Life After Life After Life After Life...

Finished reading an interesting book ("The Mystery of Reincarnation" by J Allan Danelek) recommended by one of my friends.

I really liked this book in which a well-balanced view of reincarnation is presented. The author is basically introducing the age-old Eastern concept of reincarnation to the Western world. Since this is a taboo subject in Christianity (and for that matter in any mono-theistic religion) its not a much-discussed/known topic in the Western/Arab world. He urges the readers to take a broader view on this topic and simply not dismiss past-life regression stories as mere fantasies or imaginations or coincidences (common explanations given for rejecting past-life experiences). The author claims that hundreds of past-life regression stories have been researched and studied by reputed psychologists/psychiatrists which would stand the test of credibility if one is not hasty enough to dismiss them as crazy stuff.

Two accounts of past-life regression experiences are given in the book in great detail:

(i) the Virginia Tighe case - under hypnosis, a 20th century Colorado housewife clearly and distinctly recounts her (another real person's) life and family in 18th century Ireland with remarkable historical and factual accuracy

(ii) James Johnston case - a person with no connection to military but who was suffering from claustrophobia and aqua-phobia recalls his (a real officer's) life and suffocating/drowning death as a US Naval officer in an enemy-attacked US submarine in the second world war

Even though the critics were quick to dismiss both the cases with "proof", a re-evaluation of the facts in both the cases compels one to view reincarnation as a serious possibility - claims the author.

It was interesting to note that the author himself recounts his passionate hobby to collect and develop a keen interest in German-related second world war artifacts as a child, when apparently there is no hint of military connection in his family. Is he a reincarnate of a second world war German soldier?

He presents the idea that this life which we are living may not be our first or last but simply the most recent one. The concept of Karma is explained in great detail as well.

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**A personal-theory which i have on this topic (this is not mentioned by the author anywhere) is that if in this life we feel some sort of a peculiar connection with any person, then we might have just about known them "before". The possibilities are endless.**

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The Grand Design

Just can't imagine how lazy I've been. Its been one full year since i wrote a blog. This time the reminder to write one came from my friend Nicey when i sent her an email about one of the books which i read recently, "The Grand Design" by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow.

The book for sure must still be making waves and will continue to do so for years in my cherished fields of astronomy & physics [astrophysics], religion and philosophy. In this book Stephen Hawking retracts his earlier stand on the beginning of the universe from an Intelligent Designer / Creator-based universe to a random/chance-based universe. Such an extraordinary claim by an extraordinary scientist made me wonder what that would do to the thinking and understanding of the universe of ordinary mortals like me!

The book beautifully explains the latest theory, M-theory (a network of theories which can be applied at different locales depending on the frame of reference in which one finds himself) which might prove to be a viable candidate to explain the origins of the universe and the age-old questions which man has always wanted to know.

In the first chapter, I enjoyed the pages which traced the history of science and man's scientific exploration from the Ionian Greeks up until the present time. As a (former) student of science/physics i felt that i should at least remember the information presented there.

Richard Feynman's "sum over histories" theory is explained in much detail in one of the chapters to help explain the origin of the universe and the possibility of multiverse. An oversimplified version and obviously an incomplete description of the sum over histories theory would be: the path that a sub-atomic particle like the electron takes to move from point A to point B is not fixed, instead it can take the any number of infinite paths that is available to it and it does take these infinite paths simultaneously. The same concept when applied to the universe-system would mean that ours is not the only universe that is out there instead there are billions of universes possible.

The author's implicit claim that science alone (random quantum fluctuations) can explain the origin of the universe seemed a bit too self-proclaimed to the theistic-mind of mine. Science definitely has come a long way to help explain our own origins and the universe's origins and their purposes but whether it will ever be a complete explanation remains doubtful.

A beautiful book which explains beautifully and simply how our universe works and our latest scientific understanding of the universe and the role which we tiny dots play here. Even as i put down the book, vowing to read it a second time to understand the marvelous workings of our cosmos, the lines from one another book (No One Sees God by Michael Novak) which i was reading simultaneously came rushing:

"Who are we under these stars, with the wind on our faces? What should we do? Who should we hope for?"