From: wong@rkna50.riken.go.jp (Wong Weng Fai)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Birth, rebirth and near death experiences
Date: 23 Jul 92 00:18:37 GMT
Article-I.D.: qiclab.1992Jul24.095046.9225
Followup-To: talk.religion.newage
Organization: ----

[This just squeaked in under the fence, follow-ups along the lines of
 this post need to go elsewhere. -aaron]

Hi,

	There has been a discussion on rebirth experiences. I wasn't really
interested in the stuff until last night ... it all came to me ;-)

	There was a Japanese TV documentary/talk show here last night that
featured the theme of children remembering their birth experience. It was
spurred by a book called "Babies remember birth" written by some American
psychologist (couldn't get his Japanized English name). Anyway, the show
decided to check it out for themselves. So they went to various child care
centres and asked about 100 kids what do they remember. About 30 of them in
the age of 2-3 years gave very shocking answers. One was asked, "So where did
you come from ?" And he answered that he was like a fish swimming in the sea
(the womb) but was thrown out of the water. Others remembered bright lights
(of operating room), yellow hands (the gloves of the doctors are yellow) etc.
What was even more shocking was that one kid remembered seeing the lights of
Shinjuku while in the womb (his mother went to Shinjuku at night only once 
during the pregnacy).

	So what's going on ? Before any soul theorist get all excited, they
interviewed numerous psychologists (in the U.S. [dubbed in Japanese - uurrgg !]
and Japan). They seem to agree that the baby's brain is already quite well
formed in the later phase of the pregnancy and is very likely already operating
in various capacity. It is therefore not too surprising that they can sense
sound (they don't understand speech then, of course) and light (our eyelids
are not perfectly opaque). And it is of course possible that they remember.
Going by modern psychology, these memories are overwhelmed ("forgotten") by
the sheer amount of new information the toddler is exposed to. By 5, almost
all lose that memory (by then, they'll remember Mr. Mario better). 

	It is therefore not surprising that by hypnosis or meditation (which
many regard as a form of self-hypnosis) some can recall the birth experience.

	What has this got to do with rebirth ? Just extrapolate it ! If one's
brain is already functioning at late pregnancy and recall of the birth
experience is possible (which seems quite logical to me now), what would happen
when the memory function of one's brain first starts to operate ? I would
imagine that due to the primitive sensors (the 5 senses are probably still not
well formed by then), all that one can remembers are "lights" and "sounds".
I would imagine when one does recall to such a stage, the knowledge that one
has now would force one to cast such memories into a "meaningful" context.
In other words, these memories would be reinterpreted as rebirth, god, demons
etc.

	I think the near-death experience also follow a similar line. As the
brain is deteriorating, the senses' data no longer reach the brain as what
they use to be. And all one get are "lights" and "sounds". There is also
theories about how the deterioration of the brain leads to certain sensory
paths to feedback and misfed information to the higher centres leading to the
"great bright tunnel" experience.

	See ! I'm sure there is a perfectly sound explanation for a lot of 
these things. But of course most people here would prefer some mystic guru's
version. ;-)

Yours in skepticism (sorry, Tagi),

W.F. Wong.
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern