Evidence That the Conscious Self Can Function Independently of the Physical Body

Evidence That the Conscious Self Can Function

Independently of the Physical Body

Announcing dreams

Stevenson (1987, p.98) said that in many cases a relative of the child has a dream in which the previous personality announces his intention or desire to reincarnate. For example, shortly before Corliss Chotkin, Jr. was born, Mrs. Chotkin's aunt dreamed that Victor Vincent will take birth in the Chotkin family. Stevenson said: "Mrs. Chotkin is certain she did not tell her aunt about Victor Vincent's prediction of his return before she heard from her aunt about this dream" (Stevenson, 1974, p.261).

Change of ownership

Dr. Stevenson (1974, p.34-52) reported an unusual case from India in which a three-year-old boy named Jasbir was so severely afflicted by smallpox that his father Sri Girdhari Lal Jat was convinced that he had died. In fact, he was so convinced of this that he was preparing to bury the dead body of his son. It happened to be night at that time so he decided to wait until morning to bury it. Before the burial, however, Jasbir's father noticed faint signs of life in his son's body, and gradually the body recovered completely. But when the body had recovered, it displayed a personality that was completely different from the former one. Now Jasbir claimed that he was the son of Shankar of Vehedi (a village that is approximately 30 kilometers away from Rasulpur, the village where Sri Girdhari Lal Jat lived) and expressed the desire to return to Vehedi. He claimed that he was a Brahmana, and he obstinately refused to eat any food at the house of his father, since Sri Girdhari Lal Jat belonged to a lower caste (his refusal to eat can not have been due to disease since his body had recovered completely by then). He was so strongly determined in this matter that he fasted. This fasting would have surely resulted in death if a Brahmana lady had not happened to learn of it and kindly began cooking food according to the Brahmana standard. Such food was acceptable to Jasbir. For nearly two years he maintained his refusal to eat food cooked by non-Brahmanas.

It is inconceivable that a three-year-old child would, for a period of years, refuse to eat for no other reason than the food is prepared by one class of persons instead of another. Such discrimination and determination are only found in adults. Thus, this discrimination strongly supports the hypothesis that the conscious self that was originally in the body of Jasbir had departed and a different conscious self, that of a discriminating adult Brahmana, now resides in Jasbir's body.

Another piece of information that supports this hypothesis is Stevenson's report that, before being afflicted with smallpox, Jasbir was interested in toys and play just like an ordinary boy of three years old, but afterwards he no longer had any interest in such things. It is hard to imagine that a small boy would have no interest in playing with toys, and it is even harder to imagine that he would also be so terribly concerned about which caste the people belong to who cook for him, especially since he did not care about this before the smallpox affliction.

After this affliction Jasbir seems to have thought of himself as an adult; he repeatedly mentioned that he has a wife and children. Stevenson noted that many of the child-subjects of his cases act like an adult who has been unfairly imprisoned in the body of a child. For example, a Thai boy named Bongkuch Promsin startled postpubertal ladies by making lecherous advances towards them although he was only a small boy at the time (he ignored girls who were his own age) (Stevenson, 1987, p.70).

Stevenson (1974, p.39) reported that Sri Girdhari Lal Jat had said that when Jasbir began to speak after his recovery from smallpox he used a different set of words for familiar objects than he had used before his illness. For example, he would say "haveli" instead of "hilli" for a house, and "kapra" instead of "latta" for clothes. The words "haveli" and "kapra" are used by the higher classes (including the Brahmanas) whereas "hilli" and "latta" are used by the lower classes (such as the Jats). Thus, after recovering, Jasbir no longer spoke like Sri Girdhari Lal Jat but instead he spoke like Sobha Ram (a Brahmana).

The conscious self in the body of Jasbir told Sri Girdhari Lal Jat about further details of his life in Vehedi before he entered the body of Jasbir. He said that on one occasion he was attending a wedding procession and he ate some poisoned sweets given to him by a man to whom he had lent money and who did not want to repay him. The poisoned sweets caused him to fall from a cart on which he was riding. He struck his head and died.

