Reincarnation: Evidences of reincarnation [Part 1/3]

[NB: This article is not completed]

This article will provide evidence of reincarnation a long with case reports. I have decided to write this article because I feel there isn’t much content out there that nicely ties evidences of reincarnation together in a comprehensible way.

I’ve provided ten types of evidence for reincarnation along with case reports and testimonies. The type of case report I’ve chosen are those that has been vigorously investigated by academic institution such as cases investigated by Dr Ian Stevenson & Dr Jim Tucker at University of Virginia School of Medicine.

I have also include the section “what makes  a reincarnation case convincing?” to provide some sort of overview check list of evidence. The more types of evidence the case provide, the more compelling the case becomes. I hope this article becomes the go to content when it comes to good reference point to start.

Introduction:

What is reincarnation?

Reincarnation is when spirit of the deceased is reborn into another body. In eastern religions, it is not only limited to the material body, but also includes bodies within six realms of existence (also known as six realms of samsara) which includes celestial bodies in the higher realms.

Does belief in reincarnation improve our lives? 

To believe or even better to experience past life recall can really improve our lives. To know that life continues after death gives us a sense of comfort & hope. To know that we have another chance in our future lives help reduce our anxiety of not living a current unfulfilled life and removes the fear of an eternal hell. Knowing that our next rebirth is influenced by our actions and mind, really brings back power and control in our hands.

Can reincarnation be scientifically proven?

Currently there is no solid scientifical evidence for reincarnation in terms of having plausible mechanism because we currently can’t measure consciousness, spirit or soul. However, scientifical methodologies are applied to reincarnation cases with the aim to be objective and rigorous. Using data gathered from academic institution such as University of Virginia of Medicine, seems to suggest reincarnation is very possible. Book such as “Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation” by Dr Ian Stevenson and “Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children’s Memories of Previous Lives” by Dr Jim Tucker gives examples of cases that are rigorously approached.

I see reincarnation cases as a court case where the more evidence gathered the stronger the case becomes. It is can be seen in the lens of statistical probability. Here is a theoretical example of what makes a good case: the primary things to look at is their to verify past life memories and to carry out identification test. The subject is able to provide over a dozen of detailed past life memories that is verified such as their name, the name of their family members, description of the where they lived, how they died, the location of death and so forth. The subject is able to pass the identification test by correctly identifying people they had known in their past life amongst a group of random strangers or correctly identify their past life belonging amongst other random items that doesn’t belong to them.

The other things to look out for is whether the subject resembles their past life in terms of their characteristic, preference or skills. For example, the subject have severe phobia of water if they had previously died from drowning, they may have strong preference to a particular cultural food they were exposed in their previous life or they have natural talent as a result of their previous life skills. They have birthmarks or birth defects on the same body location to their previous life i.e. they have birthmarks in the same location as their past life wounds. They display xenoglossy – ability to speech a their past life language which they have not learnt in their current life. There past life can be confirmed by a third party i.e. mother had a psychic dream of deceased announcing their rebirth as the subject. So if you consider all these sort of evidence, it really build up into a solid and convincing case that reincarnation is very probable.

Here is an example of how mathematical statistics illustrate the probability of birthmarks or birth defects relating to past life: Studies from Dr Ian Stevenson showed that of the estimated 3000 cases, 895 cases were verified (having their past life memories verified to be correct) which is significant. Of the 895 verified cases, 300 of them had birthmarks or birth defects that matched wounds of their previous life, which is a significant 35%. There were 18 cases where two or more birthmarks or birth defects matches location of previous life wounds. Calculation shows that the odds are 1 in 25,600, so the odds against this happening by chance eighteen times are astronomical.

Evidence for reincarnation:

1. Children’s spontaneous past life memories:

Looking at reincarnation case studies, evidence from Children with past lives memories is probably one of the most convincing type of evidence I’ve seen. These category of case studies seems to provide strong verifiable past life memories. I am guessing it could be due to Children being at the age when are most deeply imprinted by their previous life and they also have less limiting factors such as having less cognitive conditioning or programming. Also, children is less likely to know how to tell lies or deceive, especially when investigated closely.

The most valid studies on reincarnation, including Children’s past life memories was done by Dr Ian Stevenson (1918-2007) at University of Virginia School of Medicine. He extensively studied about over 3000 cases of past life memories in a strictly scientifical approach to ensure the credibility of each case. He was able to verify the facts and claims in more than 1,500 cases. Today, Dr Jim Tucker continues his works on reincarnation at the same University but is focused on cases in the U.S.

Studies suggest that past life memories seems to surface between age two to five, and start to fade from age six.

Violence was the most common cause of death of the previous person, reported in 49 cases; natural death in four cases; mode of death not mentioned in twelve cases. Some 35 girls and 29 boys spoke about a past life. The cases were investigated by Haraldsson during several field trips between 1988 and 1998.

Here are cases of Children’s past life recall that is very convincing.

Case #1: Shanti Devi (1926-1987) from India recalled being Lugdi Devi in her past life. This was one of the most popular case as it displayed how accurate and extensive the subjects past life memories were and how heavily it was investigated and scrutinized. In fact, the case became a big enough that a investigatory commission was set up by the political leader Mahatma Gandhi for this case.

Shanti Devi, born in Delhi in India, at the age of four, began to talk about her previous life to her parents. She said how she lived in Mathura in India where she lived with her husband. She even specified the type of food she ate etc… At the age of 6, she attempted to escaped to Mathura but failed. At school, she was interviewed by her teacher and headteacher, who recorded her claims. She claim that she was used to live in Mathura with her husband named; her husband was a textile merchant and he with a wort in his left cheek; that she died 10 days after giving birth to her baby boy and even described the caesarean section surgical procedure etc… What was also interesting was that she used words from the Mathura dialect and divulged the name of her merchant husband, “Kedarnath Chaube”.

Her headteacher were able to locate Kedar Nath who perfectly matched Shanti’s description of her past life husband, and a meet up was arranged in Delhi. When there first meet up she immediately recognised Kedar Nath as Lugdi’s husband and son, despite the fact that Kedar Nath pretends to be someone else. Her reaction also seem genuine when she broke down and cried when she first encountered them. Kedar confirmed that every single information given to him by Shanti her previous life were correct. It was as if he was speaking with his dead wife.

There were also more test that verified that her past life memories. During the journey to Delhi, she was able to describe the route to Mathura ahead of time, accurately detailing streets, building she had never seen before, was aware of landmark that wasn’t there before and located Lugdi’s home. She was able to find Lugdi’s mother and father in a crowd of 50 people and reportedly broken into tears when meeting them. She even claimed that she secretly hid a box of money upstairs under the floor board which was verified to be true. With many of her past life claims being verified and passing a lot of test, the commission investigation published a report in 1936 that concluded Shanti was truly a reincarnation of Lugdi. You can read or watch more about this case.

Case #2: An American boy, Ryan Hammons, recalled his previous life as Marty Martyn (1903-1964), an extra actor and talent agent worker in Hollywood. What makes this case compelling was the sheer numbers of verifiable memories Ryan got correct on information that were not publicly on the internet.

