SCIENCE AND REINCARNATION
Although some reincarnation researchers who call themselves "academic" don't believe it, many of us who remember past lives —especially those who take it really seriously and want to know everything— are also researchers.
I am not going to upload all my academic background to this space, of course, but those who have read some of my books or know me a bit from the forums, already know I pursued a professional career in the field of health sciences, and worked in clinics for ten years. Then I specialized in Virology.
In addition to my professional side, since childhood I devoted myself to read as much as I could about several subjects considered paranormal, among them near-death and out-of-body experiences (NDE's and OBE's). Although I was never totally convinced, I also read a lot about esoterism and spiritualist teachings. Before I began to remember past lives, I had read a couple of books by Brian Weiss and some other by Michael Newton, but it wasn't until much later, when the first memories began to emerge, that I started to research reincarnation in deep. Surprise came when I discovered that talking to people who remember past lives was the best way to learn.
If you are interested in reading everything that is available about reincarnation, especially those books I consider essential, you can visit the Bibliography I have compiled in one of my other blogs.
I am not going to upload all my academic background to this space, of course, but those who have read some of my books or know me a bit from the forums, already know I pursued a professional career in the field of health sciences, and worked in clinics for ten years. Then I specialized in Virology.
In addition to my professional side, since childhood I devoted myself to read as much as I could about several subjects considered paranormal, among them near-death and out-of-body experiences (NDE's and OBE's). Although I was never totally convinced, I also read a lot about esoterism and spiritualist teachings. Before I began to remember past lives, I had read a couple of books by Brian Weiss and some other by Michael Newton, but it wasn't until much later, when the first memories began to emerge, that I started to research reincarnation in deep. Surprise came when I discovered that talking to people who remember past lives was the best way to learn.
If you are interested in reading everything that is available about reincarnation, especially those books I consider essential, you can visit the Bibliography I have compiled in one of my other blogs.
Dr. Ian Stevenson worked for years in the study of children with alleged past life memories. Currently, researchers such as Dr. Jim B. Tucker follow the same line. However, there is barely a serious research work related to adult people who remember past lives, something that in my opinion is incomprehensible. Recently I have finished the course Signs of Reincarnation, offered by another researcher, James Matlock, who inherited from Stevenson all his archive of documented cases, his statistics, work methods... and also a great number of obsolete concepts that are not useful today, as it is hard to explain them from the latest advances in quantum physics dealing with the survival of consciousness. After some time in his Facebook group and a few private conversations with him, I realized “Stevensonian” researchers are not open to sit down with people like me, who remember past lives and are quite sensible, in order to listen, exchange opinions, and progress a little in the knowledge about reincarnation. For them, children's memories are the only important and reliable thing, and there is no way to make them change. In fact, in 1991, researcher Scott Rogo, had already observed the bias in which these researchers were falling, getting to discard other paradigms:
“This paper has focused on types of reincarnation experiences usually bypassed by researchers. As already pointed out, traditional reincarnational research within parapsychology has centred on the reports of children who exhibit generally cohesive recollections of their (alleged) previous experiences. To some extent, the successful results of that research have created a bias in some investigators to play down competing research paradigms. A student of contemporary reincarnation research [James Matlock] has stated that ‘arguably, the only evidence for reincarnation worth considering today is that advanced by Ian Stevenson’, which focuses on childhood cases —the reason being the thoroughness of the psychiatrist’s case studies.”
Article: State of Consciousness Factors in Reincarnation Cases.
My personal opinion is that real experts are those of us who have a scientific training, have researched reincarnation from all points of view, and BESIDES, remember past lives. We are constantly elaborating hypotheses in order to explain our experiences and understand how memory works, and above all, those hypotheses have to be compatible with everything that is already known from other phenomena such as NDE's and OBE's.
I know "academic" researchers will never take people who remember past lives seriously. They have the wrong impression, as the majority of the general population, that we all are fakes or excessively credulous people that don't even bother to verify our memories historically. There are frauds and there are many who think reincarnation is a mere religious belief, yes, that is true. But those people are not here, and besides, I try not to interact with them. I consider myself a real reincarnationist; all I have learned comes from other real reincarnationists, apart from my own experience, and I know very well how to separate the wheat from the chaff. Obviously, we have few objective data and my hypotheses are in a very early stage, but I can certainly state they are much less biased than the conclusions drawn almost exclusively from children who remember past lives.
MY DEFINITION OF REINCARNATIONIST:
“Person who after long years of investigation and study from all the possible viewpoints, and after experiencing for themselves that it is possible to remember and validate past lives, has come to the conclusion that reincarnation is a fact, not a belief or an unproven religious doctrine.”
More information: Qué es ser reencarnacionista para mí.
In this page I will post the links to those entries related to scientific research on reincarnation, including my own observations and hypotheses.
March 2016.
Posts about science and reincarnation.
Can reincarnation be scientifically proven?
Beyond physicalism.
Childhood play and past lives.
Religious and scientific fundamentalism.
Scientific study about abductions and past lives or how to do it utterly wrong (Part 1) and (Part 2).
Children with past lives as Buddhist monks (Part 1) and (Part 2).
Interviews to Helen Wambach (Audio 1).
Interviews to Helen Wambach (Audio 2, Part 1) and (Part 2).
Interviews to Helen Wambach (Audio 3).
Scientific study about gender dysphoria and past lives.
Beyond physicalism.
Childhood play and past lives.
Religious and scientific fundamentalism.
Scientific study about abductions and past lives or how to do it utterly wrong (Part 1) and (Part 2).
Children with past lives as Buddhist monks (Part 1) and (Part 2).
Interviews to Helen Wambach (Audio 1).
Interviews to Helen Wambach (Audio 2, Part 1) and (Part 2).
Interviews to Helen Wambach (Audio 3).
Scientific study about gender dysphoria and past lives.