Reincarnation is Now a Scientifically Acceptable
Phenomenon
By Dr. Granville Dharmawardena
University of Colombo
(Based on a Scientific paper presented at the 52nd Annual Sessions
of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science,
November 1996)
In the seventeenth century when Rene Descartes divided
everything in the universe into two realms as "Res Extensa"
(matter) and "Res Cogitans" (mind), gathering knowledge within the
realm of Res Extensa was called Science and the phenomenon of
reincarnation got pushed into the other realm Res Cogitans which
was condemned to be not respectable and not up to the dignity of
Scientists to probe into. Science was considered the respectable
realm to study.
All important and respectable knowledge of the universe was thus
restricted to science which was restricted to the study of the
aspects of the universe that are measurable. Scientists accepted
that the universe consisted essentially of "objects" leading to the
belief that the ultimate realities of the universe are things and
not beings. It was believed that everything in nature could be
explained in terms of interactions of matter particles.
Science developed in this framework is known as "Classical
Science". Classical Science had great material success because it
helped to develop technology which brought about wealth and
material benefits to mankind. It helped the West to colonise the
rest of the world and acquire economic dominance and political
influence.
The frame work of Classical Science was punctured by Henry
Becquerel exactly hundred years ago, in 1896, by the discovery of
Radioactivity. Albert Einstein cracked it at the beginning of this
century by discovering the theory of relativity. It was totally
blasted by the advent of Quantum Theory and the Uncertainty
Principle. It is noteworthy that Einstein's discovery falls
entirely within the realm of Res Cogitans as it did not involve any
experiments or measurements.
In classical science scientists made idealised mental pictures
of the phenomena to be understood. Imagined mechanisms were usually
presented to make various phenomena and relationships between them
understood. But as Modern Science boosted man's knowledge
transcending the limitations imposed by the five senses and took us
to murky areas of nature, profound changes had to be introduced to
procedures in science. Our ability to understand everything by way
of perceptible mental pictures diminished and it became necessary
to imagine models with components which behaved in ways that had no
counterparts at all in the world familiar to us. Mechanisms
involved in these models in most instances not only are invisible
but also consist of elements that operate in ways never known in
the world that we actually experience through our five senses.
For example a single electron can pass through two different
holes on a screen at the same time and still remain a single
particle on the other side. If we use some mechanism such as
flashing a light on the electron to observe through which hole it
passes, then it will pass only through one of the two holes.
Mechanisms of such phenomena are beyond our imagination at least at
present. Mathematical models devoid of pictorial content which are
typical of modern science resulted from attempts to fit the
concepts of atoms and waves to the discoveries made at the end of
the 19th century which led to the quantum theory. Classical science
usually stood for absolute precision where as modern science stands
for impossibility of absolute precision.
Modern science joined up the two realms, Res Extensa and Res
Cogitans and made us to understand that the universe cannot be
broken up into two independent arbitrary realms as Res Extensa and
Res Cogitans. They are not independent and cannot be studied
completely independently. Within the establishment of modern
science some of the aspects of nature that did not strictly adhere
to the realm of Res Extensa, which were therefore earlier condemned
as unbecoming of scientists to talk about have become respectable.
Reincarnation falls into this category. Therefore scientists now
have the professional clearence to scientifically investigate
reincarnation. This paper does not distinguish between subtle
differences among reincarnation, rebirth and rebecoming.
If reincarnation is to be examined from an unbiased scientific
point of view, it is necessary first of all to find a way of
bypassing such unscientific barriers as religious bias. This can be
done by considering the standard procedure used at present for the
acceptance of any modern scientific theory and testing
reincarnation by following the same procedure.
Geremy Hayward has described how one ventures to deal with a new
theory. He describes this procedure as a four step scientific
process as follows;
a) study the relevant phenomenon,
b) formulate the new theory,
c) use the theory to predict observations that we should
be able to make if the theory is correct, and
d) look for these predicted observations.
Richard Feynman, Noble Laureate for Physics, describes this
process in detail. He combines steps "a" and "b" and describes it
as a three step process.
If the observations made in the last step do not agree with the
predictions of the earlier step the proposed theory is not
acceptable. If they agree the theory becomes acceptable. If more
and more observations show agreement the theory receives stronger
scientific acceptance. Once a theory becomes scientifically
accepted by this test it remains so unless someone finds reliable
new data to prove its unacceptability.
Reincarnation is a very old belief and a large fraction of the
world population believes it. For example Rene Descartes' statement
"What I have said is sufficient to show clearly enough that the
extinction of the mind does not follow from the corruption of the
body and also to give men the hope of another life after death." in
1641 confirms his belief in reincarnation. About 20 percent of
those in the Western World whose religions shun reincarnation
nevertheless believe it. According to opinion polls this percentage
is rising.
