Have any scientist studied Reincarnation?

Question

Have any scientist studied Reincarnation?

Answer 1

Reincarnation was studied in a scientific manner by Dr. Ian Stevenson (now deceased) at the University of Virginia where his work is being continued (link below).

His book written for the general public on the subject is called "Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation" (link below).

What psuedoskeptics don't like to mention is that the work of Dr. Stevenson was praised by Carl Sagan in his highly skeptical book "Demon Haunted World" which is very much worth reading. (link below).

Dr. Stevenson himself said that the evidence did not compel anyone to believe (he did not say the evidence was not compelling). As he understood as a trained psychiatrist no evidence could compel a belief system.

After years of research he himself believed firmly in reincarnation. Regarding skeptics which he failed to tolerate in his 80's and 90's he invited them to do their own research if they didn't believe his (no one has done so) or introduce their own hypothesis that would better fit the evidence (no one has done so). There are some other parapsychology theories that may fit the evidence as well but no skeptic bothers doing actual research with those either.

To a lesser extent reincarnation is also studied by Brian Weiss (link below) through past life regressions via hypnosis. This is a more controversial area of research but is more useful (via hypnosis) in helping clients/patients with current day distresses.

Psi

Answer 2

In order for a scientist to study something there must be something measurable or testable.  Since no concrete or testable claim is ever made about reincarnation there is nothing to experiment on.

Answer 3

From the scientific perspective, there isn't any compelling evidence to believe that we live multiple lives, though that hasn't stopped the Past Life Regression craze (see first link).

There has been virtually no scientific study of reincarnation, simply because it's awfully hard to come up with testable and falsifiable (read: scientific) hypotheses with this topic of study and scientists probably don't want to look like crackpots, either. There is one notable exception, however. Past life experiences have been studied in a controlled way by Dr. Ian Stevenson (a psychiatrist and founder of research on reincarnation). However, even he admits that his research did not produce compelling evidence (see 2nd & 3rd links).

Some paranormal evangelists display their poor reasoning abilities by exploiting logical fallacies, e.g., using an Appeal to Authority or Straw Man Argument in regards to Stevenson and Carl Sagan. Carl Sagan indeed spoke positively of the value of Stevenson's research, but what the paranormal evangelist will not tell you is that Sagan did not endorse the conclusion that the evidence supports the reincarnation hypothesis, hence the "Straw Man" argument. In addition, it is an Appeal to Authority by merely citing Sagan (a skeptical icon of sorts), a tactic which has no relevance to the evidence or conclusions from the data.

Answer 4

Look it up in google

Answer 5

Scientists have ATTEMPTED to study all sorts of paranormal claims... from ghosts to psychics to precognition to memories of past lives and even memories of future lives... to people who claim they can diagnose to people who claim they can talk to the dead.

Science has tried... and failed.  Because there exists no real tangible evidence, no quantifiable empirical evidence, no repeatable experiment, no statistical consistency, etcetera etcetera.

All the scientists have to rely on are the claims and assertions of those they are experimenting on.  And those being experimented on are usually outwardly trying to be proved, which is how they crossed paths with scientists in the first place.  A rather biased way of collecting data... which is only one set of data that cannot be validated by an unbiased observer.

Answer 6

how would they possibly study reincarnation?! Anyone could be anything... mind you though we are from ashes and to ashes we return... so really we become compost haha

sorry got off topic

I don't think so

Answer 7

It's so funny I ran into this question!  I just found this book yesterday, and it really looks pretty interesting.  I haven't read it yet, so I couldn't tell you if it's spectacular or not, but the reviews seem to point toward eye-opening.

It's called "Old Souls" by Thomas Shroder and it's about psychologist Ian Stevenson who apperently spent his whole life studying reincarnation and past lives.

Amazon-

http://www.amazon.com/Old-Souls-Compelli...