July 13, 2010 • 36 mins
A large percentage of the world's population believes that you will be reborn after you die. So why does the concept of reincarnation seem so paranormal to Westerners? Join Chuck and Josh as they explore the ins and outs of birth, death and birth again.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to stuff you should know from house stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.
With me is always as Charles W. Chuck Bryant, as
far as I known as first incarnation as a podcaster,
(00:21):
or at least right possibly before you were a dolphin.
I know I was a podcaster in the Ming Dynasty.
A little known fact there. Really, huh when was the
Ming Dynasty? It was when the first podcast was created
by me. Do you know who created the first podcast?
Don't you? Oh? That guy from MTV? Yeah, Adam Curry.
(00:44):
Isn't that crazy? A pioneer in our field? Yeah, we
should jump him and beat him up, give me the
old pillow case treatment. No, we should salute them hats off.
Yeah that too. By the way, Chuck, did you notice
in iTunes that you and I are in a special
room where we are basically referred to as pioneers? Yeah?
(01:05):
Podcast turns five? Yeah? Awkward? Yes, So Adam Curry started
what twenty years after Ghostbusters? Very nice? No, twenty one years?
Nice work. Let's get to it show. I Yes, have
you heard of a kid named um James Lenninger? No,
(01:28):
so let's see he's eleven now, I guess, and he
lives in the United States. I don't know what state.
I'm sure we could find out one of the fifty. Yes.
Um and he around the age of two started having them,
these crazy nightmares. And uh, he always had an affinity
(01:49):
for airplanes. But around the age of two, things turned
a little bit dark, and he started, you know, waking
up screaming things like, UM, plane on fire, plane on fire,
or something like that. That the kids sitting next to
you when he flew to New York. No, that kid
was he was just a punk. This kid was was traumatized.
You could say he knew a lot about planes. His
(02:10):
parents started noticing that he UM would do kind of
pre flight checks when he was playing with his airplanes.
He he could point to parts of his mom thought
a UM a fuel tank called the drop tank was
a bomb attached to the belt of a toy plane.
And he's like, no, that's a drop tank. And he
was just a little kid at the time, right, UM.
(02:32):
And after a while his his the things he was
he was talking about Sarah to get a lot more specific, Chuck.
He talked about Um going down in a Corsair that
he used to fly bless you with this is headed.
He talked about how Corsair, the Corsair he flew, his
tires would always go flat, which it's kind of a
(02:55):
little known fact unless you're a World War Two pilot
or worked on a flight deck. Sure. Uh. And then
he finally said that he went down near Iwajima in
a plane and that his plane had gone down from
taking a direct hit in the engine. And by this time,
this kid's like five, right, um, and so he said
(03:15):
that he had been flying off of the Natoma right. Uh.
So his father started to get a little bit obsessed
with this and started researching the Natoma and found that
there was a Natoma bay an aircraft carrier UM that
was off the coast of Ewagima during the raid on
Iwagima UH in March of nine. And there was indeed
(03:36):
a guy whose name was James M. Houston Jr. And
he was the only one to die uh in this
raid on Iwagima from hitting the engine direct hitting the
engine went down in his course air Is that a
movie yet? Not yet? Should be? So the kids getting
owners his um, his memories are fading. That was this
(03:58):
was two thousand five. The article his memories were already fading.
Apparently they hit their pinnacle at about three two to
five something like that. Crazy, uh, And a lot of
researchers are saying, you know, the parents have diluted themselves,
they've deluded him, they've really kind of encouraged this, and
they're seeing things that aren't there. But obviously as parents
(04:18):
think that this kid is the reincarnation of this other
guy named James, the one who went down in ninet
and his course, their right sounds plausible to me, it is.
There's a lot of people out there that would say
that doesn't sound plausible, especially people in the Western world.
But you go a little further east, a little past
(04:40):
the Greenwich date line, right right, uh, and you will
find a billion and a half two billion people who
believe in reincarnation. Right yeah, Well wait, is that a
billion and a half that's just Hindus and Buddhist right,
you're at everybody? No, No, that's just there's like a
(05:03):
billion people in China alone, right, Yeah, but I don't
know that all of them are Buddhists. Yeah, but many
more people believe in reincarnation than the Hindus and Buddhists.
So you cross the International date line. Go a little
further east, you're gonna find billions of people, billions of
people starting in Central Asia and moving eastward, and us
(05:23):
Stagi Westerners are always the ones going I don't know
about that folksy remedy, or I don't know about that
coming back as someone else. Well, one of the reasons
why is because we view time as in a linear motion.
There's no going back, there's no there's no coming back
to do it again and again. You know, there's no rebirth.
Most of the religions over here are monotheistic. You got
(05:47):
a heaven after you die. Your life on earth is
too sort of gain entry into heaven. And on the
on the other side of the world, um in in
among cultures that believe in reincarnation, time is generally viewed
as cyclical, which makes for you know, coming back again
(06:07):
and again as a lot more plausible, right, Yeah, I
did find a thing about Christianity though. There are some
people who think that reincarnation may have been an early
tenant of Christianity, but it was misinterpreted and or just
flat out kind of lost over the years. Yeah, are
you talking about the Cathars. Well, it's just I mean,
(06:29):
none of it can be proven obviously, and then parts
of Judaism, the Kabbalah, and Hasidic Jews believe in reincarnation. Yeah,
let's talk about that first. Let's talk about Asian views
of reincarnation. All right, there's a lot of really interesting
similarities across cultures as far as reincarnation goes in the
(06:49):
earliest well, the oldest active religion right now is Hinduism,
oldest surviving religion, right. I think you can make a
case that's Zoroastrianism is older, but I don't know that
you could say that that's actually surviving. Yeah, at the
very least, it's not thriving like hindu is. Um. Right,
(07:11):
So Chuck, how long has reincarnation been around. It hasn't
been around forever like people would think it's. Actually it's
fairly new, right, Yeah, the fifth and seventh century BC. Yeah. BC.
We get yelled at every time we use that, don't
sometimes Okay? And they were in the apon A Shads, right,
(07:34):
which were these Hindu ancient Hindu texts where reincarnation is
first really spelled out right, right, And they don't think
that it was around prior to this, because um, there's
a lot of evidence that in like burials, that people
believe that this individual person went on to another life,
so they would bury like um, their hunting materials, or
(07:57):
arian societies would burn the wife alive when they cremated
the husband, so they were together in the next life.
So then reincarnation first pops up around you know, the
fifth and seventh century or the seventh and fifth century BC. Right, yes,
So what are we talking about when it comes to Hinduism, like,
what are what's the basis of of reincarnation? Well, I
(08:18):
mean and its original Latin translation, it means entering the
flesh again, so that pretty much speaks for itself, I think.
And Hinduism it's all about, uh, the acceptance of sam sara,
which uh that literally means wandering on and from when
I gathered. It's more of an answer to what are
we doing? Like the eternal question is what are we doing?
(08:40):
No way, not where are we? A lot of people
think it's like you know where you are at your station,
but it's really what are you doing? And so uh,
basically it's um and it's sort of the same in Buddhism.
