose some comfortable passive attitude and say: I am an everlasting being, and the everlasting kernel of my being will preserve me forever through all circumstances. — This doesn't correspond to the effect of reality.

The everlasting kernel within human beings exists of course but it has to be fructified in this decisive age if it doesn't want to be destroyed. There is no other way to keep the soul alive than to break free of mere sensory scientific observations and to justify a true spiritual science and to see how in all sensory observations the spirit is alive even in relation to physical facts. It comes down to not only registering purely sensory material but to promote what lives in everything that is sensory and penetrate it with spiritual imagination which actually lives within it and must not be excluded. As a result the souls coming out of a previous earthly life can take up this spirit-filled natural science, become fructified and thereby enable their vitality to be carried forward to the next incarnation. The continued existence of the soul, its health, in fact the continued existence of the soul life itself, the aversion to the soul death of humanity depends upon the spiritualization of our natural knowledge!

Coverage in broad popular media in second half 20th century

Already early, in 1950, the first influential book 'Many Mansions: The Edgar Cayce story on reincarnation' was published.

In the period 1960-1980, a number of authors started to publish their work in the area of reincarnation and research into past lives. This provided a foundation on which many more authors could build to take this work into the mainstream in the period 1980-2020.

• Ian Stevenson, and Jim B. Tucker
  • Stevenson wrote his first paper with 44 cases suggestive of reincarnation in 1960. His first book dates from 1966: 'Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation'. His systematic research was published in four volumes in 1975, 1977, 1980, 1983, with follow up books in 1984 and 1987.
  • Tucker followed into his footsteps and published Life before life in 2005 and Return to life in 2013
• Other well known books were eg Joan Grant's 'Many lifetimes' (1968) and Raymond Moody's bestseller 'Life after life' published in 1975
• Morris Netherton and Roger Woolger pioneered regression therapy with books in 1978 and 1987.
• Helen Wambach (1978, 1983) and Carol Bowman (1997, 2001)
• bestselling books on the theme came from eg Brian Weiss (Many lives, many masters, 1988) and Michael Newton (Journey of Souls, 1994)

.

This has to be put in perspective with parallel developments in the same timeframe. This was the also the time period when much new material was being published on other states of consciousness: Near Death Experiences (NDE), Out of Body experiences (OBE) and astral travel, Lucid dreaming, remote viewing.

1/ Near Death Experiences (NDE),

Kenneth Ring did research into this with publications in 1980, 1984, 1998, 1999. Another influential book was ao George W. Ritchie's 'Return from tomorrow' (1978).

2/ Out of Body experiences (OBE)

Examples illustrations are:

• Albert Taylor's 'Soul Traveler' (1996), Robert Petersen (2002, 2013) books on Journeys out of the body. As well as Robert Bruce's books (1999, 2004) such as ao 'Astral dynamics' as well as books by William Buhlman (2009, 2011) on the topic.

.

3/ Lucid dreaming

Pioneers in this are are Stephen LaBerge and Robert Waggoner

For remote viewing: Human capabilities beyond mainstream#Remote viewing

.

In summary, the above shows how a new wave of interest has arisen through these and many other authors bringing topics of spiritual scientific nature to the mainstream media in quite a different way then the theosophical and anthroposophical wave of say 1880-1930.

Survey mainstream media - popular books on reincarnation (2022)

A survey of 'books on reincarnation' compared the top 6, 9, 18, 25, 100 books listed on > 10 websites.

This included goodreads.com, the amazon bestsellers, etc.

Main findings of this assessment:

1/ there are about as many fiction novels and non-fiction books, in fact the fiction novels overwhelm the non-fiction literature by sheer volume. But unfortunately there is also a whole area with much non-sense including reincarnation of dogs etc.

2/ Non-fiction literature on the theme of reincarnation is by contemporary authors, and not directly about reincarnation but about individual case stories of:

• Near Death Experiences (NDE)
• Individuality-remembrance (memories of previous lives): in children, famous cases, by psychologists, and regression therapists

So the theosophical or anthroposophical or spiritual scientific literature does not appear in any mainstream list.

3/ Most lists contain classics such those by Brian Weiss, Raymond Moody, Michael Newton.

Some include Ian Stevenson, Roger Woolger, or others.

But then - mostly - the lists are filled with:

• a mixed bag of new age and/or greyzone spirituality, of the likes of the Seth material, Conversations with God, etc
• and and really mostly: numerous authors of unknown credentials whose books are marketed. The topic is used because it sells, and so would-be-mediums or spiritual teachers write books on the topic, more than one can list or want to know.

