I seen the special, it was pretty convincing. What surprised me is that they didn't go into Buddhism at all. They made reference to Christianitys disbelief in reincarnation. I'm sure if they talked to a Buddhist monk he would of been like "duh, lots of people remember past lives."
I remember a while back I watched a TV special on CBC. The show followed a girl who went in to regressive hypnotism and recalled a past life. Her friend investigated her recollection and found out who she was. Turns out he former self was from India and eventually became a buddhist nun. They went to the temple that she was at and talked to a monk there who still recalls his past life today. It was a good show, I forget the name of it but it was an hour long.

Plane got shot down by ARTILLERY?? Or do they mean anti-aircraft artillery?

I saw that special on TV as well. I think there is the potential for his parents to have created the fantasy in his mind as the skeptics say, but I don't think it was likely in this case. I have also seen one from a boy in India, etc etc. Despite all these, I am still sort of iffy in regards to reincarnation for some reason. :\. Perhaps I will go read up on the topic and see if I can come up with a clearer opinion.

I believe I saw something about this too, and from what they showed it was pretty darn convincing.

I have to say that I hope reincarnation is real. Seems alot more desirable than the afterlife of most religions. Certain more than Heaven or Hell. I like the idea that we can screw up in this life and have another chance.

Ok...here is my theory....First, I say this kid is bunk. You have no idea how much was coached along by his parents and the kid using visual and audible cues (i.e. his father loves airplanes and gets excited when the 2 year old says something related to planes) to form this whole story. OK, now for the HIGH GUY THEORY on this and reincarnation.

Let's just imagine in the sky is a huge resevoir that holds souls...they just float around in there, waiting to be sucked in the DOWN pipeline towards earth to inhabit a newly born baby. There is also an UP pipeline that souls go up to the resevoir when a human dies. From there they wait their turn to go back into the DOWN tube. There are a fixed # of souls and on average it takes a soul 400-600 years to leave earth, go to the resevoir, wait its turn, then go back down. OVer that time, most memories of anyone associated with that former person the soul inhabited are forgotten, making any recognization of a reincarnation impossible. But in times of war when massive amounts of people are killed and souls used, the amount of time shortens for the soul returning to earth(i.e. a world war II pilot coming back into a person in 2005). That is my HIGH GUY THEORY. Wow, who said weed doesn't make your brain work.

Originally posted by Flinx
I have to say that I hope reincarnation is real. Seems alot more desirable than the afterlife of most religions. Certain more than Heaven or Hell. I like the idea that we can screw up in this life and have another chance.

Actually what you screw up in this life, you will have to pay for in the next.

EXP:

Say I rape 100 people, in the next life I will more than likey become someone who is constany raped.

I wouldnt think to screw this life up but merely to learn in this life, which will make you stronger in the next.

My internal jury is still out on this subject, but I seem to be leaning to the Buddhist side of this. This is one of many instances of children recalling past lives. This doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of fakes out there, to the contrary, the more past lives become validated, the more likely people are to claim they were someone bigger and better than they actually were.

A kid doesn't have dark motives for lying, and certainly wouldn't enjoy imagining a very painful and dark way to die in the midst of a war. It would be terrifying. I would think that a child who was making it up would be much more likely to 1) make it an almost impossible story (like being an elephant who stole purple bananas) or 2) make a mundane story about normal life, not extenuating circumstances and painful deaths.

Just my .02

I'm living proof that karma is bunk, and reincarnation is real.

When I was four I suddenly spoke French fluently (no one in my redneck family knew what it was) and recalled my last 3 lives (one of which was dirty and short in France) the last of which made my death occur just 6 or 8 years before my current birth.

I remember my spouse in that life (I was the opposite gender which was not a comfortable feeling in this life) and my son as a vry small child. Whenever I try to remember any more of my son I get horrible pains and I know because he is still alive, so I'm not to know his name or where he is.

I can tell you I suffered greatly in that life with bad luck and ill health.

If karma were real this life would be a friggin' cakewalk. And it ain't. If possible, it was worse until I reached adulthood and turned it around.

No one coached my memories and when I talked about them I used to get beat 'til I shut up. I had nothing to gain, no wisdom to impart, no karmac checks to cash, and I can tell you, unlike most kooks I have never believed I was at one point Celopatra or Napolean. I've always been Joe Schmo.

Hope that helps to know there are those of us non-Buddhists who believe for no personal gain.

Why do you think you came back here 3 diffrent times?

I have 2 reasons on that.

1: I believe that everyone is here has/will be here again. I believe that we are here to learn as much as we can to become that God being everyone talks about.

2: In the lives we have/had/will have There is a course of action. For every action there is a reaction, meaning you can't go down the street and rape someone and not get anything from it.. whether you get busted now or you never do. Karma is the key things that makes one suffer/praises for things that they do..

As for the life that I lead now. I wonder sometimes why tf I am even here. Considering we are suppost to learn spirituallity, everywhere we look is anything but spirituallity.

All we see is worship the gvmnt, look at Britney Spears skinny ass. and who is getting in trouble for what. ohh and the ohhh so popular. "God is your master, Bow to him." anyway I think its up to everyone to think why they are here. if you dont believe in Karma who am I to stop you from that.

Altho interesting story Mouser.

In a related incident to yours, there is this girl living somehwere, who had a past life exp of a family she had in a past life. She used to get the # beat out of her also by her parents for mentioning this other family. She is now older and also has found this other family. So maybe you should try and do the same........ If you want to that is.

[edit on 7/16/2005 by ThichHeaded]

[edit on 7/16/2005 by ThichHeaded]

Awesome i love stories like this, i think there have been records of baby children being able to speak languages before they had ever learnt them, such as arabic, and pali, and others. But i havent gotten to read any reports on these occurences.

I mostly wanted to let people know, there in't a point. Life is just what it is, there is nothing to learn, and humanity is doomd to kill itself no matter how much we learn.

Sorry to be so cheerful but I think it's important to know life is a random walk. Commit a crime and you may get rich or get a life sentence. Half of everything is chance.

I'm also curious why people assume an afterlife is automatic proof of a God, Goddess, or Gods. If daily life offers us no proof, why should the next one?