What do Catholics think of the Shanti Devi reincarnation story?

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This is allegedly supposed to be the only documented and verified case of reincarnation. This girl’s memory of ‘past events’ and ‘past people’ was so extraordinary, that Ghandi actually met with her and had a committe of 15 15 prominent people, including parliamentarians, national leaders, and members from the media, to study the case.

Here is the full story

https://www.carolbowman.com/dr-ian-stevenson/case-shanti-devi/

I was wondering what the Catholic viewpoint on this was.

And please give more detailed answers than “Reincarnation is false. The Bible/Church has already stated this”
 
I’m afraid that all you will get is rejection. I started a thread on the possibility of being granted a second life and most of the answers boiled down to saying reincarnation is a heresy.

If this story is true then it presents something Christians don’t understand and will have hard time incorporating in to revealed Christian truth. In other words cases like you have presented are either false or a challenge to the faith apparently.
 
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I can’t find any official comment or investigation by the Catholic Church concerning that particular case. According to the Church, Reincarnation doesn’t exist so I seriously doubt that the Church gave it any consideration.
 
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I didn’t mean from the Church per se. I just mean in general, how would Catholic refute this story.
 
And I agree with them, that it is heresy. Which is why I am interested in how we can come to an empirical refutation of this story.
 
There is no way to refute it. You either believe it or you don’t. Are you worried that it might be true, if so why? Why do you need an empirical refutation?

It could be false memories? I don’t know.
 
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Lots of things happen. If we had to go one by one by all the special things that happen, could we ever finish refuting them all? Demons can easily know the things she says. Some will say, “Ah, you Catholics, so ignorant, everything that disagrees with your worldview is said to be demonic,” but there truly is a warfare going on we need to be prepared for.
 
Somehow, someway, I’m sure that the CIA is implanting false memories in ALL of us. 😦
 
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Have there been any cases of someone experiencing vivid “past life” memories similar to Shanti and later converted to Christianity?

That would be interesting to hear.
 
The television is the only way they could pull it off. Destroy it now!
 
Maybe it’s some preternatural power of the soul in it’s disordered fallen state operating involuntarily.🤨
 
CatholicHere_Hi said:
This is allegedly supposed to be the only documented and verified case of reincarnation. This girl’s memory of ‘past events’ and ‘past people’ was so extraordinary, that Ghandi actually met with her and had a committe of 15 15 prominent people, including parliamentarians, national leaders, and members from the media, to study the case.

Here is the full story

The Case of Shanti Devi — Carol Bowman, Past Life Therapy

I was wondering what the Catholic viewpoint on this was.

And please give more detailed answers than “Reincarnation is false. The Bible/Church has already stated this”
Click to expand...
I am not sure why you say that it the ‘only’ documented case. This book is said to have 2500 cases: Amazon.com

However, the number of cases is not going to convince anyone. It is easy to just say that the children were coached or that the investigator lied.

The only way the question whether reincarnation is a fact or not, will be resolved is when the Christ returns and tells everyone what is true. From what I understand this could happen quite soon. Until then it is best not to even bring up this subject.
 
CatholicHere_Hi said:
This is allegedly supposed to be the only documented and verified case of reincarnation. This girl’s memory of ‘past events’ and ‘past people’ was so extraordinary, that Ghandi actually met with her and had a committe of 15 15 prominent people, including parliamentarians, national leaders, and members from the media, to study the case.

Here is the full story

The Case of Shanti Devi — Carol Bowman, Past Life Therapy

I was wondering what the Catholic viewpoint on this was.

And please give more detailed answers than “Reincarnation is false. The Bible/Church has already stated this”
Click to expand...
One might note several things about this.

First, it is supposed to be an account given by investigator, but it doesn’t read like one. It does not say what the investigator established, when and how. Reading it, it looks like the direct participants were the only ones actually investigating anything.

Second, let’s note that no one involved had much to lose if the story was believed to be true, and it looks like some had a lot to gain. Thus some dishonesty - outright fraud, or just sloppy investigation mixed with wishful thinking - hasn’t been ruled out.

Third, the account doesn’t seem to match the “normal” reincarnation. As the people generally do not remember anything like that, people who believe reincarnation exists have to say that soul “forgets” everything. But in that case, how can they explain why that didn’t work in that way here? If that is supposed to be a miracle, who did it, and why?
 
Reincarnation does not make sense. If a soul dies, who decides and how is it decided that the next life is as a worm, a bee or a human? (because those people also believe there is no God but a Nirvana of souls). If a ‘reincarnated’ person cannot remember his/her past lives, then what purpose does it serve? (because those people believe you reincarnate as many times as needed to become better and reach Nirvana).
 
Demons have the ability to possess people after their first host has died. Pagans worship demons and many invoke them for aid and attempt to make contracts with them. These occult practices invite demons to possess the practitioners, and the demon can then give the demoniac “past life” information about previous hosts. Demons need an invitation to possess a victim, but the victim does not need to know that what is being invited is a demon. Obviously, pagans think the demons they are worshiping are gods, and besides that, demons can impersonate dead people.
 
NOOO!!! I NEEDED THE TV FOR MY VIDEO GAMES!!! Nevermind, forgot about my computer.
 
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