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Originally Posted by DiscoDan  Here is a relevant link: Reincarnation research - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ignore, of course, the section on "Research based on hypnotic regression" and be forewarned that, as I am sure you are aware, reading a summary on wikipedia is no substitute for reading the actual research. |
No, you're right. Nor is reading a book about the research. Nor reading a summary on wikipedia. However, I have been 'sent off' (I like to call it) to read quite a number of parapsychological claims over recent months, and wikipedia is rather good at summarizing and then presenting critique, objections from other viewpoints. I often find things like this immediately 'convincing' at an emotional and pre-rational level, but have to go back to scepticism when I've read the critiques by sceptics. I found that
this review of one of Stevenson's books, linked to from wikipedia, persuaded me of the falseness of the claim. Then, if you follow the link from the bottom of that page, or click
here, there is more concerning Stevenson's belief system, you might possibly reassess your view. That might depend on how much
you want reincarnation to be true.
Intention manifestation - somebody wants somebody to come back, so they do (in their subjective reality) - chinese whispers - conflation of details - the researcher's bias - all these things are involved and once again my skepticism has been reaffirmed. I also think it is often overlooked how much information we process and store unconsciously (from physical, normal sources, I mean). I believe that it may be quite possible that children especially, perhaps when falling asleep or in a natural meditative state of mind, can overhear conversations that later they use and reassemble as interesting stories or that come out as 'dreams' and 'visions'. In modern societies, children fall asleep in front of televisions and are generally bombarded with news. It is hardly possible to discount reassembly and recall of such information in some cases, which the credulous immediately interpret as something spooky.