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Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by adjensen
From what I've read, the majority of his studies were of things that had already happened,
What do you mean, "things that had already happened"?
The link that I provided earlier about the boy who it was claimed was a WW II fighter pilot is a great example. From the seed of a small incident (the visit to a museum) a whole elaborate story was constructed, one which proved to be false once it was dug into.
Ian Stevenson, a psychiatrist at the University of Virginia, has devoted his career to the study of cases suggestive of reincarnation. The cases consist of narratives of young children who claim to remember past lives.The cases occur primarily in India, Sri Lanka, South Asia, West Africa, Lebanon, and among Northwestern Native Americans, in cultures and religions in which reincarnation is accepted. Stevenson and his colleagues have collected over 2000 such narratives, but only a much smaller number provide what he considers "strong" evidence.
In the latter cases, Stevenson has performed detailed, nearly contemporaneous investigations that appear to rule-out communication of any kind between the child's family and the relatives of the recently deceased person the child claims to be. In addition, many of the "strong" cases have birth defects or birthmarks at the exact sites of traumatic injuries in the deceased person's life.
Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by adjensen
The link that I provided earlier about the boy who it was claimed was a WW II fighter pilot is a great example. From the seed of a small incident (the visit to a museum) a whole elaborate story was constructed, one which proved to be false once it was dug into.
Yes, that case was debunked.
But the myriad cases in India over the decades of research have a LOT of credible parts....
what about the little boy in Scotland, who recalled his life on the island of Barra?
Well, if you're not interested in looking into the books and research and documentaries, there's not much we can do except "tell you" what we've discovered in our own expeditions.......
People like to use the word "pseudo-science" to discredit these studies of cases when it comes to these matters, but...isn't all "religious" and "theological study" pseudo-science as well?
No, theology isn't pseudo-science, it isn't science at all -- it's a branch of philosophy.
Did they prefer this or the previous life? Over half clearly preferred the present life (55%), about a third had no preference or did not know which life they preferred, and 13% stated that they preferred the previous life that they remembered.
The subjects seemed to be living normal productive lives as far as we could ascertain. One was working as a mathematician in a bank, another as an engineer, and one with computers. There were six housewives, five students, three teachers, and the rest were found in various occupations. Only two were unemployed, which is unusual for Sri Lanka, one was disabled through an accident, and one had become a drug-addict (Sri Lanka has a rather serious drug problem). 87% stated that they were reasonably satisfied with their occupation. Twenty-one people were single, 19 married, and most of them had children. One person was divorced. On the whole the data indicate that our subjects have fared reasonably well in life, probably somewhat above the average for their age group in Sri Lanka.
Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by adjensen
No, theology isn't pseudo-science, it isn't science at all -- it's a branch of philosophy.
Oh boy. Strangely enough, yesterday I took my copy of Dialogues of Plato, a relic from my undergrad years back in about 1980, and started to read it again.
The link that I provided earlier about the boy who it was claimed was a WW II fighter pilot is a great example. From the seed of a small incident (the visit to a museum) a whole elaborate story was constructed, one which proved to be false once it was dug into.
Shanti Devi (11 December 1926 - 27 December 1987) was born in Delhi, India.[1] As a little girl in the 1930s she began to claim to remember details of a past life. The case was brought to the attention of Mahatma Gandhi who set up a commission to investigate; a report was published in 1936.[2] Two further reports were written at the time, one critical of the reincarnation claims,[3] and a rebuttal thereof.[4] A further report, based on interviews conducted in 1936, was published in 1952.[5] Later in life Shanti Devi was interviewed again, and a Swedish author who had visited her twice published a book about the case in 1994; the English translation appeared in 1998.[6]
Whoa, DUDE!!!
Then she took me to the preacher to have the devil cast out of me, again! I eventually learned to keep my thoughts to myself. Exorcism is no fun!
As she knew several details of Kedar Nath's life with his wife, he was soon convinced that Shanti Devi was indeed the reincarnation of Lugdi Devi. When Mahatma Gandhi heard about the case, he met the child and set up a commission to investigate. The commission traveled with Shanti Devi to Mathura, arriving on November 15, 1935. There she recognized several family members, including the grandfather of Lugdi Devi. She found out that Kedar Nath had neglected to keep a number of promises he had made to Lugdi Devi on her deathbed. She then traveled home with her parents. The commission's report concluded that Shanti Devi was indeed the reincarnation of Lugdi Devi.[2]
Originally posted by windword
reply to post by adjensen
The link that I provided earlier about the boy who it was claimed was a WW II fighter pilot is a great example. From the seed of a small incident (the visit to a museum) a whole elaborate story was constructed, one which proved to be false once it was dug into.
There is no proof that the boy's story was and elaborate construct. Even if the boy ws exposed to WW II memorabilia, it could have served to trigger the boy's memory.
I had memories as a young child of being a Japanese woman.
Could you speak or write Japanese as a young child? Everything else is anecdotal (and again, I don't disagree that you had these memories, just the validity of them,) but if you could remember being Japanese, could you speak or read the language that a Japanese person could? If so, that would be non-anecdotal evidence.
Originally posted by windword
reply to post by adjensen
Could you speak or write Japanese as a young child? Everything else is anecdotal (and again, I don't disagree that you had these memories, just the validity of them,) but if you could remember being Japanese, could you speak or read the language that a Japanese person could? If so, that would be non-anecdotal evidence.
That is not a valid argument to verify the validity of memories. No child is born already knowing how to read or write language. It all has to be learned. People have difficulties remembering what happen a year ago, little alone specific details of a past life in order to satisfy skeptics.