In his 2005 book Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives psychiatrist Jim B. Tucker of the University of Virginia presents an overview of more than 40 years of research into children's reports of past-life memories. He argues that the cases give evidence for the reincarnation.
For example, a young child (called Sam in the study) born a few months after his grandfather’s death reported at the age of 3 as his father changed his diaper, that he remembered changing his father’s diaper. A few years later he recognized himself in old photos of his grandfather he had never seen and recalled the murder of his grandfather’s sister even though the boy had no knowledge of these events.
Is Sam the same person as his grandfather?
The case of Sam and his grandfather is an example of the problem of personal identity, which asks what actually makes a person stay the same over time. It seems impossible for Sam to be his grandfather, as they are two different people with two different bodies born at different times. This view is often called materialism, the idea that we are essentially just our physical parts. Since the grandfather’s body died and Sam’s body is brand new, from a materialist view, people would say they are definitely not the same person. However, I look at this through the view of the memory theory of identity. If Sam can accurately remember changing his father’s diaper or details about a family murder that he was never told about, it suggests that his "self" or his mind has continued from one life to the next. If the "self" is like a stream of thoughts and memories, then Sam might truly be his grandfather inhabiting a new body, much like a traveler moving from one house to another. This is a significant challenge to our usual ideas about life and death. We have to decide if identity is found in our DNA or in the stories and experiences we carry within us. If Sam really does have his grandfather's memories, then the boundary between two different lives starts to blur, and the idea of a persisting consciousness becomes much harder to ignore. Ultimately, the answer depends on whether you believe a person is defined by their physical presence or by an invisible thread of their inner life.
ReplyDeleteSam is not the same person as his grandfather because he doesn't satisfy the body or the soul view. His body is not the same as his grandfathers' and he doesn't have the conscious of his grandfather either, all he has is the memories of his grandfather. Simply having just the memories of another person does not make you that person. If I knew every memory of my father, I would not become my father, I would simply know everything he has been through. The fact that Sam has his grandfathers memory does not satisfy the soul view. This is because we have established that memories are not a direct correlation to your soul, they exist inside of your brain and are not directly related to your soul and stay with your body, not your soul. My group talked about how memories don't provide enough parts of your identity to satisfy the soul view. Memories may provide an insight into how somebody may act and who they are, but memories and a past doesn't define a person's personal identity and therefore having the same memory does not necessarily mean that that person has the same soul or is the same person. Memories can also be somewhat manufactured, such as the feeling of deja-vu, where you feel that you have lived this event before without you ever having experienced it. Our brains can also make up certain memories from when we were younger or also alter our perception of those memories which would create a false sense of personal identity, meaning that not only does having the same memories not satisfy the soul view, it also conflicts with your personal identity and can change what you remember, meaning it can not be a foundational piece of your personal identity.
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