reincarnation-science-history

Scientific Evidence of Reincarnation--Update

IS rebirth possible? Are there any scientific bases for believing in rebirth? Since time immemorial, man has been struggling to find a solution to this mystery but conclusive evidence has thus far eluded him. Jupinderjit Singh from TribuneIndia.com (03-13-03)

Now, in probably the first-ever case of its kind, a Patiala-based forensic science expert has sought to scientifically prove the phenomenon. Putting forward for debate his research in a case involving the rebirth of a child who lived in Chakkchela village of Jalandhar district in his past life and now lives in Alluna Miana village of Ludhiana district, Vikram Raj Singh Chauhan claims to prove on the basis of the comparison between the handwriting of the child in his previous and present births, the theory that rebirth is possible. His findings have been hailed at the recent National Conference of Forensic Scientists at Bundelkhand University, Jhansi.

A couple of months ago, a six-year-old boy Taranjit Singh of Alluna Miana village near Payal in Ludhiana claimed to remember his previous life. In fact, according to his economically weak parents, the boy had been claiming this since he was two years old and used to attempt to run away from home. The boy said he was born in Chakkchela village in Jalandhar district in his past birth and his real name was Satnam Singh and his father’s name was Jeet Singh. He said he was a student of Class IX in a school in Nihalwal village at the time of his death. On September 10, 1992, he was returning home on a bicycle from his school along with his friend Sukhwinder Singh when a scooter-rider named Joga Singh of Mirajwala village, Shahkot tehsil, hit him. He received serious injuries on his head and died the following day.

His present father Ranjit Singh said as the boy became more insistent, he and his wife took him to Chakkchela village in Sangrur district. They could not find anyone resembling the people their son had described as his parents. When someone told them that there was a village called Chakkchela in Jalandhar district as well, they decided to go there.

The boy’s father Ranjit Singh and his friend Rajinder Singh went to the government school in Nihalwal village in Jalandhar district where they met an old teacher who told that it was true that a boy named Satnam Singh had died in an accident and he was the son of Jeet Singh of Chakkchela village. Then the family reached the house of Jeet Singh and narrated the whole story.

Ranjit Singh also said that his son claimed that the books he was carrying when the accident occurred had been soaked in his blood. He also had Rs 30 in his purse. On hearing this, the woman Taranjit claimed was his mother in his previous birth, started weeping and confirmed his claim. She said she had preserved the blood-stained books and Rs 30 as the last memory of her child.

After few days Taranjit Singh’s brother in his previous life Kewal Singh, sister Lakhbir Kaur, friend Buta Singh, father Jeet Singh and mother Mohinder Kaur came to Alluna Miana village to meet Taranjit. Lakhbir Kaur showed the photographs of her marriage to Taranjit Singh and asked him to recognise himself in his previous birth. Taranjit Singh immediately recognised the same as also the photo of his parents in his previous birth.

This story was carried in some newspapers. Vikram Chauhan told this writer that as a man of science, he refused to believe such a story but driven by curiosity, he decided to investigate. He visited the villages concerned a number of times. The boy and the parents of both the births repeated the same story. He spoke to a shopkeeper who told him that the boy had taken a notebook on credit of Rs 3 from him a few days before his death. When the shopkeeper went to the boy’s village, the boy immediately recognised him but said he owed him Rs 2 only. The shopkeeper admitted the fact and said he had only wanted to test the authenticity of the child’s claim.

Thereafter to confirm the incident scientifically, Chauhan took samples of the writings of Taranjit Singh both in Gurmukhi and English and also of Satnam Singh from the notebooks kept by the family of Satnam Singh, in order to find out whether or not the handwritings of Satnam Singh and Taranjit Singh were similar. A basic theory of forensic science that the handwritings of two different individuals cannot be the same was the basis of his investigation. If Taranjit Singh and Satnam Singh were the same person, then their handwritings also had to be the same.

The author explained that a person’s handwriting has specific characteristics, which are determined by one’s personality and hence no two persons write in the same manner.

It is an applied science combining the study of optics, physiology and psychology. A person’s psychological makeup determines, to a large extent, his handwriting. Thus, the mind plays an important role in shaping a person’s handwriting and the hand only translates into action the dictates of the mind, which cannot be the same in two different writers.

The author revealed he was amazed to find that the handwriting of Taranjit Singh corresponded almost exactly with that of Satnam Singh. The only difference lay in the muscular coordination of the two writers as Taranjit Singh was not accustomed to writing. This was quite unusual and suggested that something in the two boys was same.

The author argued that if it is presumed that the soul is transferred from one person to another then it can be inferred that the mind will remain the same. Thus, if Satnam Singh’s soul was believed to have been transferred into Taranjit Singh’s body, then it stood to reason that the handwriting of Taranjt Singh would correspond with that of Satnam Singh.

The scientist proved this in a conference. According to the minutes of the conference, a number of forensic experts examined the handwriting samples and found that these were similar.

"I have some scientific basis to claim rebirth is possible", says Chauhan, "but I wish to research further on the subject and am closely monitoring the development of the child." According to Chauhan, another factor bolstered his conclusions. "In his present birth, Taranjit has never gone to school as he belongs to a poor family, but yet when I told him to write the English and Punjabi alphabet, he wrote them correctly."

Taranjit is living with the parents of his present birth as they refuse to give him to his former parents, even though they are poorer than them. The parents of his previous birth have also not pressed their claim saying they understand the feelings of their counterparts.

Evidence Of Life After Death

http://science.krishna.org/Articles/2000/10/00189.html

Scientists investigating 'near-death' experiences say they have found evidence to suggest that consciousness can continue to exist after the brain has ceased to function. BBC NEWS (10-28-00)

However, the claim has been challenged by neurological experts.

The researchers interviewed 63 patients who had survived heart attacks within a week of the experience.

Of these 56 had no recollection of the period of unconsciousness they experienced whilst, effectively, clinically dead.

However, seven had memories, four of which counted as near-death experiences.

They told of feelings of peace and joy, time speeded up, heightened senses, lost awareness of body, seeing a bright light, entering another world, encountering a mystical being and coming to "a point of no return".

Oxygen levels

None of the patients were found to be receiving low oxygen levels - which some scientists believe may be responsible for so-called "near-death" experiences.

Lead researcher Dr Sam Parnia, of Southampton General Hospital, said nobody fully understands how brain cells generate thoughts.

He said it might be that the mind or consciousness is independent of the brain.

He said: "When we examine brain cells we see that brain cells are like any other cells, they can produce proteins and chemicals, but they are not really capable of producing the subjective phenomenon of thought that we have.

"The brain is definitely needed to manifest the mind, a bit like how a television set can take what essentially are waves in the air and translate them into picture and sound."

Full story at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_986000/986177.stm

Scientists investigating 'near-death' experiences say they have found evidence to suggest that consciousness can continue to exist after the brain has ceased to function.

However, the claim has been challenged by neurological experts.

The researchers interviewed 63 patients who had survived heart attacks within a week of the experience.

Memories are extremely fallible

Dr Chris Freeman, Royal Edinburgh Hospital

Of these 56 had no recollection of the period of unconsciousness they experienced whilst, effectively, clinically dead.

However, seven had memories, four of which counted as near-death experiences.

Oxygen levels

None of the patients were found to be receiving low oxygen levels - which some scientists believe may be responsible for so-called "near-death" experiences.

Lead researcher Dr Sam Parnia, of Southampton General Hospital, said nobody fully understands how brain cells generate thoughts.

He said it might be that the mind or consciousness is independent of the brain.

"The brain is definitely needed to manifest the mind, a bit like how a television set can take what essentially are waves in the air and translate them into picture and sound."

