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Reincarnation Anybody? Past lives or not?

Weak Kitten said:
Has anyone ever addressed why remembering past lives is so utterly useless? I mean, no one ever remembers a past life and then suddenly gains the ability to speak a foreign language. Or at least gain some trade skills like shoe making or carpentry. Heck, just getting to skip the whole potty training and learning to walk phase would be seriously useful!
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^This.

Not to mention the whole reversed scientific process of "moving from an conclusion (souls) to the theory (reincarnation)."

Pretend some child actually spoke a foreign language or knew specific facts unknowable other than to an observer - e.g. "there are 62 silver pennies and a single gold farthing buried behind the fireplace, etc..." Why would this make us leap to the conclusion of reincarnation? Wouldn't other forms of (equally imaginary) woo make just as much/more sense? ESP, spirit channeling, divine guidance, etc...? Interesting this is the first (and only) place they leap.
 
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:rolleyes:

You win, catsmate1.
Anyway, I meant by that ill-considered post was to ask if there's more current literature on the subject than that 15 year old interview.

Those youtube videos were intriguing, josh!
But at the end of the day, where do they lead us?
 
I remember I was once known as Vlad the Impaler.

But you know, who can continue a career in porn after the age of forty?
 
josh3623 said:
here are some cool youtube links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF3KqGpxXvo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZTtU7akrfQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbWMEWubrk0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoSrzpLoODo&feature=related
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Is that it?

Seriously, you post something presumably looking for discussion, people respond and your only follow-up is to dump so more youtube links without engaging with any of the people who responded to the OP?
 
Weak Kitten said:
Has anyone ever addressed why remembering past lives is so utterly useless? I mean, no one ever remembers a past life and then suddenly gains the ability to speak a foreign language. Or at least gain some trade skills like shoe making or carpentry. Heck, just getting to skip the whole potty training and learning to walk phase would be seriously useful!
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This.

And another thing that has always amused me. Very few people ever claim to have been the pissboy, janitor, or pig farmer. Instead they were a general, king, queen, or some other notable figure. It seems only interesting people get reincarneted...
 
LarianLeQuella said:
This.

And another thing that has always amused me. Very few people ever claim to have been the pissboy, janitor, or pig farmer. Instead they were a general, king, queen, or some other notable figure. It seems only interesting people get reincarneted...
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This. Where are all the chinese peasants?
 
ellindsey said:
Arguably, even if you have ironclad cases of children remembering previous lives, with details that they would have had no way of knowing that can be independently verified as correct, you still haven't proven reincarnation. All you have proven is that there exists some form of anomalous, possibly supernatural means of information transfer.
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This. It's like the people who believe that "intelligent design" leads to Christianity, when, in fact, it does no such thing, and could just as easily be used as evidence of Hinduism or some African tribal religion, or even something we've never imagined. (Assuming it actually had evidence, which, of course, it doesn't.)

LarianLeQuella said:
And another thing that has always amused me. Very few people ever claim to have been the pissboy, janitor, or pig farmer. Instead they were a general, king, queen, or some other notable figure. It seems only interesting people get reincarneted...
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This part is actually better explained by some "anomolous, possibly supernatural means of information transfer". Simple cross-time telepathy, for example, would explain almost everything that's offered as evidence of reincarnation, and answers the question of why so many people remember "being" Cleopatra.

It's sad, isn't it, that skeptics can come up with better magical explanations of magical events than people who actually believe in those events. Of course, it makes sense. Critical thinking is something that can be applied even to the most preposterous of hypotheses.
 
I used to lie as a child about this sort of thing all the time. People act like a 6 year can't be interested in world history.
 
pakeha said:
:rolleyes:

You win, catsmate1.
Anyway, I meant by that ill-considered post was to ask if there's more current literature on the subject than that 15 year old interview.

Those youtube videos were intriguing, josh!
But at the end of the day, where do they lead us?
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I am not precisely sure.
They are interesting, but they certainly don't qualify as proof.

I thought they were entertaining at least.
 
Last of the Fraggles said:
Is that it?

Seriously, you post something presumably looking for discussion, people respond and your only follow-up is to dump so more youtube links without engaging with any of the people who responded to the OP?
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Actually I offered those links, because another member requested some other material.
 
pakeha said:
:rolleyes:

You win, catsmate1.
Anyway, I meant by that ill-considered post was to ask if there's more current literature on the subject than that 15 year old interview.
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Well its hard to get current when the guy died several years ago, last time I checked, there were many dead scientists whose works are well regarded even though they have not been recently updated.

here is some more detailed material, perhaps you will find it more interesting.

http://near-death.com/experiences/reincarnation01.html
 
I find the whole thing with the birthmarks to be very interesting.
While not specifically proof, here we have something which most certainly can be regarded as circumstantial evidence.

from a scientific perspective, these anomalies are notable and could feasibly be grounds for the formation of some kind of hypothesis.

http://www.sinor.ru/~che/birthmarks.htm
 
SusanB-M1 said:
Various well-known supposedly 'real' cases of reincarnation have been discussed - and dissected! - hereabouts during the years I've been here. It always turns out that there are facts that show there are other, perfectly natural explanations for these apparent cases. Where puzzling things come up, they should be first investigated as coincidences, etc.

when you consider that all children who talk about such things cannot do so until they are about two or three, by which time their brains have absorbed via their senses anabsolutely colossal amount of information then when they come out with words or sentences that adults interpret asobviously meaning this or that, well, off we go onanother 'verified' case of reincarnation!
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That is all well and good, however it does not explain the birthmarks.
 
Halfcentaur said:
I used to lie as a child about this sort of thing all the time. People act like a 6 year can't be interested in world history.
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Did your lies create scar like birthmarks on your body which corresponded anatomically with fatal wounds of the deceased individuals whom you were lying about?
 
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