Research by Western scientists in the area of reincarnation has been deep and extensive. I have attempted to classify the studies into five scientific areas. The areas are not necessarily exact, but they should provide a general idea.
1. The study of the existence of the soul.
2. Case studies of people who remember their past lives.
3. The study of using hypnosis.
4. The study of life in different dimensions.
5. The study of people with supernatural abilities.
These five areas use different angles to prove reincarnation.
I have chosen some of the more exciting cases from each area and will discuss the research that was done. We will see that people do experience reincarnation and that the endless birth and death causes much pain and suffering. We will explore some profound questions, such as:
What causes reincarnation?
Are there any ways to transcend reincarnation?
Area One: Study Of The Existence Of The Soul
A primary premise of studying reincarnation is to recognize that people do have a soul. If souls do not exist, then what is being reincarnated? So our first topic of discussion is to prove the existence of the soul.
Most cultures, in ancient as well as in modern times, in the east and west, have some concept of the soul. A great number of people have reported actually seeing a soul, whether they call it a “ghost” or “spirit.” Perhaps even some of you here have seen them as well. However, without “hard scientific evidence,”it is still difficult for many people to accept that the soul exists.
Near-Death Experience Studies
In recent decades, Western science has looked for scientific evidence to prove the existence of the soul by studying what is called “Near-Death Experience” (NDE.) The idea is that when a person is “near death” or on the brink of death, this person experiences a different relationship to his or her soul. Some people who are dying have experienced their souls traveling outside of their bodies. For example, a patient who almost dies during surgery might see a variety of scenes that make him feel his soul has left his body. Later, when he has recovered, he will tell others what he experienced. This is called a near-death experience.
According to the well-known American research and polling company Gallup, out-of-body, near-death experiences are common in the United States. At least 13 million adults who are still alive today reported having had a near-death experience. If we include children, the number would be even more impressive.
According to a well-known American scholar from the University of Connecticut, Dr. Kenneth Ring, about 35 percent of people have had near-death experiences. The NDE phenomenon has now attracted scientists from many different fields, including University of Washington professor of Pediatrics Dr. Melvin Morse, University of Nevada Dr. Raymond A. Moody, and University of California professor Dr. Charles Tart. In addition, Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, the American author and psychiatrist who was an expert on death and dying, also has studied NDEs.
Reports of near-death experiences are often published in famous medical journals such as The Journal of Near-Death Studies and The Lancet. In 1978, at the initiative of some authoritative scholars, The International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) was formally established. We could say that the research in this area is just unfolding.
Typical Near-Death Experiences
As a matter of fact, the study of NDEs began as early as 1959. American parapsychologist Dr. Karlis Osis, after investigating hundreds of cases of patients' deaths, co-authored a book titled At the Hour of Death in which he summarized the more common characteristics of near-death experiences.
Dr. Osis wrote that many patients nearing death felt confusion and memory loss, but a small number were able to maintain a lucid mind until the last minute. These clear-minded people claimed that they saw their afterlife. Some reported seeing the spirits of deceased family and friends, religious
and mythical characters, or a spiritual light and a beautiful otherworldly environment. They described these experiences as emotionally powerful, bringing them peace, tranquility, and religious affinity.
Between 1972 and 1974, Dr. Raymond Moody from the University of Nevada conducted a similar study of 150 near-death cases. His book about this study, called Life After Life, became well-known. Moody's study confirmed much of Dr. Osis' research. Moody concluded:
When a person was dying, lying on the surgery table, his physical body felt excruciating pain. He would hear the doctor's announcements: “This person has died.” He would hear some noise, some ringing or buzzing, and then he would feel like he was quickly passing through a black tunnel.
Afterward, he would feel like he had left his body and would see his body lying on the surgery table from a distance. He began to feel very strange but slowly adapted to this strange sensation. He would find that, in addition to the body he just departed, he had another body. But this body was not in the form of a physical body, it was a soul in the form of light.
Gods and Spirits of the Great Beyond
Some of Moody's research subjects saw visions, such as some of the spirits of their deceased relatives and friends. Some reported seeing gods who were familiar and welcoming. For example, Christians would see Jesus; of course, we know that people who recite Amitabha* would see Amitabha.
