It is quite familiar to hear people talking about past lives. This is a phenomenon which depicts that human soul is immortal and passes on from one physical body to another. The concepts or rebirth and reincarnation are ancient as well as popular.

The first and foremost thing about past lives is that it literally means having a number of past lives or births before this present one and naturally refers to the concept of being reborn in a different physical body or in other words being reincarnated. In short, this points to the belief of ancient civilizations and spiritually advanced cultures regarding the immortality of the human soul and its reincarnations.

About past lives, or about reincarnation, it can be said that the human soul is believed to be immortal in nature. Thus, when a person dies or his physical body ceases to exist, the soul leaves the same and thereafter comes back to the Earth in a new born baby. This phenomenon is commonly known as reincarnation or also transmigration of the soul.

There has been numerous research and experiments about past lives by ancient civilizations and religions that are spiritually advanced. The concept of rebirth has been the centre point of religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. Even the ancient Greek philosophy had serious researches about past lives. But again major sects of Christianity and Islam have different views regarding the same. Lets have a look at what the Hindu philosophy says about past life.

Let's take a peek on what Hinduism has to say about past lives. It says that the soul or the Atman has to travel through a cycle of birth, death and rebirth called Samsara until it achieves moksha or the highest level of spiritual wisdom and is set free. During the process of birth and rebirth, the soul has to go through the life and its deeds and behaviors, otherwise known as Karma.

The karma determines the condition and the experience the soul go through in the next rebirth. With every rebirth the soul comes closer to attaining the state of moksha or nirvana. When finally it attains nirvana the soul is set free and attains the much awaited eternal peace and happiness.

Buddhism on the other hand talks about past lives not in the context of the immortality of the soul, but rather on reincarnation being on a stream of consciousness. Thus, there is not the supreme atman or soul that ties one life to another, instead it talks about past lives as evolvement of consciousness, emergence of a new personality from the same stream of consciousness.

The Western civilization does not have much belief about past lives. Whatever has evolved is from the Hindu line of thoughts that has reached the West. The philosophy of thoughts about past lives has given rise to the subject Theosophy which is rather the first institution to give tutelage to the western culture about past lives and the concept of rebirth.

The doctrine of Theosophy stands on the point that the soul is a formless, all-encompassing force. It comes down from the higher planes to the human world and goes through a cycle of birth, death and rebirth. In every step there is a gathering of knowledge and experience. The death brings purity to the soul and it travels to he ethereal planes once again. There it waits in a timeless and formless state for another reincarnation.