I agree that the brain "is behavior." I went through a great struggle and many conversations with others to try to find a behavior for which I would find no link to the brain, or would have difficulty in showing a link. A housemate had mentioned a book she read written by a doctor about the case history of a women who had severe phobias. Unexpectedly, through hypnosis, the doctor came to believe that the woman's fears originated in a past life. The doctor, as I am told, kept mentioning his credentials to reinforce how he is trained (I suppose) to rely on scientific evidence. Upon hearing this profound and inexplicable event, I thought I had found something to contradict "brain is behavior." ( I am assuming that I may call psychic ability, or ability to remember a past life a behavior.) However, after pondering this thought I came up with what I think to be a possible explanation for remebering a past life.

The journal article "The Neurobiology of the Cricket Song" discusses that the cricket song is genetic and therefore, for an individual species heritable. If I am correct, the article is saying that the neuronal patterns that allow for the song to be repeated is stored genetically and passed on to progeny.

With a very limited knowledge of the workings of the brain I have come up with a possible idea about what may be occuring to people who have memories of supposed past life. If, as in the cricket song, neuronal patterns are stored genetically, it may be possible for memory to be stored genetically, this is assuming that memories or learning somehow alter a neuronal "map" (for the sake of not knowing another word). If this is the case then it is possible that a person may store, however subconsciously, the memory of possibly a great grandmother. Therefore, what seems to be the remembrance of a past life, in actuality, would be the remembrance of an ancestor's memory.

I have another theory, but for the sake of brevity, I will leave you with the above.

As a non-skeptic, I am at a loss for finding a "non-brain" behavior.

Nice. Thanks for taking this seriously, involving others. Fascinating issue you've found. Yes, indeed, is possible for past experiences to influence "maps" ("connection pattern" probably a better word). BUT (as far as we know) that influence has to be in accord with laws of genetics, which mean the influence reflects not particular experiences of particular ancestors but rather the history of reproductive success of various connection patterns averaged (in some sense) over many generations of ancestors. Which means that the question of why this PARTICULAR perhaps correspondence of memory and past event still needs some explanation. Curious about your other theory as well. PG