Exactly after 14 years, I am writing this on 20^th July 2011 which happens to be my birthday that I am celebrating first time with the initiative of Dr. Rashmi. On 20^th July 1997, I appeared in the selection interview for the post of Senior Clinical Psychologist in AMA and there I interacted with Dr. Ajai Srivastava and we both felt a bit closed to each other.

The day I joined AMA on 20^th January 1998, he literally picked me up, showed me a few places of AMA and guided me further. He took keen interest in making my stay comfortable in Agra. Gradually, we became intimate; we would sit every evening for hours at his residence and have extended academic exchange. In this process, we developed a plan to visit National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore for exposure in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). It got materialized on 19^th July 2000 when both of us got landed in the Mecca of Indian Mental Health and stayed for 10 days. We were posted in Behavioral Medicine unit of NIMHANS and had excellent exposure to CBT.

Sri R.P. Sharma had already told me that Prof. Satwant Pasricha in NIMHANS was doing research on reincarnation. Sharmaji was a student of Department of Psychiatric Social Work in NIMHANS; so he knew it very well. He had in fact recommended me to see Prof. Pasricha. Since I had already developed a heightened interest in this area, I shared my desire with Dr. Ajai to see her and interact. Prof. Pasricha’s office was a few yards away from the Behavioural Medicine Unit. Both of us went to her room; she oriented us about her work and publications on reincarnation in International and NIMHANS journals including her published book titled “Claims of Reincarnation: An Empirical Study of Cases in India”. I purchased a copy of it, which is the outcome of her doctoral dissertation on the children of reincarnation type.

Prof. Pasricha conducted her research on the children who spontaneously remember their previous lives. She surveyed the existing literature as part of her thesis and reported that the idea of scientifically investigating the cases of spontaneous recall of previous lives was not a new one. In India, the credit goes to Sri Rao Bahadur Shyam Sunderlal (1922-23) for first systematic investigation of rebirth cases. He published reports of four rebirth cases in 1924. One of these cases had a severe deformity apparently related to the events of recalled previous life. Three years later, in 1927, Sri KKN Sahay, an Advocate of Bareilly, U.P. probably inspired by the spontaneous recall of previous life by his own son, published a brief report of seven cases that he investigated at his personal level. A few years later in 1930s, Sri S.C.Bose of Kolkata studied 14 cases; who remembered their previous lives and published a report in Bangli language in 1959. Prof. B.L.Atrey from Banaras Hindu University was a renowned person who studied and published a book on Parapsychology in 1959 and included a section on reincarnation citing a case of Sri Pramod Kumar whom he himself investigated. By 1960, about 50 cases of reincarnation type were investigated and reported by various investigators. A more scientific and rigorous study of reincarnation began in 1960 which inspired Prof. Pasricha to undertake her doctoral dissertation on cases of reincarnation type that she completed and submitted to Bangalore University in 1978.

In her thesis, Prof. Pasricha presented systematic and comprehensive analysis of 45 cases of rebirth. Two cases were the residents of Agra, the city where I am drafting this book. She focused her research on the cases who reported to have recall of their previous lives. A specific label has been assigned to such persons as “Cases of reincarnation type” and the person whose life is being remembered is labeled as “Previous personality”. Her extensive investigations into such cases indicate that a change in religion, caste, gender, geographical regions across lives is a common phenomenon.

In the course of her investigations, she encountered a few extremely interesting cases. In her Case Report No. 4, she described a case who demonstrated evidence of extra-sensory perception. When this case was just four years old and living with his current life parents, kept on weeping for a day. When asked about the reasons for this behavior he reported that “My Raj ji has died”. When the case was being investigated for remembered previous life links of this person, it was discovered that Raj ji was the name of his previous life wife who had died on that particular day only.

The Case Report No. 6 relates to an unusual case of ‘Par Kaya Parvesh’ (entry of a person’s psychoplasm into another’s body). This case was labeled as a case of possible Par Kaya Parvesh because this boy was born prior to the death of the person whose life was being remembered. As stated by his maternal aunt, this case had been seriously ill in his childhood days causing marked deterioration in his health and at one point he was even taken as dead. Subsequent to his recovery, and in response to a cue related to wearing shoes, he began to speak about his previous life family including his wife. He said that his wife had covered him with a sheet when he was dying and that he kissed her hand. On insistence, his father took him to a relation who lived in a nearby area of the person whose life was being claimed by this boy and a meeting with previous life family was arranged. In the meeting, this boy correctly recognized family members and his daughter of previous life and cried bitterly on seeing her.

