[Sechs Zeugen für die Wahrheit der Lehre von der Wiederverkörperung] ^[i]

Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl

It will not occur to any man to dispute the doctrine of reincarnation once he understands it properly. The opponents of this topic fight only their own false ideas about it, which they have formed as a result of their ignorance. Many confuse it with the ideas they have concerning the “transmigration of souls,” while others deal with obsession; but there is neither a migration of the astral body from one organism to another, nor a reappearance of the personality that has disappeared from the stage of life, other than the qualities which belonged to the previous human appearance on earth come together again and form a new dwelling for the immortal I, which, as the Bhagavad-Gita teaches, is never born and never dies. Religion, philosophy, science, all of nature, common sense and also one’s own experience bear witness to the truth of these teachings.

I. Religion

The vast majority of all religiously thinking people on this earth believe in the doctrine of reincarnation. The Buddhists and Indians believe in it, although not everyone among the common people understands it properly. The Bhagavad-Gita says: “As a man who has shed his old clothes puts on a new robe, so too when the decayed forms are laid aside, the eternal essence reveals itself in other, newly formed bodies.” The immortal part of man can be likened to an actor who plays different roles on different nights. He may become absorbed in his role during the acting and therefore forget himself, but when he goes home after the performance he is again himself. Similarly, man, who is a Son of Heaven, comes on the scene of life in various successive appearances, and more or less identifies himself with the part he plays; but when the play is over he returns home again, and remembers whether he played his part well or not.

Reincarnation is not described in dry terms in Christianity, probably not because among the first Christians or Essenes, who were a society of mystics, this doctrine was already generally known; nevertheless, the Bible points to this in various places. So, for example, Jesus asks his disciples: “What do people say that I am?” They answered: “Some say you see Elijah, some say you see one of the prophets.” (Matthew VIII, 28.) Further: “Elijah is already come, and they did not recognize him.” (Matthew XVII, 12.) When Jesus saw a man born blind, his disciples asked: “Teacher, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John IX, 2.) Had they not believed that the same man had existed before, this question would be nonsensical, for had he not been there before he could not have committed sins which caused blindness at his birth. Incidentally, reincarnation is an article of faith of the Christian Church, for when it says, “I believe in a resurrection of the flesh,” it means a reconvening of the qualities (skandhas of the Buddhists) that made up the previous personality and the building up of a, we are to understand, new organism from the same but previous state. Let us imagine that man’s immortal ego (the soul) is the master builder, his personality is the house he has built and in which he dwells. The house grows old, collapses, and after a period of rest, the builder builds a new house from the materials of the old one. These “materials” are the “flesh,” that is, the talents, inclinations, dispositions, and in general the character that man has acquired in the course of previous incarnations and which is now embodied again in a new form. The character is the same, it only changes during life; the ego is eternal, but the appearance is new every time.

II. Philosophy

As far as philosophy is concerned, all the great world sages have recognized the truth of the doctrine of reincarnation; Sankaracarya [Śaṅkarācārya], Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates, Plotinus, and countless others have taught it, and so have most modern philosophers, from Schopenhauer up to our day.

III. Science

While direct knowledge springs from one’s own experience, human knowledge is largely based on logical conclusions, and on externally observed facts. You can e.g., by observing the movements of the celestial bodies determine their size and weight and by spectral analysis their composition. It is also scientific to prove reincarnation by logical reasons based on externally observed facts. When a child is born bringing into the world special qualities which it cannot have inherited from its earthly parents, it is logically correct to assume that they acquired them during an earlier existence, that is, inherited from his “Father in heaven.” Everyone brings such qualities into the world, and this is particularly noticeable in the so-called “child prodigies” who have very special talents for music, mathematics, medicine and the like, which their parents do not possess. It is, for example, a commonly observed fact that the sons of great scholars are often great fools, and this is also psychologically explicable; but even if, for example, a child is born in a musician’s family who has a talent for music, this does not prove that he has inherited it from his parents; rather another law of nature comes into consideration here; for when a man has acquired a special disposition for the practice of an art, it is understandable that the next time the ego incarnates it will be instinctively drawn to a family where it will find opportunity to follow that disposition and further develop the talent which it has acquired. However, this is not always the case, because in the process of reincarnation various other circumstances come into consideration which regulate these attractions. So, for example, there might be a still greater inclination to stealing, as a result of which the child is born into an unmusical family of thieves.

