Reincarnation in popular culture: Difference between revisions

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There is very little detailed information on the prevalence of reincarnation beliefs in the contemporary western world. However, the idea of reincarnation receives regular mention in feature films, popular books, and popular music. And there have been some surveys done in Europe which suggest that a significant minority of people there believe in reincarnation.

European surveys

According to survey data from 1999-2002, a significant minority of people from Nordic countries believe that we had a life before we were born, and not only will we survive death but will be born again into flesh and bones. In short, they believe in reincarnation. Here the mean for the Nordic countries is 22%, so every fifth person holds this view.^[1]

In terms of Eastern Europe, survey data show that the belief in reincarnation is particularly high in the Baltic countries, with Lithuania having the highest figure for the whole of Europe, 44%. The lowest figure is in East Germany, 12%. In Russia about one-third believes in reincarnation. The effect of communist anti-religious ideas on the beliefs of the populations of Eastern Europe seems to have been rather slight, if any, except apparently in East Germany.^[2]

According to survey data from 1999-2002, 22% of respondents in Western Europe believe in reincarnation, which is not in line with the dominant doctrine of the Christian Churches, Catholic or Protestant. These facts open up several questions: is this high “voting” for reincarnation due to cultural-religious influences from Asia (various cults and movements of the 19th and 20th century), is it due to remnants of pre-Christian beliefs, or simply the result of personal thinking and brooding on the question of our essential nature and destiny?^[3]

U.S. surveys

According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 20 percent of all U.S. adults believe in reincarnation. Recent surveys by the Barna Group, a Christian research nonprofit, have found that a quarter of U.S. Christians, including 10 percent of all born-again Christians, embrace it as their favored end-of-life view.

Feature films

A great many feature films have made reference to reincarnation, including:

Birth (2004)
Dead Again (1991)
Defending Your Life (1991)
Fluke (1995)
Karz (1980)
Kundun (1997)
Little Buddha (1993)
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975)
The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964)

Popular music

Popular songs or albums which refer to reincarnation include:

The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg by Iron Maiden
The Reincarnation Song by Roy Zimmerman
Eternal Caravan of Reincarnation by Santana
The Reincarnation of Luna by My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
Reincarnation by Broken Poets
Reincarnation of a Love Bird by Paul Motian
Metropolis Pt.2: Scenes from a memory by Dream Theater

Popular books

Many popular books have made reference to reincarnation. These include several books by Vicki Mackenzie and Carol Bowman.

Vicki Mackenzie's primary interest is to make Buddhist philosophy accessible to the general public.^[4] Her books on Buddhism and Reincarnation include: Reincarnation: The Boy Lama, Reborn in the West, Cave in the Snow, and Why Buddhism? ^[5]

Carol Bowman is an author, and the maintainer of a web site dealing with Children's Past Lives, which is also the title of one of her books. In her books and on her web site, she writes about cases of children who seem to recall past lives (spontaneously, that is, without the need for hypnosis). These cases seem to offer some evidence of reincarnation. To some degree, Carol Bowman builds upon the work of Professor Ian Stevenson, but her books are slanted more toward the casual reader.

In fiction, Chuck Palahniuk's book, Diary, centers around an artist whose reincarnated soul is repeatedly used in order to keep the residents of an island rich.

New media platforms

Reincarnation is also the theme of Thursday's Fictions in Second Life, a 3D online immersive world which places the user in the position of a dead soul with the opportunity to examine their past life and contemplate options for the next one. Thursday's Fictions in Second Life draws on texts from Richard James Allen's books, including Thursday's Fictions and The Kamikaze Mind, which itself depicts the bardo state of a soul in transmigration from one reincarnation to another.

References

External links

[1] Popular psychology, belief in life after death and reincarnation in the Nordic countries, Western and Eastern Europe

[2] Popular psychology, belief in life after death and reincarnation in the Nordic countries, Western and Eastern Europe

[3] Popular psychology, belief in life after death and reincarnation in the Nordic countries, Western and Eastern Europe

[4] Mind and it's potential speakers

[5] Wisdom Books

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 According to survey data from 1999-2002, 22% of respondents in [[Western Europe]] believe in reincarnation, which is not in line with the dominant doctrine of the [[Christian]] Churches, Catholic or Protestant. These facts open up several questions: is this high “voting” for reincarnation due to cultural-religious influences from Asia (various cults and movements of the 19th and 20th century), is it due to remnants of pre-Christian beliefs, or simply the result of personal thinking and brooding on the question of our essential nature and destiny?<ref>[http://www.hi.is/~erlendur/english/Nordic_Psychology_erlhar06.pdf Popular psychology, belief in life after death and reincarnation in the Nordic countries, Western and Eastern Europe]</ref>
+==U.S. surveys==
+According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 20 percent of all U.S. adults believe in reincarnation. Recent surveys by the Barna Group, a Christian research nonprofit, have found that a quarter of U.S. Christians, including 10 percent of all born-again Christians, embrace it as their favored end-of-life view.
 ==Feature films==