ment to overwhelm the centrality of the Torah (Katz, 1992, p. 407).
Reincarnation is a term that has been popularized in the West but identified with the East. It is the ultimate expression of the age-old mind-body problem. The question was then and is now: if mind or soul is distinct from body, do both cease to exist at death? The body's death is easy to confirm. But the mind or soul's intangibility makes nearly impossible a confirmation of either its existence or its demise.
Nonetheless, experts agree on a basic definition of reincarnation. David Cockburn defines it by quoting Ian Stevenson:
Reincarnation, briefly defined, includes the idea that men consist of physical bodies and minds. At a person's death, his physical body perishes, but his mind may persist and later become associated with another physical body in the process called reincarnation. Some persons find the word "mind" in this definition unclear or otherwise unattractive. They may certainly substitute another word such as "soul" or "individuality." I intend only to indicate a component of human beings not comprised in our present understanding of their physical bodies, which component may persist after physical death (Cockburn, 1991, p. 199). Though such a basic definition of reincarnation might win broad agreement, questions remain as to the specifics of reincarnation. Do humans reincarnate as humans, animals, plants or even non-organic matter? Do reincarnated humans retain their previous personalities? The popular media usually portray reincarnation as occurring exclusively from one human body to another with identity (although not necessarily memory) largely or even wholly intact. Philosopher Raymond Martin raises other possibilities:
There are ways of surviving (or quasi-surviving) that do not preserve identity, that are as good, or almost as good, from a person's own egoistic or self-regarding point of view, as survival that does preserv...