On Himalaya on Tues night, Michael Palin went to the place in India where the Dalai Lama and his followers are living in exile. He went to consult one of their astro*something-or-rather guy to get a map of his past life (and future life) by supplying his birth date and various details about his birth. He was told that he was an elephant in his past life and will be reincarnated as a daughter of a rich family in the West. Michael had obvious problems with his reading, esp. the part about him being an elephant. But the Tibetan Buddhists really believe it and it was quite amusing to see Michael's doubt and questions about reincarnation amidst that. They also believe that you can change what you will be reincarnation as through your deeds in this current life (karma). And obviously, you can't change your last life because it has already happened.
It so happened that the Discovery Channel was showing a doco about past-life memories. They would show someone's account of a past-life memory and then some experts (scientists) to talk about it from a scientific point of view. It was quite well done, although it didn't really answer all my questions about it. It is quite baffling when a 4-year-old Indian kid can tell stories and events of a past life. How could he know about fighting in a war and 'recognise' this couple he has never met and address them as "mother" and "father" (they were supposedly his parents in his previous life). The scientific explanation: it seems that those with more of some sort of electrical impulses in the brain seem to have a heightened sense of imagination, and thus more able to come up with stories about "past-life memories". Also, there seems to be a surprisingly small probability of having a combination of 2-3 seeming facts from a past-life memory and these facts matching up with an actual person.
What about those who can give some quite accurate historical details from their past life e.g. the description of certains buildings or places? (and these buildings or places presently don't like how they used to). The experts explained that we store information in our brain that we are not aware of (from reading, hearing information or watching something). At times e.g. under hypnosis (a number of these past-life memories come up under hypnosis) this stored information will be accessed. The experts believe these memories are all imagined. Although there may be bits of factual information, but the memory as a whole is a figment of the imagination.
The scientists could give some evidence or studies they have conducted or some plausible physiologocal/phycological explanation to disprove these past-life memories, but to me there were still little gaps in their explanations. They did answer most of my questions, but not enough as it still remains somewhat of a mystery to me. I don't believe in reincarnation because I find it not logical or plausible. What little I understand about science doesn't convince me it can happen. Also, it doesn't fall in line with what I understand about theology and humans. But, I haven't found a concrete explanation to totally purge it from the "mysteries" box. So, maybe there is another explanation outside of science (maybe it is supernatural?)... and if there is, what could it be?
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