Last, to further illustrate or qualify what is meant with 'mixed bag', without applying any judgement whatsoever: this goes from the interesting 'Egyptian book of the dead', to many American 'spiritual leaders' such as Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Ballard (and the I Am activy and the Saint Germain foundation), etc.

Discussion

Note 1 - Commentary on literature

Mostly all topics are taken together in the sources such as those under 'References and further reading'. For example Grether and Linde cover lots of ground, in an extensive and rigourous way, much more than the title of their work.

This is due to the fact that the subject is so vast with so many related fields of study so interdependent and intertwined, that it is difficult to split or organize it separately, or limited to a certain partial field of study without expanding first to an overall understanding.

Because the teachings of reincarnation are so central in Rudolf Steiner's teachings overall, so many of his direct students and well known anthroposophists have written books about it, ao Wachsmuth, Bock, Poppelbaum, Poeppig, Frieling, etc.

Related pages

• Man's cycle of reincarnation
• Near Death Experiences (NDE)
• Karma or destiny
  

References and further reading

• Book of Gates (ancient Egyptian text, describing journey after death)
  • Josephine McCarthy: The Book of Gates: a magical translation (2017)

ABC

• Dora Baker: 'Der Gedanke der Wiederverkörperung : Die Anschauung des Lebens nach dem Tode im antiken Griechenlands, in den frühchristlichen Jahrhunderten ; im Mittelalter' (1985)
• Erhard Bäzner (1887 – 1963)
  • Das Rätsel des Lebens und das Geheimnis des Todes
  • Der Tod und was dann?
• Annie Besant:
  • Death - and After? (1906)
  • Life, Death, and Immortality (1886, pamphlet)
• Georg Blattmann: Vom Leben der Verstorbenen. Vorträge. (1977)
• Emil Bock: 'Wiederholte Erdenleben : die Wiederverkörperungsidee der deutschen Geistesgeschichte' (1932)
• Arie Boogert (1933 - 2013)
  • The challenge of transformation : resurrection in life and death (1998 in EN)
  • What Happens before We Are Born - Creating Our Living Web of Destiny (2001 in EN)
  • What Happens after We Die - Making the Connection between the Living and the Dead (2021 in EN)
• Martin Burckhardt: Die Erlebnisse nach dem Tod. Eine Zusammenfassung von Schilderungen Rudolf Steiners

• Emil Bock: Wiederholte Erdenleben

DEF

• Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910): Death and the afterlife
• Rudolf Frieling: Christentum und Wiederverkörperung (1974, in NL 1988 as: 'Christendom en reïncarnatie')
• Torin M. Finser: 'The False Door between Life and Death' (2019)
  • supporting grieving students, teachers, parents

GHI

• Robert Goebel: Die Brücke zu den Lebenden und Toten
• Ewald Grether: 'Der Mensch und sein Schicksal im Lichte der Anthroposophie' (1986), 3 volumes (printed typoscript format for a total of 1316 pages)
  • Vol 3 - Karma und Reinkarnation (539 pages)

• Otto Julius Hartmann
  • Wir und die Toten (1946)
  • An der Pforte von Geburt und Tod (1952)
  • Geheimnisse von Jenseits der Schwelle (1956)
• Dr. Hermann Heisler: Unsere Toten und wir, in EN : Our relationship to those who have died
• Max Hoffmeister :
  • Die übersinnliche Vorbereitung der Inkarnation' (1979)
  • Reinkarnation (1984)
• Friedrich Husemann: 'Individualität und Schicksal : Phänomene zur Frage der Wiederverkörperung'
  • (drie Vorträge : I Lebenslauf und Schicksalswirken ; II Helen Keller oder die Ueberwindung der Schicksalsgrenzen ; III Das Rätsel einer Individualität)

JKL

• Beredene Jocelyn: 'Citizens of the cosmos : Life's unfolding from conception through death to rebirth' (1981)
• Karl König: Before birth and beyond death: the transformation of the human being (2021, various lectures)
  • About those who have died (3 lectures 1958)
  • Birth and death (essays)
  • additional various materials
• Ernst-Michael Kranich: 'Ein Schlüssel zur Präexistenz : Der menschliche Leib, Offenbarung der Wiederverkörperung' (article, 1981)
• Frank Linde: Auferstehung (2015) (3 Volumes, 1088 pages)
  • Vol 1 and 2: Die Auferstehung im Werk Rudolf Steiners
  • Vol 3: Zeitreisen und Phantom - Eine kritische Analyse

