Dr. Ian Stevenson and reincarnation

[daniel]

Do people know about his work with children who remember past lives?

This article seemed particularly fascinating - as "material evidence":

http://www.childpastlives.org/birthmrk.htm

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 identitmarks and birth defects.y 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 birth

[Lowlight]

Hey Daniel

I have come across the good doctors work before. Have you read 'Old Souls' by tom shroder. its tom's journey with Stevenson on his last field trip. Truely an amazing book. It really opens your mind to other possibilities and seems to some extent to provide cases of reincarnation that border on actual hard evidence. The birthmark evidence id also interesting. The cases in Lebanon are the strongest i think. The one with the woman who looks just like her past self in the central photos is particularly powerful.

[Humming]

I remember a girl in high school doing a book report about past lives. To me, some of the most compelling physical evidence of physical/psychic soul material fusion was that of organ transplant cases. Evidentally there have been numerous cases of people getting someone else's organs and then their personality compltely changes, aquiring some of the traits of the donor. Sometimes the new traits would completely conflict with the person's old personality, and the changes would baffle family members.

I don't know the book title, but that always seemed interesting to me.

EDIT: Also, the whole birthmark discussion reminds me of the medieval witch trials during which women were checked for certain odd birthmarks, the so-called "witch's teat" from which Satan would allegedly drink. The birthmarks mentioned in that article sound very much like the ones mentioned in the Salem witch trial literature. Perhaps the spirits of the dead who had lived in the bodies previously were speaking to or through the women?

[ October 26, 2004, 07:38 AM: Message edited by: Humming ]

[craazyman]

I've been aware of Stevenson's research for several years, although have never read his books. His evidence seems truly remarkable, and he's very mainstream sober science, down there at U.Va. (my alma mater). Though I've always been a skeptic about reincarnation. The mathematics alone are a hurdle for me (more people alive today than over all of history, so most people can't be reincarnations of anyone). But as Jesus said, "In my father's house there are many mansions . . . " There's certainly a long historical tradition of the idea of life migrating between realities, so maybe Earth's been a real popular place to check out for the past several hundred years or so. If so, we should be having a big oncoming wave of reincarnations in the decades ahead (I wonder if there's an entreprenurial opportunity in there somewhere!)

Admittedly, Stevenson's evidence is very hard to explain in any other way. One could argue that people somehow tune in to historical memories floating out around out there in the 10-dimensional, quantum, string-theory void somewhere, and mistake them for their own memories, but the birthmark evidence would not be consistent with that theory. It argues for something more direct. Maybe the memory/experience is tuned in to, or somehow psychically encountered, during the formative time in womb/birth and the intensity of the memory manifests on the body physically as a stress symptom. Not exactly reincarnation, but even that would be way out there.

[kris ifans]

For what it's worth, I have a "birth mark" high up on my inner right thigh, and for a few years as I came to sexual maturity, had frightening dreams about being shot there with an arrow fired by an enraged woman.

Of course, it's not difficult to arrive at a purely psychoanalytical or Jungian interpretation of this dream.

And I have no memories of past lives, or even memories of memories. And although I took the dreams seriously at the time, I have to admit I didn't make the connection to my birthmark...

Very interesting though.

[ October 26, 2004, 11:10 AM: Message edited by: kris ifans ]

[nanouk]

...i believe some persons, or souls, are brand new...

love n.

[Lowlight]

Hey craazyman

the whole thing about more people being alive today than in the past being a hurdle for reincarnation is dealt with well in the Shroder book i mentioned as well as a number of other problems. Shroder himself was deeply skeptical and it is facinating to see his doubt erode through the book.

[oldhickory]

hey all, this is my first post and I would like to say that I loved your book daniel, I could'nt put it down once i started reading it. I definately believe in reincarnation and that evidence only intensifies my belief. I have read about how being hypnotized can also bring out these unconcsious memories, simply by going backwards through a persons life by asking them to remember each one of their birthdays down until their birth. I dont know any hypnotists and can't afford one, but about a year ago on new years eve a group of my friends and I ingested some 2cb and during my trip I had this presence that I was in an aztec or other similair tribe, The traditional designs were painted on everything and each of my friends had a different skin pigment, covered halfway with some kind of paint. This experience has changed my veiw on american culture and I yearn for the past. Also I was chating with an older friend of mine, he is around 50 years old, I am 19, about how some very powerful souls have been reincarnated for the 2012 harmonic convergence. anyone have thoughts?
OH. I forgot to add how I believe entheogens have the ability to dive us back into a past life, Like how Ibogaine takes you back through your current life, what if you could take it farther, I have never done iboga so I dont have much to contribute about that. thank you.