Ryan was born 40 years after the death of Marty Martin. At the age of four, he began to speak about his past life memories, after treating his adrenoids condition were treat, which had previously prevented him from speaking. He told his mother that he was from Hollywood, and plead her to take him there so he could see his “other family”. He claimed that his previous home had the name “rock” on his address which were later verified to be true as Marty Martyn had lived in Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills.

Although his parents were devoted Protestant Christians who attended Church, they felt obliged to help their son to identify who he may think he was in his past life. His mother began to keep a journal of what he said about his past life and also borrowed books about Hollywood from her local library where she would go through photos with him. Surprisingly, he was able to identify himself in the photo of a 1932 movie called Night After Night. Unfortunately, they were unable to identify this man was an extra in the film and his name was never used in the movie credits. But he was still able to recognized Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe.

Only after extensive investigation with the reincarnation researcher, Dr Jim Tucker and film archivist in Hollywood, were they able to identify the extra actors as Marty Martyn. Upon assessing record of Ryan’s past life memories, 55 were verified to be correct, and some memories were very detailed and specific. Here are a few past live memories that were verified to be correct about Marty Martyn: the description of his home, he had a younger sister, he had a daughter, he bought his daughter a dog that she didn’t like when she was aged 6, he knew Senator Ives (Five), he had many wives, he worked in an agency that changed people’s name, he tapped danced on stage in New York City, his favourite restaurant was in Chinatown, he had an African American maid and he died at the age of sixty-one.

The assertion that he had died when he was 61 is particularly interesting, because Martyn’s death certificate gave his birth date as 1905, which would mean that he was only 59 in 1964. However, subsequent research showed that in fact Martyn was born in 1903, so Ryan was right. The correct date was was not available to the investigator (Tucker) initially, so that he counted this as an error in his write-up of the case afterwards.

There were 15 statements that seems incorrect or doubtful from Ryan’s past life memories. There include: his father died when he was a child (Martyn’s father actually died 6 years before he did); he gave his daughter a watchdog (Martyn gave his daughter a Yorkshire Terrier which was not much of a watch dog; he died when his heart exploded (Martyn’s death was not witness but the cause of his death was brain haemorrhage); and his body was cremated (Martyn death certificate states he was buried).

What makes this case very convincing is the sheer number of 55 memories being correct. Most importantly, these information were not in public domain. Furthermore, it was not likely that his parents were fraudulent because they were devoted Protestant Christians who risk ruining their reputation in Church had they found out. They had to discreetly helped their son in this investigation. The irony was that as this became one of the most compelling case, it was aired on NBC news.

What was interesting was his experience after death,  choosing his mother and his memories whilst he was in his mothers womb. You can read more about that here.

Case #3: This case is about Yu, a Japanese boy who remembers his previous life being an western man  who was a victim of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. He also recalled being a rice dealer before that life. This case was investigated by Ohkado Masayuki.

He began to talk about his past life at the age of three. As he was walking with his mother, he found a threshing machine and said ‘I know how to use it. In the life before the last, I was a rice dealer.’ His mother asked: ‘Then who were you in the last life? I’m wondering why you keep on looking for a fire alarm.’ Then he said: ‘There were two tall buildings. I was working there, using computers. I spoke English. There was a fire or something. Fire alarms were ringing. I was trying to run away. There were fire engines coming to the other building. There seemed to have been a huge accident. Firefighters were coming but they couldn’t come in time. I tried to run away, but there was a big “bang,” and I died.’ ‘That must have been scary, but what floor were you on?’ asked the mother, to which Yu replied: ‘On the 100th floor.’ At another time, Yu had also claimed that he had to ensure that the workers he was supervising had to evacuate first before he could but it was too late for him to escape.

From what Yu described, it matched the event of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, in particular the 100th floor on the South Tower of the World Trade Center. The 100th floor of the South Tower was occupied by a company called Aon, where 176 workers had died there.

Ohkado Masayuki had taken Yu and his mother to New York City to investigate and verify Yu’s past life memories. During the trip, he displayed some knowledge from his past life that was correct, such as giving the correct details of remanent in displayed. For example, he remembered The Sphere statue used to have water around it when it currently did not, which was correct. He was also able to correctly identify the steel beam remanent as tridents.

But the most compelling part was that he was had selected 13 names out of the roughly 3000 of names in the Ground Zero memorial which he felt was familiar. Surprisingly, 8 of the names happens to be workers located on the 100th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. This indicates that he’s past life memories strongly involved with people on the 100th floor as he had earlier claimed. He was then given photos the names he had selected and he identify himself being one of them. This person’s name was not disclosed but was called Mr T.

There were signs that Yu could have been Mr T. First, Yu was abnormally scared of the sound of a fire alarm or similar sounds. This could be from past life trauma as a result of the World Trade Center event. He would cry in school when there was a fire evacuation drill and had once told his teacher that he is reluctant to follow the fire alarm drill because when he did do so before, he had died. He was generally a nervous child and when taken to a new place, he would obsessively look for a fire alarm and a surveillant cameras and call it out in public which embarrassed his mother. He would also often cry at night from nightmares.

The second similarity was Yu’s natural inclination to English language and not his native Japanese language. He would respond to his mother command when she speaks in English but not when she speaks in Japanese. He doesn’t like to watch Japanese cartoon programme but only English cartoons.

The third similarity was that Yu behaved as though he was a working man. He would tell his mother: “I have no time to play with kids, I have to go to work”, and then he would draw something as though he was working. He dislike where children clothes like T shirts and asked his mother to buy him a neck tie, white shirts and leather shoes. And carries around an imitation of a business bag that he made himself using cardboard box. More specifically, Mr T loved to wear his bowler hat and his Ray-Ban brand sunglasses, which Yu also like to wear which is very unusually for children.

Other similarities between Yu and Mr T is their taste for classical music and their love for Volkswagen Beetle. Yu likes classical music which is unusual for children let alone Japanese children. When he was on his 13 hours flight to New York City, he would only entertain himself with classical music throughout the journey. Mr T owns and love his Volkswagen Beetle car. Yu’s grandmother noticed that whenever he sees a Volkswagen beetle car he would scream with excitement, which he does not do with other cars.

What I find compelling about this case is how Yu was able to identify 8 people who had worked on the 100th floor of the South of the World Trade Center where Yu have past life memories of dying. It is also very unusual for a Japanese child to behave like a western working man when he does not have such influences from that culture around him.

Case #4: This is the case of Takuma, who was born in Japan, on April 2009. Although this case does not have many verifiable evidence, I’ve chosen this case because I felt it was heart warming and have many wise lessons.

So when Takuma when he was six years old, while he was eating snacks with his mother in the living room, he said casually: ‘I entered mom’s belly twice, but died. But I looked for it again, and I was so happy that I was able to find it.’ His mother had two miscarriages, once in 2002 and once in 2004, which Takuma had no way of knowing. In 2018, when he was eight years old, he surprised his elementary school teacher by writing about his two ‘deaths’ in an essay in which he was supposed to express his gratitude to his mother.

Although this case does not have many verified information, the lessons are indeed rich. Firstly, it opens up the idea that some people may have free will to choose their parents. Secondly, it means some of us have the ability or choice to wait until there is an opportunity be born under a chosen parent. Thirdly, Takuma reminds us that human life is precious, that we should take care of our lives and be grateful to our parents who had given us life. Perhaps life is not just a biological coincidence but it has meaning beyond our limited understanding. There must be a reason why our soul or spirit made conscientious effort to be born as human – perhaps for us to grow and evolved spiritually?

More case reports to read: There are thousands of case report, but here are a few cases one based on children’s past life memories: James Leininger, Sujith Lakmal Jayaratne, Swarnlata Mishra, Jagdish Chandra, Kumkum Verma and Imad Elawar. You can read more case reports here: European Children with Past-Life Memories, Japanese Children with Past-Life Memories, and Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation by Dr Ian Stevenson is also recommended.

2. Past life recall triggered by particular stimulus:

There are cases when past life recall are activated by certain sensory stimulus. These triggers could be as a result of visiting a location, meeting a person or even listening religious chanting that they had a strong associate with in there past lives. Adults who has spontaneous past lives recall tends to have signs of previous life traits, intuitive knowing or recurring dreams of their past lives.

This phenomena reminds me of a Buddhist story of monk who made the intention to continue his spiritual path in monkhood in his next life. However, he was born into a wealthy household, where he lived a luxurious  and hedonistic lifestyle, far from his former simple and ascetic lifestyle in his previous life. He was instructed from a spiritual master to visit a monastery which he reluctantly did. Upon his visit, he heard the bell from the temple which he had heard so many times in his former lives, that instantly awaken his past life memories and spiritual aspiration. He was able to return back to his monastic spiritual journey. [reference (…)]

Here are some cases of past life recall that was triggered by some sort of event such as sound, image or being in a location:

Case #1: This case is about Purnima Ekenayake, a Sri Lankan girl who recalled being a Sri Lankan man named Jinadasa Perera in her past life. One evening when she was three, she and her family were watching a television documentary about Kelaniya, when a famous temple was shown, she said: ‘I lived there on the other side of the river.’. From that point, she began to talk about her past life. The footage of the temple seems to have triggered her past life memories to resurface.

Her case was investigated by an Icelandic psychologist, Erlendur Haraldsson, between 1996 and 1999. Her case was convincing. She was able to correctly describe the life of Jinadasa, including his livelihood of making incense, she even knew the brand of the incense (Ambiga and Gita Pitcha), knew the identity of his family members (including his wife and mother), knew he had a second wife, his education background, the school he attended and even how he had died. These statements were very specific and accurate. Of a total of twenty statements, fourteen were correct, three could not be checked, and three were incorrect.

She was able to correctly identify Jinadasa’s family members when meeting them. i.e. when she met Jinadasa’s brother-in-law (Wijisiri) she knew his name and other details not known to others such as his history of injury. Another compelling factor was that she had cluster of birthmarks on her left ribs, in the same location of injury that lead to Jinadasa’s death. This was confirmed by his autopsy document.

Case #2: This is a verified case on a 7 years old British boy, Martin Heald, who recalled being a WWII pilot after hearing the sound of morse code from a WWII telephone.

It began when Martin found a WWII memorabilia in his father’s bedroom which had a telephone & morse code set. He’s father demonstrated how it works by using the telephone in the other room. When he started using the morse code, Martin described that for a fraction of a second he’s room completely changed, he heard the sound of the low rumble old aircraft and he saw an aircraft flying with a smaller aircraft following it and then the larger aircraft suddenly exploded. He explained to his father about what he had just experience but was dismissed. In 1995 in his teen year, whilst watching VE day celebration on television, upon seeing the old aircraft he suddenly had flask back of past life memories and emotions which he could not explain why.

With all these flash back of past life memories and recurrent dreams, he decided to do past life regression therapy to figure who he may be in his past life. The therapy was conducted by Josee Van Asten. During his regression, he descrfibed it like watching Television with clear vision and was able to pick up a lot of information. This include identifying himself as Richard Seymour, a 18 years old man in 1938. He saw himself in a RAF base wearing his uniform which he described as heavy uniform. Then he saw himself flying towards Germany for a bombing mission. As he flew towards Germany, he felt he became that pilot, where describe “I was emotionally this person, I’d become this person, I was Martin Heald no longer, I was actually reliving that flight as that person”. He saw plane exploded and he knew his body won’t be found.

In his second regression therapy, he described it as being more vivid than the first and he felt as though he was Richard himself. He recalled that his father was Archie and mother was Mary. His father was a vicar. He described that home and village he lived with details, which includes his father’s church, bridge over the river where he used to fished and the streets.

His past life memories were verified to be correct. WWII archive record showed that there was Richard Seymour in the RAF. He had been a wireless operator and his plane had been shot down on 20th July 1942 as it flew to Germany for a bombing mission. It was a target of an Ace Messerschmitt pilot just as Martin had recalled. The airman is still is missing presumed dead. His past life home was identified to be a village called Swallowfield in Berkshire. The description of Richard’s home in past life memories matched the actual home and there was also a memorial tribute to Sergeant Richard Seymour of the RAF. The Church had a pre-war vicar named Revd. Archibald Thomas Seymour who lived with his wife Mary and family. There also a quiet river called Blackwater that runs past the village as Martin had described.

Another interesting fact was that when Martin was 17 years old, he sat test to join the RAF which included morse code test and had he score 100% in which the examiner said he had not seen perfect score until then. He described that it felt like deja vu during the test. This supports the idea that our skills and talents are passed on into our next life.

This case is a perfect example of how certain stimulus can trigger past life memories, especially if it is associated with how a person had died, and it had happened twice to Martin. What is interesting about this case, is that Martin began his past life regression therapy as though he was watching a clear movie and gradually transition into reliving and becoming Richard in terms of his thoughts, feelings and sensory experience. This case also demonstrate that skills and talents can be transferred into the next life just as Martin scored 100% in his morse code test. This case was featured on TV and can be seen here.

Case #3: This case is about Jeffrey Keene, a retired Assistant Fire Chief, who had his past life memories flooding back when he visited a Civil War Battle of Antietam in 1991. In the location of Sunken Road, he was suddenly overcame by an inexplicably emotion and strange physical sensations. He described it as “a wave of grief, sadness and anger washed over me. Without warning, I was suddenly being consumed by sensations. Burning tears ran down my cheeks. It became difficult to breathe….”. This left him shaken, and feeling very weak & tired. From that point, he would encounter a series of events that lead him to discover he was General John B. Gordon in his past life.

Coincidentally a year and a half later, when Jeffrey attended a party, he had a psychic reading from a clairvoyant who had happened to be there. He told her about his experience of what had happened to him when he was in Sunken Road. She said it was at that spot he had died in his past life and described the scene of him yelling “no!”. For unknown reason, he corrected the clairvoyant and exclaimed “not yet!”.

The next day he decided to read the Civil War magazine which he had purchased during his trip in Antietam but had not read it yet. When he was on the page that displayed Sunken Road, he suddenly had that same emotions back in Antietam flooding back and the he saw the quote “not yet” by General John B. Gordon which intuitively appeared strongly in his mind the previous day. The “Not Yet” was an order repeatedly given by Colonel John B. Gordon to the Sixth Alabama until the Union troops were less than one hundred yards away. He then had this strong feeling that he was Gordon. Since then, glimpse of past lives would gradually be revealed to him.

