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Reincarnation and Population Growth

David Pratt

Part 1
Part 2

Part 1

‘Can population growth rule out reincarnation?’ This is a question that often crops up in
discussions on reincarnation. It is also the title of a recent article by David Bishai,
published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration.1

It is estimated that in 8000 BC the world’s population was about 5 million. By 1 AD it

had risen to about 300 million. Today it is approximately 6 billion and is increasing at a
rate of 85 million per year (135 million births as against 50 million deaths). However, the
current period of unprecedented population growth appears to be drawing to a close.
David Bishai writes:

A sustained global decline in the fertility rate began over 20 years ago and
shows no sign of reversing. Barring significant unforeseen economic or
epidemiological setbacks, world population should peak at roughly 10 billion
about the year 2050.

If reincarnation is a fact, and if we assume that the total number of human souls –
both incarnated and unincarnated – evolving on the earth remains more or less
constant, then the global population can only increase if the average period between
two lives decreases. Conversely, for the global population to decrease, the average
period between two lives must increase.

Since it seems reasonable to suppose that the average length of time spent in the
various after-death states does in fact change in accordance with the various yugas and
other cycles that humanity passes through, variations in the total human population are
to be expected and present no threat at all to the idea of reincarnation. This is also the
conclusion reached by David Bishai, who analyzes the issue mathematically.

According to theosophy, the general rule is that the period of postmortem rest is
about 100 times the length of the life just lived; the average period is sometimes given
as 1500 years, but this is based on an average lifespan at present of about 15 years.
The actual period varies enormously, according to the mental and spiritual development
of the person concerned. In rare cases, reincarnation can even take place within a few
years, as in the case of children who die a violent death.2 The explosive growth in world
population in recent times is an indication that reincarnation is taking place more quickly
than in the past – a reflection, in part, of the quickened pace of life and strong
materialistic tendencies in the present age.

In theosophical literature it is stated that, in general, unincarnated souls far

outnumber incarnated souls.3 G. de Purucker said that the number of incarnated souls
was only about a hundredth of the number of unincarnated souls.4 However, given that
the global population fluctuates enormously in the course of human history, while the
number of incarnating monads remains the same,5 this percentage presumably applies
only to the average global population – whatever that may be. On another occasion,
Purucker tentatively suggested that the total number of human souls evolving on earth
may be 10 billion, or 5 times the world population at that time.6

Since it is now predicted that the world population will peak at around 10 billion in
2050, the total number of souls incarnating on our globe can obviously be no less than
that figure, and could be far higher. Applying the same factor of 5 that Purucker used,
there could be 50 billion human souls associated with our globe.

David Bishai suggests a maximum figure of 100 billion souls; this is based on the
estimate that about 100 billion people have lived on earth since around 50,000 BC,
which, in Bishai’s view, is when humans of the modern type first emerged. Theosophy,
on the other hand, traces the beginnings of human civilization back many millions of
years. Nevertheless, if we can assume that every human soul has had at least one
incarnation since 50,000 BC, then the maximum number of human souls can be no
more than 100 billion.

One of the first people to claim that population growth disproves reincarnation was
the fiery Christian church father, Tertullian. One of his most notable contributions to
Christian theology was the following:

I maintain that the very Son of God died; now this is a thing to be accepted,
because it is a monstrous absurdity; further, I maintain that after he was
buried, he rose again; and this I believe to be absolutely true because it is
absolutely impossible.7

– a revelation that does not inspire much confidence in Tertullian’s capacity for rational
thought.

Those who use the population argument to try and invalidate reincarnation are
assuming that the average rest period between two lives has remained absolutely
constant throughout human history. But, as Bishai points out, how such sceptics have
managed to obtain this transcendental knowledge about a state they don’t even believe
in remains a mystery!

References

1. David Bishai, ‘Can population growth rule out reincarnation? A model of circular
migration’, Journal of Scientific Exploration, vol. 14, no. 3, 2000, pp. 411-20.
2. G. de Purucker, Fountain-Source of Occultism, TUP, 1974, pp. 593-4; ‘Where
reincarnation and biology intersect’, http://davidpratt.info.
3. W.Q. Judge, The Ocean of Theosophy (1893), TUP, 1973, pp. 86-8; G. de
 Purucker, Studies in Occult Philosophy, TUP, 1973, pp. 579-80
4. G. de Purucker, The Esoteric Tradition, 2nd ed., TUP, 1940, p. 877; Dialogues of
G. de Purucker, TUP, 1948, 3:219-20.
5. H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine (1888), TUP, 1977, 1:171, 173, 182-3, 2:302-
3.
6. Studies in Occult Philosophy, p. 580.
7. Quoted in The Esoteric Tradition, p. 9.

