Coming back for more through reincarnation

Press, 11 March 1983, Page 17

Coming back for more through reincarnation

ROSEMARY DINNAGE

of the “Observer,” London, talks to

Professor lan Stevenson about his research into the evidence for reincarnation. -

Professor lan Stevenson is a shy, dry man to meet, the very model of an American academic, and he makes it clear that he loathes publicity and fears Press sensationalism. “You're not doing anything for the gutter press?” is his first anxious query. His commitment to an extraordinary subject has brought him more than his share of ridicule and academic outrage. Some five years ago an article by him appeared in the respectable — and far from riveting — “Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease” which caused a. minor furore. It was about reincarnation, and its value in explaining anomalies of development (childhood phobias, unusual skills, gender confusion, among others). Parapyschology, or psychical research, even carried out in the laboratory, has gained only the glimmerings of recognition as a serious discipline so far, in spite of a century of earnest work; the subject of reincarnation has remained very far out indeed — on the fringe of a fringe. Yet Professor Stevenson has been a faculty member of a reputable university for over 20 years, having made the transition from Professor of Psychiatry to heading the Department of Parapsychology. “The article created quite a stir. But I had an enormous number, of requests for offprints — far more that I’ve ever had for any of my orthodox papers. They came from all over the world. The editor later wrote an editorial in which he defended the right — indeed the obligation — of his journal to publish material that he thought was soundly investigated, even though it was unorthodox. He had known me for many years, from my days in orthodox psychiatry; and he knew, as he said, that I wasn’t a crank.” He makes it clear that his only motive for allowing any popular publicity at all is that it brings him in a certain number of cases for

investigation. “There was an article about my research in one of those magazines that sell in the supermarket — they reach about seven million people. That brought in a bag of mail, most of it rubbish, but included in it were five or six nuggets of real cases. The same thing with a 8.8. C. interview I did last year. We’re trying to follow them up now. “But I do get a fair number of what I’d call poison pen letters, from - of all people - Christians, who are angry and think that I’m in league with the devil. Or they try to save my soul. And I have had opposition from my colleagues, yes. But I think in recent years the climate has been more positive.” Stevenson's industry in the field which he has made his own for the last 15 years or so has been phenomenal. With minimal funding and assistance he has made journeys to India, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Alaska, Nigeria, and the Lebanon, and recorded around 2000 cases, of which about 800 have been investigated and analysed. A “case” means the report of a child who, very early in life, declares that he has had another home and belonged to a different family, and shows odd likes and dislikes which he strongly defends. Stevenson’s method is to interview, taperecord, and, with local assistance, interpret and translate each case, and then make efforts to check each detail of the child’s story, confronting him with the places and people mentioned. A typical case might be that of Imad Elawar, a Druse child in a Lebanese village. (The Druse religious philosophy includes reincarnation.) When he was between one and two years old he began to talk

about a different life, mentioning names, events, and objects, and asking to be taken to his “home,” a village about 20 miles away. He spoke of “Jamileh,” and how much he preferred her to his mother. When the five-year-old was taken there on several visits by Stevenson, he answered a striking majority of questions relating to his former “self correctly — including the name of his mistress, which was Jamileh. Stevenson’s records of such cases now form a formidable row of volumes. At least half of the population of the world believes in reincarnation, Stevenson points out; not only the millions in Buddhist and Hindu countries, but also the Ibo of

Nigeria, Eskimo tribes in Alaska, and many other groups. It is a peculiarly difficult notion for Westerners to grasp. Even when we have relinquished Christian childhoods, the idea of floating away, still ourselves, to a heaven or hell, comes easily by comparison. But if person X completely becomes person Y, what kernel of being is it that is passed on? “I believe it must be a mental substance that we are unfamiliar with in conventional science. All that's being suggested is that some element — these mental elements — can be associated with a newly conceived embryo and go on from there." Stevenson is very willing to talk about his work, but less willing, indeed quite unwilling, to talk about himself and the motives that led him from his life as a conventional professor of psychiatry to his present research and travels. Could he explain the background to his interest? “No, not really.” A very well-defined silence follows. He is prepared to say that there were some factors in his upbringing that are not irrelevant. “My mother had an interest in Oriental religion, and she had a library of books on the subject which I to some extent absorbed when I was young, so I was slanted in that direction. And a - major stimulus to my interest came from discontent with current theories of personality. “I had felt for many years that what we know about genetics and about environmental influences is insufficient to explain many types of unusual behaviour. So I began looking around for other possible explanations. I had known in the

abstract about reincarnation for many years, and I began to read about, and collect scattered reports of, cases that people had written up of children who believed they had lived before. Quite frankly it had never occurred to me when I was younger that there could be anything like evidence for reincarnation.” If one is even to begin to look seriously at Stevenson’s ideas, one of the first objections that springs to mind is that these cases always seem to occur in countries that already have a belief in reincarnation (though he has found a few in Britain and the United States). ‘‘Well, we don’t know how many are lost in the West. A typical letter that I often receive begins, ‘I wish I’d known about your research when my little girl was three; she’s 13 now and doesn’t remember anything of what she said - but when she was three . . — and so on. The mother scolds the child for telling fibs and the case is lost. "I’m not sure that that’s the whole explanation, though. Perhaps the interval between lives is longer in the West, so the memories would be fainter and it’s possible that premortem expectations actually influence what happens. For instance, some cultures believe you could change sex from one incarnation to another and others don’t, and our research follows that same pattern. So perhaps if you die believing you can’t change sex, maybe you can’t.” If reincarnation exists, then, is it for everybody or only for some? “I just don’t know. What can I say? I’m only dealing with the miniscule number of 2000 cases.” Does he expect to be reincarnated himself? There is a very long pause. “I think — perhaps — I should be prepared for that possibility.” Professor lan Stevenson would like to hear from any'Correspondents with genuine cases to report at: Division of Para-psycho-logy. Box 152, Medical Centre, University of Virginia. Charlottesville. VA 22908. U.S.A.