Life Lived More Than Once?

"In Sri Lanka, a toddler one day overheard her mother mentioning the name of an obscure town (“Kataragama”) that the girl had never been to. The girl informed the mother that she drowned there when her “dumb” (mentally challenged) brother pushed her in the river.."

It was later confirmed that indeed there was a family in Kataragama  when years earlier  their daughter drowned while playing with her mentally challenged brother who pushed her into the nearby river. Other details (27 out of 30) that the girl said when she described the town and the people and specific places there panned out but that the two families never knew each other nor was there any kind of connection, such as, common friends or indirect contacts.

Worldwide, thousands of cases have been documented but they're predominantly in countries with populations that are predisposed to beliefs in "past lives", where Hinduism and Buddhism are the prevailing religions. However, it is not new in the West entirely and not limited to the fringes either.  Henry Ford and Thomas Edison were known to believe in the idea.  

Of the two, Henry Ford went on record in several interviews he did in the late 1920's; albeit more within  his pragmatic version of philosophy as opposed to the framework of religion where Hinduism and Buddhism are anchored to.  Now, I will act merely as a moderator with this musing and only   to ask questions but not provide answers on the subject; my Judeo-Christian up bringing, notwithstanding.  This is  a continuation of the last two speculative ponderings, a third of the trilogy, if you will, to follow "Life Lived Once" and "The Midnight Library". 

One more story before I get the reader to weigh in on the subject.

James Leininger was born on April 19, 1998 in Louisiana. When he was about two years old he begun to have nightmares about an airplane crash. He also developed a habit of slamming his toy airplanes nose down into the coffee table, yelling “airplane crash on fire.”  By the time he was about four, he started drawing aerial combat scenes. He later identified himself as James, a pilot out of an aircraft carrier, the USS Natoma Bay and he mentioned another name, Jack Larsen.  Intrigued, his father did some research into WWII history.  The aircraft carrier was involved in the naval assault on Iwo Jima.  Only one pilot was lost from that carrier - 21 year-old James Huston Jr.  And there was another pilot named Jack Larsen, friend of James Huston.

James Leininger is now a young adult who seems to have outgrown the nightmares and memories of ever claiming to be a WWII pilot by the time he was past six years of age.  Although, every now and then he claims to have traces of the memories come in and out.

This is one of a growing number of cases documented in the West since  such a study begun. Dr. Ian Stevenson was made Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia at a relatively young age of 38 in 1957. What started as a personal "hobby/research" in past-life claims by children, it became a huge part of his career when in 1968, Chester Carlson,  inventor of the Xerox copying process, bequeathed part of his wealth - one million dollars - to the University of Virginia to do research on claims of past lives. Why the university acquiesced to the idea was understandable; a million dollars today is not a trivial amount but it was a lot more in 1968, especially coming from such a prominent inventor.

Let's look first at the fringes that I referred to.  The Oscar-winning actress Shirley MacLaine must come to mind.  She had made some really outlandish, if not bizarre, past lives claims, according to her critics who described her as one of these trans channelers. However, her detractors do not lump her into the other fringe group of charlatans and con artists who use the idea to fleece the gullible and the credulous.  Notably, Shirley MacLaine promotes her ideas through a series of lectures but her claims are not in the same category as that of the Sri Lankan girl or James Leininger. And, there is also a common reference to children ages 3-6 with uncanny abilities to play complex classical music, or other special abilities and talents that include proficiencies in math and languages,

With Henry Ford, he was more philosophical with his belief system. In an interview on August 26, 1928, explained:

"I adopted the theory of reincarnation when I was 26. I got the idea from a book by Orlando Smith. Until I discovered this theory I was unsettled and dissatisfied-without a compass, so to speak. When I discovered reincarnation it was as if I had found a universal plan. I realized that there was a chance to work out my ideas. Time was no longer limited. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock. There was time enough to plan and to create. I wouldn't give five cents for seeing all the world, because I feel there is nothing in the five continents and on the five seas that I have not somehow seen. Somewhere is a master mind sending brain wave messages to us. There is a Great Spirit. I never did anything by my own volition. I was pushed by invisible forces within and without me. We inherit a native knowledge from a previous existence. Gospel of reincarnation is essence of all knowledge. I do not know where we come from or go to but we accumulate experience. Someday it will be possible to measure the soul. We all retain memories of past lives."

