Scientists researching Reincarnation

I thought the NPR story of this psychiatrist, studying the many unexplained cases of some very young children detailing "their" past life experience, might be of interest to a few here: http://www.npr.org/2014/01/05/259886077/searching-for-science-behind-reincarnation

Hmmm. Does this raise the issue of potential shared consciousness that mankind might draw upon over life times?

Does anyone know of similar scientific research to share?

- Ed

Hi
I do not know about scientific research. I go by what feels correct and right to me. Since I was a child I always knew there were past incarnations. I cannot even say how I knew. Because I clearly was the only one in my family who thought this way.

I never bothered thinking about proof, or scientific facts to substantiate my knowing. I just always knew what I knew. There are those who totally disbelieve this. And they are right also. I will never say that I am right and someone is wrong. Reincarnation is just something I always took for granted.

The idea of reincarnation really flies in the face of current social and Christian/Judean dogma. It also causes problems for our currently accepted notions of cosmology; i.e. how the universe works.

I have absolutely come to accept the reality of reincarnation. However, as an analytical thinker who took religious teachings with a grain of salt (and a lot of faith), I had to re-awaken to a new way of thinking which withstood my own attempts at intellectual scrutiny.

I think the first step was to recognize that CONSCIOUSNESS IS NOT A PRODUCT OF BRAIN FUNCTION. This is profound. If our brain isn't creating it, where does it come from? When did it begin? Does it continue after we die? etc. etc. I was compelled to accept this notion after reading the book by Dr. Eben Alexander entitled "Proof of Heaven", wherein he describes a near-death-experience (NDE) as a result of contracting bacterial meningitis. While there are thousands of documented NDE's, the circumstances of this particular experience are noteworthy. Dr. Alexander is a conservative, conventionally trained, not particularly religious neurosurgeon/neuroscientist on the staff at Harvard, whose neurological system flatlined during the course of the disease. In other words, there was NO brain activity, and he was comatose for a week. Yet during this time, he had a very vivid and detailed NDE. Miraculously he recovered and was able to review his own charts, and could determine that his NDE occurred at a time when his brain was incapable of consciousness at any level.

OK, so when does consciousness begin and end, you ask, if it isn't caused by the brain?
Enter Dr. Brian Weiss, a conservative, traditional, prominent and well published Psychiatrist who disavowed any notion about reincarnation until it confronted him thru one of his patients. I highly recommend his book "Many Lives, Many Masters" as the next step in your investigation.

"OK", you say, .."So I can see how reincarnation may make some sense, but what happens between lives? I just don't see myself floating around on a puffy little cloud playing a harp". You are quite right.

Enter Dr. Michael Newman, Ph.D. Dr. Newman is another classically trained, conservative scientist who was dragged kicking and screaming into the arena of the afterlife. His findings are even more significant, IMHO, because he is able to document a planned, orderly universe, and tie it all together in a way that makes sense. You need to read his book last....entitled "Journey of Souls".

Having read these three books, I'm sure you will have a new perception of reincarnation.

Interesting story. Thanks for posting the link.

My personal belief system includes the idea of reincarnation.Afterall, everything in the universe is composed of energy in one form or another. I find it believeable that the energy that is me would continue in another form after my physical body dies.

If you read up on Jung- his archetypes and concept of collective unconscious, I mean... it's at least interesting. I have never really figured out what I think of all his stuff. I go back to it now and then.

Thanks very much for the 3 references, Slam.
I appreciate too the kind responses and insights of others.

I need to make a correction to my initial post - the NPR transcript first introduces Dr. Tucker as a "psychologist" (which I mentioned), but he is not. He is a psychiatrist, a professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia.

Slam, your picking up about the first step being to recognize that "CONSCIOUSNESS IS NOT A PRODUCT OF BRAIN FUNCTION" is indeed profound. It was over fifty years ago that I read a book, The Phenomenon of Man by French scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, wherein he wrote of human consciousnesss, evolving as another new ban or level of our earth (I'll need to re-visit his book).

Be well, - Ed

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.
We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

I want to be a guy in my next life.

Could this be our collective memory over the eons, of sense of danger, or something is just not right?

de Chardin got it right. Everybody else got it backwards, IMHO.

