Possession & Past Lives

Brazilian reincarnation case in which a child recalled the life of a person who committed suicide, having pledged to return as the daughter of a close friend, who was in fact the child’s mother.

Describes how 'spirit mediumship' and 'spirit possession' overlap, especially as experienced in non-Western contexts.

Canadian anthropologist and reincarnation researcher, who specializes in reincarnation beliefs and experiences of indigenous peoples of the north-west region of North America.

Collection of cases of the reincarnation type among Tlingit and other native North American cultures. 

Lebanese case of a child's past life memories notable for the large volume of detail later verified as accurate.  

Some eleven million people were killed in the Nazi death camps during World War II, so it is not surprising that camp experiences are sometimes recalled by people who remember a past life. Two...

Detailed and historically accurate 'memories of previous lives' are routinely elicited during  past life regression hypnotherapy. They are attributed by some to reincarnation and by others to unconscious recall (cryptomnesia).  

Children who have memories of past lives sometimes make drawings of their recollections, to express them or as therapy for past-life traumas.

The investigation of cases of infant children who recount, spontaneously and in detail, the intimate circumstances of a deceased individual they could not be expected to know anything about. 

If reincarnation truly happens and is common, why do so few people remember past lives? And if many people have had past lives and forgotten them, why do a few, especially young children, remember them – and then forget them?