Is This Evidence For Reincarnation?
Let us have an open mind!
Let us seriously study -- with a very open mind -- the circumstances and known facts about the curious news reports about the UP village boy who suddenly acquired "American accent".
Just to help us recall, I give the following links to the initial reports:-
a) The Times of India news items - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2202364.cms
b) Debate on the subject at CNN IBN - http://in.news.yahoo.com/070714/211/6i1bl.html
What are the incontrovertible facts regarding the case?
a) Rajesh, is a teenager from a remote village in India
b) He is today able to talk English with American accent and gestures, which is amazing, considering the unlikely conditions at his home and village.
Claims in the initial news reports that needed to be independently validated:-
a) He has forgotten to speak Hindi
b) He has acquired more than ordinary knowledge of physics and mathematics (which allegedly left "engineering students baffled")
c) He has written three "documents" -- on memory, on sociology and on liberalization
Findings by Zee News (who investigated a bit on the above):-
a) The boy can still understand and talk in Hindi
b) The boy admitted that he developed the accent and mannerisms by constantly watching Hollywood movies on TV -- a few years back, he had taken up learning English as a "challenge" after having been insulted by a teacher.
c) His ability to speak English is merely imitative, that he spoke the language with grammatical errors; and that he could not fully comprehend questions asked in English.
Reasonable Conclusions
a) The boy's ability to talk English with a US accent is the result of extraordinary skills of imitation and mimicry that he happens to posses. He acquired this ability merely by repeatedly watching Hollywood movies, and through hard practice. This is indeed an amazing ability -- but one that does not call for supernatural explanations!
b) There is no evidence at all that the boy was "recalling" events from the memory of his earlier birth as a US scientist.
c) This incident does not in any way suggest that reincarnation (or punarjanma) is a possibility -- yet there can be no doubt that for years to come, the purveyors of the "supernatural" will use this news item to suggest that science (which discounts the possibility of rebirth after death) does not have an "open mind" on the issue!
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