Michael Cremo - Human Devolution - A Vedic Alternative To Darwin's Theory

2001): “University of Southampton researchers have just published a paper detailing their pioneering study into near death experiences (or ndEs) that suggests consciousness and the mind may continue to exist after the brain has ceased to function and the body is clinically dead. The team spent a year studying people resuscitated in the city’s General Hospital after suffering a heart attack. The patients brought back to life were all, for varying lengths of time, clinically dead with no pulse, no respiration and fixed dilated pupils. Independent EEG studies have confirmed that the brain’s electrical activity, and hence brain function, ceases at that time. But seven out of 63 (11 per cent) of the Southampton patients who survived their cardiac arrest recalled emotions and visions during unconsciousness. . . . This raises the question of how such lucid thought processes can occur when the brain is dead.” dr. Parnia stated: “during cardiac arrest brainstem activity is rapidly lost. It should not be able to sustain such lucid processes or allow the formation of lasting memories.” The University of Southampton study took into account two common explanations for ndEs. The first is that the visions are produced by lack of oxygen or unusual drug treatments. But oxygen levels were carefully monitored in the study, and none of the survivors reporting ndEs had low oxygen levels. neither did they have any unusual combinations of drugs. Another explanation is that the visions are an attempt by the mind to avoid confronting the uncomfortable fact of death. But dr. Parnia observed, “The features of the ndEs in this study were dissimilar to those of confusional hallucinations as they were highly structured, narrative, easily recalled and clear.” dr. Parnia added: “The main significance of the ndE lies in the understanding of the relationship between mind and brain which has remained a topic of debate in contemporary philosophy, psychology and neuroscience. . . . Our findings need to be investigated with a much larger study. But if the results are replicated it would imply that the mind may continue to exist after the death of the body, or an afterlife.”

Reincarnation memories

The phenomenon of reincarnation memories lends strength to the idea that the OBE should be interpreted as a journey out of the body by a conscious self. Ian Stevenson and his associates have published numerous cases of young children spontaneously announcing a previous human existence. The published reports document evidence confirming the identity of the person the child claims to have been in a previous life. This evidence is not likely to have been known to the child by normal means. The evidence has been verified by thorough cross examination of the child and persons professing to have knowledge of past life personalities and events named by the child. Stevenson has published 64 extensively documented case studies from all over the world, and has another 2,600 cases (investigated by himself and others) that appear genuine. Let us now consider two cases.

Sukla Gupta was born in 1954 in the village of Kampa, in West Bengal, India. from the time she was eighteen months old, her parents would see her playing with a block of wood. She wrapped it in a cloth, and treated it like an infant, calling it Minu. As she got older, she revealed that Minu was her daughter. She also spoke of having a husband. In a fashion typical of a married woman in India, she did not refer to her husband by name. She expressed a memory of having gone with her unnamed husband to a movie. She did mention by name two other men, Khetu and Karuna, indicating they were the younger brothers of her husband. She said they all lived in a neighborhood called Rathtala in Bhatpara, a village eleven miles south of Kampa, on the road to calcutta. Stevenson (1974, p. 53) noted: “The Gupta family knew Bhatpara slightly; however, they had never heard of a district called Rathtala in Bhatpara nor of people with the names given by Sukla.”

When she was about four years old, Sukla asked to be taken to Bhatpara, threatening that if her family did not take her, she would go herself. She said that if she were taken to Bhatpara, she could lead the way to the house of her husband’s father. In the traditional Indian extended family, a young husband and wife would often stay in the household of the husband’s father.

Sukla’s father, K. n. Sen Gupta, a railway employee, mentioned his daughter’s statements and recollections to another railway employee, S. c. Pal, who lived near Bhatpara. Through relatives, Pal learned that a man named Khetu did live in Bhatapara, in a neighborhood called Rathtala. Stevenson (1974, p. 53) stated, “Pal found further that the man called Khetu had a sister-in-law, one Mana, who had died some years back (in January, 1948) leaving an infant girl called Minu. When Sri Pal reported these facts to Sukla’s father he became more interested in a visit by Sukla to Bhatpara; this was then arranged with the consent of the other family, of which Sri Amritalal chakravarty was the head.”

