There is a ‘cluster-phenomenon’ in the study and research of re-incarnation which defies explanation. At infrequent periods in history, several geniuses appear at the same time. Usually they know each other. Their fame lasts through centuries. Then, a century or two later, another cluster of talented men dominate the scene, and like comets, they disappear for another hundred years or so. Shakespeare and Bacon are an unforgettable ‘cluster’.

Leonardo da Vinci and Verruchio even worked together. During their lifetime, two great artists, Michelangelo and Raphael vied with each other at exhibitions. Da Vinci and Michelangelo also displayed their works in 1504 at Florence. In the world of music, about two centuries later, Mozart, Beethoven, Hayden and Schubert appeared. A century later, there were Brahms, Liszt and Schumann! In the philosophical world, we saw Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot (who all believed in reincarnation). In the legal field, great minds like Holmes, Brandeis and Hughes sat in the US Supreme Court at the same time.

Towering statesmen as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin – were all contemporaries at the birth of the ‘US Republic’? Was it luck, destiny, coincidence, or had they decided to reincarnate together in order to establish a free nation? What about our own Freedom-fighters who established India as a free nation ‘at the stroke of mid- night’ while the world slept?

And what about the same cluster-phenomenon in the early 19th century, which produced a glittering array of poets and philosophers as Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Bryant, Henry David Thoreau, James Lowell, Henry Longfellow, Oliver Holmes and Walt Whitman? An accident? There is no such thing as accident in nature. Souls repeatedly return in groups to develop their talents to greater heights.

Romantic poets who simultaneously illumined English literature (another cluster-phenomenon) like Blake, Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelly, Keats and Landor may have formed another ‘cluster’, creating harmony through their gracious living! The Renaissance period in Europe had a ‘cluster’ of talented people in various fields. Why do we have entire families of devoted musicians like the Mangeshkars? Because souls who have devoted past lives to study music take birth through parents whose environment would provide ample scope for their musical talents.

Unfortunately, there are also recurring ‘clusters’ of evil-doers. Trevor Ravenscroft in his remarkable book ‘The Spear Of Destiny’, discloses that the leaders of the secret Thule group in Munich, of which Adolf Hitler was one, were Satanists who practiced black-magic previously. According to Trevor’s research, Hitler believed himself to be the reincarnation of ‘Landulf of Capua’ (head of the anti-Christ group) whose evil magic involved lots of human sacrifice and torture. In that life, Landulf had been castrated for raping a noblewoman and Trevor writes “It’s interesting to note that Hitler was born with only one testicle.”  Others in the Thule group were all 9th century anti-grail and anti-Christ people. Hermann Goring and Dietrich Eckart, the founders of Nazism, were apparently all ‘clusters of evil’.  The evil of these black-magic adepts has repeatedly during the course of history, attempted to block the spiritual progress of mankind.

Today, materialism hasn’t made man happy or at peace with everyone. Money and power have degraded society and therefore people turn to spirituality and man wears the idea of God being his savior like a seat- belt. We cling to possessions and people, and in so doing, we select our own traps and choose our own poisons. Hence we have to reincarnate again and again in clusters or groups, until we travel all the way, climb all the steps and master all the lessons before we find peace for our soul.

After several lifetimes with our ‘Karmic-Clusters’ of family and friends when we have moved up and down the ladder from a wretched beggar to a bejeweled king, when we have been tantalized and disillusioned, when we have burnt our fingers because of the wrongdoing or have benefited by doing good, we understand the cluster-phenomenon and why some relationships give us happiness while some give us pain.

So, is the Cluster phenomenon or Group Reincarnation a fact or fiction? Figure it out for yourself, dear reader!