Hence the phenomenon of reincarnation is already known and
therefore the steps "a" and "b" are already there. In examining the
scientific acceptability of reincarnation therefore one has only to
go through the last two steps of the above scientific process. If
this is done successfully the scientific acceptability of
reincarnation is proved in the way any other theory of modern
science is proved.
Reincarnation may be defined as the re-embodiment of an
immaterial part of a person after a short or a long interval after
death, in a new body whence it proceeds to lead a new life in the
new body more or less unconscious of its past existences, but
containing within itself the "essence" of the results of its past
lives, which experience goes to make up its new character or
personality. Thus, infancy brings to earth not a blank scroll for
the beginning of a new earthly record, but it is inscribed with
ancestral histories, some like the present scene, most of them
unlike it and stretching back into the remote past.
Reincarnation is an issue of utmost importance, one that
promises to touch the ordinary man, woman and child in a profound
and far reaching way. Crime statistics show that convictions are
much lower among those who believe in reincarnation than among the
others. If scientifically accepted, reincarnation will have a stake
in defining human identity in the 21st century.
There are two possible scenarios, No-Reincarnation scenario and
Reincarnation scenario that can be considered. Human being is
composed of the body and an immaterial part. The body which is the
material part is well understood because it fell within the
Classical Science realm of Res Extensa and was extensively studied
by scientists. The immaterial part has not been studied by
scientists because it fell within the Classical Science realm of
Res Cogitans.
<img border="0" src="images/content/rein.jpg" width="515"
height="150">
In the No-Reincarnation scenario death is something like the
Event Horizon of a black hole. Crossing the event horizon is a one
way journey and after crossing it nothing can come back, not even
light. Here the body disintegrates after death and the immaterial
part either annihilates or gets into a scientifically unknown state
and remains there for ever, ie. each individual is borne, lives one
life time and at the end of it passes the event horizon of death to
a state of no return.
<img border="0" src="images/content/rein1.jpg" width="500"
height="181">
In the Reincarnation scenario death is not an event horizon
because only the body, the material part, disintegrates and goes
into a state of no return. The immaterial part enters into a
scientifically unknown state and reappears, after a period.
The above description of the phenomenon of reincarnation
constitute steps "a" and "b" of the scientific process. The next
step of the scientific process is looking for observations that can
be predicted assuming the existence of this phenomenon,
observations that have a reasonable chance of being practically
examined.
Abilities of individuals to carry memories of past events differ
widely from individual to individual. Some people can remember
events and experiences of long past whereas some easily forget
things within a few years. Most people vividly remember special
events such as tragic happenings for a very long time, even up to
death. Under hypnosis people recollect events which they had
completely forgotten. Some people have the exceptional ability to
recall knowledge and experiences gathered long ago and use them
when necessary. For example a friend of mine who had been
discussing Advanced Level Physics with me when he was studying for
the GCE AL exam long time ago, but never did any science there
after escaped injury in the Central bank bomb blast by
instantaneously recalling his memories discussing AL Physics. But
others who had studied Physics more recently lost their eyes
because that memory didn't flash back to their rescue at the time
of impending disaster. As soon as my friend saw the flash of the
bomb blast from his window , AL Physics flashed back to his mind
and prompted to him that the shock wave comes a little while after
the flash. Instantaneously he threw himself back flat on the floor
before the shock wave blasted the window glasses.
If reincarnation as defined earlier is true it should be
possible to extend some of the above human capabilities, which
result from immaterial aspects of the human being, beyond birth to
the previous life and even beyond to earlier lives. Some people
should be able to remember events in their past lives. Hypnosis
must enhance this ability. Some must be able to make use of
knowledge and experiences of past lives.
With these predictions we can move on to the last stage of the
scientific process, to look for these predicted observations.
A large amount of data has been accumulated by research workers
around the world on matters relating to reincarnation.
Spontaneous Recall of Past
Lives:
Most
promising evidence bearing on reincarnation comes from the
spontaneous recall of past lives, especially by children. Often a
child begins fumbling at the age of two, or sometimes even less, to
communicate his/her memories of a previous life. A large number of
such cases have been investigated all over the world. For example
Dr. Ian Stevenson, Carlson Professor of Psychiatry at the
University of Virginia (the USA), has investigated over 2000 such
cases which are documented and published. There are several other
researchers who have carried out such investigations on children
who spontaneously recall past lives. Many of these researchers
belong to religions that do not accept
reincarnation.
These
children speak volubly, accurately and with unswerving conviction
about their previous lives and the histories related have been
verified. In most cases these children voice their past life
memories between the ages of two and five. They being small are
free of memories crowded with information of their current lives.