We'll get into that, but it isn't there it's not
in a continual cycle for all of eternity. There is
(09:01):
a goal that you eventually want to break the cycle
and reach an endpoint. And and Hinduism it's called moksha.
Is that right? Yeah, that's how I took it. Yeah,
And that's that's salvation. Right. Yes, it means release literally released,
So to be released from your cycle is how I
took it. So with Hinduism, you achieve moksha through karma, right.
(09:26):
And karma is that it's this very it's that's as
misused as socialism these days, I think, at least here
in the West. Right. Um, If karma is basically this
impersonal law where if you carry out good actions, you
become good, If you carry out evil actions, you become evil. Right, So,
(09:49):
according to how you live your life is the kind
of karma you accrue in this karma accumulates from life
to life. And ultimately, when I guess the good enough
of the good karma is accrued if you will, um.
And I don't think it's as black and white as
good or bad karma necessarily, But but once you crew
this this type of favorable karma, um, You're you're ultimately
(10:15):
loosened from your human form and you're not going to
be reborn again. You're gonna go join the Brahma. Right, Yes,
that is the absolute god of the Hindus. Big cheese,
you become one with I guess a part of it. Yeah, yeah,
but karma is not controlled by that. God is not
controlled by any god. No. Right, it's this like universal
(10:36):
law like thermodynamics or something like that. Yeah, it's not
like God says I'm gonna you know, you've earned this
or you haven't earned that. He's just like he's like
a dealer in Vegas, Like, I've got nothing to do
with this, buddy, this is all about It's the second
time we've done that called clearing your hands or tapping out.
Um chuck. I find that really really interesting and kind
(10:56):
of um uplifting that there is this um god, this
almighty powerful god in the Hindu religion, and then there's
of course like tons of other gods. Right, um, but
the this this all powerful god can't do anything about
this cosmic law of karma. It's up to the individual's actions.
(11:18):
I just find the endlessly appealing that it's up to
you how you live your life, whether or not you're
going to achieve moksha or not. That's I just think
that's super cool, absolutely, you know, because your actions should
reflect you know, how you end up, and I think
it creates your station in life as well. Right. Well, yeah,
if you do enough, I guess, if you accrue enough
(11:40):
good karma, you may end up in a higher cast,
in another incarnation here on earth. Right. But then there's
no heaven or hell or anything after after you do
hit moksha, right, it's just being a part of the
brahm one right, okay, which is the Buddhist equivalent of
the Hindu equivalent of the Buddhist nirvana. Right. So moksha
(12:03):
is one of four primary Hindu goals, right, Yeah, the final,
that's the final, the first one, and it's almost kind
of like this um this transcendence, and it starts with
this very basic goal of desire where you want to
have sex or you want wealth or you want fame
or something like that. Uh, And then you move to wealth. Arthur,
(12:25):
which actually is ka was the first one. I'm sorry,
K And like you're saying c O M M A
r K A M A uh. And then Arthur A
r T h A is wealth and it's not like
a bad thing. It's not like our concept of wealth.
It's you want to accumulate wealth so you can take
care of your family or do good for other people,
(12:47):
that kind of thing. So that in the Western concepts
of wealth are not necessarily one of the same. Then
you have dharma righteousness, right, and then after that you
achieve moksha. And I think there's an interplay. I don't.
I don't think it's necessarily graduated. There's that linear thought
progression again right in the West. I think they're all
(13:09):
kind of intertwined. Right. I think so too. But you
led us to Buddhism and I trampled all over that segue.
So let's go back to it, buddy. I believe that
we said that moksha would be the Hindu equivalent of
the Buddhist nirvana. Excellent segway, Chuck, And Buddhism is about
years old, and uh, it's kind of their concept of
(13:32):
reincarnation and is much the same as Hindu in fact
that they got it from the Hindu. So they believe
in karma. They believe in good karma and bad karma.
They believe in uh sam Sara and rebirth and UH.
They also believe in the in between, which is UH,
between the afterlife, after death, and before birth. Right, that's
(13:56):
actually Bardo in the Tibetan tradition. Okay, is it? So
there's a there's a it's basically yeah, you can't really
call it an afterlife, right if you call it an
in between life? And so chuck this this thing that
exists in between life and also in life and what
dies as well? Um. Buddhists consider a germ of consciousness
(14:19):
and I just made air quotes right, right, so that
starts in the womb um, and you live, you die,
You generate karma based on how you live. But the
point of life to Buddhists is suffering. Yes, that's part
of the fore noble truths, which is uh, suffering exists.
(14:43):
Suffering arises from attachment to desires. Suffering ceases when attachment
to desire cease, and freedom from suffering is possible by
practicing the eight fold path. Right, And the eight Fold
path was um something that was um created by the Buddhists.
That Arthur Right who was born around five sixty three BC,
(15:03):
and he was born into a life of opulence and
wealth and privilege and had it very easy but he
noticed fairly early on. I get the impression he was
something of a prodigy, um that he wasn't achieving much
spiritual progression through this life of wealth. So he went
(15:24):
off and he did what Chuck, Well, when he was
twenty nine years old, he left and said, I'm gonna
practice yoga training and he basically abandoned all that and
sat under a tree and he lived the life of
a hermit. Yeah, so you know me, Chuck, You know
how I feel about Buddhists going off and living in
(15:45):
the cave by themselves and not contributing anything to humanity. Right,
And this is what Siddartha tried. And did he gain
enlightenment from this? No, he was I guess you could
say he was in your camp. He didn't. Um. I'm
not gonna say he didn't much out of it, because
I wasn't there. But he ultimately did not gain enlightenment
that way. And he thought, you know what, maybe a
(16:06):
mix of both is a good thing, and maybe we
should call that the middle way, and maybe that's the
way to be right, and it's called the eight fold path. Right,
So he achieves enlightenment and he immediately starts telling other
people about it, and he said that there's this eight
fold path that is basically it's in the middle between
excess and self deprivation. Right, right, So what are the
(16:28):
eight the eight parts of the eight fold path. Well,
this is broken down into three qualities. Uh, the wisdom
or panna is right view and right thought. Okay, You've
got morality, which is right speech, right action, and right livelihood.
Then you have meditation which is right effort, right and
(16:49):
mindfulness and right contemplation. Very nice. So basically, you put
all this together, you are living the right life that's
going to deliver you to nirvana. Right, yeah, which is
the middle way? Sounds pretty easy. I bet it's extremely difficult.
