Near-Death Experiences and Reincarnation

I did find it curious that in the linked article, the word of some unidentified psychic was accepted as credible in the context of verifying past-life recall.

But still, I've always had reservations about hypnosis for myself and haven't consulted a hypnotist. I did try one (or several) self-regression recordings to be found on youtube. Even then I was very cautious, I first listened to the recording while I was wide-awake and alert, just to find what sort of suggestions or instructions it contained. After some time, I tried it for real, and nothing at all happened. It took several attempts, spaced out at intervals of days or weeks before I got anything - even then it wasn't much. What I did find is that it helped to find a very comfortable semi-reclining position so I could in effect lose awareness of my physical body - almost like preparing for an OBE. As I said I didn't get much, in part because it was like a short flight in an aircraft, most of the time is spent in take-off and landing.

The brief fragments I did get were plausible, but with no identifiable features, just a glimpse of a few moments in a very ordinary life, before any of the niceties of modern civilisation.

This is much in accordance with my results in my regressions.  

It is interesting that it is also somewhat in accordance with Helen Wambach's results in her research. In her research program, with large groups of people she hypnotically induced by suggestion (after relaxation and brief meditation) the going back to specific previous historical (and prehistoric) time periods to observe simple things like the sort of foot coverings being worn, the general surroundings, the clothing, the kind of dwellings, etc. The results when compiled for thousands of subjects were fairly convincingly glimpses of the general cultural levels of long past historical periods as they are known to archaeology and anthropology and historical research, results that would not be expected if they were due to subconscious confabulation. 

These subjects would generally sense themselves to be very ordinary people, peasants, farmers, small merchants, etc. wearing ordinary clothing and living in the kind of dwellings known by historians, anthropologists and archaeologists to have been typical for the lowly stations in life of the vast majority of people in those time periods. No kings, queens or other rulers, super-rich, saints, prophets, etc. etc. The latter would seem to rule out subconscious self-suggestion.

I actually attended one of Wambach's group sessions, and my results were along the same general lines as the great majority in her study. In my case, unfortunately I already had a good acquaintance with historical research, so my results were not as meaningful. 

I still have doubts of this study, because these results (validating reincarnation and past-life regression techniques) were exactly what Wambach was hoping for in her research, and the possible effects of telepathic suggestibility were not considered in this work. Like in past life regressions the unexpressed desires of the hypnotist seem often to somehow be telepathically responded to by the regression subject, and the results are exactly along the lines of what is hoped for or expected by the hypnotist. I think much of the apparently positive results of other sorts of regression (such as Michael Newton's between-lives regression research) can be ascribed to this phenomenon.

I do think Helen Wambach's studies are interesting. I only regret that the ideas have fallen so far out of fashion that no-one is attempting replications in the present-day. I'm not sure to what extent the telepathic fulfilment of her expectations is a fair alternative explanation. I do have one of her books, but I don't think there exist any audio recordings of her actual sessions so it is rather hard to evaluate your suggested criticism.

But there will always be practicalities - if there is a queue of departed souls volunteering or wanting or needing or being obliged to return (I can't say which) and a finite number of births available, then things are bound to vary.

With the growth in population on planet Earth, wouldn't the concept of a queue be somewhat incoherent?  This gets to the question of soul "creation" vs reincarnation.  Just curious how this is generally accounted for in reincarnation circles.

I wanted to say a bit more on my thoughts on this topic.

There are several angles.

1. The mathematics doesn't add up. At least that's a usual objection to reincarnation, comparing the rapidly-increasing population of this planet with the smaller number of deceased people. I've never attempted to resolve this. I just take things back to the very first forms of life which (for sake of argument) had souls. Where did those souls come from? That isn't just a question of number x being greater than number y, but of the quantity of previously deceased beings amounting to precisely zero. Where did those first souls come from. Well, my assumption has always been that just as the physical bodies are drawn up from the soil and water and air, the physical materials, in a corresponding manner, then the non-physical part is drawn from whatever ethereal pool (for want of a better word) there may be.

So in that respect we might say some are 'new' souls. But just as the physical materials go round in a cycle, carbon, water, all the other molecules and atoms are re-used, then there is also a re-use of the non-physical component.

Those are just my speculations, I don't have any religious belief about how all this works, I'm only looking at evidence and adding my own intuitions.

(And I never even mentioned life on other planets or other suns in this galaxy or beyond, though we know stars do have their own lifecycle and other physical worlds must have come into existence, thrived and then faded out again. Even our physical existence is indebted to these older stars. Our sun turns hydrogen into helium and heat! But where did all the other elements come from? Not our solar system. The science says they were forged in the incredible furnace of exploding supernovae for example. That is the stuff of which our bodies are made.)

2. Being compelled to return. These are ideas I've heard, not anything of which I'm certain. The ideas is that either through a being's own desires and attachments, or through some spiritual 'laws', or through the control of some higher power, a soul may inevitably return to a new life in a new body.

