Little boy claims he's been to heaven
Colton Burpo was just four when a life-saving surgery left him with an amazing story. What he says he saw
Asking about rebirth
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I would like to ask about rebirth, I was hoping for some confirmation of rebirth because I was reading some websites about past life regression hypnotism, and they said that memory of past life is a fake memory.
I think my faith is not very strong yet, reading these things also can affect my faith
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Originally posted by Beautiful951:
I would like to ask about rebirth, I was hoping for some confirmation of rebirth because I was reading some websites about past life regression hypnotism, and they said that memory of past life is a fake memory.
I think my faith is not very strong yet, reading these things also can affect my faith
Rebirth is very real and there are people in this forum who can not only access their past life memories, but be able to trace the direct past-life karmic cause for happenings in their current life.
As for those sceptics who do not believe in rebirth: they are going against so many scientific research that proves that past life memories are valid - many studies have been done and tracing have been done on those people, especially children, who can remember their past lives.
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/qanda05.htm
You have talked a lot about rebirth but is there any proof that we are reborn when we die?
Not only is there scientific evidence to support the Buddhist belief in rebirth, it is the only after-life theory that has any evidence to support it. There is not a scrap of evidence to prove the existence of heaven and of course evidence of annihilation at death must be lacking. But during the last 30 years parapsychologists have been studying reports that some people have vivid memories of their former lives. For example, in England, a 5 year-old girl said she could remember her "other mother and father" and she talked vividly about what sounded like the events in the life of another person. Parapsychologists were called in and they asked her hundreds of questions to which she gave answers. She spoke of living in a particular village in what appeared to be Spain, she gave the name of the village, the name of the street she lived in, her neighbors' names and details about her everyday life there. She also fearfully spoke of how she had been struck by a car and died of her injuries two days later. When these details were checked, they were found to be accurate. There was a village in Spain with the name the five-year-old girl had given. There was a house of the type she had described in the street she had named. What is more, it was found that a 23-year-old woman living in the house had been killed in a car accident five years before. Now how is it possible for a five year- old girl living in England and who had never been to Spain to know all these details? And of course, this is not the only case of this type. Professor Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia's Department of Psychology has described dozens of cases of this type in his books. He is an accredited scientist whose 25 year study of people who remember former lives is very strong evidence for the Buddhist teaching of rebirth.
Well, have there been any scientists who believe in rebirth?
Yes. Thomas Huxley, who was responsible for having science introduced into the 19th century British school system and who was the first scientist to defend Darwin's theories, believed that reincarnation was a very plausible idea. In his famous book 'Evolution and Ethics and other Essays', he says:In the doctrine of transmigration, whatever its origin, Brahmanical and Buddhist speculation found, ready to hand, the means of constructing a plausible vindication of the ways of the Cosmos to man... Yet this plea of justification is not less plausible than others; and none but very hasty thinkers will reject it on the ground of inherent absurdity. Like the doctrine of evolution itself, that of transmigration has its roots in the world of reality; and it may claim such support as the great argument from analogy is capable of supplying.
