The Science of Reincarnation

[Laura]

Very interesting article here:
http://uvamagazine.org/articles/the_science_of_reincarnation

U.Va. psychiatrist Jim Tucker investigates children’s claims of past lives

What is more interesting than the article are the attacks in the comments below it.

 

[Don Genaro]

Very interesting article here:
http://uvamagazine.org/articles/the_science_of_reincarnation

U.Va. psychiatrist Jim Tucker investigates children’s claims of past lives

What is more interesting than the article are the attacks in the comments below it.

There was an article you wrote which goes into these kind of attacks going back to the 19th century but I can't remember which one! Do you or anyone else remember which one it might be? I remember something about one scientist expressing his admiration for another's investigation into the paranormal but he said he didn't want to be associated with it because he feared for his reputation.

 

[dant]

Interesting! Also interesting are the commenters, for what it's worth.

 

[aaronfransen]

Comedian/Blogger Tom Naughton (who did the pro-Paleo movie Fat Head) has an appropriate line here:

"Scientists are freaking liars!"

All it takes is reading some of those comments to realize the hypocrisy those supposedly "scientific" people exhibit. By all means let's not research the subject because we don't understand it. Egads, why would we want to understand something?

Because society calls it "pseudo-science" means it's not worthy of study?

Well, to quote a bad guy from one of my fave movies (Titan AE) "I weep for the species."

 

[Joe]

Very interesting article here:
http://uvamagazine.org/articles/the_science_of_reincarnation

U.Va. psychiatrist Jim Tucker investigates children’s claims of past lives

What is more interesting than the article are the attacks in the comments below it.

There was an article you wrote which goes into these kind of attacks going back to the 19th century but I can't remember which one! Do you or anyone else remember which one it might be? I remember something about one scientist expressing his admiration for another's investigation into the paranormal but he said he didn't want to be associated with it because he feared for his reputation.

Was most likely this one DG:

Dark Ages and Inquisitions, Ancient and Modern - Or Why Things are Such a Mess On Our Planet and Humanity is on the Verge of Extinction

 

[Buddy]

Very interesting article here:
http://uvamagazine.org/articles/the_science_of_reincarnation

U.Va. psychiatrist Jim Tucker investigates children’s claims of past lives

What is more interesting than the article are the attacks in the comments below it.

I agree. I read and enjoyed the article up to a point, though. I have never had a problem with children expressing memories of past lives. I enjoy reading cases of such and I feel joy when details are confirmed. In fact, I think Tucker's strongest point is this:

"...there is this evidence here that needs to be accounted for, and when we look at these cases carefully, some sort of carry-over of memories often makes the most sense."

...because it comes across as an honest statement.

But what I fear is that attempts to "prove" a case of 'returning' or reincarnation by using classical, incomplete perspectives of quantum mechanics or quantum theory in general may weaken Tucker's work. I wouldn't want Tucker to go the way of Gregg Braden and his The God Code (which was written about on this forum). That is a way of just selling books and then just eventually fading into obscurity when people get wiser.

 

[mkrnhr]

It's funny to see that most of those who attack this kind of research are ignorant and display a fanaticism to their belief system (materialism, unconsciousness). The article is excellent in the sense that it provides observations, which will perhaps be detailed in the forthcoming book. In order to make sense of the data, reincarnation is one hypothesis that has to be sorted out relatively to other possibilities like spirit attachment or a sort of antenna effect like when different people share the same dream.

One can have a glimpse of intellectual pitfalls in which many smart people get trapped observing the false dichotomy of theism and atheism, as if they where the only possibilities out there. More often it is more than intellectual. Some individuals are irrationally afraid of acknowledging that there is more to the world than the material manifestation, it terrifies them. I see it more an more like an enforced collective psychosis and an escapism for nature and reality.

 

[Approaching Infinity]

It's funny to see that most of those who attack this kind of research are ignorant and display a fanaticism to their belief system (materialism, unconsciousness). The article is excellent in the sense that it provides observations, which will perhaps be detailed in the forthcoming book. In order to make sense of the data, reincarnation is one hypothesis that has to be sorted out relatively to other possibilities like spirit attachment or a sort of antenna effect like when different people share the same dream.

