To say that the word "reincarnation" has different meanings to different people is a colossal understatement. Few words create so much fascination, so much confusion, or so much misunderstanding.

In exploring people's beliefs about reincarnation throughout the world, we find many approaches to the subject. Some believe it is possible to reincarnate as an animal or a plant after having been a human being. To do this might not be impossible, but it would be somewhat like attempting to put toothpaste back into the tube after it has been squeezed out. Darwin asserted that all evolution is advancement. No form retrogresses. It may die out if it cannot keep up with the progress of the general development of the Universe, but it never goes backward. Never.

There is no reason to think that man is an exception to his rule. Moreover, because of the complicated nature of the human being, such reversal should be even more difficult to accomplish in humans than in the simpler forms of life. Yet, as mentioned, even here there is no evidence, from any known source, of one verified example of such retrogression.

There are logical considerations, however, that lead to the assumption that an individual man could remove himself from the "circle of lives" if he failed to keep up with the general evolution of the race much in the same way that the large prehistoric reptiles disappeared in our dim past. Does not the Bible say, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die"? The Law of the Universe is not "go forward or go back" but "go forward or DIE."

Therefore, the first axiom of reincarnation is: Man returns only in another human body. The great French mystic, Dr. Gerard Encausse, said it this way: "Reincarnation is the return of the Spiritual Principle into a new physical body." In the case of a human being, this body is always a human body.

Much of the misunderstanding on this subject arises undoubtedly from confusing the reincarnation of the spiritual part of man, the Soul, with the reincarnation of the body, which is called "metempsychosis." Metempsychosis deals with the future of the materials that originally made up the physical body. Under the Laws of God, everything must have a place, and if the Soul or spiritual portion of man reincarnates, so must the body.

The subject of metempsychosis was explained more elegantly by Dr. Encausse than by anyone before or since. In his book, Reincarnation, he definitively discussed this procedure:

"Certain Oriental sects have made so many erroneous statements regarding reincarnation and its consequences that we are compelled to go into the subject in all its details in order to protect against these misstatements."

Reincarnation Of The Physical Body

Dr. Encausse wrote, "The physical body is the symbol of incarnation on Earth. We will deal in this dissertation only with reincarnation on Earth, as the same reproduces itself in every physical body on any planet."

He continued, "The Emerald Tablet of Hermes teaches: `as above so below,' and reciprocally, so the miracle of Unity may be accomplished.

"If, therefore, reincarnation exists for the spirit, it must exist for the body, also; in other words, a physical body must return in another physical vehicle without leaving the Earth, if a spirit returns into another physical body.

"This is what has caused the confusion between reincarnation, or the return of the spirit (Soul) into a physical body after a sojourn in the Soul World, and metempsychosis, or the passing of the materials of the previous physical body into the structure of plants and animals and hence into the bodies of other humans still living.

"Reincarnation must never be confused with metempsychosis, because man never retrogrades, and the human spirit never becomes the spirit of an animal.

"Let us, therefore, study the physical body.

The Nature Of The Physical Body

"The physical body is of a three-fold nature. It supports three principles and has three centers in which each of these three principles has its special domain.

"1. The principle of the intellect and the mind has its domain in the head.

"2. The principle of the feelings and emotions has its domain in the abdomen (solar plexus). This is considered a purely physical center.

"3. The principle of the spiritual forces has its domain in the thorax, with the plexus for the heart as its center.

"These principles have been treated as bodies, and, strictly speaking, we may say there is a physical body, a spiritual body, and a mental body; but all these are ideological words and divisions, and we will confine ourselves to the limits of ordinary physiology."

Dr. Encausse continued, "The physical body is the garment provided for the other principles by the Earth, for a period of one incarnation. It is Earth-evolved in human mode for the purpose of an incarnation.

"When we burn a log in the chimney, it gives off heat and light, and there remains as the caput mortuum--a term borrowed from the alchemists--ashes. The ashes are to the log what the Earth has supplied, and what again becomes Earth. The heat and the light are what the Sun gave to the plant, and they return to the plane of Solar forces.

