| THE EXPERIMENT'S PURPOSE: |
POETIC PERSPECTIVES
"A thousand gifts were given to us in the womb.
We lost hundreds during the forgetfulness of birth,
And we lost the old heaven on the first day of school."
From Courting Forgetfulness by Robert Bly
"What we call the beginning
is often the end.
And to make an end is to
make a beginning.
The end is where we start from."
From the Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot
| Belief in the phenomenon we call reincarnation — a process where the core substance of an individual is reborn in a future lifetime — has existed in all major historical cultures. It has largely been rooted in dreams, hypnosis and psychic clues. Recently, more objective evidence has included memories of events or knowledge apparently based in the lives of deceased individuals. New research suggests that physical and personality traits may be inherited from the past.
To test the reality of reincarnation, we need a hypothetical mechanism that can account for the areas of empirical evidence related to possible past-life legacies. The Reincarnation Experiment is
testing such a scientific model for a "soul genome" or psychoplasm.
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Hear how the Reincarnation Experiment started, its purpose, and hoped for outcomes. |
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CAN SCIENCE PROVE REINCARNATION?
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More than half of
the world's people believe in reincarnation, and polls suggest at least
a quarter of U.S. citizens do. What is the basis of this belief? Is it rooted in delusions or wishful thinking? Or, is there a tangible basis for such ideas?
It is beyond the current tools of science to definitively prove the
general theory of reincarnation to a skeptical public.
Likewise, it is also beyond the tools of modern science to disprove it.
However, this project is designed to test whether empirical
evidence exists that can plausibly account for the apparent non-parental link involved in robust reincarnation cases. In other words, it challenges the assertion that all of the newborn's psychophysical inheritance can be completely accounted for by its immediate parental genomes. Read More....Click on the newborn's picture to the right for a excellent video of Paul Von Ward's clear and concise responses to a TV journalist's questions about the concept of reincarnation and the Reincarnation Experiment.
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| Do Newborns Have A Past-Life Legacy? Hear Paul Von Ward's TV Response. |
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SCIENCE CAN VALIDATE BELIEF BASED IN DIRECT OBSERVATIONS OF NATURE.
Early human and later aboriginal
societies based their beliefs in reincarnation on observations of their
contemporaries that revealed similarities with known people who had
lived and died before those being observed were born. Over several
generations, people collected many persuasive correspondences between
the present personalities and various ancestors that they posited some
carry-forward of legacies from the past. As an example, an African
tribe used the terms "babatunde" and "yetunde" to indicate the possible
reincarnations of boys and girls, respectively, from earlier
individuals two generations removed.
The cases described on this website and in the book The Soul Genome provide credible examples of such
observable data which cannot be more plausibly explained than by a
reincarnation hypothesis. We attempt to be as careful as the team who ultimately concluded two-year-old Lhamo Dhondup is the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama. From a comparable secular approach, The Soul Genome's author's perspective places the experiment in
the context of emerging research findings in physics, biology,
neuroscience, and evolutionary studies.
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SCIENCE CAN CORROBORATE SPIRITUAL BELIEFS?
The Eastern metaphysics of Hinduism and
Buddhism, their religious derivations, and early Judaism and
Christianity describe reincarnation in terms that cannot be
easily, if at all, tested by the nonbeliever. Such supernatural beliefs require unquestioning credulity. A historical overview of some of these religious and spiritual beliefs can be
seen by clicking here — which also links to a good introduction to Jewish and Christian beliefs. Science cannot prove any aspects of these spiritual beliefs without measurable evidence of their veracity.
Fortunately, several areas of the physical and behavioral evidence that led to such ancient beliefs can be found linking the lives of people living today with people who died leaving documented information about themselves and their behaviors. The Reincarnation Experiment is the first-ever effort to treat reincarnation as a natural process that can and should be subjected to
scientific analysis. For that reason alone, it provides a
credible data base for interdisciplinary discussions and evaluations of the psychoplasm (or soul-genome) hypothesis.
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A MOVE FROM SUBJECTIVE TO OBJECTIVE RESEARCH:
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The objective evidence that led
nature-oriented societies to postulate a process like reincarnation
includes physical features and psychological factors. Facial
architecture, body types, hair patterns, ear forms, hand-finger
proportions, voice, and odor have been noted to correspond in two
separate lifetimes. Some physical similarities also include special
markings, birthmarks and deformities. Matching psychological traits
include levels of mental development, emotional patterns, styles of
interacting with others, and areas of creative interest. (See analysis of reincarnation-case facial comparisons with random matches.)
All these factors seem to make up a psychoplasm (an information-rich,
energetic field) that enfolds and animates the genomic material
synthesized at conception. When we have a better understanding of the interaction between the genome and the epigenome, this project will test the psychoplasm concept by comparing a subject's relevant DNA sequences with the genome from his or her alleged previous incarnation.
Considerable empirical research now suggests that what a person
accomplishes in terms of self-development and learning becomes the
legacy his or her soul genome/psychoplasm transmits to the next generation.
Click here to see the forms that can be used to develop a scientific
data base for a particular case. They can be used for one's own case or
for someone else's.
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INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPATION IN REINCARNATION EXPERIMENT
If your reincarnation research efforts are compatible with the experiment's methodology, there are several options for your participation:
1. Submit a Self-Developed Case. 2. Propose A New Tentative Case for Evaluation. 3. Use Our Methodology for Self-Discovery. 4. Obtain an Exploratory Past-Life Consultation. 5. Obtain Past-Life-Based Coaching. 6. Become a Past-Life-Based Coach/Researcher. Regardless of your location and professional background, if one of the six interests you, click here more details. CLUES LEADING TO POSSIBLE PAST-LIVES
Many people receive hints of possible
past lives that cannot be considered as definitive proof of
reincarnation or of a specific past-life connection. Some come through
extrasensory channels such as dreams, visions, intuitive feelings, or
hypnosis. Some may come from other-dimensional sources such as psychic
readings or through channeled messages from apparent disincarnate
beings.
Since neither such sources nor the information from them can be accessed by independent observers, they provide only potential clues
that require validation by third parties. Nevertheless, they should not
be dismissed out-of-hand as they may lead to verifiable evidence to
support the posited past-life connection.
FINANCIALLY SUPPORT COSTS OF SCIENTIFIC EQUIPMENT, SOFTWARE, AND ANALYSISProfessionals involved in this project do so on a pro bono basis. Certain expenses for measurement equipment, data processing software, and technical analysis is paid for by participants and supporters like you. If you appreciate the project's approach, facilitate the DNA and biometric comparisons necessary for credible research with a donation made below.
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| Premier Effort to Assess Reincarnation from a Comprehensive Scientific Perspective |
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