Newton's book is amazing......walks the reader thru everything a discarnate spirit experiences between death and rebirth, in great detail. Compiled from many hundreds of patients who underwent regression hypnosis.

It's your choice, for sure.

I agree. One can think of the brain as the hard-drive a computer. While consciousness (or the mind) is CPU. It's the processor that uses the data the brain contains.

Yes, there have been scenarios that have come about that bring on the possibility that reincarnation may really take place.

When my daughter was little she would tell me about a place she used to live and that the house was a Victorian. She was very matter of fact and there was no way she could have known at her age about some of the things she just seem to know and describe, it was ere tbh. I have been around enough children that tell stories, what she was doing was not that way at all, she was much too young too, age 2 to 3ish and it was how she seemed to just begin to talk about it and describe it to me was much too adult like too.

I happened to see a program that highlighted children that talk about being someone else before. It made me remember what my daughter did and I wish I had asked her some more questions but at the time it was just so strange that I humored her and changed the conversation. I did listen and asked a few questions, but as she came back with more specific and descripted answers that were not what a child her age would be able to do it was just too ere as I mentioned.

I do not know what to think about reincarnation.

OE

Have read many books about reincarnation and have to say I pretty much believe it. Of course there is no positive proof but then there is no proof we don't either so I prefer to believe. There is a book by Robert Schwartz called "Your Soul's Gift" which is about the healing power of knowing that you preplanned your life here on earth. Have read other books which say we are here to learn and grow and we chose our lives because we wanted to experience the emotions we have now. For me, this makes me feel better about my problems--easier to believe I chose this than that God decided I deserved it or that he just plopped me down here to suffer on a whim. Have also read that some of us want to learn more and more so we live several lives which makes sense. If the Other Side is perfect then we would never learn anything about negativity if we never came here. I live in a very conservative area so can only talk of this with my husband and my therapist which is kind of sad as I think it's interesting.

I've mentioned it several times before on this forum, but I encourage you to read "Journey of Souls" by Michael Newton, PhD. Newton developed the technique of regressing his patients into a previous life (during hypnosis), bringing them forward in that life to the moment of death, then making the leap into the purely spiritual realm, which is "home" to our souls. There is a description of "arriving home", soul groups, learning centers, past life reviews, soul mates, spirit guides, pre-life planning, departure for the next incarnation, etc. etc. Most of us have incarnated many, many times, over thousands of years, according to Newton.

This book will change you in a very positive way.

I'll bite, sure. I've got a few minutes before bedtime. Whether it is or isn't, I know one thing for sure: I'm not coming back. I will destroy myself if I have to in order to prevent it. May the theoretical gods test my stubbornness as they may. **** the human species. I might even check out other planets with other species. Why am I seemingly the only one who ever considers that? Also, **** the collective memories. Ever seen Total Recall? Well, metaphorically, I'm Quaid and I don't want to be Hauser again. I swear to whatever force may or may not be in existence that we cannot readily percieve: I feel like a ******* re-write CD that's been written on and erased one too many times. I'm ****ing done! I'm done! I'm old and not existing sounds WONDERFUL to me. I have alternative plans to pass the time until I get my fill but that's it. I like to dream of better things. Feels silly.

Also, I've had an NDE, so I no longer fear death. I know exactly what's gonna happen to me and it's just what I need.

The study seems interesting, at least. I have many family members (extended) who believe in reincarnation. I'm not one of them, really. But it is fascinating from a philosophical stand point.

How many lives have you lived?
Science has yet to discover the Spirit spot in the brain.
In the end its all about faith.
This is my last life.
Burn my bones, scatter my ashes.
Consciousness returns to the cosmos.
H.

I don't know how many I have lived, but I can recall snippets of three previous ones....living and dying in a castle in Wales, I can still see the inside of my casket and smell the stench of my own death. I would walk the ramparts and enjoy the view of the surrounding countryside, with low hills in the distance. My bed was a raised platform with very soft animal skins for blankets. I don't know the year, but I wore shoes with large buckles which were popular in the renaissance. In another lifetime I was a merchant in some middle eastern city...I don't know which one. I had a room in a tower of a building, and from the window I could look out over the rooftops. My bed again was a raised platform, this time made of a heavy rattan woven into a pattern. The surface was padded with straw or reeds inside a white linen quilt-like thing. There was a charcoal sketch on the wall of an Arab man. I assume it is me. In another time I was a Native American or Canadian Indian. I have vivid memories of many people walking thru a forest clearing and a small village. I wore long pants and moccasins made of doe skin. My house was dome shaped and made of curved saplings, vines and supple branches. The cooking fire was outside and there was a dirt floor. I saw a female sitting down and leaning against the wall, with a sad, empty expression. My wife? Was I dead? I don't know.

