Although dogmatic beliefs do not accept the doctrine of reincarnation, its knowledge is very old. Long before primitive Christianity, millennia ago, it was already emphatically pointed out. The Vedas, sacred scriptures of various religions in India, already contain references to reincarnation and their origin dates back to 3,102 years BC, but, in written form, it must not be earlier than 2,500 years BC., in its oldest sections; the most recent are around 500 BC.

It is found in the Vedas: “. “There is an immortal part of man which is that, the Agni, which must warm with your rays, ignite with your fires. – Where did the soul come from? Some come to us and leave from here, others leave and come back again” (Léon Denis – “After Death”).

From the Bhagavad Gita: "I have had many births and so have you". From the Upanishads: "Within the womb man obtains the body, whether good or bad." “The soul is the seed of all beings and it is through the soul that creatures exist. Just as iron is smelted to be molded, the soul enters the fetus. Everything that was done in a previous body must, without a doubt, be enjoyed or suffered”. Again the Bhagavad Gita: “Just as a creature puts off old clothes to put on new ones, so the soul rejects this body to take another. From Buddhism: He who has reached the end of births owns wisdom.” Said Buddha (600 years B.C.): “Which do you think is greater, the water of the vast ocean or the tears you shed when, in the long walk, you wandered from rebirth to rebirth?

 “Zarathustra” or “Zoroaster” (700 or 600 years B.C.), in Persia, admits the expiatory proofs aiming at redemption: “If anyone atones, and does not do justice to it in this life, he did it in a former”.

In Ancient Egypt, reincarnation was accepted and documented. A text, written 3,000 years before Christ, said: “Before birth, the child lived and death is not the end. Life is an event that passes like the solar day that is reborn”. Still in the land of the pharaohs, in 1320 BC, inserted in the Anana papyrus: “Man comes to life several times, he remembers it in a dream or by some event related to another life”.

Reincarnation was taught by the Greek philosophers Socrates and Plato in the 5th century BC. In ancient Greece, the reincarnationist thesis (palingenesia) was encouraged, even reporting that Pythagoras remembered several of his previous existences, distinguishing a shield he said he had used in the Trojan war, when his name was Euphorbus.

Kabbalah, a secret doctrine of the Hebrews, contains palingenesis as one of its postulates and appeared around 200 years BC, although it is traditionally believed to have appeared at the time of Moses. At the time of Christ, Kabbalah was known to those who had the will and desire to delve into spiritual things, not dogmatized by the organized priesthood of the time. In this secret doctrine it is believed in the existence of the being evolving before Eternity in different forms.

As to the doctrine of successive lives being recognized and taught by Jesus, there is no doubt. From the testimony of the evangelist Matthew, we know that the Master reaffirmed the reincarnation, confirming the return of the Spirit of Elijah to the physical world like John the Baptist: “I, however, declare to you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did everything to him. as much as they wanted”. “Then the disciples understood that he had spoken to them concerning John the Baptist” (Matthew XVII:12-13).

At the time when Jesus lived, the Jews believed in the return of spirit to matter. They called this possibility the resurrection. Allan Kardec, in The Second Gospel of Spiritism, says: “The Jews believed that a man who had lived could revive, without knowing precisely how the event could take place.” The Lyonnais Master adds: “In fact, the resurrection gives the idea of ​​returning to life the body that is already dead, which Science proves to be materially impossible, especially when the elements of that body have been dispersed and absorbed for a long time”.

Reincarnation is the return of the soul or spirit to corporeal life, but in another body specially formed for it and which has nothing in common with the old one. The word resurrection could thus apply to Lazarus, but not to Elijah, nor to the other prophets. If, therefore, according to their belief, John the Baptist was Elijah, then John's body could not be Elijah's, for John had been seen as a child and his parents were known. John, therefore, could be Elijah reincarnated, but not resurrected.

A Jewish sage, a member of the Supreme Court that deliberated on the life and customs of Judea (Sanhedrin), sought Jesus in the dead of night, certainly to escape the observation of those who constantly besieged the Master. Christ took advantage of the occasion, as he was in front of a scholar, to talk to him about something deeper, a subject known for millennia by initiators, by those who already had “ears to hear”, ready in evolution to apprehend what is hidden from the masses, as they are prepared to receive the holy things and to catch “the pearls that are thrown” (Matthew, VII:6).

Rabbi, we know that you are a Teacher from God: for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him” (John, III:2). It should be noted that Nicodemus, officially a teacher of the Jews, called the carpenter Jesus of Nazareth a teacher. The Lord answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John, III:3).

“If the dialogue had ended here, many interpretations or conclusions would have been commented: Jesus could be talking about moral rebirth, the new life that a person experiences when he follows his teachings. Is it not possible for people to change when they find Christ in truth? We do not often hear the communications given by the spirits, exhorting us to spiritual renewal with the birth of the “new man and the death of the old man”, which we carry within us. Paul, in “The Letter to the Colossians”, says: “Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is being renewed for full knowledge...” (Galatians, III:9-10). “... If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians, V:17).