"The same applies to the physical body. The minerals supply the bones, giving a correspondence with the Earthly element of the Ancients; the plants give the muscles and vegetative organs--the Airy element of the Ancients; the animals give neurons and nerves- -including the nervous energy--the Fiery element of the Ancients; and lastly, the organic fluids correspond to the Watery element.

"Thus, it may be seen that the human body has its origin in the evolution of the bodies of animals and antecedent conditions.

The Law Of Repetition

"A Spiritual Law, known as the Law of Repetition, requires that the moulds shall be represented thrice in the evolutionary spiral, at different times, and each time on a higher plane of the spiral.

"This Law is reproduced during the formation, in the mother's womb, of the physical body, which reproduces in its external features the various animal forms through which its cells pass before they have the honor of forming part of a human physical body.

"The physical body, therefore, belongs to the animal kingdom, from which it has drawn most of its cells.(1) Once the physical body is formed, it becomes connected with the physical atmosphere through breathing, and the evolution on Earth is, thereby, able to pursue its course. During this evolution, the physical body assimilates minerals to nourish the bones, vegetables to nourish the muscles and viscera, and animals to nourish the neurons.
-----------------------------------------------------------
(1) Because our physical bodies are closely related to animals, the evolution of the physical bodies of man and animals can become interlinked at times. The Souluar or spiritual part of man is never so linked, only the physical entity itself may be so. Especially is this true in so-called primitive societies. There are, therefore, human bodies that are linked, by the physiognomic form, to the dog, or the monkey, to the wolf, or even to birds and fishes. This is the secret origin of the totems of the red and black races.
-----------------------------------------------------------

"We may mention here that, as the physical body is an animal, usually the result of the synthesis of a specific evolution on Earth, special diet for the purpose of favoring the nourishment of any of its specific centers should be used only temporarily. For instance, vegetarianism is necessary only one month in three. Moreover, it can never be absolute, as with each breath we draw, we swallow thousands of living organisms which become more or less absorbed in the lungs. It is, therefore, unscientific emotionalism which leads us to imagine that we are evolving our bodies by adopting pure vegetarianism.

"The various transformations of the body during life are described in standard textbooks of physiology. We will say only that the physical body continues to absorb the elements supplied to it by the Earth while it was being formed, and that it continues to transform them, in accordance with certain fixed laws.

The Physical Body After Death

"We now come to the phenomenon called death, which is characterized by the tendency of each of the principles to return to its origin.

"The link, which caused the human being to be a spark of God incarnated on this Earth through the meeting of the permanent current from above and below, is broken. The current is no longer transmitted from the bottom to the top, or from top to the bottom, and the lines of force are thus deflected. (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------
(2) The words "above" and "below" are here used figuratively, and represent only the different planes of activity.
-----------------------------------------------------------

"The phenomenon of death is fulfilled. The organic fluids coagulate, the automatic action of the internal organs ceases, the physical body is cold, and the cells, deprived of the link which enabled them to cooperate in the vital harmony, revert to their independent existence. Decomposition and putrefaction ensue, as is the case whenever a primary hierarchized cell becomes autonomous. During life it is an abscess or a cancer. After death it is decomposition, for the physical body as well as for the social body. As a consequence of this decomposition or breaking up, the physical cells return to their component principles."

Dr. Encausse, who was also known as the great Initiate Master Papus, described the disposition of the physical remains following death. "Let us first take up burial in the ground," he declared. "Later we will deal with what happens with cremation.

"The cells that formed the bone of the human body are distinguished by their persistency and by their slow evolution, this being the case with all minerals; they persist for a long time in the skeleton, and will only again become the guides of cell evolution long after the death of the physical body to which they belonged. The great recompense of minerals on Earth is to become human bones, and the period of duration of this incarnation of these minerals may greatly exceed that of the physical body itself. It would appear that the minerals are loath to leave their exalted position as the human skeleton.