Although I find this case lacks the aspect of verifying his past life memories with information that is not in public dominate, I find the physical aspect very compelling. Other than the striking similarity in their physical resemblance, Jeffrey had birthmarks on his body where Gordon had been injured. This includes 3 birth marks on his face that where Gordon was injured. Another interesting aspect is synchronicity of life events. When Gordon was age 30, on the 9th of September, he was severely injured in battle but had survived. Similarly, when Jeffrey was age 30 on the 9th of September, he was in an emergency room because of unexplained facial and neck pain. In addition, there are also similarity in behaviour, lifestyle preferences and even style of writing.

Although this case isn’t as convincing as other cases, it is a good example of how a specific location can reawaken strong emotions and sensations that we once had in that place from our previous life. This case also opens us up to the idea of synchronicity of life events that can occur between our present and past lives at certain age like clock work.

Case #4: This case is about a famous British comedian Roy Hudd (1936-2020) who had past life recall of being another famous British comedian Dan Leno (1860-1904). When Roy had stumbled across Dan’s home without realising, his past life memories flooded back. His past life memories of Dan’s home accurately matched the actual home layout, especially the practice room and the mirror layout in the basement. He also had frequent dreams about that home prior the visit. He had written about his other personal experience which made he believed he was a reincarnation the late Dan Leno.

Unfortunately, there is currently not much information about his past life recall experiences and it was not properly investigated nor verified. I’ve chosen this case because it shows that our career and talent may be something that can migrate to our next life, as both had successful careers as comedians. Furthermore, Roy Hudd was a famous and was reputable public figure, being an authority figure on the history of music hall entertainment. Even though his reincarnation claims had affected his career, he continued to believe that his past life recall experience was genuine.

3. Past life regression therapy:

In recent years, past life regression therapy (PLRT)  has gained popularity – most likely due to the help of social media. This mode of therapy is commonly used in conjunction with other evident based therapy to maximise the effective treatment. PLRT does not only treat psychological issues but also psychosomatic issues such as chronic pain or fatigue.

Unfortunately there isn’t many PLRT case being investigated by academic studies, unlike past life recall from children that is extensively investigated by Dr Ian Stevenson and Dr Jim Tucker of University of Virginia School of Medicine . However, some PLRT therapist do independently investigate their patients past life memories and there had a been some compelling case reports on this. Some share their verified cases on YouTube which I find very interesting, in particularly Dr Toni Reilly and Life Between Lives Hypnosis by Vondie Lozano.

I personally do not know why past life memories from PLRT aren’t extensively investigated on, but I do suspect it is due to a few factors. One being that PLRT tends to recall past life memories from ancient period which is difficult to verify due to the lack of information. Another limited factor is that PLRT is prone to just being created by fantasy and active imagination, especially in older patients who is mentally more programmed & conditioned. For instance, our subconscious ego might fantasize that we are a reincarnation of someone who is historically powerful, famous or important. Also, our mind may recreate something that we had unconsciously seen before at some point of our lives but may not consciously remembered.

It should also be acknowledged that the primary focus of therapist is to treat the patients, and so the attitude is that as long as it helps the patient then it doesn’t matter if their past life memories are real or not. However, it does not take away the fact that there are many cases where past life memories are convincing and have been verified to be correct. Here are some compelling cases from PLRT.

Case #1: This case about Robert L. Snow, a police captain at Indianapolis Police Department, who had his past life repression therapy and experienced a vivid and realistic past life memory as where he called himself as painter called Carroll Beckwith. Although he was skeptic about his experience, he wanted an explanation for this profound experience and so he embarked on a 2 years quest to disprove existence of past live memory with his police investigation skills.

The investigation led him to find out that a painter named James Carroll Beckwith did exist and along with confirmation of Beckwith’s diary, he was able to confirm 26 of 28 facts of his regression therapy were verified as true. These memories he had was also very specific i.e. he’s wife could not give birth to children, his mother died by stroke and he died in New York City. With overwhelming verifiable evidence, he ended up his quest believing in the existence of reincarnation. He later published a book about his investigation called “Portrait of a Past-Skeptic”. You can listen to his interview here.

Case #2: This case is about an American housewife known as “T. E” who recalled being a male Swedish farmer named Jensen Jacoby. This case is interesting because she displayed xenoglossy, the ability to speak a language that had not been learnt in this current life. She spoke Swedish in five sessions during this period, in which the last three had native Swedish speakers present. She was able to understand the Swedish spoken to her, she gave appropriate replies in Swedish with correct grammar most of the time, although she rarely used complete sentences. What was also interesting was that her accent was judged to be archaic Swedish dialect (native Swedish accent with slight influence of Norwegian), which is supported the claim that Jensen’s mother was Norwegian.

There are some people who may criticize the basic level of language used and is not convinced. However, I disagree because I personally think that to display skills in understanding, responding appropriately and having native accent in a language was never learnt is impressive in and of it self.

Case #3: Ray Bryant recalled being a British soldier, named Reuben Stafford, who fought against the Russian in the Crimean war. The past life memory was verified including his past life full name, description of soldiers uniform, location of his battle injury and how he died. As it was one of the most convincing case, it was re-enacted in a British documentary.

Case #4: Jonathan B remembered being a woman who lived in Ireland. Jonathan later researched about his past life memories and was able to verify the location he lived (Castle Otway), a woman named Elizabeth Otway (Vickers) lived there with her husband John, the religious conflicts between the Catholics & Protestant and so forth. He shared his experience on in an interview on youtube.

Case #5: Another interesting case study was of Robert Logg, a businessmen in San Francisco, who was conducted by a reputable past life regression therapist, Helen Wambach. He was able to remember fourteen past lives, including living in Ancient Egypt a few time – including being a high priest in 2000 BCE, cart driver in 1300 BCE and female trader in 400 BCE. The fascinating thing was that he was able to recall some hieroglyphics which 80% matched the ancient Egyptian scripts when analysed by Egyptologist.

In another life he recalled being an orphan called Job Weatherstone who sailed the sea around the south island close to New Zealand on a British Navy ship called HMS Dolphin. The National Maritime Museum verified that there was such a ship called the HMS Dolphin under the British Royal Navy had sailed in the south sea between 1836 to 1890.

If you are interesting in reading more about Past Life Regression Therapy, you may be interested in these books: Through time into healing by Brian Weiss, Same Soul Many Bodies by Brian Weiss and 20 best Past Life Regression Therapy books recommended by Hemingway’s Books and Records.

4. Birthmarks resulting from past life:

There are studies that suggest that birthmarks may possibly be linked to past lives. Dr Ian Stevenson had found 35 percent of his verified cases (300 of 895), the children had birthmarks or birth defects that matched wounds from their previous lives. Example of these wounds could be bullet wounds, stab wounds, motor vehicles injuries and even injuries caused by falling from high heights. Post mortem reports or photos were also used to verify some cases. I personally believe that traumatic and violent death may cause deeper imprint in one’s memory which are likely to submerge again in the next life.

