From: cherkaue@zomma.cs.wisc.edu (Kevin J. Cherkauer)
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: Re: Out-of-body near-death experiences + past lives
Date: 30 Sep 92 21:30:46 GMT
Distribution: sci.skeptic
Organization: University of Wisconsin, Madison -- Computer Sciences Dept.

In article <1992Sep29.011831.19460@eve.wright.edu> cse3006@eve.wright.edu (MICHAEL KOTLER) writes:
>In a somewhat related subject, Professor Ian Stevenson, formerly Head of
>the Psychiatry Dept. at the University of Virginia, has spent over 30
>years seriously investigating children between the ages of 2 and 4 years
>old who remember previous lives that in most cases can be verified.  In
>several of these cases, the children recall experiences similar to the
>NDE and OBE upon death of their previous life.  This unusual and rare
>phenomenon of children remembering previous lives has been observed by
>Stevenson in seven different cultures.  He has published 7 books on
>this subject by the U. of Virginia press.  Many of his articles have
>been published in refereed medical journals.

See _The After Death Experience: the Physics of the Non-Physical_, by Ian
Wilson (New York: Morrow (1980)). This book takes an objective look at just
about every type of "evidence" for life after death. He trashes this
"remembering previous lives" evidence pretty soundly. (I am almost positive
that Stevenson was the particular investigator whose results he spent the most
time on, but I don't have the book here to check.) Several points are of note
in examining cases of children "remembering" past lives:

1. This phenomenon only seems to occur in societies that already believe in
   reincarnation
2. Almost every case of this sort just happens to involve the child of a dirt-
   poor family "remembering" a past life wherein he or she was a respected
   member of a very rich family which is known to and within reasonable
   travelling distance of the poor child's family
3. The poor child's family usually overtly seeks to convince the rich family
   that their child is really a reincarnation of their dead relative, so that
   the rich family will provide for the poor child
4. Several of these poor families have later admitted to gathering information
   about the rich family, feeding it to the child, and encouraging the child
   to claim to remember this past life they so construct

In other words, these are hoaxes perpetrated by the poor family in order to tap
into some wealth via their society's belief in reincarnation. (In the best case
Wilson looked at that did not involve a great wealth differential, it turns out
there was another motive: the "remembered" life was that of a friend of
the child's father's (or uncle's or something like that) who had been murdered,
but those accused of the crime were acquitted. The father (or uncle...),
however, believed they were guilty, so had his son (nephew...) "remember" these
two men killing him in his earlier life as the victim. The story did not
convince the authorities, though, so the accused men remained free.)

Note that the only area of evidence Wilson is not able to discount are the
so-called "near-death experiences." They appear to be qualitatively different
from "out-of-body" experiences which do not involve brushes with death.
According to Wilson, oxygen deprivation (and some other theories which are
often advanced) cannot explain near-death experiences because the symptoms of
anoxia are well-known and radically different from those of near-death
experiences. In good scientific manner, he concludes only that near-death
experiences have not been explained yet, not that they prove the existence of
an after-life.

-- 
Kevin Cherkauer
cherkaue@cs.wisc.edu

Disclaimer: The above opinions are solely the responsibility of my owners.