I think so too. You know, well, there it's it's
(17:09):
difficult because there's something called hindrances and they actually list
these out, which in you know, it's probably no surprise
that one of them is lust, one of them is
aversion to ill will. You have sloth and torpor, which
you know, who wants to be involved with torpor? Restlessness
and worry and skeptical doubt. And then there are seven
(17:30):
factors of enlightenment, which are mindfulness, investigation, energy, rapture, twan quility, concentration,
and equanimity. So yeah, not so easy. No, I wouldn't
think so, I mean think think about avoid those and
then do those though it does sound easy, But but
how life is. I'm sure if you like, you know,
(17:52):
zig to the left, you zag right into you know,
some sort of temptation or you know, if you close
yourself down to the possibility of you know, um, being
exposed to wealth or whatever, you're missing out on being
able to help other people. Yea, you know, there's there's
(18:14):
probably a lot of pitfalls to that that way of living,
which is why I issue the whole thing. Yeah. Well,
sid Heartha believe that he wandered in around India for
like forty five years teaching this and until he died
at the age of eighty. And you know what his
last words were, Tell him I said something cool. Now
he did say something cool. He said impermanent or all
(18:36):
created things strive on with awareness. Party on is basically
what he said, party on garth. Wow. Yeah, nice last words. Huh, yeah,
they are. Have you ever wondered about yours will be? Uh?
I have a feeling mine are gonna be holy to
(18:58):
be my last two words mineld b probably you got me, Copper,
you're gonna revert back to your bad boy ways just
for one list and tying to shoot out suicide by cop.
It reminds me the end of Royaltanon Bombs when they
showed it said he died heroically saving his family from
(19:19):
a sinking ship. Um all right, Chuck, some of the
stuff that we've been talking about may sound kind of familiar.
If you live the right way, you can stop coming
back to this existence that you know, we call earth
life on life on this planet. Right. It kind of
(19:41):
bears a striking resemblance to the Judeo Christian ethic of
you know, if you live this right life, if you're
good to other people, you don't hurt other people or
other things, you're not a cruel person. Um, and you
kind of it's not you don't pursue worldly objects, you're
going to uh have a better afterlife, right, Yeah, But
(20:03):
it's you know, Christianity obviously it's a permanent afterlife, right
because reincarnation. Here's the thing, like there's a there's a
very there's a similarity between the Judeo Christian outlook and
Muslim as well, because they believe in the afterlife as well,
that the soul is immortal, that there's something in us
that lives on after the physical body dies. Where it
(20:27):
differs and disagrees is specifically with reincarnation, where you come
back and you inhabit somebody on this earth again. That's
the that's the difference. That's reincarnation right there, right has
something to do with the immortality of the soul. Well,
has everything to do with the immortality is soul. But
as far as comparative religion goes the differences, you don't
(20:49):
keep going straight. You come back because you screwed up.
I took a comparative religion class in college. And here's
a little secret, Josh, don't tell anybody, but they're all
kind of the same. I know. And do you want
to know why I have my theory? Let's hear it.
Are we gonna go there? Here's my here's my theory.
(21:11):
Man evolved into man from whatever, and man started to
as soon as man could think, Man started questioning why
they were there on earth looking for a purpose. And
that's where religion sprung up. And that's why they're all
very similar. When you break down the tenants of world
religions is people fractured and split off in different areas,
(21:32):
and they evolved differently. But at the root of it,
I think it began with man walking upright and looking
at you know, the sun and saying, why son there? Yeah,
I think I subscribed to something very um. Why river run? Right?
I think I think it was um born the chuck
out of the first time somebody witnessed someone else die
(21:57):
and realized that that's going to happen to me one day?
What happened to talk talk? Right? Now, there's a if
you if you look at um religious scholars work, most
of them will tell you that reincarnation was born out
of um watching the seasons change, especially for because because
(22:18):
these were agricultural societies that started giving rise to religion
like this right when the whole cyclical thing, it makes
sense the earth rotates, the seasons rotate in a cycle,
so it makes sense the I guess the commonality, like
you said, people started to split up. I don't know
that it's necessarily that it happened. And then I see
(22:39):
what you're saying, Like with religion in general, but with
something like say reincarnation and these really you know, lead
a good life and the reward after this. I think
it was from cultures having an influence on one another
by living near one another. Remember we did UM that
podcast on whether the Greeks got their ideas from the Africans. Well,
(23:00):
this apparently is another example of that. The African mystery system,
the comedic mystery system that we talked about in Egypt.
Um one of the big guys who formed a mystery system, well,
one of the big cult founders UM. His name was Pythagoras,
(23:21):
remember him the Paean theorem. So we're gonna get into
the mystery religions a little bit. Yeah, he spent several
decades in Africa and came back and the next thing
you know, he's founding mystery cults. Orpheus, the orphic Um,
the orphic mystery cults founder. Well, he's supposedly a mythical figure,
but they also think he may be an actual historical
(23:42):
figure the music legend if he was real. There's part
of his legend is that he went and spent twenty
years in Memphis studying from the Egyptian So you kind
of get the idea that a lot of the Um
ideas of rebirth and reincarnation went from UM. The Hindus
to the Egyptians to the Greeks. And then remember we
(24:05):
talked about the Jefferson Bible being written or the Bible
being written by the Platonics. Yes, that plato uh was
derived from these mystery cults who believed in reincarnation, and
actually some Catholic cults, early Catholic cults um believed in
reincarnation as well, like the Cather's. Yeah, well, orphanism sounds
(24:25):
a lot like heaven and hell to me, because he
believed or they believe that leading a correct life leads
you to elysium, which is like a paradise, and if
you're evil, you'll get to a hell, right, but you
can die in the afterlife as well. Yeah it doesn't.
That's that's the main difference. You have to lead three
good orphic lives to get out of there. And what
(24:49):
what is leading a good orphic life? Chuck with this horrible,
horrible orphic life. Uh well no, no wine, no sex,
no meat. Vegetarianism is good. Yeah. So yeah, those are
a few of the tenants. Which is strange because this uh,
this is this orphan cult was actually an offshoot of
(25:11):
the Dianicing colt and they believed quite the opposite. They
would rip a goat um to death, to shreds a
live goat to shreds with their teeth as part of
their sacrifice, their ritual sacrifice. They get drunk as they
could on wine. They have sex and orgies, and they
eat everything right. And he and apparently Orpheus went to
(25:32):
Memphis and came back and said, Hey, I know what
you guys are trying to do, and that's a good idea,
but you're doing the opposite of what you should be doing.
Let's start leading this puritanical life. And that led to
this this um kind of idea that denying yourself was
a good way toward being a pure person. I think
(25:53):
you were starting to lead us down the road a
minute ago about Jiinism. Yeah, there's a couple of other
Indian religions jain is Um, and I always thought it
was Sikhism, but also saw something that said that's a
common mispronunciation. And then it's like say it, say it chisum. Nice.
I don't know if that's right way to go. The
extra mile checkers, Well, who knows, you know, it's on
(26:13):
the internet. Might not be true, but jin is Um
they think that your soul accumulates karma as a bad thing.
It's an actual substance, physical substance, and that karma is
never good. Karma is always bad. It's your goal is
to rid yourself of karma on here on earth. Yeah,
and if you have these karmic particles, then your soul
(26:33):
is always going to bind to a body. Right, yes,
So if you can get rid of the karmic particles,
you're all right. Um. I also mentioned the Cather's right,
these were this was Um. They were from South France
and Spain, I believe, and they're the reason the Spanish
Inquisition was founded because they were considered this the heretical
(26:57):
sect of Catholicism, when basically they were vegetarians, they believed
in reincarnation. They were highly they followed this highly neo
Platonic tradition UM, and they accused the Roman Catholic Church
of being Um, the antichrist branch of Catholicism. The Roman
(27:18):
Catholic branch proved stronger, started setting up steaks, burning Kai
Thur's at them and basically ran them out of um existence.