Birthmarks resulting from past life is a significant factor in supporting the idea of reincarnation as it is a tangible evidence. It is also a useful factor to differentiate reincarnation with psychic abilities of picking up memories of the decease. Of course there are also other evidence to differentiate the two, but birthmarks provides a strong and tangible evidence.

Case #1: Nasruddin Shah recalled being Hardev Baksh Singh in his previous life. He was born with several birthmarks including a lens-shaped birthmark on his left chest. This was the similar spot where Hardev had been stabbed by a spear as confirmed by postmortem report.

What made this case compelling was other how specific some of his past life memories. He was able to recall his name to be Hardev Baksh Singh who had been been killed with a spear during a quarrel over cattle. He also claimed to he used to follow a specific group of Hindu called Thakur caste in previous life. He was also able to correctly identify some of Hardev family members. These previous life memories were verified to be correct.

Despite his family following Islamic religion, he still consider himself to be Hindu just as he used to believe in his previous life. He would reject Islam, refuse Islamic prayers or nor would be go to the mosque. Although reincarnation is not a part of Islamic teaching, his parents became convinced that he was indeed the reincarnation of Singh.

Case #2: Sunita Singh claimed to be Ram Dulari in her previous life. Sunita had an extremely large birthmark of the port-wine stain type over her upper right chest and much of her right arm. In addition, she had three birthmarks on the lower part of the right side of her neck and the upper part of her chest. This was the same area that Ram had been attacked by a sword. The postmortem report showed sword wound on the neck and chest. The port-wine stain birthmarks on Sunita’s chest and arm may corresponded to the blood left on Ram Dulari’s body when cremated.

When Sunita was a few years old, she spoke about her previous life. When she and her family went to a neighbouring village, she was able to recognise Ram’s son, and even remembered his name (Ranvir). She also seems frighten and even terrified when encountering one of the woman in the village, who were Ran’s daughter-in-law. She remembered her daughter-in-law hiring some men to kill her with a sword because she expressed her disapproval of her daughter-in-law’s affair. In fear she said “she will kill me again”.

Case #3: This is the case of Necip Ünlütaşkiran. Before he was born, his mother dreamt of a wounded and bleeding man, who she did not recognised. After Necip’s birth and seeing his seven birthmarks, she had a premonition that he could have been related that wounded man that she had dreamt earlier.

When Necip was 6, he began to talk about his past life as Necip Budak. He claim to be someone who was also named Necip, who had been stabbed whilst pointing to various parts of his body that had been stabbed. He said he had children and asked his mother to take him to them. Several years later, his grandfather’s second wife confirmed that there had been someone named Necip Budak who matches the past life memories of Necip Ünlütaşkiran. Necip Budak was a man who was stabbed repeatedly in a quarrel.

When his grandfather took him to the relevant village, where he was able to verify his past life memories as Necip Budak. He was able to recognized several members of the family of Necip Budak. The most convincing part was when he claimed to have once stabbed his (Necip Budak’s) wife in the leg that left a scar. This was verified and turned out to be true.#

Case #4:

(…)

Ohkado’s second international case is of a Japanese girl who recalls having lived as a woman in India. She had a birthmark in the middle of her forehead, the location of the traditional bindi mark that Hindu women wear, and in fact said, ‘This corresponds to what I wore in India [bindi]. The goddess I met in heaven stamped it on me so that I would not forget about my life in India.’ Her drawings featured female figures wearing the bindi. She made plain her motivation for being reborn in Japan: ‘It was a mistake to be born as a woman in India, where women are treated badly. So I decided to be born in a place where women are treated nicely. [This is certainly is true in Japan.] I heard a voice calling for a girl and I decided to be born to my mother’. Her mother had been praying for a girl.27

Case #5:

(…)

Cemil Fahrici (Turkey): Cemil Fahrici said he had been a 23-year-old bandit who had shot himself when the police set fire to the house in which he was hidden. He was born within two days of the bandit’s death, in the family of one of his distant relatives, with two birthmarks – one under his chin, the other on the top of his head – in the places the bullet had entered and exited. Cemil had a strong phobia of blood and experienced headaches whenever he saw blood. He showed no tendency towards lawlessness, though, and as an adult opened a bakery instead.12

You can read more case about reincarnation and birthmarks in Reincarnation and Birthmarks by Graham Pemberton and “Reincarnation and Biology” by Dr Ian Stevenson. 

5. Xenoglossy – the ability to speaking foreign language that have not been learnt:

There had been some claims that people with past life memories would suddenly speak another language they have not learnt. This can occur spontaneously or in a past life regression therapy. I will put more case studies in this section because I believe xenoglossy is one of the factor that really make the case of reincarnation more convincing, especially when factoring verifiable past life memories and similar personality characteristic with who they identify as in their past lives.

When it comes to approaching xenoglossy, we should also be aware that there may be false cases, whether done so intentionally or unintentionally. Some may falsify for reasons such as wanting fame. Other may not be aware that they had learnt a languages and had done so unconsciously i.e. when picking another language at a young age or from reading subtitles. That is why it is also important to look into various factors such as how the subject may be exposed to another language, was the case happen before or after the internet where people are conveniently expose to other language and so forth.

It is also important to be aware that some may be overly critical. Some may be set the standard too high and only classify the case to be xenoglossy if the subject speaks fluently with over thousands of vocabulary with complex sentence and accurate accent. I think this approach is unreasonable and in some what ways rather cynical. To spontaneously know how to speak another language that was never learnt in a basic level is impressive in and of it self, let alone to understand and response appropriately. Perhaps the current memory might not be able to recollect bigger data such as advanced cognitive linguistic skills, a bit like an old computer that has difficulties processing big data like high resolution videos. More importantly, we have seen many case where the subject display poor xenoglossy ability but convincing verifiable past life memories that made their case strong.

Case #1: This case of the demonstration of xenoglossy were not strong but the subjects past life memories were verified to be true. Bishen Chand Kapoor, an Indian boy, recalled being Laxmi Narain, a man who spoke Urdu and died at age 32. Bishen was able to speak some Urdu words despite the language not being used by his family. His older brother also claim that he was able to read Urdu before being taught it.

Although speaking some Urdu words and reading it without being taught might not as convincing to some skeptics, the fact that he was able to accurately verified his past life memories made this case compelling. With enough previous life information, they were able to track down that he was Laxmi Narain. He was able to accurately identify Laxmi Narain’s family and even addressed them by the names Laxmi Narain had used for them.

His behaviour were uncannily similar to Laxmi. Even his attitude towards individual Laxmi’s family member were similar. He would be demonstrate great affection for Laxmi’s mother and animosity to other family members who he had engaged in lawsuit with (his uncle and other relatives). Just like Laxmi, Bishen enjoys music and dancing, and even knows how to play the tablas without instruction. And despite being in a different cast family that is vegetarian and teetotalers, Bishen would want to eat meat and were found to secretly drink brandy that his parent kept for for medicinal purposes.

This case shows that there is strong evidence for past life even if the demonstration of xeroglossy is not as strong. And that it is important to look at other evidence other than only the xeroglossy before drawing a conclusion.