[nanouk]

144 000 maybe?

[Freeburg]

Not sure where my beliefs lie on the subject of reincarnation ... though the birthmarks offer compelling evidence. I remember reading of a case where a birthmark resembled a knife slit across the person's throat. Of course, lets say such a birthmark were naturally occurring. Could its resemblence to a knife slit lead to "false" memories of having one's throat cut in a past life? Though, how often does a such a birthmark "naturally" occur?

As for the expanding population ... the "new souls" suggestion has always resonated with my thinking to a degree. A friend of mine envisions the greater reality as an enormous pond with the older souls congregating deeper in the water and the younger souls staying closer to the surface. An interesting analogy ... and who cannot say that they've met what they would describe as an "old" soul. That spark in the eye, timeless wisdom ... the Gandalf character. The "young" soul would describe the easy to manipulate, shallow thinking individual that considers the cast of "Friends" to be just that.

[nanouk]

i think physical manifestations are *spooky*

[nanouk]

speaking of, where is our friend woodpecker?
i had a visit from one today, while walkabouts, i felt it peck up in the tree i was leaning on... (:

[ January 06, 2005, 12:14 PM: Message edited by: Nanouk ]

[extension of other]

from unconscience conscience of being conscience, i became aware of reincarnation as genomes switching from one set of dna strands(being paralel dimensions) to another thus bringing "memories" in and out of differnent dimensions then a change in physical, mental, and mystical characteristics, just like particles can literally jump in and out of dimensions, reincarnation is like stored memory in our dna and we channel into it to see the great conscience unconscience, thus rememberance of past lives, because dna, evolution and memory go hand in hand. channeling into it is like checking email or rebooting or something along those lines. my expierience was that i remembered what my mother and father looked like when i was first born, more than a coincidence that it was a tryptamine that showed me the door to this memory, but i felt like i was reliving the memory not just picturing it but feeling the past fully, i saw my parents with gold surrounding there face it was similar to a picture of flower but not so much the flower itself, which is truly alive. i cried with great joy, love, and appreciation of my parents one love that was not exclusive love but all inclusive internal and uncondtional love, mirrored in myself, like the wonder of the genetic chain of mothers and fathers that make the world as it is and continues, a love of all parts of me, the source of i is the source of all, there is no end to creation , there is no me. i am present in all things and continue to stay fresh as well as ancient.

[gandydancer]

My grandaughter remembered her last life when she was small. She was only 2 1/2 but she had been speaking in full sentences by then and one day blurted out in great distress the story of the murder of her parents. Although she has never said how she died, from putting together things she had said, it seems that she was alone (with their dead bodies) and finally died also.

It has been interesting (and sad of course) to see how her fears, likes, and dislikes fit with this unresolved tragic event. I am a nurse and I have worked in psychiatric settings, and I strongly feel that we all need to work with behaviors, attitudes, etc., that began in childhood. My experience with my grandaughter suggests that working with past life experiences would also be beneficial for us.

Well, Hi to all--this is my first post! I've been writing in another forum for several years and one of the posters that I respect posted a link to this forum.

[daniel]

Hi gandy - welcome.

for those who are interested in this, I recommend Amit Goswami's Physics of the Soul, in which he advances a scientific hypothesis, based on quantum physics and "quantum memory" (written in nothing, like akasha), for the existence of reincarnation and the various "subtle bodies," chakras, etc. He believes these are quantum phenonema, brought into existence by consciousness - which doesn't make them any less "real," but means you will never map the nadis or chakras onto the physical body.

Patterns of thought, action, and feeling, after death, recorded as quantum memory, seek to continue their progress - and consciousness collapse of the wave can only take place in a physical brain.

[nanouk]

you mean orions armpit? [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Buzz]

