Sam Harris

Recently looked at youtube video: The Nightline Face-Off: Does God Have a Future. (http://youtu.be/6-8-Yxdphsg)

In this Sam says that consciousness is dependent on brain so consciousness cannot exists without brain (not precise words). I think science in general agrees with this.

Now how can you explain someone remembering previous life? Agree there can be many bogus cases but there are some cases not easy to deny where children knowing details of remote location and/or language from previous life which is not possible logically. Here is one example on youtube: http://youtu.be/WoSrzpLoODo

If consciousness cannot transcend body, how can such memory be transferred from a body to another?

So far as we know, it cannot. And this particular case you linked, has some apparent holes in it - http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/misc/reincarnation.html.

Without making the assumption that the kid’s mother coached him up on this stuff, there appear to me just as many inconsistencies in the story as their do bits of evidence lending it credibility.

If I am skeptical about rebirth in this life is it possible I ill lose my skepticism in my next life?

How do we know that this isn’t the next life already?

nooyawka - 10 July 2011 01:30 AM

If I am skeptical about rebirth in this life is it possible I ill lose my skepticism in my next life?

Where is the like button ?!?!??!

How come the little kid in the story can remember the name, house and dog but gets the death wrong ?!?!? Of course assuming the mom didn’t set him up for it….

Why would parents set their kids up for shenannigans like this…isn’t it only gonna hurt them in the end?

Daqar

Daqar - 10 July 2011 09:17 AM

Why would parents set their kids up for shenannigans like this
Daqar

Maybe Mom wanted everyone at the supermarket to recognize her kid from the picture in the newspaper.

How do we know that this isn’t the next life already?

  LOL!  clever.

It’s amazing how powerful the subconscious can be.  All one has to do is be exposed once, even indirectly, to facts about a dead person and that information is permanently stored in the subconscious, potentially available to the conscious mind for the rest of one’s life.  It can appear ‘magical’ when the information is subconsciously woven into a vivid narrative and acted out by the person who’s recalling it.  When it’s done consciously, we call it ‘acting’ and that can be ‘magical’, too.

Nhoj Morley - 10 July 2011 07:13 AM

How do we know that this isn’t the next life already?

What was first, the chicken or the egg? I think our subconscious is the result of our evolution. In neuroscience, there are still things that can not be explained.

“If consciousness cannot transcend body, how can such memory be transferred from a body to another?”

Is it really correct to ASSume the body\brain “stores” memories? Memories occur as experiences, experiencing a past experience. Since experience is not matter and memories are experiences and not peices of matter, how are they to be “stored in the brain”?

I believe the brain can influence us to have certain memories and certain times, however I do not think it houses or IS these memories.

Ever consider the brain does the opposite? As in it makes you forget not remember.