Overview lecture on reincarnation research, focused on children's memories of what seem to be past lives

1. Reincarnation Research
in Scientific Parapsychology
Nancy L. Zingrone, PhD
www.theazire.org
The AZIRE Learning Center in Second Life
SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Madhupak/153/89/60

2. Today’s Class Topics
• Hypnotic Regression Work
• Field Investigations of Reincarnation
Cases

3. Research in Reincarnation:
• Hypnotic Regression with Adults
• Hypnotic State releases dormant memories
• Individuals under hypnosis susceptible to
suggestion from hypnotist
• Information that seems to be a “real” past life
memory may be a combination of memory and
with details drawn from previous contact with
accurate historical information or historical fiction

4. As a therapeutic approach:
• Hypnotic Regression with Adults
• Past life stories are elicited by asking for the past
life that is most influential on the person’s well-
being in this life
• Past life descriptions may be very detailed or
very general
• Working through the past life story has been
found to cure phobias, improve mood and self-
understanding in this life

5. Elements that can provide evidence of
reinncarnation:
• Verifiable but obscure details about the previous
personality, their lives, their surroundings
• Bridey Murphy (Bernstein, 1956)
• Ability to speak previous personality’s language in
a responsive way
• Gretchan (Stevenson, 1984)

6. Problems with adult experiencers:
• If the detail is verifiable where did they get it?
• Cryptomnesia
• “Jane Evans” (Iverson, 1976)
• Six distinct lives, three with great
specific detail
But …

7. Ian Stevenson
1918-2007
One solution: work with children
….

8. Why experimentation alone is not
enough:
“… paranormal phenomena are nearly always
spontaneous and nearly always … associated
with death and with love. And because these
occur meagerly in laboratories, we can never
dispense with spontaneous cases. Those who
have thought they could do so sawed off the
branch of the tree on which they were sitting;
… they should now pick themselves up and
climb the tree again.”

9. If evidentiality is the goal:
Cases require thorough investigation
Researchers should seek authenticity first,
then evidentiality
Danger of analysis of uninvestigated cases
for evidentiality

10. • Set up a network of informants
• Obtained funds for field investigations
• Interviewed anyone with knowledge of
the reincarnation claim
• Attempted to “solve” the case

11. Dr. Jim Tucker’s case of
recognition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir9Xs1Q9T5g

12. Dr. Erlendur Haraldson
reincarnation case in
Sri Lanka
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge0-WCom0Ls

13. Typical Cases include:
• Testimony of small child and family members
• Specific details with potential for verification
collected
• Translators/Collaborators worked with Stevenson
• Trip scheduled to verify details
• Behavior and attitude as evidence
• Physical evidence: birthmarks and birth defects

14. Stevenson collected 2,500 cases over 40 years of
fieldwork, approximately 1,900 of these considered
“good” evidence for reincarnation.
Countries of Collection:
• India
• Myanmar
• Sri Lanka
• Lebanon
• Thailand
• Alaska
• Brazil, etc.

15. Focus on:
• Statements about the past life
• Statements about the “intermission”
between lives
• More important:
• Recognition of individuals from previous
lives
• Behavior:
• Attitudes
• Phobias
• Habits
• Needs for the previous family and
friends

16. Kamal Andawar, born 1966, Lebanonese who
remembered:
• Being the father of Naef Eldary
• Being the brother of Arif Eldary
• Living in Hammana, wife’s and other family names
• Described places, habits, relationships of family
members
• Said he and his wife died in a car accident in 1965
• Many other specific details about the previous life

17. Evidence that Andawar had been Faqual Eldary:
• Of 28 specific statements made, 17 verified
• Proper names and places all correct
• Detail family tried to hide, verified by neighbors
• Treated his current family with disdain
• Unusual concern with cleanliness
• Phobic about cars, insisted on seeing his previous
son

18. Compilation of cases:
• Able to compare across cultures
• Able to identify trends and commonalities
• Ground on which present researchers can build by
• Investigating new cultures
• Following up with past life experiencers as
adults
• Following up with children who are a bit older

20. Thanks for your Attention!
email: nancy@theazire.org
www.theazire.org
The AZIRE Learning Center in Second Life
SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Madhupak/153/89/60