Sri Girdhari Lal Jat informed Dr. Stevenson that he tried to suppress information about Jasbir's strange behavior and his claim to be a Brahmana from Vehedi now inhabiting the body of Jasbir. But the cooking for Jasbir according to Brahmana standards was known to the Brahmanas of Rasulpur. One of them named Srimati Shyamo, a native of Rasulpur, had married a man from Vehedi named Sri Ravi Dutt Sukla and was living with him in Vehedi. Once every few years she would return to Rasulpur. She informed the members of the Tyagi family in Vehedi about Jasbir's behavior and statements. Jasbir's statements about his former life in Vehedi and his death were remarkably similar to the life and death of one of the sons (named Sobha Ram) of Sri Shankar Lal Tyagi (a Brahmana living in Vehedi). Sobha Ram had died when he was 22 years old in the manner described earlier by Jasbir. He died in May of 1954, which was also around the time when Jasbir was severely afflicted with smallpox (and after recovering, manifested the remarkable change of personality). As mentioned before, after recovering Jasbir claimed that he was the son of Shankar of Vehedi.

Sobha Ram's father and other family members came to visit Jasbir in Rasulpur, and Jasbir recognized them and correctly stated their relationship to Sobha Ram. Then Jasbir went to Vehedi for the first time in his life. In Vehedi, Jasbir was able to correctly lead the way from the railway station to Sobha Ram's house. Jasbir was also able to correctly lead the way from Sri Ravi Dutt Sukla's house to Sobha Ram's house (a different route). According to Stevenson (1974, p.36), Jasbir remained in Vehedi for a few days and showed the Tyagi family and other residents of Vehedi that he had extensive knowledge of the Tyagi family. Jasbir was very happy in Vehedi and wanted to remain there. He had no desire to return to Rasulpur where he felt lonely and isolated. After returning to Rasulpur, Jasbir would occasionally visit Vehedi.

In the summer of 1961, Stevenson visited both Rasulpur and Vehedi and interviewed thirteen witnesses of the case. He returned in 1964 and restudied the case with new translators. At this time he interviewed most of the previous witnesses and some new ones. He said that these witnesses provided a consistent account of the main facts in the case. The members of both families (the Tyagis and the Jats) testified that there had been absolutely no contact between the two families before the development of the case. Both Vehedi and Rasulpur are tiny villages that are only accessible by dirt roads. There is no main road connecting them and almost no communication between them.

Stevenson felt that there was no reason to doubt that the people he interviewed in this case were speaking the truth, and hence there was no opportunity for Jasbir to obtain the knowledge he had about Sobha Ram, Vehedi and the Tyagi family by normal means (using the ordinary physical senses). He therefore concluded that this case is best explained as the departure of the conscious self that had formerly inhabited the body of Jasbir and the entrance into Jasbir's body of the conscious self that had formerly resided in the body of Sobha Ram.

Functioning without a physical body

Dr. Stevenson reported a number of cases in which the conscious self existed for days, weeks and even years without a physical body and acquired information by transcorporal senses. (Transcorporal senses refer to senses that are different from those of the physical body and able to function independently of it.) For example, the conscious self in the body of Jasbir informed Dr. Stevenson that after his former physical body (the body of Sobha Ram) had been poisoned and had died, he left that body and was existing temporarily in a discarnate condition. While in this condition, he said that he met another discarnate conscious self who he called a "sadhu" (wise man). The sadhu somehow knew that the body of Jasbir was not inhabited at that time, and the sadhu advised the conscious self that was formerly in the body of Sobha Ram to enter the body of Jasbir. Years after this event had occurred, Jasbir told Dr. Stevenson that he still sometimes was able to communicate with this sadhu who described events that later actually occurred (precognition).

A Thai boy named Bongkuch Promsin claimed that in his previous life he was a Laotian man named Chamrat who was stabbed to death (Stevenson, 1987, p.68). After the murder, the conscious self that had resided in the body of Chamrat remained in a discarnate state for seven years (he stayed near a bamboo tree in the vicinity of the murder). One rainy day the discarnate Chamrat saw Bongkuch's father and accompanied him home on a bus. Bongkuch's father later told Stevenson that he happened to visit Hua Tanon (the place where Chamrat was murdered) shortly before his wife became pregnant with Bongkuch. Bongkuch's father said that the day he went to Hua Tanon was in fact a rainy day.