Then, Professor Gustaf Stromberg, the famous Swedish astronomer, physicist and friend of Einstein also found the idea of rebirth appealing. Opinions differ whether human souls can be reincarnated on the earth or not. In 1936 a very interesting case was thoroughly investigated and reported by the government authorities in India. A girl (Shanti Devi from Delhi) could accurately describe her previous life (at Muttra, five hundred miles from Delhi) which ended about a year before her "second birth." She gave the name of her husband and child and described her home and life history. The investigating commission brought her to her former relatives, who verified all her statements. Among the people of India reincarnations are regarded as commonplace; the astonishing thing for them in this case was the great number of facts the girl remembered. This and similar cases can be regarded as additional evidence for the theory of the indestructibility of memory. Professor Julian Huxley, the distinguished British scientist who was Director General of UNESCO believed that rebirth was quite in harmony with scientific thinking. There is nothing against a permanently surviving spirit-individuality being in some way given off at death, as a definite wireless message is given off by a sending apparatus working in a particular way. But it must be remembered that the wireless message only becomes a message again when it comes in contact with a new, material structure - the receiver. So with our possible spirit-emanation. It... would never think or feel unless again 'embodied' in some way. Our per venalities are so based on body that it is really impossible to think of survival which would be in any true sense personal without a body of sorts... I can think of something being given off which would bear the same relation to men and women as a wireless message to the transmitting apparatus; but in that case 'the dead' would, so far as one can see, be nothing but disturbances of different patterns wandering through the universe until... they... came back to actuality of consciousness by making contact with something which could work as a receiving apparatus for mind. Even very practical and down-to-earth people like the American industrialist Henry Ford found the idea or rebirth acceptable. Ford was attracted to the idea of rebirth because, unlike the theistic idea or the materialistic idea, rebirth gives you a second chance to develop yourself. Henry Ford says: I adopted the theory of Reincarnation when I was twenty-six. Religion offered nothing to the point.. Even work could not give me complete satisfaction. Work is fume if we cannot utilize the experience we collect in one life in the next. When I discovered Reincarnation it was as if I had found a universal plan. I realized that there was a chance to work out my ideas. Time was no longer limited. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock... Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives. Some are older souls than others, and so they know more... The discovery of Reincarnation put my mind at ease... If you preserve a record of this conversation, write it so that it puts men's minds at ease. I would like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life gives to us.
So the Buddhist teachings of rebirth does have some scientific evidence to support it. It is logically consistent and it goes a long way to answering questions that theistic and the materialistic theories fail to do. But it is also very comforting. What can be worse than a theory of life that gives you no second chance, no opportunity to amend the mistakes you have made in this life and no time to further develop the skills and abilities you have nurtured in this life. But according to the Buddha, if you fail to attain Nirvana in this life, you will have the opportunity to try again next time. If you have made mistakes in this life, you will be able to correct yourself in the next life. You will truly be able to learn from your mistakes. Things you were unable to do or achieve in this life may well become possible in the next life. What a wonderful teaching!
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There are many proofs of young kids and also adults remembering their lives in detail even when they have never been to that place before, they remember the people they know, how they died, what was their name, the street name and house where they lived etc.
If we believe in cause in effect, then there must be rebirth. Otherwise, the people who have planted a lot of good seeds which have yet to ripen in this life, will never see them ripen. And similarly for evil deeds.
If you want a logical explanation, one place you can find it is in the Shurangama Sutra when King Prasenajit asked the Buddha about annihilation after death:
(...)
Then King Prasenajit rose and said to the Buddha, “In the past, when I had not yet received the teachings of the Buddha, I met Katyayana and Vairatiputra, both of whom said that this body is annihilated after death, and that this is Nirvana. Now, although I have met the Buddha, I still have doubts about their words. How much I wish to be enlightened to the ways and means to perceive and realize the true mind, thereby proving that it transcends production and extinction! All those who have outflows also wish to be instructed on this subject.”
The Buddha said to the great king, “Now I ask you, as it is now is your physical body like vajra, indestructible and living forever? Or does it change and go bad?”
”World Honored One, this body of mine will keep changing until it eventually becomes extinct.”
The Buddha said, “Great King, you have not yet become extinct. How do you know you will become extinct?”
”World Honored One, although my impermanent, changing, and decaying body has not yet become extinct, I observe it now, and every passing thought fades away. Each new one fails to remain, but gradually perishes like fire turning to ashes. This perishing without cease convinces me that this body will eventually become completely extinct.”
The Buddha said, “So it is."
”Great King, at your present age you are already old and declining. How do your appearance and complexion compare to when you were a youth?”
