Reincarnation

Another boring afternoon where there is nothing much to do; nothing to look forward to. I just stayed home after lunch just to watch the tree outside my window. Unfortunately, it have not even blossomed one bit. To ease my boredom, I just went into my dad’s study room to check out what’s on Discovery Channel. Out of the blue, not very frequently, someone will just decide to talk about reincarnation and have it as a documentary. I am not sure about everyone, but I personally don’t believe in reincarnation. When a person dies, there are only two places one will go to… hell or heaven.

The stories projected in this documentary called ‘Past Stories: Stories of Reincarnation’ was pretty *cough* interesting. For a person who is not strong in the Christian faith may be blinded by the fact that reincarnation existed during the olden days and that heaven and hell was just another fantasy that someone can relate to. I do not have doubts nor do I question much on my beliefs. If Christ clearly stated that by Faith I shall be save, then so be it. I wouldn’t want to argue the fact that God gives a second chance to be reincarnated and to have a second chance in life. Well, maybe at times a person will stare into the eyes of death, but never come close to begging God for a second chance after he is put to death by God’s willing.

Anyways, again, was pretty bored this afternoon so I just sat through the whole one hour, listening and watching the documentary on the stories of reincarnation. There were two breathtaking case studies discussed about and it is actually pretty interesting to know. Can this be true, it’s all base on one’s perception and judgment. No unnecessary condemnation is allowed.

Sri Lanka is a place where reincarnation is strongly believed and commonly talked about. There was a girl name Dilukshi living in a small area who told her parents about how she had drowned in her previous life before she was born in her current home. Her mom was pretty frustrated with her as Dilukshi went over and over about her previous life and how her previous mother treated her. Well of course the mother has the rights to be jealous as you wouldn’t want to make up stories by telling your mom that how nice you have been treated in your previous life. However, the fact is that Dilukshi has a previous life to narrate to her family members as well as Dr. Erlendur Haraldsson who is a professor of the University of Iceland who came to investigate Dilukshi’s case.

In her previous life, Dilukshi was drowned while playing with a group of friends in a nearby stream in Tambala. She described the way she died to Dr. Haraldsson and she wanted so much to just meet her previous parents again. Her previous parents found out about Dilukshi through a locall journalists and wrote a letter to Dilukshi’s parents about how eager they were to meet up with her. Dilukshi threatened her parents to take her to see her previous parents or not she’ll run away from home.

A wish was granted. Her parents brought her to Tambala and meet up with her previous parents. On the way to Tambala, Dilukshi recognizes most of the landmarks and the places she use to hang around with her friends. Almost immediately, she somehow felt so at home and recognizes her belongings as well as the pictures shown to her by the previous family. She brought Dr. Haraldsson to the place where she was drowned and everything that Dilukshi described in her story was similar to the surroundings that Dr. Haraldsson was in. He felt that he was in a dream but at this point it was the real picture he is in.

Another case involved a little boy by the name Gus Ortega who’s father was so surprise when one day, he was changing the little kids diapers and suddenly the son looked up at him and said, ‘when I was your age, I use to change the diaper for you’. Mr. Ortega was astounded by his son’s remark. How can a little kid speak about something like this? The most surprising thing was when Mr. Ortega took out a black and white picture showing a group of people, little Gus just walked up the picture and pointed at a man in his mid 30s and said ‘there, this is me’. Mrs. Ortega was definitely dumbstruck as she was from a Baptist family who does not even believe a single thing about reincarnation.

Another professor by the name of Jim Tucker went to Florida to investigate yet another case about a little boy by the name Ian Hagerdon who narrated about him being a policeman in the past life who was shot to death during a burglary attack in a retail store. Ian was suffering severe heart disease when he was born and underwent a total of 6 surgeries. This was believed to have certain ties with his previous being. His maternal father had been shot right through the chest and pronounced dead when he reached the hospital. When he was reincarnated, little Ian now suffers from heart disease.

One day when Ian was crying in his room, his mother came into the room and told him to soften down or not she will spank him. Besides of immediately ceasing his cries, he looked up at his mom and said ‘when you were my age, and when you were naughty, I did not even spank you’. Of course, the mother was shocked by his remark. Another remarkable thing was that Ian asked his mom one day about the cats that she had when she was a little kid. One was named Maniac (the black cat) and the other was named Boston (the white cat). Ian asked his mom about one of their names.

‘Mommy, what was the cat’s name again? The one that you have,” Ian asked.

“Maniac?” replied his mom.

“No, the white one,” asked Ian once again.

Memories, statement and birthmark of a little child may be similar to the person of the previous life but can it be known as pure luck? Dr. Richard Wiseman was never a fan the topic on reincarnation. He wanted to prove that reincarnation is just a myth in society. He randomly selected children to interview and asked each and everyone to make up his/her own story. There was a little child by the name Molly who narrated a story about a little girl with red hair, blue eyes and wearing a pink, flowery dress who went away from home. Her runaway from home turned out to be a tragic death.

After hearing the story of the child, Dr. Wiseman did some research on the newspaper archive and he was flabbergasted to find that the 17 facts that Molly gave about the little girl, 13 out of the 17 facts that she gave was in point of fact similar to the case of the girl described in Molly’s made up story. So, was it just pure luck or was it true that reincarnation does exist before out naked eye?

Well, the question will somehow make you ponder on what seems to be a fantasy to you that turns into reality after hours of research and listening to inspiring stories of others. Again, what we hear may not be a factor of what we should believe in. After watching this documentary, it actually challenges my faith. What do personally feel?