

Shanti Devi - givan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanti_Devi

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thegeomaster
It's a curious story, however, we need to take all into consideration. How
reliable are the sources that reported what she was saying as a child? How
reliable are the sources that reported what happened upon her arrival in
Mathura? How reliable is testimony from her teachers, parents and even
Kedarnath Chaube himself? Did someone have something to gain by exaggerating
or making up facts?

I think that surely there _could_ be another explanation (apart from
reincarnation), but the reincarnation hypothesis is hard to disprove in any
case. I wonder if there is some academic research rigorously looking into the
exact circumstances (I reckon this is an interesting subject, so I guess
someone at least tried to do that).

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xutopia
I'm always impressed by how this comes back. This is an extraordinary claim
and it does not have extraordinary evidence.

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darkxanthos
Ive heard of a similar story second by my ex wife about her cousin when he was
three. The short version is they both walked into a liquor store one day and
her cousin recognized a woman as being from a construction site where she
worked. He started discussing details with her that a three old just wouldn't
know. After the fact my ex would ask him questions about his "past life" after
enough prodding he'd become visibly uncomfortable and sad about talking about
his death. Once he turned five or so he stopped remembering.

I've always wanted to believe, and given its second hand nature and the
credibility of the source I count it as weak evidence at best. Obviously
nothing even close to proof, but I've always found these stories intriguing
since then.

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bobosha
This is a fascinating documentary on this topic about a scottish boy

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wvbEQytuQk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wvbEQytuQk)

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kang
[http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/17700](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/17700)

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fatjokes
I've seen some pretty convoluted justifications as to why certain posts belong
on HN. I suspect one for this post will rank among the best of them.

To those swayed by its supposed evidence, I would suggest this book:
[http://www.amazon.com/The-Improbability-Principle-
Coincidenc...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Improbability-Principle-Coincidences-
Miracles/dp/0374175349)

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xtrumanx
Lately I've only seen one justification used for off-topic content; this line
from the guidelines

> anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity

Could be used to justify practically anything.