”World Honored One, in the past when I was young my skin was moist and shining. When I reached the prime of life, my blood and breath were full. But now in my declining years, as I race into old age, my form is withered and wizened and my spirit dull. My hair is white and my face is in wrinkles and I haven’t much time remaining. How can I be compared to how I was when I was full of life?”
The Buddha said, “Great King, your appearance should not decline so suddenly.”
The king said, .World Honored One, the change has been a hidden transformation of which I honestly have not been aware. I have come to this gradually through the passing of winters and summers.
”How did it happen? In my twenties, I was still young, but my features had aged since the time I was ten. My thirties were a further decline from my twenties, and now at sixty-two I look back on my fifties as hale and hearty.
”World Honored One, I am contemplating these hidden transformations. Although the changes wrought by this process of dying are evident through the decades, I might consider them further in finer detail: these changes do not occur just in periods of twelve years; there are actually changes year by year. Not only are there yearly changes, there are also monthly transformations. Nor does it stop at monthly transformations; there are also differences day by day. Examining them closely, I find that kshana by kshana, thought after thought, they never stop.
”And so I know my body will keep changing until it is extinct.”
The Buddha told the great king, “By watching the ceaseless changes of these transformations, you awaken and know of your extinction, but do you also know that at the time of extinction there is something in your body which does not become extinct?”
King Prasenajit put his palms together and exclaimed, “I really do not know.”
The Buddha said, “I will now show you the nature which is not produced and not extinguished.
”Great King, how old were you when you saw the waters of the Ganges?”
The king said, “When I was three years old my compassionate mother led me to visit the Goddess Jiva. We passed a river, and at the time I knew it was the waters of the Ganges.”
The Buddha said, “Great King, you have said that when you were twenty you had deteriorated from when you were ten. Day by day, month by month, year by year until you have reached sixty, in thought after thought there has been change. Yet when you saw the Ganges River at the age of three, how was it different from when you were thirteen?”
The king said, “It was no different from when I was three, and even now when I am sixty-two it is still no different.”
The Buddha said, “Now you are mournful that your hair is white and your face is wrinkled. In the same way that your face is definitely more wrinkled than it was in your youth, has the seeing with which you look at the Ganges aged, so that it is old now but was young when you looked at the river as a child in the past?”
The king said, “No, World Honored One.”
The Buddha said, “Great King, your face is in wrinkles, but the essential nature of your seeing has not yet wrinkled. What wrinkles is subject to change. What does not wrinkle does not change.
”What changes will become extinct, but what does not change is fundamentally free of production and extinction. How can it be subject to your birth and death? Furthermore, why bring up what Maskari Goshaliputra and the others say: that after the death of this body there is total extinction?”
The King heard these words, believed them, and realized that when the life of this body is finished, there will be rebirth. He and the entire great assembly were greatly delighted at having obtained what they had never had before.
(...)
From the sutra, we know that that the seeing nature is not subject to birth and death, which shows the annihilation does not happen after we die. -
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lim peh ka li kong. Muslims would tell you it is not rebirth lah! The jinn enters anyone he likes and then masuk his brain believing he lived many donkey years back. Wa lau, I had an old young friend kena recalling of past life many years back. He knew what had happened just like what the true story book said so had happened in Singapore's olden days just when the Japanese surrendered to the British and he told me he was one of the richest Singaporean businessmen in Chinatown and he described how the streets looked exactly like in those days. How did he knew when he was an illiterate kampong boy aged 12 and he was an orphan brought up by distant kampong relatives in Malaysia who were so poor unable to come for a tour in Singapore at all? Anyway, I heard one bomoh also staying in the same kampong had helped this poor boy by exorcizing an evil jinn finally. When I met him again in a few months' time, he told me he couldn't recall his past life anymore. I met the bomoh later and asked him about the boy. He told me that evil jinn was about at age 300 who entered that boy to psycho him he had lived in that past life. No wonder I found it weird why that boy could talk like an adult sometimes. Yeeeeeee! gui lah! goose pimple lah! Next time, you better stay out from this so-called people who can recall past life. Got jinny inside for sure. Beautiful jinn I also do'wan. What if she turns into a snake in front of me. Don'ch be lau ter khor okay when you see one chantek perempuan in Malaysia kampong?
