Five Famous People Who Believed In Reincarnation
Reincarnation is the belief of the soul leaving your body and going into another. This is a major belief in many Indian religions, such as: Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism. Buddhists also believe in reincarnation. While Judaism, Islam and Christianity, today, do not believe in reincarnation, it was a part of their earlier beliefs. So what do you think? Is it real? Could it be real? Do you believe in reincarnation? If you do, you are not alone. The famous people below all thought that there was some merit to having multiple lives. See who they were. The results might surprise you!
Benjamin Franklin
One of our most prominent forefathers, inventors, and all-around thinkers thought there was something behind this reincarnation stuff. How do we know this? Franklin wrote about it, of course. "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."
Napoleon Bonaparte
This Corsican-born French emperor believed that he had been born a few times. At least that's what he used to tell his generals (who still followed him into battle). He used to discuss with them who he had been in a previous life. Napoleon died in 1821. Twenty-eight years later, Adolf Hitler was born. Both men tried to take over Europe in the same method, fought Russia to a loss, and were defeated in nearly the same way. Both were also considered the anti-Christ by many people. Is it possible Napoleon was correct about reincarnation and that Hitler was his next incarnation?
Henry Ford
The American industrialist and founder of the Ford Motor Company also believed in reincarnation. Ford is quoted as saying to 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. 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 mens minds at ease. I would like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life gives to us."
General George S. Patton
The American World War Two general was a serious believer in reincarnation. There are numerous reports of Patton talking about being reincarnated. He believed that he had always been a warrior in one form or another. It was during World War One that he first revealed to his mother that he had been reincarnated. Later, he was quoted as saying, "So as through a glass and darkly, the age long strife I see, Where I fought in many guises, many names, but always me."
Jesus Of Nazareth
A lot of people are probably shaking their heads in disbelief by seeing Jesus' name on this list. If you go looking for information on this, you won't find it in the Bible. It was taken out of that long ago. The actual quote is "Souls are poured from one into another of different kinds of bodies of the world." It can be found in the Gnostic Gospel: Pistis Sophia. Never heard of it? It is one of the earliest writings about Jesus from the time he and his apostles were on earth. The Gnostics were an early form of Christianity that were later banned by the Church because they didn't have the exact same beliefs. While generally not considered "official" text today, Gnosticism was a very serious religion around the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. in regards to Jesus.
I KNOW reincarnation is fact…I was a soldier 800 years ago in India and later WW2 flying a P51 over Germany. The universe leaves nothing to waste and the brilliant soul comes back to further its creative geniuse.
Interesting that you pointed out Jesus in your five count. I’m actually reading the Gospel of Thomas and the Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels now, and both definitely indicate that Jesus spoke of reincarnation, although a bunch of power hungry politicians decided that wouldn’t be a good idea to include in what is today’s New Testament. For example, when the disciples ask Jesus how their end will come, he replies, “Have you found the beginning then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is. Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death.” I haven’t finished reading it, but this one implies a repeating cycle of life.
I also just want to point out in your Bonaparte section, Hitler was born in 1889 – 68 eight years after Bony’s death. If Hitler was born 28 years later, he would have been a 96 year old geezer when he died! :0
I was born into my present lifetime as a Jew in 1956. Because of my learning disabilities and having already gone visibly bald at the age of 15, I had very powerful anti-semitic feelings to blame my learning disabilities, my baldness, and my other physical and imperfections on my being Jewish. No amount of anyone telling me that male-pattern baldness, as in the case of then President Ford, learning disabilities, and other my other imperfections don’t only happen to Jews, could convince me otherwise.
Therefore, at the age of 18, when I was attending a preparatory school for the learning disabled, I seriously contemplated putting on a Nazi uniform and burning down the synagogue where I was Bar Mitzvahed.
In 1982, I underwent past life regression and found out that I was an officer in the Nazi SS and took a very active part in killing Jews in the Nazi Holocaust. One time I actually met with Hitler and the Furtherer was upset that I was not helping to exterminate the Jews fast enough. Shortly after WW2 ended, I crossed the border into Switzerland, went into a barn, took out my SS dagger, and committed suicide.
It is good thing that I did not go ahead with the criminal act of arson I wanted to commit during my youth. At the age of 18, I would have been sent to an adult prison and received a rude awakening during my sentence. After a horrendous time in prison my punishment would not have been over, upon my release. The consequences of my actions would have followed for the rest of life as a convicted felon.
Because of the many legal restrictions and social ostracism that comes with being a convicted felon, I would have had to 24/7 reenact what it must have like to have been a German Jew under the 1930′s Nazi Nuremberg Laws. In other words, the worst consequence if I did that criminal act of arson during my youth, would have given me as taste of my own medicine, as a convicted felon in society.
But something good did come out of ending my lifetime as a Nazi by suicide. If then I had chosen to live that lifetime out, I would have had to become a fugitive. In that lifetime had continued for me, there would always been the chance that I would been seized and taken to be tried for war crimes. Just like in the case of Adolf Eichmann.