# Reincarnation Superstition **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 20, 2025, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022 "2025-11-20T20:52:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/1 "2025-11-20T20:52:02Z")
Reincarnation is a belief for some, I know. Other people think that it’s just a parlor game like playing with a Ouiji Board. I remember reading a book ( a silly novel ) maybe 30 -40 years ago where the author wrote that it happened 60-90 days after the death of one person ( and the birth of the new person ). Many of you here will find that to be nothing but Tripe. You might be right, too. That said, what is the superstition? If it was ‘real’ how many days was it again? After we determine the number of days then we can all put on our tinfoil hats and say, “Wow… I’m Napoleon…!” 🤪 ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/2 "2025-11-20T21:06:58Z")
Perhaps we should ask the Delai Lama? But I suspect he would repeat what Budda apparently said: I make no claims to knowing anything about that. Smart fellow! ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/3 "2025-11-20T21:09:15Z")
A topic that just won’t stay dead. \< flees \> ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/4 "2025-11-20T21:20:22Z")
Why does no one ever consider the legal issues surrounding reincarnation? If It’s still me, can I designate my reincarnated self as my legal heir? What about any other heirs? Can they contest that, leaving new Baby Me destitute? And if I can inherit, is it held in trust by my current parents until I come of age? And what if I was a criminal, in prison? If I die 5 years into a 10 year sentence, does Baby Me get sent to Baby Prison for 5 years? Or do they defer that until I turn 18 (again)? What do they do if I abscond at 17, and go live someplace with no extradition treaty? I guess marriage is mostly okay, with the “'til death do we part” part. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/5 "2025-11-20T21:28:16Z")
We had a “Past life” expert do my family when I was a kid, and oddly, none of my past lives were kings, etc- but several were minorly important- in one I was a Roman Senator during the Republic- but a “back bencher”. So altho i believed it not, she at least didnt come up with those tired tropes of “You were Napoleon in a past life”. My Mother was a noted “Psychic” when she retired but her shtick was actually good solid advice from a woman who grew up on a farm during the depression, then became a “Rosie the Riveter” then worked to help put her husband thru college to get his Masters. And she did a meditation thing of staring into a candle and letting your pain go out. She would accept no money but a silver coin. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/6 "2025-11-20T21:31:48Z")
> [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](#): > > Many of you here will find that to be nothing but Tripe. You might be right, too. That said, what is the superstition? I don’t believe in reincarnation, but I don’t consider it ‘superstition’ or ‘tripe’ any more than I consider the beliefs of any major religion to be so. In fact, I’d say that the belief that a soul gets to be incarnated into increasingly higher forms until they reach Nirvana makes more sense than “worship me and my son and follow all my commands, however arcane and possibly irrelevant to modern life, or be thrown into a lake of fire for all eternity”. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/7 "2025-11-20T21:33:50Z")
> [@solost](#): > > I don’t believe in reincarnation, but I don’t consider it ‘superstition’ or ‘tripe’ any more than I consider the beliefs of any major religion to be so. Yeah, calling it “superstition” is kinda rude, if not worse. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/8 "2025-11-20T21:37:13Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Yeah, calling it “superstition” is kinda rude, if not worse. I suppose I thought that… if it wasn’t real… then I wasn’t insulting anybody. And if it was real, that person is dead so how are they doing to complain? ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/9 "2025-11-20T22:00:13Z")
Most cultures have a belief in a soul, we will call it, of some kind, that YOU whatever that is continues beyond death. YOU will meet dead relatives, ancestors, and learn the secrets to the universe, perhaps meet your idea of God. What people don’t like to think is that when you die YOU just kind of fizzle out. YOU are not a separate entity at all. YOU are a brief chemical reaction called life. The universe is very, very lazy, it does nothing without getting something back. E or energy equals M or matter. No trade and nothing happens. So what is maintaining this afterlife? Heaven, Hell, it would take some energy. Who is doing the monitoring?,What is deciding when a soul gets sent back to try again? And most important, where is the energy exchange coming from? What about when your cat dies? It had a soul, where does it stop? The ant you stepped on this morning, why doesn’t it get a second chance? YOU, your cat and the ant just discontinue. The universe is lazy, and will do nothing without energy. The simplest thing, and also the fairest thing, is that YOU, the ant, everything just dies and fades away. There is no YOU after death, you get the same treatment as the ant. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/10 "2025-11-20T22:08:07Z")
You make me feel much more empathy for James Whitmore and his Tommy Gun. Thank You. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/11 "2025-11-20T22:10:00Z")
If reincarnation is a thing, and people come back as other people, why is the human population growing all the time? And if beings are reincarnated as “higher” life forms for living a good life or doing good deeds, such that the ant comes back as a cat, and the cat comes back as a human, who is deciding what those “good” deeds are? > [@solost](#): > > I don’t believe in reincarnation, but I don’t consider it ‘superstition’ or ‘tripe’ any more than I consider the beliefs of any major religion to be so. I am aligned to this way of thinking, too. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/12 "2025-11-20T22:15:25Z")
It is not tripe any more than any other religious belief…and not any less, either. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/13 "2025-11-20T22:16:13Z")
There’s a very famous children’s book called _I Love You Forever_ and if you’re a parent it will rip your heart out. But it’s about a Mom raising her little boy and how he changes over time, and she always rocks and sings to him in his sleep. Then, at the end, the now-man goes to see his dying mother, rocks her and sings to her, and then returns home to his newborn baby girl, whom he rocks and sings to, using the same song his mother sang to him. I love you forever I’ll like you for always As long as I’m living My baby you’ll be This book confuses the hell out of my son. It starts with a baby and ends with a baby. Pretty early on he became convinced that when you get old, you turn into a baby and the cycle just repeats itself. It took repeated efforts to disabuse him of this notion but he still comes away confused about who the hell all the people are (because their ages change throughout the book.) He’s too busy figuring it out to notice me crying. I’m a Zen Buddhist and don’t believe in reincarnation, but there are some Buddhists who stridently insist you’re not a Buddhist unless you believe in reincarnation. They are mostly on Reddit. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/14 "2025-11-20T22:20:25Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > Perhaps we should ask the Delai Lama? Delay Lama, who erroniously reincarnated at 95 days, you say … ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/15 "2025-11-20T22:26:20Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > If reincarnation is a thing, and people come back as other people, why is the human population growing all the time? That’s only an objection if the claim is that _everyone_ is the reincarnation of a previous life. I don’t believe in reincarnation, but I don’t know any way of logically or empirically refuting it. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/16 "2025-11-20T22:30:26Z")
Has anyone had a supposed expert on the subject say, “I’m sorry, but you haven’t had any past lives.”? ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/17 "2025-11-20T22:48:41Z")
I read Dr. Ian Stevenson’s books on reincarnation and he has accumulated extensive information on the subject. I found it fascinating but it doesn’t mean I believe it’s actually a thing. I can’t see any way that research into this phenomenon could be done at this point in time. I myself do not want to go through any of this again. I am of one mind with Frida Kahlo when she writes, “I hope the exit is joyful and I hope never to return.” ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/18 "2025-11-20T23:10:47Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Has anyone had a supposed expert on the subject say, “I’m sorry, but you haven’t had any past lives.”? no, b/c 99% of all people turn into bad tippers after getting that information ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/19 "2025-11-20T23:18:21Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Has anyone had a supposed expert on the subject say, “I’m sorry, but you haven’t had any past lives.”? Yes, the Central Computer in Clarke’s “The City and the Stars” said so to Alvin. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/20 "2025-11-20T23:21:32Z")
Deli Lama, who reincarnated as a roast beef sandwich. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022.md?page=2)