A while back a family friend mentioned an article he had come across about a young boy whose parents claimed he was the reincarnation of a World War II pilot. I was pretty skeptical but weird as the story sounded I decided to look it up for myself. What I found surprised me.
There are numerous stories, articles, books and videos online that tell of young children with the ability to remember previous lives. Many of them have been able to describe their previous lives with detail and alarming accuracy. One boy in Scotland was able to pinpoint the surname of his previous family and describe the island and house he once lived on. A trip to the island confirmed his story. The boy thought to once be a World War II pilot described details of his plane and earlier family perfectly. Another boy even claimed he was his own grandfather.
Obviously not every child has, or remembers, these past life memories, or we would all have had them. And there’s always the possibility that the child, or the parents are making things up. But most of the testimony I have seen appears to be genuine. Some of the parents even fight the idea because they don’t believe in reincarnation. It’s a phenomenon occurring throughout the world. The memories seem to occur between the ages of 1 and 6 and fade as the child gets older. So what’s going on?
Reincarnation certainly isn’t a new idea. Several religions strongly believe in the idea that the soul passes into another form when we die. It’s a major aspect of Buddhism. And though I’m a Christian I think it’s possible that God could send people back to earth on occasion. It’s sort of a comforting thought really that our loved ones could still be hanging around with another family or even with our own, trapped in a new body.
I think it’s something that needs studied and researched. A lot of the previous research has been less than scientific at best. There’s a lot of knowledge we could gain from understanding this better. And there’s so much we could learn from simply listening to children.
So tell me,
Do you believe in the idea of reincarnation?
Very interesting! This reminds me of the Dalai Lama (and lamas in general I suppose). The stories of how they identified the current Dalai Lama as a child are fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI do believe in the idea of reincarnation. It makes sense to me because of the theory that energy cannot be created or destroyed. Since I think our ideas and thoughts are mainly energy, it makes sense to me that if the energy is strong enough, it can leave a person intact and go to someone else.
ReplyDeleteCarrie, I haven't heard about that- I will have to look it up. It sounds pretty interesting!
ReplyDeleteB.H. Morrigan, I think the concept of energy is pretty interesting in itself.
I believe in reincarnation but, that being said, there could also be a different explanation. It isn't as likely but here goes:
ReplyDeleteSince time isn't a straight line it might be easier for people who have less pressing thoughts (like young children) to be in contact with some sort of mental slipstream where thoughts/ideas/memories are just kind of there. Could also explain why some children are more prone to other types of visions.
I want to approach this with an explanation of how or why memories from a prior life may occur. As a person that looks into scientific explanations for things, everything in our minds, our memories, etc are merely arrangements of certain chemical processes with in the brain. Just like the arrangement of particles on a cd rom if made identical to another will produce identical "memory". I think that it is possible within a given population for certain combinations to spontaneously exist...maybe one in a billion. But that is still seven people on the earth at any one time that have memories of a time or place that they believe they were in that just spontaneously happened in their brains.
ReplyDeleteAlyson, I'm passing onto you the "One Lovely Blog" award. It's great material to use if you want a blog entry that's easy and quick to do. I'd also understand if you don't want to bother with it because it's basically a chain letter with a little picture. Enjoy if you want it and just grab the .jpg from my latest blog entry or the "Award" page I created on my site to house such novelties :).
ReplyDeleteThis is a different one than the Stylish Blogger Award.
I'm glad to have found this blog! I much enjoy the paranormal, even more so writing about it. Pleased to meet you!
ReplyDeleteI remember learning about a young boy in India who claimed he was his own grandfather who had passed away a year before he was born. He knew things only his grandfather would know and even led his family to a chest of treasure that his grandfather had buried underground. There must be something to re-incarnation.
ReplyDeleteJennifer, that's an interesting theory. It kind of makes me wonder what sort of information we could gain if we understood how to acess it.
ReplyDeleteMichael, that's an interesting theory as well. I really think we should spend more time studying brain function so we could have a better understanding of what memories are and how our minds work. We can't really know where this information comes from unless we know what it is. Oh and thanks for the blog award as well. :)
Hi David! I'm glad you decided to stop by. Nice meeting you as well. I always like hearing from fellow writers. :)
Ryan, wow, now I have heard of several kids believed to be their own grandparents. The WWII boy in the story actually knew about a painting from his previous childhood that only his mom and sister knew about as well. It's pretty freaky stuff!