Case Types & Features

Reported reincarnation cases vary widely in form yet often display recurring patterns and distinctive features. This subcategory explores such variations and commonalities, covering topics such as the age of onset and fading of past-life memories, behavioural signs, recognitions, birthmarks and other characteristics used to classify and interpret cases cross-culturally

Announcing Dreams and Related Experiences

Dreams and other phenomena featuring the deceased may herald their reincarnations.

Behavioural Memories in Reincarnation Cases

Reincarnation cases include not only past life memories but behaviours consistent with these memories.

Birthmarks in Reincarnation Cases

Birthmarks and birth defects in reincarnation cases correspond to injuries that caused deaths in the previous lives.

Experimental Birthmarks and Birth Defects

The practice of marking cadavers in hope of stimulating birthmarks has been reported throughout East Asia.

Famous Past Life (FPL) Claims

Claims to remember having been famous people must be regarded with caution, yet they have been supported in a few cases.

Hidden Treasure Reincarnation Cases

Some children recall having hidden money or other valuables in their previous lives and show where these may be found.

Interethnic and Intercultural Reincarnation Cases

Strong behavioual carryovers often accompany cases of these kinds.

International Reincarnation Cases

Cases that have been studied suggest that reincarnating internationally may require intention to do so.

Past-Life Memories from Before 1900

Accounts of past-life memory documented in historical sources share many features with cases studied more recently.

Past-Life Memories Illustrated

Many children who talk about past lives also express their memories in art as a way of dealing with remembered traumas.

Past-Life Memories of the Holocaust

Memories of Nazi concentration camps are largely uninvestigated accounts sans past-life identifications.

People Who Knew Each Other in Past Lives

Investigators have found several pairs of people who remember knowing each other in earlier lives.

Physical Signs in Reincarnation Cases

Physical signs of reincarnation include facial structure, eye form, skin colour, physique, and other features.

Planned Reincarnations

Planned reincarnation suggests that next-life circumstances can be chosen not just between lives but prior to death.

Reincarnation and Phobias

Spontaneous past-life memories in children are often accompanied by phobias that correspond with remembered traumas.

Reincarnation and Suicide

Unexpectedly, cases of reincarnation after suicide have unusually short intermissions and returns in family lines or among friends.

Reincarnation Cases with Intermissions of Less Than Nine Months

These cases raise questions about when reincarnation occurs.

Reincarnation Cases with Records Made Before Verifications

There are still fewer than three dozen published examples of these important cases.

Reincarnation Cases with Sex Change

Memories of a life as a member of the opposite sex are often accompanied by cross-sex behaviour.

Reincarnation Intermission Memories

Memories of the intermission show clear signs of cultural influence, but there are also cross-cultural consistencies.

Reincarnation of Tibetan Lamas in the West

Tibetan lamas reincarnate as Westerners with the intention of spreading Buddhist teachings to other countries.

Reincarnation Research with Twins

Investigations have shown that twins in reincarnation cases typically knew each other in earlier lives.

Replacement Reincarnation

In replacement reincarnation, a person remembers the life of someone who died after he or she was born.

Xenoglossy in Reincarnation Cases

In reincarnation cases, xenoglossy involves the use of language spoken in a past life but not learned in the present.