Banter: Reincarnation

There is enough research on reincarnation to write for ages, so I am not going to go into all of the research proving or disproving this belief.  If, after you read this post, you would like to find out more to sway your opinion one way or the other you can locate the research fairly easily.

So, what is reincarnation?

Reincarnation is the belief that after you die, your soul is reborn into the world based on your deeds.  This process is also referred to as "the transmigration of souls" and known more commonly throughout North America as past lives.  Reincarnation is derived from Latin and literally means: "entering the flesh again".

Religious practices around the world, too numerous to list, believe in this spiritual concept.  It dates back thousands of years - so far back that no one can even give a rough estimate of when it began. All we know is that the idea has been around for ages and has been found in cultures and religions that span the globe.

I will say that I believe in reincarnation.  My husband does as well.  Usually, in order for me to figure out if I believe something or not, I dissect it through logical conversation.  My husband is always good for that.  Early on in our relationship we talked about reincarnation and how we felt about it.  I decided that I believe strongly in reincarnation and here is why:

Old Souls.  Old Souls is a term used to describe a soul who has been through many lives before.  They normally get intense and, sometimes frequent, urges of deja vu (French term meaning "already seen") and are responsible and wise for their age.

I have always gotten intense deja vu, so intense that sometimes I have to yell something completely out of the blue to break out of it.  My family has seen this happen (Patrick included).

I have always been responsible for my age - I started looking after kids on my own at the age of 10, for instance.  I always seemed to be more aware of what was acceptable and what was not.

 I'm not sure if this is related, but I believe it may be:  I can also remember a lot of things as a small child (before 5).  A lot of scientists say that most people don't remember anything at all before that age and that anything you remember is a fabrication based on something someone told you or pictures you have seen.  My parents don't have any pictures or videos of our first house - we moved out when I was two.  I accurately described the whole layout to my mother once.

Our second place was an apartment.  I also accurate described the layout of that place.  I named
numerous random small events that happened there with frightening detail as well as something I would never have picked up on in conversation - I told her that the combination to my bike lock was written inside a cabinet on the door.  I also remembered clearly the night I broke my elbow (2 years old) up until the point I passed out from pain.

There are many more, but this post seems to be getting long.

I believe that this awareness has something to do with being an Old Soul, which obviously leads me to believe in reincarnation.  The more I write these posts, the more I realize a lot of weird things have happened to me over the course of my life that I just shrugged off.

So, do you believe in reincarnation?  Why or why not?