Scepticism

Dr Chris Freeman, consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist at Royal Edinburgh Hospital, said there was no proof that the experiences reported by the patients actually occurred when the brain was shut down.

"We know that memories are extremely fallible. We are quite good at knowing that something happened, but we are very poor at knowing when it happened.

"It is quite possible that these experiences happened during the recovery, or just before the cardiac arrest. To say that they happened when the brain was shut down, I think there is little evidence for that at all."

For more on Near Death Experiences:

Forensic Evidence of Reincarnation
http://science.krishna.org/Articles/2002/10/025.html

http://www.krishna.org/?author=www.unknowncountry.com

http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=1740

Forensic Evidence of Reincarnation
15-Jul-2002

Is there a scientific basis for reincarnation? Indian forensic scientist Vikram Raj Singh Chauhan is trying to prove reincarnation is real. He has presented his findings at the National Conference of Forensic Scientists in India.

Chauhan has discovered a six-year-old boy named Taranjijt Singh who says he remembers his previous life. According to his parents, he’s been talking about this since he was two years old and used to run away from home. The boy knew the village he lived in during his former life, as well as his and his father’s names. He knew the name of the school he attended as well. On September 10, 1992, he was riding his bike home when he was hit by a motor scooter. He received head injuries and died the next day.

His present father, Ranjit Singh, says as the boy became more and more insistent, so he and his wife went to the village where he claimed to have lived in the past. At first, they couldn’t find anyone who resembled the descriptions of his former parents. Then someone told him to go to another nearby village, where they met a teacher at the local school who confirmed the story of the motor scooter accident. They found out where the boy had lived and went there to meet the parents.

When they told the family their story, Ranjit Singh mentioned that his son claimed the books he was carrying when the accident occurred had gotten blood on them. He also described how much money he had in his wallet. When the woman heard this, she began to cry and said she had saved the blood-stain books and the money in memory of her dead child. Taranjit Singh’s parents and siblings from his former life soon came to his new home to meet him. The boy recognized a wedding picture his former parents brought with him.

At first, Vikram Chauhan refused to believe this story but he eventually became curious and decided to investigate. He visited both villages and found the boy and both sets of parents repeated the same story. He spoke to a shopkeeper who told him that the boy had owed him the money that was in his wallet when he was hit, and was probably bringing it to him to pay for a notebook he’d gotten on credit.

Chauhan took samples of both boys’ handwriting and compared them. He found they were identical. It’s a basic tenet of forensic science that no two handwriting styles can be identical, because each person’s handwriting has specific characteristics. Experts can usually spot even expertly forged handwriting. A person’s handwriting style is dictated by individual personality traits. Chauhan’s theory is that if the soul is transferred from one person to another, then the mind – and thus the handwriting - will remain the same. A number of other forensic experts examined the handwriting samples and agreed they were identical.

"I have some scientific basis to claim rebirth is possible", says Chauhan, "but I wish to do more research on the subject and am closely monitoring the development of the child." Singh’s former parents wanted him to move back with them, but his current family still claims him, even though they are poor. Chauhan says, "In his present birth, Taranjit has never gone to school as he belongs to a poor family, but yet when I told him to write the English and Punjabi alphabet, he wrote them correctly."

To learn about scientific experiments into life after death here in the U.S., read “The Afterlife Experiments” by Gary Schwartz, click here.

For more information, click here.

Can science uphold the belief in rebirth?
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020622/windows/main3.htm

Jupinderjit Singh

Taranjit Singh with his parents in his present birth

The author explained that a person’s handwriting has specific characteristics, which are determined by one’s personality and hence no two persons write in the same manner.

The scientist proved this in a conference. According to the minutes of the conference, a number of forensic experts examined the handwriting samples and found that these were similar.

Evidence of Reincarnation
20-Apr-2004
http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=3724

Six-year-old James Leininger may be the reincarnation of a 21-year-old Navy fighter pilot who was shot down over the Pacific by the Japanese during World War II. James' parents Andrea and Bruce say they are "probably the people least likely to have a scenario like this pop up in their lives." So what has convinced them it's true? James liked to play with toy planes from an early age, but by age two, they started giving him nightmares. Andrea says, "I'd wake him up and he'd be screaming [saying] "Airplane crash on fire, little man can't get out." In a home video when he was three, James seems to be doing a sophisticate preflight check. When she pointed out what she thought was a bomb on the underside of a toy plane, James corrected her and told her it was a "drop tank." She says, "I'd never heard of a drop tank. I didn't know what a drop tank was."

James' nightmares got so bad that his mother took him to see therapist Carol Bowman, who has been a guest on Dreamland. She encouraged James to tell his parents about his memories. He told them his plane had been hit by the Japanese and crashed. He said his plane was a Corsair and says, "They used to get flat tires all the time." He also said the ship he took off from was called the "Natoma" and he flew with a pilot named Jack Larson. His father Bruce discovered that both the ship and the pilot were real. He says, "You could have poured my brains out of my ears. I just couldn't believe it."

Bruce began to search the internet for information about the pilot and the ship and found out that the only pilot from that squadron who was killed at Iwo Jima was named James M. Huston Jr. He contacted Ralph Clarbour, who was a rear gunner on a U.S. airplane that flew off the same ship and he told him his plane was next to one flown by Huston over Iwo Jima on March 3, 1945. He saw Huston's plane being struck by anti-aircraft fire and says, "I would say he was hit head on, right in the middle of the engine."

Bruce believes "He came back because he wasn't finished with something."

There's almost nothing that can't be real when you learn how to use your limitless mind.

For more information, click here.(Second Lives article) this is it below............

Quite a few people — including those who knew the fighter pilot — think James is the pilot, reincarnated.

James' parents, Andrea and Bruce, a highly educated, modern couple, say they are "probably the people least likely to have a scenario like this pop up in their lives."

But over time, they have become convinced their little son has had a former life.

From an early age, James would play with nothing else but planes, his parents say. But when he was 2, they said the planes their son loved began to give him regular nightmares.

"I'd wake him up and he'd be screaming," Andrea told ABCNEWS' Chris Cuomo. She said when she asked her son what he was dreaming about, he would say, "Airplane crash on fire, little man can't get out."

Reality Check

Andrea says her mom was the first to suggest James was remembering a past life.

At first, Andrea says she was doubtful. James was only watching kids' shows, his parents say, and they weren't watching World War II documentaries or conversing about military history.

But as time went by, Andrea began to wonder what to believe. In one video of James at age 3, he goes over a plane as if he's doing a preflight check.

Another time, Andrea said, she bought him a toy plane, and pointed out what appeared to be a bomb on its underside. She says James corrected her, and told her it was a drop tank. "I'd never heard of a drop tank," she said. "I didn't know what a drop tank was."

Then James' violent nightmares got worse, occurring three and four times a week. Andrea's mother suggested she look into the work of counselor and therapist Carol Bowman, who believes that the dead sometimes can be reborn.

With guidance from Bowman, they began to encourage James to share his memories — and immediately, Andrea says, the nightmares started become less frequent. James was also becoming more articulate about his apparent past, she said.

Bowman said James was at the age when former lives are most easily recalled. "They haven't had the cultural conditioning, the layering over the experience in this life so the memories can percolate up more easily," she said.

Trail of Mysteries

Over time, James' parents say he revealed extraordinary details about the life of a former fighter pilot — mostly at bedtime, when he was drowsy.

They say James told them his plane had been hit by the Japanese and crashed. Andrea says James told his father he flew a Corsair, and then told her, "They used to get flat tires all the time."

In fact, historians and pilots agree that the plane's tires took a lot of punishment on landing. But that's a fact that could easily be found in books or on television.

Andrea says James also told his father the name of the boat he took off from — Natoma — and the name of someone he flew with — "Jack Larson."

