Watched a fascinating documentary called The Boy Who Lived Before, about a Glasgow five-year-old who, from when he could talk, maintained that he had lived on the tiny island of Barra, and was quite specific about his father’s name, the house, the view etc. Eventually, in the programme, his mother and an American academic take him there. He runs about in joy saying ‘I told you I wasn’t lying!’. It was all quite moving, especially when he was taken to the house they discovered owned by a family with the same name as his ‘Barra family’, in the same location.
So far there seems to be no explanation that bridges the gulf between the worlds of belief and secular neuroscience, which maintains that consciousness is either a product of, or dependent on, a brain and therefore unable to exist across time independently of a particular brain. Personally I want to believe both, but if forced to choose would have to stand (reluctantly?) with the neuroscientists. Which is why the challenge of stories like this is perplexing and valuable.
This morning I thought it must be April Fool’s day – BAE unveil a new range of eco-friendly weapons. They include lead-free bullets, noting without irony that lead can be harmful to people! This Moment