(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best reincarnation books

>The essay to which you've linked provides no evidence whatsoever

Yeah, that's the point I was going for. Just because religions are insane - and they are - it doesn't follow that there are only bad reasons to entertain the notions of an afterlife and/or creator entity of some kind. I wasn't trying to prove the reality of an afterlife, I was trying to open your average atheist up a little in how they approached these topics.

>So, this author thinks the body of evidence provides solid grounds. But he's hardly impartial. He speaks at length about his own experiences with trying to convince colleagues, or of his own past of researching NDEs. This is clearly a topic with emotional weight for this man.

I'm sorry, but how does his frustration with his colleagues' a priori dismissal of the data make the topic an emotional issue for this man? If you researched something, let's take something completely non-controversial like some random bacteria in the octopus gut flora, and everyone dismissed everything you had unearthed for demonstrably non-rational reasons, wouldn't that make you upset? It doesn't mean that these gut flora bacteria inside octopuses is an emotional topic for you, it only means that you are upset when people ignore the data you've found for bad reasons. I mean, at least looking at the proposed evidence before dismissing is a reasonable request in any academic field.

That's the point he's making. The evidence isn't ignored, marginalized and ridiculed because it's bad and/or non-existent, but because the vast majority of academics assume, a priori, that it can't be there, so they don't bother even looking.

>At any rate, these are the ideas of philosophers and sociologists, with no basis in verifiable fact.

I'm not sure what you're referencing here - the behavior of academics, or the NDE data itself? If it's the latter, then that's not at all the case and the entire point of his essay - it is a matter of empiricism. If it's the former, then I don't know if they've actually done studies of the negligence of academics on these research areas, but it could easily be carried out, so it's very much verifiable in principle. Additionally, it's more or less obvious to everyone how most people respond to these ideas before they do their research. You're an example yourself, although to your credit you are more level-headed than most responses tend to be.

>I think you'll find that the notion of some kind of creative force behind the universe, while certainly not the majority opinion, is nonetheless respectable in the field of philosophy.

Not denying that, but that's the whole point - mere intuition and guesses of philosophers are irrelevant in light of this data. The NDE data explicitly nullifies a lot of the debate in the entire field of philosophy of mind, for instance. This stuff really matters, and takes the debate out of speculation and into actual answers.

>Just not, as the essay notes, in the field of science.

Which is the entire point. Once scientists open up to this data, everything will have to change, by force. It will be the biggest paradigm shift of all time, basically, and that's a huge part of why it's neglected.

>So, is this really, as the author alleges, a result of bias? I'm inclined to think not. I think it's a result of consistency.

>Consider the scientist which the author mentions who says that he would still be skeptical of dualism if he himself experienced an NDE. This appalls the author, but is that comment a result of bias against dualism, or intellectual honesty?

There are two things to take in consideration. Many ignorant people do believe that if they were to have an NDE, they would still be skeptical of it; "just a dream lol". In that sense, I don't doubt the sincerity of the person saying it - he's honest. But. Everyone who has a sufficiently deep NDE (see for instance the Greyson scale for how that's defined) is convinced of it's reality. Everyone. This and this are the two most famous and steretypical examples of this - an avowed atheist, and a Harvard Neurosurgeon. In other words, it doesn't matter how much of a skeptic or atheist you were before, you will change after your NDE in how you view the world. That's a fact. It applies to you, me, Richard Dawkins, Keith Augustine and everyone - the data is extremely clear on this point.

That's a very crucial point, and let me illustrate why with an analogy. Imagine you have a looked room that only one person at a time is allowed into, and in it there's allegedly a green elephant. Now, who wouldn't be skeptical of that? And yet, person after person walk in there - some skeptical, some not, some undecided - and yet they all come back testifying to the reality of there actually being a green elephant in this room. All of them. And this goes on for years, and we have millions of people who all come back testifying to its reality.

It is not unreasonable, then, to think that if you or I were to walk into this room, we too would be convinced of the reality of there being a green elephant in that room. Indeed, there's absolutely no reason to think we wouldn't be. What possible skepticism could we apply that all those other people couldn't have? Why relevant information do we have that they don't? You don't know more about the brain and its relationship to consciousness than a Harvard neurosurgeon, and you are not more of an atheist than Howard Storm was.

This is literally the situation we're in with the NDE, except people are extremely certain about the reality of the NDE being indicative of another realm. See for instance this video from 0:00 - 5:15 to illustrate the point, or this from 05:57 - 07:12.

The second thing is, this isn't what Grossman is even alluding to. He's talking about the actual cases where people observe things that they shouldn't be able to observe, if materialism were correct. See these cases for example Note, though, that they're poorly documented and only meant to prove the point of what kind of observations that typically take place.

>If we know that the brain is capable of getting things wrong

It's already been mentioned in the links above, but again, the NDE is ultra-real, hyper-real, and the cognition experienced during an NDE - when most of if not all of the brain is shut down - is way more acute and enhanced than during any other event in your life. Much more real than daily life. Hallucinations and dreams are less real than ordinary waking life. They are completely different things.

Also, what we know about the brain actually only strengthens the point that these experiences aren't brain based, because we know that EEG is lost within 8-20 seconds after cardiac, periods during which actual verified observations have been documented.

>Here is a summary of one of those studies which your essay-writer feels is a solid basis for belief. Frankly, I think that a scientist who has used rationality and probability to carefully build a body of knowledge would be more inconsistent and less reputable if they threw all of that knowledge out the window because of a stressful experience.

Yeah, you did one Google-search and copy-pasted it here. But two things - 1. Neal Grossman wrote that paper long before AWARE even launched, and 2. That short commentary doesn't exactly refute that study, it just does a poor job of dismissing it.

>Frankly, I think that a scientist who has used rationality and probability to carefully build a body of knowledge would be more inconsistent and less reputable if they threw all of that knowledge out the window because of a stressful experience.

It's not a stressful experience, you're throwing your own beliefs unto the experience. It's the most life-changing and wonderful experience known to man.

>The author thinks that mediums, of the type regarded by William James, may be evidence for immaterial reality. Yet, in the hundred or so years since recording technologies became widely available, not a single video showcasing anything remotely paranormal in terms of 'medium-esque' abilities or anything else has ever surfaced.

Who ever said that the evidence had to be catchable on video? Can you prove that aspirin reduces the risk of heart attacks by using video evidence? No? And yet it does.

The answer is no, because it relies on statistical analysis. Although I won't comment on it further because I've literally not investigated mediums at all, save for a very shallow glance at it. But here a good place to start.

>Not only has every psychic who puts themselves under scrutiny been proved misguided at best and willfully lying at worst, but no one has yet claimed the million dollar prize available for any legitimate demonstration of medium abilities in the fifty years since it was first offered.

Please don't.

>If you really want to know why scientists do not (and should not) find spiritual thinking credible, read this article from Eliezer Yudkowsky's excellent Bayesian rationalism blog.

Interesting entry, but I fail to see his relevance except as a strawman. Grossman is making the point that these things are a matter of empirical investigation a la the methods of science. Not like those scientists in that article who are believers in their spare time for non-scientific reasons.

As an atheist ... I am thrilled with the amount of research being done into NDEs, currently reading this, and actually hopeful for the rainbow bridge, real hope, inspired in no small part by the moving tributes I read in this subreddit, and by my own kitties of course. Kitties are love.

This is just some of my collection, any one of which would get you started, but I'd start with Dr Stevenson's stuff first:

Dr Ian Stevenson

https://www.near-death.com/reincarnation/research/ian-stevenson.html

https://www.amazon.com/Twenty-Cases-Suggestive-Reincarnation-Enlarged/dp/0813908728/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Twenty+Cases+Suggestive+of+Reincarnation&qid=1563082984&s=books&sr=1-1

https://www.amazon.com/Where-Reincarnation-Biology-Intersect-Stevenson/dp/0275951898/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Where+Reincarnation+and+Biology+Intersect&qid=1563083023&s=books&sr=1-1

Dr Loell Whitton

https://www.amazon.com/Life-Between-Joel-Whitten/dp/0446347620

Neville Randall

https://www.amazon.com/Life-After-Death-Neville-Randall/dp/0552114871/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=life+after+death+Neville+randall&qid=1563083067&s=books&sr=1-1

Dr Raymond Moody

https://www.amazon.com/Life-After-Bestselling-Investigation-Experiences/dp/006242890X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=raymond+A+Moody&qid=1563083118&s=books&sr=1-1

Helen Wambach

https://www.amazon.com/Life-Before-Helen-Wambach/dp/0553254944/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=life+before+life+helen+wambach&qid=1563083173&s=books&sr=1-1

Dr Edith Fiore

https://www.amazon.com/You-have-been-here-before/dp/0698108833/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=Dr+edith+fiore&qid=1563083204&s=books&sr=1-7

Plus I'd check out this four part Documentary

Special Thanks to u/malibunyc for finding a low res 640x360 version of the show on YouTube, here are the links:

ep 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9bcNeLJTv8

ep 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycwZTYHqqoM

ep 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkcljsaaFXs

ep 4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5URv5xxSFpo

Hope these help. I am looking into the possibility of uploading my personal HD copies of it somewhere but DRM is a bug bear.

Highly recommend Return to Life.

It's about the most scientific bent you'll find on reincarnation, and it has some truly interesting anecdotal evidence.

Some people believe in some kind of consciousness after death that isn't tied to religion, allegedly there might be some scientific evidence to back this up too. I just bought this book, haven't read it yet but it might interest you:

https://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Death-Journalist-Investigates-Afterlife/dp/0553419617

All the proof you need. I know some of the interviewees so trust me, this can be nothing other than the truth. /s
"Echoes from Medieval Halls: Past-Life Memories from the Middle Ages"

https://www.amazon.com/Echoes-Medieval-Halls-Past-Life-Memories/dp/0876043902/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1480953477&sr=1-2&keywords=memories+from+medieval+halls

If parental bias concerns you but the topic still interests you, see this excellent book on the philosophical case for reincarnation:

http://www.amazon.com/Lifecycles-Reincarnation-Christopher-M-Bache/dp/1557786453/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252796765&sr=1-1

The God Game by Mike Hockney: https://www.amazon.com/God-Game-Book-ebook/dp/B008H540EM

The Armageddon Conspiracy: https://www.amazon.com/Armageddon-Conspiracy-Coded-Book-ebook/dp/B003AKZC00

Sure! A couple books I can recommend:

Stop Worrying! There Probably is an Afterlife

Surviving Death: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for an Afterlife

Both of those authors have videos on youtube and podcasts and such.

You may also be interested in the Orch-OR theory of consciousness.

I hate Karma, years of research didn't help me. It is a lousy concept no one knows exactly how it works. Screw Buddha! You should read Earthly Cycles by Ramon Stevens. It is a channeled work but I kind of agree with what the spirit teacher 'Alexander' says in the book, that depending on the function to be served in the society consciousness chooses body types including sexuality. You can also try looking for few journals available on alexandermaterial.com. May be you will get satisfied.

P.S.: He also explains the workings of Karma in the book.

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Before-Scientific-Investigation-Childrens-ebook/dp/B003J5UIRS

Take a look at LBL Hypnotherapy to learn more check out this, this and this.

Everything is Karma! by Burt Wilson.

You might find this book interesting.

no we do that as well. we are not always the same gender every incarnation.
https://www.amazon.com/Return-Revolutionaries-Reincarnation-Groups-Reunited/dp/1571743421

Interesting. There is research done by Dr. Ian Stevenson on past lives. He has many cases where a person described how they were killed in a previous life and had birthmarks matching the wounds they describe.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003J5UIRS/

This may be worth a read for you.

That's kind of a dick move. "Happy birthday, you're wrong." Give him something he wants for his birthday and the book set at a later date. That said, Anne Rice wrote some stories that actually have a decent argument for the existence of ghosts, even if they are fiction. Memnock the Devil comes to mind. This looks to be more what you are asking for. It's written by a parapsychologist who has written several more books with equally hokey titles. This is another one, although it seems to be more general souls and after life than ghost specifically. Really though, the argument for ghosts is the same as the one for souls.
Oddly enough, you may with to recommend a fanfiction to your friend, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. It's very long, but has well thought out arguments on things like souls and ghosts.

