Research Paper on Reincarnation

I have to write a research paper on the idea of Reincarnation, and don't know where to begin. I have never written a research paper before, and it has to be 8-12 pages long. Any Ideas?

I would start by doing research and really understanding the concept. Then I would make an outline of what you want to cover and then work from there.

All living things seem to have this pattern - they are born, grow and die. In the last stage they are without life. In that pattern you can place yourself somewhere as well.. somewhere nearer the birth end at this time.

Consider this fact that each of our lives is unique, and for this reason we think, our own life will have a different length than any calculated number, howsoever. Each day is unique to us. You do things which effect the course your life will take ... as when you join up some particular program of study... but, a lot happens with you, simply happens, which impacts your life's path as well. For instance, a person joining your class who you become very good friends with, and due to his or her thinking, has a strong impact on yours.

These events have two sides. One being that you experience them as. The other is that part which you were, that made it to be. You befriend someone, but that person was equally attracted to traits which you have, the traits mind you. A car hits yours, but yours too happened to be where this other one swerved to. Its about recognizing yourself as much a part of the scenery, and a cause, to what happens in the world.

Being all this which you are, you could see it as a life you live. Something you came by, that somehow attached itself to you.. or, which somehow you chose to take up before your actual birth.

If one really has that choice, you may think that anyone would choose the best life, one most comfortable.. the American dream. Well, you need only ask say, your mom, or an older person, and will learn that somehow this dream wasn't really enough. The next time they might want to be elsewhere, live another kind of life; because some questions somehow came up within themselves, as they lived their seemingly perfect life, and the answers seemed to be as though, in another realm.

Hope this gets you thinking what reincarnation really means !

Wow, what a great topic!! I'm excited for you that you have this as the topic for your first research paper.

1.) You are lucky to have received Rajiv's ideas, because they are profound, and Rajiv is something of an expert on spiritual topics.

2.) You have not done much to help other people! If you want to get good at writing research papers, go read some recently posted research paprs and help people gain new perspective on their writing by offering your ideas. Try not to give just one or two lines of feedback, but instead do unto others as you would have them... you know, as you would want them to help you!

So, please go help some people.

Here is my advice for getting started:
1.) Go to an online database like Google Scholar or your school library database, and type reincarnation into the search. Collect 10 articles.
2.) Read one of the articles, and write a paragraph about the main idea the writer conveyed. Put the writer's name in parentesees at the end of the paragraph.

3.) repeat that process untl you have 10 paragraphs.
4.) Read what you wrote, and look to see what themes are EMERGING from writing about these things.
5.) when you have lots of pages, go back and add an introduction paragraph.
6.) go to the end and write a conclusion para.
Post it here so we can help!

:-)

Hi!! Yes i will make sure to go and help read and edit others as i have time. :)
After looking through many books and websites i have decided to do my research paper on the fact that we somehow need to believe in something like reincarnation to eliminate the fear of death, or that it could simply be the fact that it explains the unexplainable.

this is what i have so far...

"It is no more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection" (Voltaire).
Today, the mystery of what happens to us after we die continues to be the subject of debate among people of all religions. This is the reason why there are so many theories out there about what will happen to us after death. So why is there so much interest in reincarnation, which is also known as the shooting forth of a branch, or a recurring cycle (Hend, 189)? Is it because of the need to believe in something more - a belief that is generated by the fear of death? Or is it just that reincarnation exists to explain the unexplainable?

Many may choose to believe that our soul will go to heaven or hell, or transform into another bodily form, but others may just believe that the end is the end, and that's it. These are the ones that believe reincarnation is strange and hard to believe. It is known today though that the believers in reincarnation possibly outnumber those who reject the idea or have never heard of it (Stevenson, 25). To those who believe in the idea of reincarnation, find it to not seem strange at all, yet persons unfamiliar with the idea of reincarnation often find it unreasonable and absurd. But according to Stevenson, they form the minority of all the inhabitants of the earth.

"If what we fear is the cessation of life, then the belief that you will in fact live again after you die may be comfort" (Metz, 6). Death is something that can devastate any person. The idea that the person we loved is now gone forever is very hard to grasp. Also the desire by the grieving relatives for the return of these loved ones from death may promote the conviction that they have reincarnated among them. But when brought upon the idea that through death, those in love will soon be together again in future lives, somehow everything seems a little bit easier.

The belief of this and the belief that the personalities after death don't change, diminishes the grief of mourners and the fear of those who await their turn to die (Stevenson, 27). It changes the approach from one of doom, to one of hope. It takes one tragic circumstance and helps us let go of our fears and to flow gently with life's changes and allow nature to take its course.

Because these thoughts about death influence how we live our lives, more and more people are discovering the idea of reincarnation, which in turn gives them a new insight to the meaning of life and death for themselves. The idea of karma is also brought up. We believe that everything around us happens for a reason.

So how is it that some can believe in such a strange thing? Some say there are enough facts out there about it to explain how it can be true. Others say, for many reasons, that it just explains the unexplainable.