But they believed in Um. You know that you shouldn't
eat me, that you could come back as as a
human or an animal. Um, and that they were just
kind of a kinder, gentler version of Catholicism, a little
(27:40):
less bloodthirsty. So chuck um. We talked about the West
being generally incredulous of this kind of thing, right, there
is a sterling exception as far as Westerners go, of
you know, believing in reincarnation, and that exception took the
form of a guy named Dr Ian st Evenson, Right. Yeah, well,
(28:02):
he studied it. He never said that he believed it
was true. He just wanted to believe it was or
wanted to prove that it was at least a possibility.
So he spent his life pretty much until he died
in two thousand seven trying to do so. Uh. Founded
the Division of Personality Studies at u v A. Right,
which became I guess it was originally called the Division
(28:24):
of Perceptual Studies, right. Well, now it later became the
Perceptual Studies I get confuse them. It was originally personality studies.
And he was a Virginia cavalier. Yeah is that right? Huh? Okay,
go caps and uh. He had a lab basically where
he studied near death experiences. He studied children, mainly two
(28:45):
to five young kids who um you know to to
kind of like your a kid that you talked about
at the beginning two to five who had these stories
that um, could not be explained in ways that made
sense other than perhaps they were reincarnate. Did Yeah. Um,
there's there's been tons and tons and tons of cases.
Some are easily explained away, others aren't. But Stevenson apparently
(29:08):
investigated about him, Yeah, over forty years, but he was
pretty much shut down by mainstream his peers. He was
and he he was a true Fordian actually he was. Um.
He wanted to apply the scientific method to uh, the supernatural, right.
(29:29):
He just basically believed things that were considered supernatural were
just things that couldn't be explained by science right now.
But like you said, he was basically pushed to the
friends just because of his studies. But there's a lot
of people out there. I think he was successful in
in proving that it is possible for reincarnation, like the
kid who thought it was the World War two pilot's.
(29:51):
Stevenson would never say, like whether he believed in reincarnation
anything like that, but um about and like I think
nineteen sixty seven he went out and bought a lock,
a combination lock, and set the combination himself, and then
used a mnemonic device to remember the combination, and he
(30:12):
stored the lock away. And he always said that the
reason why he did this he wanted to see if
he could um transmit the information thenemonic device to somebody
who could then go unlock this lock after he died.
And so far nobody's unlocked the lock in three years.
But oh, no, that disproves anything to you, No, of course,
(30:35):
not that it proves that no one's unlocked the lock. Yet,
that's diplomatic. I mean, get you a job in the
foreign service. Have you got anything else? Reincarnation? Yeah, the
Chinese government. Did you know they banned reincarnation without permission
from the Chinese government. I think I have heard that.
(30:55):
Actually when was this like a few years back? Yeah?
They China like to ban things, as we all know,
and they banned reincarnation without uh consent from the Chinese government.
And basically, basically it's a way to keep the Dolli
llama from reincarnating and saying this is the next dolli Llama.
(31:17):
Basically he won't have permission to do so, so China
will be able to choose the next DOLLI Llama, and
the current Dolly says obviously, he said many times, I
Am not going to come back as long as uh
China is in power. Over to bet, he's boycotting reincarnation.
I don't know if he's so much boycotting it, but
(31:38):
he's um he's gonna end up here. Well, I guess
he is boycotting. He says he refuses to be reborn
until that happens. But what's happening is I mean when
he dies, it's gonna be a little hinky because potentially
there might be two Dolly Llamas, the one China appoints
and the one, you know, the the real one. I
(32:00):
would call it. That will be awkward if they over
me or if they met Charley McLean remember that stuff. Sure,
And she claimed that she was reincarnated and she had
sex with Charlemagne. I didn't hear about the charm Charlott
magine part. Yeah, well, she said she she actually did
have an affair with the Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palm
and he she said he was Charlemagne reincarnated, so supposedly,
(32:25):
she says she got it on with Charlemagne. Well, if
you want to know more about Charlemagne or reincarnation or
the Dolly Llama, we got tons of those articles. Um,
just come up with some good keywords and put them
in the handy search bar at how stuff works dot com,
which means it's time for chuck is it listener mail?
Are we back to listener mail? We are, all right,
(32:46):
it's time for the listener mail. Uh, quickly. We want
to support our Kiva team real quick. Beforehand, we need
to mention this because it's been a while. We're trying
to get to two hundred and fifty thou dollars um
by August. Oh, I don't know August. Let's stay in
the end of August. I think it was just at
(33:07):
the end of August, right, um, and we are plugging along.
I think we're at about one seventy right now, a
hundred and seventy hundred and seventy thousand dollars raised by
the stuff you should know Kiva team, right, which is
far and away all stats aside, far and away the
greatest Kiva team ever assembled. All right, agreed, So we're
(33:28):
trying to get the two This is not an exclusive team, uh,
so if you want to join, you can donate in
increments of twenty five dollars. You um donate as a loan.
It's repaid. You don't make any interest back. But I
mean you get your twenty five dollars back UM and
it's pretty addictive in it. Chuck, I'm pretty hooked. Yes,
you can go to www dot kiva dot org slash
(33:53):
team slash stuff you should know right join or check
it out or whatever. Josh, I'm just gonna call this
one question that has been answered many times, but Sean
doesn't know the answer. That's a great title for this one, Chus, Chuck, Chuck, Josh,
and Jerry. I missed a Facebook questionnaire because I was
(34:13):
at working. My job prohibits Facebook. Thank god for s
Y s K, ABC News and Yes Stuff Mom Never
Told You podcast. It helps this twenty four year old
newlywed understand his smart, wonderful, beautiful, but very complex wife
a little better the best kind. His question is this,
(34:33):
who the heck is Hippie Rob. I'm pretty sure I've
listened to all the podcasts you have, not even the
ones before, Chuck, So which one explains Hippy Rob and
all my cube mates? Who also listen are wondering the
same thing we need to know is not a word,
Otherwise it's just a boring inside jokes joke that drives
us nuts. So sucks to be you pal Ps Jerry
(34:57):
at least cough or something. No, s I sk listener
believes you're real, and we wouldn't put it past Chuck
and Josh to make you up. This guy is really
suspicious one and demanding to Sean of Virginia Beach, little
bossy Sean, get with the program, buddy. Yeah, answers are
out there, Sean. We're gonna do a reverse on you.
(35:18):
I'm not going to say who Hippie Rob is or
where the origin is, so Sean, Actually, instead of telling
you who Hippy Rob is, where he came from, et cetera,
We're going to put a request out to our listeners.
The first person who sends us an email and tells
us we're a Hippie Rob, first appearance, what episode, and
in what capacity that he's described? Right? Yeah? Uh. If
(35:42):
you do have that info, send it to stuff podcast
at how stuff works dot com for more on this
and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works
dot Com? Want more how stuff Works which I got
our blogs on the house stof works dot com home
page m hm hm
Welcome to stuff you should know from house stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.
