If youre all with me, once eyes that roll greater than to the help of your head whenever you hear words in imitation of reincarnation or parapsychology, if you suffer good paroxysms of despair for human sharpness whenever you catch a glimpse of that dandelion-colored lid of Heaven Is For real or supplementary such books, and become mad as soon as hearing very nearly an overly Botoxed charlatan telling a needy grieving mommy how her daughters computer graphics is standing behind her, after that keep reading, because youre precisely the type of person who should be up to date of the tardy Professor Ian Stevensons research on childrens memories of previous lives.
Stevenson, who died in 2007, was a psychiatrist by trainingand a prominent one at that. In 1957, at the nevertheless academically sensitive age of 38, hed been named seat of study at the university of Virginia. After arriving in Charlottesville, however, his hobbyhorse in the paranormal began turning into a full-grown steed. As you can imagine, investigating apparitions and reincarnation is not something the intellectual administrators were expecting of the head of their mental health program. But in 1968, Chester Carlson, the wealthy inventor of the Xerox copying process whod been introduced to Stevensons interests in reincarnation by his spiritualist wife, dropped dead of a heart offensive in a Manhattan movie theatre, leaving behind a million dollars to UVA on the condition it be used to fund Stevensons paranormal investigations. That child maintenance enabled Stevenson to devote himself full-time to studying the minds of the dead, and more than the neighboring four decades, Stevensons discoveries as a parapsychologist served to sway more than a few skeptics and to lead his blushing acolytes to compare him to the likes of Darwin and Galileo.
Stevensons main allegation to fame was his meticulous studies of childrens memories of previous lives. Heres one of thousands of cases. In Sri Lanka, a toddler one daylight overheard her mommy mentioning the publicize of an technical town (Kataragama) that the girl had never been to. The woman informed the mother that she drowned there afterward her dumb (mentally challenged) brother pushed her in the river, that she had a bald daddy named Herath who sold flowers in a make known near the Buddhist stupa, that she lived in a house that had a glass window in the roof (a skylight), dogs in the backyard that were tied going on and fed meat, that the home was next-door approach to a huge Hindu temple, uncovered of which people smashed coconuts upon the ground. Stevenson was skillful to avow that there was, indeed, a blossom vendor in Kataragama who ran a stall near the Buddhist stupa whose two-year-old daughter had drowned in the river even if the woman played when her rationally challenged brother. The man lived in a house where the neighbors threw meat to dogs tied going on in their backyard, and it was adjacent to the main temple where devotees expert a religious ritual of smashing coconuts on the ground. The tiny woman did get a few items wrong, however. For instance, the dead girls father wasnt bald (but her grandfather and uncle were) and his name wasnt Heraththat was the name, rather, of the dead girls cousin. Otherwise, 27 of the 30 idiosyncratic, verifiable statements she made panned out. The two families never met, spiritualism nor did they have any friends, coworkers, or other acquaintances in common, suitably if you take it all at twist value, the details couldnt have been acquired in any obvious way.
Stevenson, who died in 2007, was a psychiatrist by trainingand a prominent one at that. In 1957, at the nevertheless academically sensitive age of 38, hed been named seat of study at the university of Virginia. After arriving in Charlottesville, however, his hobbyhorse in the paranormal began turning into a full-grown steed. As you can imagine, investigating apparitions and reincarnation is not something the intellectual administrators were expecting of the head of their mental health program. But in 1968, Chester Carlson, the wealthy inventor of the Xerox copying process whod been introduced to Stevensons interests in reincarnation by his spiritualist wife, dropped dead of a heart offensive in a Manhattan movie theatre, leaving behind a million dollars to UVA on the condition it be used to fund Stevensons paranormal investigations. That child maintenance enabled Stevenson to devote himself full-time to studying the minds of the dead, and more than the neighboring four decades, Stevensons discoveries as a parapsychologist served to sway more than a few skeptics and to lead his blushing acolytes to compare him to the likes of Darwin and Galileo.
Stevensons main allegation to fame was his meticulous studies of childrens memories of previous lives. Heres one of thousands of cases. In Sri Lanka, a toddler one daylight overheard her mommy mentioning the publicize of an technical town (Kataragama) that the girl had never been to. The woman informed the mother that she drowned there afterward her dumb (mentally challenged) brother pushed her in the river, that she had a bald daddy named Herath who sold flowers in a make known near the Buddhist stupa, that she lived in a house that had a glass window in the roof (a skylight), dogs in the backyard that were tied going on and fed meat, that the home was next-door approach to a huge Hindu temple, uncovered of which people smashed coconuts upon the ground. Stevenson was skillful to avow that there was, indeed, a blossom vendor in Kataragama who ran a stall near the Buddhist stupa whose two-year-old daughter had drowned in the river even if the woman played when her rationally challenged brother. The man lived in a house where the neighbors threw meat to dogs tied going on in their backyard, and it was adjacent to the main temple where devotees expert a religious ritual of smashing coconuts on the ground. The tiny woman did get a few items wrong, however. For instance, the dead girls father wasnt bald (but her grandfather and uncle were) and his name wasnt Heraththat was the name, rather, of the dead girls cousin. Otherwise, 27 of the 30 idiosyncratic, verifiable statements she made panned out. The two families never met, spiritualism nor did they have any friends, coworkers, or other acquaintances in common, suitably if you take it all at twist value, the details couldnt have been acquired in any obvious way.