Could Karma and Rebirth have a role in a theory of psychological development?

Details

The paper argues that secularizing Yoga by removing its metaphysical foundations to make it acceptable to Western empirical materialism has left a conceptual gap in the study of psychological development. It contends that dismissing Karma and Rebirth (saṃsāra) as culturally contingent myths risks a category error: applying descriptive physical criteria to a fundamentally normative and axiological system.

The study uses a qualitative, interdisciplinary philosophical methodology combining systematic conceptual analysis, critical literature review, and cross-traditional comparative philosophy. Its sources include classical Indian texts in established scholarly translations, contemporary literature on consciousness science and quantum information theory, and empirical research on claimed past-life memories.

The analysis proposes that Karma and Rebirth can be understood as rational postulates of moral equilibrium and mental continuity, with a regulative function structurally analogous to Kant’s postulates of practical reason. It argues that the Yogic concepts of cit, or consciousness as ontologically primary, and saṃskāras, or cognitive imprints that may be modelled as informational states, are consonant with—but not proven by—quantum physics findings concerning the observer effect and conservation of information. Its critical review of past-life memory research and associated biological correlates identifies prima facie evidence that the paper says resists straightforward dismissal, despite methodological limitations. The paper also identifies limits in the speculative quantum-informational analogy, methodological weaknesses in past-life research, and differences between Buddhist and Pātañjala accounts of the self.

The authors propose that a multi-life framework offers a philosophically coherent architecture for moral agency, long-term character development, psychological resilience, and collective social responsibility, and hypothesize that single-lifetime models address these functions less fully. They argue that reclaiming these doctrines in an academically rigorous form opens a productive path toward what they call Trans-Materialist Psychology. The paper presents a systematic integration of Yogic and Buddhist accounts of the mental continuum with Kantian practical philosophy, quantum information theory, and contemporary consciousness science, grounding Karma and Rebirth as foundational constructs; it states that this integration had not previously been attempted in the literature reviewed.