know what they were in past lives and imagine things, or rather "know" what they were which is typically someone high with power or a priestess or some such.

I'd have more of a tendency to believe someone like this, who was an ordinary person.

Can't prove it, but could happen. Of course it is too easy to manipulate others also.

Interesting story, thanks.

Easy Peasy!

Then it MUST be true!

this kid was on a TV show, by the same name, on A&E, a year ago!

A&E must be psychic!

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/693453-children-with-detailed-memories-of-past-lives-investigated-facts-verified-video/

Unlike lots of others around here, I have an abiding interest in such matters.

"We are a way for the cosmos to experience itself."

Jeez Louise. Don't you no anything?

"Don't you no anything?"

Most people seem surer of everything than I am of anything.

...who proposed in his 1755 Code of Nature "Sacred and Fundamental Laws that would tear out the roots of vice and of all the evils of a society" including:

I knew nothing of Morelly, and hadn't read the Borges story. It is a very interesting piece, from which one might extract a number of lessons. For me at the moment, I think that the primary point is that rote memory--knowledge in its most rudimentary form--is useless without pattern recognition, abstraction, concept learning and rule-forming.

As to wisdom, the closest I have come to capturing the difference between knowledge (memory) and wisdom is encapsulated thus:

Knowledge tells us tomatoes are fruit.
Wisdom tells us to leave them out of the fruit salad.

And as to the specifics of this thread, i.e. the topic of reincarnation, that and a number of other "fringe phenomena," I lack the certitude that would permit me to either accept or reject them. I have actively worked at creating within myself a tolerance of ambiguity that permits me to hold various possibilities without any rush either to confirm or discredit them. I guess I extend this willingness to suspend judgment also extends to my approach to various "conspiracy theories." I like to think of myself assigning truth probabilities in a sort of Bayesian statistical manner, and giving no proposition a higher probability value than the available evidence warrants. And then I sit back and laugh at my rationalist pretensions.

That's sort of what I meant when I agreed that I don't "no" enough; I'm not ready to reject evidence just because it doesn't comport well with my pre-existing models of the universe.

There is at least some evidence that a person's specific personal information can survive death and seem to resurface in the consciousnesses of young children. There are stories like this from around the world, in cultures that accept reincarnation and those that don't have the doctrine. For example, there is no reincarnation doctrine among the Ojibwa Indians, but--based purely on observations the couldn't explain--the do accept that sometimes a departed person will choose to come back in another incarnation.Such a person might have birth marks where there had been wounds and scars in a previous life, and the person will typically have specific aptitudes, interests, and memories that tie to those of the previous incarnation.

I have an open mind on reincarnation. One thing is sure: none of us knows for sure. It makes as much sense as any of the other theories.

To support it so why would you believe it?

The kid's story is evidence. The reports of those around him are evidence. It may not be what you consider compelling evidence, and there may be other explanations besides reincarnation to account for the evidence, but to say there is no evidence is sorta like Jonah saying, "Whale? What whale?"

There is actually quit a bit of evidence, beyond this case that is (to quote the title of a book I'm sure you haven't read) "suggestive of reincarnation."

Credulous adults are convinced anyway.

You can never trust that people would not go to great lengths to become noteworthy or famous or known to others. So many people make big whopper lies just to be famous, even if it is temporary. Many people out there are really smart fools.

There's a sucker born every minute, I guess. For the first and only time.

after reading the original post.

I used to put my daughter to bed every night with "have good dreams!", and in the mornings asked her what she dreamed about. She came up with the most fantastic, elaborate and detailed stories, not at all characteristic of dreams. Perhaps she was astral-travelling? Perhaps connecting with a parallel world? Perhaps remembering past lives? Or, (Occam's razor), making up stories. With the slightest coaching she would have been very willing to fit them to any interpretation.

The 'white light' of near death stories people tell now have some physiological hypotheses about how brain's pushed outside tolerance limites produce such effects...

This week we have 2 news stories about people meeting God. An elderly priest having emergency surgery for heart attack under anesthesia says he met god who is a she.

I have a lack of experience with empirical evidence for the existence of gods, demons, ghosts etc. I assume they don't exist.

But, I have no reason to doubt that people's brains can perform in ways that make them believe they have had seemingly authentic experiences with such things.

"I have a lack of experience with empirical evidence for the existence of gods, demons, ghosts etc. I assume they don't exist."

Nicely put.

The current story, like all similar previous stories, is nonsense. The parents are not serving the child's best interests by telling him that he's reincarnated and by parading him before the media to reinforce that lie.

As always, you object to fact that contradicts your wishful thinking, and you make up bizarro stories about indoctrination conspiracies to justify you disconnect from reality.

The gullibility of people never ceases to amaze me. We'll believe just about anything, no matter how illogical and nonsensical if it fills some emotional/psychological need.

We have more than enough evidence to know that memory resides in organic brain cells. When the brain is damaged, much less decayed by death, the memories go with it. That knowledge should demand a high level of proof from someone claiming they have somehow circumvented basic biology.

This is bullshit.

well actually no

How come nobody is ever a village idiot or shit shoveler reincarnated?

A friend of mine has a sister who is a "reincarnated" shaman queen.

actually do claim to have come from the peasant or slave classes. Imaginary claims of royalty are, by comparison, rare.

an awful lot of people who claim they were Cleopatra or King Tut in a past life