Reincarnation: Mishlove's excerpt #6

Psychologist Jeffrey Mishlove writes in “Beyond the Brain: The Survival of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death,” that: The University of Virginia, Department of Perceptual Studies, now has a database of over 2,500 individual cases in which young children report former life memories. In roughly 1,700 cases, the information led to the deceased previous person’s identification. We know these as solved cases. This work was initiated by former Psychiatry Department chair Ian Stevenson.

The most solid reincarnation evidence comes from the totality of the 2,500 cases in the database, instead of from the strength of particular cases.

Stevenson worked in the field, meeting the children, talking with their families, and with the previous person’s families. He collected firsthand observations – as well as autopsy and police reports. In many cases, children named the previous person or the village where they had lived. The children’s behaviors are an essential feature. They are often in line with the previous person’s habits. Stevenson would often re-interview the children and other witnesses after a period of time had elapsed, to see how consistent their stories were.

Essentially, Stevenson followed the case study procedures established in the 19th century by the researchers with the Society for Psychical Research to corroborate spontaneous events such as apparitions. Stevenson depended upon legal and forensic methods. He researched reincarnation cases as if he were preparing to present them in a court of law.

Some patterns found in the reincarnation database are culturally specific. Others are universal and apply across cultures. Birthmarks, physical features, and even deformities often conform to the previous person’s death wounds. Sometimes, the children begin to speak about their past life as soon as they start to talk. The main window at which these cases begin is two to five years of age. After a few years, the memories fade. This process is generally completed by late childhood, i.e., five to eight years old. Only about a third of the children retain past-life memories into adulthood.

Reincarnations usually seem to occur in the same area, with the same religious or ethnic group or the same race – essentially within psychological comfort zones.

Recollection is first person, not as if children were watching someone else in a movie. They feel as if their consciousness is continuous with the earlier lifetime they recall. It is personal and can be emotional, with fears and phobias carrying over from the former lifetime.

There is an extremely high incidence, 50% of solved cases in the reincarnation database, where the previous person met with a violent death. We may relate this to the fact that about two-thirds of cases, cross-culturally, involve male children.

An afterlife existence between incarnations is reported in about 20% of reincarnation cases. These intermission memories are often like reports from near-death experiences, including communication with spirit guides and other deceased entities.

Anthropologist James Matlock studied the length of the intermission time between lives. It varies by culture. Globally, the median time is 16-18 months from the death of the earlier, identified life to the birth of the present life.

The median time for western cases is 35 years. 80-90% of reported cases come from Asia.

These are dramatic findings. They strongly suggest the interpenetration of the living world with that of the deceased. If the afterlife operated independently, according to its own laws and principles, one would expect the intermission length reported by children with past-life memories – as well as gender change between lives – to be unaffected by cultural expectations. This is clearly not so. However, since we are referring to solved reincarnation cases, neither can the results be purely a fantasy- based, cultural artifact.

Such findings show us we the living can influence the afterlife. People who enter the immediate afterlife will see what they need to see or what they’re prepared or conditioned to see. They are still encountering something very real on the other side. To the degree that these stories enter our culture, we are setting ourselves up to have different afterlife experiences.

 

Jeffrey Mishlove’s essay, “Beyond the Brain: The Survival of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death,” received first prize in the 2021 Bigelow Institute’s challenge to provide proof for the survival of human consciousness after death. Footnotes in Mishlove’s essay and videos he refers have been removed in this presentation but are available in his essay, which may be downloaded at https://bigelowinstitute.org/contest_winners3.php. Mishlove is a licensed clinical psychologist, author, and host on YouTube of “New Thinking Allowed.”