With me is always as Charles W. Chuck Bryant, as
far as I known as first incarnation as a podcaster,
(00:21):
or at least right possibly before you were a dolphin.
I know I was a podcaster in the Ming Dynasty.
A little known fact there. Really, huh when was the
Ming Dynasty? It was when the first podcast was created
by me. Do you know who created the first podcast?
Don't you? Oh? That guy from MTV? Yeah, Adam Curry.
(00:44):
Isn't that crazy? A pioneer in our field? Yeah, we
should jump him and beat him up, give me the
old pillow case treatment. No, we should salute them hats off.
Yeah that too. By the way, Chuck, did you notice
in iTunes that you and I are in a special
room where we are basically referred to as pioneers? Yeah?
(01:05):
Podcast turns five? Yeah? Awkward? Yes, So Adam Curry started
what twenty years after Ghostbusters? Very nice? No, twenty one years?
Nice work. Let's get to it show. I Yes, have
you heard of a kid named um James Lenninger? No,
(01:28):
so let's see he's eleven now, I guess, and he
lives in the United States. I don't know what state.
I'm sure we could find out one of the fifty. Yes.
Um and he around the age of two started having them,
these crazy nightmares. And uh, he always had an affinity
(01:49):
for airplanes. But around the age of two, things turned
a little bit dark, and he started, you know, waking
up screaming things like, UM, plane on fire, plane on fire,
or something like that. That the kids sitting next to
you when he flew to New York. No, that kid
was he was just a punk. This kid was was traumatized.
You could say he knew a lot about planes. His
(02:10):
parents started noticing that he UM would do kind of
pre flight checks when he was playing with his airplanes.
He he could point to parts of his mom thought
a UM a fuel tank called the drop tank was
a bomb attached to the belt of a toy plane.
And he's like, no, that's a drop tank. And he
was just a little kid at the time, right, UM.
(02:32):
And after a while his his the things he was
he was talking about Sarah to get a lot more specific, Chuck.
He talked about Um going down in a Corsair that
he used to fly bless you with this is headed.
He talked about how Corsair, the Corsair he flew, his
tires would always go flat, which it's kind of a
(02:55):
little known fact unless you're a World War Two pilot
or worked on a flight deck. Sure. Uh. And then
he finally said that he went down near Iwajima in
a plane and that his plane had gone down from
taking a direct hit in the engine. And by this time,
this kid's like five, right, um, and so he said
(03:15):
that he had been flying off of the Natoma right. Uh.
So his father started to get a little bit obsessed
with this and started researching the Natoma and found that
there was a Natoma bay an aircraft carrier UM that
was off the coast of Ewagima during the raid on
Iwagima UH in March of nine. And there was indeed
(03:36):
a guy whose name was James M. Houston Jr. And
he was the only one to die uh in this
raid on Iwagima from hitting the engine direct hitting the
engine went down in his course air Is that a
movie yet? Not yet? Should be? So the kids getting
owners his um, his memories are fading. That was this
(03:58):
was two thousand five. The article his memories were already fading.
Apparently they hit their pinnacle at about three two to
five something like that. Crazy, uh, And a lot of
researchers are saying, you know, the parents have diluted themselves,
they've deluded him, they've really kind of encouraged this, and
they're seeing things that aren't there. But obviously as parents
(04:18):
think that this kid is the reincarnation of this other
guy named James, the one who went down in ninet
and his course, their right sounds plausible to me, it is.
There's a lot of people out there that would say
that doesn't sound plausible, especially people in the Western world.
But you go a little further east, a little past
(04:40):
the Greenwich date line, right right, uh, and you will
find a billion and a half two billion people who
believe in reincarnation. Right yeah, Well wait, is that a
billion and a half that's just Hindus and Buddhist right,
you're at everybody? No, No, that's just there's like a
(05:03):
billion people in China alone, right, Yeah, but I don't
know that all of them are Buddhists. Yeah, but many
more people believe in reincarnation than the Hindus and Buddhists.
So you cross the International date line. Go a little
further east, you're gonna find billions of people, billions of
people starting in Central Asia and moving eastward, and us
(05:23):
Stagi Westerners are always the ones going I don't know
about that folksy remedy, or I don't know about that
coming back as someone else. Well, one of the reasons
why is because we view time as in a linear motion.
There's no going back, there's no there's no coming back
to do it again and again. You know, there's no rebirth.
Most of the religions over here are monotheistic. You got
(05:47):
a heaven after you die. Your life on earth is
too sort of gain entry into heaven. And on the
on the other side of the world, um in in
among cultures that believe in reincarnation, time is generally viewed
as cyclical, which makes for you know, coming back again
(06:07):
and again as a lot more plausible, right, Yeah, I
did find a thing about Christianity though. There are some
people who think that reincarnation may have been an early
tenant of Christianity, but it was misinterpreted and or just
flat out kind of lost over the years. Yeah, are
you talking about the Cathars. Well, it's just I mean,
(06:29):
none of it can be proven obviously, and then parts
of Judaism, the Kabbalah, and Hasidic Jews believe in reincarnation. Yeah,
let's talk about that first. Let's talk about Asian views
of reincarnation. All right, there's a lot of really interesting
similarities across cultures as far as reincarnation goes in the
(06:49):
earliest well, the oldest active religion right now is Hinduism,
oldest surviving religion, right. I think you can make a
case that's Zoroastrianism is older, but I don't know that
you could say that that's actually surviving. Yeah, at the
very least, it's not thriving like hindu is. Um. Right,
(07:11):
So Chuck, how long has reincarnation been around. It hasn't
been around forever like people would think it's. Actually it's
fairly new, right, Yeah, the fifth and seventh century BC. Yeah. BC.
We get yelled at every time we use that, don't
sometimes Okay? And they were in the apon A Shads, right,
(07:34):
which were these Hindu ancient Hindu texts where reincarnation is
first really spelled out right, right, And they don't think
that it was around prior to this, because um, there's
a lot of evidence that in like burials, that people
believe that this individual person went on to another life,
so they would bury like um, their hunting materials, or
(07:57):
arian societies would burn the wife alive when they cremated
the husband, so they were together in the next life.
So then reincarnation first pops up around you know, the
fifth and seventh century or the seventh and fifth century BC. Right, yes,
So what are we talking about when it comes to Hinduism, like,
what are what's the basis of of reincarnation? Well, I
(08:18):
mean and its original Latin translation, it means entering the
flesh again, so that pretty much speaks for itself, I think.
And Hinduism it's all about, uh, the acceptance of sam sara,
which uh that literally means wandering on and from when
I gathered. It's more of an answer to what are
we doing? Like the eternal question is what are we doing?
(08:40):
No way, not where are we? A lot of people
think it's like you know where you are at your station,
but it's really what are you doing? And so uh,
basically it's um and it's sort of the same in Buddhism.
