Before revealing why a picture of American actor George Raft (right) adorns this blog, I must explain the lack of recent contributions. There is a very good reason for this. I’ve been working flat out on a new book and have just delivered all 90,000 words to an American publisher. The subject? Reincarnation. I’ll reveal more later in the year, when I have a clearer idea about when it will be published.
It was great bringing myself up-to-date with the latest news and case studies relating to an aspect of the paranormal that has always fascinated me. What reincarnation studies have in common with mediumship and near-death-experience research is that they are looking for evidence that consciousness, in some form, continues after the death of our bodies.
In my new book, I pay tribute to the enormous contribution of the late Ian Stevenson at the Department of Perceptual Studies, which he established at the University of Virginia in 1967. Many of the cases I quote come from his scientific papers and the books he wrote about his investigations in many countries.
The person who is now continuing that work at the University of Virginia is Jim Tucker (left), associate professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences and author of Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children’s Memories of Previous Lives. And he has just revealed, in a recent teleseminar from the Institiute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), details of a fascinating new American case which illustrates the complexities involved in “cases of the reincarnation type”.
Interviewed by IONS’ senior scientist Dean Radin (below right), Tucker told of a child who spoke of a life in Hollywood, of dancing on stage, becoming an actor, then an agent, having a big swimming pool, and travelling around the world on a big boat. It sounded like a fantasy, until his mother showed the boy some old Hollywood movie books to see if they stirred more memories.
Looking at the images, he came across one from an old George Raft movie. “Oh, that’s the movie I made with George,” he told his mother. Then, pointing to a man in the picture, added: “That was me, mom. That’s who I was.”
The person he identified was not another big movie star but an extra. It was, Tucker told Radin, quite a task to identify the man, who turned out to have been a dancer who became an actor, then an agent. He had a big house with a swimming pool and travelled around the world on the Queen Elizabeth. “We’ve got pictures of him on that boat,” Tucker added.
Not all the information was correct, and the teleseminar includes a discussion about the possible reasons for this, and the accuracy we should expect from such memories, as well as about birthmarks related to reincarnation memories. A transcript is available here. I’ll report more on this case when a detailed report is published.
Tucker reveals that although he trained at the University of Virginia and was aware of Stevenson’s work, he wasn’t fascinated by it. After training he went into private practice. However, when he remarried, his new wife was very intrigued “by reincarnation, psychics and things that I had never really given much thought to”. Because of her interest he began reading up on the subject, and found in one of Ian Stevenson’s books a reference to a new grant his Department had recevied to study the effects of near-death experiences on the lives of those who had them.
Tucker, “looking for a hobby”, called up Stevenson and assisted him for a couple of years, interviewing patients. Then Stevenson asked if he would accompany a colleague to Asia to study reincarnation cases. After that, Tucker joined the department on a half-time basis before becoming a full member in 2000.
He continues to be impressed by the cases he encounters – not only their evidential nature but also the emotional component. “It is clear,” he tells Radin, “that for many of these kids this is not a game of make-believe but very important and meaningful for them. They talk about the people they miss. Some children cry daily to be taken to someone they say is their real family.”
Readers in UK and Europe wishing to purchase a copy of Jim Tucker’s book should click on the lefthand book cover, those in the United States or elsewhere in the world should click on the righthand cover.