This document discusses different perspectives on the purpose of life and what happens after death. It presents evidence from scientific studies of near-death experiences and past life memories to support the theories of resurrection or reincarnation. Specific case studies are described, such as a boy in Turkey who was born with birthmarks matching the wounds of a man who died before he was born. The document considers different explanations for the unequal circumstances people are born into and suggests multi-life progression may reconcile this with God's goodness. Implications are that belief in reincarnation provides meaning and hope to suffering in this life.

2. The point of life
Ultimate futility
Or
Ultimate utility?

3. Life beyond this lifetime?
Resurrection or
Reincarnation

4. Scientific Approach
Theory: Irreducibility of
consciousness
Observation:
Near-death experiences
Past life memories

5. The point of life
Ultimate futility
Or
Ultimate utility?

6. The point of life
Ultimate futility
Or
Ultimate utility?

7. Past-life memories
Dr. Ian Stevenson
- BG 2.22
Four types of evidences:
• Recollections
• Recognitions
• Behaviors
• Birthmarks

10. The Case of Necip Unlutaskiran
• Born in Adana, Turkey,
• Past-life as Necip Budak in
Mersin 80 km away
• Knew about scar on wife’s
thigh

11. The Case of Necip Unlutaskiran
• Affectionate to children
• Jealous of wife’s new
husband
• 6 correlating birthmarks –
probability 1 / 160^6

12. Fraud? Motives?
Money?
Fame?
Religious belief?

13. Fraud? - Counter-motive
Embarrassing
behavior of
children eg Jasbir
Singh

14. Fraud
“Neither self-delusion, intentional
fraud, peer pressure, nor coincidence
could explain how the children Ian
investigated could have known all that
they knew about strangers who’d died
before they were born.”
- Tom Shroder, Editor, Washington
Post

15. Explanation
Two different
people – non-
intersecting sets
Intersection point:
non-material soul

16. Why different starting points?
Chance?
Divine Caprice?
Multi-life progression?

17. Chance?
Life a cosmic lottery?
We live based on cause-
effect connection
Doctrine of helplessness

18. Divine Caprice?
God’s justice? – better
than ours, not worst
God’s tests – why
different tests for
different people?

19. Multi-life progression
Our present starting point
is determined by us, by
our past ending point
Reconciles world’s
inequities with God’s
goodness

20. Implication
“Has it occurred to you that
transmigration is at once an explanation
and a justification of the evil of the world?
If the evils we suffer are the result of sins
committed in our past lives, we can bear
them with resignation and hope that if in
this one we strive towards virtue, our
future lives will be less afflicted.”
–W. Somerset Maugham in The Razor’s
Edge

21. Implication
“I am no Hindu but I hold the doctrine
of the Hindus concerning a future
state to be incomparably more
rational, more pious and more likely to
deter men from vice than the horrid
opinions inculcated by the Christians
on punishment without end.”
- Christian scholar & pioneering
Sanskritist Sir Willam Jones

22. Bhakti Wisdom
Integrates
• Rational intelligence
&
• Divine grace