When one talks about past lives, he undoubtedly refers to the immortality of the human soul and his discussion transcends into and around the ancient, complex but popularly believed concepts of reincarnation and rebirth.

The first and foremost thing about past lives is that it literally means having a number of past lives or births before this present one and naturally refers to the concept of being reborn in a different physical body or in other words being reincarnated. In short, this points to the belief of ancient civilizations and spiritually advanced cultures regarding the immortality of the human soul and its reincarnations.

About past lives, or about reincarnation, it can be said that the human soul is believed to be immortal in nature. Thus, when a person dies or his physical body ceases to exist, the soul leaves the same and thereafter comes back to the Earth in a new born baby. This phenomenon is commonly known as reincarnation or also transmigration of the soul.

There has been numerous research and experiments about past lives by ancient civilizations and religions that are spiritually advanced. The concept of rebirth has been the centre point of religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. Even the ancient Greek philosophy had serious researches about past lives. But again major sects of Christianity and Islam have different views regarding the same. Lets have a look at what the Hindu philosophy says about past life.

Coming to what Hinduism says about past lives, a soul (atman) goes through the universal cycle of birth and rebirth known as samsara till the time it attains the highest levels of spiritual wisdom. Till that time, it lives a life and his deeds and behaviour therein are known as karma.

The Karma from one life time decides the condition and experience to be faced in the next birth. Through each rebirth, the journey towards moksha becomes nearer as the soul gathers more and more spiritual wisdom. At one point of time, the soul finally attains the moksha or the Nirvana. It is then set free from the cycle of birth and rebirth and attains the eternal peace and happiness.

Buddhism on the other hand talks about past lives not in the context of the immortality of the soul, but rather on reincarnation being on a stream of consciousness. Thus, there is not the supreme atman or soul that ties one life to another, instead it talks about past lives as evolvement of consciousness, emergence of a new personality from the same stream of consciousness.

The civilization of the western world in the past however did not have much belief about past lives. In modern western philosophies, a new wave of thought called theosophy has evolved which is much inspired from the Hindu line of thinking. The school of theosophy is perhaps the first institution to speak about past lives in the western world.

The doctrine of theosophy says that the soul is a formless, all pervasive force. It comes down from the ghostly world to the human world and goes through a simple harmonic process of birth, death and rebirth. Thus, with every birth it gains some experience and at death attains purity. Then it once a gain goes to the sublime planes to have itself cleansed and then waits in its formless and timeless self to be reincarnated again.

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