How Does It Affect People?

Could reincarnation bring confusion and suffering to parents, as depicted in the novel Audrey Rose? In India Dr. Vinoda Murthy investigated reported cases of “rebirth.” One involved a child who cried each night, saying that he belonged to another place. Eventually he was taken to a distant village, identifying a house and the couple in it as his own. “The story,” according to science-writer Radhakrishna Rao, “had a sorry sequel, for the boy became the centre of a heated dispute between two sets of parents.”

Connected with reincarnation is the belief that misfortunes in the present life are a punishment for things done in previous lives. This is referred to as “the law of Karma.” While discouraging some from doing harm to others, is this belief a positive force for doing good? The answer is reflected in the station of Brahmin priests, who lead a system of castes, which millions find burdensome and oppressive. Consider, too, Buddhist monks, who withdraw from society to live a life of seclusion. “If a person has been put into this world to redress the balance of his own wicked past, what business is it of ours to interfere and disturb the ordinances of God?” comments Man, Myth and Magic​—An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Supernatural.

More than 2,000 years ago it was believed by ancient Greeks and Celts of Western Europe. At the same time Brahmin priests were teaching it in India. “Many scholars believe that the Hindu Brahmin in the East and the Celtic Druid in the West were lateral survivals of an ancient Indo-European priesthood,” comments the Encyclopædia Britannica.