After some research, Bruce discovered both the Natoma and Jack Larson were real. The Natoma Bay was a small aircraft carrier in the Pacific. And Larson is living in Arkansas.

"It was like, holy mackerel," Bruce said. "You could have poured my brains out of my ears. I just couldn't believe it.

James 2 = James M. Huston Jr.?

Bruce became obsessed, searching the Internet, combing through military records and interviewing men who served aboard the Natoma Bay.

He said James told him he had been shot down at Iwo Jima. James had also begun signing his crayon drawings "James 3." Bruce soon learned that the only pilot from the squadron killed at Iwo Jima was James M. Huston Jr.

Bruce says James also told him his plane had sustained a direct hit on the engine.

Ralph Clarbour, a rear gunner on a U.S. airplane that flew off the Natoma Bay, says his plane was right next to one flown by James M. Huston Jr. during a raid near Iwo Jima on March 3, 1945.

Clarbour said he saw Huston's plane struck by anti-aircraft fire. "I would say he was hit head on, right in the middle of the engine," he said.

Treasured Mementos

Bruce says he now believes his son had a past life in which he was James M. Huston Jr. "He came back because he wasn't finished with something."

The Leiningers wrote a letter to Huston's sister, Anne Barron, about their little boy. And now she believes it as well.

"The child was so convincing in coming up with all the things that there is no way on the world he could know," she said.

But Professor Paul Kurtz of the State University of New York at Buffalo, who heads an organization that investigates claims of the paranormal, says he thinks the parents are "self-deceived."

"They're fascinated by the mysterious and they built up a fairy tale," he said.

James' vivid, alleged recollections are starting to fade as he gets older — but among his prized possessions remain two haunting presents sent to him by Barron: a bust of George Washington and a model of a Corsair aircraft.

They were among the personal effects of James Huston sent home after the war.

"He appears to have experienced something that I don't think is unique, but the way it's been revealed is quite astounding," Bruce said.

Asked if the idea that James may have been someone else changes his or his wife's feeling about their son, Bruce said: "It doesn't change how we think. I don't look at him and say, 'That's not my boy.' That's my boy."

The Soul and Reincarnation. Letter to a Christian.
http://religion.krishna.org/Articles/2000/10/00150.html

As the embodied soul continually passes in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.

Dear John,

Hello, Hare Krishna. Thanks for the letter and this time I can understand what you are saying better. I just want to say that I was brought up as a Christian by very good Christian parents and I always believed in God, the Bible and Lord Jesus Christ. And I still do. I never considered that I gave up being a Christian as when I studied the philosophy of Krishna consciousness I found it was the same philosophy Jesus was preaching, only in a different language and presented in a different cultural background.

I very much appreciate the idea that man is made in the image of God. We completely agree with that. Our form is made in the image of God's form. So God has two hands, two legs, etc. The difference between His form and our form in the material world is He is eternally youthful, full of knowledge and full of bliss, whereas in the material world our material bodies are temporary [getting old and dying], full of ignorance and full of anxiety. But we do have an original spiritual body, which is currently covered by this material body. And that spiritual body has the same qualities as God's body [eternally youthful, full of knowledge and full of pleasure]
(p>Although your letter is easier for me to understand than before you have introduced another aspect of the Christian philosophy that always made me uncomfortable--That some of your Christian friends think the animals have souls, but not human souls, but you don't think so, because it is confusing, but if I like I can think like that... It's not nice to my logical brain. I used to work as a computer systems analyst and was trained up in "logical" thinking where everything is neatly explained. But this explanation is not at all 'neat.'

I was greatly relieved when I read the Bhagavad-gita and other Vedic scriptures and found a very 'neat' and logical philosophy that was not at all in conflict with what Jesus teaches in the Bible. As in Christianity where there are many different groups, also in India there are many different groups of followers of the Vedas, and they have slightly differing understandings on certain philosophical points also. But they all completely agree on all the basic points like the nature of the soul, karma, reincarnation, etc. It is because these things are so very clearly explained in the Bhagavad-gita by Krishna that no one disagrees with His explanations. I can give you quotes from the Vedic scriptures to back up every point:

"O son of Bharata, as the Sun alone illuminates this universe, so does the living entity [the soul], one within the body, illuminate the entire body by consciousness." [Bg. 13.34]

There are hundreds of verses so I will not put them all here, but the point is the science of the soul, reincarnation, karma, etc is clearly described in the Bhagavad-gita and other scriptures so there is no disagreement about the understanding of these points among ANY of the different spiritual groups in India. Even the Buddhists, although the conclusion of their philosophy is vastly different from what Jesus taught or what Krishna taught, their understanding of the soul, reincarnation, karma, etc is IDENTICAL with ours.

So while Christians really can't agree on the nature of the soul, etc, ALL Eastern spiritual groups completely agree on these points. Although there is disagreement on some more subtle points, these basic principles are accepted by absolutely everyone.

I have sometimes thought about why this is so and I studied the development of the Christian philosophy at one time. It seems that most of the Christian philosophy and doctrines do not come from the Bible directly. There is a long string of philosophers who gradually developed the Christian philosophy starting with the Greeks before Christ: Socrates [who believed in reincarnation], Plato and Aristotle, then after Christ Plotinus then Origen who is considered the founder of formal Christian philosophy, then Augustine then Thomas Aquinas who compiled the entire church doctrine in "Summa Theologiae" which is the official philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church...

So all these philosophers [and others] gradually developed the Christian doctrine. Therefore it is largely "man-made" and as a result contains many faults and illogical contradictions.

The Vedic philosophy, however, was not constructed by philosophers. It comes straight from the Bhagavad-gita which was spoken personally by Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead when He was physically present on this planet 5,000 years ago in India. It is standard, completely logical and perfect and EVERYONE in any field of Eastern spiritualism accepts it as the standard.

As for your question about souls in bacteria, etc. Yes there are souls in bacteria. It becomes a bit mind-blowing when you start to realize how many souls there are and therefore how fortunate we are to actually have the human form of life which we can use to reestablish our relationship with God and after leaving this body go back home, back to Godhead. That opportunity is only available in the human form of life. That is why the human form of life is so valuable and special.

So we, the person, are only one soul. Each body is occupied by one soul who is conscious of the entire body and generally the soul is present in the heart. But, as you have hinted at, the body contains many other living entities. Maybe every cell has a soul even. Things do get a little unclear [at least to me at the present moment] when one tries to determine exactly at what point there are souls. But certainly there is a soul in every bacteria...

And the quality of the soul in the bacteria and the quality of your soul and my soul is identical... It may seem hard to believe. But what differentiates you and me from the bacteria is only our consciousness. According to our consciousness we are awarded a particular type of body. That is the basic principle of reincarnation:

"Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kunti, that state he will atain without fail." [Bhagavad-gita 8.6]

So we are creating our own future. You find the same idea in the Bible, "What you sow, so shall you reap." If we elevate our consciousness to God consciousness and think of God at the time of death we will go to God. However if we degrade our consciousness and at the time of death are thinking just like an animal our next body will be an animals body. And the same soul can go down so low as the bacteria and so high as Lord Brahma who is the first living entity born in the universe and who supervises the running of the whole universe. The quality of the soul is always identical, it is only the consciousness of the particular living entity that determines whether he will be born as a worm or as a very well-placed human being.

The whole thing is probably a bit difficult to grasp and accept if you have not ever contemplated it before, but the more you find out about the Vedic philosophy the more you see how beautiful and perfect it is and how it so nicely explains everything in such a wonderfully logical and consistent way.