3. Being persuaded to return. Here the being's own free will allows for the choice of whether or not to return, and having some spiritual advisors offering views on the presumed benefits or value of doing so.

4. Volunteering or wanting to live a physical life on this planet. This is another idea I've heard. Sometimes it is said that there are so many beings wanting an experience within the material world that each physical life is a precious resource, and in great demand, with a much larger number wanting the experience than is available.

This is where my idea of the queue came from, that coming here is a great privilege and opportunity - despite our own reservations about the many downsides and terrible things which we may endure. Controversial perhaps. Weighing the idea of this life as a great privilege against the many pains and tragedies here. In this respect, I have even fewer answers or thoughts than before. These are the great questions of existence which have been debated since human thought began.

I wanted to say a bit more on my thoughts on this topic.

I don’t really think it’s worth us speculating about this, who knows what ‘God’ is capable of. To assume that we should even use our own (limited) knowledge of this realm is to assume that there aren’t very different realms, possibly with very different rules of physics and mathematics.

Once again I defer to Manjit’s wisdom.

"And I can't help but feel that the universe, reality, consciousness, being, divinity or whatever....... is just so much more mysterious, awesome, magical, astonishing, incomprehensible, mind-shattering than anything humankind has conceived of."

I don’t really think it’s worth us speculating about this, who knows what God is capable of. To assume that we should even use our own (limited) knowledge of this realm is to assume that there aren’t very different realms, possibly with very different rules of physics and mathematics.

Once again I defer to Manjit’s wisdom.

"And I can't help but feel that the universe, reality, consciousness, being, divinity or whatever....... is just so much more mysterious, awesome, magical, astonishing, incomprehensible, mind-shattering than anything humankind has conceived of."

Glad I could help

Seriously, I thought it was worth adding some sort of fuller response to the question from Silence, lest I gave the impression of just being a religious crackpot. Undoubtedly I missed that mark too.

Seriously, I thought it was worth adding some sort of fuller response to the question from Silence, lest I gave the impression of just being a religious crackpot. Undoubtedly I missed that mark too.

I’d no problem with your post, I don’t with (hardly) any of your posts.

It’s just how I see this particular question. Similar to an earthworm pondering quantum mechanics. 

That’s not to diminish earthworms worth, if one had the confidence to even try seriously to answer such a question I’d have to give it a genuine round of applause for its chutzpah! 

I’d no problem with your post, I don’t with (hardly) any of your posts.

It’s just how I see this particular question. Similar to an earthworm pondering quantum mechanics. 

That’s not to diminish earthworms worth, if one had the confidence to even try seriously to answer such a question I’d have to give it a genuine round of applause for its chutzpah! 

Thanks. I understand your perspective.

But me, I do have to ponder. Yes, I have to. Many years ago, I asked myself why I got up each morning, why I went to sleep each night. Some people just live their lives, and what a joy that must be. But I need to know, what this day is for, what is this moment for, what am I what is this existence ... on and on. Those questions paralysed me. My life ground to a halt. I literally could not move without some reason to do so. The picture of where we come from, where we go, these are not abstractions for me, but necessities.

Thanks. I understand your perspective.

As I do yours.  

We think alike in this regard.

[Ninshub]

1. The mathematics doesn't add up. At least that's a usual objection to reincarnation, comparing the rapidly-increasing population of this planet with the smaller number of deceased people. I've never attempted to resolve this. I just take things back to the very first forms of life which (for sake of argument) had souls. Where did those souls come from? That isn't just a question of number x being greater than number y, but of the quantity of previously deceased beings amounting to precisely zero. Where did those first souls come from. Well, my assumption has always been that just as the physical bodies are drawn up from the soil and water and air, the physical materials, in a corresponding manner, then the non-physical part is drawn from whatever ethereal pool (for want of a better word) there may be.

We hear from different sources, certain mediums, NDErs possibly, that the higher self splits different aspects of itself or portions of its "energy" (something) into different incarnations, on earth, elsewhere, past/future simultaneously, etc. So going from that, that problem evaporates for me.

We hear from different sources, certain mediums, NDErs possibly, that the higher self splits different aspects of itself or portions of its "energy" (something) into different incarnations, on earth, elsewhere, past/future simultaneously, etc. So going from that, that problem evaporates for me.

My usual reaction to the number of available souls argument is to ignore it as mostly irrelevant, because of the ground principle that evidence always trumps theory. The accumulated empirical evidence for reincarnation (at least of some portion of the population) is unequivocal in my opinion, so whether the explanation is that just a small percentage of the population reincarnates, or something else, doesn't matter for the primary issue of the reality or not of reincarnation. The evidence makes the supposed explanation that "there is not any such thing as reincarnation" DOA, a total non-starter. In order to hypothesize this "explanation", a host of complicated subsidiary hypotheses would have to be added, to somehow explain how the veridical evidence somehow was generated as some sort of deception, for instance. There simply has to be some other explanation, and when or if it is elucidated by researchers we will know a lot more about the process.