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Dr. Ian Stevenson's
Reincarnation Research
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Ian
Stevenson (1918-2007)
was a psychiatrist who worked for the
University of Virginia School of Medicine for
50 years. He was Chair of the
Department of Psychiatry from 1957 to 1967,
the Carlson Professor of Psychiatry from 1967 to
2001, and a Research Professor of Psychiatry from
2002 until his death. He was also the founder and
Director of the
University of Virginia's Division of Perceptual
Studies investigating parapsychological phenomena
such as
reincarnation,
near-death experiences,
out-of-body experiences,
after-death communications,
deathbed visions,
altered states of consciousness and psi. He
became internationally recognized for his research
into reincarnation by discovering evidence suggesting
that memories and physical injuries can be transferred
from one lifetime to another. He traveled extensively
over a period of 40 years, investigating 3,000 cases
of children around the world who recalled having
past lives. His meticulous research presented evidence
that such children had unusual abilities, illnesses,
phobias and philias which could not be explained
by the environment or heredity.
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Table of Contents |
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1. Introduction to Dr. Ian Stevenson's Research |
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Dr. Stevenson's
reincarnation research began in 1960 when he learned
of a case in Sri Lanka where a child reported remembering
a past life. He thoroughly questioned the child
and the child's parents, including the people whom
the child recalled were his parents from his past
life. This led to Dr. Stevenson's conviction that
reincarnation was possibly a reality. That same
year, Dr. Stevenson published two articles in the
Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research
about this child who remembered having a past life.
The more such cases he discovered, the greater became
his ambition to scientifically quantify the possibility
of reincarnation - one of the world's greatest mysteries
- which had been virtually ignored by science in
the past.
In 1982,
Dr. Stevenson co-founded the
Society for Scientific Exploration. He authored
around 300 papers and 14 books on the subject of
reincarnation. His 1966 book, "Twenty
Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation," became a
classic in the annals of reincarnation research.
In 2003, Dr. Stevenson published his second book
on reincarnation, "European
Cases of the Reincarnation Type". In 1997 he
published his major classic: the 2,268-page, two-volume
book, "Reincarnation
and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks
and Birth Defects," which focused mostly on
deformities and other anomalies children are born
with which cannot be traced back to inheritance,
prenatal or perinatal (created during birth) occurrences.
This monumental classic contains hundreds of pictures
presenting the evidence he discovered. It documents
200 cases of children having memories and birthmarks
which corresponded with the lives and wounds of
deceased people whom these children recalled as
having lived in a past-life. In 1997, Dr. Stevenson
published a condensed version of this book for the
general public entitled, "Where
Reincarnation and Biology Intersect." Dr. Stevenson's
research into reincarnation also became the subject
of two important works, "Old
Souls: Compelling Evidence from Children Who Remember
Past Lives" authored by Tom Shroder (a Washington
Post journalist) and "Life
Before Life: Children's Memories of Previous Lives"
authored by
Dr. Jim B. Tucker (www.jimbtucker.com)
a psychiatrist at the University of Virginia. Many
people, including skeptics and scholars, agree that
the cases presented by Dr. Stevenson offer the best
evidence yet for reincarnation.
During his
original research into various cases involving children's
memories of past lives, Dr. Stevenson did note with
interest the fact that these children frequently
bore lasting birthmarks which supposedly related
to their murder or the death they suffered in a
previous life. Stevenson's research into birthmarks
and congenital defects has such particular importance
for the demonstration of reincarnation, since it
furnishes objective and graphic proof of reincarnation,
superior to the - often fragmentary - memories and
reports of the children and adults questioned, which
even if verified afterwards cannot be assigned the
same value in scientific terms.
In many cases
presented by Dr. Stevenson there are also medical
documents available as further proof, which are
usually compiled after the death of the person.
Dr. Stevenson adds that in the cases he researched
and "solved" in which birthmarks and deformities
were present, he didn't suppose there was any other
apposite explanation than that of reincarnation.
Only 30% - 60% of these deformities can be put down
to birth defects which related to genetic factors,
virus infections or chemical causes (like those
found in children damaged by the drug Thalidomide
or alcohol). Apart from these demonstrable causes,
the medical profession has no other explanation
for the other 40% to 70% of cases than that of mere
chance. Stevenson has now succeeded in giving us
an explanation of why a person is born with these
deformities and why they appear precisely in that
part of their body and not in another.
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2. The Five Common
Characteristics in Most of Dr. Stevenson's
Study |
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Most of the
cases, where birthmarks and congenital deformities
are present for which no medical explanations exist,
have one to five characteristics in common.
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The Five Common
Characteristics in Most of Dr. Stevenson's
Study |
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1. |
In the most unusual
scenario, it is possible that someone who
believed in reincarnation expressed a wish
to be reborn to a couple or one partner
of a couple. This is usually because they
are convinced that they would be well cared
for by those particular people. Such preliminary
requests are often expressed by the Tlingit
Indians of Alaska and by the
Tibetans.
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2. |
More frequent than
this are the occurrences of prophetic dreams.
Someone who has died appears to a pregnant
or not as yet pregnant woman and tells her
that he or she will be reborn to her. Sometimes
relatives or friends have dreams like this
and will then relate the dream to the mother
to be. Dr. Stevenson found these prophetic
dreams to be particularly prolific in Burma
and among the Indians in Alaska.
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3. |
In these cultures
the body of a newborn child is checked for
recognizable marks to establish whether
the deceased person they had once known
has been reborn to them. This searching
for marks of identification is very common
among cultures that believe in reincarnation,
and especially among the Tlingit Indians
and the
Igbos
of Nigeria. Various tribes of West Africa
make marks on the body of the recently deceased
in order to be able to identify the person
when he or she is reborn.
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4. |
The
most frequently occurring event or common
denominator relating to rebirth is probably
that of a child remembering a past life.
Children usually begin to talk about their
memories between the ages of two and four.
Such infantile memories gradually dwindle
when the child is between four and seven
years old. There are of course always some
exceptions, such as a child continuing to
remember its previous life but not speaking
about it for various reasons.
Most
of the children talk about their previous
identity with great intensity and feeling.
Often they cannot decide for themselves
which world is real and which one is not.
They often experience a kind of double existence
where at times one life is more prominent,
and at times the other life takes over.
This is why they usually speak of their
past life in the present tense saying things
like, "I have a husband and two children
who live in Jaipur." Almost all of
them are able to tell us about the events
leading up to their death.
Such
children tend to consider their previous
parents to be their real parents rather
than their present ones, and usually express
a wish to return to them. When the previous
family has been found and details about
the person in that past life have come to
light, then the origin of the fifth common
denominator the conspicuous or unusual
behavior of the child - is becoming obvious.
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5. |
For instance, if
the child is born in India to a very low-class
family and was a member of a higher caste
in its previous life, it may feel uncomfortable
in its new family. The child may ask to
be served or waited on hand and foot and
may refuse to wear cheap clothes. Stevenson
gives us several examples of these unusual
behavior patterns.
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In 35% of
cases he investigated, children who died an unnatural
death developed phobias. For example, if they had
drowned in a past life then they frequently developed
a phobia about going out of their depth in water.
If they had been shot, they were often afraid of
guns and sometimes loud bangs in general. If they
died in a road accident they would sometimes develop
a phobia of traveling in cars, buses or lorries.
Another frequently
observed unusual form of behavior, which Dr. Stevenson
called philias, concerns children who express the
wish to eat different kinds of food or to wear clothes
that were different from those of their culture.
