Reincarnation
Having read lot of books and articles on
Reincarnation during my diploma in international theosophy and almost impelled
to study further about it after seeing the movie Reincarnation I gave it up as
rather a subject not worth bothering too much about. However, I was drawn into
it recently when I was reading the third volume of Neale Donald Walsch's
wonderful books Conversations with God. I thought beyond all
the stray cases, mythical stories, spiritual visions, religious
justifications etc are there really any scientific research and documented
evidence for Reincarnation and voilà I came across this interesting scientific
study.
Regarding the discussions on rebirth etc and
demands for scientific proof, I give below two references about the research
work conducted by Dr.Satwant Pasricha. (there are many more on the net).
She is a researcher working in NIMHANS, Bangalore.
(This is a national -central Govt. Institution - National Institute of Mental
Health and Neuro sciences). She has studied hundreds of cases of rebirth and
recorded her evidence in a scientifically acceptable way. She is a real person
and not a internet hoax! I have met her, talked to her and have attended her
slide presentation and seen the audio and video recordings of her research. No religious
connection here. Only science! Even Muslims and Christians are recorded to have
taken rebirth!
Note: If there are questions on this please try to
find the answers by searching the internet with proper keywords or contacting
the researcher directly. Her address and phone is also available in the
following references.. Do not ask me. I am not a rep of Dr Pasricha!
THE SCIENTIFIC TEMPER .....................
An international guru of reincarnation research is Dr Ian Stevenson, former head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia, USA, where he is now Director of the Division of Personality Studies. He has collected over 3,000 cases, most of them children, in the past 40 years. His studies reveal convincing scientific evidence, "if not proof", of reincarnation.
In each case, Dr Stevenson methodically documents the child's statements. Then he identifies the deceased person the child remembers being, and verifies the facts of the deceased person's life that match the child's memory. He even matches birthmarks and birth defects to wounds and scars on the deceased, verified by medical records.
His assistant in India, Dr Satwant Pasricha, additional professor at the Department of Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, follows the same methodology. Over two decades, she has researched over 500 cases. In her book, Claims of Reincarnation: An Empirical Study of Cases in India, she writes: "In each case I recorded the testimony of as many witnesses as were available. Also, I conducted a second interview (or more). We did not give prior notice of our arrival also."
An international guru of reincarnation research is Dr Ian Stevenson, former head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia, USA, where he is now Director of the Division of Personality Studies. He has collected over 3,000 cases, most of them children, in the past 40 years. His studies reveal convincing scientific evidence, "if not proof", of reincarnation.
In each case, Dr Stevenson methodically documents the child's statements. Then he identifies the deceased person the child remembers being, and verifies the facts of the deceased person's life that match the child's memory. He even matches birthmarks and birth defects to wounds and scars on the deceased, verified by medical records.
His assistant in India, Dr Satwant Pasricha, additional professor at the Department of Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, follows the same methodology. Over two decades, she has researched over 500 cases. In her book, Claims of Reincarnation: An Empirical Study of Cases in India, she writes: "In each case I recorded the testimony of as many witnesses as were available. Also, I conducted a second interview (or more). We did not give prior notice of our arrival also."
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I would like to share some of the observations of
Prof. Pasricha on reincarnation as understood by me.
- She estimated the distance between the birth
place of current personality and residence/death of remembered previous
personality. The range of this distance was noted to be 0.2 km to 565.5 km
with a median distance of 10 km giving an impression of possible re-birth
of such cases in nearby geographical regions.
- At what age a child begins to speak of his/her
previous personality? Her analysis revealed a range of 2-4 years. It means
very young children begin to speak of their previous life. It may be
possible that they remember the events of their previous lives prior to
verbally or behaviourally expressing them and break the ice as soon as
they develop the speech mechanism to the extent required for making the
statements.
- The empirical observations of Prof. Pasricha
revealed that at the median age of 79 months, such cases stopped
spontaneously speaking of their previous lives. They however, would reveal
when specifically asked to do so.
- An interesting observation was the presence of
unusual features in such cases which were readily comprehensible in the
context of previous life personalities. For example, phobias and unusual
religious inclinations. A child having hydrophobia revealed that his
previous personality had drowned in a canal and died.
- What triggers memories of previous life in
these children? The answer was nothing specific. About 75% children began
to reveal their previous personality spontaneously but exposure to
the events and persons related to the previous personality stimulated
recall of further details.
- Whether mode of death in previous life has any
bearing on the remembrance of such cases. She observed that the mode of
death of previous personality in 52% cases was natural and in 48% cases it
was violent or unnatural which exceeded the proportion of violent death in
general population (6.7%). The deaths by accident, suicide, murder were
grouped into the category of violent or unnatural deaths.
- What is the rest period between the end of
previous personality and re-birth? This question was addressed by her in
the analysis of intermission between death of related previous personality
and presumed re-birth. A median interval of 14.5 months was observed with
a range of 1 day to 224 months.
- Birth marks are assigned a special
significance within the researches on the cases of reincarnation type.
Some of the cases present one or the other marks on the body at the time
of birth which may be noticed by the family immediately or within a few
days of the birth. Such cases of birth marks may give a reasonable account
of the circumstances of death of a previous personality which resulted in
these birth marks. About 42% of her subjects had birth marks.
- In some cases, she observed announcing dreams.
An “announcing dream” is a dream which is supposed to reveal the identity
of the deceased person being reborn. Usually, a few expectant mothers may
have such dreams and in exceptional cases, such dreams may occur to other
family members too.
- In a few cases it was seen that the previous
personality took rebirth in one’s own family.
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