Case #2: This case demonstrate strong evidence of xenoglossy. Wijanama Ariyawansa was a Sinhalese Buddhist village boy who recalled having been a Muslim from Kandy, the capital city of Sri Lanka, and had a xenoglossy experience of speaking Tamil spoken by Sri Lankan Muslims. Although Wijanama was never introduced to Sri Lankan Muslims or other Tamil speakers, he was able to gain the ability to speak that language. He sometimes used Tamil during waking hours, although the most extensive use of it came during his interrupted sleep. It began when he was three and a half, a year before he started to talk about the previous life. He would sit up in bed during the night, cross his legs, and mutter words in a variety of Tamil for about five minutes and then return to sleep.

Wijanama was still doing this at eleven, when Stevenson met him. Stevenson obtained a tape recording of Wijanama’s nocturnal speech and it was verified by a Muslim man from Kandy that several of the words are characteristic of his community and was strongly impressed by Wijanama’s pronunciation, which he judged to be that of a native speaker.

What makes this xenoglossy case more believable is how at an early age of at the age of four, he began talking about his previous life. Although he did not provide any specific information to verify who he made be in his past lives, he was able contrasted his previous life and his current life i.e. he’s previous family ate meat, had electricity & running water, and worshipped without idols. It is interesting how he would know these information when his family did not expose him to other religions and it’s or custom.

This case is similar to a Lebanese Druze girl named Nawal Daw who at the age of four was spotted having a conversation with a group of Hindi/Punjabi tourist in Lebanon who seem to understand her, despite haven’t learnt Hindi/Punjabi before. And similarly to Wijanama, both were naturally inclined with a foreign culture, where in this case Nawal showed fondness to Indian culture, dress and music. Unfortunately, unlike Wijanama, she had forgotten how to speak her childhood language by the age nine, and thereby Stevenson (1974) was unable to carry out any further investigation.

Case #3: This is the case of recitative xenoglossy where the subject was able to demonstrate chanting in a language that he was not taught. Duminda Ratnayake was one of the three Sri Lankan boys who claimed to be Buddhist monks in past life. He was able to chanted stanzas in Pali, the extinct Buddhist ritual language, without ever having been near a temple or seen monks engaged in this behaviour. He would even hold a fan in front of his face as he recited the stanzas, as monks did.

From the age of three, he spoke about the life he remembered, in sufficient detail for the person he was talking about to be identified. He would also displayed inclination to monastic lifestyle: he insist in wearing a monk’s robe, carried his clothes like a monk,  every morning and evening he went to a chapel near his house and there placed flowers he had plucked (in typical Buddhist fashion), and asked to be called ‘little monk’.

6. Past lives recall from meditation practices:

Certain types of meditation practices are said to allow you to see your past lives. The idea is that our intuitive mind is very powerful and has innate psychic abilities which includes the ability to see our past lives. With meditation, it allows us to access this powerful mind through calming, quieting and stilling the mind as well as letting go of limiting factor described as dust, mental poison or negative emotions such as anger, fear and delusion. Meditation put us in an certain altered state of consciousness in some what ways similar to what hypnotherapy, Past Life Regression Therapy or in certain sleep state does.

What makes evidence from past life recall through meditation appealing is that it is something that we can personally experience for ourselves. Some people described experience it as visions and other re-experiencing that moment as though they are really there but with greater 360 degree awareness. For instance, you can smell and feel the sensation as you had at that period of time but your mind can also pick up things that you had not been able to such as picking up how people around you felt or things you had not seen. They describe that the mind is very powerful and has the ability to retrieve information of what you ask for during that re-experiencing moment.

The interesting thing about attending meditation classes is that sometimes you can hear people’s personal experience about recalling their memories when they were babies, in their wombs and sometimes in their past lives. These are not uncommon.

I would also like to mention that the ability to recall our past lives depends on the level of our spiritual development. Those who have begun their spiritual development might be able to have a bit of random glimpse into their past lives; whereas those who have reached a higher level of spiritual development can access their past lives at will and with full control, as well as having the ability to go further back in times through numerous life times, and with greater detail and awareness.

The down side is that evidence of past life recall from meditation in an academic setting is rather difficult to obtain. This is because meditation culture is primarily focused on the spiritual path which tends to avoid unwanted attention and distraction from claiming they have psychic abilities. Practitioners also don’t emphasis on psychic abilities because it can become a distraction to the primary and important goal of spiritual awakening and liberation.

This is even more so true for Buddhist monastics as they must follow the rules of not displaying or discussing about their psychic abilities to others. I am guessing it is to safeguard the community from egotistical boastful behaviour, avoid creating cult-like behaviour or avoid situation where people may slander the spiritual practitioner i.e. slandering that the monk or nun are fake and a scam. Although there are exceptions, such as it is fine to display or discuss their psychic abilities with their teacher or between other practitioner on the similar level when it is wise to do so. Their psychic abilities can also be disclosed after they have deceased. There are some very interesting past life recall stories from prominent monks which I enjoyed reading about but will not provide it here as case report because it was not investigated and verified.

Here is an excerpt from MN 36:

(…)

“When the mind was thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, pliant, malleable, steady, & attained to imperturbability, I directed it to the knowledge of recollecting my past lives. I recollected my manifold past lives, i.e., one birth, two…five, ten…fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand, many eons of cosmic contraction, many eons of cosmic expansion, many eons of cosmic contraction & expansion: ‘There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure & pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose there. There too I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure & pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose here.’ Thus I remembered my manifold past lives in their modes & details.”

Anyways, here are some cases of past life recall from meditation:

Case #1: This case is about a Thai woman, Pratomwan Inthanu, who at the age of twenty had a past life recall after practicing Vipassana meditation for five months. She had a series of visions showing life & death of a three months female baby, the name of the village, name of parents, how the baby died and that the baby was not buried properly outside the cemetery. These past life visions were verified to be correct. There was a couple who had lost a 3 months baby in 1943 that perfectly matched Pratomwan’s vision.

Dr Ian Stevenson also mentioned that Pratomwan had remembered another life as an infant with short life but had not looked into it because she did not received enough information to investigate it. It is also worth mentioning that Pratomwan had no past-life memories as a child but was only able to recall her past life after meditation practices. She also had a strong interested in religion at a young age and began meditating at the age of ten.

Case #2: This case is about an American litigation lawyer, Angela Grubbs, who often experienced past-life memories in the form of dreams or visions during meditation or when exhausted or sick. It started in her childhood and continuing into adulthood.

She recalled being a woman with two children, living in Lexington, Kentucky in the early twentieth century. During one vision she heard the name of her past-life daughter. She then mentally requested for more names and was able to recalled the name of her past-life self and her husband. With the information received; she, her friends and fellow attorney investigated this case in a lawyerly way, amassing evidence to build the case and was able to verify these past life memories as correct. They used various sources of information including genealogical records, then library, court and church records in Lexington to track down her past-life self and family.

What also makes this case compelling is that she approached this case with a critical lawyer mindset as well as having a professional attorney involved. In addition, she was born and raised as a fundamentalist Baptist in Atlanta and initially had strong religious reasons to deny reincarnation.

