How to explain away the claims of people having vivid memories from "past lives"

[BenSinner]

A topic that I scratch my head at is people who claim to have very vivid memories that they believe are from people in a past life. Alot of these are found out to be a hoax, but there are also many that ‘verify’ the events these people have memories of. Some couldn’t have been known by the person (etc. the knowledge of ancient languages, floor plans to a building, etc.)

So “They’re nutty and want attention” is not an acceptable answer for me.

Probably our most crucial mental faculty we have in discovering what is True what is False, what happened, what didn’t happen…is our memory.

So it would make sense for someone to have a strong memory of a “past live” event, and then have the event verified…and they end up believing it actually happened. They use the same calculations of their memory as we do of ours with everyday things like "Did I brush my teeth today?, etc.

I even remember a poster on here who had this ability and was wanting to convert to Catholicism, but her ‘memories’ were so vivid, she had a hard time accepting the Church’s teaching on reincarnation.

So I’m going to assume that these are real memories.

Now my question i this:,

How can we know that these memories are NOT a sign that the person having them actually lived them in a past life? What could cause someone to have these very convincing and detailed memories of another person (we can’t mind read)?

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

People have one life.

That said, there are a good number of spiritual influences, both angelic and demonic, who could influence a person at any given point for any reason.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

Frequently, these types of “past-life” memory explorations are done under hypnosis. During hypnosis, people are subject to being lead based on the wording of questions, or by the statements of others in the room. There’s also the fact that the mind will create / shape memories to fit the testimony of other people (like when eye witnesses change their story when a person points out that, no, actually that vehicle was blue. Their memory of the event actually changes based on this new information.) This phenomenon, mixed with the susceptible nature of a person under hypnosis, makes any sort of testimony gathered this way highly suspect.

Most other instances I’ve heard about past memory type stuff, it’s either been a dream, or a vague feeling, neither of which qualify as actual memories. Dreams are notoriously unspecific, and our recollections of them can shift as we attempt to apply them to information gathered after the fact. It’s also possible for dreams to relate information not actively available to the conscious mind. I may remember something subconsciously, but not be aware of the memory. This is a common explanation offered for people who talk about the circumstances of someone’s death, they merely heard about it at some point, and “remembered” it as part of a dream or past-life regression hypnosis.

I’d also keep in mind that many of the times, when these sorts of things are “verified,” the verification is done by people with a vested interest in reincarnation being proven true. It is very easy to take a vague statement and apply it to a specific circumstance as though that was what was intended from the start. That’s exactly how cold-reading works with fake psychics. Since there’s no objective method of verification, such as when we verify a miraculous healing in the Church, there’s no way to truly verify someone’s statements, and to verify that there had been no coaching, intentional or otherwise.

Given that we live in a world with supernatural elements, it is also unwise to rule out demonic influence.

As for knowing, it comes down to a matter of faith. Consider how rational the worldview presenting the argument is, and how well the rest of their belief structure aligns with reality. Catholicism present a very rational, coherent, and complete world view which aligns well with reality. The various Pagan beliefs which adhere to Reincarnation do not, and teach many things which are verifiably false (such as chakras).

 

[Greenfields]

I wonder if thinking could ever be inherited though?Some train of thoughts .

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

I wonder if thinking could ever be inherited though?Some train of thoughts .

I think in many cases little kids remember more than their parents give them credit for.

I just had my appendix out and I was sitting around the dining room table with my friend’s 4 children. The 11, 9 and 4 year old expressed empathy. “Sorry Miss Xan hope you feel better”. The 6 year old gave a laugh.

6yo-- “You shouldn’t feel sorry for Miss Xan!”
His mom (horrified) “kiddo, that’s not nice, why would you say that”
6yo-- “Oh mom, it’s awesome. Miss Xan can be an astronaut now!”

He had been TWO when his parents took his older sisters to NASA. Two. And he remembered that fact. Now, this kid was not one of the sharpest tacks in general, so it was shocking.

…

And on the flip side, you DO have generational “curses” (as recognized by the Catholic church) and can have both demonic and angelic forces that are generational.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

Another thing to consider. Past-life “knowledge” only seems to happen in societies where belief in reincarnation is prevalent. If reincarnation is actually true, wouldn’t we see past-life memories occurring equally everywhere?