Hello there! Have you ever wondered who were you in your past life? Perhaps you have a serious belief in the theory of reincarnation. Maybe you are more of a skeptic, but still, find it fun to entertain the idea of past lives. Either way – if you want to know who you were in a past life, but don’t want to go through tedious regression hypnosis, we have the perfect quiz for you!

Reincarnation, also called rebirth, transmigration, or metempsychosis, is the philosophical or religious concept claiming that the soul, or some aspect of the soul, is reborn into new lives. In most theories regarding reincarnation, the soul is the only thing that remains after the body perishes. The immortal soul transmigrates into a new being to live again. The term transmigration means the passing of the soul from one body to another after death.

Depending on the religion or philosophy, the soul can incarnate in humans, animals, or plants as it works its way toward an eventual escape from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Most religions that believe in reincarnation consider it the path to purity and salvation.

Reincarnation is a central concept of the major Eastern religions – particularly Buddhism and Hinduism, but also Jainism, Sikhism, and most Paganism. There are, however, some Hindu and Pagan groups who don’t believe in reincarnation and instead believe in an afterlife. Belief in reincarnation is present in various forms and different aspects in many streams of Judaism, some beliefs of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and Indigenous Australians. Reincarnation theory also has a history in ancient Greek philosophy. Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato all believed in rebirth. In recent decades, many Europeans and North Americans have developed an interest in reincarnation.

The Hindu traditions state that the body dies, but the soul cannot be destroyed. Hinduism accepts samsara, a chain of births and deaths linked by reincarnation. Controlling samsara is the law of karma. All people accumulate karma throughout their lives; good actions create good karma and evil actions create negative karma. Karma can affect a person’s future in this life, but also all the subsequent lives. The ultimate goal of any Hindu is moksha, which is salvation from samsara and the final release out of the reincarnation cycles. Moksha is believed to be the state of utter bliss, which Hindu traditions believe is either related or identical to Brahman, the unchanging reality that existed before the creation of the universe, continues to exist and shall exist after the universe ends.

Salvation comes only after a person has abandoned all pursuits and desires and accepts that the individual soul is the same as Brahman, the universal soul or god. By exiting the cycle, an individual no longer endures the pain and suffering of earthly existence performed countless times over.

What about reincarnation in Buddhism? According to various Buddhist scriptures, Gautama Buddha believed in the existence of an afterlife in another world and reincarnation. Samsara is governed by the law of karma. Good conduct produces good karma and bad conduct produces evil karma.

The Buddha introduced the concept that there is no permanent self (soul). That concept is called anattā. There is rebirth, but no soul is moving from one life to another and tying them together. When life ceases, the karmic energy “dissolves” and re-materializes itself in another form. These teachings are accepted by most of the contemporary Buddhist traditions.

Like in Hinduism, the cycles of rebirth continue endlessly and are the source of suffering (duhkha). People suffer because they desire the transition. Only when they achieve a state of total passiveness and free themselves from all desire can they escape samsara and achieve nirvana.

Many Buddhists believe an individual can end the cycle of reincarnation by following the Eightfold Path, or middle way. An enlightened being represents the directives of the Eightfold Path: correct view, correct intention, correct speech, correct action, correct livelihood, correct effort, correct mindfulness, and correct concentration.

Belief in reincarnation was also taught in the ancient Western world. Mystery religions had a wide range of reincarnation ceremonies and beliefs. One of these was Orphism, popular mystery religion beginning in the sixth or seventh century B.C. The mythical poet Orpheus was the legendary founder of this religion. Orphics believed that the soul was divine and immortal and that it was imprisoned by the body. By leading a correct life and abstaining from meat, wine, and sex, a soul could go to Elysium, a paradise after death, while an evil soul would suffer in hell. But neither afterlife was eternal and after a time, the soul would be reborn into a new body, in a human or mammalian form. Only after passing through three good Orphic lives could a soul end the cycle of reincarnation.

You don’t have to believe in rebirth to take our quiz. Do you want to find out who you were in your past life? Get down to the questions and discover your past self! Have fun.