I would very much encourage you to read the Bhagavad-gita As It Is. It is a very famous book and has always been a great source of inspiration for thinkers, scholars, philosophers and anyone who reads it. You can read it at http://www.asitis.com and you can also download it there to read off-line as well. I guarantee you will get a lot of inspiration and strength from it. You don't have to give up being a Christian, you can understand God as a Christian, but if you read Bhagavad-gita you will get a better, more complete understanding of God.

You have been telling me that we are made in the form of God, but usually when I ask Christians what God looks like they tend to become confused. Do you know what God looks like?

As for your question, "How do you explain that your concept of the soul is not only immortal, but also able to reincarnate?" It is nicely described in Bhagavad Gita:

"As the embodied soul continually passes in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change." (Bg 2.13)

"That which pervades the entire body you should know to be indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul." (Bg. 2.17)

"For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain. (Bg. 2.20)

"As a person puts on new garments, giving up the old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones." (Bg. 2.22)

"The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again quits it to take another." (Bg. 2.18)

So you can see that the soul is eternal, therefore he existed before this body and will continue to exist after this body. His next body is determined by his consciousness at the time of leaving this body.

"Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kunti, that state he will atain without fail." [Bhagavad-gita 8.6]

So it is very logical. If one is God conscious at the time of death, he goes to God, if he is in animal consciousness he gets an animal's body, if he is in human consciousness he gets a human body, etc.

"Those who worship the demigods will take birth among the demigods, those who worship ghosts and spirits will take birth among such beings; those who worship ancestors go to the ancestors; and those who worship Me [Krishna, God] will live with Me." (Bg. 9.25)

So I would encourage you to read the Bhagavad-gita As It Is by the Founder-Acarya of the Hare Krishna movement, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and I am sure you will find it very interesting and enlivening. The second chapter describes the soul very well so if you are particularly interested in the soul that is the place to look.

Thanks for the letter. Looking forward to hear what you think and please check out the Bhagavad-gita as http://www.asitis.com

Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!

Madhudvisa dasa

Universal Religion Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.16.19 Los Angeles, July 9, 1974 (listen to or download in RealAudio)
http://religion.krishna.org/Articles/2000/07/00058.html

For the foolish person, This is Hindu religion, This is Christian religion, and This is Muhammadan religion. But religion is one. How it can be Hindu religion, Christian religion? No. Religion is one. God is one. Because religion means the law or the order given by God. That is religion. Simple definition. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (02-20-04)

Science Studies the Soul
12-Nov-2003
http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=3315

Neurophysiologist Dick Burgess is trying to find scientific proof for consciousness and the soul. Some of his evidence comes from the story of Uttara Haddur, a Hindu woman who suddenly began speaking an ancient form of Bengali in 1974, without ever having studied the language. She told stories of people in a village many miles away and said her name was Sharada. University of Virginia reincarnation researcher Ian Stevenson traveled to India to study her, and found out that she was telling true stories about people and events from the early 1800s. Burgess says, "This case is very difficult to explain unless Sharada's soul is driving Uttara's nervous system."

In the Deseret Morning News, Elaine Jarvik quotes Burgess as saying, "For many years I shied away from the soul because it had these religious connotations. But why not just be bold, and take the evidence you have, without preconceptions, and see if you can integrate it into a coherent network that explains all these phenomena?

"We don't know what consciousness is. If we knew what its properties were, then we might say, 'Of course it might survive death because given its properties we can predict it will not be dependent for its integrity on being interfaced with the brain.' But we don't know now. We're very, very early in this as a scientific endeavor."

One way he's studying this is by trying to see if the life force that the Chinese call "chi" can be directed outside the body towards chicken nerve cells growing in a petri dish, making them grow faster. "The work is in progress, but it's promising," he says. If it works, this will help demonstrate that consciousness is not simply the way we perceive the electrical impulses of our brain, but is a separate force.

He wants to study mediums, near-deaths experiences, cases of apparent reincarnation, and out-of-body experiences. "The data available from these sources is relevant and compelling," says Burgess. "But most academics are quite conservative."

Quantum physics has proved there's a God; now it might prove there's a soul as well.

For more information, click here.

The soul hypothesis: Scientist wonders if there is proof for existence of consciousness
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,525036215,00.html

By Elaine Jarvik
Deseret Morning News

Color illustration by Alex Nabaum, Deseret Morning News

With science, it has always been a question of matter over mind. The actual brain, gray and wrinkly and full of electrical activity, can be measured and mapped, so that's fine. But the mind — the part of you that thinks it thinks, the feeling you have that you willed your arm to move or decided to order the salad instead of the burger — that's just an illusion, just the by-product of nerve activity, neuroscientists say. Consciousness, they argue, is really just one big neuronal machine.

      And the soul? Don't even ask.
      But these are the questions that nag at professor Dick Burgess. A neurophysiologist who has taught at the University of Utah for 35 years, Burgess is a longtime agnostic who wonders if there might be scientific proof for the existence of both consciousness and soul.
      Next semester, Burgess will teach a course called "Spirituality and Healing: A Neurophysiological Perspective." He gave a preview of the course two weeks ago at an Integrative Health Conference at the U., where he recounted the perplexing story of Uttara Haddur, a Hindu woman from Nagpur, India, who in 1974 suddenly began speaking in a form of antiquated Bengali, telling stories of people she said she knew from a village 1,200 kilometers away. Her name, she said, was Sharada.
      University of Virginia Medical Center psychiatry professor Ian Stevenson traveled to India to study Uttara/Sharada and published his investigation in the 1980s, first in an article in the Journal of the American Society of Psychical Research and later in a book published by the University of Virginia Press. According to these reports, Uttara/Sharada's stories checked out, referencing families and events that had happened in the early 1800s.
      So what are the possible hypotheses for this story, Burgess wants to know. That it's a hoax? That Uttara was suffering from multiple personality disorder? That this is a case of "soul possession"?
      "This case is very difficult to explain unless Sharada's soul is driving Uttara's nervous system," says Burgess. But he is always going to consider other explanations, he says. "Otherwise I wouldn't be a scientist."
      Burgess was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but stopped going to church as a teenager and hasn't been to church in decades, he says. "I won't do anything on faith. I'm a scientist. I generate hypotheses. I say, 'Hey, how can this be explained?'
      "For many years I shied away from the soul because it had these religious connotations," he says. "But why not just be bold, and take the evidence you have, without preconceptions, and see if you can integrate it into a coherent network that explains all these phenomena?"
      Those phenomena, he says, include reliable sightings of apparitions, cases where trance mediums have spoken fluently in languages unknown to them, other cases similar to Sharada's, and near-death experiences in which the nearly-dead reported out-of-body experiences in which they saw something — a shoe on a hidden ledge, for example — that they wouldn't have been able to access otherwise.
      "The data available from these sources is relevant and compelling," says Burgess. "But most academics are quite conservative." He himself, he says, read about some of this work years ago "but I just couldn't incorporate it into my thinking."
      For years, though, Burgess has challenged the generally accepted scientific belief that voluntary motor activity — making a fist, for example — is essentially no different, physiologically, from an involuntary movement like a knee-jerk reflex. The perception that we will ourselves to make the fist is just a perception, this line of thinking goes, "a byproduct of the activity of the nerve cells involved in setting up the voluntary movement." The decision to make a fist, this explanation goes, is a result of nerve activity begun by other nerve activity, influenced by external and internal stimuli.
      Burgess wonders whether something else — a separate consciousness, a soul perhaps — is what sets voluntary activity into motion.
      One line of evidence, he says, is a case like Sharada's — where "you can't really explain the way individuals have behaved except to say that there is some other agency influencing their nervous system."
      Information about consciousness — perhaps separate from the soul, perhaps the same entity — might come, Burgess hopes, from studies of qi (sometimes spelled chi), the Chinese theory that a life force flows through our bodies, bringing good health when the energy flows freely and disease when the energy becomes blocked.
      Burgess and a colleague are currently doing experiments to see if "external qi" — directed deliberately by a person toward someone or something else — can cause chicken nerve cells to grow differently in a petri dish. "The work is in progress, but it's promising," Burgess reports.
      If successful, the experiments might show that consciousness is something real and separate from the brain, acting not only on nerve cells in the brain but on other cells as well.
      "We don't know what consciousness is," he says. "If we knew what its properties were, then we might say, 'Of course it might survive death because given its properties we can predict it will not be dependent for its integrity on being interfaced with the brain.' But we don't know now. We're very, very early in this as a scientific endeavor."
      It's not a very popular quest. Scientists are often uncomfortable with words like "soul." Even scientists who are religious might not be keen on Burgess' line of inquiry, preferring faith over proof.
      "The danger to religious people is that people like me say the only way to verify truth is to use scientific methodology, especially unbiased hypothesis formulation. Are we the keepers of the truth?"

