Theos-Talk Archives (March 2002 Message tt00508)

Jerry: OK, we begin by recognizing that the ego is a collection of
parts, and not a Monad (an indivisible unit). So, if we define
aggregates as mayavic, as Buddhism does, then the ego is maya. Then 
we look at the spiritual Self, the atma-buddhi. No atma-bddhi is a dual 
thing right off the bat, and cannot be a Monad, so it too is maya. Then 
we lookhard
at atma. What is it? I see it as selfhood, the archetypal self of
Jung. 
Whether it is an aggregate or not, it still observes a spiritual
universe, and so the two togther form a duality, and so we still have 
notreched the Monad. But when we leave this 7-plane solar system, 
and reach non-duality or Beness, then the Self and Not-Self, or the I
and Not-I, disappear, and we find/experience the Monad which is 
neither a selfnor a not-self, nor is it both together, nor is it neither of the
two."

Br.: Erin's mother had become a believer in reincarnation by then,
but she insisted that Erin's statements about a previous life were
entirely spontaneous. Unfortunately, neither the location nor the
period of
the earlier life was ever mentioned.

Roberta Morgan was born in 1961 in an unnamed town in Minnesota. 
She started talking about a previous life when she was between two
and two and a half years old, but her mother at that time dismissed
the 
statements as nonsense. Several years later, long after Roberta had 
stopped talking about a previous life, the mother became a 
reincarnationist and contacted Stevenson. She reproached herself for 
not having attempted to contact Roberta's previous family. This would 
not have been easy since, in Stevenson's words, Roberta "gave few 
clues" to the period of her previous incarnation. Roberta denied ever 
having died, which makes this a particularly puzzling case that
should be of interest to philosophers writing about person identity:
if 
Roberta did not die, what happened to the earlier body and who is now 
inhabiting it?
At the age of three Michael Wright is said to have started
remembering events in the life of Walter Miller who had been his 
mother's boyfriend before she married Michael's father. Walter was 
killed in a car crash at the age of eighteen, and Mrs. Wright
desperately 
wanted him to return. 

She was a great believer in reincarnation and with her mother formed
a reincarnationist "enclave" in the midst of a conservative
Christian community. Mrs. Wright had all kinds of psychic experiences 
which Stevenson does not describe, but he does complain about her
credulity. He nevertheless believes that she accurately reported 
Michael's statements and he is not prepared to dismiss the case.


Replacing people who died in accidents and who are greatly missed 
seems to be a common theme in reincarnation cases, East and West. 
Mrs. Eastland, an Idaho housewife, had lost her six year old daughter 
Minnie in an accident in 1961. She would have given anything to get 
Minnie back. Both she and her older daughter, Sharon, had dreams
which they interpreted to mean that Minnie would come back. In 1964 
Susan was bom and when she was two, she started to talk about 
incidents from Minnie's life that she her self "could not normally
have known about. " Even Stevenson considers this case "com
paratively weak:' since "we cannot exclude the possibility that Mrs. 
Eastland had, with out being aware that she was doing so, passed on 
some information to Susan."

The remaining two Western cases are in their general features quite 
similar to the Eastland case. In the Finnish case of Samuel Helander,
the person who died prematurely was Samuel's uncle Pertti. Both 
Samuel's mother (Pertti's sister), and Samuel's grandmother (Pertti's 
mother), were eager to get Pertti back. Pertti had died in April 1975
and
Samuel was born in June 1976. There were the usual announcing 
dreams, and to the delight of his mother and grandmother, Samuel had 
numerous memories and recognition experiences, "proving" that he was 
indeed Pertti.

The most interesting of the six Western cases is that of Gillian and 
Jennifer Pollock which has also been described in considerable detail
by Ian Wilson. Joanne and Anv critical reader of Stevenson's books
and 
articles the question almost ir rey arises why the kind of case that 
seems to occur with such frequency in India other countries in which 
reincarnation is part of the accepted religion does not occur in the
West. 
Stevenson has dealt with this question in his introduction to
. s book and in the article "Some Questions Related to Cases of the 
ReincamaTy "to which I have referred on several occasions. In the 
former discusson tells us that he values the publication of 
Ryall's book not only because of intrinsic merit" but also because
its publication may give courage "to other who feel inclined to
expose
what seemed to them memories of previous lives,fear unpleasant 
consequences if they do Cases like Ryall's will end "the bW night of 
suppression of reincarnation cases in the West ' " a "night" that has
bsted "more than fourteen centuries." In the more extended discussion 
in his 1974 arifick Stevenson first flatly denies that cases of the
type captured in his books do not occur in the West. He asserts that 
he "now" has forty cases of children 
n the contimanal United States. Stevenson adds that cases also occur
in Europe,in Central and South America, and among groups in Asia 
whose religions do not include belief inwin,carnation. He admits, 
however, that such cases are reported much less frequently in
cultures where the population does not believe in reincarnation, but he
strongly em phasizes that this admission applies only to reported cases. 
We havemno valid inforatation, he writes, "about the actual incidence of
cases and he once again expresses his suspicion that many parents 
refrain from reporting signs of reincarnation behavior on the part
of their children for fear of ostracism and ridicule.


Bri.