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lim peh ka li kong. Rebirth is a bullshit. Can you count 1+1=what? Of course 2 lah! But ever thought who were the first parents created on earth? Okay ah, you said you are good at math. Bluff bluff say the first batch of population on earth were 1,000 persons and 1,000 animals only on day 1. Then on day 2, exactly 500 persons were killed by an earthquake. How many surviving persons left on earth? Of course 500 persons lah, chantek! 9 months later, 200 progeny came into this world. So, the world had 700 persons, altogether. But where were the 300 souls then? Of course you may say waiting for reincarnation or rebirth into human beings or animals. So, there should be 1,300 animals, altogether, only if they were reincarnated as animals. But this is not the case. What goes around must come around in the same amount. How come the populations of mankind and animal kingdom are growing like hell in our space age? Maybe H1N1 germs reincarnated as human beings oreddy.
So, are you trying to tell lim peh how to count 1+1=3? Some may say how about the insects being reincarnated as the new human beings or animals adding up the current population growth since day 1 when mankind was first created. You told me about science linking with rebirth, I also can tell you much more in these links as well:
Population growth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kruger's animal populations growing - MediaClubSouthAfrica.com(Despite extinction for some rare animals happens but the rate of population explosion of most common animals is on the rise)
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Originally posted by Gary oak77:
Little boy claims he's been to heaven
Colton Burpo was just four when a life-saving surgery left him with an amazing story. What he says he saw
Related links
More stories
I may have had an out of body experience before. Alot of people have had too
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Perhaps the boy was really possessed by a ghost and it speaks through him. But even so this does not show that rebirth does not exist and that all who can recall their past lives are possessed and trick by ghosts.
Rebirth can take place in 6 realms - the realm of devas, asuras, humans, animals, ghosts, and hell beings. Not only as humans and animals. Why was there a population explosion in humans and animals? Because the beings who were previously in other realms currently take rebirth in the human and animal realms.
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Hi Beautiful
What you read maybe truth about fake memory. As in the west, there is a technic used by therapist known as False Memory Implantation (FMI). It is leading a person to recall something through suggestion. Beside there is some quack in Singapore, who claim to able to read your past lives for some monetary transaction. Well be careful, maybe they are using FMI. In order to establish a truth, one need to take time to verify the fact.
There is real scientific study done by Dr Ian Stevenson, a professor of University of Virginia (USA) on rebirth using the scientific method. The evidence given by the patient were tested to see if the patient make up the story. Surprisingly, when the evidence was verified against the validity of the story, it was rather accurate. Beside most of patient's religion did not aherent to the rebirth belief. His conclusion was reincarnation is the survival of the personality after death, although he never suggested a physical process by which a personality might survive death. http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/rebirthscience.pdf
Interestingly, if you observe the baby, why every baby is born with different personality, fear, like and dislike. These preference changes as one age and interact with the world. Perhaps our mind was never a piece of blank paper when we came into this world. We had already imprinted something on it and we are still imprinting and making changes to it.
Gassho
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo
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It doesn't occur to anybody that just possibly this boy saw exactly what he is saying he saw. hmmm, do you all really believe that you have all the answers ? Maybe all the muslims doing their pilgramage to Mecca should be kneeling inyour directions 5 times a day. I don't believe that the son or the Dad are liars and are lying. I certainly don't understand the spiritual realm[s] but I do suspect that the boy is telling what he saw. The parents don't also seem to be the out looking for fame types
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Originally posted by Beautiful951:
I would like to ask about rebirth, I was hoping for some confirmation of rebirth because I was reading some websites about past life regression hypnotism, and they said that memory of past life is a fake memory.
