The UneXplained: Past Lives

  Citation: Haraldsson, Erlendur. “Persistence of Past-Life Memories: Study of Adults Who Claimed in  Their Childhood to Remember a Past Life.” Journal of Scientific Exploration , vol. 22, no.  3, Fall 2008, pp. 385–394. EBSCOhost ,  login.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc t=true&db=aph&AN=37332879&site=ehost-live . Summary: The article named “Persistence of Past-Life Memories: Study of Adults Who Claimed in  Their Childhood to Remember a Past Life” refers to the case study done on adults from the ages of 19 to 49 who once had past life experiences. The study used a questionnaire and also took into account the relatives of these subjects as a way to verify the information; they too received a questionnaire.  The study finds that over ⅓ of the participants have retained this childhood memory. From this, 55% of people found that their memories have been wiped, but 12% claim to have clear memories, ...

  Citation:    Keil, H. H. Jürgen, and Jim B. Tucker. “Children Who Claim to Remember Previous Lives: Cases with Written Records Made before the Previous Personality Was Identified.” Journal of Scientific Exploration, vol. 19, no. 1, 2005, pp. 91–101. Summary: Within the article, “Children Who Claim to Remember Previous Lives: Cases with Written Records Made before the Previous Personality Was Identified,” H.H. Jürgen Keil and Jim B. Tucker dove into a total of four prominent cases, which then fueled the analysis of cases which they explain later on. Briefly, the cases included one about two boys who started to speak on his past life experiences at the age of 2 ½,  a girl from India, and another boy who began to speak at 3 ½ years old. One of the cases they emphasized was one with a boy who lived in Hatay, Turkey. His experience was with a married Armenian man who lived a luxurious life in Instanbul. What makes this case compelling is that no Armenians were known to ...

Research Proposal Working/Tentative Title: Children’s Past Lives: Patterns, Cases, and Psychological Causes Topic Description: The general overview of the issue that will be discussed pertains to the cases of children who vividly recall their “past lives.” This paper will discuss the cases of children who have recorded their recollections and explore the connections it has uncovered that are parallel to other lives. The paper will also explore the patterns children who have these past life experiences are subject to having. Looking into explanations, psychological studies will be explored to make connections between different factors, which can cause why children have these past life memories. The debates regarding this topic are centered around doubt about how accurate these parallels are. Research Question: Many children can vividly remember and provide descriptions of what they preserve as their “past life.” How much accuracy of one’s past life truly parallels with these cases? Do t...

Visual : Summary: The academic journal is written by Erlendur Haraldsson titled, “Children who speak of past-life experiences: Is there a psychological explanation?” explores and experiments the differences between children who do not have past life experiences (PLE) to children that do. This study was done to examine a claim for “[children with PLE] hav[ing] some psychological resemblance to multiple personalities or dissociative identity disorder” (Haraldsson 57). The study’s hypothesis also looked towards “rich fantasy life dissociative tendencies, and attention-seeking” (Haraldsson 63) and whether these psychological factors played a role within the memory of their past lives. Through the study, it is learned that PLE children did fit some parts of the hypothesis and found results scoping beyond the hypothesis, but mainly the ideas of dissociation are present. This study enables a reason-based application of this phenomenon by using well-developed psychological tools. Some interest...

Shifting away from the afterlife and into past lives, there needed to be a little bit of adjustment; however, I believe I included the research questions I’d like to explore. Many children are able to vividly remember and provide descriptions of what they preserve as their “past life.” How accurate are these cases, and do these cases pose any benefits for children? Are children just highly imaginative, and does a child’s highly developmental mind play a role in their experiences? Could there be any overlap between these children? Sources: Haraldsson, Erlendur. “Children Who Speak of Past-Life Experiences: Is There a Psychological Explanation?” Psychology & Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, vol. 76, no. 1, Mar. 2003, p. 55. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1348/14760830260569256. Kean, Leslie. Surviving Death: a Journalist Investigates Evidence for an Afterlife. Three Rivers Press, an Imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2018.  Pasricha,...

My topic has not changed since the first blog post. I have not redefined it, but I know that I would like to also focus on the cases of children who remember their past lives. So while I explore the afterlife, I want to incorporate and add on the reincarnation aspect seen with these cases. Looking on Google, keywords like “afterlife,” “reincarnation,” and “children with past lives” opens up a realm of possibilities for exploring routes for the paper. The word “afterlife” showcased a variety of shows and documentaries from Time and Netflix. Using “reincarnation” brought me to links that we’re defining what the term meant, but interestingly, it also showed results of ways in which it’s real and the signs that prove it. On Wikipedia, most of the information was based on the different types of ways religions saw the afterlife and dove into the issue's psychological and philosophical sides. The arguments presented were just trying to find ways to prove what the afterlife is like and had...