An Indian boy named Veer Singh said that after the death of his previous body (Som Dutt's body) he, as a discarnate conscious self, remained near Som Dutt's family and observed their activities. Veer Singh said that he accompanied members of this family who left the house at night and went out alone. Stevenson said that Som Dutt's mother had a dream in which Som Dutt told her that he had accompanied his brother a number of times when his brother had surreptitiously left the house at night to attend local fairs. When this brother was asked, he admitted that he was in fact attending local fairs at night, but no one in the family knew about it until Som Dutt's mother had this dream. Stevenson added that Veer Singh also knew about other private family affairs that took place after Som Dutt's death and before Veer Singh was born, including the fact that the family bought a camel, they were involved in a lawsuit, and several children were born during this time period (Stevenson, 1987, p.110).

The persons who reported seeing things in the discarnate state could not have been using physical eyes. Thus, the above evidence supports the hypothesis that the conscious self is inherently transcorporal and possesses transcorporal senses.

Although these persons got a glimpse into their transcorporal nature, they were unwilling to explore it further due to strong attachment to ordinary physical existence. For those who are not so strongly attached, the process of bhakti yoga, which is described later in this chapter, allows each one of us to discover, explore and systematically develop the superhuman, transcorporal potential of human beings.

Common questions about reincarnation

Questions that are often asked are: (1) Since the human population has steadily increased during the last few hundred years, the number of conscious selves associated with human bodies must also have increased. Where did the extra conscious selves come from? (2) If reincarnation is actually true, why doesn't everyone remember at least one of his previous lives? (3) Does everyone reincarnate or only certain persons? (4) For those who do reincarnate, does the cycle of birth, death and rebirth ever come to an end? (5) What happens to persons who do not reincarnate? These are important questions, but it is not easy to answer them based solely on the kind of evidence reported by investigators such as Ian Stevenson. It may be possible to answer them, however, if we can find a reliable technique for directly investigating the characteristics and capabilities of the conscious self. Such a technique is discussed later in this chapter.

Out-of-body experiences with verifiable details

Dr. Michael Sabom was a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the Medical School of the Emory University and a staff physician at the Atlanta VA Medical Center in Atlanta, Georgia, during the time that he studied autoscopic experiences. In a typical autoscopic experience, a person reports that he comes out of his physical body and observes it from a viewpoint outside of it. In the beginning of his study, Dr. Sabom thought that these so-called autoscopic experiences are nothing more than imagination. But after interviewing dozens of people over a period of five years, he concluded that there is something more than imagination at work in these reports.

Why did he change his mind? As a practicing cardiologist, Dr. Sabom had daily access to people who had suffered cardiac arrest (a life-threatening situation in which the heart stops pumping). Dozens of people told Dr. Sabom that they had had an autoscopic experience during their cardiac arrest and had observed medical personnel attempting to revive their physical bodies using a procedure called cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Some people said that they could not only see but also hear what the medics were saying. The people said that they were not seeing and hearing with the senses of the physical body, but with a completely different kind of senses which can function independently of the physical senses. In particular, when they were seeing what the medical personnel were doing, they were seeing from a viewpoint above the physical body looking down on it.

Skeptics say that these people were either hallucinating or deliberately lying. The hypothesis of lying loses force when we consider the special trick that Sabom used in interviewing the patients. Dr. Sabom (1982, p.9) said that he approached each patient privately and acted as if he were conducting a routine medical examination involving standard questions for patients recovering from cardiac arrest. Thus the patients did not know in advance that Dr. Sabom intended to ask them about anything unusual that they might have experienced during CPR. Dr. Sabom was a regular member of the hospital, a staff physician. Thus when he was walking through the halls, no one suspected that anything unusual was going on. He was not like an outsider coming in on a special mission, which would have alerted the patients that something unusual was going on. It is important to note that Dr. Sabom approached them: they did not approach him to tell him about an experience they had had. Dr. Sabom would just walk into a room and begin asking questions right on the spot. The patients did not know that Sabom was going to ask them about out-of-body experiences. If we are to believe that the patients deliberately lied to Sabom, then we would have to believe that they all of a sudden made up an elaborate out-of-body lie on the spot with no advance warning. It is hard to believe that a person would do this. Thus there appears to have been no atmosphere of sensationalism or trying to advertise publicly some new mystical experience with the aim of attracting attention. Most of the people Dr. Sabom interviewed were just ordinary people such as automobile mechanics and security guards who were not overly educated or overly sophisticated.