Source: Detroit Times, Geo. Sylvester Viereck interview

Date: 8/26/1928

So, what is all the fascination about, and why?  First, let's get to the three major categories of belief systems.  Atheists don't believe in anything outside of the physical world.  There is no room for the Creator and there is nothing beyond death. The curtain of life closes, darkness follows, it's all over.  The agnostic simply says, "I don't know", but that position is really to keep open a plausible hedge, "just in case".  The last main category is a belief in the Creator or deity (or deities) where the difference is that the latter is not necessarily the Creator but merely part of creation; albeit endowed with hyper human qualities.  In either case, individual consciousness (or spirit, or soul) is believed to survive beyond death, rooted in faith-based belief system. Summarizing, we have the faithful, the atheist and the agnostic.

For this musing we can exclude the atheists and agnostics since there is nothing they can contribute to the topic because they have already chosen to ignore and deny the idea of consciousness past physical death. 

Among the faithful, therefore, is a fundamental question: what happens to consciousness, or spirit or soul after physical death.  Let's just use the most commonly used word -  soul.  And we can set aside the depiction of resurrection in The Book of Revelation for its complexity and deeply profound meanings.

In the Judeo-Christian belief system life after death is definitely a principal tenet of the faith, with varied interpretations on the idea of heaven and/or hell and the conditions surrounding salvation, resurrection and Judgment Day. In Islam, there are fourteen stages of life after death. It is on the 6th stage where the individual is shown the Book of Deeds - a balance sheet of good and bad acts. In the end, the individual who performed good deeds goes to paradise (heaven) and the doer of bad things is punished severely through eternal hell. 

Hinduism and Buddhism do not subscribe to the idea of heaven and hell as specific places where the soul is destined after physical death. Judgment is not concluded over one life but over a series of life and rebirth through a process called reincarnation. The soul (remember, we are using the term to mean spirit or state of consciousness) lives on to assume physical life, though not limited to human life, depending on the person's conduct of his  or her last life. 

The caste system in Hinduism is tolerated because it is part of the process; karma in both Hinduism and Buddhism is a consequence of individual deeds. In both belief systems, the process of rebirth allows for a form of atonement through the next physical life but that the final journey is the attainment of nirvana or spiritual purity. Before that, there is always the hopeful promise that an individual can do better in the next life without fearing death. Furthermore, the motivation to be good to others or perform only good deeds is to insure a better next life; consequently, there is no fear of death as well. 

In the world of the faithful, good acts are rewarded, the bad is punished. The question is: Why is in our story, after hundreds of years of opportunities to learn the difference between what is good and what is bad,  do we continue to muddle the balance sheet?

Where does this leave us? In "Life Lived Once", the individual has one chance.  There is, of course, the lingering question of, "what about the young child or the unborn who never had the chance?" In the "Midnight Library", there was a fanciful idea of choosing another life, a split from one existence for a parallel one, perhaps for one better, and then another ..? In "Life Lived More Than Once", did it allow for that little girl in Kataragama, Sri Lanka another chance, and perhaps another? Does the spirit of Henry Ford or Thomas Edison live on in one of today's innovators? 

As promised, I hope I had asked enough questions to tickle the reader's mind. This musing was not meant to favor one idea over another and clearly it is not to upset one's already established belief system. 

One's faith is personal but in the overall mystery of life, we find that there is much we do not know to attempt at finding the final and conclusive answer. But the faithful is likely to have a better chance  at finding  a portal that can lead to answers, while the atheist and the agnostic have decided not to even try.

 

Life Lived Once

After reading my last blog, "The Midnight Library", my wife had a few questions, as I'm sure other readers had, too.  She didn't quite like the idea as premised, particularly about the two  connected stories at the end.  