MNO

• Rudolf Meyer (1896-1985)
  • Vom Schicksal der Toten (1934)
  • Vom Sinn des Todes (1943)
  • Der Toten zur Feier (1973)

PQR

• Iris Paxino: Bridges Between Life and Death (2021; original in DE 2018 as 'Brücken zwischen Leben und Tod: Begegnungen mit Verstorbenen'; also in FR as 'Rencontrer les défunts: Tisser des liens entre la vie et la mort', in NL as 'Bruggen tussen leven en dood')
• Carl S. Picht:
  • 'Das Auftauchen der Reinkarnationsidee bei dem Arzt u. Philosophen Gustav Widenmann um 1850 (1932)
  • 'Die Darstellung der Reïnkarnationsidee bei dem Arzt und Philosophen Gustav Widenmann (1812-1876)' (in Die Drei, 1932)
• Fred Poeppig
  • Die Wandlungsmacht des Todes: Unsere Gemeinschaft mit d. Verstorbenen (1979, 305 pages)
  • Unsere Toten und wir - Schulungsbriefe über die Wandlungsmacht des Todes (1968, 12 issues, 382 pages)
  • Note: the 1979 book bundles the same content as the earlier letters (checked, I have both)
• Hermann Poppelbaum
  • Sternenall, Schicksalsrätsel und Erdenwürde (1949)
  • Schicksalsrätsel. Verkörperung und Wiederverkörperung.
• Leonard Ragaz (1868-1945): Die Toten und wir
• Paschal Beverly Randolph (1825-1875)
  • Dealings with the dead; The human soul, its migrations and transmigrations (1861-62)
  • After death, or disembodied Man (1866 and 1868)
• Friedrich Rittelmeyer: Reincarnation: A Christian Perspective
• Wilhelm Otto Rösermüller (also: Roesermueller) (1902-1978)
  • Um die Todesstunde: Übersinnliche Beobachtungen an Sterbebetten (1940)
  • Vom friedlichen Sterben. Eine christlich-religiöse und parapsychologische Studie (1940)
  • Unsere Toten leben! (in DE oa 1968, 1989; in NL: 'Onze Doden Leven')
  • Wo findet man die Wahrheit auf die Menschheitsfrage Nummer 1 : »Gibt es ein Leben nach dem Sterben»? (1973)
  • Kontakte zu unseren jenseitigen Freunden und unsichtbaren Helfern (1976)
  • also in NL: 'Het Hiernamaals Bestaat'

STU

• Heinz Herbert Schöffler: Tod und Todeserlebnis (1967)
• Dr. med. Friedrich Schwab (1878-1946): Geburt und Tod als Durchgangspforten des inwendigen Menschen (original in DE 1947, various editions oa 1984 and 2017)

VWXYZ

• Hugo Verbrugh
  • Een beetje terugkomen - reïncarnatie als denkbeeld en ervaringsgegeven (1980)
  • Karma & reïncarnatie, Een filosofische analyse (2002)
  • Reïncarnatie? - Essay over de veranderende aard van de kennis (2010)
• Judith Von Halle: 'Reincarnation and Karma, an Introduction: The Meaning of Existence--From Pre-Birth Plans to One's Task in Life (2022, original in DE 2021 as 'Reinkarnation und Karma. Eine Einführung: Der Sinn des Daseins. Vom vorgeburtlichen Lebensplan zur individuellen Lebensaufgabe', also in NL 2021 as 'Reïncarnatie en karma: Een introductie. De zin van het bestaan. Van voorgeboortelijk levensplan tot individuele levenstaak')
• Gunther Wachsmuth:
  • Reincarnation as a phenomenon of metamorphosis (1937 in EN, in FR 2002 as 'Réincarnation, processus de métamorphose', original in DE 1935: 'Die Reinkarnation des Menschen als Phänomen der Metamorphose')

• Valentin Wember: 'Wiederverkörperung : Erkennen und Schauen : Sieben Gespräche' (1996)
• Roy Wilkinson: 'Journey through the spheres : life between death and rebirth' (1981)
• Berthold Wulf: 'Tod, nachtodliches Leben, Wiederverkörperung und die Mysterien Christi : zur Christologie des Bewusstseins' (1981)
• Renatus Ziegler: 'Freiheit und Schicksal : eine Philosophie der Wiederverkörperung' (2015)