The Scientific Study of Rebirth

Dr. Granville Wardena, Sri Lanka Assoc. for the Advancement of Science; Wisdom Quarterly
Row of Buddhas, Thailand and Laos (Scott MacFarlane/Scottmac2007/Flickr.com)

The prospect of having a scientific theory accepted depends in part on geography. If an idea originated in the East or in a Third World nation, its chance of success is low.

• The Buddha's many past lives - the Jataka Tales
  
• The Baldwin Project of Buddhist Rebirth Tales

And if a scientific theory  goes contrary to the teachings of religions popular in the West, its acceptance becomes extremely difficult even if it originated in the west, as happened to Darwin's theory of evolution and Galileo's heliocentric theory. 

If rebirth is to be discussed from an unbiased scientific point of view, it is necessary first of all to find a way of bypassing these unscientific barriers. This can be done by standard procedures now considered acceptable so as to test the theory of rebirth.

Geremy Hayward has described how one ventures to deal with a new theory. He describes it as a four step scientific process:

1. study the phenomenon
2. formulate theory
3. predict observations
4. look for predicted observations.

Nobel Laureate physicist Richard Feynman describes this process in detail, combining Steps 1 and 2 to form a three step process.

• Does Buddhism believe in "reincarnation"? NO. It runs contrary to an enlightened vision of what really happens. Buddhism teaches "rebirth." Reincarnation seems to be happening. The difference is that rebirth is a continuous stream of discrete moments, impermanent and dissolving, whereas reincarnation assumes an undying entity (atta, self, soul) passing from one lifetime to another. Isn't it just semantics? No, it is a crucial distinction that precludes many needless philosophical problems and misunderstandings.

Rebirth is a very old belief, which a significant portion of the world accepts. Rene Descartes, famous for concluding "I think therefore I am" (when the only conclusion to be drawn was "Thinking is going on therefore thinking is going on") made a statement in 1641. It confirms his belief: "...the extinction of the mind does not follow from the corruption of the body and also to give men the hope of another life after death." Nevertheless 20% of those whose religion shuns the belief accept it anyway.

Rebirth may be defined as the re-embodiment of an immaterial part of a person after a short or a long interval after death, in a new body, wherein it proceeds to lead a new life in the boy more or less unconscious of its past existences but containing some residua of former lives which go to make up its new character or personality. We are, therefore, not born blank slates. We have definite propensities, abilities, deficits, and talents.

THE SCIENTIFIC EXAMINATION

There are two possibilities, rebirth occurs or it does not. We understand the physical part of being human because it falls in the purview of tangible materiality.

We now understand that there is much more than the physical. Materialists cling to the notion that it is all physical. Psychologists, mystics, spiritual persons, and common sense allows for more.

If the body down to the DNA is the hard drive, where is the software? It is immaterial so not anywhere in a sense. Written ideas are not in the writing; they exist independent of it.

Death is the event horizon for the body. There is no return for it after disintegrating. But as for the immaterial, death is no event horizon. It can reappear. There is a chance for return from that scientifically unknown state to a scientifically known one in a new body.

Where is the evidence? There are many lines of evidence to pursue. More

Rebirth: Best Evidence

Stephen Wagner (Paranormal.about.com)

Proof by handwriting comparison between the living and the deceased person s/he claims to have been?

Indian researcher Vikram Raj Singh Chauhan thinks so and has undertaken a study. His findings have been received favorably at the National Conference of Forensic Scientists at Bundelkhand University, Jhansi.

• A 6-year-old Indian boy (Taranjit Singh) claimed since the age of 2 that he had been a person named Satnam Singh, a boy who had lived in another village and had been killed while riding his bike home from school. An investigation verified the many details Taranjit knew of his previous life as Satnam. But the clincher was that their handwriting -- a trait experts know is as distinct as fingerprints -- was virtually identical.

BIRTHMARKS, RECALL, AND MORE

Dr. Ian Stevenson, head of the Department of Psychiatric Medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville, Virginia, is one of the foremost researchers and authors on the subject of "reincarnation" and past lives. In 1993, he wrote a paper entitled "Birthmarks and Birth Defects Corresponding to Wounds on Deceased Persons" as possible physical evidence for past lives.

"Among 895 cases of children who claimed to remember a previous life (or were thought by adults to have had a previous life)," Stevenson writes, "birthmarks and/or birth defects... More

The evidence, of course, does not stop there. It encompasses physical appearance, phobias and nightmares, spontaneous recall and special knowledge (prodigies), past life regression hypnosis, illnesses and physical ailments. All of these lend themselves to scientific investigation.

• POLL: What do you think about evidence?
• Buddhist view on death and rebirth
• Do Buddhists go to heaven?
  The Buddhist contribution to the conception of the afterlife, it turns out, is nirvana. Nirvana is the end of suffering while one is alive and the end of rebirth after passing away. 
  Population growth and Buddhist rebirth 
• Bardo and rebirth in Tibetan Buddhism
  In Tibetan Buddhism, a bardo is an in-between or intermediate state. The word is often used to mean a state between death and rebirth, but it can mean other things... [The problem is, of course, that one has already been reborn into this intermediate state. One is alive, one is continuing, and will usually go from here to a longer-lived state misleadingly spoken of as the "rebirth" proper.]
  What Buddhism teaches about karma and and rebirth The law of karma is a law of cause and effect, or an understanding that every deed produces fruit. The fruits of karma affect our lives and cause rebirth.
• Healing Past Lives through Dreams

  Buddhism, rebirth, and nirvana
• BOOKS: The Angry Buddhist by Seth Greenland 
  The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka