Old Souls: Scientific Evidence for Reincarnation from Children who Recall Past Lives

Compelling reading, I had no previous interest in the subject and chose to read it on a whim while waiting for a plane, I was pleasantly surprised. This is a delightful, well written and researched book, it attempts to provide a balanced look at a subject which one would not normally consider worthy of scientific investigation. It charts the attempts by one academic to bring this phenomena which is so distant from Western concepts of reality under the scientific lens and gets as close as is possible to offering a convincing case. I'm sure you will enjoy reading this book, no matter what conclusion you reach for yourself at the end.

I enjoyed it. Very interesting. Thought provoking

This book actually provides a good introduction to the work of Dr. Stevenson, who collected thousands of cases of children who spontaneously (without hypnosis) remember their own past lives. He methodically documents each child's statements of a previous life and identifies the deceased person the child remembers being. For Westerners the idea that some children (age three to five) not only remember a previous existence, but can identify loved ones from it, is quite bizarre. Those kinds of "memories" are not very detailed ones, it's more like memories from your early childhood - you remember only some fragments, mostly associated with some important/significant/unusual events at that time. And this is one of the points that make those kinds of memories (from past life), quite real. According to Stevenson, the orthodox theory (and it is just a theory) conceives human personality as the product of a person's genetic material inherited from his ancestors through his parents (influences of his prenatal and postnatal environment). But that theory cannot fully explain early childhood phobias, some of the abilities that seem to develop spontaneously, or even children convinced that they are the wrong sex. But if one accepts the possibility of reincarnation, one can entertain the idea that these children are demonstrating strong likes, dislikes, skills, and even genius that are the logical results of previous experiences. There again you will find cases of children acting as if they did not belong in their families (they treat parents and siblings with indifference, even hostility). This phenomenon is usually thought to have been caused by infantile trauma. In some cases, it could be so. But in other cases, it could be some kind of "left overs" from the "old life". Difficult to believe? For some, maybe. But I'm sure I'm not the only one who wonders about things like that. This book doesn't give you 100% answer, but it's a start in the right direction. Another point to consider is that almost nobody (in the "Western" world) is bold enough to talk to a small child about something like that (lack of time, lack of interest, fear of unknown, lack of belief - reason for that could be anything). And because of that, those memories are nearly always forgotten by adulthood (this can be attributed to lack of memory rehearsal; as very young children do not usually engage in rehearsal of remembered information, except very specific ones such as fire can cause pain and so on). Which gives another really good question: why would you want to remember? Sure, one reason could be that it is some kind of "proof" that "something" is there, on the other side - that the human soul lives on. But most of us seems to "knows" that (or subconsciously "feel" that) anyway. It seems like on one hand, the whole process of forgetting past life makes sense: all your friends from the other life are most likely gone, all the love ones too, your have new memories now, new life, new future - so why would you want to remember it (most likely it would drive you crazy after a while anyway)? There is not point in that - it's much better to "wipe the slate clean" (so to speak) and start over a new life again. From this point of view, this whole process seems to be a very naturalistic phenomenon. On the other, it doesn't in the way that, in the new life you are probably going to make the same mistakes again (or quite similar) as you did in the old one. Sure, you will also make some different choices too (after all it will be a different life), but mistakes will happen. You will have to learn similar basic things/feelings again: how to write, speak, how to hate, love and so on. I just don't see, how in this case, the so called "soul" can actually learn something - by repeating almost everything again, without remembering some "bad choices and mistakes" from the other "old life". The life will be new, but feelings (such as love, hate, pain, anger, wonder, or various emotions associated with mood, temperament, and personality), will be pretty much the same. But then again, maybe it's all about something different than just "learning". Anyway, for somebody who is interested in such subjects, this is a good book to start. It doesn't give you all the answers to the above, no book can do that, but it is close enough to put you on the right track. The other recommended books, 2 of them written by Stevenson himself, would be: "Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation", "Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect" and "Yesterday's Children: The Search for My Family from the Past" by Jenny Cockell (or even go for something like "Lake of Memory Rising" - by William R. Fix).

Interesting read that reflects cultural belief more than evidence of past lives. European cases would be interesting as we tend not to believe everything from an esoteric viewpoint.

Great read ,great book

Brilliant book, well written. Details past life experiences and definitely makes you think! I have lent this book to many people over the years, who all had positive reviews. Would recommend for anyone interested in past life phenomenon.

VERY INTRESTING

I have found this book a little tedious. I bought the book as I have an interest in reincarnation and the afterlife, but found that I had to wade through pages of boring descriptions of the author's travels in between the encounters with people who remembered past lives. My feeling is that the author, a journalist, has written the book like this so as to make it his own observations, not just a report about professor Ian Stevenson's work. But it's Mr. Stevenson's findings that I am interested in. I also found the author's comments about Dr. Brian Weiss's work slightly offensive. Dr. Brian Weiss is a psychiatrist who discovered an ability to regress his patients to past lives. He seems to believe that Dr. Weiss does not have enough proof in order to substantiate his belief that many of his clients (one in particular, Catherine) have truly remembered past lives whilst under hypnosis. He cites one example where Catherine has her dates muddled, yet later, while considering one of Mr. Stevenson's cases he is ready to excuse a similar memory slip. He also remarks that Mr. Stevenson's subjects were probably not fantasising, as their remembered lives were so mundane, yet fails to note that this is also one of the strengths on the side of Dr. Weiss's subject, Catherine, and indeed most of his subjects. In short, I find Mr. Shroder is over opinionated about a subject he knows little about, and I would much rather have heard more from the person actually conducting the search (Mr. Stevenson). I have skipped great chunks of detailed description about each person's clothing, the scenery, the author's feelings as he was going along the road etc. and will not be finishing the book.

This book was highly recommended on Facebook I am very interested in this subject so I purchased it. It’s an absolutely fascinating book and I could not put the book down!! Very easy reading with a lot of food for thought. The price was very good too. Highly recommended seller.

Fascinating book really enjoyed reading it and couldn't put it down.

Mejor de lo que esperaba!

Excellent Book... everyone should read it atleast once in their life team

Had I known this book is an account by someone who accompanied Dr. Ian Stevenson on his last two research trips (to Lebanon and India), I would have bought it long ago. Shroder engagingly maintains a good balance between skepticism and qualified belief which should be valued by anyone who has ever considered whether 'souls' survive bodily death. Dr. Stevenson's heroic efforts to scientifically investigate the best evidence we have that reincarnation is real should be much more widely appreciated.