Reincarnation

Reincarnation is a principle that is believed in by many people in this world. A lot of it is based on memories of a past life or lives. Sometimes it is just based on faith. In order for this theory to work we would have to admit that since more people are alive now than ever were since the beginning of human civilization, that new people are being added to the pool of people that have been reincarnated. In essence what I am trying to say is that even if you believe in reincarnation, you might have to admit that there are people here that may be making their first trip in life. This is just a mathematical assumption because if you don't figure things this way, than the numbers just don't work out. Bear with me for now and just assume that about half the people on Earth have been reincarnated and the rest are here for the first time. By the way this is simply an exercise and it doesn't mean I believe in reincarnation or that I don't.

A group of people in California were put under a hypnotist's spell and when they were questioned they all had memories of past lives. What is wrong with this statement? Again this is a numbers game. If everyone on Earth has been reincarnated at least once then we have too many people unaccounted for. When people know that they are going to be hypnotized and asked about prior lives, different things come into play. First of all there are those dreams that some people think are real and they get remembered that way. Then there is the group of people themselves. If a group of people that already believe in reincarnation are hypnotized, they are more likely to think that they have past life memories than a test group. Lastly there is the hypnotist. If he or she believes in reincarnation then they might just ask questions in such a way as to taint the test.

Children's Dreams

Some of the strongest evidence for reincarnation rests with the memories of children. Many, who believe in reincarnation, believe that children still have memories of past lives that are buried in the minds of older people. There are many examples of this that are unexplainable. An eight year old boy started to have memory flashbacks about six years ago. These were the memories of a World War II fighter pilot. The pilot was killed near Iwo Jima before the war ended. When the boy was about 2 1/2 years old he began to display knowledge of airplanes that seemed unnatural for a child this age. After a while he began to have a reoccurring nightmare that he was a pilot that was shot down in World War II by a Japanese plane. He described the plane and told that it had a red sun on it. After awhile the name of the pilot came to him, it was Lt. James McCready Huston, a World War II fighter pilot from Uniontown. The boy has been on several tv shows such as ABC News, Montel Williams show and Good Morning America. Is this a genuine case of reincarnation or a lavish hoax? I will have to leave this to you to decide.

Here is a question that I always wondered about, just because you have the memories of someone else, does this mean that you were reincarnated? I really don't think so and this is one of the problems for me with proving reincarnation. Even if you believe that people are having genuine memories of lives of deceased people, is that proof that this is because of reincarnation? It has been proven that memory is passed along chemically in some lower forms of living creatures. This is sometimes know as genetic memory and that is how bees and ants are born. Could it be that somehow, in a process that we are yet to understand, we are effected by genetic or chemical memory, but are not aware of it? This may be entirely possible. As we progress in the field of medicine and the understanding the human mind and body, we are constantly finding out new things. Would it be so far fetched to find out that our memories are chemical or genetic?

If one were to prove that reincarnation actually takes place, they would first have to prove the existence of a soul. For true reincarnation to occur the same soul would have to move from body to body. Most of the world's religions believe in a soul, but only some believe in reincarnation. Unfortunately for us, the existence of a soul is impossible to prove empirically. Since one can not prove that a soul exists, it just has to be taken on faith or not accepted at all. So we have a two fold problem with proving reincarnation. We can not prove that reincarnation actually takes places without proving that a soul exists, so what are these memories? They are what they are, proof of the fact that memories can be passed on somehow. Maybe everyone of us possess these memories and have repressed them.

I have to wonder about memories. What I mean is that our own memories of events are not exactly how the events took place. They are often colored by our own ideas and perceptions and do not agree with those of others. Therefore these memories may not be exactly how things really were, only how the person believed that they were. When people try and prove reincarnation they site several reasons that they say are proof of past lives. These reasons are:
Gender Conflict
Schizophrenia
Deja Vu
Xenoglossy
Memories of Other People
Distinctive Birthmarks
ETC.

People that believe in reincarnation claim that the reason for gender conflicts is that people have been reincarnated into bodies of both genders at different times and are confused. Schizophrenia, or dual personalities, is also cited as being caused by reincarnation as is Deja Vu or the experience of having done something before that you are doing for the first time. When a child begins to talk in a language other than it's native tongue that is Xenoglossy and is said to be happening because the former reincarnation spoke that language. The memories of other people we have already discussed. Distinctive Birthmarks might be important proof if the memories one had were of a person that had the same birthmarks, was wounded in some manner or in a way that left the same pattern on his or her body.

I have no explanation for Birthmarks matching, but for the rest of the reasons given, I don't see much proof for reincarnation. I think that this will all become much clearer some time in the future when the source of these memories is finally discovered. Until then, each of us can only put forth our theories on this subject.