e identity. This is not a new idea. In the Vedic traditions that led to Hinduism, for instance, the idea that there can be meaningful survival not as oneself but as part of a larger psychic entity is as old as recorded history (Martin, 1992, p. 165).
Philosopher J.J. Macintosh singles out five possible after life scenarios:
(1) that we are reincarnated in the self-same body we had in our pre-mortem state; (2) that we are reincarnated in another--in a different--body; (3) that we continue to exist (with or without temporal gap) in a disembodied form, which may or may not culminate in re-embodiment; (4) that pre mortem life is a dream from which postmortem life is the awakening; (5) that none of the above holds: there is no life after death (Macintosh, 1992, p. 235).
Judaism's religious offspring, Christianity, has a long belief in reincarnation. As writer Harvey F. Egan states, "Jesus . . . said that a person must be born a
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