Mod+ 239. DR. JIM TUCKER COMPILES DATABASE OF PAST LIFE MEMORIES

I think this plainly is not the case because reincarnation does appear to happen regularly.


Is that clear?

I mean the reported cases mainly involve young children who remember a previous existence for a brief time before that memory is lost. The more typical case might involve forgetting before learning to speak.

David
 
Is that clear?

I mean the reported cases mainly involve young children who remember a previous existence for a brief time before that memory is lost. The more typical case might involve forgetting before learning to speak.

David
I think that when there are thousands of cases it is clear that it happens regularly. The exact frequency, whether it is one tenth of one percent of all people or 35% doesn't affect whether it is "regular". I use the word "regular" because the cases aren't that hard to find. Based on Tucker's interview, these are much more common, even in America, than is generally thought to be the case. My father for instance. He said he had clear imaged memories of a previous life before he was able to speak.

AP
 
This doesn't make sense to me for a couple of reasons. The first is that if consciousness survives death, there is no need to create a new spirit for each new body because there are plenty of discarnate spirits available. Also, and this is just an impression, but my impression is that the "space" occupied by spirits is eternal while the physical universe is transient. I don't see how eternal spirits would need to be created for transient experience.

You talk about "eternal spirits".
Does this mean to you that the same number of spirits have existed eternally since the infinite past? That is, since well before the Big Bang and all that?
Or is it possible, on your view, for the number of spirits to increase with time? If so, on what sort of occasions could this happen?
 
You talk about "eternal spirits".
Does this mean to you that the same number of spirits have existed eternally since the infinite past? That is, since well before the Big Bang and all that?
Or is it possible, on your view, for the number of spirits to increase with time? If so, on what sort of occasions could this happen?
That particular question is one I prefer not to think about. The reasons are:
1) It is beyond my ability to guess the answer
2) The answer, if known, would change nothing

AP
 
That particular question is one I prefer not to think about. The reasons are:
1) It is beyond my ability to guess the answer
2) The answer, if known, would change nothing

AP
But you must have some idea in mind, since you used it to answer my previous question.
There, you said that the formation of new spirits was unnecessary or 'not needed'.
 
You talk about "eternal spirits".
Does this mean to you that the same number of spirits have existed eternally since the infinite past? That is, since well before the Big Bang and all that?
Or is it possible, on your view, for the number of spirits to increase with time? If so, on what sort of occasions could this happen?
One view is that there is only one spirit, and we are all a part of it. From that perspective, if the number of parts changes with time, there is still only one spirit.
 
One view is that there is only one spirit, and we are all a part of it. From that perspective, if the number of parts changes with time, there is still only one spirit.
Does this mean, on your view, that an increase in the number of parts leads to a first incarnation of a new part?
 
I think that when there are thousands of cases it is clear that it happens regularly. The exact frequency, whether it is one tenth of one percent of all people or 35% doesn't affect whether it is "regular". I use the word "regular" because the cases aren't that hard to find. Based on Tucker's interview, these are much more common, even in America, than is generally thought to be the case. My father for instance. He said he had clear imaged memories of a previous life before he was able to speak.

AP

I am intrigued by these testimonies, however I do have a few problems, as always.
Firstly, I see a pretty severe conflict with mediumship
Secondly, if humans reincarnate, why not animals, it seems rather arrogant to suggest that only humans 'survive'
Thirdly, I find this hard to reconcile with darwinian evolution, (although Myers and William James didn't seem to in developing their theory of mind)
Fourthly, and this is more related to survival in general, why should any part of us survive death if we go blank when we sleep?
Fifthly, people have been 'dead' for several hours and then reanimated, so that should suggest that consciousness is brain based
Sixthly: What do the house skeptics have to say on this issue?
 
One view is that there is only one spirit, and we are all a part of it. From that perspective, if the number of parts changes with time, there is still only one spirit.

It's the idea of a filter I suppose. One single, trillions upon trillions of organic species over billions of years.
 
I am intrigued by these testimonies, however I do have a few problems, as always.
Firstly, I see a pretty severe conflict with mediumship
Secondly, if humans reincarnate, why not animals, it seems rather arrogant to suggest that only humans 'survive'
Thirdly, I find this hard to reconcile with darwinian evolution, (although Myers and William James didn't seem to in developing their theory of mind)
Fourthly, and this is more related to survival in general, why should any part of us survive death if we go blank when we sleep?
Fifthly, people have been 'dead' for several hours and then reanimated, so that should suggest that consciousness is brain based
Sixthly: What do the house skeptics have to say on this issue?
Who said animals don't reincarnate? I didn't say that, and I even hinted at it in my first answer when I said that if we included non-human reincarnation, I doubted that any spirit has had only one incarnation.
What conflict with mediumship? Someone dies, their spirit is contacted by mediumship, later is reincarnated. Where is the conflict?
I don't buy Darwinian evolution at all, so if you are bound to accept it, we don't have the common agreement on the subject needed to allow discussion.
Your "why?" question is irrelevant if survival happens. Why did flight MH370 disappear? It doesn't matter if you don't know the answer to the question, the plane remains missing.
Your "dead for several hours" argument is silly and logic-based, rather than based on research into reincarnation. There is no reason to assume that temporary cessation of life signs necessitates severance of the mind/body connection. It also does not mean that a spirit cannot return to a body after it has died and somehow reanimate it.
I'll leave your sixth question for others.

