In an 1889 edition of “The Open Court” weekly magazine published in Chicago, John Bridge discusses reincarnation and refers to 19^th c. English poet and journalist Sir Edwin Arnold’s argument that it’s a “great mistake of refusing to believe in the continuity of the individual life because of the incomprehensibility of it”… further 18^th c. English poet and member of the Parliament Soame Jenyns is cited as claiming “that mankind had existed in some state previous to the present was the opinion of the wisest sages of the remote antiquity.  It was held by the Gymnosophists of Egypt, the Brachmans of India, the Magi of Persia, and the greatest philosophers of Greece and Rome; it was likewise adopted by the fathers of the Christian church…”

…Apparently “the Council of Constantinople denounced these teachings … forcibly suppressed them, submitting those dogmatic assertions in regard to a future life...”

… Bridge goes on to ask “When… have the masses, as at presept among the Aryan races, been educated to that degree that they could intelligently grasp the subject of reincarnation and the train of metaphysical reasoning which it introduces?  In fact, we are just emerging from the condition where the priest represents the brain of the people, the balance of humanity the trunk and limbs which obey the head.  The orthodox priest has been a stumbling-block in the path of progress.”

… it appear that by late 19^th century many scholars and researchers across various disciplines knew about ancestral links and beliefs… today’s Mainstream Media and educational institutions are either ignorant of these valuable cross-cultural connections and/or unethical for lack of transparency in transmitting such knowledge…

[pic source China Central Television:  A 2014 article reports “archaeologists in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have discovered major Zoroastrian tombs, dated to over 2,500 years ago” ... for educational purposes only]