2/23/2005

Waiting to be born again

Ive always wondered about rebirth, reincarnation and their scientific basis. Since time immemorial, man has been struggling to find a solution to this mystery but conclusive evidence has thus far eluded him. According to Hinduism a soul reincarnates again and again on earth till it becomes perfect and reunites with it Source. During this process the soul enters into many bodies, assumes many forms and passes through many births and deaths. This concept is described in the following verse of the Bhagavad gita:
"Just as a man discards worn out clothes and puts on new clothes, the soul discards worn out bodies and wears new ones." (translated)
Buddhism offers the most satisfactory explanation of where man came from and where he is going. When we die, the mind, with all the tendencies, preferences, abilities and characteristics that have been developed and conditioned in this life, re-establishes itself in a fertilized egg. Thus the individual grows, is re-born and develops a personality conditioned both by the mental characteristics that have been carried over and by the new environment. But the question comes then is how does the mind go from one body to another? The most logical rather close to scientific answer I ever got to this question is as follows:
Think of it being like radio waves. The radio waves, which are not made up of words and music but energy at different frequencies, are transmitted, travel through space, are attracted to and picked up by the receiver from where they are broadcast as words and music. It is the same with the mind. At death, mental energy travels through space, is attracted to and picked up by the fertilized egg. As the embryo grows, it centers itself in the brain from where it later "broadcasts" itself as the new personality.
Being a science minded guy I normally brutally reject their existence, but some recent developments in this field made me think twice about this eternal ever perplexing questions. Is rebirth possible? Are there any scientific bases for believing in rebirth?
Now, in probably the first-ever case of its kind, a Patiala-based forensic science expert has sought to scientifically prove the phenomenon of rebirth. Putting forward for debate his research in a case involving the rebirth of a child who lived in Chakkchela village of Jalandhar district in his past life and now lives in Alluna Miana village of Ludhiana district, Vikram Raj Singh Chauhan claims to prove on the basis of the comparison between the handwriting of the child in his previous and present births, the theory that rebirth is possible. His findings have been hailed at the recent National Conference of Forensic Scientists at Bundelkhand University, Jhansi.
A science minded person often finds it difficult to accept reincarnation because he/she had failed to perceive a reincarnation mechanism that is intelligible within the outdated Decartes' classical science frame work. But Modern Science, specifically Quantum Mechanics, has compelled us to accept unintelligible mechanisms of natural phenomena like the behaviour of electrons and we do not hesitate to accept them. Based on a Scientific paper presented at the 52nd Annual Sessions of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, November 1996, Reincarnation can be considered to be as an accepted phenomenon.
However, I still dont believe and I guess no quantum physics will make me change my mind, until I go through my own cycle of rebirth and get a feeling how the radio energy like mind energy really reinstates into a new body.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

science can not prove everything. It has its own limits. There are some things which you have to believe in.

Anonymous said...

good and thought-provoking article. and i concur that reincarnation seems to be a figment of imagination like conspiracy theories.absurd but seem to be absolutely probable.
but my dear friend...modern science is far too young to explain theories which are thousands of years old.
Did you know that there is a place called Shivnari near chennai where they can take your thumb print and match it with there records and tell u who u were and what u did in ur last birth?
do u know what our mantras are?...there is a very interesting theory as well for that.its a known fact that we dont or cant use a vast majority of our brains capacity..we hardly use less than 10% of our brain in totality.mantras are like passwords and codes to unlock the rest and teaches us how to use our brain to the fullest.just like softwares and there passwords.mantras are complex,audio-sensory codes utilising sound,vibrations and pressure to unlock our brain.too far-fetched for modern science may be, but should we disbelieve??

Carpe diem. said...

Well I agree that modern science is still young to explain everything. thats y I am eagerly waiting for the success of superstring theory - the theory of everything-something which has the potential to explain all the unrevealed mysteries. thanx for ur insight though.