January 2001. Last revised: November 2001

Part 2

Other suggested explanations for increases and decreases in the earth’s population
include the following: (1) monads from other planetary chains, not necessarily in our
own solar system, joining the human evolutionary stream on earth, or monads leaving
earth to continue their evolution elsewhere; and (2) animal souls reincarnating as
humans, or human souls reincarnating as animals.

As regards the first point, H.P. Blavatsky states the general rule as follows:

... the humanity of the first manvantara is that of the seventh and of all the
intermediate ones. The mankind of the first root-race is the mankind of the
second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. To the last it forms a cyclic and constant
reincarnation of the monads belonging to the dhyan chohans of our
planetary chain.1

... Mankind, from the first down to the last, or seventh race, is composed of
one and the same company of actors, who have descended from higher
spheres to perform their artistic tour on this planet, Earth. Starting as pure
spirits on our downward journey around the world (verily!) with the
knowledge of truth ... inherent in us, cyclic law brings us down to the
reversed apex of matter, which is lost down here on earth and the bottom of
which we have already struck; and then, the same law of spiritual gravity will
make us slowly ascend to still higher, still purer spheres than those we
started from.2

In other words, once we are associated with a particular planetary chain, we have to
run through all its cycles from beginning to last, i.e. through all the seven root-races on
all the globes in each of the seven rounds and in each of the seven planetary
embodiments, gradually advancing through each of the ten kingdoms in turn, and
raising ourselves from unselfconscious god-sparks (elementals) to selfconscious gods.
It seems less likely that a human monad would suddenly leave the earth in the middle of
one cycle and dash off to join an evolutionary process already under way on a
completely different planet, possibly in a different solar system.

Most of the monads currently evolving on the earth chain in its current embodiment
were also evolving on the same chain in its previous embodiment (the remains of which
are the moon chain). As explained in the teachings on the outer rounds, after
completing the full evolutionary cycle (of seven planetary manvantaras) on the earth
chain, we then proceed to the next of the sacred planets, where we go through a similar
evolutionary journey, and so on, round all the sacred planets, seven times. And during
even greater expanses of time, we migrate from one solar system to another.

In addition to the major outer rounds which monads make collectively at great
intervals, there are also minor outer rounds, during which our highest (spiritual and
divine) monads make relatively brief visits to other planetary chains and other solar
systems after death and during sleep or initiations. This suggests that there are monads
from other planets and solar systems passing through the earth chain. The monads
making these journeys are said to manifest in suitable forms on the globes they pass
through. Whether that includes embodiment in physical human bodies on our own globe
is not stated.

As far as interchange between the animal and human kingdoms is concerned,

theosophy explicitly rejects the exoteric Buddhist teaching that it is quite normal for
human souls to switch back and forth between incarnating in human bodies and animal
bodies. Once human selfconsciousness has been attained, souls do not normally
regress to the predominantly instinctual animal kingdom.3 Only very rarely do human
souls, through persistent evil-doing over a series of lives, sever the link with their divine
self and become ‘lost souls’, which then reembody in the lower kingdoms.4

Theosophy says that the ‘door’ to the human kingdom closed in the middle of the
present fourth round (some 4.5 million years ago), and that no more animal monads will
graduate to the human kingdom for the rest of this planetary manvantara.5 The only
exception are the monads embodying in the apes and higher monkeys, which will be
able to enter the lower ranks of the human kingdom due to the apes’ semi-human
ancestry.

As evolution proceeds along the arc of ascent, or spiritualization, during the

remainder of the seven rounds, we’re told that some human monads will drop out of the
evolutionary stream and enter a quasi-nirvana because they will not be able to progress
sufficiently; they will have to wait until the next planetary reembodiment to continue their
evolution.6 This is even truer of the animal kingdom; most monads composing that
kingdom will cease to incarnate before the end of the seventh round.7

References

1. H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, TUP, 1977 (1888), 2:146fn.

2. H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, TPH, 1950-91, 14:303.
3. Blavatsky Collected Writings, 4:399; G. de Purucker, Studies in Occult Philosophy,
TUP, 1973, pp. 683-4.
4. G. de Purucker, Fountain-Source of Occultism, TUP, 1974, pp. 452-3.
5. The Secret Doctrine, 1:173, 182-3; G. de Purucker, The Esoteric Tradition, TUP,
2nd ed., 1940, pp. 314-15.
6. The Dialogues of G. de Purucker, 3:412-14.
7. Studies in Occult Philosophy, pp. 194-5, 680-1.
 July 2005.

Evolution in the fourth round

Inner and outer rounds

Reincarnation

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