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?

Though reincarnation researchers have not found evidence to support New Age notions of permanent ‘soul groups’ or ‘soul mates,’ they have discovered cases in which people verifiably knew each other in previous lives.

In this celebrated British reincarnation case, two young sisters who died in a road accident appeared to be reborn as twins to the same parents.

As a two-year-old in Sri Lanka, Pretiba Gunawardana started to talk of a previous life in which he had been a businessman and died of burns when his car caught fire. Investigation by Erlendur...

Psychological study indicating that children who remember a past life differ in important respects from other children

Sri Lankan girl who remembered a life as a male incense maker, with exact details that enabled investigators to identify the previous personality. 

Indian case of a child's past life memories that were attributed by one investigator to reincarnation and by another to cultural factors, making it an important source for sceptics. 

In this Indian reincarnation case, twin boys recalled the lives of two men, also twins, who were savagely murdered. The boys not only retained memories of their previous lives but were born with birthmarks that reflected the nature of their brutal deaths.

Case from Thailand of a young girl who, from the age of one, made detailed statements about a previous life as a Buddhist devotee.

Reincarnation may be defined as the return of a nonmaterial essence (soul, mind, consciousness) to another physical body after death. Reincarnation beliefs are widespread in the world today and...