However, if Jesus were talking to Nicodemus about the rebirth of the new creature, who finds him deeply, he would complement the statement by saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless anyone is born again 'by my example or through of my words' cannot see the kingdom of God”.

Regarding the need to be “born again”, which we understand to be reincarnation, we bring the word of spirituality: “The passage of spirits through corporeal life is necessary, so that they can carry out, with the help of the material element, the purposes whose execution God entrusts to you.” Jesus said, "In my father's house are many mansions" (John, XIV:12). Therefore, the Universe, containing a myriad of stars, each one in its own evolution, provides the spirits with the right places, where reincarnation will take place, so that the unlimited knowledge of the arts, science and morals can be found.

The Earth is a planet of trials and expiations, and it can allow its inhabitants — beings who are still spiritually backward — the happiness, typical of regenerating worlds, where more advanced spirits are incarnated.

Our orb, being home to creatures still located in a lower evolutionary range, presents anomalies in the distribution of happiness and misfortune, since each one is given what he deserves. Hence the rational and logical explanation for all the vicissitudes of life, except those that are caused in the present by man himself.

Only being born again explains why some suffer more than others, wealth and poverty; why do we see so many people coming into the world blind, deaf, dumb or affected by incurable diseases when others are born normal; the birth of beings with congenital malformations; incurable diseases, especially malignant neoplasms; paralysis in general; the cripples; the premature loss of loved ones; accidents and natural scourges, which cannot be avoided; why some are so beautiful, others incredibly ugly; the existence of orphans from early childhood, of beggars, of old people abandoned in asylums; cultural differences; mental imbalances and many other diversities in the earthly landscape, which are not explained by traditional religions.

It is worth emphasizing that when we mention reincarnated spirits, some in misery, others in opulence, it is not our objective to present reincarnation as a pretext for covering up social wounds. Since, out of selfishness, men created extreme wealth and, consequently, extreme poverty. The Law takes advantage of these environmental factors as it took advantage of black slavery, it still takes advantage of war, alongside other scourges, to rescue or re-educate those in need. Let us not forget, however, that oppression itself leads the oppressed to overcome it. Without this dialectical process there would be no spiritual growth.

However, we must emphasize that being born again in the flesh does not only aim at regeneration for indebted spirits in the dissonant past tense. Many reincarnate following the path of natural evolution. Beings that have increased scientific knowledge, gigantic in knowledge and intelligence, return to the physical arena to conquer, in their own vibration, the virtues they still lack and to continue on their evolutionary journey, which will encompass the deep knowledge of all things. We walk in multiple rebirths in search of our improvement, obtained at the expense of ourselves, assimilating and learning all the work of the Creator.

We become perfect, as Perfect is the Father, who created us without knowledge, so that this could be conquered by ourselves, through the various opportunities of learning in the flesh and spiritual world. In the physical dimension, there is more opportunity for correction and transformation, as the vast majority of spirits are still linked to race, ideology, country, religion and the family environment in which they reincarnated. Also on Earth, we have the blessing of temporarily forgetting the past. It is like a being who leaves the penitentiary, ready for a new life, his past having been erased from his memory and from all his acquaintances, which will provide him with the opportunity of a new existence, even interspersed with great suffering, without the constant presence of the nightmare of the remorse that oppressed him in prison, molding around him the horrible and degrading scenes that ruined his intimate life, fruits of his own thinking — ungoverned and tyrannized by bad and obsessive memories.

Reincarnation gives the opportunity for readjustment, meeting again the creditors and debtors on the stage of physical life — “the opportunity for reconciliation with the adversary while he is with him on the way” (Matthew, V:25) — there being, then, in one or in various experiments, the remission of debts before the Divine Law and before oneself, consciously paying off oneself.

You must be born again”, a profound teaching of reincarnation, which mirrors the justice of God, given to a Jewish sage who did not know it deeply.

However, in the middle of the 20th century, almost two thousand years later, how many people, religious or not, are still unaware of it! And Jesus said that all things would be known with the advent of the Comforter (John, XIV:26).

 “How many people are orphaned in spiritual knowledge, and the Master teaches that he would not leave us orphans, because he would send the Comforter, whom these people still “cannot receive because they neither see him nor know him” (John, XIV:17-18).

“You must be born again, here is the law” that reveals the goodness of the Creator, allowing us to return to physical life and rescue, through trials and atonements, our disharmonious past; as well as undertaking reparations, edifying achievements, ennobling our soul and driving it towards greater happiness, already enjoying it those who become aware of the immanent divinity in their spirit.

Man, in his present existence, is heir to himself, restoring his past and building tomorrow with his own will.

The “poet of Spiritism”, Leon Denis, says that the immortal soul, being responsible for its future, has to pay for everything it has sown and reaped. However, after he has greatly tarnished his conscience, converting it into “a den of evil”, he will have to rise up and transfigure it into a “temple of light”.

Hence the importance of the existence of the reincarnationist doctrine.