Art Bell Tut Reincarnation?
02-Oct-2002
http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=2002

Scientists and special effects artists in the UK and in New Zealand have used the same digital techniques used in criminal investigations to reconstruct what the young pharaoh known as King Tut looked like. A fiberglass bust of King Tut is now on display in London's Science Museum.

Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922. King Tut ruled Egypt in the 14th Century BC and died mysteriously at age 18. His golden death mask was one of the many exquisite items removed from the tomb, and this was used to reconstruct his image. For comparison photos of Bell and Tut, click on full story. There’s evidence that Tut had a rare genetic disorder of the spine. Dr. Richard Boyer, who looked at X-rays of the Egyptian mummy taken in 1968, says he had Klippel Feil Syndrome, an abnormal curvature in the spine and fusion of the upper vertebrae. "His head is like it's on a broomstick or a poker," says Boyer. "So that if he fell backward or there was a blow to the back of his head—a serious spinal cord injury at that level could be fatal. This is a young man who should have a nice, healthy looking cervical spine and this is not a nice healthy looking cervical spine."

Researchers discovered Tut’s spinal problem while FBI investigators were investigating the theory that he was murdered. "He lived in very turbulent times and it does seem likely from what the detectives have found out that he was assassinated," says TV documentary producer Kate Botting. "The big question is whether it was a political assassination or someone from within his own tight circle who killed him." If Tut was obviously deformed, he may have been assassinated because he violated the god-like image of the pharaoh.

We’ve noticed that the fiberglass sculpture of Tut has an eerie resemblance to Coast-to-Coast host Art Bell, who also has back trouble. Could Art be the reincarnation of Tut? Click on the photo to enlarge it, and decide for yourself.

Some of our most popular guests on Dreamland have been authors who have uncovered the secrets of the past. To find out more, read “Atlantis in America” by Ivar Zap and George Erikson,click here and “Galactic Alignment” by John Major Jenkins, click here.

Tut's life and death unmasked
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci/tech/2288952.stm

British and NZ experts have reconstructed the face

This is the face behind the famous golden death mask of King Tutankhamun.

He lived in very turbulent times and it does seem likely from what the detectives have found out that he was assassinated (Kate Botting )

Scientists and special effects artists in the UK and in New Zealand employed digital techniques normally reserved for crime investigations to reconstruct what the young pharaoh might have looked like.

The fibreglass bust has gone on display at London's Science Museum. It was produced to illustrate a television documentary to be shown on Britain's Channel 5 network.

The programme details evidence that indicates the king might have suffered from a rare congenital disorder that affected his spine.

Fatal injury

The documentary asked Dr Richard Boyer, from the Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, US, to examine X-rays of the Egyptian mummy taken in 1968.

The scientist concluded there was an abnormal curvature in the spine and fusion of the upper vertebrae - symptoms associated with Klippel Feil Syndrome. This could have made movement very difficult for King Tut, Dr Boyer said.

"His head is like it's on a broomstick or a poker," the researcher explained. "So that if he fell backward or there was a blow to the back of his head - a serious spinal cord injury at that level could be fatal.

"This is a young man who should have a nice, healthy looking cervical spine and this is not a nice healthy looking cervical spine."

Murder hunt

The TV programme is called Who Killed Tutankhamun?

Its producer, Kate Botting, said the spinal problem emerged as FBI investigators sought some answers to the theory that Tutankhamun was murdered.

"He lived in very turbulent times and it does seem likely from what the detectives have found out that he was assassinated," she told the BBC. "The big question is whether it was a political assassination or someone from within his own tight circle who killed him."

She said that when viewers saw the programme, this question would be answered.

Golden artefact

The 1968 x-rays were also the starting point for the facial reconstruction.

Dr Robin Richards, of University College London, calculated how much soft tissue once lay over the skull. Using information on people of the same age, sex, build and ethnic group as Tutankhamun, he was able to build up an approximate likeness on computer.

Special effects artists and a facial sculptor then translated the computer data into a 3D object made from fibreglass.

Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922. The king ruled Egypt in the 14th Century BC and died mysteriously at just 18.

His famous golden death mask was just one of the many artefacts removed from the tomb.

Near Death Experiences Taken Seriously by Science
26-Dec-2001
http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=1105

After years of ridicule and denial, scientists and doctors are finally beginning to take near death experiences (NDEs) seriously, as shown by a report in the December 15 issue of the respected English medical journal The Lancet.

In a recent study conducted in the Netherlands, Dr. Pim van Lommel and colleagues studied 62 patients who said they had a near-death experience after going into cardiac arrest. They found that factors such as medication and the duration of unconsciousness did not explain the phenomenon. “Our results show that medical factors cannot account for occurrence of near-death experiences,” says van Lommel.

A small number of people who survive life-threatening circumstances report having had “an extraordinary experience,” says van Lommel. These experiences often involve visions of a light or a deceased relative, flashbacks of life events or an out-of-body sensation.

Researchers in the past have dismissed these experiences as being caused by brain cells dying from lack of oxygen. Others point to psychological factors such as fear of death, or to the changing state of consciousness people may go through in a life-threatening condition.

NDE researchers usually ask survivors to tell them about the events long after they occurred. The investigators tried to overcome this problem by interviewing cardiac-arrest survivors within days of being resuscitated and again 2 and 8 years later. In the first interviews, 62 of 344 survivors (18%) reported near-death experiences. All 344 had been clinically dead, meaning they were unconscious due to a lack of blood and oxygen to the brain.

The patients’ near-death experiences varied, with 41 having a deeper experience and the rest reporting more superficial events. Two years later, 6 out of the second group decided they had not had a NDE. But the patients who did have one were able to recall it “almost exactly” 8 years later, the researchers found. In contrast with cardiac arrest survivors who did not have a NDE, they were less afraid of death and had a stronger belief in an after-life. They also were more interested in the meaning of life and in showing love and acceptance to others. However, getting through their hospital experience was much more complicated for NDE patients. Their positive changes were more obvious after eight years than they were after two years.

“The long-lasting transformational effects of an experience that lasts for only a few minutes of cardiac arrest is a surprising and unexpected finding,” says van Lommel. “Society’s negative response to NDE ... leads individuals to deny or suppress their experience for fear of rejection or ridicule. Thus social conditioning causes NDE to be traumatic, although in itself it is not a psychotraumatic experience...Only gradually and with difficulty is an NDE accepted and integrated.”

A nurse said that one patient was in a coma when she removed his dentures. Later the patient identified her as the person who knew where to find his dentures, and he accurately described where they were-- in the drawer of a medical cart. He said he had seen the events from above the hospital bed and watched doctors’ efforts to save his life.

Half the patients said they were aware of being dead, and about one in four had an out-of-body experience. Nearly one in three said they met deceased people. More than one in five said they communicated with light, and nearly a third reported moving through a tunnel. More than one in 10 said they reviewed their lives, and more than one in four said they saw a celestial landscape.

