In another thread, Florence raised questions which I hope you will agree are independently threadworthy, so they are the start of this one.
What is good science when it relates to Reincarnation.?? In my case it's all meditation and dreams. Knowings and one regression. In that one regression, I did state my fathers name, that he was a Doctor and we lived in Maryland. I gave my age as 5 and my name as Marnie
I found a man named Doctor Francis Phelps did live in the 1800's in Maryland...but I found no child named Marnie
So what is that? That is interesting but it is not science...
Even with all of the information that Baby_rn has listed,,,,without a name for that Fireman to prove he existed....is that science??
It's Difficult ....most of us have little scientific proof....
If you erace all of the threads that contain no proof....the board would be almost empty I think."
I would urge you not to be discouraged about science or its utility in the investigation of reincarnation. It is true that your experience alone does not and cannot prove anything. Similarly, neither can mine, nor that of anyone else, individually. Each experience is merely a datum. One must have many data (the plural of "datum") to show almost anything. Please bear with me and follow this silly example:
A datum can only ever suggest possibility. If you drop a glass of water and it shatters and spills, but you had never seen this happen before and were unfamiliar with the concept of gravity or the fragility of glass, you would only know that breakage and spillage are possible outcomes of a dropped drink. You might even think carelessly-released beverages in glasses could sometimes bounce or perhaps hover in mid-air.
Two data can be compared, adding greater certainty to the idea of possibility, but still hardly confirming anything. You drop another glass of water and the same thing happens. This suggests the first instance was not a "fluke" and reduces the chance that the first result was a simple mis-perception.
Three data can be ranked. One glass broke more completely one one of the drops and water splashed over a larger area. You still don't know the extremes or the variability of outcomes.
After 10 glasses of water are dropped, you notice that water always spilled. 2 glasses shattered completely with fragments skidding across the floor for many feet. 6 broke into pieces in a "debris field" only several times larger than the glass. 1 only cracked but didn't split into pieces, and one glass strangely remained unbroken, even though water spilled and splashed just about as much as in all of the other cases.
Only now do you know with reasonable certainty that:
a. A dropped glass of water will spill and splash.
b. Glasses generally are damaged by being dropped, with a seemingly 90% probability.
c. Not every dropping of a glass damages it by the same amount.
d. Neither glasses nor water will float or hover when dropped; they do fall.
e. Drinking glasses do not bounce.
Now think back on how little you knew when the first glass of water fell. It is the collective results of many people that provide statistically significant evidence for reincarnation or NDE particulars. Your own experience can suggest to you that it is possible and worth studying. The aspects that are the most similar in the greatest percentage of cases may be accepted at a higher standard of evidence than other details or suppositions.
Certain details of the process are amazingly similar across cultures, regardless of their religious or cultural beliefs or lack of beliefs about reincarnation. These include: the timing of reincarnation, chances of souls returning in the same family, lack of obvious relationship between one's past-life sins and present station in life, likelihood of remembering details in dreams, ages at which children are most likely to speak of seemingly past-life experiences. With hundreds or thousands of documented testimonies, the statistical "power" of the case is quite high.
The way to scientifically investigate reincarnation involves three primary strategies:
a. Gather similar information about as many cases as possible so they can be compared easily.
b. Try to verify the validity of the reported past-life experiences of the most detailed or compelling cases.
c. Compare these reports and similarities in them to both random chance and to the chance of many unacquainted individuals making up lies that match.
Many commonly-accepted "truths" are based only on statistical analysis no different from this.
...Rod
What is good science when it relates to Reincarnation.?? In my case it's all meditation and dreams. Knowings and one regression. In that one regression, I did state my fathers name, that he was a Doctor and we lived in Maryland. I gave my age as 5 and my name as Marnie
I found a man named Doctor Francis Phelps did live in the 1800's in Maryland...but I found no child named Marnie
So what is that? That is interesting but it is not science...
Even with all of the information that Baby_rn has listed,,,,without a name for that Fireman to prove he existed....is that science??
It's Difficult ....most of us have little scientific proof....
If you erace all of the threads that contain no proof....the board would be almost empty I think."
I would urge you not to be discouraged about science or its utility in the investigation of reincarnation. It is true that your experience alone does not and cannot prove anything. Similarly, neither can mine, nor that of anyone else, individually. Each experience is merely a datum. One must have many data (the plural of "datum") to show almost anything. Please bear with me and follow this silly example:
A datum can only ever suggest possibility. If you drop a glass of water and it shatters and spills, but you had never seen this happen before and were unfamiliar with the concept of gravity or the fragility of glass, you would only know that breakage and spillage are possible outcomes of a dropped drink. You might even think carelessly-released beverages in glasses could sometimes bounce or perhaps hover in mid-air.
Two data can be compared, adding greater certainty to the idea of possibility, but still hardly confirming anything. You drop another glass of water and the same thing happens. This suggests the first instance was not a "fluke" and reduces the chance that the first result was a simple mis-perception.
Three data can be ranked. One glass broke more completely one one of the drops and water splashed over a larger area. You still don't know the extremes or the variability of outcomes.
After 10 glasses of water are dropped, you notice that water always spilled. 2 glasses shattered completely with fragments skidding across the floor for many feet. 6 broke into pieces in a "debris field" only several times larger than the glass. 1 only cracked but didn't split into pieces, and one glass strangely remained unbroken, even though water spilled and splashed just about as much as in all of the other cases.
Only now do you know with reasonable certainty that:
a. A dropped glass of water will spill and splash.
b. Glasses generally are damaged by being dropped, with a seemingly 90% probability.
c. Not every dropping of a glass damages it by the same amount.
d. Neither glasses nor water will float or hover when dropped; they do fall.
e. Drinking glasses do not bounce.
Now think back on how little you knew when the first glass of water fell. It is the collective results of many people that provide statistically significant evidence for reincarnation or NDE particulars. Your own experience can suggest to you that it is possible and worth studying. The aspects that are the most similar in the greatest percentage of cases may be accepted at a higher standard of evidence than other details or suppositions.
Certain details of the process are amazingly similar across cultures, regardless of their religious or cultural beliefs or lack of beliefs about reincarnation. These include: the timing of reincarnation, chances of souls returning in the same family, lack of obvious relationship between one's past-life sins and present station in life, likelihood of remembering details in dreams, ages at which children are most likely to speak of seemingly past-life experiences. With hundreds or thousands of documented testimonies, the statistical "power" of the case is quite high.
The way to scientifically investigate reincarnation involves three primary strategies:
a. Gather similar information about as many cases as possible so they can be compared easily.
b. Try to verify the validity of the reported past-life experiences of the most detailed or compelling cases.
c. Compare these reports and similarities in them to both random chance and to the chance of many unacquainted individuals making up lies that match.
Many commonly-accepted "truths" are based only on statistical analysis no different from this.
...Rod
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