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Scouting the Territory

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 a site published a site on a book titled, “Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation.” These searches not only continue the conversation of what the afterlife is based on religious beliefs, but are also starting to pose essential questions like what this life means for non-religious believers if there are scientific ways of proving this (another layer in the dimension is something I frequently read), and dismantling the correlation between afterlife and religion. 

Interestingly one of the first articles I found was titled “Advice to Parents of Children who are Spontaneously Recalling Past Life Memories” from the University of Virginia, making me believe that this is more common than a couple of rare cases I knew of. I have looked into books, and the one that stuck out to me was recommended by Professor Goeller is titled “Surviving Death” by Leslie Kean. Since I enjoyed her writing style from our readings in class, I felt this book would be enjoyable and informative. This book, I think, will be a useful tool because this book drives the same questions that I wish to answer in my paper. Her work, I believe, will be incredibly helpful along with the Netflix adaptation. 



Google Scholar did have many articles to choose from, and the one that stuck out to me was written by Ian Stevenson, who, like Kean, explores cases of children but focuses on reincarnation. This is a resource that I feel will also be useful as it will allow for a deeper understanding of reincarnation and form a way for me to build a transition between the afterlife and these cases. Looking into the Rutgers library site, I found more articles about psychological evaluations. Still, I needed to specify my search on sites like Google Scholar to find useful resources for the afterlife. For the afterlife portion of my paper, I came across a book that explores the afterlife beliefs and practices titled “Beyond the Threshold: Afterlife Beliefs and Experiences in World Religions.” This book seems to have a significant amount of information spanning across many different regions that will guide my introduction into the paper.

Some of the more controversies surrounding my topics are that since most of the information has been carried through religion, there is an argument that covers how we won’t ever know what it’s like till we reach that point. Since belief is the primary source of information, there will always be a counter-argument on the ideologies of belief. As for the cases of children, there is always going to be skepticism on the reality of a child’s memory. Just as with other unexplained topics, there will always be a form of doubt that follows. 


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