We'll get into that, but it isn't there it's not
in a continual cycle for all of eternity. There is
(09:01):
a goal that you eventually want to break the cycle
and reach an endpoint. And and Hinduism it's called moksha.
Is that right? Yeah, that's how I took it. Yeah,
And that's that's salvation. Right. Yes, it means release literally released,
So to be released from your cycle is how I
took it. So with Hinduism, you achieve moksha through karma, right.
(09:26):
And karma is that it's this very it's that's as
misused as socialism these days, I think, at least here
in the West. Right. Um, If karma is basically this
impersonal law where if you carry out good actions, you
become good, If you carry out evil actions, you become evil. Right, So,
(09:49):
according to how you live your life is the kind
of karma you accrue in this karma accumulates from life
to life. And ultimately, when I guess the good enough
of the good karma is accrued if you will, um.
And I don't think it's as black and white as
good or bad karma necessarily, But but once you crew
this this type of favorable karma, um, You're you're ultimately
(10:15):
loosened from your human form and you're not going to
be reborn again. You're gonna go join the Brahma. Right, Yes,
that is the absolute god of the Hindus. Big cheese,
you become one with I guess a part of it. Yeah, yeah,
but karma is not controlled by that. God is not
controlled by any god. No. Right, it's this like universal
(10:36):
law like thermodynamics or something like that. Yeah, it's not
like God says I'm gonna you know, you've earned this
or you haven't earned that. He's just like he's like
a dealer in Vegas, Like, I've got nothing to do
with this, buddy, this is all about It's the second
time we've done that called clearing your hands or tapping out.
Um chuck. I find that really really interesting and kind
(10:56):
of um uplifting that there is this um god, this
almighty powerful god in the Hindu religion, and then there's
of course like tons of other gods. Right, um, but
the this this all powerful god can't do anything about
this cosmic law of karma. It's up to the individual's actions.
(11:18):
I just find the endlessly appealing that it's up to
you how you live your life, whether or not you're
going to achieve moksha or not. That's I just think
that's super cool, absolutely, you know, because your actions should
reflect you know, how you end up, and I think
it creates your station in life as well. Right. Well, yeah,
if you do enough, I guess, if you accrue enough
(11:40):
good karma, you may end up in a higher cast,
in another incarnation here on earth. Right. But then there's
no heaven or hell or anything after after you do
hit moksha, right, it's just being a part of the
brahm one right, okay, which is the Buddhist equivalent of
the Hindu equivalent of the Buddhist nirvana. Right. So moksha
(12:03):
is one of four primary Hindu goals, right, Yeah, the final,
that's the final, the first one, and it's almost kind
of like this um this transcendence, and it starts with
this very basic goal of desire where you want to
have sex or you want wealth or you want fame
or something like that. Uh, And then you move to wealth. Arthur,
(12:25):
which actually is ka was the first one. I'm sorry,
K And like you're saying c O M M A
r K A M A uh. And then Arthur A
r T h A is wealth and it's not like
a bad thing. It's not like our concept of wealth.
It's you want to accumulate wealth so you can take
care of your family or do good for other people,
(12:47):
that kind of thing. So that in the Western concepts
of wealth are not necessarily one of the same. Then
you have dharma righteousness, right, and then after that you
achieve moksha. And I think there's an interplay. I don't.
I don't think it's necessarily graduated. There's that linear thought
progression again right in the West. I think they're all
(13:09):
kind of intertwined. Right. I think so too. But you
led us to Buddhism and I trampled all over that segue.
So let's go back to it, buddy. I believe that
we said that moksha would be the Hindu equivalent of
the Buddhist nirvana. Excellent segway, Chuck, And Buddhism is about
years old, and uh, it's kind of their concept of
(13:32):
reincarnation and is much the same as Hindu in fact
that they got it from the Hindu. So they believe
in karma. They believe in good karma and bad karma.
They believe in uh sam Sara and rebirth and UH.
They also believe in the in between, which is UH,
between the afterlife, after death, and before birth. Right, that's
(13:56):
actually Bardo in the Tibetan tradition. Okay, is it? So
there's a there's a it's basically yeah, you can't really
call it an afterlife, right if you call it an
in between life? And so chuck this this thing that
exists in between life and also in life and what
dies as well? Um. Buddhists consider a germ of consciousness
(14:19):
and I just made air quotes right, right, so that
starts in the womb um, and you live, you die,
You generate karma based on how you live. But the
point of life to Buddhists is suffering. Yes, that's part
of the fore noble truths, which is uh, suffering exists.
(14:43):
Suffering arises from attachment to desires. Suffering ceases when attachment
to desire cease, and freedom from suffering is possible by
practicing the eight fold path. Right, And the eight Fold
path was um something that was um created by the Buddhists.
That Arthur Right who was born around five sixty three BC,
(15:03):
and he was born into a life of opulence and
wealth and privilege and had it very easy but he
noticed fairly early on. I get the impression he was
something of a prodigy, um that he wasn't achieving much
spiritual progression through this life of wealth. So he went
(15:24):
off and he did what Chuck, Well, when he was
twenty nine years old, he left and said, I'm gonna
practice yoga training and he basically abandoned all that and
sat under a tree and he lived the life of
a hermit. Yeah, so you know me, Chuck, You know
how I feel about Buddhists going off and living in
(15:45):
the cave by themselves and not contributing anything to humanity. Right,
And this is what Siddartha tried. And did he gain
enlightenment from this? No, he was I guess you could
say he was in your camp. He didn't. Um. I'm
not gonna say he didn't much out of it, because
I wasn't there. But he ultimately did not gain enlightenment
that way. And he thought, you know what, maybe a
(16:06):
mix of both is a good thing, and maybe we
should call that the middle way, and maybe that's the
way to be right, and it's called the eight fold path. Right,
So he achieves enlightenment and he immediately starts telling other
people about it, and he said that there's this eight
fold path that is basically it's in the middle between
excess and self deprivation. Right, right, So what are the
(16:28):
eight the eight parts of the eight fold path. Well,
this is broken down into three qualities. Uh, the wisdom
or panna is right view and right thought. Okay, You've
got morality, which is right speech, right action, and right livelihood.
Then you have meditation which is right effort, right and
(16:49):
mindfulness and right contemplation. Very nice. So basically, you put
all this together, you are living the right life that's
going to deliver you to nirvana. Right, yeah, which is
the middle way? Sounds pretty easy. I bet it's extremely difficult.
I think so too. You know, well, there it's it's
(17:09):
difficult because there's something called hindrances and they actually list
these out, which in you know, it's probably no surprise
that one of them is lust, one of them is
aversion to ill will. You have sloth and torpor, which
you know, who wants to be involved with torpor? Restlessness
and worry and skeptical doubt. And then there are seven
(17:30):
factors of enlightenment, which are mindfulness, investigation, energy, rapture, twan quility, concentration,
and equanimity. So yeah, not so easy. No, I wouldn't
think so, I mean think think about avoid those and
then do those though it does sound easy, But but
how life is. I'm sure if you like, you know,
(17:52):
zig to the left, you zag right into you know,
some sort of temptation or you know, if you close
yourself down to the possibility of you know, um, being
exposed to wealth or whatever, you're missing out on being
able to help other people. Yea, you know, there's there's
(18:14):
probably a lot of pitfalls to that that way of living,
which is why I issue the whole thing. Yeah. Well,
sid Heartha believe that he wandered in around India for
like forty five years teaching this and until he died
at the age of eighty. And you know what his
last words were, Tell him I said something cool. Now
he did say something cool. He said impermanent or all
(18:36):
created things strive on with awareness. Party on is basically
what he said, party on garth. Wow. Yeah, nice last words. Huh, yeah,
they are. Have you ever wondered about yours will be? Uh?
