Posted in another thread: Life Before Life by Dr. Jim Tucker, University of Virginia

[The Blue Flower]

Children's Memories of Previous Lives

The book just came out. Tucker took over the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia from its founder, Dr. Ian Stevenson, in 1996. Both are pediatric psychiatrists who became deeply interested in researching seeming past life memories of children due to cases that parents brought to them. Both have researched such stories all over the world. Stevenson began his research in 1960 and in time he received funding to continue the research from one of the inventors of the Xerox process. Stevenson's initial groundbreaking book detailed 20 such cases. Tucker's book expands on the research. While the preponderance of cases in Stevenson's time were in cultures that believe in reincarnation, Tucker has received thousands of stories from American parents whose children related detailed stories of previous lives. Many of the parents had religious beliefs that condemn the idea. The stories are amazing. The most well-known is that of a Louisiana boy who told of being a 21 year old fighter pilot in WWII who was shot down in combat and drowned. He knew what his name had been, the carrier he'd flown from, and the names of his buddies.

You can look up Tucker and the Division of Perceptual Studies online. He believes the evidence shows that consciousness can survive the death of a physical body and that aspects of quantum mechanics regarding consciousness will eventually explain the mechanism.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. I believe the evidence shows that people will conduct scams of all kinds

For money, attention, and/or fame.

People who want to believe in supernatural stuff like 'souls' ... are easy marks.

Apparently Mr. Tucker falls into one or both of those camps.

MHO, fwiw.

[The Blue Flower]

2. He addresses your argument in the book

nt

[elevator]

5. I am not religious, but I also do not rule out any possibility. Quantum physics

has proposed many realities that physics never considered previously and has been shown to share many characteristics with the Tao and Hindu thought. I am currently reading a book " Psyche and Singularity" which correlates Jungian psychology with Holographic String Theory, the properties of black holes and their event horizons. I don't understand all of the physics in the book, but it raises many provocative questions about the nature of consciousness and realty.

This is not "supernatural stuff" about souls. It is a theoretical physics that says there may be much more to our psyche and it's place in the universe than we have imagined.

[BootinUp]

6. Bingo

[Voltaire2]

3. Ah of course, 'quantum mechanics' 'splains it.

Always good to toss the QM in there when there is no possible physical explanation for supernatural idiocy. After all QM is really difficult to grasp even the basics, and there is that 'spooky action at a distance' thing, so yeah therefore reincarnation must be real.

[elevator]

7. Ignorance can be bliss.

I made no quantum leap from QM to reincarnation, nor did I suggest it. Throwing up strawmen to try to salvage your limited perspective is quite telling.

Arthur C. Clarke once said about future possibilities "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".

A good magic trick is to pull one's head out of one's posterior.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

9. Voltaire didn't reply to you ... she/he replied to the OP

Speaking of pulling one's head out of one's posterior

Or do you have multiple accounts?

[elevator]

10. Doesn't matter who it was intended for.

Her/his response deserved the one I posted.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Well, since we don't know much about quantum mechanics, and even less about consciousness...

or perception of reality, he may be on to something.

Or he may not be.

Actual research never hurts, and can lead to some surprising truths.

[orleans]

8. there was a show (maybe a series) on this a number of years ago

i remember one of the shows was about either the boy you mention or another similar story, and the child was able to meet an older woman who was the sister of the military guy who had died in the war.

i thought it was fascinating.

i wish i had thought about this when my daughter was little. i probably would have asked her the simple question: what was it like when you were old?