
▲ I learnt about the False Memory Syndrome itself first from an Australian website.
[Hence the photo of the Sydney Opera House in Australia, above.
To remind the Association of this Inspirational knowledge that came to me before I wrote the ARTICLE here. Unfortunately the corresponding webpage that taught me beforehand about How Memory Works, is no longer seemingly available online.]
A child was born in 1985 at Pannipitiya some 20 miles to the southeast of Colombo. Who claimed he had lived in Kandy. He told that his car had caught fire, and he saw smoke, his right leg & right hand & mouth were burnt, he was then brought into the Hospital in that city, and plaster placed on his body. And that, he then came here (died).

▲ Pannipitiya
Dr. Erlendur Haraldsson of the University of Iceland @ Reykjavic, got the news of the case from one of his Interpreters in Sri Lanka, who in turn received the news from a friend. Haraldsson started the case in 1989 when the child was 4 yrs, with the memory/opinions running quite fresh. After a strict PRIVACY PROTOCOL (between the Researcher & the Parents) being agreed not to publicize the case throughout Sri Lanka, the investigation took off.
His parents reported that at about 2 yrs age, he suffered high fever for a week, and since then he had been consistently speaking such things. He wanted to go to Kandy to get his things back. He was speaking of an elder brother & sister quite often and also expressed wish to see them. The child made total 42 distinct statements (which Dr. EH recorded before any attempt was made to verify them).
Two Key Statements : according to the child —
Previous NAME : Santha Megahathenne
Previous ADDRESS : 28 Pilagoda Road
The child was stoutly built and quite healthy looking*. And 42 was a great number for such statements. So EH couldn’t help asking the parents to take the child & then go to Kandy with his team (that included a 2nd Interpreter). The Family accepted. And when the boy was asked, he was quick to say yes.
[ *I don’t yet know why the physical health of such a child was emphasized in the research paper. Maybe for such an investigation-journey to a distant place, the child not only needs to be ‘sharp’ in mind & knowledge but also ‘fit’ in the physical body.]
Dr Erlendur Haraldsson giving a presentation [Photo © publicparapsychology@Flickr]
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It was a 3 hour-drive up the scenic road to Kandy, which leads to many villages & towns. As the vehicle was approaching the bridge on the Mahaveli river, at the other side of which is Kandy city, the child became quite animated, even as they were passing through a busy street. And he spontaneously said:
“There is Maha Nuwara.”
Which is the Singhalese name of Kandy city. When they crossed the bridge (one of a few on the way to Kandy) the boy correctly remarked:
“This is Mahaweli Ganga.”
In Sinhalese language, Ganga means River. And they call by the above: the Mahaveli River. EH writes in his scientific paper in 1991 :
“Neither we nor the parents had mentioned this name nor given any indication that we were about to enter Kandy city.”
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See the Link : [Kandy City & Mahaveli River & the Road crossing it to the City @ Google Map]
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PART TWO
The boy told that he could find his house (once he is placed in that area). But when asked about its whereabouts, he replied with a no. So the exact address (28 Pilagoda Road) then became a major key in Kandy, to open up the case.
But when enquiries were made in Kandy about the 28 Pilagoda Road, people couldn’t answer this address. And when the Post Office there was contacted, they said that there was no road with the name Pilagoda in the whole Kandy city.
EH then thought that he might make an attempt to enquire at the Kandy Hospital records. But he later decided not to do so, as there were thousands of admissions going on every year in that busy hospital in Kandy, which is the main city of the central Sri Lanka.
The name “Megahathenne” was investigated too. In Sri Lanka, some people use their surname as exactly the name of the village they are coming from. And a village really named Megahathenne was found out near Galagedara some 15 miles off from Kandy.
When the villagers were asked whether they knew any such person who matched the statements given by the child, there came no affirmative answer. It was then even asked if there was any Pilagoda Road in that village. The answer was still no.
Queries were also made about any other roads having names resembling Pilagoda. But even then, there was no answer.
The Kandy telephone directory also couldn’t provide any clue as the name Megahathenne was not present in its then latest (1975) edition.
The Tour : within Kandy
During the tour itself, they drove down the Peradeniya Road, the main street into Kandy, to the Temple of the Tooth – the Landmark of Kandy – and around the Lake. The colour scheme of this Temple has seemed to me (via the Google Map camera) particularly impressive.
But apart from these two statements on the City name & the River name — there was no further response or comment from the boy to indicate what might be considered as a recognition or knowledge of the area, nor did he express any wish to see a particular spot, although he definitely seemed to enjoy the journey.
The efforts in Kandy and Megahathenne and the child’s visit to Kandy, yielded no info about any person that fits the child’s statements. But being a professional scientist, Dr EH tried to leave ‘no stone unturned’. With the boy’s name & address kept under privacy, the salient features of the case were publicized (with the parents’ permission) in an Interview with EH on 11 Dec 1990, in the widely circulated Lankan newspaper Dinamina & its English version Daily News.
No response came from readers.
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The official science (i.e. the empiric science) considered the case as unsolved. And Dr. Erlendur, being a Scientist of this format, had to accept it, no matter whatever his own intuition was telling him. He wrote in 1991, like an ending statement, that in spite of considerable efforts no person corresponding to the child’s statements had been found, and that, hence they had no evidence that the alleged past-life memories matched any objective facts.
Identification of a City & a River may be dramatic. But they are not much of a pointed or objective evidence. The information required to identify these two things is not associated to any particular person. Your hometown’s Skyline & the gateway bridge’s Architectural Form are not characteristics known only to a dead person once living in the Town. These characteristics are also known to many people now living in the Town. And a section of them can describe these characteristics while discussing about their town to distant people.
So officially speaking — doubts linger.
THE END