Signs of Reincarnation: Exploring Beliefs, Cases, and Theory

by James G Matlock

Furthermore, reincarnation cases underline that mainstream concepts about memory functioning are incomplete. Because memories of a past life can resurface in another individual at a later time and at a different location, they provide robust evidence supporting the notion that memories are not stored in the brain. Accordingly, Matlock suggests that memories are preserved in a typically subconscious non-physical information-bearing matrix. And, as he shows, there is considerable evidence from other areas of consciousness research that buttresses this notion, such as near-death experiences (e.g., Holden, 2009; Rivas, Dirven & Smit, 2016), terminal lucidity and other death-related phenomena (Nahm, 2011a, 2012; Nahm et al., 2012), and discrepancies between cerebral structures and cognitive functioning (Nahm, Rousseau, & Greyson, 2017). There are also philosophical considerations (e.g., Braude, 2006). Perhaps some remarkable faculties of certain savants can also be better understood in this context. For example, Kim Peek had memorized more than twelve thousand books verbatim by the end of his life—although he read each page only once within eight to ten seconds, and had a severely malformed brain

Intriguingly, many reincarnation case subjects also describe events that seemed to have occurred in the intermission periods between lives, and like several other elements of reincarnation cases, the supposed memories concerning this time interval contain culture-specific features. Such differences are to be expected from the perspective of the vitalistic theory of evolution. Given that all organisms evolved from simpler forms such as unicellular organisms into increasingly complex forms that also developed increasingly complex perceptional and cognitive faculties (such as primates, dolphins, corvids, etc.), one needs to assume that their subconscious aspects, or the psychic background reality in which these organisms are rooted, must have evolved as well. Accordingly, the subconscious and the dreams of a chimpanzee, and the assumed subconscious layer of the “group soul” of chimpanzees, are likely to differ from that of humans. Respective differences should also be present in different cultures, and even in individuals, as also exemplified by dreams. From dreams, there is a seeming continuum that runs from lucid dreams, through out-of-body experiences, to more drastic forms of mental life such as mystical experiences and NDEs, which also contain cross-culturally stable core elements that are nevertheless individually and culturally conditioned (e.g., Kellehear, 2009; Matlock, 2017; Shushan, 2018). Concordantly, aspects of NDEs seem to have evolved throughout centuries in a...