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The yogi and guru was the first Indian teacher to settle and become famous in America. He once said: "Birth and death are doors through which you pass from one dream to another. Someone is born on Earth in France as a powerful king, rules for a time, then dies. He may be reborn in India, and travel in a bullock cart into the forest to meditate. He may next find rebirth in America as a successful businessman. When he dreams death again, reincarnates perhaps in Tibet as a devotee of Buddha and spends his entire life in a lamasery. Therefore hate none and be attached to no nationality, for sometimes you are a Hindu, sometimes a Frenchman, sometimes an Englishman, or an American or a Tibetan... Each existence is a dream within a dream, is it not?"
The German philosopher wrote about the concept of eternal recurrence. Nietzsche suggested that time occurred in an infinite loop and all events repeated themselves. "Live so that thou mayest desire to live again - that is thy duty - for in any case thou wilt live again!" he wrote.
The English poet and playwright believed in the possibility of reincarnation. "At times I almost dream I too have spent a life the sages way, And tread once more familiar paths. Perchance I perished in an arrogant self-reliance an age ago; and in that act, a prayer for one more chance went up so earnest, so Instinct with better light let in by Death, That life was blotted out - not so completely But scattered wrecks enough of it remain, Dim memories; as now, when seems once more, The goal in sight again," he wrote.
The Lebanese-American writer and poet believed he's return after his death. "Know, therefore, that from the greater silence I shall return… Forget not that I shall come back to you … A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me," he wrote.
The German philosopher believed in past lives returning to Earth. “Every new born being indeed comes fresh and blithe into the new existence, and enjoys it as a free gift: but there is, and can be, nothing freely given. Its fresh existence is paid for by the old age and death of a worn out existence which has perished, but which contained the indestructible seed out of which the new existence has arisen: they are one being."
Origen of Alexandria, or Origen Adamantius, was a Christian scholar who believed in the concept of body and soul being separate entities. "It can be shown that an incorporeal and reasonable being has life in itself independently of the body... then it is beyond a doubt bodies are only of secondary importance and arise from time to time to meet the varying conditions of reasonable creatures. Those who require bodies are clothed with them, and contrariwise, when fallen souls have lifted themselves up to better things their bodies are once more annihilated. They are ever vanishing and ever reappearing," he said.
The former British Prime Minister was a known believer in reincarnation. "The conventional heaven with its angels perpetually singing etc. nearly drove me mad in my youth and made me an atheist for ten years. My opinion is that we shall be reincarnated."
The British Army officer was very explicit about his belief in reincarnation. "This life is only one of a series of lives which our incarnated part has lived. I have little doubt of our having pre-existed; and that also in the time of our pre-existence we were actively employed. So, therefore, I believe in our active employment in a future life, and I like the thought," he said.
The English poet once wrote that "our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting. And cometh from afar."
Sources: (History) (Journey of the Souls) (Matt Miksa)
The German-Swiss poet and novelist and Nobel Prize laureate wrote about the topic: "He saw all these forms and faces in a thousand relationships become newly born. Each one was mortal, a passionate, painful example of all that is transitory. Yet none of them died, they only changed, were always reborn, continually had a new face: only time stood between one face and another."
The famous Indian activist was a firm believed in the concept of reincarnation. Gandhi once said: "I cannot think of permanent enmity between man and man, believing as I do in the theory of rebirth, I shall live in the hope that if not in this birth, in some other birth I shall be able to hug all humanity in friendly embrace."
The English writer explored paranormal themes on many of his books. "We all have some experience of a feeling, that comes over us occasionally, of what we are saying and doing having been said and done before, in a remote time - of our having been surrounded, dim ages ago, by the same faces, objects, and circumstances."
Greek Philosopher and polymath Pythagoras of Samos was also a believer in reincarnation. "The soul passes hither and thither, occupying now this body, now that... As a wax is stamped with certain figures, then melted, then stamped anew with others, yet it is always the same wax," he said.
The famous military leader believed he was a Roman soldier in a previous life (among other past lives). "So as through a glass and darkly, the age long strife I see, Where I fought in many guises, many names, but always me."