They described these beings as manifesting in the form of a flashing light.
The cases Moody studied were all Westerners, and mostly of the Christian faith. They described a luminous form of life, a god, who used a nonverbal method to communicate with them. They discovered there was no need to use language to communicate! The god let them evaluate their own lives and
then rapidly showed them the major incidents of their lives, as if they were watching a movie. After they finished watching, these people would still feel an affinity with our world, so they would wake up again.
Sometimes we do things that many people do not know, or even that nobody knows. But according to the
NDE research subjects, when the soul has left the body because death is near, various “gods” would show us all of the good and bad things we have done. Chinese ancestors often said:
What is done by night appears by day.
The following Daoist (Taoist) sayings are indeed very insightful:
Three feet above our heads there are gods;
the good and evil karmas we have committed
are all under the watch and on the records of gods.
Many of the people studied describe their experiences thusly: Before they came back, they felt like they were about to cross some kind of boundary, the boundary separating this life from the afterlife. But they did not cross over; they returned to Earth instead. Some said that they did not want to return to the Earth. Why? Because human life has too much suffering. Yet they felt they had to come back to the body on the surgery table even though they wanted to linger in that spiritual life. They felt an invisible force pulling them back, so they had no choice but to return to their physical body.
*Amitabha is the Buddha of The Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss where there is no suffering but all joys. This land is also known as Sukhāvatī in Sanskrit. Buddhism teaches that there are countless Buddhas in the universe and that anyone can attain Buddhahood. By attaining Buddhahood, people can escape the six realms of endless reincarnation: heaven, asura, human, animal, ghost, and hell. Amitabha is acclaimed as “The King of All Buddhas.” People recite His name, Amitabha, in order to be reborn into The Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, where they can quickly attain Buddhahood in one lifetime due to more favorable cultivation conditions. The difference between Sukhavati and the heavens is that those reborn in Sukhavati are forever beyond birth and death.
A Terrifying Near-Death Experience
Of course, not all of the near-death experiences studied were wonderful reunions with a spiritual light. Some were terrifying. In Impressions of Heaven, a book of stories taken from the oral statements of 100 survivors, a German police chief named Stein Heidler reported a terrible near-death experience. In his life, Heidler had been cruel and indifferent to people. With no loving heart and a strong brusqueness, he must have treated prisoners very harshly.
When Heidler was near death, he found himself surrounded by fearsome ghosts baring their fangs and brandishing their claws. One of the ghosts even opened his big, bloody mouth and tried to bite him. Heidler found his near-death experience horrific.
Buddhist scriptures also have included near-death experiences. Around three thousand years ago, the Buddha described near-death experiences in detail. One example is in The Sutra of Bodhisattva
Ksitigarbha's Fundamental Vows, which contains this paragraph:
The sentient beings of Jambudvipa
(referring to our Earth),
even those who have done good deeds,
at the end of their life,
will have hundreds of thousands of evil spirits
in the forms of their parents or relatives
to tempt them to the evil paths.
Can you imagine what would happen
to those who have done evil deeds?
This means that people of our world, even kind-hearted ones, as they approach death will inevitably encounter spirits of the evil paths, such as hungry ghosts, to make them suffer. These evil spirits might disguise themselves in the forms of the family members to confuse and entice them to the evil paths. Or they might appear as monsters, as they did to German police officer Heidler.
Psychologist Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross has written two masterpieces: one is On Life After Death and the other is On Death and Dying. During her lifetime, she researched more than 20,000 cases and confirmed that there are a variety of near-death experiences, as reported by people who came back
after their souls had left their bodies. The works of Dr. Kübler-Ross have been translated into many languages and are popular around the world.
Experiments Of The Soul's Existence And Astral Projection
The first person to use scientific experiments to confirm that the soul exists was a British doctor named Dr. Sam Parnia. He designed an experiment specifically for patients at their time of death. He hung a piece of wood from the ceiling above the surgery table and put some objects on the wood. Only the doctor knew what these small objects were. The patients did not know. He then conducted a test on more than 100 patients who had almost died but had been revived on the surgery table. Many of these patients were able to accurately describe what they saw on the wood at the time their souls had left their bodies and drifted to the top of the room.
