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Ian Stephenson’s Research on Reincarnation

Corinna Underwood | May 27, 2008

Raised in Ottawa, Ian Stephenson was influenced by his mother’s interest in theosophy from an early age. He later studied at St. Andrew’s University in Scotland and at McGill University in Montreal. He received an M.D. in 1943. Stevenson was founder of scientific research into reincarnation since the 1960’s. In 1967 he was appointed as Director of the Division of Personality Studies (later renamed Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia. He retired in 2002 leaving his work to successors led by Dr. Bruce Greyson.

Children’s Memories of Past Lives

During his original research into various cases involving children's memories of past lives, Dr. Stevenson also noted with interest the fact that these children frequently bore lasting birthmarks which supposedly related to their murder or the death they suffered in a previous life. In many cases presented by Dr. Stevenson there are also medical documents available as further proof, which are usually compiled after the death of the person. Dr. Stevenson adds that in the cases he researched and "solved" in which birthmarks and deformities were present, he didn't suppose there was any other appropriate explanation than that of reincarnation. Only 30% - 60% of these deformities can be put down to birth defects which related to genetic factors, virus infections or chemical causes.

Stephenson’s Worldwide Research

In his book Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation, Stevenson describes his investigations in at least 20 countries. The children who tell their compelling stories of an earlier life are most often between the ages of 2 and 5, and they almost always mention the mode of death, especially when it was violent. Of the 210 such cases that Stevenson investigated, most of the birthmarks were mostly areas of puckered skin, areas of little or no pigmentation or areas of increased pigmentation. Birth defects present were almost always rare types. In many cases Stevenson was actually able to identify a deceased person, the details of whose life unmistakably matched the child's statements. Furthermore, a close correspondence was nearly always found between the birthmarks and/or birth defects on the child and the wounds on the deceased person.

Children Reborn

This raises the question of how this phenomenon works. Assuming that the memories of a former life are true, what causes unusual marks on a new infant body to correspond to physical abnormalities on the body of a former personality? Stevenson noticed that in some cultures, parents explained these phenomena as stemming from a dream in which someone who has died appears to a woman and tells her that he or she will be reborn to her. Sometimes relatives or friends have dreams like this and will then relate the dream to the mother to be. Dr. Stevenson found these prophetic dreams to be particularly prolific in Burma and among the Indians in Alaska. Though less common some believers in reincarnation report that someone they knew had expressed a wish to be reborn to a couple. This is usually because they are convinced that they would be well cared for by those particular people. Such requests are often expressed by the Tlingit Indians of Alaska and by the Tibetans.

New Light

Until recently these strange accounts and events have remained a mystery to conventional psychiatry. Children’s accounts of supposed past-lives have been considered imaginative flights of fantasy at best and at worst, outright lies. Current research into reincarnation is shedding new light onto the subject. Whether these cases are proof of reincarnation or not, scientists may have to do some serious re-thinking.

Cases Documented by Dr. Ian Stevenson

In one fascinating case, an Indian boy claimed to remember the life of a man named Maha Ram, who was killed with a shotgun fired at close range. This boy had an array of birthmarks in the center of his chest that looked like they could possibly correspond to a shotgun blast. So the story was checked out. Indeed, there was a man named Maha Ram who was killed by a shotgun blast to the chest. An autopsy report recorded the man's chest wounds - which corresponded directly with the boy's birthmarks.
A man from Thailand claimed that when he was a child he had distinct memories of a past life - as his own paternal uncle. This man had a large scar-like birthmark on the back of his head. His uncle, it turns out, died from a severe knife wound to that very part of his head.