In the summer of 1959, Sukla and some of her family members went to Bhatapara. S. c. Pal either came with them or joined them in Bhatpara. At that time, Sukla led the group to the house of Amritlal chakravarty, the father of Mana’s husband. Stevenson (1974, p. 58) commented: “Although the route available was straight, not curved, there were many houses and lanes into which Sukla could have turned if ignorant of the correct way. There is one main crossroad also. Sukla was ahead of the others. Only . . . Pal knew the way, and he was behind the girl.”

Having arrived at the correct house, Sukla had some difficulty finding the main entrance door. Stevenson (1974, p. 58) commented: “Since the death of Mana, a former entrance to the house had been closed, and the main entrance moved to the side off the street and down an alley. Sukla’s confusion was thus appropriate to the changes.” While Sukla and the party were still in front of the house, Amritlal chakravarty by chance came into the street. Immediately upon seeing him, Sukla gave a sign of recognition, dropping her eyes downward, as Indian women customarily do in the presence of an older male relative. Inside the house were between twenty and thirty people. Sukla was asked if she could pick out her husband. She correctly identified Haridhan chakravarty as “Minu’s father” (Stevenson 1974, p. 59). At the same time, she also pointed out Khetu, identifying him as “the uncle of Minu” (Stevenson 1974, p. 60). At another point during the visit, a man entered the room and a few minutes later asked Sukla, “Who am I?” (Stevenson 1974, p. 60) Sukla said, “Karuna,” and also identified him as her younger brother-in-law. Most of those present did not know him by his given name Karuna, but by his nickname Kuti. When she saw Minu, Sukla began to shed tears and manifested other signs of intense affection for the girl, who was at the time twelve or thirteen years old (Stevenson 1974, p. 59). Sukla had just turned five years old. Sukla’s grandmother, part of the party who had accompanied her, asked Sukla to point out her mother-in-law. Sukla correctly picked out the woman in the group of people present (Stevenson 1974, p. 60).

A week after Sukla visited Bhatpara, Haridhan chakravarty (Mana’s husband), Reba nani Pathak (Mana’s maternal aunt), and Minu visited Sukla at her home in Kampa. Reba nani Pathak asked, “With whom did you leave Minu when you died?” Sukla replied,“With you.” Stevenson (1974, p. 61) stated: “In fact, just before Mana died, her last words asked this aunt who would look after Minu, and the aunt had replied that she would do so.” On this same occasion, Sukla had insisted that her family prepare a certain dish for Haridhan chakrvarty, and it turned out to be his favorite dish. Reba Pathat recalled that during the visit, Sukla had been asked if she had any children besides Minu. Sukla correctly recalled having had a son who died as an infant, before Minu’s birth. Sukla was asked, “Have you lived anywhere else besides Bhatpara?” She correctly replied that she had lived in Kharagpur. Haridhan chakravarty and his wife Mana had in fact lived there for just over a year. Reba Pathak and Haridhan chakravarty questioned Sukla about her clothes. She stated correctly that Mana had three saris, two of them being fine silk saris from Benares. On a later visit to Bhatpara, two weeks after her first visit, Sukla picked out Mana’s saris from among a large quantity of clothing that had not belonged to Mana (Stevenson 1974, p. 63). during this same visit, Sukla mentioned that the chakravarty family had two cows and a parrot. The cows had died and the parrot had flown away after Mana’s death. Sukla also mentioned that she had a brass pitcher in a certain room of the chakravarty house. Stevenson (1974, p. 63) stated, “Sukla went to this room in the house and found the pitcher still there. She had not been to this room on her first visit. The room in question had been Mana’s bedroom.” Sukla correctly specified the former location of Minu’s cot in her bedroom. On seeing a sewing machine, often used by Mana, Sukla began to shed tears.