MEMORIES OF PAST LIVES AS IN REINCARNATION?

The evidence for reincarnation is that some people seem to remember things from previous lives.

There is no scientific explanation of how memories of our past lives could stay with us. Real or not, they must come from some psychic power if they really exist. That means we never have any real reason for thinking they are really our memories. Maybe we picked up the information psychically?

Some people claim to have memories of past lives which are usually brought out of them by past life therapists and hypnotists. But if any of these are inexplicable then they could have been learned by means of some kind of psychic sixth sense. Some say it could be the influence of mischievous and evil spirits. It could be just plain clever guessing or good discreet research. The therapists bringing up the memories could be using - perhaps unwittingly - cold reading techniques similar to what fortune tellers do. Also, when it is more likely that some clever deception is taking place through some conspiracy than that something supernatural is happening we cannot believe in reincarnation on the basis of those reports. That is because when the memory is lost and returns like that and in pieces you are not meant to remember or can’t remember. The pieces probably came from something else other that recollections of a past life. You can only subscribe to the supernatural when the natural explanations have been conclusively exhausted but this never happens for how can you prove that here is no secret conspiracy? There is no evidence for reincarnation.

It is easier to believe that the memory evidence for reincarnation comes from some kind of psychic delusion than that it comes from a real but past life. All psychics claim that they can get the wrong information. They can misunderstand what they see, they can pollute the information with their imagination or prejudices or they could be picking up on information from another time that they think is past-life memories. It is simpler to believe that the memories are not real than that they are. Why would you die and be born again when you can only remember chunks of your past life? Reincarnationists often say we are here to learn so when the vast majority forget their past lives and learn, remembering must be an abnormality and it must be unlikely that the memories are real.

The argument that we are here to learn contradicts the fact that if we do remember past lives we remember very little. Why are we hear to learn what we probably learned a million times before?

It may be inquired that if the memories arise from psychic powers then why do they often come as the memories of only one or a few incarnations? One would expect psychic power to pick up information more randomly. It may have something to do with the powers only being able to tune into the minds that give off a certain vibration enabling a psychic link to be made. Psychics often blame their mistakes on the lack or breakdown of such links. They are the reason they say their powers are not fully reliable and don’t always function the way they want. Good excuse. The vibration can surely be read by a different vibration. When psychic power is the ability to gain information in ways out of the ordinary and by using hidden forces, vibrations shouldn’t come into it at all. Non-physical forces shouldn’t have the restrictions that we are accustomed to seeing with material forces. The excuse about vibrations makes us sceptical about the value of the powers. If a medium gets wrong information and blames the vibrations then how do we know that the vibrations giving correct or plausible information really came from a spirit? A medium is only wasting her or his time if she or he cannot verify being in touch with spirits.

Memories of a past life are really just the product of this life's imagination!