“There Is a Paranormal Activity Lab at University of
Virginia”
Article by Jake Flanagin from The Atlantic
Commentary by Sam Smathers 4th
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/02/there-is-a-paranormal-activity-lab-at-university-of-virginia/283584/
At the
University of Virginia there is a whole section of psychology devoted to the
uncovering what life after death is and if it exists. Dr. Jim Tuker who is a
Bonner-Lowry Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences has
been studding children who recite memories that are not their own. In such a
case a young boy of only two recited the story of an obscure pilot who died in
WWI, the child was traumatized by the fear of dying in a fire or a plane crash
and had nightmares for a significant amount of time. Neither parents had heard
of the pilot nor they knew of how their son came to know of him either. Many
cases like this one exist and if this sort of reincarnation exists than it
could stand to prove irrational fears and other sorts of psychological
phenomenon.
I am skeptical
of such conclusions. I think science is science and science fiction should stay
in books and movies, there is a reason it is called fiction. As well I don’t
tend to entertain the possibility of an afterlife because the only purpose that
it holds to humans is to give us hope that we will live on forever because
humans are scared of mortality. Look to the earliest humans and how they
praised the Sun and Rain to give them eternal life, I think this maybe just a segment
of that sort of fiction. Now we have fancy words and equipment but our desire
to live on is still as strong. The possibility of some kid knowing the life of
a dead man is mighty strange but without lots of evidence this sort of thing
stays in the fiction section. I think this article shows more of how we think
that now that we drive cars and live in houses that we are more civilized than
the Egyptians or the Greeks when really our central desires are still the same,
time may pass and our landscapes may change, but our wants and needs as humans
never change.
Interesting article, Sam. Humans do seem to follow the same patterns over and over. In an article I read about believe in a soul being a hardwired in children (they interviewed children from different cultures about what a person could feel before conception, a time few cultures have beliefs about, and most children seemed to think that even pre-conception, people could feel happy or sad) scientist Natalie Emmons had this to say in explanation to human's irrational ideas about the afterlife and soul. "We're really good at figuring out what people are thinking, what their emotions are, what their desires are," she said. We tend to see people as the sum of their mental states, and desires and emotions may be particularly helpful when predicting their behavior. Because this ability is so useful and so powerful, it flows over into other parts of our thinking. We sometimes see connections where potentially none exist, we hope there's a master plan for the universe, we see purpose when there is none, and we imagine that a soul survives without a body."
ReplyDeleteI've heard of children who recall memories like this, and I honestly don't know what to think of it. I personally believe there is an afterlife, but I also agree with your skepticism in a field of research dedicated to determining an afterlife. As you've said, people have hoped and yearned for an afterlife for nearly all of history, but then again, it's been thousands of years and we still don't have a clear answer. Because of this, I have trouble believing that this research will ever really yield any answers.
ReplyDeleteOf course its gonna be difficult to prove there is an afterlife considering that the only way to prove it is to die... So we can know there is an afterlife, we just have to believe. That's why it's called religion and faith, rather than research and facts.
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