PRESS RELEASE ON THE REINCARNATION EXPERIMENT
The
Latin-based word "reincarnation" and its antecedents in Greek,
Sanskrit, Bantu, and many other languages have focused conversations in
all cultures for millennia. But what do they really mean?
Most
concepts of reincarnation emphasize its role in a spiritual realm. Some
books have led to a view that reincarnation involves only special cases
of distinctive physical markings, unexplained memories, or a trauma
from a previous life that can be healed in this one. Even secular
discussions of reincarnation often use mystical terms, unrelated to
everyday life.
The different forms of alleged evidence for
reincarnation have never been subjected to a mainstream, scientific
examination of the possibility that it may be a natural phenomenon.
Wouldn't it make sense that if the Dalai Lama or other special cases
indicate some form of past-life links, it is equally likely that all of
us are influenced by the same process? Given the widespread reports of
hypothetical cases, could "reincarnation" be a universal aspect of Homo sapiens' physical and conscious evolution?
The
project initiated by Paul Von Ward in early 2005 involves a scientific
approach to answering such questions. Reported in his new book, The Soul Genome: Science and Reincarnation,
the project evaluates various cases, examines alternative explanations,
and considers their implications. It has completed tests of a
theoretical model that suggests human reproduction (and probably that
of other species) involves an info-energetic psychoplasm that
encompasses the physical genome.
His book and this evolving web
site invite public testing of the methodology and help in refinement of
the model. While there is still much work to be done, the preliminary
evidence highlighted in the book raises some tantalizing issues,
including the origin of the knowledge and skills of prodigies in music,
mathematics, and other fields.
Paul asks his readers to “Contemplate
that what you study in school or college, where you live and work, whom
you marry, or not, how you spend your free time, who your friends are,
and what you feel about it may reflect the influence of events in
centuries past. What difference would it make if you learned that how
you interpret global, national, neighborhood, and family affairs may be
based on more than what you have learned since birth?”
Thought-provoking
evidence evaluated by the project suggests that you may be predisposed
by the experiences of one or more humans who lived in the past. It
raises the possibility that even if you don’t know who they were, their
“soulprints” may be evident in you today.
Without recourse to
extra-dimensional or solely personal information, Paul evaluated the
empirical evidence for reincarnation in scores of cases. He concluded
that thousands of proposed past-life connections can be more logically
explained by the psychoplasm or soul-genome concept than by any other
theory.
Paul says, “In my research, I found that much more
verifiable data supported individual past-life connections than have
been reported by other books in the field. Illustrative cases
highlighted in the book (and on this website) include both ordinary
folks as well as known historical figures. All these cases are
documented and evaluated according to the new integral research model developed during the first stages of the Reincarnation Experiment.”
The Soul Genome brings a totally new perspective to reincarnation. Its subtitle, Science and Reincarnation,
suggests why. It subjects what has been thought of as a nebulous
concept of spiritual, metaphysical, or transpersonal worldviews, to an
examination through the lens of 21st-century science. As an
interdisciplinary cosmologist, Paul is bringing reincarnation down to
Earth to ascertain its tangible features and explore its implications
for Homo sapiens.
Although this mini-hypothesis must
still be labeled speculative, reading about this project's
well-developed case studies may change the way you think about human
behavior.
Linda Jones-Ellis
Nashville Group Coordinator
Institute of Noetic Science
Contact Linda by e-mail.
[Paul Von Ward, an interdisciplinary cosmologist and independent scholar, in addition to The Soul Genome, is author of Gods, Genes, & Consciousness and Our Solarian Legacy.
His interest in personality development involved graduate work at
Harvard and Florida State University. Paul is a frequent writer and
speaker for the Association for Humanistic Psychology, International
Conferences on Science and Consciousness, and IONS community groups. He
can be contacted by e-mail and on his personal web site.]
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