Reincarnation, or rebirth as Buddhists call it, is the idea that consciousness goes from one incarnation to another until it reaches Nirvana. Versions of this view were taught by Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Gotama Buddha, Mahavira, Śāṅkara, Plotinus, and a number of modern thinkers. There are in fact good reasons to believe that some such process is true.
The first is the fact that many people experience déjà vu. We sometimes feel we have lived through a moment before in exactly the same way. This could be interpreted as a residual impression from a previous life.
We also know that there is spiritual energy and physical energy. And we know that physical energy is neither created nor destroyed, according to the first law of thermodynamics. If physical energy is neither created nor destroyed, why would spiritual energy be any different? It is neither created nor destroyed, but transmigrates from one incarnation to another.
Near-death experiences also give evidence that there is an afterlife, and many of these suggest that the good we do in this life follows us into the next.
Finally, there are children who remember their previous lives. Scientists have studied this and argued that there is no good explanation except that they actually did reincarnate.
