Featuring over 1,200 topical entries arranged alphabetically, this encyclopedia provides diverse and detailed coverage of the related subjects of reincarnation and karma. Its in-depth examination ranges from ancient beliefs to those of the present, incorporating all relevant world cultures. A series of broad thematic entries cover foundational aspects while over a thousand highly focused entries deal with various societies and organizations which support the concepts of reincarnation and karma; specific religious groups, sects, and associations; key individuals both historic and modern; and related beliefs, concepts, and practices.

When men and women willingly give over their minds and bodies to spirit entities and these spirits enter and control them using them to heal or to give teachings and other information this is called channeling. Crystal work uses crystals to invoke the spirits. The spirits claim they can assist people toward true individual social and spiritual enlightenment. Channeled spirits claim to be wise and loving entities but are they? What is their real purpose? The authors examine the potential problems and dangers that can occur through channeling along with a biblical evaluation of the practice.

Discusses the connection between reincarnation, channeling, and possession, and examines the evidence for each

First Published in 1996. You may have lived before. As a matter of fact, you may have experienced countless lifetimes. This statement constitutes the basic premise of reincarnation, which is also called transmigration and metempsychosis. This volume explores the origins and development of the belief of reincarnation.

“Reading this book requires an open and questioning mind, not a mind that has already accepted just one answer. I, for one, have benefited greatly by reading his words and listening to his lectures.” — From the foreword by Sir Jason Winters, KGSJ Licauco, in this book, boldly discourses topics that might be unconventional for most people, but very thought-provoking. Such topics might be disturbing, but they will satiate the intellectually curious and those who don’t settle only in a single point of view.

A blend of traditional and non-traditional approaches toward client-centered paranomal investigation. The methodology provides a solid structure as compared to random methods used by ghost investigators.

Reincarnation in America: An Esoteric History surveys the complex history of reincarnation theories across multiple fields of discourse in a pre-American context, ranging from early Greek traditions to Medieval Christian theories, Renaissance esotericism, and European Kabbalah, all of which had adherents that brought those theories to America. Rebirth theories are shown in all these groups to be highly complex and often disjunctive with mainstream religions even though members of conventional religions frequently affirm the possibility of rebirth. As a history of an idea, reincarnation theory is a current, vital belief pattern that cuts across a wide spectrum of social, cultural, and scientific domains in a long, complex history not reducible to any specific religious or theoretical explanation. This book is cross-disciplinary and multicultural, linking religious studies perspectives with science based research; it draws upon many distinct disciplines and avoids reduction of reincarnation to any specific theory. The underlying thesis is to demonstrate the complexity of reincarnation theories; what is unique is the historical overview and the gradual shift away from religious theories of rebirth to new theories that are therapeutic and trans-traditional.

Bringing together scholars from different disciplines and geographies, the Brill Handbook of Spiritualism and Channeling presents modern spirit possession in a variety of contexts. Weaving together the interrelated movements of Spiritualism along with its specific Franco and Latin American currents, articles explore the nineteenth-century beginnings of séances and trance mediumship. Channelling, an heir to Spiritualism begun in the 1970s and still flourishing today, is brought into direct conversation with its predecessors with a view to showing both continuity and disjuncture as the products of new cultural and religious needs. The Brill Handbook marks the first extensive collection on these two interrelated movements and examines themes such as gender, race, performance, and technology in each instance.

Have you ever wondered what happens to us when we die? What if you really HAD to know? When tragedy strikes the family of young Jobran Winter, he is forced to confront these questions directly. Undertaking a feverish "Quest," he explores various branches of Christianity; Judaism; Islam; Hinduism; Buddhism; Sikhism, as well as the religions of China and Japan. His search encompasses the New Age, Reincarnation, Spiritism and Psychical Research. Attending channeling sessions and séances, investigating haunted houses and Near-Death Experiences, he examines spiritual traditions ranging from Swedenborg to Scientology, from Jodo Shinshu to the Jehovah's Witnesses. Finally, the Quest brings him into direct contact with Hospice work; physical disability; child abandonment; abortion; suicide; euthanasia, and even cold-blooded murder. Encounter the doctrines of Purgatory & Predestination, Universalism & Annihilationism, as you journey in a novel that will make you reexamine your ideas about religion, skepticism, love, death and LIFE.

This book provides a fascinating historical and cultural overview of traditional beliefs about spirit possession and exorcism around the world, from Europe to Asia and the Middle East to the Americas. Possession and exorcism are elements that occur in nearly every culture. Why is belief in spiritual possession so universal? This accessible reference volume offers a broad sample of the traditions and cultures involving possession and exorcism, presenting thoughts on this widely popular topic by experts from the fields of anthropology, sociology, religious studies, history, neuroscience, forensics, and theology. The entries cover the subject of possession and exorcism across all inhabited continents, from the Bronze Age to the 21st century, providing information that is accessible and intriguing as well as scholarly and authoritative. Beyond addressing the Christian tradition of possession and exorcism, Pentecostalism, and "New Age" and less widely known Western concepts about possession and exorcism, this work examines ideas about possession and exorcism from other world religions and the indigenous cultures of Asia, Africa, and the Americas. It also covers historic cases of possession and presents biographies of famous theologians, exorcists, and possessed individuals. High school and undergraduate readers will learn about world history, religious and spiritual traditions, and world cultures through a topic that figures prominently in popular culture and modern entertainment. Bibliographies that accompany each entry as well as a selected, general bibliography serve to help students locate print and electronic sources of additional information.