Reincarnation has quietly moved from the fringes of American spirituality into the mainstream. Roughly one-third of Americans now say they believe in it, and the numbers are even higher among Millennials and Gen Z. What’s striking is that this belief isn’t limited to those who identify as “spiritual but not religious.” Many who still call themselves Christians also hold some version of reincarnation alongside their faith.

That alone should make us pause.

The question isn’t whether reincarnation is popular. It clearly is. The real question is whether there is a good reason to believe it’s true—and how its evidence compares with something like the resurrection of Jesus, which sits at the very center of historic Christianity.

To explore this, I want to lean heavily on the work of Dr. Gary Habermas, one of the world’s leading scholars on the resurrection, drawing from a conversation he had with Sean McDowell and from his book Beyond Death. What follows isn’t a strawman of reincarnation. It’s the strongest version of the case—and then an honest evaluation of whether reincarnation is actually the best explanation of the data.

See their conversation here:

Why Has Reincarnation Become So Popular?

Habermas makes an observation that I think rings true: for most people, belief in reincarnation isn’t driven by careful study or philosophical rigor. It’s cultural.

In many parts of the world—especially outside the U.S.—reincarnation isn’t even on the radar. Habermas notes that his European PhD students rarely bring it up at all. But in American culture, especially among younger generations, we’re seeing a mix of influences: Eastern spirituality, New Age thinking, a growing fascination with the supernatural, and a general resistance to saying that any belief system is false.

We live in an “anything goes” spiritual environment. People want transcendence without judgment, spirituality without doctrine, hope without accountability. Reincarnation fits that mood perfectly. It offers continuity without finality, growth without reckoning, and meaning without a last judgment.

What Do We Actually Mean by Reincarnation?

Before evaluating evidence, definitions matter.

The most widely cited scholar in reincarnation research was Dr. Ian Stevenson, a psychiatrist and medical doctor at the University of Virginia. He wasn’t a fringe figure. He wrote extensively and cautiously, and his most famous book is Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation.

Stevenson defined reincarnation very specifically:
Reincarnation is when a soul enters a new body between conception and birth.

That definition matters, because it distinguishes reincarnation from other phenomena that are often lumped together with it—especially possession.

Possession, by contrast, involves a spirit entering a person after birth, during the person’s life. Stevenson also distinguished between different kinds of possession, including what he called discarnate possession—where a deceased human spirit enters a living human being—and demonic possession.

Already, you can see where this is going.

Resurrection Is Not Reincarnation

It’s also important to clarify what Christians mean by resurrection, because it’s often misunderstood.

Resurrection is not simply “coming back to life.” Lazarus was raised and died again. That’s resuscitation.

Resurrection, in the Christian sense, means this:
A person dies once, remains themselves, and is ultimately raised into a transformed, immortal body—still their body, but no longer subject to decay or death.

As Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 15, resurrection is a one-time event followed by judgment—not an endless cycle of deaths and rebirths. Hebrews 9:27 puts it plainly: “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.”

This is the key distinction.
Reincarnation: many lives, repeated deaths, no final accounting.
Resurrection: one life, one death, then judgment.

The Strongest Evidence for Reincarnation

Habermas is clear about this: reincarnation is not a silly belief with no evidence offered for it. There are reasons people find it compelling.

The strongest evidence typically comes from cases involving young children.

A common pattern looks like this:

A child—often between the ages of three and five—begins insisting that they are someone else. They claim a different name, describe a previous family, recall specific locations, and sometimes even lead adults to a house they claim to have lived in. In some cases, they accurately describe the layout of the home, personal details of the deceased person, or circumstances of their death.

Other supporting claims include:

• Birthmarks or deformities corresponding to wounds or scars of the deceased individual
• Physical traits like limps or injuries matching the previous person
• Sudden ability to speak or understand a language or dialect the child was never taught

These cases are emotionally powerful. And it’s understandable why many people conclude reincarnation is the best explanation.

But here’s where the discussion gets interesting.

A Critical Question Most People Never Ask

Habermas frames the issue with a simple but devastating question:

Are there other explanations that account for the same data?

If reincarnation were the only explanation, that would be one thing. But if another hypothesis explains the evidence just as well—or better—then belief in reincarnation is no longer compelled.

This is where Ian Stevenson himself becomes crucial.

Despite dedicating his career to studying reincarnation, Stevenson repeatedly admitted that the data does not allow a firm decision between reincarnation and possession. In his own words, the evidence “falls along a continuum in which the distinction between reincarnation and possession becomes blurred.”

That’s not a Christian apologist speaking. That’s the leading reincarnation researcher.

The Overlooked Alternative: Discarnate Possession

Stevenson acknowledged two rival explanations that best fit the data:

1. Reincarnation
2. Possession

Interestingly, he expressed discomfort with demonic possession, possibly because it implies moral accountability, judgment, and a darker spiritual reality. But he was more open to discarnate possession—the idea that a deceased human spirit could influence or inhabit a living person.

From a Christian perspective, this possibility is often dismissed too quickly. Many assume Scripture rules it out entirely. But when pressed, the biblical case against discarnate possession is not as airtight as people think.

Hebrews 9:27 tells us that people die once and then face judgment—but it doesn’t clearly explain what happens in the intermediate state or what spiritual beings may or may not be permitted to do during that time. Scripture affirms a spiritual realm, affirms deception, and affirms that Satan has real—though limited—power in the present world.

The point isn’t that discarnate possession must be true. The point is that it cannot be ruled out—and it explains the same data without requiring reincarnation.

Why This Matters

Once you admit that reincarnation is not the only explanation, the belief loses much of its force. At best, the evidence is ambiguous. At worst, it points to spiritual deception rather than a benign cycle of rebirth.

And this is where Christianity stands apart.

The resurrection of Jesus is not based on vague memories, subjective experiences, or anecdotal cases. It rests on public events, eyewitness testimony, early creeds, hostile witnesses, and an empty tomb—evidence that can be historically examined and cross-checked.

Reincarnation offers stories.
The resurrection offers history.

In a culture hungry for spirituality but uneasy with judgment, reincarnation feels comforting. But comfort is not the same thing as truth.

If we care about what’s real—not just what feels meaningful—then reincarnation deserves scrutiny, not assumptions. And when it’s carefully examined, it turns out to be far less solid than many people think.

Feel free to check out their conversation here:

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