Children Who Remember Previous Lives: a Question of Reincarnation, rev. ed. by Ian Stevenson M.D

Author:Ian Stevenson, M.D.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Published: 2016-05-20T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

The Explanatory Value of the Idea of Reincarnation

In chapter 6 I mentioned my surprise on first learning about the unusual behavior that most of the subjects of these cases showed and that seemed to correspond with behavior that the previous personalities were reported to have shown or might have been expected to manifest. I only gradually realized the importance of such unusual behavior for the evaluation of paranormal processes in the cases. It took me even longer to appreciate that these behavioral components have another value, in addition to their contribution to the evidence of reincarnation. I refer to the possibility that reincarnation, if it occurs, may explain unusual behavior of types not adequately accounted for by current understanding in psychology and psychiatry. Beyond this, reincarnation may even help to explain some presently puzzling biological and medical phenomena. In this chapter I propose to review ways in which I think reincarnation may help our understanding of some unsolved problems in psychology, biology, and medicine.

Before I come to the specific matters that I believe the idea of reincarnation can help us to understand better, I have to ask my readers to make an additional assumption. (I have already asked you, for the purposes of this chapter, to assume that reincarnation does, in fact, occur.) This is that, although only a small number of persons have imaged memories of events in previous lives, many other persons may have behavioral memories or physical features derived from a previous life without having any imaged memories that might explain why or how they acquired these.

A few of the cases I have already mentioned may have prepared you for this assumption. I refer to instances in which a subject continued to show behavior (such as a fondness for particular foods) related to the previous life after he had lost the imaged memories of that life. However, you may defer accepting this assumption until after you have considered the examples I shall present in this chapter. I shall take these (with rare exceptions) from the cases of subjects who had both imaged memories of a previous life (usually verified ones) and related unusual behavior. If you think it reasonable to consider the unusual behavior of these subjects a type of behavioral memory accompanying their imaged memories, you may also consider favorably the possibility that other persons have behavioral memories without having any imaged ones.

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