Every living being is made up of two distinct elements: a physical one – the body – and a nonphysical one – the soul. They unite into a harmonious, homogenous entity. The belief that the two of them separate after death it’s very popular among us. So is the idea that the body decomposes and disappears, while the spirit persists. This is what gave explanatory power to a lot of beliefs, including the reincarnation of the soul.
The reincarnation theory states the immaterial essence is reborn in another material carcass after death. It has been circulating since thousands of years ago, yet most of the people reject it.
The main reason behind this is its so-called unscientific character. Reincarnation is thought to be almost impossible to prove. To put an end to this preconception, here is a list of scientific proof of reincarnation among our peers.
Reincarnation-type experiences
In the last decades, reincarnation-type experiences became a matter of interest for psychiatrists. Their research relied on the stories reported by various subjects who pretended to have memories from their past lives. Most of today’s scientific evidence of reincarnation results from the studies of dr. Ian Stevenson. Former Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, he investigated the phenomena for four decades.
He observed that reincarnation-type experiences are most likely to occur in 2 to 6-year-old children. He interviewed almost 3000 people who claimed to have flash-backs of another existence. He also noticed that the more violent the death in the past life was, the more vivid were their memories. His approach was to identify the previous identity of the person and to compare their stories. In most of the cases, they matched. Together with these deja-vus, the subjects reported specific “symptoms”. They had birthmarks, unexplainable phobias, and the ability to recognize acquaintances from their previous life.
Memories from another existence. Swarnlata Mishra and her story.
Some children who claimed to have experienced reincarnation could recall up to 40 specific details of the deceased’s life. Most of them gave specific detail about former families, previous jobs, places, and even the apartments they lived in. This made it very easy for researchers to verify the information. As a result, more than 85% proved to be accurate.
Swarnlata Mishra’s story is a well-known reincarnation case proved by various types of evidence. The most convincing one was her past-life memories of being a girl called Biya Pathak. She started recalling these episodes at the age of three, having more and more flashbacks with time. She started to sing melodies and perform dance routines she claimed she knew from her previous life. Her parents confirmed that she couldn’t have learned them in their household. When she recognized some friends from her previous life someday in the street, her father started investigating the matter.
He got her to Biya’s parents, who wanted to test her “knowledge” on their deceased daughter’s life. They brought a few people in front of Swarnlata and told her they were friends in her previous life. The little girls didn’t fall into the trap – she exposed them as being impostors. Later she was confirmed to know a lot more things about Biya’s life and this is how this reincarnation story got proved.
Birthmarks – proof of reincarnation
All types of birthmarks and birth defects draw the attention of researchers studying possible reincarnation cases. The fact that children who got flashbacks from another life had also an unusual birthmark was enough for them to make the connection. In most of the cases (43 out of 49 cases), the marks were correspondent to wounds or malfunctions that the ancestor had in the previous life.
This symptom was confirmed in Patrick Christenson and his brother’s story. Kevin, the elder brother, died at the age of two because of a severe form of cancer. He followed a chemical treatment, which left him with a scar on the right side of his neck.
Twelve years later, little Patrick was born. Surprisingly, he had a similar scar on his neck as his deceased brother. Moreover, when he began to walk, he had the same symptoms as his brother did before being diagnosed – a limp. Then he claimed he had a surgery above his right ear (just as his brother did), although this had never happened to him.
Psychic trauma from the previous lives
This aspect of reincarnation was actively studied by Dr. Stevenson. According to his articles, a lot of children showed a high level of fear regarding objects, circumstances that supposedly were the cause of death in their previous lives.
An interesting example is Ma Tin Aung Myo’s case. She was a Japanese girl born in 1953 who claimed to be the reincarnation of a soldier who died in World War 2. Since she was little, she was always afraid of planes. Every time a plane would fly above her house, she went crying inside the house. The little girl said she didn’t want the airplane to shoot her.
After some research, it was proved that the Japanese soldier she reincarnated from was indeed shot during an airplane raid and died. The girl even recalled some memories from her previous life’s last moments. According to her story, as a soldier on the field, he was wearing only shorts. The enemies saw him running for cover and shot him fatally in his groin.
Conclusions regarding scientific proofs of reincarnation
What we’ve presented above is only a fraction of the whole study material specialists provide. There’re many other elements that they take into account and a lot of new cases to investigate,
However, it is quite hard to put together all the existing evidence because big scientific academies frown upon studying this seriously. At least, the reincarnation is no longer such a tabu topic, genuinely rejected by religious and conservative people. There are so many children proving knowledge and experiences that can only be from a different life, that more and more people are willing to believe this theory.
We’re looking forward to the moment indisputable evidence will transform this theory into a fact.
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