Case #3:

(…)

Case #1: This case is about how a deceased girl appeared to her mother in a form as an apparition to announce that she will be reborn again into the household. This case occurred in Italy. When the mother of Bianca Battista was 3 months into pregnancy with her, her mother saw an apparition of her deceased daughter who had died 3 years ago. The girl appeared with a ‘childlike joyousness’ and quietly said, ‘Mama, I am coming back.’

When Bianca was born, she had similar physical appearance as her deceased sister, she even had similar personality and was given the same name. She did not talk about past lives. However, when she was six, one night, she surprised her parents by singing a French lullaby that was the favourite song of her deceased sister (now reincarnated into her). It was something that the Bianca shouldn’t know as she was not taught it. Only her deceased sister knew this French lullaby because her French nanny often sung it to her to put her to sleep. Despite the fact that Bianca only knew a few words of French, yet she sang the French lullaby with a perfect accent. This surprised her parents, and when her father asked her who had taught her this song, she replied, ‘No one. I just know it by myself’, and resumed singing with a perfect French accent.

What makes this case compelling and convincing is that not only did the other received an messaging from the apparition, but Bianca was also able to demonstrate recitative xenoglossy – the ability to recite or sing in a language that was not taught.

Case #2:

(…)

This case is from the book “Return from Heaven” by Carol Bowman. A two-year-old girl named Lauren who spoke with her deceased brother Roger on her toy telephone. After a year of regular conversations with Roger, Lauren announced to her mother, ‘Roger said he’s coming back very soon’. Her mother tried to explain that Roger was now in Heaven, but Lauren insisted, ‘But I’ve been talking to him and he told me he’s coming back!’ A few days later when shopping, Lauren wanted to buy clothes for an infant boy.

Indeed, her mother became pregnant the following year. She gave birth to Donald, who when he was able to speak made dozens of accurate statements about the auto accident, other events in Roger’s life, and changes in the house after his death.

Case #3: This case is about Alexandrina Samona from Italy who was a reincarnation of her deceased sister. A psychic medium was involved to confirm the rebirth of the deceased sister. As both has the same name, the deceased Alexandrina is called Alexandrina 1 and the current living Alexandrina is called Alexandrina 2.

On 15th March 1910, Alexandrina 1 died from meningitis at the age of five, leaving her mother distraught. Three days later, her mother Adèle dreamt that she came to announce her rebirth and said “Mother, do not cry, I have not left you, only withdrawn. Look! I am going to become small like this”. In the dream, Alessandria then made a gesture to indicate the size of a baby. She then said, “You will have to suffer again for me”. Three days after that, Adèle had the same dream again. Another three days later the whole family heard three loud knocks on the door and opened it but no one was there.

Because of the recurrent dreams and the unexplained door knocks, Adèle and her husband, Camelo, participated in a mediumistic seance hoping to find answers. During the séance, the medium passed on the message from the deceased Alexandrina 1. She said that she had knocks on the door.  She again reassured her distraught mother that she would be returning to her and will be born before Christmas but this time she will be born as one of the twins. And she would be very similar to before. She also said that she would not be able to communicate after the third month of pregnancy through the séances as she would be more attached to matter and as a result, would be sleeping.

Just as predicted from Alexandrina (1) through mediumship, in August the doctor confirmed that Adèle was carrying twins, and on 22nd  November, she gave birth to the twins. Because one of the twins had uncanny resemblance to the deceased Alexandrina, she was given the same name. The physical similarities at birth includes her left eye was engorged and had redness, her right ear was had rash and her face was slightly asymmetric. The other twin, Maria, did not have any of these physical resemblance.

Both Alexandrina 1 and 2 had similar characteristics and preferences. These includes having phobias of loud noises and barbers; dislike cheese; like to sit quietly on their mother’s lap; didn’t like to play with toys but like to play with other children and being left handed (whilst the rest of the family members are right handed). Maria did not have these characteristics or preferences.

Alexandrina 2 also demonstrated past life memories. When Alexendrina 2 was age of 8 or 9, the parents proposed to their children the idea of going to a trip to Monreale – a trip they had not been to. Alexendrina 2 then replied that she had already been there and correctly described a scene that the first Alexandrina had witnessed shortly before her death. This includes the descriptions of her mothers friend who had accompanied them, the description of the church and the description of the Orthodox priest they met at the Church.

9. Psychic ability to see the transition of spirit between bodies:

There are account of stories from witnesses who have seen spirit leaving the body after someone had died or entering a body. Although these cases can’t be scientifically proven there are a lot of witnesses who had share their account of what they had seen. To have witnesses of seeing spirit leaving a dead body or entering the womb of a pregnant woman adds a different type of evidence into reincarnation, as having a third party witness removes to factor that past life recall experiences are hallucination. As I can’t find academic case studies on this phenomena, I’ll be sharing testimonies from witness.

It is not uncommon to find accounts of people who witnessed spirit leaving the body of someone who just died. They usually describe that moments before the person pass away, they would feel some sort of presences in the room, sometimes a warm comforting presences or a cold presences which they believe are spirits who come to collect the deceased. After the person dies, they would see either smoky mist, silhouette, orb or light that leaves the dead body. It sometimes floats out slowly or shoot out quickly and then vanish into thin air or leaves through the window. What is strange is that not everyone can sees this phenomena despite being in the same room.

Although this phenomena doesn’t prove reincarnation, it still support the fact that we are essentially not our body and that we will migrate else where after we die. This blog post compiles some interesting testimonies. What makes this phenomena compelling is the large number testimonies shared publicly on forums and even YouTube comments.  

There are also cases when people have psychic experiences of seeing spirit enter into the body of a pregnant woman. Sometimes the psychic experience can be in a form of intuitive knowing, feeling some sort of energy entering into a body or seeing spirit enter into the body. I have yet to see research or books written on cases of seeing spirit enter into a woman’s body during pregnancy. But fortunately, there are some experiences share in public forums. Here are some experiences shared in forums:

a) Sensing or seeing spirit entering into the mother’s body:

Here are public testimonies of mothers sensing spirit energy or seeing spirit orbs entering into their body during pregnancy:

Case #1: “I don’t remember when it was during the pregnancy, but I was showing, so prob 4-5 months. I was home alone doing chores and just suddenly had the feeling I wasn’t alone and that my child had just arrived to inhabit the body I was making. I never had that same sensation with the twins but then I was rarely alone to be aware of it.” – implodemode

Case #2: “3 weeks before my due date approached, another incident occurred . During sleep, I felt an eerie sensation, as if an otherworldly energy entered my body. It was so unsettling that I abruptly woke up, overcome by fear… I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. As I gaze upon her now, an overwhelming sense of déjà vu washes over me. It is as if I was looking at the same baby girl from my previous dream.” – SleeplessinSeattle75

Case #3: “This pure white orb, absolutely tiny but with the most calming presence appeared and was floating around in front of my face, we both saw it. It was playful and sweet just as my DD has always been. The next thing I know, it darted into the top of my teensy tiny 2nd trimester bump, and that was the first time I felt her movements… I know it sounds mental but I’ve always believed it was her spirit joining with her body. The way I felt in the presence of that orb is exactly how I feel in the presence of my wonderful girl!” – sianniixx

Case #4: “My mom said she saw a white orb enter her womb when she was ready to give birth to me.” – lmlp94

Case #5: “My mom always told me about a similar thing that happened. My mom was pregnant and my brother’s spirit came to see her before entering the body. He asked if he could be born with her and she said ‘of course you can.’ After saying that she saw this light orby thing go into her bellybutton. That’s when she also knew that he was going to be okay and healthy when born. My big brother and my mom always where the closest of the whole familie. And he wasn’t first born.” – Kerstvijver

Case #6: “my mom told me that on the night I was conceived she saw a small white dot of light that started in the top corner of the room and floated down to her belly button, and that she felt a small pang when it went into her belly. she knew she was pregnant right then.” – Crykin27

Case #7: “I saw the same thing happen to my mom when she was pregnant with my sister. There was this white orb like thing that went inside her stomach. I was scared at the time because all ghostly experiences before that were bad. But now I think it was just my sister’s soul” – Rin_Has_Died

Case #8: This case is an interesting one because it was not from the mother’s perspective when witnessing a spirit orb entering into the mother’s body.

