Does Reincarnation Exist?
Do you believe in the immortal soul? All my life I’ve been afraid of death, afraid of what happens when you die, where you go, if you go anywhere. But after I read an article on Hinduism and reincarnation, I had a thought: What if when we die, we don’t actually die, but instead reincarnate into another form of existence, like a totally different person than you originally were, an animal, insect, or any other living being? What if we transmigrate into a new body (maybe even a different species) after we die?
After that I started thinking of myself as a shell being controlled by my inner immortal soul. I loved the possibility that life didn’t have to end when you died, and I was enraptured with ideas of what my next life will be like after I die. Will I be a female next time? A male again? A different race? Will I be a millionaire, a doctor, a president, a CEO? Or will I not even be human? The possibilities are endless.
I grew up in a Christian family, and attended church regularly as a child. I once asked my parents, and even members of the church, if reincarnation exists, and they all basically said the same thing: NO! There’s no such thing. If you’re good, you go to heaven, if you’re bad you go to hell, and according to Drake, You Only Live Once #YOLO.
But I didn’t want to believe them. I don’t want to die and never live again. I want a chance to live a better life than I’m living now, a more prosperous, successful life. And yet another thing to think about is death: Think about all the people who died too soon. Think of all the mass shooting victims and victims of terrorism. Think about all the people dying from COVID-19 right now. I read an article about a baby that died from the virus. A BABY! That child will never go to school, never play outside, grow up, get married, have kids, or anything. They have no real concept of life. Isn’t it unfair that, if reincarnation doesn’t exist, that’s the only life they get to live? That’s not even a life, really.
Reincarnation must exist, mustn’t it?
But before I end this article, I want to get one thing straight. I’m still a Christian, I still believe in God and the existence of heaven, but I still want to experience more out of life — several lives, then I can rest eternally in heaven, if that’s where I’m headed. Or maybe death is just black nothingness, and there is no afterlife. What do you think? Does reincarnation exist? Should it?