The researchers could not find any clear explanation for why a small percentage of patients had a near-death experience while most did not. If “purely physiological factors” like a cutoff of oxygen to the brain were the cause, most of the study patients should have had an NDE. “We did not show that psychological, neurophysiological, or physiological factors caused these experiences after cardiac arrest,” the researchers say.

Most neuroscientists believe that consciousness is a byproduct of the physical brain, that mind arises from matter. But if near-death experiences are real, this means that people can be conscious of events around them even when they are physically unconscious and their brains do not show signs of electrical activity. How can consciousness be independent of brain function?

“Compare it with a TV” program, says van Lommel. “If you open the TV set you will not find the program. The TV set is a receiver. When you turn off your TV set, the program is still there but you can’t see it. When you [turn] off your brain, your consciousness is there but you can’t feel it in your body.” He says his study suggests that researchers investigating consciousness “should not look in the cells and molecules alone.” Dr. Christopher C. French of the University of London thinks NDEs could be false memories and says, "Recent psychological studies have shown conclusively that simply imagining that one has had experiences that had in fact never been encountered will lead to the development of false memories for those experiences.” He suggests that this may happen due to patients’ natural tendency to try to fill in gaps in their memory caused by their brush with death.

“We have understandable and natural urges to believe we will survive bodily death and we will be reunited with our departed loved ones,” French says. “So anything that would support that idea -- reincarnation, mediums, ghosts -- presents evidence of the survival of the soul. It’s something that we would all desperately like to believe is true.”

Bruce Greyson, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, says that current experiments are being done in which tiny signs are placed on the ceilings of hospital rooms, so that if people are genuinely having out-of- body experiences and hovering over their beds, they will be able to see the signs and provide proof of the phenomenon. “Brain chemistry does not explain these phenomena,” he says. “I don’t know what the explanation is, but our current understanding of brain chemistry falls short.”

For a discussion of the near-death experience and “life between lives,” listen to the December 22 Dreamland archive and read “Destiny of Souls” by Michael Newton. For more information,click here.

Near Death Experiencers Less Tense
25-Apr-2004
http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=3737

Want to have less stress? Have a near-death experience (NDE). A new study shows that people who have had NDEs are better had handling stress. Researcher Willoughby B. Britton says, "We found that people who have these experiences are just the opposite of what people think. They aren't more likely to run away from stress."

Anahad O'Connor writes in the New York Times that some scientists believe NDEs may be a healthy coping mechanism that protects against the traumatic stress of dying—and helps with future stress, if you survive. Britton compared a group of people who reported near-death experiences with a group that had not, and found the NDE group showed patterns of brain activity similar to that seen in temporal lobe epileptics, who often describe undergoing spiritual out-of-body events during seizures. However, unlike epilepsy, the abnormal activity was not in the right temporal lobe. Instead, it appeared in the left temporal lobe.

She also found that people who'd had NDEs had abnormal sleep patterns, but they took an unusually long time to move into REM (rapid eye movement, or deep, sleep). Britton says, "This is the first study to show these kinds of neurological differences in people who have near-death experiences."

Psychiatrist C. Bruce Greyson, who studied hundreds of people with NDEs, says, "…People who have NDEs tend to be a little healthier than others. They seem to have positive coping skills." He thinks NDEs protect people who experience traumatic events from developing post traumatic stress disorder. He says, "We don't know yet whether these were pre-existing characteristics that caused the NDE or whether they are the result of the experience."

But he wants to find out. He's starting a study where he interviews heart patients before and after surgery to implant automatic defibrillators in their chests. During this operation, the patients are briefly put into cardiac arrest, meaning some of them will have NDEs. He says, "There are so many things to measure—anxiety, depression, adjustment, acceptance of death. We're still just scratching the surface. There's a whole lot more to be done."

Stacy Rector writes in the Coppell (CA) Gazette about a group called IANDS (International Association for Near-Death Studies), which meets once a month in a local church. One member says, "There are so many people out there that are ashamed and skeptical. People do raise their eyebrows, and I did, too…I was the world's greatest skeptic." In one experience, she was dying when suddenly she saw someone standing near her. She felt the person had come for her but then he said, "She's not ready." She recognized her dead brother, who told her, "Don't be afraid." She then received a premonition about a medicine that made her well again.

Another time, she had just passed her annual mammogram when she had a dream about her deceased brother. He told her to look in the corner of the room, where she saw the letter "C." She went back to the doctor, found out she had breast cancer and was cured. Now she is a volunteer who visits AIDS patients and hospices.

Scientists never seem to consider that the reason NDEs are less tense is that the universal human fear of death has been removed from their lives. Scientists also don't acknowledge that some people can heal—despite the proof.

Scientists Studying NDEs and Prayer
04-Nov-2002
http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=2111

Two highly reputable scientists are studying what used to be a disreputable phenomenon in straight science: Near- death experiences. With the advent of modern medicine, NDEs have become a much more common experience that include seeing a white light and being greeted by dead relatives. Patients rise above their own bodies and see doctors frantically trying to resuscitate them.

Dr. Sam Parnia and Dr. Peter Fenwick plan to place cards in places where heart-attack victims will be treated that can only be seen from the ceiling, if they have out-of-body experiences. Parnia has published a study showing that 10% of clinically dead patients who were later resuscitated reported NDEs. Some of the evidence includes patients recognizing hospital staff they had never met but who helped resuscitate them. Others remembered overhearing conversations between doctors. According to known medical science, this should be impossible, because they don't have any brain activity during this period.

Most scientists assume near-death experiences and out-of- body experiences are a result of a lack of oxygen in the brain. However this is changing—in December 2001, Dutch neurologist Dr. Pim van Lommel published an article in The Lancet, a respected peer-reviewed medical journal, showing that 18% of clinically dead patients who were later resuscitated recalled near-death experiences years after the event. NDE researcher Kenneth Ring studied blind patients who were resuscitated from cardiac arrest who described seeing their body while clinically dead, although it was slightly out of focus.

If near-death experiences and out-of-body experiences don't come from the brain, where is consciousness based? "There are two ways to view the universe," says Fenwick. "Our current world model is that everything is matter." But this doesn't explain consciousness. A new theory says the basic building blocks of the universe are not made of matter but of consciousness. "This second, transcendent, view of the universe makes it much easier to understand NDEs,” says Fenwick. He thinks quantum mechanics, which shows that matter can have both a physical form and a wave form at the same time, is a step in that direction.

Scientific studies of prayer are also beginning to influence scientists. These studies show that subjects benefit from the prayers of others even when they don't know that someone is praying for them. This has been interpreted as an indication that consciousness behaves like a field, such as magnetism, which can be affected by other fields. If that's true, then it's possible for one person's consciousness to affect another's.

Will this finally convince the skeptics? "No, nothing will, but that's OK," says Fenwick. "It's how science progresses. Any research that says you have to have a major rethink in your world model is always rejected. But it will prove that consciousness is not in the brain."

Can other consciousnesses attack us and can we defend ourselves from psychic attack? Robert Bruce tells how in “Practical Psychic Self-Defense,” click here. Listen to a fascinating interview, where Robert tells Whitley Strieber how to protect himself against this type of attack, by clicking “Listen Now” at the top of our homepage.

For more information, click here.(Dead But Awake: Is It Possible? )

Dead But Awake: Is It Possible?
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,55826,00.html
By Daithí Ó hAnluain

Two British scientists are seeking £165,000 ($256,000) to carry out a large-scale study to discover if clinically dead people really have out-of-body experiences.

Dr. Sam Parnia, senior research fellow at the University of Southampton, and Dr. Peter Fenwick, a consultant neuropsychiatrist at Oxford University, are both highly respected researchers.

