SV: Origins of the "double-truth"

[Arun Gupta]

Vidyasankar Sundaresan wrote :

>Still, re: transmigration/metempsychosis/reincarnation, it
>remains to be proved that it is a uniquely Indian religious idea
>that went west.

Ian Stevenson, M.D., in "20 Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation" tells us that
the Tinglit Indians of Southeaster Alaska, the Haidas who live to the south
of the Tinglits, the Tsimyans living on the coast of British Columbia, the
Athapaskans, some Eskimos and Aleuts, all believe in reincarnation.

Stevenson tells us :

The Tinglits do not believe in transmigration of human souls into animals,
however.  They have a concept similar to karma linking one life to the next.
They also believe (as in India) that people who remember past lives are fated
to die young.  The Tlingits believe in rebirth (old personality gives rise to
new as old candle burning low lights new candle) as well as reincarnation
(continuation of the same personality).  Also, Stevenson does not rule out
Buddhist influence, e.g., the fifth century AD voyage of Chinese Buddhist
missionary Hwui Shan.

(Stevenson terms rebirth a Buddhist concept and reincarnation a Hindu
concept.)

Elsewhere Stevenson says -- "As far as I know, the Jains of India and some
Tibetan Buddhists are the only other groups [apart from the Druze of Lebanon]
believing in reincarnation whose members also beleive in immediate rebirth
after death.... The Jain belief differs from that of the Druzes in that the
Jains believe the soul of a dying person goes immediately to a newly
conceived body, which is then born after the usual period of gestation. In
contrast, the Druzes believe that the soul of the dying person goes to the
body of a baby born at that very instant."

Perhaps looking at specifics such as those mentioned above in the theories of
transmigration of various peoples will help trace whether the ideas arose
independently or were transferred.


-Arun Gupta