Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives, by Jim B Tucker (St Martin’s Press, 2013)
Many documented cases of apparent reincarnation result from the ‘spontaneous recall’ of past lives by children in Asian societies (Burma, Thailand, India), where belief in an afterlife is widespread. In this book (the result of 10 years’ research, and the most recent of many he has written on the subject) Dr Tucker sought out similar cases in the US.
Each of ‘his’ children started talking about their previous lives when they were toddlers; these ‘memories’ usually faded by the age of six. The children included a two-year-old who claimed to be the reincarnation of deceased champion golfer Bobby Jones. The little boy insisted on being called ‘Bobby’, was able to identify Jones’ 1930s house from a series of photographs, and asserted that Augusta was his favourite golf course. Other children recalled being a Hollywood movie mogul, an airline pilot who crashed at Iwo Jima, and the screenwriter of Gone With the Wind. All possessed specialised and intimate knowledge of their ‘previous lives’ no toddler could possibly have obtained by any other means.
Statistics comparing the age at which prior incarnations died with the age at death in the general population suggests that ‘interrupted’ lives – i.e. those curtailed by accident, violence or sudden illness – are more likely to be reported as reincarnations.
Using the familiar arguments gleaned from quantum physics employed by many researchers in this field, Tucker argues that human consciousness is not tethered to our physical bodies but can exist independently – just as a TV transmission is independent of a TV set.
Buy Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives
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