Newton's book that I mentioned earlier contains a narrative of a spirit entity preparing to incarnate. There is no "spirit spot". The spirit enters the developing fetus sometime after the 3rd month. This is point at which the developing nervous system first becomes capable of hosting a soul. The begins the process of mapping out the human host. There is no "spot" because the spirit completely infuses the host with its energy.

They may burn your bones and scatter your ashes, but doubtful it's your last life. There is a part of us that is immortal.

Dear Slamerjammer,
Thanks for sharing your experiences, kindly, how did you recall and categorize the 3 lives ?
Reincarnation, I Know I have been here before but it comes through different from the way you describe. I am an old soul. Is more in line with my way of just knowing.

satellite hubble gives us eyes into the theory of how things began nebula.
Too bad that a person is designated to bring color, real pictures are in black and white.
H

Morgan Freeman hosted a show I like, Through the Wormhole that addressed the subject:

Through the Wormhole: Is there Life after Death? - Watch Free Documentary Online

I love Morgan Freeman <3

The thought of reincarnation scares the living daylights out of me. I am terrified of getting stuck with another diseased mind and having to deal with another life-long battle with it. My soul and spirit is exhausted. I just want to be safely in Gods graceful hands.

If reincarnation is true and there's no way around it, all I can do is pray my soul and spirit can remember or in the very least sense the trials I've endures in this lifetime and to retain the wisdom from it and proceed with a new life avoiding the disasters of this present one. I hope that makes sense. I know my heart is pure, its been my mind that I could not handle in this life. The two are so seperate from each other. I want a mind that matches my heart.

I would think the thought of going to hell would scare the daylights out of people....not sure scientists are studying that either in the spiritual support forum.

I'm with Yumi. Reincarnation sounds like an eternal hell...a record that skips, an endless Groundhog Day (movie) of mistakes relived until I get it right. I'm exhausted thinking of it. Yes please. I want to rest in the arms of My Lord...

How did I do it? Being curious with the concept of NDE's, life after death, and more importantly LIFE BETWEEN LIVES, I came across a discussion of regression hypnosis. This is a well accepted medical tool, commonly used to discover the root cause of phobias, personality disorders, etc. etc. The patient is regressed to childhood, to the time the problem was first experienced, and the cause can be identified. The problem then can be resolved very effectively with traditional therapy.

It was Dr Brian Weiss who discovered, quite by accident, that his patients could be regressed to previous verifiable lives, thus establishing (at least for me) that reincarnation is genuine, and a natural process of the universe. I recommend his book, "Many Lives, Many Masters".

I wanted to try it for myself, ...by myself. A quick search of YouTube under "regression hypnosis" brought up dozens of videos, including one by the aforementioned Dr Weiss. I was immediately hooked. It took several tries before I was successful, but after a week or so I saw the Arab life, followed by Wales and the native american. This isn't necessarily the order in which lived them...just the order I recalled them.

I think most people could have similar results, or better.

I was watching something on YouTube last night...Lazarus something, I forget the whole title.
Anyway, they did a story on a pastor and his NDE . He was from Nigeria, I think.
He had experience of seeing heaven and its glory, then was shown hell and was told by the Angel guiding him that he would end up in hell if he surely died. Why? The angel told him it was because he did not forgive his wife for the recent quarrel they had.
Wow!
From what I could understand, believing in the Lord and everything was not enough unless we forgive those who hurt us.
I'm not sure how to feel about it, but I have recently in the past few months have forgiven people all on my own. It is freeing to not carry that burden anymore, but wow....just wow. This pastor was bewildered to say the least.
He apparently came back to life 3 days after being pronounced dead with a greater understanding.
I understand now, that God can't forgive us of our sins if we are unable to do the same for others.
Forgiving is hard sometimes. It really is. But, it is acheiveable. It doesn't mean to also forget. I like that part of the rule.