I am currently a Religious Studies major at a top-tier humanities-undergraduate college, a few months sober and doing better than ever in my coursework, finishing out my bachelor degree work in a way that I'm proud of. From what I've learned, reincarnation is more than likely, even if it has yet to be proved by modern Western science (historically, notably, prior to Albert Einstein's emergence on the physics' scene, Western science c. the late 19th century was pretty well convinced that it had advanced to the pinnacle of scientific development before being mentally blown out of the water by that young patent clerk's findings relative to space and time). Buddhism and Hinduism are the two religions you want to look into - in fact, Buddhism is essentially a 'Protestant' form of Hinduism, without all the extra religious garb - one of their main discrepancies is just in how to actually achieve total enlightenment/liberation from this material realm - this involves the relation of 'no-self' and 'self' and how one can feasibly leave this existence in a spiritual manner. However, excepting the Hindu/Buddhist debate over this key issue, which is really the whole point of working on yourself and putting yourself on the spiritual path, to my limited knowledge, in the first place, both of these Eastern religions are quite adamant over how reincarnation is simply a fact of life. In the material embodiment you currently occupy on this 'earth', you are merely representative of a localized form of what the late Canadian psychologist Richard Maurice Bucke would have referred to as "cosmic consciousness." We're essentially on a type of celestial merry-go-round, one that is determined by our own karmic propensities in this life and in the other lives which we have lived (and which, technically, in an omnipresent sense, we are concurrently living along with the one which you are consciously feeling and expressing now). A few other concepts which might be pertinent for this discussion - from what I've learned, in a Buddhist and Hindu perspective, the conscious life which you are situated in RIGHT NOW is nothing more than a dream, pure and simple. When you 'wake up' from this dream that we call life, i.e., you die, you simply are made aware of another state of consciousness, one which you already possessed while in this life but were not consciously aware of at the time, i.e., when you were 'alive'. Basically, then, reincarnation is simply the consciousness embodied by 'you' cycling through different dream states - it gets complicated in the Hindu and Buddhist perspective when you incorporate karma into the discussion and into what bodies you can expect to be born into in the next 'lifetime', whether material, immaterial, animal, human, above-human (e.g., an angelic form), etc. ad infinitum. Also, another avenue of theoretical interest for anyone on this thread would be to look into the different planes of reality of which humans are part and parcel of in the Buddhist/Hindu context - we, currently, as a physical body, are in the lowest state of existence, in matter. Also included in matter is the mental plane, which is above the physical body by a few degrees. Other than the material plane, you also have the astral plane, which includes the 'dreams' you experience when you go to sleep (and, to a Buddhist/Hindu, are actually, technically, more 'real' than the waking state of consciousness which you are currently experiencing) and, lastly, the causal plane, which influences everything else you do, sort of like 'fate' in an old Western, Stoic conception but in a much deeper, all-encompassing way. When a person escapes the cycle of reincarnation permanently, they are enlightened - this is not easy to do, and very few advanced Buddhist/Hindu practitioners can ever attain this level of spiritual advancement/fortitude. As a last note, at least from what I have summarily learned, unfortunately, the taking and imbibing of drugs does not at all help one in their spiritual progress - depending on how many illicit substances (including alcohol, of course) you have taken in this lifetime, you will probably have to make up for all that stuff in future states of consciousness/lifetimes. Good luck to everyone. Even though I am 22 and plan to stay sober for the rest of my life, definitively, at this point, I will most likely be stuck in the cycle of reincarnation for a very good while yet. Also, keep in mind, I do not at all pretend to be anywhere near to even being on the spiritual path. All I know is that, when it comes to Hindus and Buddhists, just remember, the advanced practitioners, i.e., the people from whom we get most of this information/knowledge about spiritual/material existence, usually spend the VAST majority of their lives in a state of silent meditation without external influences of any kind besides interaction with people (think: the forest arhats in Hinduism or the secluded dark-rooms in which Buddhist monks may be subjected to meditate in for years at a time), if even that - all I can say is that I'm prone to heed their words, especially now that I'm sober and in a clear state of mind.