I think my faith is not very strong yet, reading these things also can affect my faith
alamak brudder............there are so many documented real cases of rebirth that you can't finish reading them even till you turn 100 yrs-old..................
### i read one article by Western scientists (Christians some more) and you know what they say ?
they said reincarnation not only makes sense.............it's absolutely necessary.........
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Those people who believe in people being possessed by ghosts are believing in rebirth too as rebirth can take place in 6 realms and ghosts is one of the realm. So, some forumers said there are people who are possessed by ghosts and not actually recalling their past life are just proving the existence of ghosts realm which is one of the rebirth realm.
Following is a convincing rebirth video clip which I believed some forumers had watched before.
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Thanks everyone for posting so many things. I have restored my faith. =)
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Originally posted by SinglishSpeaker:
lim peh ka li kong. Muslims would tell you it is not rebirth lah! The jinn enters anyone he likes and then masuk his brain believing he lived many donkey years back. Wa lau, I had an old young friend kena recalling of past life many years back. He knew what had happened just like what the true story book said so had happened in Singapore's olden days just when the Japanese surrendered to the British and he told me he was one of the richest Singaporean businessmen in Chinatown and he described how the streets looked exactly like in those days. How did he knew when he was an illiterate kampong boy aged 12 and he was an orphan brought up by distant kampong relatives in Malaysia who were so poor unable to come for a tour in Singapore at all? Anyway, I heard one bomoh also staying in the same kampong had helped this poor boy by exorcizing an evil jinn finally. When I met him again in a few months' time, he told me he couldn't recall his past life anymore. I met the bomoh later and asked him about the boy. He told me that evil jinn was about at age 300 who entered that boy to psycho him he had lived in that past life. No wonder I found it weird why that boy could talk like an adult sometimes. Yeeeeeee! gui lah! goose pimple lah! Next time, you better stay out from this so-called people who can recall past life. Got jinny inside for sure. Beautiful jinn I also do'wan. What if she turns into a snake in front of me. Don'ch be lau ter khor okay when you see one chantek perempuan in Malaysia kampong?
Rebirth or reincarnation do not exist if you suscribe to a muslim worldview. Neither is a bomoh accepted in mainstream islamic thoughts either,frown upon but tolerated in peninsular malaysia, whereas, persecuted and murdered in certain parts of the indonesian archipelago. Basically a bomoh is a sorcerer.The bomoh worldview consist of mainly animistic beliefs. To blend in, islamic beliefs are incorporated.
So, whatever paranormal beliefs will be interpreted in a islamic way. -
Originally posted by SinglishSpeaker:
lim peh ka li kong. Rebirth is a bullshit. Can you count 1+1=what? Of course 2 lah! But ever thought who were the first parents created on earth? Okay ah, you said you are good at math. Bluff bluff say the first batch of population on earth were 1,000 persons and 1,000 animals only on day 1. Then on day 2, exactly 500 persons were killed by an earthquake. How many surviving persons left on earth? Of course 500 persons lah, chantek! 9 months later, 200 progeny came into this world. So, the world had 700 persons, altogether. But where were the 300 souls then? Of course you may say waiting for reincarnation or rebirth into human beings or animals. So, there should be 1,300 animals, altogether, only if they were reincarnated as animals. But this is not the case. What goes around must come around in the same amount. How come the populations of mankind and animal kingdom are growing like hell in our space age? Maybe H1N1 germs reincarnated as human beings oreddy.
So, are you trying to tell lim peh how to count 1+1=3? Some may say how about the insects being reincarnated as the new human beings or animals adding up the current population growth since day 1 when mankind was first created. You told me about science linking with rebirth, I also can tell you much more in these links as well:
Population growth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kruger's animal populations growing - MediaClubSouthAfrica.com(Despite extinction for some rare animals happens but the rate of population explosion of most common animals is on the rise)
You see the world view as only consisting of this world, and not of the infinite universe. And also of an independent entity of a soul.
