Far Out: Past Life Research

From writer David Hudgins ("Friday Night Lights"), and inspired by the book "The Reincarnationist" by M.J. Rose, comes PAST LIFE, a new drama series that investigates the world of the unexplained through the eyes of a doctor and a former detective who must work together to solve decades-old mysteries.

I'd like to see if Shermer will accept the offer to debate me at length on such profound questions as the following...

SOUL SURVIVOR is the story of how the Leiningers pieced together what their son was communicating and eventually discovered that he was reliving the past life of World War II fighter pilot James Huston. As Bruce Leininger struggled to understand what was happening to his son, he also uncovered details of James Huston's life -- and death -- as a pilot that will fascinate military buffs everywhere.

A teenage boy in Newfoundland is certain he has been here before. On his first trip to his parents' hometown in India, the youth became consumed by vivid memories of a past life, started viewing his mother and father as "alien" and insisted he belonged with another family, his doctor recounts in a recently published medical journal article.

There were way too many fascinating conversations about religion, politics, media, conspiracy, occultism, Psi, superheroes, supersoliders, psychedelics and all the rest of it to possibly recount here, so let me just run through the schedule and touch on some of the main topics covered...

Tulku is a documentary film about young people caught between the modern culture they were born into and the ancient Tibetan Buddhist culture from which they were reborn. They are Western tulkus; all of them recognized when they were children as reincarnations of great Tibetan Buddhist masters. Filmmaker Gesar Mukpo is one of them. In this film, he sets out to meet others like him; young people struggling between modern and ancient, East and West.

The Esalen Center for Theory & Research supports essential philosophic, academic, and research aims of the Esalen Institute. It evaluates frontier inquiry, creates networks of pioneering individuals, and works to catalyze new discoveries that promote personal and social transformation. It carries forward projects at the growing edge of philosophy, psychology, comparative religious studies, education, sociology, somatics, the arts, ecology, and related disciplines that bear upon transformative practice and the continued evolution of humankind. Among these projects are an archive of extraordinary human functioning and a bibliography of scientific research on meditation.

Every spring for the past ten years a group of scholars has gathered at Esalen Institute to inquire into one of the greatest mysteries of all time: what happens to us after we die? In May 2008 nearly all of the regular participants attended along with a few new members who contributed some interesting perspectives to the overall conversation. The following conference summary provides a brief overview of the discussions that happened during this week. Because this is an ongoing conference series, this summary builds upon and makes periodic reference to summaries from previous meetings. The reader is thus encouraged to look at the content from previous years to help flesh out some of the several complicated issues that are involved with both the research and theory concerning the hypothesis that some kind of "personalized consciousness" survives bodily death.

If you haven't done so already, I encourage you to begin living like our hardy, self-reliant ancestors did: put enough food, water, first aid, and emergency supplies away to deal with potential disturbances; start a private garden and/or join a community garden; get to know your neighbors; build community with your family and friends; cultivate a relationship with the Divine. The kind of safety nets that society has told us we can count on -- bank accounts, insurance policies, pension plans, investments, governmental agencies coming to our rescue, etc. -- will, I believe, no longer provide the security they once did. Instead, the time has come for us to begin to depend on ourselves, one another, and the deep Forces of life (God/Spirit) that so many of us have lost touch with...