In his introduction, Lewis comments that he believes that most people in the Western world have essentially misconstrued the doctrine of reincarnation and mentions how most writers on the subject, mostly in small books and pamphlets, are speaking from the standpoint of traditional Eastern religions and expressing themselves in ways that are hard for the common reader with a Judeo-Christian heritage to grasp.

            Lewis published the book in 1930, long after Madame Blavatsky had started the Theosophical Society in 1875 in America in New York City. Her works, like Isis Unveiled and the Secret Doctrine, which spoke of reincarnation, were hardly small books or pamphlets. This is how her work is described in a site from the Blavatsky Archives Website:

She gave out the truth in detail about the complex sevenfold nature (spiritual and psychological) of a human being and about life after death. She taught the twin doctrine of karma and reincarnation. Madame Blavatsky also set forth a clear and comprehensive rationale for psychic and spiritualistic, mystical and spiritual phenomena and experiences.

            Another exponent of reincarnation in America was Swami Vivekenanda who spoke to an American audience in 1893 at the World Parliament of Religions. A disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, Vivekenanda kindled the flame of Vedanta, a very universal form of Hinduism that was to take root in America, quite some time before Lewis wrote his book.

            But for many of Lewis’ audience, they would not know very much about the history of mystical strains of thinking in American religious life nor would they be aware of the American indigenous peoples, who also believed in reincarnation.

            In his first chapter, Lewis tries to more or less create a fictional but lifelike portrait of early man probing the reality of spiritual truth, Lewis focuses on light the first fire in a wood-and-mud cabin. Although the images are picturesque in a Reader’s Digest kind of a way, they hardly seem like a realistic picture of early man. It is far more like that early man, using fire, would have moved from a very prehistoric type of clan into some kind of tribal organization before he would have started building a hut with a hearthstone. In this brief cameo of early man, a teacher seems to suddenly be interjected into the narrative- but in the case of early man, the teacher would probably have been some kind of a shaman. Lewis’ portrait of early man seems rather middle-class and unlikely to me. Reincarnation is not just confined to Eastern religions, but at the time of his writing, I would say the more literate person would be more likely to have heard of reincarnation through Blavatsky than through an American Indian medicine person.  Shamanism was very much a part of the communal life of Native Americans, but the white, European culture knew very little about that culture.

            As Gary R. Varner says in an essay called, Reincarnation Beliefs of Native American Tribes–

Many cultures around the world believe, or have believed, in reincarnation—the return of the soul to the world to be reborn. What is the basis for beliefs in reincarnation? According to Antonia Mills, a belief in reincarnation “fits into the basic shamanic belief that typifies hunting and gathering peoples wherever and whenever they are found and…it was probably part of the most ancient human culture.” Belief in reincarnation is still prevalent in many parts of the world today, however—and not just in hunter/gatherer societies.

            Given my research, to me, this chapter does not seem historically realistic and paints a kind of Pollyanna picture of reincarnation’s beginning historically. The chapter’s title appears to becoming from John 14:2: “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you,” which is a quote from Jesus, which throws more light on the name of the book than the chapter, which does not mention this intriguing quote.

            Perhaps it is fitting that we end this blog with another quote, given we are writing about a book written by the esteemed Founder and Imperator of AMORC, an organization which claims Benjamin Franklin a member. Here an epitaph that Franklin actually wrote for himself (regardless of his purported membership):

The body of B. Franklin,

 Printer,

 Like the Cover of an Old Book,

 Its Contents Torn Out

 And

 Stripped of its Lettering and Gilding,

 Lies Here,

 Food for Worms

 But the Work shall not be Lost,

 For it Will as He Believed

 Appear Once More

 In a New and more Elegant Edition

 Revised and Corrected  By the Author