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Perhaps the boy was really possessed by a ghost and it speaks through him. But even so this does not show that rebirth does not exist and that all who can recall their past lives are possessed and trick by ghosts.
Rebirth can take place in 6 realms - the realm of devas, asuras, humans, animals, ghosts, and hell beings. Not only as humans and animals. Why was there a population explosion in humans and animals? Because the beings who were previously in other realms currently take rebirth in the human and animal realms.
These are merely your opinions based on concepts of some gurus whose dates of their existence in this world weren't even sure at all. But where are your solid proofs that such and such a guru said so? There are so many gurus who talk 3 talk 4 who were authors of such holy books on rebirth but never directly from God as the One and Only Author of the Holy Book. Tolong sikit lah! I need proofs, not what gurus said.
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Originally posted by SinglishSpeaker:
Perhaps the boy was really possessed by a ghost and it speaks through him. But even so this does not show that rebirth does not exist and that all who can recall their past lives are possessed and trick by ghosts.
Rebirth can take place in 6 realms - the realm of devas, asuras, humans, animals, ghosts, and hell beings. Not only as humans and animals. Why was there a population explosion in humans and animals? Because the beings who were previously in other realms currently take rebirth in the human and animal realms.
These are merely your opinions based on concepts of some gurus whose dates of their existence in this world weren't even sure at all. But where are your solid proofs that such and such a guru said so? There are so many gurus who talk 3 talk 4 who were authors of such holy books on rebirth but never directly from God as the One and Only Author of the Holy Book. Tolong sikit lah! I need proofs, not what gurus said.
I do not know whether that you really are a muslim or a malay, but debating and communication is a two way process, and it really take a emotionally mature persons to engage in meaningful intercourse.
What you may succeed is that you might cause social dissension along ethnic and religious lines.
Think twice.
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Weychin ah! Study too much law lah! Everything requires proofs. No proof no talk. But you are right! Thank you for your advice. I won't want to suan anyone from now onwards particularly relating to all religions. Everyone is entitled to what they may believe in this world. To suan anyone is equally bad. So, I'd respect them as they are. Solly no cure! Period.
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saw this interesting new series about reincarnation on mio tv.
http://www.singtel-ustv.com/content/past-life
Past Life: Season 1most of the episodes are based on real life stories, but modified. -
Originally posted by SinglishSpeaker:
Weychin ah! Study too much law lah! Everything requires proofs. No proof no talk. But you are right! Thank you for your advice. I won't want to suan anyone from now onwards particularly relating to all religions. Everyone is entitled to what they may believe in this world. To suan anyone is equally bad. So, I'd respect them as they are. Solly no cure! Period.
I have already stated so many proofs and evidence of rebirth in my previous post.
It is rebirth that is scientifically proven - not a God. And who is to know whether someone who 'hears God' is really hearing God and not some other beings?
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there's a story about how knowing the past life help this young man from commiting suicide. this young man had a girlfriend for 3 years and was about to get married. then his girlfriend went to married another man.
this young man become very depressed and wanted to commit suicide. normal doctor was not able to help the illness from the heart, so his mother went to look for this buddhist master. the buddhist master told them not to worry and ask him to go back to sleep. buddhist master went into meditation.
that night the guy had a vivid dream. he dream of the sea and in the sea there was this dead girl which was drifted to the beach. then in the dream he saw a man approaching the dead girl and felt sorry and left. then another man came and saw the dead girl. he used a cloth to cover the dead girl and walked away. then another man came, but this time he went to bury the dead girl.
the next day young man woke up. the master came to look for the young man and explain the dream to the man. he said that the dead girl in his dream was the girfriend and the second man is him. the man she married is the third guy who buried her. the master said that his affinity with her is only for 3 years.
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I certainly agree with Buddha. Rebirth is very real. However most people will not remember their past lives.