"The cells of the muscles and vegetative organs return to the plant kingdom, but, again we repeat, each Earth cell that has passed through the human body becomes the guide for the other cells with which it may afterwards come into contact, because Intelligence pervades all things, and the Divine Mind circulates everywhere.

Figure 1. Reincarnation of the cells of the physical body into another physical body (metempsychosis).

"The fluids of the human body return by diverse routes to the terrestrial fluids, while the gases return to the atmosphere.

"Cremation, on the other hand, causes the greater part of the cells of the vegetative organs and muscles to return directly to the atmosphere; and it is in the shape of gas, and by the means of breathing that terrestrial plants or minerals absorb and reembody these cells.

"Further, the evolution of the incinerated mineral elements is much hastened by this process, although we cannot help but feel sorry that the incarnation of the mineral as human bones must be cut short."

Figure 2. Reincarnation of the physical cells (cremation).

Dr. Encausse went on to explain, "We will now follow the reincarnation of a physical body that has been buried in the ground, this being the simplest method of understanding the evolution of its principles.

"The body of the man sees its cells being disseminated; the plants absorb some of these cells, and the vegetarian who eats these plants witnesses the reincarnation of cells from a dead human body taking place in the quickest way within his own physical frame. But in most cases, the plant is absorbed by a herbivorous animal, a steer, for instance, and the plant cells which formed part of the physical body, are assimilated in their turn by the steer. The living man who assimilates the flesh of this steer, assimilates the cell of the former physical body of the dead man. The cycle is thus completed in regard to the reincarnation of the physical body.

"In the case of cremation, it is through breathing that man fixes in their gaseous state the principles of the former human body. By this same process the vegetables fix them. The ashes also, by mingling with the soil, again form the principal part of the constitution of the vegetable fibers, of the bones of animals.

"In short, we behold the fulfillment in regard to the physical body, and the physical body only, of the cycle of the ancient Alchemists, symbolized by a serpent biting its own tail. The Ouroboros of the Alchemists, with its mysterious form recalling the Emerald Stone: `As above, so below,' and `as below, so above,' so the miracle of Unity may be accomplished.

"We have rapidly reviewed what concerns the reincarnation of the cells of the physical body. We cannot leave this chapter, however, without mentioning the fact that everything that has been said was taught by the ancient Egyptians. Priests made what was called `the Vegetative Osiris' to illustrate this teaching. This was a paste composed of earth and seeds, which was molded into the shape of a human body; this `body' was duly watered and placed in the normal conditions for growth, and soon became covered with grass, corresponding to the evolution of seeds. The `body' also contained a small quantity of human ashes. When the grass had reached its normal stage of growth, it was eaten by a herbivorous animal, the symbol of Apis, and when this beast was sacrificed in accordance with the rites, it became the food of the lower ranks of the priesthood, in whom was thus reincarnated the mystic body of Osiris."

Figure 3. A vegetating Osiris.

To emphasize, Doctor Encausse here described physical reincarnation or metempsychosis, not the reincarnation of the Soul, which is what most individuals think of when the word reincarnation is mentioned. To reiterate, it is the confusion of these two entirely separate subjects that has given the exalted principle of Souluar reincarnation some of its bad press and that has led to so much misunderstanding.

The Soul of a man or a woman never returns to inhabit a plant or animal, although some of the cells that once composed the physical body of the departed individual may certainly do so.

(1) Because our physical bodies are closely related to animals, the evolution of the physical bodies of man and animals can become interlinked at times. The Souluar or spiritual part of man is never so linked, only the physical entity itself may be so. Especially is this true in so-called primitive societies. There are, Therefore, human bodies that are linked, by the physiognomic form, to the dog, or the monkey, to the wold, or even to birds and fishes. This is the secret origin of the totems of the red and black races.

(2) The words "above" and "below" are here used figuratively, and represent only the different planes of activity.
|Top|