Children who claim to remember a previous life have been found in many parts of the world, particularly in the Buddhist and Hindu countries of South Asia, among the Shiite peoples of Lebanon and Turkey, the tribes of West Africa, and the American northwest. Stevenson has collected over 2,600 reported cases of past-life memories of which 65 detailed reports have been published. Specific information from the children's memories has been collected and matched with the data of their claimed former identity, family, residence, and manner of death. Birthmarks or other physiological manifestations have been found to relate to experiences of the remembered past life, particularly violent death. Writing as a specialist in psychiatry and as a world-renowned scientific investigator of reported paranormal events, Stevenson asks us to suspend our Western tendencies to disbelieve in reincarnation and consider the reality of the burgeoning record of cases now available. This book summarizes Stevenson's findings which are presented in full in the multi-volume work entitled "Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth DefectS," also published by Praeger.

Based on some 30 years of research on people who claim to remember past lives, this work encompasses the full spectrum of theory and case study on the subject to date. Early in his investigations, Stevenson became aware that some who remember past lives had birthmarks or birth defects that corresponded to wounds, usually fatal, on the person whose life was remembered. The work suggests surprising answers to such questions as the following: Why does someone born with a birth defect have the one he or she has, instead of another one? Why do some children show phobias in early infancy when they have had no traumatic experiences and no model for the phobia in their family? Why are some monozygotic (one-egg) twins markedly different from each other? Why do many boys who later become homosexual show effeminate behavior in infancy before their parents can have influenced them to do so?

Writing as a scientist and a Western medical professional. Stevenson realizes that the idea that wounds on a deceased person can influence the embryo of a later-born baby is subversive of many assumptions of modern biology. Knowing that each individual case has some flaw or weakness, he decided to publish the entire corpus of cases of this sort. Photographs of birthmarks and illustrations of weapons form part of the evidence in this daring and explorative reaearch. This work will be of particular interest to physicians, psychiatrists, biologists, and anthropologists. In addition, those concerned with paranormal phenomena and the mind-brain problem will find this work challenging.

Reviews of the 1987 first edition called it "an impressive book...both scholarly and readable...thoroughly analyzed...highly recommend[ed]"--Journal of Scientific Exploration; "excellent...offers us a fascinating and compelling book with the distinct potential for profoundly changing our way of understanding the nature of human existence and death. Standard reading for any person who wishes to be regarded as literate and educated"--Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. This is the revised edition of Dr. Stevensons 1987 book, summarizing for general readers almost forty years of experience in the study of children who claim to remember previous lives. For many Westerners the idea of reincarnation seems remote and bizarre; it is the authors intent to correct some common misconceptions. New material relating to birthmarks and birth defects, independent replication studies with a critique of criticisms, and recent developments in genetic study are included. The work gives an overview of the history of the belief in and evidence for reincarnation. Representative cases of children, research methods used, analyses of the cases and of variations due to different cultures, and the explanatory value of the idea of reincarnation for some unsolved problems in psychology and medicine are reviewed.

Children who claim to remember a previous life have been found in many parts of the world, particularly in the Buddhist and Hindu countries of South Asia, among the Shiite peoples of Lebanon and Turkey, the tribes of West Africa, and the American northwest. Stevenson has collected over 2,600 reported cases of past-life memories of which 65 detailed reports have been published. Specific information from the children's memories has been collected and matched with the data of their claimed former identity, family, residence, and manner of death. Birthmarks or other physiological manifestations have been found to relate to experiences of the remembered past life, particularly violent death. Writing as a specialist in psychiatry and as a world-renowned scientific investigator of reported paranormal events, Stevenson asks us to suspend our Western tendencies to disbelieve in reincarnation and consider the reality of the burgeoning record of cases now available. This book summarizes Stevenson's findings which are presented in full in the multi-volume work entitled "Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth DefectS," also published by Praeger.