AP
 
But you must have some idea in mind, since you used it to answer my previous question.
There, you said that the formation of new spirits was unnecessary or 'not needed'.
Since you ask (so pointedly) I have reflected on whether I have an opinion on this despite my conscious impression that I don't. The answer is that I do not consider questions like this to be interesting. This is because the answer, whatever it might turn out to be, would have no meaningful effect that I can think of, at least not that would be relevant to me now. That said, I do have an impression, but I don't care to defend it because I really don't care if it is right or wrong and I have no idea why I have the impression so I couldn't defend it if I wanted to anyway. Regardless, my impression is: God created all spirits. If they are all part of him like the molecules in our bodies or they are entirely independent, I don't care and have no opinion. What God can do once can be done twice or more, so I don't see a reason why more spirits could not be created, but I also see no reason why they would have to be created. Maybe there was a big batch followed by a few extras here and there. I really cannot pretend to know, I do not think any known source is authoritative on questions like this, nor do I think it matters--even as it pertains to reincarnation. The reason is that reincarnation is so obvious that anyone in a position to understand the testimony of children as recorded by Stevenson and his associates will be satisfied with that data and need look no further.

Best regards,

AP
 
Who said animals don't reincarnate? I didn't say that, and I even hinted at it in my first answer when I said that if we included non-human reincarnation, I doubted that any spirit has had only one incarnation.
What conflict with mediumship? Someone dies, their spirit is contacted by mediumship, later is reincarnated. Where is the conflict?
I don't buy Darwinian evolution at all, so if you are bound to accept it, we don't have the common agreement on the subject needed to allow discussion.
Your "why?" question is irrelevant if survival happens. Why did flight MH370 disappear? It doesn't matter if you don't know the answer to the question, the plane remains missing.
Your "dead for several hours" argument is silly and logic-based, rather than based on research into reincarnation. There is no reason to assume that temporary cessation of life signs necessitates severance of the mind/body connection. It also does not mean that a spirit cannot return to a body after it has died and somehow reanimate it.
I'll leave your sixth question for others.

AP

The evidence for evolution is overwhelming, regardless of survival or not.
Mediums are seemingly able to contact 'spirits' years afterwards, yet these reincarnation cases seem to show a pattern of 18 months to two years. This is why I swing towards super psi, because it offers a more parsimonious and solid explanation.
As for the sixth, that was to ask what the skeptics thought of the reincarnation research.
 
The evidence for evolution is overwhelming, regardless of survival or not.
Mediums are seemingly able to contact 'spirits' years afterwards, yet these reincarnation cases seem to show a pattern of 18 months to two years. This is why I swing towards super psi, because it offers a more parsimonious and solid explanation.
As for the sixth, that was to ask what the skeptics thought of the reincarnation research.

I appreciate that you and some others have a strong belief in Darwinian evolution and that the evidence for it is overwhelming. I disagree. To the contrary, there are plenty of good arguments against it and much more evidence against it than there is to support it. However, that is o/t, so replies on that subject will be deleted or moved to their own thread.

You seem to hold assumptions about reincarnation cases that conflict with assumptions you have about other things. First, the figure of about two years that you mention is an average, not a fixed limit. Some cases have the previous personality dying as much as three years after the birth of the reincarnated child who recalls that life. In those cases, the recollections of the previous life do not start until the previous personality had died, but the child who makes the statements has already been alive for up to several years. Other cases have gaps of decades or even hundreds of years. The problem with the really long time spans is that most previous personalities cannot be verified beyond about a hundred years. Even sixty years or so can be a serious problem thanks to destruction of records during various wars. This means that validated cases would have a lower average because cases with long intervals cannot be checked.

AP
 
I am surprised that nobody has made the connection between quantum field theory and spirit. I define spirit as the invisible substance that allows spirits, ghosts and a spirit world to exist. Science expects us to believe in a Higgs field which is invisible; it takes high energy proton collisions to even get a hint of a Higgs boson. The scientific community is not sure if wave-functions exist, yet they interact (interfere) with one another. So why it such a stretch for the scientific community to entertain the existence of spirits (a soul), especially when there are naughty spirits proving their existence by pushing people down the stairs and scratching people?

