The most recommended reincarnation books

A few years ago when my wife suddenly died, on the second day I spoke to a dear friend who also happens to be a longtime monk on my spiritual path. He mentioned a book by a psychologist who took people to see the greater arc of their soul’s journey—their ‘lives between lives’. That doctor was Dr. Michael Newton, and this is my favorite of his series.

At the time, reading it had a profound effect on my growing understanding of the greater arc of the human soul and provided an immense sense of peace. Above all, it soothed my tattered mind at a moment when life felt incomprehensible and helped me make sense of our larger purpose for being here even while still grieving. Through 70 case histories of real people who were regressed into their ‘lives between lives,’ Dr. Newton reveals life continuing on the other side, ways… show more.

I read this after inhaling the Netflix adaptation, The Untamed (which my boyfriend sped through just to have something to talk about on our second date).

It’s such a beautiful story. When Wei Wuxian is brought back to life, he must work to understand the mystery surrounding his revival. Wei Wuxian is irreverent where Lan Wangji is reserved, which is already a wonderful dynamic, but they also have a history and I couldn’t get enough of it. Very fun story. 

This may be my favourite book ever, apart from I Am Lilith. It shares lucid past life memories of the author in very ancient Egypt, as well as her experiences living through World War II in Eastern Europe, revealing purposeful links between souls incarnated in both lives. The spiritual knowledge is astounding, and the depth seems endless. I’ve read it multiple times and often randomly read a few pages, each time seeing something new. It’s very evocative, with fascinating descriptions of life and spiritual practices in very ancient Egypt while highly evolved beings were still active. It explains how the pyramids were made, and that a long era of separation and dense consciousness was due before a return to unity again would rise. It also explains the truth of passionate human love and sexual connection, through spiritual yet also very human eyes. It’s a mighty tome to take on,… show more.

For those with a religious upbringing like mine, Elizabeth Clare Prophet’s book, Reincarnation: The Missing Link in Christianity, may prove a fascinating read. And for those many brought up in the Southern Baptist culture of fear and punishment like I was, the idea of living other lives can be a frightening one or a welcome one, particularly when seen as a second chance, instead of through the lens of the Biblical concepts of judgment and Hell. It is a scholarly read, in that the more you know about the Bible, the more you will get out of reading it.

I reread this because I hadn’t loved it as a child. Happy with Tolkien and Lewis, Susan Cooper, and Rosemary Sutcliffe, I didn’t warm to Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea series in the same way and especially not to this second volume in (what was then) a trilogy.

Frankly, I can see why. The prose is spare, sharp, and unsparing. The pacing is delicate, and the action really rather limited. This time around, I found it wonderful: moving and extraordinarily well-crafted. What she’s able to conjure with so few words is utterly exceptional.

There is an almost exquisite sense of confinement and fear shaped alongside the awareness of something palpably dark. But it is lifted, although never completely driven away, by the humanity of the lead characters.

Arguably the landmark novel of the time-slip genre. Using hypnosis and the idea of a previous life lived, this story transports Jo, a woman of the 20th century back into the past with all its horrors and disease in a believable ride across the barriers of time to the reign of King John. As Matilda, her life is plagued by treachery and a cruel death as two lives become bound to each other. It begs the question as to whether reincarnation and past life really exist and, if so, is hypnosis the way to establish the truth and enter that other world. I find the concept intriguing as there are many accounts in other countries, especially India, of children speaking of their previous life and death as another person.

From my eleventh-grade term paper about life after death, I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of reincarnation.

This extremely insightful book only fueled that interest. It explores the idea that our souls pre-plan the challenges in each lifetime with purpose.

This book made me look at the struggles I’ve experienced much differently. Now the question I always ask myself is, “What was I supposed to learn from that?”

This is Ian’s first past life book and in my view his best of many.

Wanting to have his own experience of a past life before writing the book Ian came to me for a past life regression to discover if past lives were real. He regressed into a past life of being tortured by having his fingernails removed that totally convinced him that the experience was real.

The book has a summary of the work of many pioneers in past life regression and their books and also future life regression. Ian presents information in a rational way and has done amazing research to dismiss much of skeptic’s criticism in early past books.

This is another tale that starts with a fortune-teller—but this time it’s teenage Jo who gets her future told. The clairvoyant tells her that there is only one true love for her—but the last time Jo saw him was in a past life! Now she needs to find him in this life. Jo doesn’t believe a word of this, but events start to unsettle her. Could reincarnation possibly be true? But what if she can’t recognize her soul-mate when she finds him again in this life? I love the suspense elements in this book as well as the romance.

This author always excels at depicting the hilarious pitfalls of navigating a labyrinthine, centuries-old bureaucracy. But for me, Zhao Yulan is the apex of her protagonists, who are charged with protecting the world on a low government salary.

He drinks on the job, chain-smokes, and devotes considerable on-the-clock time and resources to hitting on a hot, gay university professor named Shen Wei, all while attempting to solve a simple murder.

This story unfolds layer after breathtaking layer until lovers (Zhao Yulan always gets his man) are finally fighting a battle that shakes the pillars of creation. This book makes you want to dream bigger than you ever have before and fight hard for love.