When i was small I had repeated dreams of laying on my stomach in a shallow dug out pit facing a herd of stampeding buffalo coming straight at me. When they got very close I pulled boards over me and watched them stampede by. In some dreams I pulled grass over me, but was still protected even though they were running right on top of me. A few years ago I was watching a series about the west (could have been "How the West was Lost" but not sure). In the film a group of people had dug a shallow pit with boards covering the pit, topped off with grass. A cameraman was in the pit, boards with a topcoat of grass were put over the pit. Then a herd of buffalo came stampeding over him. I think this was filmed in the 20's/ 30's. Watching the film the cameraman from the pit had taken, I recognized it as the very same imagery I had seen in my dream. I'm pretty sure that cameraman was me.
I was born in 53 and we didn't have a tv until around 1960, so i'm fairly sure i hadn't seen the film before.
5 or 6 years ago I bought my first video camera. It was a real emotional deal for me. Upsetting for reasons I couldn't explain. Looking into that pain, meditating on it, I finally saw myself in an airplane with young Caucausian soldiers. Somehow I know that character i'm identifying with was at least twice the age of those other young men. I was a cameraman/filmaker and not a soldier, but belonging to what I know now was the Signal Core or some equivalvent. We were sitting on bench seats along the perimeter of the outer edge of the cargo/soldier area, facing inwards towards the row on the opposite side. It was the end of WWII, perhaps it was even over. We were being transported by cargo plane over a location somewhere near Indonesia. I don't know if we were shot down or if there was a mechanical problem, but we all died that day. On the way down I recall thinking, "if I weren't a cameraman i wouldn't be here", too old to be in the military.
The plane was called the Eloise.
This could be pure fantasy but it explains a lot to me.

[ February 26, 2005, 09:59 AM: Message edited by: Buzz ]

[Vajra Guru]

I am a fan of Dr Ian Stevenson's work. This is a man who has dedicated himself to the rational, scientific study of Reincarnation. He has avoided useing cases that came from hypnotic regression as they are fundamentaly flawed in terms of what rational scientists require. Instead he has sought out those people whose memories were spontaneous, and whilst in non-altered states of conciousness. He has matched cases to the actual past life's history. He has avoided suggesting answers where to do so we be pure speculation. For example that of why not all people remember, and how there can be a population explosion if all souls are reincarnated?
As a Buddhist myself I cant over state how important this work is to myself, and I imagine to many Buddhists like me. We work on the Budhha's basis of avoiding belief by testing and experienceing for ourselves. Reincarnation is therefore a problem for some of us as its not so easy to 'experience' or 'test', at least not without dying first (and indeed before). I am fortunate to have encountered cases of spontaneous memories of reincarnation for myself, includeding my ex-girlfriend, my current wife and her mother (suggesting they are more common than some think). I should add that my wife is Thai and a Buddhist, in her country it is considered quite normal for people to have past life memories. Bear in mind I only ever asked one Thai person about this subject (my wife) and that she immediately revealed three cases includeing herself her mother and a friend. For my part I have only two personal indications of a past life, a vision in which I was stood on a shiny white newly built Mayan temple in 675AD, I understood its meaning, the priets ritual that was going on, that there was a secret tunnel into the top and other things. For some ten minutes I was in this place, era, 'memory', then returned. The other thing is I have a strange birth mark in my left eye, a circle of brown next to the pupil, for an unknown reason I have often felt it was where a bullet went in.
So though I have some of the building blocks of evidence, to truly move from a Buddhist faith, and a personal Belief in Reincarnation, I need more of the kind of evidence Dr Stevenson is bringing to us.

[bloofly]

I don't know if I had a past life/pre human rememberance or a glimpse into our collective past, but I had one of those in between type dreams... the ones you have when you're almost asleep. In it, I saw sharks with wings hovering in thick fog with dead broken trees coming out of water below. About a month after that, I saw a show on the Discovery channel about prehistoric creatures and one of the things they talked about was flying sharks.

[Vajra Guru]

Well sounds like a good dream, but i am not sure if dreams of flying sharks would convince me of reincarnation!
Seriously though have you considered that perhaps what you actually had was a pre-cognition of the show on discovery? Or a synchronicity event?
Just throwing some ideas at you, I have to let you decide what it meant to you after all.

[Vajra Guru]

BTW
I just found out that Dr. Stevenson was at one point involved in researching mind bending drugs and did experiment with them himself. He actually experienced union with the multiverse and all existence dureing one experience. Interesting to note that yet another light in the darkness has had some history with etheogens and other chemicals.

[Lowlight]

watson or crick i cant remember which 'saw' the DNA helix while on LSD - thats what inspired him, though few in science actually know this is how he came to the idea!

[ October 24, 2005, 09:57 AM: Message edited by: Lowlight ]

[Vajra Guru]

Lowlight,

Just to clear that up it was Crick.

And also he has stated that he feels DNA was manufactured by an inteligence and transported to our planet.

[Lowlight]

yeah i remember that now! It so funny how he can beleieve that and yet the establishment never talks about it, its such a taboo for them!

