The Research on Children Who Report Memories of Past Lives

Some young children say things like “when I was big before,” and give details about another person’s life. A small group of researchers has investigated such cases for decades. Most scientists are not convinced. This article describes the research and the criticism fairly, and does not claim to settle the question.

Who studies this?

Researchers at the University of Virginia. The Society for Psychical Research’s encyclopedia says psychiatrist Jim Tucker, who directs the university’s Division of Perceptual Studies, continues the work of Ian Stevenson, using Stevenson’s protocols, with an emphasis on American cases. One summary says Tucker reported that more than 2,500 cases had been studied by 2007. It adds that a later scoping review found 78 academic studies on the topic, with most cases investigated in Asia. A health-humanities site notes that Stevenson published Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation in 1966.

What do the children say?

They tend to start young and stop young. Psychology Today reports that Stevenson found children who report such memories begin talking about them around age 3, and stop by age 7 or 8. The article notes researchers have found these children are generally highly intelligent with few or no behavioral problems. It suggests the memories may fade at about the age when children get better at telling fantasy from reality. Researchers in this group argue that alternatives such as fraud, coincidence, and fantasy do not account for the details in the best-documented cases. The Psi Encyclopedia notes that such cases have also been reported in countries without a cultural belief in reincarnation. The Psi Encyclopedia also reports a Thai case that raised the possibility that family and community expectations can resemble past-life influences.

What do critics say?

That ordinary explanations are more likely. The health-humanities site lists coincidence, misinterpretation, parental influence, observer bias, and cultural influence, especially where belief in reincarnation is strong and “memories” must be translated. Unsettled Science adds parental prompting, reconstruction after the fact, exchange of information among families, and selection effects. A counseling site lists false memories, cryptomnesia (remembering something once heard and forgetting where it came from), and confabulation, or innocent storytelling.

Where does that leave us?

Unresolved. Mainstream science does not accept reincarnation as the explanation, and the researchers do not claim to have proved it. If a child in your life talks about a past life, a psychologist quoted by Thriveworks advises working with the emotion behind the words, not the past life itself. For what religions teach, see What Different Religions Teach About Reincarnation.