Podcast Summary: "Collective Karma and Reincarnation with Chris Bache"

Podcast: New Thinking Allowed Audio Podcast
Episode Date: October 17, 2025
Host: Emmy Vadnais (Co-host with Jeffrey Mishlove)
Guest: Chris Bache, Professor Emeritus, Philosopher, and Author

Episode Overview

This episode explores the profound relationship between individual and collective karma, the dynamics of reincarnation, and the evolving trajectory of human consciousness. Philosopher and religious studies scholar Chris Bache shares his extensive research, personal experiences (notably through psychedelic exploration), and insights on how humanity is engaged in a collective journey toward a "future human." The conversation weaves together scientific, spiritual, and experiential perspectives on the nature of reincarnation, karma, oneness, and our current epoch of planetary crisis and transformation.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Chris Bache's Journey Into Reincarnation & Collective Karma

• Academic Foundation & Influences
  • Early influence from Ian Stevenson’s empirical reincarnation research and Stan Grof’s work in transpersonal psychology ([03:43]).
  • “I began to see the world in terms of reincarnation through a lens of reincarnation, understanding that every life is a continuation of lives lived in the past and is leading toward lives in the future.” – Chris ([04:17])
• Personal Experience Through Psychedelics
  • Used LSD in 73 controlled sessions, experiencing “deaths and rebirths” and both personal and collective memory matrices ([04:39]; [07:00]).
  • Emphasized that using psychedelics was not a recommendation but his personal, exploratory choice ([09:14]).

2. The Nature of Reincarnation: Empirical and Experiential Evidence

• Empirical Evidence
  • Highlights robust documentation from Stevenson’s research with children recalling past lives ([10:18]).
  • Expounds on past-life therapy bringing forth not only trauma but also gifts and aptitudes ([11:12]).
• Theoretical Limits
  • Acknowledges gaps: physics of the soul, how consciousness migrates, and interfaces with genetics ([11:57]).
• Direct Experience
  • “Reincarnation is simply true. It’s just a fact of life… But...we don’t really understand the physics of how that consciousness reintegrates with another incarnation.” – Chris ([12:25])

3. Oneness, Mystical Experience, and Collective Consciousness

• Stages of Oneness
  • Describes dissolving into oneness not as a binary state, but as a series of immersive initiations ([16:33]).
  • “One can have a perception of oneness. One can touch the edges of oneness and feel the truth of oneness in the world. But then you can go deeper into actually kind of dissolving into the quantum structure, if you will.” – Chris ([17:03])
• Impact of Experiencing Oneness
  • Leads to greater compassion for self and others, a sense of “spontaneously looking out for the good of the whole” ([15:16]).

4. Individual & Collective Karma: Interconnectedness and Social Influence

• No True Individual Isolation
  • “Each human being is a cell in the tissue of humanity. Every mind is a light, a cell of light in the fabric of human consciousness.” – Chris ([22:12])
  • Personal problems and virtues are collective, not just private; breakthroughs radiate outward into society ([22:36]).
• Education as Collective Transformation
  • Psychedelic practices influenced not only Chris’s personal journey but his students—supporting his thesis in "The Living Classroom" ([23:42]).

5. Reincarnation and World Religions

• Religions and Reincarnation
  • East: Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism accept reincarnation readily ([26:54]).
  • West: Often hidden in mystical/esoteric branches (e.g., Hasidism, Sufism, Christian mystics)—sometimes actively suppressed for institutional reasons ([27:28]).
  • “Reincarnation gave too much autonomy to individuals… and so a particular council was held and there was a decision that reincarnation was not going to be included…” ([28:54])
• Reconciling Christian Theology and Reincarnation
  • Discusses how reincarnation makes the world more intelligible and alleviates the inscrutability of suffering in a "one-life-only" worldview ([31:45]).

6. Human Life as an Evolutionary Garden

• Developmental Diversity
  • "We are a developing flower garden. We are different types of flowers which are developing and emerging over large periods of time." ([48:00])
  • Life purpose and soul development is open-ended, not a rushed, one-life affair ([45:16]).
• Perspective on Reincarnation: Burden or Opportunity
  • Modern view sees reincarnation as a liberation from existential nihilism ([46:10]).

7. Purpose of Karma & Reincarnation; Individual to Collective Evolution

• Growth and Empowerment
  • Evolution as a progression toward greater individuality, oneness, intelligence, and spiritual communion ([48:30]).
  • “Where could we become if we had 10,000 years to work with?...we'll become more in tune with reality.” – Chris ([51:44])
• Process, Not Predetermined Goal
  • The focus is on dynamic, open-ended growth, not a fixed endpoint ([49:51]).