I've read Tucker's first book on reincarnation research, Life Before Life, and it's a pretty good summary of the research to date. Tucker goes through all the types of evidence (e.g., memories, behaviors/skills, identifications, birthmarks, etc.) and analyzes how well each of them holds up to various types of interpretation. Unfortunately, Tucker doesn't give a good response to the 'motivated super-psi' hypothesis (which Braude, and to a lesser extent Griffin, give a better treatment in their books). The new book (which I have just started), seems to consist mostly of newer cases.

 

[foofighter]

I've read Tucker's first book on reincarnation research, Life Before Life, and it's a pretty good summary of the research to date. Tucker goes through all the types of evidence (e.g., memories, behaviors/skills, identifications, birthmarks, etc.) and analyzes how well each of them holds up to various types of interpretation. Unfortunately, Tucker doesn't give a good response to the 'motivated super-psi' hypothesis (which Braude, and to a lesser extent Griffin, give a better treatment in their books). The new book (which I have just started), seems to consist mostly of newer cases.

What do you think of Mdm Blavatsky's assertion in "30 years among the dead", where she says that reincarnation is false and that it is a case of spirit attachment memories that bleed through. Or is she wrong on the topic even after death?

 

[Approaching Infinity]

I've read Tucker's first book on reincarnation research, Life Before Life, and it's a pretty good summary of the research to date. Tucker goes through all the types of evidence (e.g., memories, behaviors/skills, identifications, birthmarks, etc.) and analyzes how well each of them holds up to various types of interpretation. Unfortunately, Tucker doesn't give a good response to the 'motivated super-psi' hypothesis (which Braude, and to a lesser extent Griffin, give a better treatment in their books). The new book (which I have just started), seems to consist mostly of newer cases.

What do you think of Mdm Blavatsky's assertion in "30 years among the dead", where she says that reincarnation is false and that it is a case of spirit attachment memories that bleed through. Or is she wrong on the topic even after death?

I think that's a possibility, whether or not it was actually Blavatsky or just confabulation (whether from the subject or the experimenter, in which case it would be psi-mediated)... Assuming possession and attachment are real possibilities (i.e., they really are dead dudes), they may exist on a spectrum. For example, attachment may influence personality on a more subtle level, while possession seems to involve the almost wholesale displacement of the personality, making it resemble MPD/DID. There's conflicting data in the past life memory cases, e.g., most kids identify WITH the previous personality ("You're not my parents, I was THIS guy, and THOSE people are my parents"), but some give memories where they are present with the previous personality, as if they are two individuals sharing consciousness or something.

It may be that reincarnation (of the type described in this kind of research) is a specific type of possession, but then again, maybe the process if incarnation itself is akin to possession (a previous personality 'possesses' a new body). One interesting question is why the majority of these cases experienced violent/unexpected deaths in their previous personality. It's almost as if that causes something to go wrong, disrupting the natural process in some way. Does this somehow make the memories more intense or labile, so they're accessible to the new incarnation? Or is it a kind of spirit attachment, where the suddenness/violence of death causes the personality to seek out a suitable 'host', as in spirit attachment? I dunno!

 

[ScioAgapeOmnis]

I think if we accept that consciousness exists outside of matter as a high probability, then I suspect many kinds of things are possible. We have walk-ins, possession, channeling (sometimes unknowingly), re-incarnation, and other ways that various types of consciousness could influence what you think/know/remember. So perhaps any and all of such things exist, depending on situation.

Edit: Adding government and 4D STS "influences" can complicate things too. I think it's silly to dismiss reincarnation but allow for spirit attachments, when it sounds like almost the same thing in the sense that some individuated consciousness unit is influencing our thoughts/life, whether its our own that had previous experiences before us, or someone else's that's attached at the hip.

 

[Don Genaro]

There was an article you wrote which goes into these kind of attacks going back to the 19th century but I can't remember which one! Do you or anyone else remember which one it might be? I remember something about one scientist expressing his admiration for another's investigation into the paranormal but he said he didn't want to be associated with it because he feared for his reputation.