Although his experiment was simple — the soul seeing a designated object after leaving the body and coming back to tell him — Dr. Parnia indeed confirmed that the existence of people's souls is an objective existence. The phenomenon of the soul leaving the body is common in people who are about to die, but people who are alive may also experience this phenomenon. Many people possess the ability to voluntarily separate their souls from their bodies in a process called “astral projection.”
At the University of California, Professor Charles Tart conducted scientific experiments on healthy people who claimed their souls had left their bodies. He used a computer to print out a randomly generated, five-digit number. He then put this paper on a high shelf and began to ask his subjects if they were able to see the number while “out of body.”
One young woman who volunteered for this experiment claimed she had the ability of astral projection. She was told to lie down and separate her soul from her body. They instructed her, “After your soul has left your body, float to the top of the room, memorize the number on the piece of paper, and then come back to tell us.” After a few minutes, she came back and precisely told them the number on the paper.
According to mathematical probability, the odds of correctly guessing a randomly generated five-digit number is one in 100,000. That means that, in one hundred thousand attempts, you might only guess it correctly once. Yet this woman was tested several times and answered correctly every time.
The experiment proved that she did not guess — she really saw it.
This professor used the scientific method to prove that humans have a soul and that the soul can see and even memorize information. To do these things, the soul must have some kind of energy of its own when it is separated from the body.
With this energy, the soul can do very significant work.
True Stories That Indicate The Soul's Existence
Let me tell you two true stories first, from a book titled Mysteries of the Inner Self, published in 1992 by Straut Holroyd of England. The first story, “The Soul That Rescued a Ship in Distress,” is a classic that has been well-researched by the scientific community. It was originally published in 1860 in Robert Owen's book, Walk on the Edge of the Spiritual World.
Story One: A Soul That Rescued a Ship in Distress
In 1828, the first mate of a merchant ship that traveled between England and Canada entered his captain's office. The ship had been at sea for six weeks, and the captain was watching the weather from the deck.
In the captain's office, the first mate, whose name was Bruce, discovered a man he had never seen before writing something on a note board. When the man looked up at him, stony-faced, it gave him goosebumps! Bruce ran to tell the captain that someone he didn't recognize, with an unsettling
facial expression, was in his office. They quickly returned to the office — but nobody was there. The note board was still there, bearing the words: Sail to the northwest.
The captain asked, “Are you trying to trick me, Bruce? Or deliberately making up some story?”
The first mate said, “I swear, I just saw this person writing these exact words.”
The captain asked the first mate to also write the words, Sail to the northwest.
The handwriting was completely different. Then the captain had all of the crew write these words, but none of their handwriting matched. The captain was puzzled. They had been at sea for six weeks! How could a complete stranger appear on the ship? They searched from bow to stern, but they could not find him on the ship.
The wind was calm at the time. Although it would be a detour of a few hours to head northwest, the captain gave the order to obey the mysterious note. The ship set off. About three hours later, they saw an iceberg ahead. A ship had struck the iceberg and was stuck in the ice. People onboard were frantically waving to them for help. The captain immediately ordered the lifeboat deployed, and his crew rescued the stranded people, one by one. Among those who were rescued, First Mate Bruce saw someone he recognized. It was the stranger whom he had seen in the captain's office.
He excitedly pointed the man out to the captain, who called him over and asked him to write these few words: Sail to the northwest. The handwriting was exactly the same. Even the man himself could not explain it. “Huh? How did my writing get onto that note board?”
Everyone came to ask him, “What's going on?”
Slowly, the memory came back to him.
“About three hours ago, after our boat got stuck, everybody was rushing to help. We were all very tired. So I laid down on the bed and fell asleep.”
He said that he had a dream about a boat that would rescue them. After he woke up, he told his shipmates not to worry, because help was on the way. He even described the appearance, the color, and the shape of the boat he had seen in his dream. Others from the ship confirmed what he said. The
man had told them about his dream a few hours earlier. And the ship that came to their rescue was the ship he described.
It appears that the soul of this unknown man left his body while he was sleeping aboard the distressed ship. His soul then found a ship to rescue them, and he was even able to leave his writing on the note board: Sail to the northwest.
