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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

Reincarnation On Trial

Dr. Rupert Sheldrake: Just as last
night’s television movie is not “in”
the tv circuitry, the memory of a
seeming previous life is not in the percipient.

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The following is from Dr. Rupert Sheldrake’s “The Presence Of The Past: Morphic Resonance And The Memory Of Nature,” chapter eleven, “Remembering And Forgetting”:

“Morphic resonance might provide a new interpretation for a relatively rare but well-documented phenomenon: memory of past lives… Those who accept the evidence for memories of previous lives usually explain it in terms of reincarnation or rebirth. However, the hypothesis of formative causation provides a different perspective; in such cases, a person may for some reason tune in by morphic resonance to particular person who lived in the past. This could account for the transfer of memories without having to suppose that the present person is the past person.”

Dr. Sheldrake’s theory of morphic resonance constitutes a very large and impressive body of knowledge. See the amazing evidence for morphic resonance, exemplified in many cases studies, in the “Evolution” article.

However, allow me to offer a few words as primer. Sheldrake posits that brains, by way of analogy, are more like television sets than video recorders. Memories are not stored in brains, just as the movie you watched last night is not stored in the tv circuitry. Instead, like the tv which “tunes in” to hidden electromagnetic fields, brains tune in to hidden fields of collective memory.

So-called “past lives” represent a special kind of “tuning in.” We learned about the details of this from Dr. Carl Wickland. Just as last night’s television movie is not “in” the tv circuitry, the memory of a seeming previous life is not in the percipient.

You’ll want to get much more information on Sheldrake’s research. See the “Evolution” article.