If a spirit exists, then it might be thought to exist as a quantum field, perhaps a spirit field. A quantum field can give forth a particle if given enough energy. In the case of a spirit field, the energy comes from the cells and what comes forth is not a quantum particle, but a physical manifestion of a spirit body. But to use the analogy of a quantum particle, we have the quantum particle in an infinite potential well. If a quantum particle can be trapped inside of a potential energy well (a quantum mechanics concept), then why can't a spirit be trapped inside of the cells, the nervous system, the brain and the tissue of a physical body?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_in_a_box

Just as quantum particles can escape from a potential energy well, so can they be recaptured by another potential energy well. Only for a spirit, or a soul, it's called reincarnation. Why would a soul incarnate once (which requires the existence of very complicating spirit-biological mechanisms) but then not be able to reincarnate? What changes?
 
If the scientific community was willing to speculate on the nature of reincarnation, the soul and the paranormal, they would describe something like what I just described.
 
There has to be a set of biological-spirit mechanisms and processes that result in reincarnation of the soul.
In the same way that an electron can fall into and become trapped in a potential energy well, a spirit or soul has to find something very attractive about the pregnancy of a woman. During the development of the fetus there are biochemicals that are released. A soul is attracted to the lifetime presented to it; the soul feels joy and attunement with the kharma, dharma and all that this life will face. Then, it is the choice of that soul to choose that future life. When the soul accepts and chooses that life, the soul goes to sleep. There would be many natural processes that slowly dissolve the memories, bind and connect the soul with the fetus. Then, 9 months later, a new life begins.
 
There has to be a set of biological-spirit mechanisms and processes that result in reincarnation of the soul.
Even if you can get past the debates over the validity of cases "of the reincarnation kind," it becomes difficult to pinpoint what is actually occurring. Many of Stevenson's cases give the impression of "straight up rebirth" but there are some rare and very odd cases that border on possession, alternating possession, and "taking over" the body of someone who was already born.

Cheers,
Bill
 
Even if you can get past the debates over the validity of cases "of the reincarnation kind," it becomes difficult to pinpoint what is actually occurring. Many of Stevenson's cases give the impression of "straight up rebirth" but there are some rare and very odd cases that border on possession, alternating possession, and "taking over" the body of someone who was already born.

Cheers,
Bill

I don't know the details of how a spirit or soul is interconnected with the physical body. But it doesn't surprise me that a spirit can roughly squeeze into the box/confinement space/potential energy well that contains the soul that incarnated with that body. In the case of mediumship a spirit will squeeze in (if permission is granted). In the case of a possession, it is a hostile attack by an entity trying to force its way in. But in either case, the soul that incarnated with that physical body is always too interconnected with the body to be forced out.

The human soul is integrated into the biochemical memory processes in the brain. My guess is that near death experiences will always have a connection to the brain so that memories can be created by moving biochemicals around in the brain. You should anticipate that the skeptics will be fooled when higher resolution brain imaging eventually shows that NDE's are always recorded by the brain. The skeptics will beat the rest of us over the head with this misunderstanding. In true scientific fashion, if you want to prove that spirits exist beyond the death of the brain-body, then you have to remove the body altogether and see if human consciousness still exists. And it does. The best evidence (IMO) are ghosts. Ghosts don't have a physical body, but they can appear as an apparition, they can pick up bricks and toss them (Ghost Adventures). Badly behaved ghosts can punch their victims, choke, deprive someone of biochemical energy, scratch and shove people down stairs (The Haunted). Seriously, how can the most hardened skeptic argue with evidence like that?
 
The evidence for evolution is overwhelming, regardless of survival or not.
Mediums are seemingly able to contact 'spirits' years afterwards, yet these reincarnation cases seem to show a pattern of 18 months to two years. This is why I swing towards super psi, because it offers a more parsimonious and solid explanation.
As for the sixth, that was to ask what the skeptics thought of the reincarnation research.

The parsimonious explanation has a high chance of being the wrong explanation. Maybe it's a reincarnation memory, maybe it's a connection to the Akashic records, maybe there is a spirit that is communicating the information. But in the case of reincarnation evidence, it's probably a reincarnation memory.
 
The best evidence (IMO) are ghosts. Ghosts don't have a physical body, but they can appear as an apparition, they can pick up bricks and toss them (Ghost Adventures). Badly behaved ghosts can punch their victims, choke, deprive someone of biochemical energy, scratch and shove people down stairs (The Haunted). Seriously, how can the most hardened skeptic argue with evidence like that?
Because they've never seen one and it's not reproducible. And you can reference many documented cases of fraud (e.g. the Fox sisters). That makes it easy to think that explains all cases. However if you look at people like Harry Price who spent a lifetime investigating them and who was also was a skilled conjurer who exposed many frauds (mediums and hauntings)--he actually believed the phenomena to be genuine. And I'm sure for good reason. It's still understandably hard to convince some people.

Cheers,
Bill
 
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