8. Planetary Crisis as Collective Near-Death Experience

• Contemporary Turbulence
  • Sees current planetary crises as analogous to the "dark night of the soul"—a period of collective purification before breakthrough ([62:12]).
• Potential for Transformation
  • “I personally think we are entering into a profoundly important, very positive turning point in human evolution, which will take us into a higher level of psychospiritual functioning…” ([62:54])
• Hope and Warning
  • The looming threat acts as an evolutionary accelerator, compelling humanity to "grow up or die" ([73:31]).

9. Karma: Cause and Effect, Not Punishment

• Fundamental Mechanism
  • Choices—psychological, physical, spiritual—create trajectories that echo through future experiences ([57:40]).
  • “Karma is simply a platform. We can reach beyond our past and to create a future which may still have its own challenges, but it'll be clearer, it'll be gentler, more exciting.” ([56:46])

10. Practical Spirituality: Self-Transformation and Social Engagement

• Integrating Inner and Outer Work
  • It's a "both/and"—inward clarity is necessary for effective, compassionate outer action ([67:08]).
  • Different souls are drawn to different emphases in various lifetimes ([68:16]).
• On Judgment and Envy
  • Emphasizes tending one's own “garden” vs. getting lost in the behavior of others ([69:22]).

11. Healing and the Shadow

• The Importance of Self-Love
  • Deep self-acceptance is prerequisite to loving the world; encountering the shadow is inevitable on the path to oneness ([90:57]).
  • “That love is the type of love we have to have for ourself… so we can handle. We can clean anything that needs to be cleaned in it.” ([92:04])

12. Practices for Spiritual Development (Non-Psychedelic)

• Abundant Lineages and Approaches
  • Meditation, non-injury, kindness, simplicity—core across spiritual traditions as presented by both Chris and his wife Carol ([86:18]; [87:28]).
  • “We can find the practices that can help us live a calmer, quieter, more centered, richer life.” ([88:36])

13. A Vision of Humanity’s Future

• Collective Death and Rebirth
  • Chris relates visions of humanity undergoing a massive transformation—giving birth to the “future human” (to be explored in the next episode) ([92:58]).
  • “I began to have insights of humanity poised on the edge of a global death and rebirth process. ... it was not about my spiritual evolution. It was about the spiritual evolution of humanity.” ([93:25])
• Sacrifice and Ecstasy
  • The transformation journey is both uplifting and devastating—generations may be sacrificed, yet this is a role “voluntarily taken on as our offering to the creative intelligence” ([98:11]; [99:42]).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Individual and Collective Destiny:

  “Each human being is a cell in the tissue of humanity. Every mind is a light, a cell of light in the fabric of human consciousness.”
  — Chris Bache ([22:12])

• On the Burden and Grace of Reincarnation:

  “The greatest burden in the psyche of the modern man, modern humanity, is...that we are nothing more than our biology. ...Reincarnation puts the myth to that.”
  — Chris Bache ([46:10])

• On Suffering and Evolution:

  “Humanity is an unfinished species...we are transitioning from what we were 100,000 years ago into what we are in the process of becoming.”
  — Chris Bache ([77:07])

• On Self-Love and Healing:

  “If you're going to become one with God, ...you must become one with yourself. ...self-love, self-acceptance is absolutely critical, but not superficial. Self-love, real deep self-love...willing to take on the shadow.”
  — Chris Bache ([90:57])

• On Hope Amid Crisis:

  “The threat of extinction is a tremendous evolutionary accelerator. ...the transformation that's required is fundamentally a crisis of consciousness.”
  — Chris Bache ([73:31])

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction to Chris Bache & His Work: [01:26]
• Personal Journey into Reincarnation & Karma: [03:43]
• Empirical and Experiential Evidence: [10:00]
• Oneness & Mystic Experience: [13:31]; [16:33]
• Collective vs. Individual Karma: [21:52]; [22:12]
• Religion & Reincarnation: [26:10]; [26:54]
• Life’s Developmental Diversity: [45:10]; [48:00]
• Purpose of Karma/Reincarnation: [48:18]
• Contemporary Crisis & Evolutionary Turning Point: [61:57]; [62:54]
• Nature of Karma—Mechanics: [57:27]; [57:40]
• Balancing Self-Work and Social Action: [66:50]; [67:08]
• Shadow Work & Self-Love: [89:34]; [90:57]
• Spiritual Practices for Growth: [85:45]; [86:18]; [87:28]
• Chris’s Vision: The Future Human: [92:35]; [92:58]
• Closing Visionary Experience: [98:11]

Closing Thoughts

Chris Bache articulates a vision of humanity in which individual and collective destinies are wholly intertwined, where karma and reincarnation serve as mechanisms for both personal empowerment and species-wide evolution. He offers hope that, though humanity faces a crucible of crisis likened to a collective near-death experience, this may be the precursor to a profound spiritual rebirth—a new form of being human. His insistence on compassion, self-acceptance, and active engagement in one's own and the world's transformation provides both philosophical and practical guidance for those seeking meaning in tumultuous times.

Stay tuned for the next episode focused on the birth of the “future human.”