Although there is really no proven evidence on the matter, it seems to be likely that the belief in reincarnation has originated sometimes, and mostly very often, from the claim of someone to remember having lived in a previous life. These stories, told by the people who miraculously remembered their previous lives, are passed from place to place or through several generations. After awhile these stories become more and more realistic and explain why the things around us happen.

These life mysteries's are all around us. We question whether reincarnation explains why some of us were born into horrible conditions of poverty while others were born into a more abundant situation (WEBSITE). Or it can explain the fact that some of us were born healthy and others with an illness. It can also explain why bad things happen to good people, and why good things happen to the bad.

There is also the idea of dreaming.

So how is it that some can believe in such a strange thing? Some say ... bad things happen to good people, and why good things happen to the bad.----> All this material is sort of unsupported. If this is a research paper, you need to have one citation per paragraph, usually.

Look at a few articles about near death experiences, hypnosis for remembering past lives, dreams of past lives... and write a paragraph about each.

It is looking great so far! The beginning is fascinating!

Remember that if consciousness came before matter and had a dream about matter, it would not be difficult at all to believe that lives follow lives. The question of nature vs. nurture is also relevant...

for the quotes, try and make them into your own words, so you dont just plop a quote in the middle of a paragraph out of no where. This way you can still cite it, but it is in your own words, makes it more personal

I'm so confused! Heather, did you get a second membership so that you could give advice to yourself? Ha ha, intriguing...

...or maybe we have a glitch in EssayForum?

haha i forgot my password for the other account, so i created another one, and then wrote a post to this one so that i could have it in my threads to see if anyone commented on it haha! :)

I wonder if someone can believe in reincarnation without believing in God. I also wonder, if we can understand reincarnation any more than we can the existence of God. Coming to this subject from an Indian point of view, God is not another disembodied being. Rather an extension of ourself.

So for Indians it is as simple as that -- we have all of God's attributes, including of never perishing except in our bodily form. Faith is the key here. Due to the long culture and history of that kind, in India people grow up from their earliest age believing in the imperishability of their inner beings. Subsequently due to varied and individual circumstances, some may develop serious doubts about this way of thinking. Otherwise to most, Western thinking is as surprising, of people so ardously seeking explainations of the rational kind alone. In Indian philosophy, rational thought is one facet of who we are. Intution too is a word of western definition. To an Indian mind, sensing, feeling, thinking, intuting are a seamless stream becoming ever more sublime and dealing with life at ever more subtler levels.

Our own identity is the debris scattered in this stream of consciousness - just as asteroids in the rays of the sun.

Ha ha, I see what you mean, heather. :-)


It depends on what that sound is associated with in their minds. That sound, god, is emotionally charged! You gave a great explanation here, but some people automatically think of a vengeful god that might damn them. For some people, the word has been ruined, so it is a good thing the word is only a sound.

I would have loved to hear Heather ask what the last line in the earlier post meant. I am certain she takes it as some poetic and metaphorical expression .. but really, if this topic has come her way, it implies some good karma for her.

Anyway.. our consciousness is a stream. Like white light combines other colors, and as ever shortening wave-lengths in light are the different colors we see - our conciousness can be thought of as similarly constituted. In it, past the band of rational thoughts are intuitions. Here, we apprehend directly and do not need facts linked to be sure that something is correct, or follow from other things we were looking at.

On the coarser side are our emotional thoughts, and at the far end, this stream of consciousness activates our senses. This light falling upon objects, or events in this case, picks up all of their colors. That is, we apprehend with our senses, but the accompanying emotions, rational thoughts and intuitions, also all happen - these intuitions, rational thoughts, emotions and sense inputs, create a sense as though we exist independently. Actually, its all happening on its own out there, and you, as you think yourself, are not there at all !

The ultimate sense of identity, a sense of uniqueness which we all yet have, is the imperishble light within - the same in all of us.

There are objects of emotions, of rational thoughts and of intuition, just as there are physical objects. Objects are characterized not by an independent existence, but because they are experienced similarly by different observers. In the classroom, the same concept is the 'object' of rational thought, and we may be tested on our complete 'perception' of that. A writer of a novel, a show producer, or a director and his cast, all expect to evoke similar emotions, to make us feel in a particular way watching the events they conjure for us...these are objects in our emotional space.

Now consider the containing space of objects. We think of space as a sort of complement to objects, and as tangible... that it is as much there as material things. We experience objects with our complete consciousness, yet consider their existence validated only by our sense perceptions. Looked closely, space is as much an idea of an 'absence of matter'. And ignorance is the space of rational objects, and is infinite in a manner similar to physical space.

What we intuitively grasp, we take as 'existing', its containing space is therefore non-existence. When we say an object exists, it is by this intuitive grasp, or if you will, by our intuitive sense.

Merge the idea of physical and rational space and consider looking upon a landscape, such as the surface of the earth from high above, and moving down closer. The space we are coming in from is both physical and a rational space. Neither are there objects, nor do we have any knowledge. The landscape on earth though, has physical as well as objects of knowledge. Depending on which peak or area we alight upon, our view is of a particular kind. The terrain is laid out which we will discover as we move along. Add now, the idea of intuitive space, of 'non-existence' -- of where we are coming from; and our visiting earth, is our birth here.