I wrote about a list of 5 parapsychological phenomena …. weird ones.

I hope you get an idea…

1. Past life memories - these memories that the brain brings on either spontaneously or
hypnotically. The first kind of memories , hypothetically induced , the subject recollects the
memories during hypnotic regression.

The subject is hypnotised and taken back into time by a series of questions. These
regressions into past lives have helped cure many long standing phobias . The person may
recollect a fatal happening and later becomes free of the phobia.

This might be, In some cases derived from the subject's prior knowledge or history. But in
some cases, like those involving xenoglossy, this seems improbable.

Xenoglossy ( from Greek meaning strange tongue. The term was coined by Nobel laureate
Charles richet) refers to the ability to speak or write in a language that couldn't have been
from normal sources.

A man named Harold jakowski recollected during a regression , a past life as a viking named
Thor. When the therapist instructed him to write down the vocal exchanges he recollected,
he wrote down some words and phrases which not even he recognised himself after coming
out if regression. After extensive research, it was found that the words belonged to old
Norse, an extinct language spoken by vikings in around 700 to 1300 CE.

A majority of these words were related to the sea . Natural for vikings.

Question may be raised that why don't we all remember our past lives. The answer to that
mostly lies on our weak memory. We go through the immense pain of death before
transmitting to the next body. Thus , it is forgotten by the brain. Even if we remember them
at first , we are not able to express what we want to and our memories are eventually
suppressed.

2. Near death experiences - near death experiences deal with our soul (yes we'll have to
use that word ) moving in and out of the same body unlike in past life experiences in which
the soul changes it's whole body.

before our transmission into another body and we have to 'die'. But in NDE's we return to
the same body after some span of death, or we are near death, and hence the name. these
typically refer to cases where the subjects were clinically dead but after coming back to their
consciousness, they remember themselves leaving their body, observing their body from
outside (mostly above the ceiling) as they are being operated upon. their body, that is. they
also, sometimes go through a dark tunnel where they feel profound peace and tranquillity,
see the review of all the good and bad deeds they have done, flashing before their eyes, or in
some cases, they see and interact with sacred people of their religion or their deceased
relatives.

3. Out of Body experiences - nothing much different from NDE's except that near death
experiences are a subcategory of OBE's and out of body experiences can also be self induced
or spontaneous, where the subject can also be in healthy condition bodily unlike in NDE's
where they have to leave their body because of the bad conditions of the body.

the near death experiences feel more real and life changing, and there is no interaction with
deceased relatives or religious icons during out of body experiences.

4. Dreams - you may be wondering why they are introduced into the list. but dreams are
more than what you think them to be. Scientists are still unsure of why we dream, as dreams
are a work of our subconscious mind, and they are unique in a strange way.

we can't walk in our dreams, our movement is either by floating or flying, or we can't move
at all.(yeah, an indication towards sleep paralysis). also, we can't have any clocks in our
dream.

the vedic view - All the above mentioned phenomenon certainly point towards the existence
of something, termed as aatma(soul) by the ancient vedic scriptures. here is a view of the
concept of the soul as given in the Bhagvad Gita, the famous philosphical classic.

"That which pervades the entire body you should know to be indestructible. No one is able
to destroy that imperishable soul."
-BG 2.17

"The soul can never be cut to pieces by any weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by
water, nor withered by the wind."
-BG 2.23
These verses indicate the nature of the soul, indestructable and unaffected by material
factors. the subtulity of the soul is indicated as..............
"when the tip of a hair is divided by the 1/10000th of it, each such part is the measurement
of the dimension of the soul"
-shvetashvatara upanishad 5.9
the phenomenon of consciousness and past life memories are explained as follows...

"O son of Bharata, as the sun alone illuminates all this universe, so does the living entity,
one within the body, illuminate the entire body by consciousness."
- BG 13.34

" As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new
material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones."
- BG 2.22