Near-death experiences are the most common experience and include seeing a white light, while out-of-body experiences involve serenely observing one's dead body while medics work frantically to resuscitate it. The researchers have founded a charitable trust, Horizon Research, to promote studies in the field.

Last year Parnia published a study indicating that 10 percent of clinically dead patients who were later resuscitated reported memories while they were lifeless.

Evidence includes patients recognizing hospital staff they had never met but who helped during their resuscitation. Others have recalled conversations between doctors.

According to known medical science, this should be impossible, given the absence of any brain activity.

In the past, the theory has been scorned by the scientific community. Even those who want to believe the truth is out there have turned skeptical.

Susan Blackmore was once the doyenne of British paranormal research. She has since retired, disillusioned, from the field. She concluded in her book about near-death experiences, Dying to Live, that there are scientific explanations for NDEs.

While skepticism remains, scientists are coming to recognize that more research is necessary. In December 2001, a Dutch neurologist, Dr. Pim van Lommel of Hospital Rijnstate in Arnhem, Netherlands, led a team that published an article in The Lancet, the United Kingdom's highly respected journal of medicine. The study showed that 18 percent of clinically dead patients, later resuscitated, recalled near-death experiences years after the event.

Another study, this one conducted in the United States by the father of near-death-experience studies, Kenneth Ring, used blind patients, resuscitated from cardiac arrest, who likewise described seeing their body while clinically dead, although slightly out of focus. The book Mindsight was inspired by this research.

Fenwick and others are not positing life after death per se, merely consciousness after death.

Nevertheless, the implications are enormous. If near-death experiences and out-of-body experiences don't come from the brain, where is consciousness based?

"There are two ways to view the universe," says Fenwick. "Our current world model is that everything is matter."

In other words, everything that we think of as "real" in scientific terms has a physical form that can be perceived by our senses. But this model, which philosophers call "radical materialism," cannot explain the existence of consciousness, which has no physical essence.

So how do we account for consciousness? "There's a little (unexplained) miracle, and consciousness arises," Fenwick says of the current paradigm.

However, another theory proposes that the basic building block of the universe is not matter but instead consciousness itself. This is described as the "transcendent" view, a perspective shared by many of the world's religions.

"This second, transcendent, view of the universe makes it much easier to understand NDEs (near-death experiences)," says Fenwick, who believes that science will eventually replace the material view of the universe with the transcendent one.

The advent of quantum mechanics, which posits that matter can simultaneously have both a physical form and a wave form is a step in that direction, he says.

So are scientific studies of the power of prayer, which suggest that subjects benefit from the prayers of others even when they aren't aware that someone is praying for them.

These studies have been interpreted by some researchers as an indication that consciousness behaves as a field, much like magnetism, which can be affected by other fields. If that's true, then it's possible one person's consciousness could affect another person's.

Now Fenwick and Parnia hope to add new near-death-experience and out-of-body-experience research to these findings. If they can raise the cash, they intend to study 100 reanimated heart-attack victims who had near-death experiences. Research has shown that 30 of them can be expected to have out-of-body experiences. Fenwick and Parnia plan to place cards above the patients' heads that can only be seen from the ceiling, where those who experience out-of-body experiences claim to watch their resuscitation.

So will this convince the skeptics? "No, nothing will, but that's OK," says Fenwick, laughing. "It's how science progresses. Any research that says you have to have a major rethink in your world model is always rejected. But it will prove that consciousness is not in the brain."

Another thing the research proves is that there's life left yet in speculating about the afterlife.

See more articles on Near Death Experience

Are OBEs All in the Brain?
29-Dec-2003
http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=3433

Swiss neurologist Olaf Blanke says Out-of-Body Experiences are caused when a part of the brain called the angular gyrus, which controls our perception of the body, misfires under stress, causing the sensation of floating outside the body. He discovered this while mapping the brain of an epileptic patient. However, Blanke admits, "We do not fully understand the neurological mechanism that causes OBEs."

Jospeh B. Verrengia reports that Blanke implanted electrodes in the brain of a 43-year-old epileptic woman, including the angular gyrus area, which is associated with the perception of sound, touch, memory and speech. When electrical stimulation was applied, the patient reported seeing herself "lying in bed, from above, but I only see my legs and lower trunk." She also described herself as "floating" near the ceiling.

However, this doesn't explain evidence of OBE patients seeing objects from great heights that they couldn't have been aware of while in their bodies. For instance, a nurse says one of her patients, after a near-death experience, reported seeing a red shoe on the roof of the hospital during, which a janitor later found. A social worker found an object on an outside window ledge that another patient saw during an NDE. These are only two of many similar reports.

Another explanation could be that OBEs are part of the death process in humans. That they also happen during epileptic seizures may be because epileptic electrical activity mimics the electrical activity in the dying brain.

Dr. Michael Persinger has developed a helmet called the Shakti LITE, which costs between $100 and $200 and can stimulate OBEs. It produces a weak rotating magnetic field over the temporal lobes of the brain, where the angular gyrus is located.

Some seekers have learned to use sound to create a special state of awareness.

To learn more, click here and here.

Misfiring brain may cause 'out-of-body experiences' among patients
http://www.boston.com/news/daily/18/outofbody.htm
By Jospeh B. Verrengia, Associated Press, 09/18/02

Their stories are the stuff of creepy movies and daytime TV: Hospital patients resuscitated on the operating table speak of being drawn toward a brilliant light, or looking down on their own bodies and the doctors working feverishly to save their lives.

What induces these brief, haunting images?

A new study suggests these "out-of-body" and "near-death" experiences may be influenced by a portion of the brain misfiring under stress.

The paper, which describes one patient's visions while she was being evaluated for epilepsy, does not wrestle with issues of the soul.

Nor, researchers said, do the brain-mapping results entirely explain these strange reports.

The researchers point to a processing center in the brain known as the angular gyrus. The angular gyrus is thought to play an important role in the way the brain analyzes sensory information to give us a perception of our own bodies. When it misfires, they speculate, the result can be visions of floating outside of ourselves.

The findings were published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

"We do not fully understand the neurological mechanism that causes OBEs," conceded the study's lead researcher, neurologist Dr. Olaf Blanke at the University Hospitals of Geneva and Lausanne in Switzerland.

Skeptics of OBEs said the experiment goes a long way toward providing a scientific explanation for what some believe is a paranormal phenomenon, even if the study is based on only one patient.

"Since all of our brains are wired in a similar manner, there is no reason to think that stimulation of this brain region in other patients will not corroborate the finding," said psychologist Michael Shermer, director of the Skeptic Society, which seeks to debunk alien abductions, ESP and other claims.

"It's another blow against those who believe that the mind and spirit are somehow separate from the brain," Shermer said. "In reality, all experience is derived from the brain."

Other researchers were less dismissive of the possibility that OBEs might be real. They described the experiment as modest but interesting.

Neurologist Dr. Bruce Greyson of the University of Virginia said the experiment does not necessarily prove that all OBEs are illusions. He said it is possible that some OBEs occur in different ways than the scientists suspect.

The Swiss researchers mapped the brain activity of a 43-year old woman who had been experiencing seizures for 11 years. They implanted electrodes to stimulate portions of her brain's right temporal lobe.

The temporal lobe, which includes the angular gyrus structure, is associated with perception of sound, touch, memory and speech.

Blanke suspects that the right angular gyrus integrates signals from the visual system, as well as information on touch and balance.

When electrical stimulation was applied, the patient reported seeing herself "lying in bed, from above, but I only see my legs and lower trunk." She also described herself as "floating" near the ceiling.

Millions of people have reported OBEs, but relatively few have been clinically analyzed.

