Just heard about this book on NPR through an interview with the author, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia (so he must be okay!). It concerns the memories that children have had of other lives, memories that disappear with the arrival of the age of reason. I didn't realize that so much had been been written about this. Tucker appears to be the most prominent researcher in the area. Somebody might question even putting this in the category of science, but in principle there's nothing wrong with investigating any topic scientifically. I recall being surprised when Sam Harris said that science should further look into reincarnation.

The possibility discussed: consciousness may exist independently from what we understand as matter.

The Daily Mail has a good article. I don't know the reputation of that newspaper; it seems to go a little toward the sensational. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... nated.html

http://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-sunday/

Well it sounds convincing if you take everyone at their word. It's not too hard to imagine an elaborate hoax.

He probably should have just left out his explanation of "blah blah quantum mechanics."

And the bit about the kids choosing their parents takes it to a whole other level beyond just consciousness existing outside of matter.

DWill wrote:Just heard about this book on NPR through an interview with the author, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia (so he must be okay!). It concerns the memories that children have had of other lives, memories that disappear with the arrival of the age of reason. I didn't realize that so much had been been written about this. Tucker appears to be the most prominent researcher in the area. Somebody might question even putting this in the category of science, but in principle there's nothing wrong with investigating any topic scientifically. I recall being surprised when Sam Harris said that science should further look into reincarnation.

The possibility discussed: consciousness may exist independently from what we understand as matter.

The Daily Mail has a good article. I don't know the reputation of that newspaper; it seems to go a little toward the sensational. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... nated.html

http://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-sunday/

Thanks for this post, DWill. I have heard of this and have been mildly interested in reading up on it.
I think it would be an area of interest that a materialist would definitely allow his/her personal bias to immediately dismiss as a grand conspiracy or an "elaborate hoax."

However, I'd be interested in knowing exactly how these children were examined, particularly how they were prompted to express themselves and how they were questioned.

As you might recall long ago when the paranoia of child abuse scandals was the front page news story every morning, a great deal of those allegations were found to be groundless/bogus due to the manner in which the children were being questioned by "experts." Many of the tales of abuse were prompted by the manner of questioning.