The idea of reincarnation is perceived as having advantages that make it easier to live and understand life. In particular I can find the following four practical reasons that seem to give reincarnation its present appeal. As explained above, reincarnation is seen by people as an explanation for certain character traits and events in one's life that would require, it is thought, a specific explanation. Rather than blaming oneself, one's family or one's immediate history, one can now blame happenings in a distant past that can then be manipulated as stepping stones for an improvement in one's life. It seems to me that this potential for healing contained in the idea of reincarnation is actively exploited in some new religious movements, such as in Scientology, and in many therapeutic practices found in the West.
Reincarnation sells because it promises healing.
Escape from death. It is a wellknown fact that coping with death is a social and personal problem in western societies. Death is avoided as a taboo. The whole of consumerist society aims at presenting life as a happy story in which there really is no place for death. Health, success, romantic relationships and social achievement, are held out as the great ambitions.