Reincarnation
About This Book
Manly P. Hall's thorough examination of reincarnation surveys the doctrine across the major philosophical and spiritual traditions of both East and West — from Platonic philosophy and Pythagorean number theory through Hindu and Buddhist sutras, the Kabbalistic concept of gilgul, and the mystery school traditions of Egypt and Greece. Hall's immense scholarship allows him to demonstrate that the belief in the soul's rebirth was not a marginal or exotic idea but a central pillar of nearly all pre-modern metaphysical thinking, including the early Christian tradition before its suppression at the Council of Constantinople in 553 CE.
Beyond historical survey, Hall engages with the philosophical arguments for reincarnation on their own terms — examining questions of memory and its absence, the justice and mercy of the doctrine in contrast to the single-life-single-judgement alternative, and the relationship between karma and the law of moral causation. His treatment is neither credulous nor dismissive; he evaluates the doctrine as any serious philosopher would: on the coherence of its internal logic, its explanatory power for the variations of human experience, and the weight of esoteric testimony across cultures. The result is the most comprehensive single-volume treatment of the subject from within the Western esoteric tradition.
What You'll Learn
• Trace the doctrine of reincarnation through Platonism, Pythagoreanism, Kabbalah, Hinduism, Buddhism, and early Christianity — recognising it as the most widely held metaphysical teaching in human history
• Understand Hall's argument that reincarnation is not merely comforting but the only cosmological framework that satisfies both justice (karma) and mercy (infinite opportunity for growth)
• Grasp the relationship between karma and reincarnation: why causes set in motion in one life must find their effects in a subsequent one, and how this makes moral law impersonal and universal
• Recognise why the soul's lack of conscious memory of previous lives does not disprove their reality — and understand the philosophical arguments for why such amnesia may be necessary for genuine development
• Appreciate how the widespread suppression of reincarnation doctrine from mainstream Western religion shaped the assumptions most people bring to questions of death, justice, and the meaning of suffering
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