[gandydancer]

Originally Posted by marsey

My grandaughter remembered her last life when she was small. She was only 2 1/2 but she had been speaking in full sentences by then and one day blurted out in great distress the story of the murder of her parents. Although she has never said how she died, from putting together things she had said, it seems that she was alone (with their dead bodies) and finally died also.

It has been interesting (and sad of course) to see how her fears, likes, and dislikes fit with this unresolved tragic event. I am a nurse and I have worked in psychiatric settings, and I strongly feel that we all need to work with behaviors, attitudes, etc., that began in childhood. My experience with my grandaughter suggests that working with past life experiences would also be beneficial for us.

Well, Hi to all--this is my first post! I've been writing in another forum for several years and one of the posters that I respect posted a link to this forum.

I spent the night with my grandchildren last night and I brought up to Helena Rose her memories from her last life. She is in the second grade now and is doing very well and other than a fear of loud "gun-shot-like noises", seems to be over most of the many fears that she has had to now, for instance a hysterical fear of flys which I feel is a result of the flys that were attracted to the bodies of her dead mother and father.

To explain the "gun shot like noises" - when Helena was 2 1/2 and told me about what happened to her parents, her words were: A gun....my head....my ears..., and then she put her hands over her ears. A few weeks ago we had a thunder storm pass directly over our community and they had a strike within a few hundren feet of their home. If any of you have had this happen, you know the tremendous ***CRACK*** of the strike. My daughter told me that when that lightning struck Helena became hysterical. And when I asked Helena about it she said, "I think I fainted".

Helena's memories of her mama and papa (she always called the other father papa and her present father daddy) faded within weeks of her telling about them. Her memory of her sister "Anya" went on for several years, she would even ask that a place be set for Anya at her birthday party for instance, but certain likes and dislikes remained. For instanace she said that "Papa" had a "pink" beard and mustache (and she felt her own face as though she were carressing a beard as she said that), and in this life she took an instant likeing (though other than her father she had an intense hatred for most men) of a family friend who had a blond beard and another who had a dark moustache. But even this last Halloween she carved her pumpkin with a moustache.. .

But to move forward, I told Helena about how it was for me when she told me those things about her last life, and I explained how it was so hard for her to talk about them so I did not question them further, but I was wondering if she remembered anything about "heaven", the time we spend between lives. She said, yes, she did remember a little. I asked her if they (it was assumed that she was a little kid) ate, slept, or went to school. She said, no, not really but we did play. She said they played "tag" but it was different - "we would just kind of 'run through each other?', which I "got", and told her so, though she clearly did not know exactly what she meant by that.

...well this is getting long. I will continue when I have time.

[Giselle62]

i had a "strawberry mark" right where my third eye is, it only appears now when I cry. It has moved up my forehead! i can't deny I've always felt like a wise old woman; even when I was a lil tyke...have ne'er been hypnotized nor had specific memories of past lives, tho.

[Eagle Wing]

my wife was also born with a bindi-like mark over her third eye.
she was conceived in India too.

[craazyman]

I dug up this old thread because of a conversation I had the other day.

I was having my regular annual physical and got into a discussion with my doctor (a U.Va. med school grad) about esoteric thought in relation to medicine and healing.

Since we both had gone to U.Va. (me undergrad, my doctor to the med school), I mentioned Professor Stevenson's work (he was a U.Va. med school professor) in the area of reincarnation.

My doctor said that when he was in med school he had Prof. Stevenson as a professor of psychiatry, and that Stevenson was into all sorts of odd stuff for research, including testing people's ability to predict the future. Stevenson apparently had a reputation as a real odd-ball at U.Va. med school, but was also well-regarded as the head of the department of psychiatry there.

My doctor also related a strange story that there was a local alcoholic who used to come into the university hospital's psychiatric clinic as a patient on a more or less regular basis. Apparently, this fellow had the ability to form a mental image and project it onto photographic polaroid film to the point that it was roughly recognizable. When he came in, my doctor said, all the psychiatric interns would gather around and watch him make a picture on the film with his mind.

It was sort of strange hearing this story from my doctor, who is a classic rational western trained internal medicine doctor with speciality in cardiology. He's a very sober dude, not the sort who would make up a story like this.

[drew hempel]

Here watch this -- convinced me! haha.

http://dailygrail.com/node/5002

It's a very cool doc on past life reincarnation -- Stevenson gets featured.

[posypusher]

my father had a birthmark just to the left of his bellybutton. i have inherited said birthmark and i am happy to say that my daughter also has the same birthmark.
strange to have a birthmark go through 3 generations. we shall see. we are all very psychically connected.....