FOOTNOTES:

[i]   “…between lifetimes.”

“Dr. Carl Sagan was a noted scientist, teacher and skeptic. Sagan was a founding member of a group that set out to debunk unscientific claims, and wrote the book The Demon-Haunted World in which he said that there were several areas in parapsychology which deserved serious study:

“At the time of writing there are three claims in the ESP field which, in my opinion, deserve serious study: (1) that by thought alone humans can (barely) affect random number generators in computers; (2) that people under mild sensory deprivation can receive thoughts or images “projected” at them; and (3) that young children sometimes report the details of a previous life, which upon checking turn out to be accurate and which they could not have known about in any way other than reincarnation. I pick these claims not because I think they’re likely to be valid (I don’t), but as examples of contentions that might be true.”

“University of Virginia psychiatrists Dr. Jim Tucker and Professor Ian Stevensonhave published books and peer-reviewed research papersabout their work in examining cases of early childhood past life memories and birthmarks. The most detailed collections of personal reports in favor of reincarnation have been published by Professor Ian Stevenson, in books such as Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation.

Stevenson has spent over 40 years devoted to the study of children who have spoken about past lives. In each case, Stevenson methodically documents the child’s statements. Then, he identifies the deceased person the child allegedly identifies with, and verifies the facts of the deceased person’s life that match the child’s memory. Stevenson believes that his meticulous methods rule out all possible “normal” explanations for the child’s memories. However, it should be noted that a significant proportion of the University of Virginia’s reported cases of reincarnation originate in Eastern societies, where dominant religions often permit the concept of reincarnation. In India — where this phenomenon is quite common — if a child from a poor family claims to be the reincarnated person from a rich family, this can lead to the child to be adopted by that family, a motive that has led to children making fraudulent reincarnation claims.

Stevenson has said about the 2500 cases of children who appeared to remember past lives, which he and his associates investigated:

“My conclusion so far is that reincarnation is not the only explanation for these cases, but that it is the best explanation we have for the stronger cases, by which I mean those in which a child makes a considerable number (say 20 or 30) of correct statements about another person who lives in a family that lives quite remote from his own and with which his family has had no prior contacts. When we talk about remoteness, we don’t necessarily just mean physical distance. We know that two families can live only 10 kilometers apart and yet they can be very remote because they belong to different economic and social classes.”

Professor Stevenson has also matched birthmarks and birth defects to wounds and scars on the deceased, verified by medical records such as autopsy photographs. Stevenson’s research into birthmarks and congenital defects has particular importance for the demonstration of reincarnation, since it furnishes objective and graphic evidence of reincarnation, superior to the (often fragmentary) memories and reports of the children and adults questioned, which even if verified afterwards probably cannot be assigned the same.”

Reference:  Wikipedia.org