trine among other races in the East, and West. So
Reincarnation is not a "forgotten truth," or "discarded doctrine," but
one fully alive and vigorous, and one which is destined to play a very
important part in the history of Western thought during the Twentieth
Century.

It is interesting to trace the history of the doctrine among the ancient
peoples--away back into the dim recesses of the past. It is difficult to
ascribe to any particular time, or any particular race, the credit of
having "originated" Reincarnation. In spite of the decided opinions, and
the differing theories of the various writers on this subject, who would
give Egypt, or India, or the lost Atlantis, as the birthplace of the
doctrine, we feel that such ideas are but attempts to attribute a
universal intuitive belief to some favored part of the race. We do not
believe that the doctrine of Reincarnation ever "originated" anywhere,
as a new and distinct doctrine. We believe that it sprang into existence
whenever and wherever man arrived at a stage of intellectual development
sufficient to enable him to form a mental conception of a Something that
lived after Death. No matter from what source this belief in a "ghost"
originated, it must be admitted that it is found among all peoples, and
is apparently an universal idea. And, running along with it in the
primitive peoples, we find that there is, and always has been, an idea,
more or less vague and indistinct, that somehow, someway, sometime, this
"ghost" of the person returns to earthly existence and takes upon itself
a new fleshly garment--a new body. Here, then, is where the idea of
Reincarnation begins--everywhere, at a certain stage of human mental
development. It runs parallel with the "ghost" idea, and seems bound up
with that conception in nearly every case. When man evolves a little
further, he begins to reason that if the "ghost" is immortal, and
survives the death of the body, and returns to take upon itself a new
body, then it must have lived before the last birth, and therefore must
have a long chain of lives behind it. This is the second step. The third
step is when man begins to reason that the next life is dependent upon
something done or left undone in the present life. And upon these three
fundamental ideas the doctrine of Reincarnation has been built. The
occultists claim that in addition to this universal idea, which is more
or less intuitive, the race has received more or less instructio