Last December, the British medical journal Lancet published a Dutch study in which 344 cardiac patients were resuscitated from clinical death. About 12 percent reported seeing light at the end of a tunnel, or speaking to dead relatives.

Other researchers have suggested that OBEs occur as brain cells die from lack of oxygen, or when the brain releases pain-reducing chemicals called endorphins.

See more articles on Near Death Experience

God on the Brain - questions and answers (by self confessed atheistic Richard Dawkins)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2003/godonbrainqa.shtml

What are the temporal lobes of the brain?

The temporal lobe controls hearing, speech and memory. The brain has two temporal lobes, one on each side of the brain, located near the ears. The two are interchangeable so if one is damaged the other is usually able to take over the other's function.

What is temporal lobe epilepsy?

It is a condition in which the patient suffers repeated seizures when there is abnormal electrical activity in the temporal lobes of the brain. These seizures may be simple partial seizures without loss of awareness or they can be complex partial seizures with loss of awareness. The patient loses awareness during a complex partial seizure because the seizure spreads to both lobes, causing memory loss. The condition was first recognised in 1881.

What percentage of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy suffer from religious hallucinations?

It is difficult to say because unless the doctor brings up the subject directly with the patient, they may never know if the patient has religious hallucinations. Estimates vary between 10 and 70% , but most neurologists believe only a minority of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy suffer from hallucinations.

Are scientists arguing that all religious experiences can be related to temporal lobe epilepsy?

Not at all. While studies have clearly shown a relationship between religious experience and temporal lobe epilepsy. This does not explain all religious experience by any means. Religious and spiritual experiences are highly complex, involving emotions, thoughts, sensations and behaviours. But scientists do believe that patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, who experience religious hallucinations may provide a valuable model in showing how certain types of religious experience effect the human brain.

Does this work suggest there is a specific 'god spot' in the brain?

Although the temporal lobes are clearly important in religious experience, they are not the whole story. Already the work of Dr Andrew Newberg has shown that a part of the brain called parietal lobes are important. Additionally, very different patterns of brain activity may appear, depending on the particular experience the individual is having. For example, a near death experience might result in different activity patterns from those found in a person who is meditating. Scientists now believe that a number of structures in the brain need to work together to help us experience spirituality and religion.

Are we 'hardwired' for god?

The term 'hardwired' suggests that we were purposefully designed that way. Neuroscience can't answer that question. However what it can say is that the brain does seem to predisposed towards a belief in spiritual and religious matters. The big mystery is how and why this came about.

How does Dr Persinger induce artificially religious experiences in his patients?

Dr Persinger has designed a helmet that produces a very weak rotating magnetic field of between ten nanotesla and one microtesla over the temporal lobes of the brain. This is placed on the subject's head and they are placed in a quiet chamber while blindfolded. So that there is no risk of 'suggestion', the only information that the subjects are given is that they are going in for a relaxation experiment. Neither the subject nor the experimenter carrying out the test has any idea of the true purpose of the experiment. In addition to this, the experiment is also run with the field switched both off and on. This procedure Dr Persinger claims will induce an experience in over 80% of test subjects.

What sort of experiences do subjects report?

This is very dependent on the belief system of the individual subjects. Dr Persinger talks about his subjects feeling a 'sensed presence' - feeling that somebody was in the chamber with them. Subjects who are strongly religious are likely to interpret this presence as god. Whereas, atheists may also report a 'sensed presence' but attribute the phenomena to a trick of brain chemistry, perhaps comparable to when they have taken drugs in the past.

Could it be there is a genetic component to religious belief?

Religious behaviour is so complex it is very unlikely that there will be a single gene for religious activity, but it does seem as if there is some sort of as yet unidentified genetic component. Several studies of identical twins separated at birth and brought up separately have measured religiosity. Religiosity is defined as the intensity of religious belief. These studies have shown that there appears to be about a 50% component to religiosity.

Clearly, what religion you are brought up in is largely dependent upon the culture into which you are born, but what appears to have a significant genetic component is your level of religious intensity.

Will any of this research ever be able to establish whether god exists or not?

Whether god exists or not is something that neuroscience cannot answer. For example, if we take a brain image of a person when they are looking at a picture, we will see various parts of the brain being activated, such as the visual cortex. But the brain image cannot tell us whether or not there is actually a picture 'out there' or whether the person is creating the picture in their own mind. To a certain degree, we all create our own sense of reality. Getting to what is real is the tricky part.

JTCd's comment; actually he's not an atheist like so many, he just doesn't have a clue, see my article on Atheism

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When the Cat's Away
13-Nov-2003
http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=3320

While collecting letters for our new Communion Letters file, we came across this story, which is not about UFOs or visitors, but is a kind of after death experience (keep reading).

"Mark" writes: Up until a few days ago, my friend Marge had two black male cats—Cassius and Columbus. They had each been with her for more than five years. Cassius has always been rather distant and aloof toward her, whereas Columbus was very personable and affectionate. The cats' relationship with each other was one of respectful distance.

Cassius has always been content to stay in his personal space and wait for Marge to bring him his daily canned cat food. Columbus, on the other hand, felt perfectly free to help himself to Marge's own plates of food, and was not at all shy about reaching his paw onto the plate to swat off a piece of chicken, fish, beef, or any other morsel that caught his fancy. Marge has always been so amused by this behavior that she has never made any effort to dissuade Columbus from displaying such atrocious table manners.

Every night, Marge would go to sleep alone in her bed, and every morning she would awake to find Columbus sitting either on or beside her, purring her awake with gradually more audible noises. (He never failed to remind her that it was time for his breakfast.)

And otherwise, Columbus was usually never more than a few feet away from Marge, taking every opportunity to rub up against her and receive the showerings of petting and affection that Marge was more than happy to bestow upon him. Cassius would always keep his distance as the two of them adored one another. Cassius would always view their love fest with a skeptical smirk and blank gaze that might be translated into people language as, "How obnoxious."

Sadly, Columbus fell victim to a passing car. Before his spirit had completely departed, Cassius slowly approached the broken body and squatted in front of Columbus in a very peculiar display of compassion and regard. There were some rather odd sounds vocalized by Cassius before Columbus completely passed that were at first regarded as "cat grieving." And very quickly, Columbus' life energies were released from the physical form. His lifeless body was immediately buried in a peaceful place in the garden area near the house.

The next morning, as she had for so many years, Marge awoke to the sounds of loving purrs emanating from a cat that was (this morning) resting on her chest. "OK, Columbus......", Marge began with her usual morning greeting. It wasn't until she actually opened her eyes to find the formerly aloof Cassius staring her in the eyes that Marge first realized that there was something very peculiar in the works. Cassius seemed to have also changed his usual meal procedures, now feeling no shyness about jumping up on Marge's table to swat-off a piece of chicken, fish, beef, or any other morsel from Marge's dinner plate that caught his fancy. And then there was the very uncustomary shows of affection toward Marge that Cassius had suddenly added to his daily routine.

But every so often, when Cassius was sleeping, Marge would glimpse the shadowy black form of a cat—exactly the same size as Columbus was—darting here and there, seen from the corner of her eye. Only very rarely would Marge spy Columbus' ghost when Cassius was awake. And then there are those times when Cassius seems fully back to his old self again. Those are also the times when Columbus' spirit is most likely to be spotted gallivanting about.

It would seem apparent to everyone who has studied this case that the spirit of Columbus has found a new home, and is now Cassius' occasional corporeal "roommate." Marge is not at all surprised by these events (considering Columbus' strong personality, loving nature, and enjoyment of living). She'll tell you, "Not much at all has changed around here since I buried Columbus' body. I still have two cats in one body. It's a marvelous display of the efficiency of nature, wouldn't you say?"

Read more about Ghosts and Ghostly phonomena here: