2. Introduction to Dr. Ian Stevenson’s Research
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.
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