Well, much of these musings of an "Idle Mind" are to provoke the mind occasionally and at other times to tickle the imagination, while some are only to be taken with a grain of salt. But to ponder the "what life could have been" or "what it could be" against that of "life lived once", and only once, opens up more questions than answers. 

So, I venture to examine the idea of "life lived once", sort of from the opposite side of "The Midnight Library". As always, my intention with some of what I write about is akin to examining the side streets and byways and less trundled meadows beyond the boundaries of the familiar landscapes of the mind. More to flex the mental muscles, if there is such a thing, calisthenics for the brain,  another way to look at it. 

But there are profound questions too with "lives lived once". What of the lives once lived that were cut short, as the lives of very young children? What of those lives that ended abruptly; unrealized potential never to be achieved, dreams lost, destinies never to be known? One  broken  link that ended it all for what could have been an endless chain, never to re-connect again, forever.  What of lives of accomplishments never recognized for the value of their contribution to history?

Max Bruch, born on Jan. 6, 1838, was a German composer who during his long life (died at age 82) produced 200 pieces of music.  Yet, not very many people have heard of him, as most would of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, etc. But, at thirty years of age, in 1868, he composed what is considered now to be the most played and recorded by master concert  violinists around the world - his Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor.

    

During the war that begun in 1914, (WWI), and because he was German, he lost the ability to earn money from concerts, teaching jobs and commissions for compositions in much of Europe.

In 1915, just a year after the war had started, he was visited by two sister-musicians from America. America was not yet involved in the war then and Bruch welcomed them because the two concert pianists had actually played one of his compositions for piano duet. In 1920, after the war, the two sisters visited him again near Berlin. Bruch, at that time long retired, had fallen into financial hardships. The sisters offered to buy the original signed manuscript for the Violin Concerto no. 1.  Without a written agreement and no down payment, the sisters took the manuscript back to America. Bruch who had high hopes that he will be paid in American dollars never heard from the sisters again.  A few months later Bruch passed away.  Mysteriously, cash of unknown origin arrived.  It was in German marks - practically of little value due to Germany's post war runaway inflation.  It was known that the sisters sold the manuscript in 1949 for an undisclosed amount.  It is now at the Morgan Library.

Max Bruch died destitute.  It was life lived once.  It was also life  full of promise because in the beginning, like Mozart, he started composing at a very young age and went on to be on the right track to fame and fortune. Only to die penniless in the end. Ironically, Mozart's life, despite the fame, also ended similarly.  He too died a pauper with nothing but mounting debts and was buried in a potter's grave. Both, like most composers of that era, did not benefit from any royalties.

Two similar lives lived once.  One, almost forgotten, another celebrated as the epitome of pure musical genius.

Speaking of genius, there was Albert Einstein, of course.  But have you heard of Elise Meitner? How about Mileva Marić?

In 1896, Mileva was the only female in a group of five students, that included Albert Einstein, who were admitted to Zurich's Polytechnic Institute, physics and math department. Four years later, at the end of their education, Mileva finished with a grade point average of 4.7, Albert got 4.6.  But in applied physics, Mileva finished with the highest possible grade of 5.0, while Albert, 1.0.  Mileva also aced it in experimental work, Albert did not.  At the oral exam, a prerequisite for graduation, their professor gave 11 out of the perfect twelve to Albert and the other three male students, but only 5 to Mileva.  Mileva did not get her degree, Albert did.

Albert and Mileva became romantically involved during and after their studies at the Institute. Mileva became pregnant, went back to Serbia, and had a daughter named Liserl.  Other than the name and the speculation that the daughter may have been put up for adoption, there is no birth or death certificate on record.

Eventually, Albert and Mileva got married after Einstein got a job at the Swiss Patent Office. Two sons were born. Mileva took care of the household and the children.  1905 is well known as Einstein's "miracle year" - when he published several theories.  What is not well known is that Mileva, a brilliant mathematician, helped Albert a lot in getting the math right behind the theories and that she actually reviewed and edited Albert's articles before they were sent out for publication. Some historians suggested that Mileva should have been given a lot more credit for Albert's accomplishments. Einstein won the Nobel Prize (But not on the famous Theory of Relativity!, but his work on the photoelectric effect). 

