Pagan Blog Post - R is for Reincarnation

Growing up JW, I was taught to believe that the "dead are conscious of nothing at all." (Insert bible scripture here.) So when you die, that's it. No heaven, no hell, no purgatory. But there's hope of a resurrection after a whole bunch of stuff happens. This created some questions like, what if you die by fire? What about stillborn babies? What about aborted babies if you believe life begins at conception? JWs do not believe that the soul is separate from the physical bodies; if you are alive, then you are a living soul and if you are dead, you are a dead soul.

I'm not still sure of my views on reincarnation. I now believe that the physical self is different from the spiritual self. When I was JW, it was never fully explained how Jehovah would resurrect the dead. People would get a new physical body like Jesus apparently did. But this still didn't make sense. What about what makes me, me?

Buddhism
Some Buddhists believe in reincarnation; other believe in rebirth. These two concepts are not the same. Reincarnation implies that the soul or spiritual essence (what make you, you) endures and inhabits a new physical presence when the current one dies. Rebirth is when the "background noise" of the soul moves on and takes with it all karmic residue of the previous lives. At any rate, there is no holding place. As soon as you die, you are immediately reborn or reincarnated. Based on your karma stores, you may not even come back as human or even in the same realm that you are in currently.

Paganism
Some NeoPagans / Wiccans believe that the soul goes to Summerland which from what I understand is some sort of waiting room. What Summerland looks like is anyone's guess but it's not good or bad; it just is. Souls that are done reincarnating stay there for eternity and assist other souls returning to the land of the living.

There is conflicting information on whether the ancient Egyptians believed in reincarnation. They certainly believed in the afterlife.

Science
Well science doesn't exactly support reincarnation but hear me out. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed. It merely changes its form. This is a known and accepted law of physics. It is also proven that the human body produces energy. The brain has electric impulses. Our memories are formed via electrical impulses and a whole bunch of other stuff that I'm not going to get into.

Since energy cannot be created or destroyed, what happens to the energy when our physical body dies? For the purpose of this post, I'm defining this energy as the soul. OK, so we have a lifeless physical body and a soul that is now homeless. Where does it go? Ah, the age old question. I like the idea of a holding place (Summerland) but I can't reconcile my essence going into another body without any prior knowledge of my current existence.

So, I can't say that I personally believe in reincarnation but my beliefs are constantly evolving. I do believe in an afterlife but beyond that, I have no idea.