Science
Mainstream Science has by and large concerned itself only
with the material world. So, it was but natural for it to view the phenomenon
of reincarnation with scepticism and disapproval.
Over the course of forty years, doctor and Reincarnation
researcher Dr. Stevenson investigated and documented
over 2,500 cases of children with past life memories from all over the world
using rigorous scientific methods.
Reincarnation studies in the west began in the late 1950s
with Dr. Ian Stevenson’s pioneering research in the field. Dr. Stevenson was a Canadian physician and psychiatrist who
headed the
department of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia. Stevenson’s unparalleled, meticulous
documentation of cases of children who remembered their past lives led to the
publication of many scholarly articles and books authored by him on the
subject.
With time, others like Dr. Satwant Pasricha and Dr.
Jim Tucker joined Dr. Stevenson in these investigations and assisted him.
Eventually, Dr. Jim Tucker, originally a child
psychiatrist, took over the project at the University of Virginia when
Stevenson retired.
‘Life before Life’ and ‘Return to Life’ are two popular
books on Reincarnation authored by Dr.Tucker.
Today, Dr. Tucker
is one of the very few scientists working in this field. He maintains the reincarnation database at the University
of Virginia and has headed the Division of Perceptual studies since 2014. Unlike Dr.
Stevenson, whose approach was academic and was for an audience of scientists,
Dr. Tucker tries to reach out to the common man through his books and talks.
Dr. Pasricha, one of the researchers who assisted Dr.
Stevenson was the head of Department of Clinical Psychology at NIMHANS,
National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences at Bangalore.
Dr. Satwant K Pasricha is an Indian clinical psychologist
known for her research on childhood past life memories and near-death
experiences. Dr. Pasricha met Stevenson in 1973 and started working with him on
reincarnation research. She started investigating cases of reincarnation
claims. Her 1978 thesis on reincarnation cases was expanded to include more
recent work and published in 1990, then republished in 2019.
Past life
regression therapy is a form of hypnotherapy that takes subjects into their
past lives and helps them recall memories and experiences from these lives.
Stevenson researched the spontaneous past life memories
of children aged between two and ten. In most of these cases the children’s
past life memories started at around the age of 2 and completely disappeared
between the ages of 5 and 8. But, there are other ways to experience past
lives. One of these ways is through hypnotherapy or Past life regression
therapy. Past life regression therapy is a form of hypnotherapy that takes
subjects into their past lives and helps them recall memories and experiences
from these lives. It is used as a therapeutic technique that helps people heal
and grow in their present lives. Some of the most famous stories on past life
regression that have caught the public attention are by Dr. Brian Weiss whose
subject Catherine regressed through multiple past lives and was instrumental in
completely changing Dr. Weiss into a believer of multiple lives of people. Dr.
Weiss has since regressed many of his patients into their past lives in search
of solutions for their present live problems.
Near-death experiences are another
phenomenon related to consciousness that do not conform to modern science’s
view of the universe as nothing more or beyond the material world that we see.
Near-death experiences or NDEs are triggered by life threatening incidents
wherein the body is subjected to a heart attack, a sudden trauma or a shock. Some
of the most famous stories on past life regression that have caught the public
attention are by Dr. Brian Weiss whose subject Catherine regressed through
multiple past lives.
Survivors of Near-death experiences report deeply
profound and mystical out of body experiences where they go into a realm beyond
this everyday existence.
Many survivors of such episodes report deeply profound
and mystical out of body experiences where they go into a realm beyond this
everyday existence not bound by the limits of time and space. Such experiences
are very transformative to the subject that undergoes them. Extensive studies
and research are underway in this field including the one by Dr. Bruce
Greyson at the University of Virginia.