“When my wife was 12 weeks pregnant, we were in bed. She was asleep but I was still awake. I witnessed a small light, the size of dust but very bright, descend through the ceiling, slowly moved it’s way down and made its way to my wife’s pregnant stomach, where it disappeared. It was not fast, the whole experience lasted about a minute. I did not feel any fear during this experience. If anything I felt comfortable. So comfortable that the experience made me quite tired and I fell asleep shortly after”. – Any-Succotash6080

There are many people who have claimed to have seen spirit orbs and there are also legitimate photos and videos of orbs that is not due to dust, bugs and lighting. It should not be too far off to assume that may have enter our mother’s body as an orb as part of the rebirth process.  The famous Shanti Devi, who gave us one of the most convincing case of reincarnation, had also shared her memories of being something that seems to be an orb before she was reborn into her current body. Part of her experience was shrinking to the size of a minute particle of dust or a germ. As this tiny particle, Shanti said that she could drift around moving from one place to another and paradoxically, it felt as if the whole universe was within her. She said that all her incarnations were contained within this tiny germ.

So if Shanti Devi’s past life and intermission memories are correct, it would explain why it is common to see smoky mist spirit leaving the body at death, and then it shrinks into a spirit orb and will enters their mother’s body as spirit orb. However, it is important to acknowledge that this is only one interpretation of the intermission process out of the many out there. For instance, how heavenly celestial beings enter a human womb might be different. But what baffles me is lack of discussion on this phenomena in the public and mainstream. This is definitely an interesting topic that is worth investigating.

b) Psychic abilities to see immediate transition of spirit between dead body and the new body:

I have yet to find an academic verified case of someone witnessing the transference of spirit from a dead body into a new body in a pregnant woman’s body. But I have found an interesting account story from a Thai Buddhist monk. This story is about a monkey who was reborn as a human being.

In Thailand, it is not uncommon to find animals living in temples. This is because kind people would buy animals who are captured and mistreated to give it another chance, and the monks in the temple are compassionate enough to accept and look after animals if it can’t reintegrate into the wild.

So a captured monkey who was mistreated were purchased out of kindness by people and given to temple near the forest so it could have a better life. The monkey was described as cute and very intelligent [NB: Just to give you an idea what it’d been like in the temple, here is a YouTube clip of a different monkey meditating with monks in a Thai temple]. The monkey would be sitting with the monks on the stool, holding a tea cup and drinking tea with the monks every afternoon. The monkey would let people pet and stroke him, but as he was very protective over the monks and would bite people who they feel are not nice towards monks.

One day he actually chased the truck because we’re making a noise outside the monastery and he was protective. Unfortunately, he got ran over by the truck and got killed. When that monkey died, there was a monk who was in meditation and saw what had happened with his psychic ability. He saw the stream of consciousness from that monkey go off into the village and entered into a pregnant woman’s womb. A few months later, her baby was born. Her son was born unusually hairy.

Although this isn’t an academic case study, I thought it is useful to share this testimony because it is rare to find cases of spirit or consciousness find rebirth immediately after death.

Case #1:

(…)

During past life regression, many people are able to recognised those people in their past life memories who are present in their current life. It seems that our mind has this ability to identity of a people despite having different appearance, perhaps due to sensing their spirit or soul energetic DNA or imprint. Here are some cases that demonstrate such ability:

Case #1: This is a verified case of a client under Australian foremost past life regression therapist, Dr Toni Reilly, in 2010. The client was a 28 years old British woman who saw her past life as an Australian soldier named Bernard Jones who had died in WWI. She also found that her father from her previous life is now her current father.  

The client is from Britain and she feels that she has a strong affinity with Australia that she decided to move to Australia. Ever since she was young, she kept on having recurrent dreams of being a soldier and so she decided to do past life regression therapy to see whether she could confirm it.

During her regression therapy, she saw gas street lamp that was used back in the old days. She saw her self as a twelve years old boy, living his parents and sister. She felt that the boy was from a very loving family. He worked his father and his father was very proud of him. She recognised that the boy’s father is now her current father, so she has the same father.

She then saw the scene of how he had died. He was a young Australian soldier who was in the trenches in Turkey during WWI. His name was Bernard Jones. He was a rifle man, surrounded by other young men. They were scared and tired being in Turkey for 6 months and wanted to go home. Then she saw a chaotic scene as they go over the trench, seeing so many young men wounded but no one can help them, and he passed away. When the therapist ask her what was the purpose of that life, she replied it was to experience experience strength and courage. The past life memories from her regression was verified to be true. There was indeed an Australian Corporal name Bernard Ashford Jones who has died in Gallipoli in Turkey at age 21 on 06 September 1915.

I find that there is many interest aspects about this case. Firstly, it demonstrates that we can recognised people from our past life who is in our current life during regression therapy. This case also confirms that love bring people together in the next life (as well as revenge). Secondly, recurrent dreams, especially from young age  may be is an indicator of who we are in our previous lives. Thirdly, it shows that each life we go through, there may be a lesson we have unconsciously intend to learn. You can watch more here.

Case #2:

Millboro (…)

Case #3:

(…)

What makes a reincarnation case convincing?

Reincarnation cases becomes more compelling and convincing with more evidence. I’ve made a checklist of evidence, and have categorised it to help gather information to assess reincarnation cases. Here is a checklist:

a) Primary evidence – verifiable evidence:

• Verify past life memories statement (including intermission memories)
• Identification test: identify past life associated people and possession

b)  Secondary evidence –

• Recurrent dreams or flask backs
• Characteristic & preference from past life
• Skills from past life
• Birthmarks or birth defects associated with past life
• Xenoglossy

c) Tertiary evidence –

• Third party confirmation: i.e. announcement dream, mediumship or psychic confirmation.
• Cultural validity: reincarnation cases becomes more convincing in circumstance when family or culture doesn’t have the concept of reincarnation or strictly rejects it due to their religious belief.

You can read more about reincarnation in these articles: What can we learn from reincarnation case reports and Responding to anti-reincarnation claims.

Recommendation:

Works by: Dr Ian Stevenson, Jim Tucker, Ohkado Masayuki, Brian Weiss and Michael Newton.