Reincarnation is the belief that when we die, our souls get recycled into new bodies. Some people think it’s outrageous, some dismiss the idea for sounding miserable, like an endless train you never get off. Maybe that’s all true, but I think it’s at least worth considering. 

If scientists hail that energy is neither created nor destroyed, what happens to our energy after we die, and before our bodies were animated by it, where was it before? 

A keystone principle of Buddhism, one of the largest and oldest religions in the world, is that our souls are on journeys, with our bodies as mere vessels. They believe that our experiences in those we have embodied before have shaped our traveling identity into the soul we feel now. Hence why, regardless of where we are born or what our circumstances are, there is a sort of underlying character about us. 

Many people disagree with that assertion, that we’re born a certain way, and believe that rather we are born as completely blank slates (Tabulas Rasas), and don’t mistake me as someone to try to change their minds. People have squabbled over religion for thousands of years trying to convert this to that and whatnot, but not everybody has to agree, simple as that. 

However, I personally agree with the Buddhists and think that there’s an innate essence about each one of us that has nothing to do with the nature/nurture debate. Some even say that every so often, whole fragments from our past lives remain until childhood, until eventually we grow to forget them.

I remember when I was really young, just four or five, I had an absolute obsession with the Victorian and Edwardian Eras. Nothing and no one encouraged it, in fact a lot of people thought it was kind of strange, but for whatever reason I was just drawn to it. I wore house on the prairie type dresses, read old books, and had my very own ‘Diary of the Ewdwarian Lady.’ This continued on until about the age of seven, maybe a tad more, until one day I moved on to the present day. 

I still think that, whether that phenomenon was innate or something just inspired by the History channel, it resides with me a bit to this day. I even think that my writing style derives from it, since as a kid I was inspired by old english and naturally surrounded myself with it as much as I could. 

Now on the contrary, I also had a dinosaur phase when I was about four and to this day my house is filled with dinosaur memorabilia. Does that make me think I was ever a dinosaur in a past life? Unfortunately not, though that would be awesome. 

Regardless of how you view reincarnation, as a viable explanation or merely a pseudoscience stabbing in the dark, we have to at least agree that it’s based on a reasonable premise. Whether we grew into it or whether it grew into us, there is an essence we embody. A conscious, a spirit, a soul, whatever you want to call it. And what are any of those things but recirculating energy?