The note board is “hard scientific evidence” that the soul can leave the body. The soul has enough energy not only to travel, but to leave a note! The soul is not limited by our three or four dimensions. Three dimensions refer to space: length, width, and height. Time is the fourth dimension. The soul was not bound by time and space, so it could quickly reach any place he wanted to go.
Our soul can transcend!
Our soul goes beyond time and space!
Time and Space Are an Illusion of Mankind
In fact, modern physics has confirmed that time and space themselves are illusions of mankind. These are the words of the Father of Modern Physics, Albert Einstein. He said, “Time and space are an illusion of mankind.”
Why? Because his Theory of Relativity confirmed that both time and space are determined by the relative speed of an object. When an object is moving at high speeds, the time of this object will be lengthened, a phenomenon called “time dilation.” At the same time, the object's length will be shortened and its space shrunk. This has been proven by modern physics theories. Time and space are variable factors; they are not absolute or concrete. That is why Einstein called them an illusion.
The Buddha also told us that time and space are human delusions. You see, the “illusion” and “delusion” are equally matched!
After the soul leaves the body, it can go beyond some limitations of time and space. It can drift quickly through space. Confucius called such a soul “a drifting soul”!
Story Two: A Soul That Bought a House
A woman in Ireland often had astral projection experiences. One time, while she was astral projecting, she saw a house that she was fond of. Afterward, her soul visited this house several times. She really liked the house, from the inside to the outside, from the furniture to the layout. She liked it all. But she did not know where this house was.
Later, she and her husband moved from Ireland to London. They searched the advertisements for a bargain house and visited a few. The woman immediately recognized the house she had seen in her astral projections. From the inside to the outside as well as the layout, the decoration, the color,
everything was exactly the same as what she saw. And the price was surprisingly cheap! The agent warned them that the house was haunted, but they decided to buy it anyway. So, they made an appointment to meet with the owner. As soon as they saw each other, the owner screamed out loud,
“Ah! It is you, the ghost!”
The owner had seen this woman many times in his house. What he saw was her spirit, but he thought his house was haunted and wanted to sell it as quickly as possible.
A Free Spirit Becomes a Slave to the Body
Ireland and London are more than 400 kilometers apart. The soul can indeed go beyond the distance of more than 400 kilometers; it can travel freely, without obstacles. As we can see, the soul is not constrained by time and space like our physical body is. But in reality,
Isn't our body just like the house of our soul?
Isn't reincarnation just like our soul looking for a new house?
If we become attached to this body and think of it as ourselves, then we are constrained by this physical house. In order to satisfy our physical desires, we also create innumerable karmas by killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct, etc. Our attempts to satisfy our desires lead to greed, resentment, ignorance, and arrogance.
The soul should be the master of our physical body — but if we become attached to the body, our soul becomes its slave. We then do many shameful deeds to satisfy our bodies. The ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi* once said,
My biggest worry is that I have this body.
*Laozi was an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer. He is the reputed author of the Tao Te Ching and the founder of philosophical Taoism.
Quantum Physics Proves The Existence Of The Soul
A group of physicists using modern physics, especially quantum mechanics, argue that the existence of the soul is indeed objective in theory.
One of these physicists is a well-known Indian-American professor and world-famous researcher at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Dr. Amit Goswami. He used quantum mechanics to argue that humans have a soul. So in reality, not only have scientists confirmed the existence of the soul through the scientific method, but they have also explained it in theory. Dr. Goswami described his conclusion in a book called Physics for the Soul. Another scientist has been to our Queensland University to speak on this topic. He is also an American professor using physics to argue for the existence of the soul.
This is my simple report regarding modern scientific research in the first area: the existence of the soul. It proves that people have a soul and this soul has energy. The soul can see, hear, and memorize, it can even buy a house! And this soul, of course, after leaving the body, will go somewhere else. This process is called “reincarnation.”
related post: Area Two: Study Of People Who Remember Their Former Lives
Source Of Information:
《The Scientific Proof Of Causal Reincarnation》, by Dr. Zhong Maosen (Venerable Ding Hong), translated by Mahayana Pureland Team, published by Mahayana Pureland Organization, distributed by: Persatuan Penganut Agama Buddha Amitabha Malaysia, 90 & 92, Jalan Pahang, Gombak, 53000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.)
*** The information provided above does not contain personal opinion of this blog.
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