In Reply to: Reincarnation in the scriptures? posted by Thinker on August 11, 2004 at 18:11:15:
OK, you've done all your homework. The history of the expurgation of the reincarnation belief from the church and the offical cannon of sacred scripture can be found if you do a search on "Origen", an early church father (around the 2nd or 3rd century, if I recall) who taught reincarnation as Christian doctrine. He had some emotional problems, btw, and castrated himself rather than live with "impure urges." (I believe that was Origen.)
Go to the Edgar Cayce website for more discussion of Christianity + reincarnation. Cayce was a BBC who would go into trances and prophesy all sorts of stuff that conflicted with his beliefs as a BBC. He was called the Sleeping Prophet because he had no conscious memory of his prophesies after he came out of the trance state. Very interesting study, similar to Berg in some respects, but very different with regard to personal morality and how he handled the following that grew up around him.
He wasn't a drinker, btw. He had a serious head injury as a young man, and the prophesies started after that. He was also famous as a healer, as he could also "see" the nature of a disease state and advise what needed to happen for healing. The Edgar Cayce Foundation keeps a record of the "miraculous" healings attributed to his intercession.