Dr. Sabom approached each patient as if conducting an ordinary medical interview and, after a series of routine questions about his physical recovery, Sabom asked him if he had experienced anything unusual during his CPR. At this point some patients simply said that they were unconscious during the CPR and could not remember anything. But other patients looked cautiously at Dr. Sabom to make sure that he was not an undercover psychiatrist and then said something like: "I did have a very unusual experience but if I told you about it, you would think I am crazy." The people hesitated to reveal their experiences because they were afraid that Dr. Sabom would consider them insane. Dr. Sabom would then say that he was genuinely interested in any experience they had during CPR as a matter of scientific interest. After reassuring themselves that Dr. Sabom would not consider them hopelessly deranged, the people would then reveal how they had come out of their physical bodies and observed the body from a viewpoint outside it. According to Dr. Sabom's report, the people were not trying to advertise their experience; on the contrary, they were trying to hide it. Thus, the usual motives for lying do not seem to be at work in these cases.

Dr. Sabom mentioned that after a while it became known to other doctors that he was conducting a study on autoscopic experiences and then people began to approach him to tell him about experiences they had had. The honesty of these people is more difficult to evaluate than that of the patients who were privately approached by Dr. Sabom with no knowledge in advance of his intentions. My discussion throughout this article is therefore based on Sabom's privately-approached cases.

Let us assume, then, that the people in these privately-approached cases (who claimed to have observed their own resuscitations from outside their bodies) did not deliberately lie to Dr. Sabom. But could these people have been hallucinating? Skeptics suggest that a person may take refuge in fantasy to avoid acknowledging the unpleasant fact that he is dying. But Dr. Sabom (1982, p.86) noted that persons claiming to have had an autoscopic experience during CPR (called "group 1") gave a much more accurate description of the general procedure of in-hospital CPR than persons who, although having had a cardiac arrest, did not report an autoscopic experience during their CPR (called "group 2"). This is significant because Dr. Sabom specifically said that the members of both of these groups had similar prior knowledge of CPR technique (in fact, group 2 was deliberately selected by Sabom as a control group to test how much prior general knowledge of CPR a typical cardiac patient has). Since the members of both groups had the same background knowledge of CPR, we expect that the members of both groups should have given equally accurate descriptions. But they did not. In fact, Sabom said that 80% of the members of group 2 made at least one major error in their description of in-hospital CPR whereas none of the members of group 1 made such errors. Group 2 members made such big mistakes as saying, for example, that the doctor delivered a sharp blow to the solar plexus to try to get the patient's heart beating again, or that the doctor used mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to provide oxygen to the patient (this is almost never done in a hospital since in the hospital there are far better means available for oxygenating a patient).

But Dr. Sabom was very impressed with the accuracy of the descriptions given by the members of group 1. For example, Sabom (1982, p.91) said the following about one description: "His description is extremely accurate in portraying the appearance of both the technique of CPR and the proper sequence in which this technique is performed-i.e., chest thump, external cardiac massage, airway insertion, administration of medications and defibrillation." A defibrillation is an electric shock applied to the chest in an attempt to start the heart again. Sabom said that, at the time he interviewed this man, the man did not possess more than a layman's knowledge of medicine and the man had never seen CPR on television. This man said that during his resuscitation he saw (from a point above his physical body looking down) that the medics delivered two defibrillations to his chest. Dr. Sabom then consulted the medical record which was written by the doctors who actually performed the resuscitation. This record also stated that two defibrillations had been delivered. It is important to note that the number of defibrillations varies from one patient to the next depending on the medical circumstances. Sabom (1982, p.90) said that in this case the man had not been allowed to see his medical record.

In summary, the fact that group 1 descriptions of CPR are far more accurate than group 2 descriptions led Sabom to reject the hypothesis that the group 1 descriptions are simply hallucinations. Dr. Sabom believed that the hypothesis that the living being is able to leave his physical body and function independently of it explains both the subjective experience of the patients he interviewed as well as the accuracy of their autoscopic observations during their resuscitations. Furthermore, reports in which a person sees and hears without using the senses of his physical body support the hypothesis that the living being has transcorporal senses.

Many people told Sabom that when they were having their out-of-body experience, they directly realized that they were different from their physical body which is just a shell or machine that they customarily inhabit. The out-of-body experience was so profound that it made a permanent change in their world-view.

One might suggest that ESP is a better explanation for these cases than out-of-body experiences. But the ESP hypothesis ignores the fact that again and again people reported seeing from a viewpoint outside of their physical bodies. The viewpoint outside indicates that the living being has departed from his physical body.

Sabom's reports suggest that each one of us is fundamentally different from his or her physical body and possesses a superhuman, transcorporal body with transcorporal senses.