I have a feeling mine are gonna be holy to
(18:58):
be my last two words mineld b probably you got me, Copper,
you're gonna revert back to your bad boy ways just
for one list and tying to shoot out suicide by cop.
It reminds me the end of Royaltanon Bombs when they
showed it said he died heroically saving his family from
(19:19):
a sinking ship. Um all right, Chuck, some of the
stuff that we've been talking about may sound kind of familiar.
If you live the right way, you can stop coming
back to this existence that you know, we call earth
life on life on this planet. Right. It kind of
(19:41):
bears a striking resemblance to the Judeo Christian ethic of
you know, if you live this right life, if you're
good to other people, you don't hurt other people or
other things, you're not a cruel person. Um, and you
kind of it's not you don't pursue worldly objects, you're
going to uh have a better afterlife, right, Yeah, But
(20:03):
it's you know, Christianity obviously it's a permanent afterlife, right
because reincarnation. Here's the thing, like there's a there's a
very there's a similarity between the Judeo Christian outlook and
Muslim as well, because they believe in the afterlife as well,
that the soul is immortal, that there's something in us
that lives on after the physical body dies. Where it
(20:27):
differs and disagrees is specifically with reincarnation, where you come
back and you inhabit somebody on this earth again. That's
the that's the difference. That's reincarnation right there, right has
something to do with the immortality of the soul. Well,
has everything to do with the immortality is soul. But
as far as comparative religion goes the differences, you don't
(20:49):
keep going straight. You come back because you screwed up.
I took a comparative religion class in college. And here's
a little secret, Josh, don't tell anybody, but they're all
kind of the same. I know. And do you want
to know why I have my theory? Let's hear it.
Are we gonna go there? Here's my here's my theory.
(21:11):
Man evolved into man from whatever, and man started to
as soon as man could think, Man started questioning why
they were there on earth looking for a purpose. And
that's where religion sprung up. And that's why they're all
very similar. When you break down the tenants of world
religions is people fractured and split off in different areas,
(21:32):
and they evolved differently. But at the root of it,
I think it began with man walking upright and looking
at you know, the sun and saying, why son there? Yeah,
I think I subscribed to something very um. Why river run? Right?
I think I think it was um born the chuck
out of the first time somebody witnessed someone else die
(21:57):
and realized that that's going to happen to me one day?
What happened to talk talk? Right? Now, there's a if
you if you look at um religious scholars work, most
of them will tell you that reincarnation was born out
of um watching the seasons change, especially for because because
(22:18):
these were agricultural societies that started giving rise to religion
like this right when the whole cyclical thing, it makes
sense the earth rotates, the seasons rotate in a cycle,
so it makes sense the I guess the commonality, like
you said, people started to split up. I don't know
that it's necessarily that it happened. And then I see
(22:39):
what you're saying, Like with religion in general, but with
something like say reincarnation and these really you know, lead
a good life and the reward after this. I think
it was from cultures having an influence on one another
by living near one another. Remember we did UM that
podcast on whether the Greeks got their ideas from the Africans. Well,
(23:00):
this apparently is another example of that. The African mystery system,
the comedic mystery system that we talked about in Egypt.
Um one of the big guys who formed a mystery system, well,
one of the big cult founders UM. His name was Pythagoras,
(23:21):
remember him the Paean theorem. So we're gonna get into
the mystery religions a little bit. Yeah, he spent several
decades in Africa and came back and the next thing
you know, he's founding mystery cults. Orpheus, the orphic Um,
the orphic mystery cults founder. Well, he's supposedly a mythical figure,
but they also think he may be an actual historical
(23:42):
figure the music legend if he was real. There's part
of his legend is that he went and spent twenty
years in Memphis studying from the Egyptian So you kind
of get the idea that a lot of the Um
ideas of rebirth and reincarnation went from UM. The Hindus
to the Egyptians to the Greeks. And then remember we
(24:05):
talked about the Jefferson Bible being written or the Bible
being written by the Platonics. Yes, that plato uh was
derived from these mystery cults who believed in reincarnation, and
actually some Catholic cults, early Catholic cults um believed in
reincarnation as well, like the Cather's. Yeah, well, orphanism sounds
(24:25):
a lot like heaven and hell to me, because he
believed or they believe that leading a correct life leads
you to elysium, which is like a paradise, and if
you're evil, you'll get to a hell, right, but you
can die in the afterlife as well. Yeah it doesn't.
That's that's the main difference. You have to lead three
good orphic lives to get out of there. And what
(24:49):
what is leading a good orphic life? Chuck with this horrible,
horrible orphic life. Uh well no, no wine, no sex,
no meat. Vegetarianism is good. Yeah. So yeah, those are
a few of the tenants. Which is strange because this uh,
this is this orphan cult was actually an offshoot of
(25:11):
the Dianicing colt and they believed quite the opposite. They
would rip a goat um to death, to shreds a
live goat to shreds with their teeth as part of
their sacrifice, their ritual sacrifice. They get drunk as they
could on wine. They have sex and orgies, and they
eat everything right. And he and apparently Orpheus went to
(25:32):
Memphis and came back and said, Hey, I know what
you guys are trying to do, and that's a good idea,
but you're doing the opposite of what you should be doing.
Let's start leading this puritanical life. And that led to
this this um kind of idea that denying yourself was
a good way toward being a pure person. I think
(25:53):
you were starting to lead us down the road a
minute ago about Jiinism. Yeah, there's a couple of other
Indian religions jain is Um, and I always thought it
was Sikhism, but also saw something that said that's a
common mispronunciation. And then it's like say it, say it chisum. Nice.
I don't know if that's right way to go. The
extra mile checkers, Well, who knows, you know, it's on
(26:13):
the internet. Might not be true, but jin is Um
they think that your soul accumulates karma as a bad thing.
It's an actual substance, physical substance, and that karma is
never good. Karma is always bad. It's your goal is
to rid yourself of karma on here on earth. Yeah,
and if you have these karmic particles, then your soul
(26:33):
is always going to bind to a body. Right, yes,
So if you can get rid of the karmic particles,
you're all right. Um. I also mentioned the Cather's right,
these were this was Um. They were from South France
and Spain, I believe, and they're the reason the Spanish
Inquisition was founded because they were considered this the heretical
(26:57):
sect of Catholicism, when basically they were vegetarians, they believed
in reincarnation. They were highly they followed this highly neo
Platonic tradition UM, and they accused the Roman Catholic Church
of being Um, the antichrist branch of Catholicism. The Roman
(27:18):
Catholic branch proved stronger, started setting up steaks, burning Kai
Thur's at them and basically ran them out of um existence.