If a child had developed an alcohol, tobacco or
drug addiction as an adult in a previous incarnation
he may express a need for these substances and develop
cravings at an early age.
Many of these
children with past-life memories show abilities
or talents that they had in their previous lives.
Often children who were members of the opposite
sex in their previous life show difficulty in adjusting
to the new sex. These problems relating to the 'sex
change' can lead to homosexuality later on in their
lives. Former girls who were reborn as boys may
wish to dress as girls or prefer to play with girls
rather than boys.
Until now
all these human oddities have been a mystery to
conventional psychiatrists - after all, the parents
could not be blamed for their children's behavior
in these cases. At long last research into reincarnation
is shedding some light on the subject. In the past,
doctors blamed such peculiarities on a lack or a
surplus of certain hormones, but now they will have
to do some rethinking.
The following paper by
Dr. Stevenson was presented at the Eleventh Annual
Meeting of the
Society for Scientific
Exploration
held at Princeton University. June 11-13, 1992.
The title of the paper is "Birthmarks
and Birth Defects Corresponding to Wounds on Deceased
Persons"
and provides perhaps the most compelling scientific
evidence suggestive of reincarnation. Dr. Stevenson's
paper presents evidence that physical characteristics,
such as birthmarks and deformities, may be carried
over from a past life to a present life.
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3. Birthmarks
and Birth Defects Corresponding to Wounds on Deceased
Persons |
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SOURCE:
Dr. Ian Stevenson,
Department of Psychiatric
Medicine, University of Virginia,
School of Medicine,
Charlottesville, Virginia 22908 |
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ABSTRACT:
Almost nothing is known about why pigmented birthmarks
(moles or nevi) occur in particular locations of
the skin. The causes of most birth defects are also
unknown. About 35% of children who claim to remember
previous lives have birthmarks and/or birth defects
that they (or adult informants) attribute to wounds
on a person whose life the child remembers. The
cases of 210 such children have been investigated.
The birthmarks were usually areas of hairless, puckered
skin; some were areas of little or no pigmentation
(hypopigmented macules); others were areas of increased
pigmentation (hyperpigmented nevi). The birth defects
were nearly always of rare types. In cases in which
a deceased person was identified the details of
whose life unmistakably matched the child's statements,
a close correspondence was nearly always found between
the birthmarks and/or birth defects on the child
and the wounds on the deceased person. In 43 of
49 cases in which a medical document (usually a
postmortem report) was obtained, it confirmed the
correspondence between wounds and birthmarks (or
birth defects). There is little evidence that parents
and other informants imposed a false identity on
the child in order to explain the child's birthmark
or birth defect. Some paranormal process seems required
to account for at least some of the details of these
cases, including the birthmarks and birth defects.
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Figure
1.
Hypopigmented macule on chest of
an Indian youth who, as a child,
said he remembered the life of a
man, Maha Ram, who was killed with
a shotgun fired at close range.
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Figure
2.
The circles show the principal shotgun
wounds on Maha Ram, for comparison
with Figure 1. [This drawing is
from the autopsy report of the deceased.]
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INTRODUCTION:
Although counts of moles (hyperpigmented
nevi) have shown that the average adult
has between 15 and IX of them (Pack and
Davis, 1956), little is known about their
cause -- except for those associated with
the genetic disease neurofibromatosis --
and even less is known about why birthmarks
occur in one location of the body instead
of in another. In a few instances a genetic
factor has been plausibly suggested for
the location of nevi (Cockayne, 1933; Denaro,
1944; Maruri, 1961); but the cause of the
location of most birthmarks remains unknown.
The causes of many, perhaps most, birth
defects remain similarly unknown. In large
series of birth defects in which investigators
have searched for the known causes, such
as chemical teratogens (like thalidomide),
viral infections, and genetic factors, between
430/0 (Nelson and Holmes, 1989) and 65 --
70% (Wilson, 1973) of cases have finally
been assigned to the category of "unknown
causes."
Among 895 cases
of children who claimed to remember a previous
life (or were thought by adults to have
had a previous life), birthmarks and/or
birth defects attributed to the previous
life were reported in 309 (35%) of the subjects.
The birthmark or birth defect of the child
was said to correspond to a wound (usually
fatal) or other mark on the deceased person
whose life the child said it remembered.
This paper reports an inquiry into the validity
of such claims. With my associates I have
now carried the investigation of 210 such
cases to a stage where I can report their
details in a forthcoming book (Stevenson,
forthcoming). This article summarizes our
findings.
Children who
claim to remember previous lives have been
found in every part of the world where they
have been looked for (Stevenson, 1983; 1987),
but they are found most easily in the countries
of South Asia. Typically, such a child begins
to speak about a previous life almost as
soon as it can speak, usually between the
ages of two and three; and typically it
stops doing so between the ages of five
and seven (Cook, Pasricha, Samararatne,
Win Maung, and Stevenson, 1983). Although
some of the children make only vague statements,
others give details of names and events
that permit identifying a person whose life
and death corresponds to the child's statements.
In some instances the person identified
is already known to the child's family,
but in many cases this is not so. In addition
to making verifiable statements about a
deceased person, many of the children show
behavior (such as a phobia) that is unusual
in their family but found to correspond
to behavior shown by the deceased person
concerned or conjecturable for him (Stevenson,
1987; 1990).
Although
some of the birthmarks occurring on these
children are "ordinary" hyperpigmented
nevi (moles) of which every adult has some
(Pack and Davis, 1956), most are not. Instead,
they are more likely to be puckered and
scarlike, sometimes depressed a little below
the surrounding skin, areas of hairlessness,
areas of markedly diminished pigmentation
(hypopigmented macules), or port-wine stains
(nevipammri). When a relevant birthmark
is a hyperpigmented nevus, it is nearly
always larger in area than the "ordinary"
hyperpigmented nevus. Similarly, the birth
defects in these cases are of unusual types
and rarely correspond to any of the "recognizable
patterns of human malformation" (Smith,
1982).
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METHODS:
My investigations of these cases included interviews,
often repeated, with the subject and with several
or many other informants for both families. With
rare exceptions, only firsthand informants were
interviewed. All pertinent written records that
existed, particularly death certificates and postmortem
reports, were sought and examined. In the cases
in which the informants said that the two families
had no previous acquaintance, I made every effort
to exclude all possibility that some information
might nevertheless have passed normally to the child,
perhaps through a half-forgotten mutual acquaintance
of the two families. I have published elsewhere
full details about methods (Stevenson, 1975; 1987).
I did not accept any
indicated mark as a birthmark unless a firsthand
witness assured me that it had been noticed immediately
after the child's birth or, at most, within a few
weeks. I enquired about the occurrence of similar
birth marks in other members of the family; in nearly
every instance this was denied, but in seven cases
a genetic factor could not be excluded.
Birth defects of the
kind in question here would be noticed immediately
after the child's birth. Inquiries in these cases
excluded (again with rare exceptions) the known
causes of birth defects, such as close biological
relationship of the parents (consanguinity), viral
infections in the subject's mother during her pregnancy,
and chemical causes of birth defects like alcohol.
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RESULTS: |
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4. Correspondences Between
Wounds and Birthmarks |
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A correspondence between
birthmark and wound was judged satisfactory if the
birthmark and wound were both within an area of
10 square centimeters at the same anatomical location;
in fact, many of the birthmarks and wounds were
much closer to the same location than this. A medical
document, usually a postmortem report, was obtained
in 49 cases. The correspondence between wound and
birthmark was judged satisfactory or better by the
mentioned criterion in 43 (88%) of these cases and
not satisfactory in 6 cases. Several different explanations
seem to be required to account for the discrepant
cases, and I discuss these elsewhere (Stevenson.
forthcoming). Figure 1 shows a birthmark (an urea
of hypopigmentation) on an Indian child who said
he remembered the life of a man who had been killed
with a shotgun fired at close range. Figure 2 shows
the location of the wounds recorded by the pathologist.
(The circles were drawn by an Indian physician who
studied the postmortem report with me.)
The high proportion (88%)
of concordance between wounds and birthmarks in
the cases for which we obtained postmortem reports
(or other confirming documents) increases confidence
in the accuracy of informants' memories concerning
the wounds on the deceased person in those more
numerous cases for which we could obtain no medical
document. Not all errors of informants memories
would have resulted in attributing a correspondence
between birth marks and wounds that did nor exist;
in four cases (possibly five) reliance on an informant's
memory would have resulted in missing a correspondence
to which a medical document attested.
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Figure
3.
Large verrucous epidermal nevus
on head of a Thai man who as a child
said he remembered the life of his
paternal uncle, who was killed with
a blow on the head from a heavy
knife.
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Figure 4.
Congenital malformation of nail
on right great toe of the Thai subject
shown in Figure 3. This malformation
corresponded to a chronic ulcer
of the right great toe from which
the subject's uncle had suffered.
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Figure 5. Small,
round puckered birthmark on a Thai
boy that corresponded to the bullet
wound of entry in a man whose life
he said he remembered and who had
been shot with a rifle from behind.
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Figure 6.
Larger, irregularly shaped birthmark
on the frontal area of the head
of the Thai boy shown in Figure
5. This birthmark corresponded to
the bullet wound of exit on the
Thai man whose life the boy said
he remembered.
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Figure 8. Severely
malformed ear (microtia) in a Turkish
boy who said that he remembered
the life of a man who was fatally
wounded on the right side of the
head by a shotgun discharged at
close range.
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Figure 9. Almost
absent fingers (brachydactyly) on
one hand in a boy of India who said
he remembered the life of a boy
of another village who had put his
hand into the blades of a fodder
chopping machine and had its fingers
amputated.
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Figure 10. Small,
round puckered birthmark on a Thai
boy that corresponded to the bullet
wound of entry in a man whose life
he said he remembered and who had
been shot with a rifle from behind.
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5. Cases with Two or
More Birthmarks
The argument
of chance as accounting for the correspondence
between birthmarks and wounds becomes much
reduced when the child has two or more birthmarks
each corresponding to a wound on the deceased
person whose life he claims to remember.
Figure 3 shows a major abnormality of the
skin (verrucous epidermal nevus) on the
back of the head of a Thai man who, as a
child, recalled the life of his uncle, who
had been struck on the head with a heavy
knife and killed almost instantly. The subject
also had a deformed toenail of the right
great toe (Figure 4). This corresponded
to a chronic infection of the same toe from
which the subject's uncle had suffered for
some years before he died.
The series includes
18 cases in which two birthmarks on a subject
corresponded to gunshot wounds of entry
and exit. In 14 of these one birthmark was
larger than the other, and in 9 of these
14 the evidence clearly showed that the
smaller birthmark (usually round) corresponded
to the wound of entry and the larger one
(usually irregular in shape) corresponded
to the wound of exit. These observations
accord with the fact that bullet wounds
of exit are nearly always larger than wounds
of entry (Fatteh, 1976; Gordon and Shapiro,
1982). Figure 5 shows a small round birthmark
on the back of the head of a Thai boy, and
Figure 6 shows a larger, irregularly shaped
birthmark at the front of his head. The
boy said that he remembered the life of
a man who was shot in the head from behind.
(The mode of death was verified, but no
medical document was obtainable.) In addition
to the 9 cases I have investigated myself,
Mills reported another case having the feature
of a small round birthmark (corresponding
to the wound of entry) and a larger birthmark
corresponding to the wound of exit (both
verified by a postmortem report) (Mills,
1989).
I have calculated
the odds against chance of two birthmarks
correctly corresponding to two wounds. The
surface area of the skin of the average
adult male is 1.6 meters (Spalteholz, 1943).
If we were to imagine this area square and
spread on a fiat surface, its dimensions
would be approximately 127 centimeters by
127 centimeters. Into this area would fit
approximately 160 squares of the size 10
centimeters square that I mentioned above.
The probability that a single birthmark
on a person would correspond in location
to a wound within the area of any of the
160 smaller squares is only 1/160. However,
the probability of correspondences between
two birthmarks and two wounds would be (1/160)2
i.e. 1 in 25,600. (This calculation assumes
that birthmarks are uniformly distributed
over all regions of the skin. This is incorrect
[Pack, Lenson, and Gerber, 1952], but I
believe the variation can be ignored for
the present purpose.)
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6. Examples of Other
Correspondences of Detail between Wounds
and Birthmarks
A Thai woman
had three separate linear hypopigmented
scarlike birthmarks near the midline of
her back; as a child she had remembered
the life of a woman who was killed when
struck three times in the back with an ax.
(Informants verified this mode of death,
but no medical record was obtainable.) A
woman of Burma was born with two perfectly
round birthmarks in her left chest; they
slightly overlapped, and one was about half
the size of the other. As a child she said
that she remembered the life of a woman
who was accidentally shot and killed with
a shotgun. A responsible informant said
the shotgun cartridge had contained shot
of two different sizes. (No medical record
was obtainable in this case.)
Another Burmese
child said that she remembered the life
of her deceased aunt, who had died during
surgery for congenital heart disease. This
child had a long, vertical linear hypopigmented
birthmark close to the midline of her lower
chest and upper abdomen; this birthmark
corresponded to the surgical incision for
the repair of the aunt's heart. (I obtained
a medical record in this case.) In contrast,
a child of Turkey had a horizontal linear
birthmark across the right upper quadrant
of his abdomen. It resembled the scar of
a surgeon's transverse abdominal incision.
The child said that he remembered the life
of his paternal grandfather, who had become
jaundiced and was operated on before he
died. He may have had a cancer of the head
of the pancreas, but I could not learn a
precise medical diagnosis.
Two Burmese subjects
remembered as children the lives of persons
who had died after being bitten by venomous
snakes, and the birthmarks of each corresponded
to therapeutic incisions made at the sites
of the snakebites on the persons whose lives
they remembered. Another Burmese subject
also said as a child that she remembered
the life of a child who had been bitten
on the foot by a snake and died. In this
case, however, the child's uncle had applied
a burning cheroot to the site of the bite
-- a folk remedy for snakebite in parts
of Burma; and the subject's birthmark was
round and located at the site on the foot
where the bitten child's uncle had applied
the cheroot.
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7. Three Examples
of Birth Defects
Figure 8. below,
shows the right side of the head of a Turkish
boy with a diminished and malformed ear
(unilateral microtia). He also had underdevelopment
of the right side of his face (hemifacial
microsomia). He said that he remembered
the life of a man who had been shot (with
a shotgun) at point-blank range. The wounded
man was taken to a hospital where he died
6 days later -- of injuries to the brain
caused by shot that had penetrated the right
side of the skull. (I obtained a copy of
the hospital record.)
Figure 9. shows
fingers almost absent congenitally on one
hand (unilateral brachydactyly) in a child
of India who said he remembered the life
of another child who had put his right hand
into the blades of a fodder-chopping machine
and lost his fingers. Most cases of brachydactyly
involve only a shortening of the middle
phalanges. In the present case there were
no phalangeal bones, and the fingers were
represented by mere stubs. Unilateral brachydactyly
is exceedingly rare, and I have not found
a published report of a case, although a
colleague (plastic surgeon) has shown me
a photograph of one case that came under
his care.
Figure 10. shows
congenital absence of the lower right leg
(unilateral hemimelia) in a Burmese girl.
She said that she remembered the life of
a girl who was run over by a train. Eyewitnesses
said that the train severed the girl's right
leg first, before running over the trunk.
Lower hemimelia is an extremely rare condition,
and Frantz and O'Rahilly (1961) found it
in only 12 (4.0%) of 300 cases of all congenital
skeletal deficiencies that they examined.
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8. Discussion
Because most
(but not all) of these cases develop among
persons who believe in reincarnation, we
should expect that the informants for the
cases would interpret them as examples according
with their belief; and they usually do.
It is necessary, however, for scientists
to think of alternative explanations.
The most obvious
explanation of these cases attributes the
birthmark or birth defect on the child to
chance, and the reports of the child's statements
and unusual behavior then become a parental
fiction intended to account for the birthmark
(or birth defect) in terms of the culturally
accepted belief in reincarnation. There
are, however, important objections to this
explanation. First, the parents (and other
adults concerned in a case) have no need
to invent and narrate details of a previous
life in order to explain their child's lesion.
Believing in reincarnation, as most of them
do, they are nearly always content to attribute
the lesion to some event of a previous life
without searching for a particular life
with matching details. Second, the lives
of the deceased persons figuring in the
cases were of uneven quality both as to
social status and commendable conduct. A
few of them provided models of heroism or
some other enviable quality; but many of
them lived in poverty or were otherwise
unexemplary. Few parents would impose an
identification with such persons on their
children. Third, although in most cases
the two families concerned were acquainted
(or even related), I am confident that in
at least 13 cases (among 210 carefully examined
with regard to this matter) the two families
concerned had never even heard about each
other before the case developed. The subject's
family in these cases can have had no information
with which to build up an imaginary previous
life which, it later turned out, closely
matched a real one. In another 12 cases
the child's parents had heard about the
death of the person concerned, but had no
knowledge of the wounds on that person.
Limitations of space for this article oblige
me to ask readers to accept my appraisal
of these 25 cases for this matter; but in
my forthcoming work I give a list of the
cases from which readers can find the detailed
reports of the cases and from reading them
judge this important question for themselves.
Fourth, I think I have shown that chance
is an improbable interpretation for the
correspondences in location between two
or more birthmarks on the subject of a case
and wounds on a deceased person.
Persons who reject
the explanation of chance combined with
a secondarily confected history may consider
other interpretations that include paranormal
processes, but fall short of proposing a
life after death. One of these supposes
that the birthmark or birth defect occurs
by chance and the subject then by telepathy
learns about a deceased person who had a
similar lesion and develops an identification
with that person. The children subjects
of these cases, however, never show paranormal
powers of the magnitude required to explain
the apparent memories in contexts outside
of their seeming memories.
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Another explanation,
which would leave less to chance in the production
of the child's lesion, attributes it to a maternal
impression on the part of the child's mother. According
to this idea, a pregnant woman, having a knowledge
of the deceased person's wounds, might influence
a gestating embryo and fetus so that its form corresponded
to the wounds on the deceased person. The idea of
maternal impressions, popular in preceding centuries
and up to the first decades of this one, has fallen
into disrepute. Until my own recent article (Stevenson,
1992) there had been no review of series of cases
since 1890 (Dabney, 1890); and cases are rarely
published now (Williams and Pembroke, 1988). Nevertheless,
some of the published cases -- old and new -- show
a remarkable correspondence between an unusual stimulus
in the mind of a pregnant woman and an unusual birthmark
or birth defect in her later-born child. Also, in
an analysis of 113 published cases I found that
the stimulus occurred to the mother in the first
trimester in 80 cases (Stevenson, 1992). The first
trimester is well known to be the one of greatest
sensitivity of the embryo/fetus to recognized teratogens,
such as thalidomide (Nowack, 1965) and rubella (Hill,
Doll, Galloway, and Hughes, 1958). Applied to the
present cases, however, the theory of maternal impression
has obstacles as great as the normal explanation
appears to have. First, in the 25 cases mentioned
above, the subject's mother, although she may have
heard of the death of the concerned deceased person,
had no knowledge of that person's wounds. Second,
this interpretation supposes that the mother not
only modified the body of her unborn child with
her thoughts, but after the child's birth influenced
it to make statements and show behavior that it
otherwise would not have done. No motive for such
conduct can be discerned in most of the mothers
(or fathers) of these subjects.
It is not my purpose
to impose any interpretation of these cases on the
readers of this article. Nor would I expect any
reader to reach even a preliminary conclusion from
the short summaries of cases that the brevity of
this report entails. Instead, I hope that I have
stimulated readers to examine the detailed reports
of many cases that I am now in the process of publishing
(Stevenson, forthcoming). "Originality and
truth are found only in the details" (Stendhal,
1926).
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9. Acknowledgements |
|
I am grateful to Drs.
Antonia Mills and Emily W. Cook for critical comments
on drafts of this paper. Thanks are also due to
the Bernstein Brothers Parapsychology and Health
Foundation for the support of my research.
Correspondence and requests
for reprints should be addressed to: Ian Stevenson,
M.D., Division of Perceptual Studies, Box 152, Health
Sciences Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville,
VA 22908
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10. References |
|
• Cockayne,
E, A. (1933).
Inherited abnormalities of
the skin. London: Oxford University Press. |
• Cook,
E. W., Pasricha, S, Samararatne, G, Win
Maung, & Stevenson, I. (1983).
Review
and analysis of "unsolved" cases
of the reincarnation type: II. Comparison
of features of solved and unsolved cases,
Journal of the American Society for Psychical
Research, 77, 1 15-135. |
• Dabney,
W. C. (1890). Maternal impressions. In J.
M. Keating (Ed.),
Cyclopaedia of the diseases
of children, Vol. 1 , (pp. 191-216). Philadelphia:
J. B. Lippincott. |
• Denaro,
S. J. ( 1944).
The inheritance of nevi.
Journal of Heredity, 35, 2 1 5- 1 8. |
• Fatteh,
A. (1976).
Medicolegal investigation of
gunshot wounds. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott. |
• Frantz,
C. H., & O'Rahilly, R.(1961).
Congenital
skeletal limb deficiencies. Journal of Bone
and Joins Surgery: 43-A, 1202-24. |
• Gordon,
I., & Shapiro, H. A. (1982).
Forensic
medicine: A guide to principles. (2nd ed.)
London: Churchill Livingstone. |
• Hill,
A, B,, Doll, R,, Galloway, T. M., &
Hughes, J.P.W. (1958).
Virus diseases in
pregnancy and congenital defects.
British
Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine,
12, 1-7. |
• Maruri,
C. A. (1961).
La herencia en dermarologia.
(2nd ed.) Santander: Aldus, S.A. Artes Graficas. |
• Mills,
A. (1989).
A replication study: Three cases
of children in northern India who are said
to remember a previous life.
Journal of
Scientific Exploration, 3, 133-184. |
• Nelson,
K., & Holmes, L. B. (1989).
Malformations
due to presumed spontaneous mutations in
newborn infants. New England Journal of
Medicine, 320, 19-23. |
• Nowack,
E, (1965).
Die sensible Phase bei der Thalidomid-Embryopathie. Humangenetik, I, 516-36. |
• Pack,
G. T., & Davis, J. (1956).
Moles. New
York Stare Journal of Medicine, 56, 3498-3506. |
• Pack,
G. T., Lenson, N. & Gerber, D. M. (1952).
Regional distribution of moles and melanomas.
AMA Archives of Surgery. 65, 862-70. |
• Smith,
D. W. (1982).
Recognizable patterns of human
malformation. (3rd ed.) Philadelphia: W.
B. Saunders. |
• Spalteholz.
W (1943).
Hand atlas of human anatomy. Translated
by L. E Barker. 7th English ed. Philadelphia:
J,B. Lippincott. |
• Stendhal
(1926).
Lucien Leuwen. Paris: Librairie
Ancienne Honor6 Champion, 4, 169. |
• Stevenson,
I. (1975).
Cases of the reincarnation type.
I. Ten cases in India. Charlottesville:
University Press of Virginia. |
• Stevenson,
I. (1983).
American children who claim to
remember previous lives.
Journal of Nervous
and Mental Disease, 17 1, 742-748. |
• Stevenson,
I. (1987).
Children who remember previous
lives. Charlottesville: University Press
of Virginia. |
• Stevenson,
I. ( 1990).
Phobias in children who claim
to remember previous lives.
Journal of Scientific
Exploration, 4, 243-254. |
• Stevenson,
I. (1992).
A new look at maternal impressions:
An analysis of 50 published cases and reports
of two recent examples. Journal of Scientific
Exploration, 6, 353-373. |
• Stevenson,
I.
Birthmarks and birth defects:
A contribution to their etiology. |
• Williams,
H. C., & Pembroke, A. C. (1988).
Naevus
of Jamaica. Lancer, 11, 915. |
• Wilson,
J. G. (1973).
Environment and birth defects.
New York: Academic Press. |
|
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11. Articles
on Reincarnation by Researchers
of the Division of Perceptual Studies |
|
All articles below are in
PDF format. To download, right-click on the link
and select "Save As". Related articles can be downloaded
at the
Division of Perceptual Studies at the University
of Virginia.
|
|
•
The Evidence for Survival from Claimed Memories
of Former Incarnations
by Dr. Ian Stevenson. (Journal of the American
Society for Psychical Research 54:51-71
and 95-117, 1960). Dr. Stevenson's early
essay about cases suggestive of reincarnation
and several interpretations of them. |
•
Some Questions Related to Cases of the Reincarnation
Type
by Dr. Ian Stevenson. (Journal of the American
Society for Psychical Research 68:395-416,
1974). A discussion of some frequently asked
questions about reincarnation. |
•
A Preliminary Report of a New Case of Responsive
Xenoglossy: The Case of Gretchen
by Dr. Ian Stevenson. (Journal of the American
Society for Psychical Research 70:65-77,
1976). A report of a case in which the subject,
under hypnosis, spoke and conversed in German,
a language that she seems not to have learned
normally. |
•
The Explanatory Value of the Idea of Reincarnation
by Dr. Ian Stevenson. (Journal of Nervous
and Mental Disease. 164:305-326, 1977).
A consideration of the ways in which the
concept of reincarnation might supplement
those of heredity and environment in explaining
some poorly understood aspects of human
behavior and development. |
•
The Southeast Asian Interpretation of Gender
Dysphoria: An Illustrative Case Report
by Dr. Ian Stevenson. (Journal of Nervous
and Mental Disease. 165:201-208, 1977).
Suggesting that gender identity confusion
may derive from influences of a previous
life as a member of the opposite sex, Dr.
Stevenson reports the case of a girl who
claims to remember a previous life as a
man. |
•
A Preliminary Report on an Unusual Case
of the Reincarnation Type with Xenoglossy
by Dr. Ian Stevenson. (Journal of the American
Society of Psychical Research 74: 331-348,
1980). A report of a case of a woman who
periodically assumes a second personality,
speaking only a language she does not know
in her normal state. She has also given
verified details about another life she
claims to have lived. |
•
American Children Who Claim to Remember
Previous Lives
by Dr. Ian Stevenson. (Journal of Nervous
and Mental Disease. 171:742-748, 1983).
Report of an analysis of 79 cases of American
children who claim to remember a previous
life. |
•
A Review and Analysis of "Unsolved" Cases
of the Reincarnation Type: I. Introduction
and Illustrative Case Reports
by Dr. Ian Stevenson, Dr. Emily Williams
Cook et al. (Journal of the American Society
for Psychical Research 77:45-62, 1983).
Brief reports of 7 cases of the reincarnation
type in which no deceased person corresponding
to the child subject's statements has been
found. |
•
A Review and Analysis of "Unsolved" Cases
of the Reincarnation Type: II. Comparison
of Features of Solved and Unsolved Cases
by Dr. Ian Stevenson, Dr. Emily Williams
Cook et al. (Journal of the American Society
for Psychical Research 77:115-135, 1983).
Report of an analysis and comparison of
856 solved and unsolved reincarnation cases
with regard to 9 important features. |
•
The Belief in Reincarnation Among the Igbo
of Nigeria
by Dr. Ian Stevenson. (Journal of Asian
and African Studies XX:13-30, 1985.) A summary
of the belief in reincarnation among the
Igbo with a description of the repeater
children, called ogbanjes by the Igbo people. |
•
Characteristics of Cases of the Reincarnation
Type Among the Igbo of Nigeria
by Dr. Ian Stevenson. (Journal of Asian
and African Studies XXI:204-216, 1986).
A description of the principle features
found in 57 cases of the reincarnation type
occurring among the Igbo people. Several
tables compare the incidence of the main
features of the cases in nine or ten different
cultures. |
•
Indian Cases of the Reincarnation Type Two
Generations Apart
by Dr. Ian Stevenson and Dr. Satwant Pasricha.
(Journal of the Society for Psychical Research
54(809):239-246, 1987). Cases of the reincarnation
type from the early years of this century
show features closely resembling those of
cases whose subjects were born after 1965. |
•
Deception and Self-Deception in Cases of
the Reincarnation Type: Seven Illustrative
Cases in Asia
by Dr. Ian Stevenson, Dr. Satwant Pasricha
and Godwin Samararatne. (Journal of the
American Society for Psychical Research
82:1-31, 1988). Detailed reports of 7 cases
of the reincarnation type in Asia that seemed
to be authentic at first but, on investigation,
proved to be best interpreted as instances
of deception or self-deception. |
•
Two Correlates of Violent Death in Cases
of the Reincarnation Type
by Dr. Ian Stevenson and Dr. N. K. Chadha.
(Journal of the Society for Psychical Research
55(811):71-79, 1988). In the cases of children
remembering previous lives that ended violently
the interval between death of the deceased
person whose life is remembered and the
subject's birth is shorter, on average,
than in cases having a natural death in
the previous life. Also, children remembering
violent deaths tend to speak about the previous
life at an earlier age than do children
who remember lives that ended naturally. |
•
Three New Cases of the Reincarnation Type
in Sri Lanka with Written Records Made before
Verification
by Dr. Ian Stevenson. (Journal of Nervous
and Mental Disease. 176:741, 1988). Short
summaries of three recent cases of the valuable
type in which the child's statements were
recorded in writing before they were verified. |
•
Three New Cases of the Reincarnation Type
in Sri Lanka with Written Records Made before
Verification
by Dr. Ian Stevenson and Godwin Samararatne.
(Journal of Scientific Exploration 2:217-238,
1988). A longer version of 15a, including
more detail about the 3 cases reported. |
•
Phobias in Children Who Claim to Remember
Previous Lives
by Dr. Ian Stevenson. (Journal of Scientific
Exploration 4:243-254, 1990). A discussion
of the phobias that occur among many children
who seem to remember a previous life, and
some possible explanations for these phobias. |
•
Birthmarks and Birth Defects Corresponding
to Wounds on Deceased Persons
by Dr. Ian Stevenson. (Journal of Scientific
Exploration 7:403-410, 1993). A short summary
of research on the cases of children who
claim to remember previous lives and who
have birthmarks or birth defects that correspond
to wounds in the claimed previous life. |
•
Does the Socio-Psychological Hypothesis
Explain Cases of the Reincarnation Type?
by Dr. Ian Stevenson and Dr. Sybo Schouten.
(Journal of Nervous and Mental Disorder.
186:504-506, 1998). Cases of the reincarnation
type (in India and Sri Lanka) in which a
written record of the subject's statements
was made only after the families concerned
had met did not have more statements and
more correct ones than cases in which a
written record was made before the statements
were verified. |
•
Do Cases of the Reincarnation Type Show
Similar Features Over Many Years? A Study
of Turkish Cases a Generation Apart
by Dr. Jürgen Keil and Dr. Ian Stevenson.
( Journal of Scientific Exploration 13(2):189-198,
1999). In Turkey the features of 45 cases
studied by one investigator were compared
with the features of 45 other cases studied
nearly a generation later by another investigator.
Overall, the two groups of cases showed
closely similar features. The cases appear
to be a natural phenomenon occurring over
many years. |
•
The Phenomenon of Claimed Memories of Previous
Lives: Possible Interpretations and Importance
by Dr. Ian Stevenson. (Medical Hypotheses
54(4):652-659, 2000). The hypothesis of
previous lives can contribute to the further
understanding of several conditions, disorders,
or abnormalities (such as phobias observed
in early infancy, gender identity disorder,
and behavioral and physical differences
in one-egg [monozygotic] twins) that are
not adequately explained by genetic and/or
environmental influences. |
•
The Stability of Assessments of Paranormal
Connections in Reincarnation-Type Cases
by Dr. Ian Stevenson and Dr. Jürgen Keil.
(Journal of Scientific Exploration 14 (3):
365-382, 2000). Fifteen cases of children
who claimed to remember a previous life
were investigated twice and independently
with an average interval of 22 years between
the investigations. The reports were evaluated
for evidence of a paranormal process. With
the lapse of time informants lost some details;
but with one possible exception there was
no evidence of increased claims of paranormality
in the later investigations. |
•
An Unusual Birthmark Case Thought to be
Linked to a Person Who Had Previously Died
by Dr. Jürgen Keil and Dr. Jim B. Tucker.
(Psychological Reports 87:1067-1074, 2000).
A report of a case of a Burmese subject
who was born with birthmarks and birth defects
that were thought to be linked to the death
of his mother's first husband in a parachute
accident. |
•
A Scale to Measure the Strength of Children's
Claims of Previous Lives: Methodology and
Initial Findings by Dr. Jim B. Tucker.
(Journal of Scientific Exploration 14(4):571-581,
2000). 799 cases of children who claim to
remember a previous life were analyzed using
a scale that measured the strength of the
claims. The analysis showed that in the
stronger cases, the children tended to start
talking about the previous life at an earlier
age; they demonstrated more emotion in recalling
the past life; and they showed greater facial
resemblance to the deceased individual that
they were said to have been. |
•
Unusual Play in Young Children Who Claim
to Remember Previous Lives
by Dr. Ian Stevenson ( Journal of Scientific
Exploration 14(4):557-570, 2000). Children
who, when they learn to speak express memories
of previous lives, frequently engage in
play that is unusual and has no model or
other obvious stimulus in their family.
The play seems to repeat the vocation or
an avocation of the person whose life the
child seems to remember. Sometimes the play
reenacts the cause of death, such as drowning,
of that person. |
•
Ropelike Birthmarks on Children Who Claim
to Remember Past Lives
by Dr. Ian Stevenson (Psychological Reports
89:142-144, 2001). Description of birthmarks
having the pattern of strands of a rope
in a second known case includes some verification
of the correspondence between the birthmarks
and injuries from ropes on an identified
deceased person. |
•
Can Cultural Beliefs Cause a Gender Identity
Disorder?
by Dr. Jim B. Tucker and Dr. Jürgen Keil.
(Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality
13(2):21-30, 2001). Report of a child in
Thailand who was born with a birthmark that
matched a mark made on the body of his deceased
grandmother. As he got older, he claimed
to be his grandmother reborn, and he demonstrated
cross-gender behavior. |
•
The Similarity of Features of Reincarnation
Type Cases over Many Years: A Third Study
by Dr. Ian Stevenson and Dr. Erlendur Haraldsson.
( Journal of Scientific Exploration 17(2):283-289,
2003). The principal features of two series
of cases suggestive of reincarnation in
Lebanon were compared. The series were investigated
about a generation apart by two different
investigators. In three important features
the two series were closely similar; in
other features they were not similar, probably
because of differences in the thoroughness
of investigation in the two series. |
•
Cases of the Reincarnation Type with Memories
from the Intermission Between Lives
by Poonam Sharma and Dr. Jim B. Tucker.
( Journal of Near-Death Studies 23(2):101-118,
2005). A minority of children who claim
to remember previous lives also claim to
remember events between lives. This analysis
of statements from 35 Burmese subjects reveals
patterns in the memories that they described.
A comparison of these reports to reports
of near-death experiences indicates significant
areas of overlap. |
•
Children Who Claim to Remember Previous
Lives: Cases with Written Records Made before
the Previous Personality Was Identified
by Dr. Jürgen Keil and Dr. Jim B. Tucker.
( Journal of Scientific Exploration 19(1):
pp. 91-101, 2005). A case is presented in
which a written record, made before the
deceased individual was identified, documented
that the numerous statements made by a Turkish
boy about a previous life were accurate
for the life of a man who lived 500 miles
away and died 50 years before the boy was
born. Other similar cases are reviewed. |
•
Children of Myanmar Who Behave like Japanese
Soldiers: A Possible Third Element in Personality
by Dr. Ian Stevenson and Dr. Jürgen Keil.
(Journal of Scientific Exploration 19(2):
pp. 171-183, 2005). Among 750 children of
Myanmar who claimed to remember a previous
life 24 spoke about having been Japanese
soldiers killed, presumably during World
War II. None gave verifiable information,
but they all showed unusual behavior, such
as insensitivity to pain, dislike of hot
weather and, distaste for spicy food, which
are typical of Japanese soldiers, but not
of Burmese persons. Genetic factors cannot
explain these cases; neither can encouragement
of such behavior by the children’s parents.
Reincarnation is suggested as a third component
of human personality illustrated by these
cases. |
•
Some Bodily Malformations Attributed to
Previous Lives
by Dr. Satwant K. Pasricha, Dr. Jürgen Keil,
Dr. Jim B. Tucker, and Dr. Ian Stevenson.
( Journal of Scientific Exploration 19(3):359-383,
2005). This two part article examines cases
in which children were born with abnormalities
that were attributed to wounds from a previous
life. Part I presents three cases in which
evidence indicated a close correspondence
between a child’s birthmark and a wound
on a particular deceased person. Part II
describes four cases of birth defects that
were attributed to previous lives and looks
at the evidence supporting that attribution.
Photographs of the malformations are included. |
•
Children who claim to remember previous
lives: Past, present, and future research
by Dr. Jim B. Tucker. (Journal of Scientific
Exploration, 21(3): pp. 543-552, 2007).
The research with Cases of the Reincarnation
Type is reviewed, beginning with Ian Stevenson's
initial paper on the phenomenon in 1961.
Current projects and planned future projects
are also discussed. |
•
Ian Stevenson and cases of the reincarnation
type
by Dr. Jim B. Tucker (Journal of Scientific
Exploration, 22 (1); 36-43, 2008). |
•
Children's reports of past-life memories:
A review
by Dr. Jim B. Tucker, (EXPLORE: The Journal
of Science and Healing, 4(4):244-248, 2008). |
•
Review by Dr. Jim B. Tucker of "Can the
Mind Survive beyond Death? In Pursuit of
Scientific Evidence"
by Satwant K. Pasricha. (Journal of Scientific
Exploration 24:133-137, 2010). |
•
Response to "How To Improve the Study and
Documentation of Cases of the Reincarnation
Type? A Reappraisal of the Case of Kemal
Atasoy"
written by Vitor Moura Visoni. The response
is by Dr. Jürgen Keil and Dr. Jim B. Tucker.
(Journal of Scientific Exploration 24:295-296,
2010). |
•
Experimental Birthmarks: New Cases of an
Asian Practice
by Dr. Jim B. Tucker and Dr. Jürgen Keil.
(Journal of Scientific Exploration 27:263-276,
2013). |
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|
Recommended Books
on Reincarnation
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Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation
|
by Ian Stevenson
|
Can anyone speak a language
he or she has not learned normally,
in childhood or later? Claims
to have accomplished this are
made from time to time, but
only rarely do they receive
support when carefully examined.
In this volume Dr. Stevenson
presents detailed reports of
twenty authentic cases.
Authentic instances of speaking
a language that has not been
learned normally (responsive
xenoglossy) suggest that another
personality from a previous
life had learned the language.
Cases of responsive xenoglossy
add to the evidence of survival
of human personality after death.
|
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Where Reincarnation and Biology
Intersect
|
by Ian Stevenson
|
This book summarizes Stevenson's
findings which are presented
in full in the multi-volume
work entitled "Reincarnation
and Biology." Stevenson has
collected over 2,600 reported
cases of childhood past-life
memories of which 65 detailed
reports have been published.
Specific information from the
children's memories has been
collected and matched with the
data of their claimed former
identity, family, residence,
and manner of death. Birthmarks
or other physiological manifestations
have been found to relate to
experiences of the remembered
past life, particularly violent
death.
|
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European Cases of the Reincarnation
Type
|
by Ian Stevenson
|
Many cultures accept that a
person may die and then come
back to life in another form,
but Westerners have traditionally
rejected the idea. This book
examines particular cases in
Europe that are suggestive of
reincarnation. The first section
provides a brief history of
the belief in reincarnation
among Europeans. The second
section considers eight cases
from the first third of the
twentieth century that were
not independently investigated,
but were reported and sometimes
published by the persons concerned.
The third section covers 32
cases from the second half of
the twentieth century that were
investigated by the author.
|
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Children Who Remember Previous
Lives: A Question of Reincarnation
|
by Ian Stevenson
|
This book summarizes almost
forty years of experience in
the study of children who claim
to remember previous lives.
New material relating to birthmarks
and birth defects, independent
replication studies with a critique
of criticisms, and recent developments
in genetic study are included.
This work gives an overview
of the history of the belief
in and evidence for reincarnation.
Representative cases of children,
research methods used, analyses
of the cases and of variations
due to different cultures, and
the explanatory value of the
idea of reincarnation for some
unsolved problems in psychology
and medicine are reviewed.
|
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Science, the Self, and Survival
after Death: Selected Writings
of Ian Stevenson
|
by Emily Williams Kelly and
Ian Stevenson
|
This is the first book devoted
to surveying the entirety of
Dr. Stevenson's work and the
extraordinary scope and variety
of his research. He studied
universal questions that cut
to the core of a person’s identity:
What is consciousness? How did
we become the unique individuals
that we are? Do we survive in
some form after death? Stevenson’s
writings on the nature of science
and the mind-body relationship,
as well as his empirical research,
demonstrate his strongly held
belief that the methods of science
can be applied successfully
to such humanly vital questions.
|
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Life Before Life: Children's
Memories of Previous Lives
|
by Jim B. Tucker and Ian Stevenson
|
This popular examination of
research into children’s reports
of past-life memories describes
a collection of 2,500 cases
at the University of Virginia
that investigators have carefully
studied since Dr. Ian Stevenson
began the work more than forty
years ago. The children usually
begin talking about a past life
at the age of two or three and
may talk about a previous family
or the way they died in a previous
life. Their statements have
often been found to be accurate
for one particular deceased
individual, and some children
have recognized members of the
previous family. This book presents
the cases in a straightforward
way and explores the possibility
that consciousness may continue
after the brain dies.
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A World in a Grain of Sand:
The Clairvoyance of Stefan Ossowiecki
|
by Ian Stevenson and Zofia Weaver
Mary Rose Barrington
|
Very rarely has anyone been
able to demonstrate psychic
faculties with enough accuracy
and reliability to produce significant
results in repeated experimentation.
An exception to this was the
Polish engineer and industrialist
Stefan Ossowiecki. Ossowiecki
who was perhaps the most gifted
psychic ever to come under the
scrutiny of researchers. He
demonstrated a range and quality
of clairvoyance that no one
has exceeded, at least under
experimental controls. Equally
important, he was eager to learn
more about his talent and allowed
a variety of researchers to
use him in experiments.
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Old Souls: Compelling Evidence
from Children Who Remember Past
Lives
|
by Tom Shroder
|
For thirty-seven years, Dr.
Ian Stevenson has traveled the
world from Lebanon to suburban
Virginia investigating and documenting
more than two thousand childhood
past life memory cases. Now,
his essentially unknown work
is being brought to the mainstream
by Tom Shroder, the first journalist
to have the privilege of accompanying
Dr. Stevenson in his fieldwork.
Shroder follows Stevenson into
the lives of children and families
touched by this phenomenon,
changing from skeptic to believer
as he comes face-to-face with
concrete evidence he cannot
discount in this spellbinding
and true story.
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Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation
of a World War II Fighter Pilot
|
by Bruce Leininger, Andrea Leininger,
Ken Gross
|
The parents of James Leininger
were first puzzled and then
disturbed when their two-year-old
son began screaming out chilling
phrases during recurrent nightmares,
such as, "Plane on fire! Little
man can't get out!" The centerpiece
of a loving family of three,
James was a happy, playful toddler
who had only just begun stringing
together sentences. Determined
to understand what was happening
to their son, Bruce and Andrea
set off on a journey of discovery
that was to rock them to their
core. For the more they researched
the arcane comments and fragmented
details little James revealed,
the more they were drawn inescapably
to a shocking conclusion: that
James was reliving the life
of James Huston, a World War
II fighter pilot who was killed
in the battle for Iwo Jima--
over sixty years ago!
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Physics of the Soul: The Quantum
Book of Living, Dying, Reincarnation
and Immortality
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by Amit Goswami
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Dr. Amit Goswami uses the language
and concepts of quantum physics
to explore and scientifically
prove metaphysical theories
of reincarnation and immortality.
Dr. Goswami will help you understand
the perplexities of the quantum
physics model of reality and
the perennial beliefs of spiritual
and religious traditions. He
shows how they are not only
compatible but also provide
essential support for each other.
Dr. Goswami taught physics for
32 years, was a professor of
Theoretical Science at the University
of Oregon, and is currently
senior resident researcher at
the world-renowned Institute
of Noetic Sciences.
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Zen Physics, The Science of
Death, the Logic of Reincarnation
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by David Darling
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Acclaimed astrophysicist David
Darling comes well-armed with
both science and mysticism to
provide a theory of consciousness
and its final conclusion. His
well researched ideas on psychology,
neuro-biology, quantum physics
and a host of others meld with
Zen mysticism to provide a step
by step approach to what consciousness
is, and what it is not. Darling
provides a compelling answer
for what lies beyond the end
as we know it. Darling systematically
walks you through the scientific
process of death as well as
other scientific phenomenon
and lets you see for yourself
that there isn't a huge mystery
behind it all. Darling uses
logic to explain how quantum
physics may be bound with personality,
but never pretends that Zen
can be explained rationally.
Darling's book explains quantum
mechanics in a way anyone can
understand and presents an intelligent
thesis on the nature of life
after death.
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The Complete Idiot's Guide to
Reincarnation
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by David Hammerman, Lisa Lenard
and Carol Bowman
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This book is an essential primer
for anyone who wants to know
how to go about experiencing
his or past lives. Dr. David
Hammerman, a noted psychologist,
takes a scientific and scholarly
look at the phenomenon of reincarnation
and how treatments such as hypnotherapy
can rekindle buried memories,
events, and identities. This
book includes a wealth of anecdotes
about famous people who claim
to have had past life experiences.
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The Big Book of Reincarnation:
Examining the Evidence that
We Have All Lived Before
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by Roy Stemman
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Stemman uses his skills as a
professional journalist to perform
an in-depth exploration of reincarnation.
Using case studies, anecdotes,
and physical evidence from the
best-documented cases from around
the world, Stemman presents
fascinating examples of evidence
of reincarnation such as: in
the nightmares of a Louisiana
bayou boy, the past-life recall
of a renowned neurosurgeon,
the research of a highly respected
university professor, and the
unique system of governance
in the mountains of Tibet, to
name just a few. He examines
children who can actually remember
their previous lives. Instead
of shying away from the skeptics,
Stemman evaluates their leading
theories and compares them to
the findings that he has accumulated
throughout his global research.
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Coming Back: A Psychiatrist
Explores Past-Life Journeys
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by Raymond Moody and Paul Perry
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Dr. Raymond Moody’s pioneering
research of NDEs changed the
way we perceive dying. Now,
in Coming Back, he examines
the new field of regression
hypnosis to discover if we can
indeed recall “past lives” -
and what such memories tell
us about the possibility that
death is not the end. Dr. Moody
presents the startling findings
of research conducted of psychologically
healthy patients who, under
deep hypnosis, could describe
in vivid detail episodes from
other historical periods they
could not possibly have known
- unless they’d lived before.
Inside you’ll learn • How almost
anyone can experience past-life
journeys • How past-life regression
can help you overcome phobias,
compulsions, addictions, depression,
and guilt • How to recognize
and identify the twelve traits
common to all genuine past-life
regressions • How recent findings
in science, psychiatry, and
sociology contribute to our
understanding of past-life regression
- and what they say about life
after death • Plus a special
self-hypnosis script to guide
you on your own past-life journey.
Dr. Moody takes a provocative
look at the possibility that
we have lived before birth and
will go on living after death
- and shows how this knowledge
can help improve the lives we’re
living here and now!
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Beyond the Ashes: Cases of Reincarnation
from the Holocaust
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by Rabbi Yonassan Gershom and
John Rossner
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Is it possible that people living
today died in the Holocaust?
Rabbi Yonassan Gershom presents
compelling evidence supporting
this seemingly impossible phenomenon.
Based on the stories of people
he counseled, the author sheds
new light on the subject of
reincarnation and the divinity
of the human soul. In addition
to the fascinating case histories,
Rabbi Gershom includes information
on Jewish teachings regarding
the afterlife, karmic healing,
and prophecies.
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Reincarnation for Christians:
Evidence from Early Christian
and Jewish Mystical Traditions
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by John W. Sweeley Th.D.
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Reincarnation was both believed
and taught by Jesus and many
Church Fathers through the 8th
century, as well as in Hebrew
texts and mystical traditions
throughout the Middle Ages.
In this book, Monsignor Sweeley
proves that reincarnation was
accepted by Jesus according
to Holy Scripture, was accepted
and taught by the Church Fathers
as a doctrine of the faith,
and is believed today by many
Christians. Moreover, he makes
clear why there is no conflict
between the atonement of Jesus
and Jesus as the redeemer of
humanity, with the necessity
of living many lives before
we attain salvation.
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Reincarnation: The Missing Link
In Christianity
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by Elizabeth Clare Prophet and
Erin L. Prophet
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In a clear manner, the authors
show why reincarnation is the
essential key to understanding
Christ's message: the everlasting
love of God for all humanity,
the true nature of the resurrection,
and the magnificent mission
of Jesus. The authors trace
the history of reincarnation
in Christianity - from Jesus
and the early Christians through
Church councils and the persecution
of so-called heretics. This
book is filled with references
and includes 31 illustrations
and 4 maps.
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Memories of the Afterlife: Life
Between Lives Stories of Personal
Transformation
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by Michael Newton
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Dr. Newton returns with a series
of case studies that highlight
the profound impact of spiritual
regression on people’s everyday
lives. These fascinating true
accounts from around the world
are handpicked and presented
by hypnotherapists certified
by the Newton Institute. After
recalling memories of their
afterlife, the people in these
studies embarked on life-changing
spiritual journeys - reuniting
with soul mates and spirit guides,
and discovering the ramifications
of life and body choices, love
relationships, and dreams by
communing with their immortal
souls. As gems of self-knowledge
are revealed, dramatic epiphanies
result, enabling these ordinary
people to understand adversity
in their lives, find emotional
healing, realize their true
purpose, and forever enrich
their lives with new meaning.
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Edgar Cayce on Reincarnation
and Family Karma
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by Kevin J. Todeschi
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The Edgar Cayce readings presents
karma as essentially an unconscious
reservoir of information stored
within the soul’s memory. Although
this memory may draw certain
events and individuals to one
another, personal free will
and the way in which an individual
responds to that memory determines
her or his actual life experiences.
This insightful volume examines
the activities of reincarnation
and karma, especially as they
play out in the dynamics of
family relationships. All individuals
are brought together within
their respective families as
a means of learning specific
lessons and having opportunities
for personal soul growth. In
addition to examining the universal
laws of reincarnation and karma,
this book illustrates the lawfulness
of life, the exacting nature
of individual responsibility,
and the ever-present hopefulness
of personal free will. The author
shows how individuals can overcome
whatever "karmic lessons" they
seem to be faced with, that
free will is completely free,
and that God is truly as fair
and as loving as we have always
wished for our Creator to be.
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