Read this book. It might allay your fears a bit.
https://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Death-Journalist-Investigates-Afterlife/dp/0553419617

From life to death, beyond and back | Thomas Fleischmann

​

More proof:

Easily digestible tier:

https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/day-i-died/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwyVFW9kT8k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw3oaNUR1iI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhANf60Y4Nk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W-PLmMwl2o

https://vimeo.com/7464750

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PX2x0FxDTs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzz-nG5pjFg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnoIf2NwaRY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5or66dI6akU

​

World-leading research tier:

​

http://www.horizonresearch.org/Uploads/Journal_Resuscitation__2_.pdf

https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc799144/m2/1/high_res_d/vol21-no1-5.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/dp/159477451X/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594773564/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594774528/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0997560800/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0826499236/

https://trans4mind.com/spiritual/Does-consciousness.pdf

Well, you can read some of the many books on Near Death Experiences, such as this one: http://www.amazon.com/Light-Beyond-Raymond-Moody/dp/0553278134

Or if you don't feel like buying a book, there are many videos on this topic, like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICdizzVY5h4

From life to death, beyond and back | Thomas Fleischmann

​

Easily digestible tier:

https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/day-i-died/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwyVFW9kT8k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw3oaNUR1iI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhANf60Y4Nk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W-PLmMwl2o

https://vimeo.com/7464750

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PX2x0FxDTs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzz-nG5pjFg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnoIf2NwaRY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5or66dI6akU

​

World-leading research tier:

http://www.horizonresearch.org/Uploads/Journal_Resuscitation__2_.pdf

https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc799144/m2/1/high_res_d/vol21-no1-5.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/dp/159477451X/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594773564/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594774528/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0997560800/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0826499236/

https://trans4mind.com/spiritual/Does-consciousness.pdf

Link here, it's broke up there. Tain't free anymore neither.

You should read Is There Life After Death by Anthony Peake. That is just about exactly his hypothesis.

Here is a kajillion more.
http://michaelprescott.freeservers.com/online-bibliography.html

Go in youtube and watch videos by scientists Dean Radin or Rupert Sheldrake. They will explain their dozens of peer reviewed Psi research. Its all proven man. There are literally thousands and thousands of studies and books.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0098O9F32/ref=kina_tdp?ie=UTF8

This guy goes over 125 years of independent research and rules out frauds and hoaxes. Read the description of the book.

I totally get your position man, but there comes a time when you gotta drop the skeptic attitude and do some research. Occams razor says this stuff is real.

This is similar to conversations I've had with dead people, so I'd say you were talking to a dead dude. Often, they'll meet up with old friends and take off on trips to different places and times. Their presence will be strongest during the first 9 months or so after death, and then they begin to distance themselves from the living, popping in only occasionally to check on things.

According to Dion Fortune, they undergo a 2nd death, whereby the lower energies disintegrate and the core of the spirit recedes to higher (more formless) levels.

More cases from the kindle book: 100 Reincarnation Cases In Pingyang: Extraordinary True Stories of Kam People Who Recall Past Lives