Like some of his contemporaries, the American essayist was a believer in transcendentalism and that god was a universal being. "It is the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but only retire a little from sight and afterwards return again. Nothing is dead; men feign themselves dead, and endure mock funerals… and there they stand looking out of the window, sound and well, in some strange new disguise," he said.
The late Beatles guitarist travelled with his band to India, where he was exposed to Hinduism and met a number of gurus. "Friends are all souls that we've known in other lives. We're drawn to each other," Harrison claimed.
"Even if I have only known them a day, it doesn't matter. I'm not going to wait till I have known them for two years, because anyway, we must have met somewhere before, you know," he added.
The American poet wrote about the concept of reincarnation: "As to you, Life, I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths, No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before."
"Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives. Some are older souls than others, and so they know more. The discovery of Reincarnation put my mind at ease. If you preserve a record of this conversation, write it so that it puts men's minds at ease. I would like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life gives to us," Ford added.
The Greek philosopher also had a firm belief in souls returning to life. "I am confident in the belief that there truly is such a thing as living again, and that the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the dead are in existence, and that the good souls have a better portion than the evil."
The Swiss psychiatrist, best known for his work in psychoanalysis was a believer in the paranormal and reincarnation. "I could well imagine that I might have lived in former centuries and there encountered questions I was not yet able to answer; that I had to be born again because I had not fulfilled the task that was given to me," he said.
"Since the soul is not found without body and yet is not body, it may be in one body or another, and pass from body to body," Bruno once theorized.
The polymath and Founding Father of the United States, believed he'd return after his death. Franklin wrote his epitaph in his 20s, stating that his life's "work shall not be lost, for it will as he believed, appear once more, in a new and more elegant edition, revised and corrected, by the author."
"When I see nothing annihilated (in the works of God) and not a drop of water wasted, I cannot suspect the annihilation of souls, or believe that He will suffer the daily waste of millions of minds ready made that now exist, and put Himself to the continual trouble of making new ones. Thus, finding myself to exist in the world, I believe I shall, in some shape or other, always exist; and, with all the inconveniences human life is liable to, I shall not object to a new edition of mine, hoping, however, that the errata of the last may be corrected," he wrote.
The German poet said "I am certain that I have been here as I am now a thousand times before, and I hope to return a thousand times."
The Italian Dominican Friar and philosopher believed in the infinity of the universe and reincarnation. Bruno was burned at the stake by the Catholic Church for his beliefs in 1600.
The famous American industrialist spoke openly about his belief in reincarnation in a interview for the San Francisco Examiner in 1928: "I adopted the theory of Reincarnation when I was twenty six. Religion offered nothing to the point. Even work could not give me complete satisfaction. Work is futile if we cannot utilize the experience we collect in one life in the next. When I discovered Reincarnation it was as if I had found a universal plan I realized that there was a chance to work out my ideas. Time was no longer limited. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock," he said.
"As far back as I can remember I have unconsciously referred to the experiences of a previous state of existence," wrote Thoreau.
The American novelist was a transcendentalist. Transcendentalism was a spiritual, philosophical, and literary movement that arose in New England in the late 1820s and 1830s. Thoreau believed our souls transcended the physical world.
The French writer is known for rejecting Catholic beliefs and his belief in reincarnation. "It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection," he once wrote.
Reincarnation, in a nutshell, is the rebirth of a soul in a new body. It's the belief that the soul does not die with the biological death of the physical body. The philosophical or religious concept is key in many belief systems and religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism.
For centuries, famous philosophers, writers, political, and religious leaders, among others, have explored the concept. Indeed, many of these notable historical figures believe in reincarnation. Curious to know who takes the notion seriously? Click through the gallery and get to know them.
Famous figures who believed in reincarnation
Many notable figures believed in the rebirth of the soul
CELEBRITY Transmigration
Reincarnation, in a nutshell, is the rebirth of a soul in a new body. It's the belief that the soul does not die with the biological death of the physical body. The philosophical or religious concept is key in many belief systems and religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism.
For centuries, famous philosophers, writers, political, and religious leaders, among others, have explored the concept. Indeed, many of these notable historical figures believe in reincarnation. Curious to know who takes the notion seriously? Click through the gallery and get to know them.