Do Reincarnation-type Cases Involve Consciousness Transfer?

Abstract

The work of the late Professor Ian Stevenson has become a benchmark in the history of psychical research that is pertinent to psychiatry–to the extent that he may be termed the cartographer of reincarnation research. Over fifty years of rigorous research, he identified 2500 international experiences with intrinsic reincarnation features, and thereby established a corpus of evidence that may be considered incontrovertible for the phenomenon. Reincarnation sometimes has normal physiological manifestations and sometimes clinical attributes. Of the various instances supporting the possibility of reincarnation, those in which children remember previous lives have the most credibility. The association of cognitive and behavioural memories with birthmarks and birth defects corresponding to wounds suffered by the person whose life subjects claim to remember contributes to refuting scepticism about reincarnation. The scientific theory of reincarnation does not encompass universal reincarnation or the transmigration of souls from the animal kingdom. To free the scientific concept from religious impedimenta, distinctive terminology has been recently introduced. Painstaking investigation into reincarnation-type occurrences is a route to a deeper understanding of consciousness and its long-term survival after physical extinction. The new scientific outlook would enable cognitive sciences to move away from quantum ultra-reductionism, but quantum consciousness may serve as bridge between brain and a higher consciousness.