How is animal's afterlife? Do animals around us understand our human's language? I would like to quote some accounts from a reincarnation case from my book for your reference. A boy told us the things happened exactly on the day when his previous body as a pig was discussed, chased, roped and killed. He still remembered the conversation between the previous master of the pig and the three butchers. A pig never talks as human does not mean it is not able to understand our language.
Excerpt from case 32#. "...Yongyang had been able to speak in simple phrases since he was a year and eight months old, but his speech was not always very clear. One day, Yongyang was playing by the pavilion in the village when he noticed an old woman harvesting hogweeds nearby. He immediately made his way over and stopped her, exclaiming: “Don’t use those kinds of hogweeds - they are super spicy!” The old woman was surprised to hear this coming from a small child who couldn’t have been more than two years of age, so she asked him, “And how would you know that?” “I’m a pig!” Yongyang answered matter-of-factly, seemingly too young to be bothered by the fact that he had just declared himself to be a pig. Amused by his answer, the old woman asked, “And which family might you belong to, little piggy?” To her surprise, Yongyang immediately gave a rather specific answer: “I am from Rongmei’s family!”
This was the first time little Yongyang had ever mentioned his past life as a pig; perhaps seeing the old woman harvesting hogweeds sparked his memories. Later that day, the old woman mentioned their conversation to Yongyang’s mother, Jutao Lu, who was very surprised to learn about her son’s unusual past life.
After this initial event, Yongyang began to produce more and more fragmentary accounts of his past life as a pig. As it turned out, he was a white pig - one of the several kept by the family of a local villager named Rongmei, who fed the pigs by cooking hogweeds harvested from the hills with rice and bran. All the other pigs finished their meals without the tiniest bit of leftover, but this one particular pig had always been especially picky, leaving the less tasty bits in his trough. The owner would often get angry about the wastage and yell at him while striking his snout with a tree branch.
One day, his owner got together with three butchers who made their living selling pork, one of whom was named Yongyao Rong. While the butchers spoke with his owner, the white pig listened and realized that his owner intended to sell him to this group of men to be killed for meat. Terrified, the white pig waited for the butchers to open the gate, and bolted from the pigsty onto the streets, then made his way frantically towards the hills. The three butchers, along with his owner, chased after him with ropes and eventually caught up with him, bringing him back to the village firmly secured.
As they prepared for the slaughter, one of the butchers jokingly told him, “Hey, remember that it ain’t us two doing the slaughtering, yeah? It’s this guy, Yongyao - don’t you go after the wrong man, now!” The white pig listened and understood. He turned his head and caught a glimpse of Yongyao, who was ready to kill him. Yongyao did not notice anything out of of the ordinary, so he killed the pig as usual.
His soul departed the body of the white pig and had nowhere in particular to go, so it simply returned to the pigsty at Rongmei’s family, where it spent another half a year. During this time, Jutao was pregnant with child, and often passed by the Rongmei family home on her way to visit her mother - which she did on a regular basis during her pregnancy. Even on the last couple of days immediately prior to the birth of her baby, she would go by Rongmei’s place and its pigsty on her way to see her mother. When Yongyang was little, someone asked him, “how did you come to be here?” To which Yongyang would reply: “I came along with my mother!”
The butcher Yongyao had a daughter named Yanli Rong, who was Yongyang’s friend as well as a member of the same clan. When someone asked Yongyang, “who slaughtered you when you were a pig?” Yongyang answered, “Yanli’s dad did.” Yongyao, hearing about this, came by and verified that it was indeed him who did the slaughtering. Afterwards, Yongyao swore to never slaughter another pig again for as long as he lived.
Growing up, Yongyang had never taken to eating pork, and rarely ate any other kinds of meat. His mother grew worried and told him, “You have to eat some pork, otherwise you will be malnourished!” But for whatever reason, Yongyang had to this very day never eaten pork (and rarely any other kinds of meat). Jutao recalled that little Yongyang would often wake up from his sleep in the middle of the night bawling his eyes out, and could not be consoled.
At around 4 or 5 years of age, Yongyang’s grandmother began to feed him..."

This book is originally written in Chinese,published in Taiwan 2018. It's English version is translated by American and Canadian native professionals.
Kindle E-book
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D4LSK82

The photo of the subject

No kidding, you and me both! My first wife died when I was 34 (she was 30), and my second wife has come far too close on a couple of occasions. At some points in the past few years my obsession about death has turned into a deep, depressing anxiety.

I am generally an agnostic, at different times I have either believed or not believed in the afterlife. When I didn't, it was even more crushing than ever because I was obsessing about what it "feels like" to no longer exist. I would read stories in the news - sometimes I would purposefully seek them out - about people who were killed in accidents. Then I'd play a fake scene in my head. "Man, that guy, he was rounding that corner, not a care in the world, and literally two minutes later he's gone. Never knew his time was coming up so quickly. I wonder what that felt like? I wonder what he's feeling right now?" Etc....

After reading a number of things, I decided that I do in fact believe in an afterlife, and it will be pleasant. This book in particular was a big help for me:

http://www.amazon.com/Return-Life-Extraordinary-Children-Remember/dp/1250005841/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408998224&sr=8-1&keywords=jim+tucker

It's about the closest thing you can get to scientific verification of the afterlife.