Was most likely this one DG:

Dark Ages and Inquisitions, Ancient and Modern - Or Why Things are Such a Mess On Our Planet and Humanity is on the Verge of Extinction

Yes it was! Thank you :)

 

[whitecoast]

I've read Tucker's first book on reincarnation research, Life Before Life, and it's a pretty good summary of the research to date. Tucker goes through all the types of evidence (e.g., memories, behaviors/skills, identifications, birthmarks, etc.) and analyzes how well each of them holds up to various types of interpretation. Unfortunately, Tucker doesn't give a good response to the 'motivated super-psi' hypothesis (which Braude, and to a lesser extent Griffin, give a better treatment in their books). The new book (which I have just started), seems to consist mostly of newer cases.

What do you think of Mdm Blavatsky's assertion in "30 years among the dead", where she says that reincarnation is false and that it is a case of spirit attachment memories that bleed through. Or is she wrong on the topic even after death?

I was going to ask this exact same question. I think Approaching Infinity provided a good answer. Another possibility I thought of is that there could be a big difference between people who go to 5D in death and those who stay behind in 3D as ghosts. Wickland stressed often that entering the afterlife with assumptions often made spirits ignorant. Perhaps those who believe heavily in reincarnation tried to incarnate as 3D instead of 5D spirits as a symptom of their ignorance.

One thing that stuck out as strange for me was that, in spite of hearing how people with religion meet their repective Gods or Angels when they die, Wickland only found fanatics who would just keep praying and never even see Jesus or anything. UFOs can simulate Jesus at the drop of a hat, but spirits can't? Did anyone else find that strange? To me that suggests a bit more on the confabulation side, but we'll see how 20 Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation and this new book stack up. :)

 

[l apprenti de forgeron]

I've read Tucker's first book on reincarnation research, Life Before Life, and it's a pretty good summary of the research to date. Tucker goes through all the types of evidence (e.g., memories, behaviors/skills, identifications, birthmarks, etc.) and analyzes how well each of them holds up to various types of interpretation. Unfortunately, Tucker doesn't give a good response to the 'motivated super-psi' hypothesis (which Braude, and to a lesser extent Griffin, give a better treatment in their books). The new book (which I have just started), seems to consist mostly of newer cases.

What do you think of Mdm Blavatsky's assertion in "30 years among the dead", where she says that reincarnation is false and that it is a case of spirit attachment memories that bleed through. Or is she wrong on the topic even after death?

I was going to ask this exact same question. I think Approaching Infinity provided a good answer. Another possibility I thought of is that there could be a big difference between people who go to 5D in death and those who stay behind in 3D as ghosts. Wickland stressed often that entering the afterlife with assumptions often made spirits ignorant. Perhaps those who believe heavily in reincarnation tried to incarnate as 3D instead of 5D spirits as a symptom of their ignorance.

Would be interesting to know whether 4 D sts can continue feeding on the ignorant dead -or use them as vectors-. If the consortium can feed on the living (which should maybe go in quotes, because in this world there are few living people) through the crystallization of various religious lies, eg certain expectations post- death. I'm also speaking from ignorance too, it's only an idea.
I'm looking for the space in my everyday life to study the "Knowledge and Being" series. Years ago I read " The Tibetan Book of the Dead", which, since then I was a Christian, it left me an horrible impression. Bah, was no longer a Christian, but neither had nothing to replace it, no other truth to combat the lies. Just think Tibetan description of reincarnation is quite mechanical, although that is good for the dogma, feed the desire to escape from the "wheel of reincarnation". And however Buddhism ignores many evil things and mix all individuals have souls or not, it is a thousand times more scientific than Judaism and Catholicism, at least in a psychological sense (Nietzsche might say psychological hygiene). I have also must read more about Eliade, for example, to know what things took Buddhists from ancient shamans of the steppes and that can still survive in Buddhism, but maybe mutated.

 

[Approaching Infinity]

I was going to ask this exact same question. I think Approaching Infinity provided a good answer. Another possibility I thought of is that there could be a big difference between people who go to 5D in death and those who stay behind in 3D as ghosts. Wickland stressed often that entering the afterlife with assumptions often made spirits ignorant. Perhaps those who believe heavily in reincarnation tried to incarnate as 3D instead of 5D spirits as a symptom of their ignorance.

I had a similar thought while reading Tucker's book. Maybe a traumatic death disrupts the normal 3D-5D-3D cycle in some way. Or maybe the personality bits don't fully 'disperse' into the human soul pool (thinking OPs here). However, one point against your idea above is that while the majority of "cases of the reincarnation type" occur in cultures with strong beliefs in reincarnation, not all do.