They often use phrases such as "when I was big" and often grumble
about their small bodies and even speak resentfully of not being of
the same sex as before. Often they yearn for the lost company of a
husband, wife, son or a daughter. They hanker for the food,
clothing, life style or sometimes even alcohol, drugs and tobacco
of a former existence. They suffer phobias that can be linked
directly to their unexpected deaths in their past lives ie. fear of
knives, water, motor vehicles etc. The strong identification felt
by the subjects with the former personalities, the powerful
emotional attachment expressed by them towards surviving past life
relatives and friends, and the spontaneity of these usually help to
confirm the validity of such cases and exclude the possibility of
fraud.
Past Life Therapy
Past life therapy is based on the premise that some people carry in
their subconscious mind memories of unpleasant events of their past
lives and these subconscious memories adversely affect them in
their present lives. By hypnosis they can be regressed beyond their
birth to their previous lives or even to earlier lives. Many
ailments, all types phobias and even certain physical ailments can
be cured by such hypnotic regression. Past life therapy has now
become a standard western medical treatment for such ailments. The
first highly publicised case of hypnotic regression to past life
was that of Bridey Murphy in 1952 in the USA when this subject was
still in its infancy.
Several books have been written on this subject by medical
practitioners who carry out such treatment. The interest of most of
them is curing the patients and only a few are interested in
checking the information given about past lives. But a large number
has been checked and documented. When regressed to past lives
people often speak in languages they had spoken in their past lives
and completely unknown to them in their current lives. For example
an Australian girl may speak in an ancient Egyptian language
unknown in Australia or write in Egyptian stanzas inscribed in an
ancient Egyptian temple which she had frequented in her past life.
They would describe the setting in the past life in detail. Raymond
Moody, MD. who is a past life therapist got himself regressed and
recalled nine of his former lives. He has written a book giving his
experiences on this subject.
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Child prodigies and others who can use past life
knowledge and experiences;
The Roman philosopher, Cicero, maintained that the speed
with which children grasp innumerable facts is strong proof of men
knowing most things before birth. Since then the belief that genius
is flowering of past life experience held ground. Exceptional
precautious talent of certain children to pick up knowledge can be
explained only by reincarnation. For example a six year old child
who had never played a musical instrument suddenly playing near
masterpieces on a piano or a three year old child mentally
following his father's calculations on his employees pay sheet and
spotting mistakes and later becoming one of the greatest
mathematicians of the century cannot be explained by any other way.
The latest such person reported is a four year old American girl
who speaks three languages, programs the home computer and reads
Shakespere instead of trying to read children's books. She has
learned Japanese language entirely from
books.
One of the best reported cases of people who
can make use of knowledge gathered in a past life is Jetsunma, a
girl from a ghetto house in Brooklyn in the USA beset with
alcoholism, violence and abuse. Her mother is a Jewish grocery
store cashier and the step-father an Italian truck driver, both of
whom were alcoholics who mercilessly hammer the child daily. When
the mother was in a win situation she was dragged to the mother's
church and when the step-father was in the win situation she was
dragged to his church. When Jetsunma was 17 police advised her to
leave home because it was too dangerous to live together with the
parents. She left home, got married and produced a couple of
children. Once she was freed of the trauma of having to live with
her parents, she acquired the capability to teach Tibetan Buddhism
at a very high level and built up a clientele. She had never had
any exposure to Buddhism. She did not know anything about Tibet.
She or her clients did not know that what she was teaching was
Buddhism. They had named it "Center for Discovery and New Life".
Later she met a Tibetan monk, visited Tibet and found that she is
the reincarnate of a former Tibetan monk. It was the knowledge that
she had gathered in her past life as a Tibetan monk that she was
teaching. Anyone visiting Washington can visit her Centre and meet
her.
gathered in their past lives are some of the aspects that have
been subjected to much research and investigation.
The observations made on the above areas agree with the
predictions made in the third stage of the scientific process
thereby successfully completing the four step test for scientific
acceptability. No scientifically acceptable data that can go to
prove the scientific unacceptability of reincarnation have appeared
in scientific literature so far.
On the basis of these tests it is concluded that the
scientific acceptability of the phenomenon of reincarnation is
proven at least on three counts in terms of the accepted principles
of modern science.
A science minded person often finds it difficult to accept
reincarnation because he/she had failed to perceive a reincarnation
mechanism that is intelligible within the outdated Decartes'
classical science frame work. But Modern Science, specifically
Quantum Mechanics, has compelled us to accept unintelligible
mechanisms of natural phenomena like the behaviour of electrons and
we do not hesitate to accept them. Likewise with the data available
we are compelled to accept reincarnation as a reality.
Austrian Scientist Rudolf Steiner says,
"Just as an age was once ready to receive the Copernican
theory of the universe, so is our age ready for the idea of
reincarnation to be brought into the general consciousness of
humanity".
