From the article: A 5-year-old boy claims that he was an African American woman killed in a fire and reincarnated.
Little Luke Ruehlman spooked his parents as he began incessantly insisting that he used to be a woman named Pam when he was just 2 years old.
The young boy’s mother, Erika, told Ohio’s Fox 2 that her son began speaking of a woman named Pam from a young age, but the family didn’t know anyone by the name.
One day Luke finally explained who Pam was. “He turned to me and said, ‘Well, I was,’ ” she recounted. “[He said] ‘Well, I used to be, but I died and I went up to heaven.
“I saw God and then eventually, God pushed me back down and I was a baby and you named me Luke.’ “
Sensationalist conservative tabloid New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch…yeah, I’m not going to consider that a particularly reliable source of information.
If you consider NYP a reliable source of information, go for it. In that case you may also be interested in the National Inquirer, another tabloid which has also published reincarnation stories that may interest you.
Have you watched the videos of Andrew reading his 2 books Dream Yoga, and Dreams of light?
I don’t currently have a strong opinion on the reliability of the Huffington Post, though years ago it seemed to be relatively OK.
I do like the article you linked to better, though, especially stuff like this:
In an episode just a few months ago, a Virginia family’s reincarnation story drew skepticism almost immediately after it aired.
Andrew Lucas, 4, of Virginia Beach, claimed he was a reincarnated Marine, and his stories seemed to match up with the death of a U.S. Marine who reportedly died in a bombing in Beirut, in 1983.
But facts have a habit of getting in the way of good stories. Not only could show producers not find the family of the dead Marine – leaving questions about the Marine’s very existence on the table – but a reporter who interviewed Lucas’ family told HuffPost Weird News that producers helped Lucas’ mom make the whole thing up. Publicists have denied that tidbit, as publicists would. [LINK]
I suggest we all refrain from drinking the waters of Lethe next time around so that we remember our past life (i.e. this one) and continue this conversation 50 years or so from now
I resonated deeply with a lot of what Love was saying, especially the part about being skeptical of things that he would wish to be true, e.g. survival after death. I feel exactly the same way (in general, and with that exact example in particular). We are SO good at convincing ourselves of the truth of things we wish to be so.
“Transmigration of the soul.”
“It’s a belief held by two thirds of the human race.”
“The fact that a great many people believe something is no guarantee of its truth.”
"No, but at least it makes it worthy of consideration.
I dont read either. For reliable information and the best presentation of truth and facts, I turn to Fox News. Its my understanding that it is the number 1 news outlet in America and Mr. Murdoch was the father of it?
If you read the end of the article that @_Barry provided, it says that the family of the woman who died declined to comment. To me, that was the biggest red flag of the news story. But it doesnt mean there is no truth behind it.
I do not have the eyes of the Buddha or, any of the great seers, but I can certainly respect Wisdom traditions that have withstood the test of time, especially ones that have lasted 2600 + years! Regardless of how skeptical my ego may be, if millions and millions of people throughout time and in serveral religions hold this belief to be true, I think that counts for something significant. Does it make it true, maybe not. Does it make it false, maybe not.
I personally believe it holds truth, but I have only lived 1 life that I can remember.
A more rigorous approach is found in the works of Ian Stevenson, a University of Virginia researcher who studied children with past life memories, and then verified the details of their past lives with historical research.
" This monumental classic contains hundreds of pictures presenting the evidence he discovered. It documents 200 cases of children having memories and birthmarks which corresponded with the lives and wounds of deceased people whom these children recalled as having lived in a past-life. In 1997, Dr. Stevenson published a condensed version of this book for the general public entitled, “Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect.” "
That is pretty interesting. And this was all done before the internet and age of information. Imagine what the tech companies know now.
Here is an interesting topic, do people who recieve major organ transplants, end up sharing some of the memories of the people who donated the organ?
Read this excerpt, not sure how true it is, but it does bring up amvery interesting theory: how much of our memory is stored in our brains vs our bodies?
“What is an electric field? We don’t know. When we discover a new kind of field, it seems mysterious. Then we name it, get used to dealing with it and describing its properties, and it no longer seems mysterious. But we still don’t know what an electrical or gravitational field really is. We don’t even know what electrons are. We can only describe how they behave.’” Similarly, we can also observe how gestalt therapy and telepathic communication behave, even though we don’t know exactly what they are. The most miraculous explanation of holographic brain theory I can provide for you is the odd and shocking behavior that sometimes accompanies organ transplants. We’ve all heard the stories: someone receives a kidney from a concert pianist, then suddenly the recipient not only has the desire but the ability to play the violin! The most comprehensive collection of these studies is compiled by Dr. Paul Pearsall in a book called The Heart’s Code. Pearsall points out that Albert Einstein proved that matter and energy are interchangeable; therefore, energy and information are also synonymous. What he means is that memories appear to be stored in the actual organs of our bodies; and even more revolutionary is his theory that the heart itself, like the brain, generates and receives information from the world around it. Here’s one of his most profound examples, which Dr. Pearsall tells from his point of view. I recently spoke to an international group of psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers meeting in Houston, Texas. I spoke to them about my ideas about the central role of the heart in our psychological and spiritual life, and following my presentation, a psychiatrist came to the microphone to ask me about one of her patients whose experience seemed to substantiate my ideas about cellular memories and a thinking heart. The case disturbed her so much that she struggled to speak through her tears. Sobbing to the point that the audience and I had difficulty understanding her, she said, “I have a patient, an eight-year-old little girl who received the heart of a murdered ten-year-old girl. Her mother brought her to me when she started screaming at night about her dreams of the man who had murdered her donor. She said her daughter knew who it was. After several sessions, I just could not deny the reality of what this child was telling me. Her mother and I finally decided to call the police and, using the descriptions from the little girl, they found the murderer. He was easily convicted with evidence my patient provided. The time, the weapon, the place, the clothes he wore, what the little girl he killed had said to him . . . everything the little heart transplant recipient reported was completely accurate.” According to Dr. Pearsall’s findings, the history of the body is stored in the body, and according to my own research, the ability to read the records is through a quantum process fundamental to nature. Evidently, when I scanned Harry’s body, I simply used my mind differently than the way you currently use yours, but if I can learn”
I’ve believed something like this for a long time. Way back, one of my friends went through “Rolfing” therapy which involves heavy body massaging, which brought up all sorts of hidden memories, depending upon the intensity and location of the massaging. Later, during Vipassana meditation (Goeinka-Ji) courses I experienced something similar—given one of the underlying theories of the practice is that memories are stored in the body and the meditation technique can help to dissipate the effects of things we hold onto. As Andrew often theorizes, the body and mind are on a continuum and the body may well be the unconscious mind (literally/figuratively?).
Havent had a professional massage in close to 2 decades, I think it may be time to test this theory out
The lady who wrote the passage above had the theory that every cell in the human body had access to all of the persons memories, like a wifi energetic field that flows around the person, and permeates all the cells with the persons history. Kind of wacky, but I found it really interesting.
Keep in mind that Rolfing is no ordinary massage. It involves breaking up the deep holding patterns in the fascia. I’ve never experienced it but hear it can be quite painful but that people who go through it can experience quite a few emotional changes.
At a family gathering one time my wife was talking with her nephew who was under the age of 5 at the time. He asked her “Do you remember when we lived in Boston?” My wife found this curious, so she said “No, but I’d like to hear more about it.” He began to tell her about a life in Boston when his mother interrupted him and said “Brendan, that’s not true! You never lived in Boston! Quit making up stories!” I think that a lot of past life memories get quashed in that way.
