Magical Theory 101 (Monday, 03/20/2006, 5th Period)

[romanywitch]

"Lots of people believe in reincarnation--the idea that the soul moves on after death, and is eventually reborn into a new body, with a clean slate on life. The concept started out with the thought of the soul being reincarnated as the infant of one of its relatives from its past life. This? Kinda was how family resemblances were explained, since no one had a clue about DNA or heredity. Pythagoras was the first one to really define it, as he taught that the soul was immortal, even though the body wasn't. He believed that the soul rested in the Underworld between lives, and drank from the waters of the Lethe so as to forget the previous life before embarking on the next one. Plato took that one step further, and said that the soul was impure when embodied.

Plato? Kinda iffy on that one in my book, but then again, that view that the material world is corrupt is kind of an old one.

The concept of reincarnation is pretty old hat in Eastern society too, and it's similar. The soul goes through a series of incarnations. Eventually? You were removed from the cycle of reincarnation. Once you'd earned it, anyway, by transcending materialism. I'm simplifying.

Here's a nice, long, interesting wiki entry handout for you on the subject.

A lot of people, however, don't believe in reincarnation. Here's a handout for you on the skeptics and how they feel about reincarnation.

What I'm mostly interested in, though? Is how you feel about it."

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Comments

Re: Discussion - Reincarnation

[soldtoarmenians]

"I don't see any reason why it couldn't happen - we know souls exist, at least where we come from," Xander said quietly. "But I don't think we ever actually met anybody who we could prove was reincarnated, even with all the other stuff we've run across." He shrugged.

Re: Discussion - Reincarnation

[romanywitch]

"It's a difficult thing to prove beyond all reasonable doubt," said Jenny. "Which is one of the reasons we're covering it here. The flaws in the theory behind reincarnation need to be looked at, as well as any arguments for reincarnation."

Re: Discussion - Reincarnation

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander nodded, but didn't actually offer either argument or flaw.