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Do you, as an individual being, only live once? Professor Bache says, ‘No.’ In doing so, he recasts all of reality, human identity and purpose from the perspective of reincarnation.
As far back as he could remember, Christopher Bache wanted to be a priest. However, after majoring in Religious Studies at the University of Notre Dame, he found his heart could no longer endure the demands of celibacy, nor his mind overcome the obstacles of scientific scepticism. Instead, he left behind the life of the cloth to don academic regalia as Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University.
Yet his post-religious world was rocked when he encountered the reincarnation research of Ian Stevenson. From then on, ‘as far back as he could remember’ would vastly predate his Christian childhood, travelling backwards through thousands of years of lives before lives.
Entranced by the idea of reincarnation and its claim to stand up to scientific scepticism, Bache penned his first book, Lifecycles: Reincarnation and the Web of Life. This led to a fellowship at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and a role on the Advisory Council of GROF Legacy Training. It also led to him writing a handful of other books in which he deployed psychedelics to further explore the past and present depths of the human psyche.
While other writers attempt to prove reincarnation, Bache considers this issue to have been sufficiently explored elsewhere. Instead, he devotes the bulk of his work to reconceiving the existential predicament of humans in light of our having endured through so many millennia.
He contends that our sense of significance stretches or shrinks to fill our given lifespan. However, the perspective many of us have on our lives – as a one-time event – halts our rise to the grandeur of the universe. In this view, we are not significant players but fleeting cameos, wallowing in our existence for sixty or so years (with reasonable luck) before retiring and hopefully passing gently into that good night.
By contrast, Bache believes that reincarnation invites us on an unending journey where we have the time to make genuine, everlasting changes on a personal and cosmic level, thus raising ‘the philosophical estimate of the purpose of human existence.’
We are not just this moment in time but a vast array of moments; not just our soul but an Oversoul. This expansion beyond our lifespan brings a sense of personal significance. Yet, at the same time, it also suggests insignificance, since many of us fear surrendering our personalities, achievements, families, friends and everything else that makes us who we are. However, rather than being lost, our distinct lifetime rejoins the whole within which it coheres, like individual frames coming together to form the realistic flow of a film. We do not lose something but rather gain something.
While we never entirely forfeit those individual selves, we will no longer ‘remain as invested in that identity as we now think we would.’ As such, reincarnation requires a radical rethinking of human identity that simultaneously subverts and fulfils our search for meaning.
It also takes the seeming disorder and trauma of human life and conducts it into a karmic symphony of ‘exquisite complexity and beauty.’ We do not suffer needlessly in a game of chance nor endure the whims of a misanthropic God. Rather, in between incarnations, our spirit guides grant us a period of reflection to integrate our past lives and decide what we still need to learn as we choose for ourselves the trials we will go through in the life to come. As such, Karma is not about Western notions of punishment for past deeds but about providing us with the tools we need for personal growth.
This also means we are responsible for ourselves and our world since we were the pre-existent architects of our suffering and success. Everything that happens to us was designed by us for our benefit. This cosmic benevolence also allows that this is not our only chance to get things right. Since we have as many lives as we need, humanity can relax, leave behind the spectre of hell and stop letting anxiety or the need for instant transformation reign as a tyrant over us.
As a philosopher and theologian, Bache’s work is arguably unique in its emphasis on the philosophical underpinnings of reincarnation, helping us unearth the hidden ‘one-life’ assumptions that have permeated Western thought.
Bache also includes several chapters (and an appendix) dedicated to helping his fellow Christian readers integrate their childhood faith with the evidence for reincarnation. As a result, this book offers a comprehensive religious restructuring for many Western thinkers.
While examining these universal questions, the book features several intimate side chapters. Here, Bache thoughtfully explores how reincarnation impacts our thinking about issues around family or our broader communities. He maintains that we are all journeying repeatedly through time and space – connected through a spiritual field and web of life. This vision ultimately provides an inclusive whole that leaves no one behind.
