I love the Mudcat. The things you learn -- I never knew before that there's a good brand of white zinfandel! -- I thought Sutter Home was pretty good for the first year or two and then they started making it with ditch water....

Yeah, Wolfgang, it's Ian Stevenson. (My rotten memory strikes again.) As far as criticisms and rebuttals of his investigations, I decided years ago that the book was too expensive and reading it was too much like work, and sorting through critiques and rebuttals would be very, very much too much work; and none of it could prove the unproveable anyway. So I decided to let somebody else figure out whether reincarnation is a "fact." It doesn't make any operational difference in my life either way.

Good post, by the way.

The thing I do believe in, because it's trustworthy, is my "radar." This is a set of feeling-tones that occasionally lead me to take an action that common sense says is a mistake, because an inner feeling says it's a great thing to do and will turn out well; or, vice versa, not to do something that looks fine on the surface.

When I say I believe in this radar, I mean it usually guides me well. It's worth paying attention to.

Again, sometime in the 70's I decided I didn't care whether I was experiencing some kind of psychic whatsis, or just doing what I wanted to do but couldn't justify otherwise. If I follow those feelings (they have a certain tone, not all feelings seem to be "radar"), it usually turns out well. So I don't care if they're my unconscious mind's summing up of the situation, or a psychic insight, or a little green angel whispering in my ear. It just works better to listen than not. Usually.

.... To be honest, deep down I suspect strongly that they're some form of psychic insight.