IV. Nature

We need only look at nature if we want to form a picture of reincarnation; for everywhere in nature there is a rebuilding of new forms from the elements of the decomposing ones; the same character is constantly being reproduced, and man is no exception to this general law of nature. In autumn an acorn falls from the oak tree, it sinks into the ground softened by the rain; winter spreads its white blanket over them. Then spring comes and she celebrates her resurrection. The warmth of the sun penetrates her grave, she begins to live again; it attracts from the ground those forces which are appropriate to its nature, and from the acorn a young oak tree sprouts, which has the character of the old one. It is not the old oak tree that has become young again, but the qualities of the old one which have become “flesh” again in the young one and have embodied itself in it again.

For such a reincarnation of a plant, a seed is necessary; without this there would be no tree. The same is the case with man; but in him this seed is his soul, his ego, together with the qualities belonging to him individually; for man has acquired a spiritual individuality in the course of his evolution; he is no longer a herd animal. The plant has no self-consciousness, and in the animal this is only a personal one. In him and also in the animal-man only nature feels, thinks, wills and acts; but the man who is able to absorb the higher spiritual principles: self-knowledge, justice, selfless love, etc., and to let them become spiritual powers within him, through which he can control his nature, has an individual self-consciousness, that is higher than his personality, which makes him capable of working for the good of all mankind and sacrificing his personal interest to it. This is his individual “seed,” his immortal part, rooted in Deity.

V. Common sense

Common sense tells us that man’s life would be pointless if it were not for his spiritual development and perfection; but he also tells us that a person cannot attain divine perfection in a single short life on earth. What should become of those who die early or who do not have the opportunity to gain the experiences necessary for their higher development? But if one thinks that further development after death takes place in a fine-bodily state, one cannot see why man needs to be born at all and have a physical body. Also, nature is full of analogies that can give us a hint. We see that a rosebud cut from the stem can still bloom in water; but it only lives on until the life forces contained in the stalk are exhausted. She then has nothing left to draw new strength and withers away. The human body is like the soil from which the plant draws nourishment. The soul draws its strength from it; after leaving the body, she only has what she brought with her, and this supply is exhausted after a shorter or longer period of time.

VI. One’s Own Experience

Perhaps the best means of convincing oneself of the truth of the doctrine of reincarnation would be to recall past lives, and one often hears the question, “If I have been there before, why do I not remember those earlier lives?”—The reason the personal man cannot remember it is that he has never been there before and consequently cannot have a memory of anything that did not exist. The person of man is new with every birth and never existed before; the brain can retain only those impressions which it has received. The “Father in heaven” is the begetter, the personality is the son. The son was not there before the father begot him; but when the son has become one with the father, then he will also know who were the sons that were begotten of him. The full recollection of previous earth lives is thus only the property of those who have come to the self-knowledge of their higher origin, that is, those holy men who have entered into that state which the Christian mystics call “union with God” and the Indians call “yoga.” Images from earlier incarnations may sometimes come to mind in a dreamlike way in ordinary people, like flashes of light from a higher spiritual world surrounding them, but many such spiritual dreams are only a play of the imagination. A person can imagine all sorts of things, but in truth only he who has become an image of God can recognize himself as divine.

It is easy to understand that the belief in reincarnation is suitable for instilling in people a completely different world view from the hitherto popular one and for ennobling them; for this teaching shows us that in this life we have become what we have become from a previous life, and that in the life to come we will reap what we sow now. Man has his destiny in his hands; everyone is the architect of his fortune or misfortune. What happens to him does not happen to him without cause, but as a result of the law of order and harmony prevailing in the universe.

Note:

^[i] Six Proofs for the Truth of the Doctrine of Reincarnation. [Sechs Zeugen für die Wahrheit der Lehre von der Wiederverkörperung. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Theosophischer Wegweiser 1, no. 1 (October 1898), 318-330] Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025