Children Who Claim to Remember Previous Lives : Past , Present , and Future ~ esearch

Ian Stevenson began researching cases of young children who claimed to remember previous lives in 1961. His approach involved a rational, scientific attempt to discern exactly what the children said about a previous life and how much of it could be verified to be accurate for one particular deceased individual. He discovered that cases could be found all over the world. He also learned that memories were not the only items that seemed to carry over for these children. A number had birthmarks that matched wounds suffered by the previous person, and many demonstrated anxieties or emotional longing that appeared to be derived from the previous events that they described. Researchers have now studied over 2500 cases in a project that is still ongoing. This review traces the history of these investigations and presents the current work, which includes increasing use of a database containing over 200 variables for each case. The conclusions that can and cannot be drawn from the research are examined, and future studies to be done in this area are considered.