Albert may or may not have said, “I need my wife. She solves for me all my mathematical problems”.

However, in a letter to a friend he did say, on March 27,1901: “How happy and proud I will be when the two of us together will have brought our work on relative motion to a victorious conclusion.”  He was referring to Mileva and The Theory of Relativity.

Less than two decades later, Albert divorced Mileva and married his first cousin, Elsa Einstein, in 1919, with whom he already had an affair while still married to Mileva. Elsa's maiden surname was indeed Einstein. That's right, because Elsa's father was Rudolph Einstein, cousin of Albert's father. They were first cousins because Albert's mother and Elsa's were sisters. They emigrated to the U.S. where Einstein became professor of physics at Princeton University.  They did not have any children. As a footnote, none of Einstein's two sons inherited the brilliance from either or both parents. Hans did become a professor in hydraulics engineering at UC Berkeley. Eduard was institutionalized for mental illness throughout much of his adult life. Einstein had three grand children, only one survived to adulthood, one died at six years old, another barely lived for a month. 

Einstein, through both marriages had affairs with several women, mostly young women.

Albert Einstein recognized his unfaithfulness and emotional ineptitude with a letter to the son of his friend when he wrote, “What I admire in your father is that, for his whole life, he stayed with only one woman. That is a project in which I grossly failed, twice.” Of course, this is not to diminish his genius or his uncanny ability to see how the physical universe worked that no one then figured out the way he did.

Elise or Lise Meitner, born on Nov. 7, 1878 in Vienna, was an Austrian physicist who worked in what was then a male dominated field in research and theory development in Berlin just before the second world war started.  Below is a photo of her and Otto Hahn at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Chemistry, Berlin (1913).  She and Otto together with another German scientist, Fritz Strassman, collaborated on what became the foundation for splitting the atom.

Being a Jew, Lise Meitner left Germany for Sweden just a year before the outbreak of WWII in 1939. Albert Einstein, on the other hand left in 1933 for America when he realized early on the rise of anti-Semitism as the Nazis started gaining power.  Otto and Lise Meitner, bound by a friendship that went on for thirty years of working together, corresponded regularly. Not only did she not help develop the critical process of splitting the atom but that she coined the word, "fission", in her article published in the journal, Nature, on February 11, 1939, as the way to extract the tremendous power of nuclear energy.  Meitner's research and calculations were based on the now famous equation, E = mc².

Albert Einstein knew of her work and, most importantly, Albert was convinced that Germany was about to develop the atom bomb.  Einstein expressed that in a letter to FDR in August, 1939, which led to the Manhattan Project. America won the race in creating the first atomic bomb a few years later, that ended the war in the Pacific.

Otto Hanh was awarded the Nobel Prize for nuclear fission in 1944. Lise Meitner's work was never mentioned.  Sadly, she remained obscured from history to this day.  

Why only these particular lives lived once?   I will get into that briefly.  This musing has already gone on beyond the limit of the reader's attention span.

I tried to intertwine the four "lives lived once" through the pivot of Germany because from there, if one carefully read between the lines is a panoply of the human experience reflected in much of history of any era. Albert played the violin rather seriously as an amateur - a gossamer of a connection to Max Bruch. One of Einstein's possessions that he had with him throughout his life was a violin that he was known to play. That violin sold at auction for over $500 million in 2018.

We had the second world war begin where these lives were mostly lived.  The war, any war, over millennia of the human existence is a story of horrific suffering, atrocities, death of so many lives, including so many unfulfilled ones - of children, young adults, and the unborn. Wars also caused so many to flee their homeland to settle somewhere else. Pick a century, choose an era; such is the story of humanity.

Mileva and Lise who both lived in obscurity to Einstein's limitless fame represent 99.999 % of all lives lived.  Einstein's daughter, Liserl, represents the unknown fate of many young children.  Now, is "life lived once" all there is then?  It will have to wait for the next musing.