But they believed in Um. You know that you shouldn't
eat me, that you could come back as as a
human or an animal. Um, and that they were just
kind of a kinder, gentler version of Catholicism, a little
(27:40):
less bloodthirsty. So chuck um. We talked about the West
being generally incredulous of this kind of thing, right, there
is a sterling exception as far as Westerners go, of
you know, believing in reincarnation, and that exception took the
form of a guy named Dr Ian st Evenson, Right. Yeah, well,
(28:02):
he studied it. He never said that he believed it
was true. He just wanted to believe it was or
wanted to prove that it was at least a possibility.
So he spent his life pretty much until he died
in two thousand seven trying to do so. Uh. Founded
the Division of Personality Studies at u v A. Right,
which became I guess it was originally called the Division
(28:24):
of Perceptual Studies, right. Well, now it later became the
Perceptual Studies I get confuse them. It was originally personality studies.
And he was a Virginia cavalier. Yeah is that right? Huh? Okay,
go caps and uh. He had a lab basically where
he studied near death experiences. He studied children, mainly two
(28:45):
to five young kids who um you know to to
kind of like your a kid that you talked about
at the beginning two to five who had these stories
that um, could not be explained in ways that made
sense other than perhaps they were reincarnate. Did Yeah. Um,
there's there's been tons and tons and tons of cases.
Some are easily explained away, others aren't. But Stevenson apparently
(29:08):
investigated about him, Yeah, over forty years, but he was
pretty much shut down by mainstream his peers. He was
and he he was a true Fordian actually he was. Um.
He wanted to apply the scientific method to uh, the supernatural, right.
(29:29):
He just basically believed things that were considered supernatural were
just things that couldn't be explained by science right now.
But like you said, he was basically pushed to the
friends just because of his studies. But there's a lot
of people out there. I think he was successful in
in proving that it is possible for reincarnation, like the
kid who thought it was the World War two pilot's.
(29:51):
Stevenson would never say, like whether he believed in reincarnation
anything like that, but um about and like I think
nineteen sixty seven he went out and bought a lock,
a combination lock, and set the combination himself, and then
used a mnemonic device to remember the combination, and he
(30:12):
stored the lock away. And he always said that the
reason why he did this he wanted to see if
he could um transmit the information thenemonic device to somebody
who could then go unlock this lock after he died.
And so far nobody's unlocked the lock in three years.
But oh, no, that disproves anything to you, No, of course,
(30:35):
not that it proves that no one's unlocked the lock. Yet,
that's diplomatic. I mean, get you a job in the
foreign service. Have you got anything else? Reincarnation? Yeah, the
Chinese government. Did you know they banned reincarnation without permission
from the Chinese government. I think I have heard that.
(30:55):
Actually when was this like a few years back? Yeah?
They China like to ban things, as we all know,
and they banned reincarnation without uh consent from the Chinese government.
And basically, basically it's a way to keep the Dolli
llama from reincarnating and saying this is the next dolli Llama.
(31:17):
Basically he won't have permission to do so, so China
will be able to choose the next DOLLI Llama, and
the current Dolly says obviously, he said many times, I
Am not going to come back as long as uh
China is in power. Over to bet, he's boycotting reincarnation.
I don't know if he's so much boycotting it, but
(31:38):
he's um he's gonna end up here. Well, I guess
he is boycotting. He says he refuses to be reborn
until that happens. But what's happening is I mean when
he dies, it's gonna be a little hinky because potentially
there might be two Dolly Llamas, the one China appoints
and the one, you know, the the real one. I
(32:00):
would call it. That will be awkward if they over
me or if they met Charley McLean remember that stuff. Sure,
And she claimed that she was reincarnated and she had
sex with Charlemagne. I didn't hear about the charm Charlott
magine part. Yeah, well, she said she she actually did
have an affair with the Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palm
and he she said he was Charlemagne reincarnated, so supposedly,
(32:25):
she says she got it on with Charlemagne. Well, if
you want to know more about Charlemagne or reincarnation or
the Dolly Llama, we got tons of those articles. Um,
just come up with some good keywords and put them
in the handy search bar at how stuff works dot com,
which means it's time for chuck is it listener mail?
Are we back to listener mail? We are, all right,
(32:46):
it's time for the listener mail. Uh, quickly. We want
to support our Kiva team real quick. Beforehand, we need
to mention this because it's been a while. We're trying
to get to two hundred and fifty thou dollars um
by August. Oh, I don't know August. Let's stay in
the end of August. I think it was just at
(33:07):
the end of August, right, um, and we are plugging along.
I think we're at about one seventy right now, a
hundred and seventy hundred and seventy thousand dollars raised by
the stuff you should know Kiva team, right, which is
far and away all stats aside, far and away the
greatest Kiva team ever assembled. All right, agreed, So we're
(33:28):
trying to get the two This is not an exclusive team, uh,
so if you want to join, you can donate in
increments of twenty five dollars. You um donate as a loan.
It's repaid. You don't make any interest back. But I
mean you get your twenty five dollars back UM and
it's pretty addictive in it. Chuck, I'm pretty hooked. Yes,
you can go to www dot kiva dot org slash
(33:53):
team slash stuff you should know right join or check
it out or whatever. Josh, I'm just gonna call this
one question that has been answered many times, but Sean
doesn't know the answer. That's a great title for this one, Chus, Chuck, Chuck, Josh,
and Jerry. I missed a Facebook questionnaire because I was
(34:13):
at working. My job prohibits Facebook. Thank god for s
Y s K, ABC News and Yes Stuff Mom Never
Told You podcast. It helps this twenty four year old
newlywed understand his smart, wonderful, beautiful, but very complex wife
a little better the best kind. His question is this,
(34:33):
who the heck is Hippie Rob. I'm pretty sure I've
listened to all the podcasts you have, not even the
ones before, Chuck, So which one explains Hippy Rob and
all my cube mates? Who also listen are wondering the
same thing we need to know is not a word,
Otherwise it's just a boring inside jokes joke that drives
us nuts. So sucks to be you pal Ps Jerry
(34:57):
at least cough or something. No, s I sk listener
believes you're real, and we wouldn't put it past Chuck
and Josh to make you up. This guy is really
suspicious one and demanding to Sean of Virginia Beach, little
bossy Sean, get with the program, buddy. Yeah, answers are
out there, Sean. We're gonna do a reverse on you.
(35:18):
I'm not going to say who Hippie Rob is or
where the origin is, so Sean, Actually, instead of telling
you who Hippy Rob is, where he came from, et cetera,
We're going to put a request out to our listeners.
The first person who sends us an email and tells
us we're a Hippie Rob, first appearance, what episode, and
in what capacity that he's described? Right? Yeah? Uh. If
(35:42):
you do have that info, send it to stuff podcast
at how stuff works dot com for more on this
and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works
dot Com? Want more how stuff Works which I got
our blogs on the house stof works dot com home
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Josh Clark
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