Hello Simsapa!
You asked: “How can I verify the truth of the realms and rebirth in my current state? There seems to be no way to do that. If I investigate it, I say “I cannot confirm or deny it”.
Yes. That is an issue that needs to be resolved BEFORE one can attempt to get to the Sotapanna stage.
Look at it this way.
– Sotapanna stage makes one free of future rebirths in the four “bad realms” or the apayas.
Why would one want to get to the Sotapanna stage, if one does not believe that it is possible to be reborn in such realms?
– If one cannot “verify the truth of the realms and rebirth“, why would one worry about rebirth in the apayas (i.e., try to attain the Sotapanna stage)?
I hope you can see what I am saying. If there is no problem to be solved, how can one strive to solve the problem?
So, I would recommend spending some time looking into the issue of rebirth.
– Here is a key post on the evidence for rebirth:
“Evidence for Rebirth”
I do understand that most people in Western societies are not familiar with the concept of rebirth. However, that is changing, because there is a lot of evidence emerging, and scientists and philosophers are beginning to take it seriously. That is why I included a recent conference on the subject at the beginning of the post.