Prof. Pasricha was closely associated with Prof. Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia for her research on children of reincarnation type. It was Prof. Stevenson who actually pioneered the scientific work on reincarnation. He visited many countries to collect evidence in favor of reincarnation. He visited India several times for collection of reports of fresh cases and follow up of the cases investigated earlier. His sample included many cases from the districts of UP including Agra. He placed much emphasis on birth marks/defects and xenoglossy as they could not otherwise be simulated or faked.

In Xenoglossy a child speaks a language to which he is never exposed in the current life. Scientifically, one cannot speak a foreign language unless one has an exposure to it; and if one speaks then there is a high likelihood that this ability transcended from previous lives. However, the occurrence of xenoglossy is rare.

Being a medical professional, he was in a unique position to scientifically study the birth marks and birth defects and correlate them with the wounds/injury in previous life. He corroborated birth marks with post-mortem reports, autopsies, medical and police records. He presented convincing evidence that these birth marks and defects have a high correspondence with the injury in the previous personality. The study of the mechanism of transmission of marks and defects in the new body is still a challenge to the modern science.

Hardo (2000) reported a convincing and interesting case. There is a Nation called Druse and the people here have a firm belief in reincarnation and use this conviction. They would examine the body of a neonate for the birthmarks and if present they would wait for the child to attain the verbal age and at that time they would speak to the child and try to explore if the child can provide any links or information related to the birth marks. If they come up with any such information, they would form a group of respected elders of the locality and examine the case. In one such case, birth mark was present on the upper forehead and as usual when the child attained the age of three years, he claimed to have belonged to a nearby village and was killed by a man with an axe. A native board of enquiry was formed who took the child to neighboring villages in a sequence guided by the clues of the child  When the board of enquiry along with the child reached the third village, the child could access more details of his previous life and recalled his own name of previous personality. There was an elderly person in the group from that village who confirmed that a person by that name had lived in the village but he is missing for four years. The team entered the village, and the boy showed them the house in which he lived; many persons assembled over there. Suddenly, this child approached a man and confronted him that we both were neighbors and had a fight and then you killed me with an axe. That man became white as a sheet. The three years old boy, told the group that he knew where he was buried and axe was hidden. The group followed the boy and that man was also requested to accompany. The boy showed them the location and it was dug, the remains of a body were recovered; and then the digging was done on the location of the axe pointed out by the boy; and the axe was also recovered. That man acknowledged having committed the murder.

Sri Gajraj Singh Gaur, a teacher of biology and research scholar at Sri Nehru Smarak College, Etah, U.P. (India) worked with Prof. Ian Stevenson and Prof. Satwant Pasricha for the study of the children of reincarnation type and published his contribution in National and International Journals. Gaur (2002) presented many convincing cases of reincarnation type in his book “Beyond Death”. His descriptions are brief and to the point which include pictures of the subjects highlighting birth marks and defects. I am citing a few of his observations in brief.

1. A middle aged person had birth defects and marks on his ears and neck which corresponded to the attack on his previous personality with a Kanta and spear on the ear and the neck.
2. A three years old child with a missing right lower arm in the current life had lost his right arm in a fodder machine in his previous personality.
3. An adolescent boy had three birth marks on his belly and waist which corresponded to the marks of the bullet through which his previous personality was killed by his enemy.
4. A young girl reported that she was a boy in her previous life and had died in an accident at Raja Ki Mandi Railway Station, Agra on June 1983.
5. A young girl had burn scars on her head and forehead which corresponded to the act of self-immolation by her previous personality by pouring kerosene on herself and setting to fire.
6. There is a report of twins who were friends and dacoit in previous personality.

On 18th September 2011, ‘Amar Ujala”, a Hindi newspaper, also published a report of twin brothers who were cousins in their previous personality. They were going to fix the marriage of their sister about 10 years back and had a bike accident near Agra.

Sri Rabindra Narayan Mishra, a former administrator of Sri Jagannath Temple, Puri (Orissa) published his experiences in the book titled “Kathanubhutire Sri Jagannath”. One of the instances provides a description of reincarnation.

A congenitally blind elderly person used to visit the Jagannath temple in the evening and became close to him. Mishraji’s daughter also used to take interest in him. The work of surgical removal of extra plaster on the walls of the temple was going on. This old and blind person was keeping a track of the extent of removal of the plaster through Mishraji. One day, that old person took Mishraji to a specific place in the temple and asked him to see above a pair of stone being depicted on the temple and described the female character in details including a ring in small finger. Mishraji became astonished and curious that being a congenitally blind, how he could accurately describe the features of this idol. He re-assured Mishraji and urged him to schedule a meeting in Konark Temple the following evening. Mishraji went to the Konark temple and the old person was already present there.

He oriented Mishraji to a specific place in the Konark temple and asked him to see above. Mishraji had a shock while viewing the idol at that place. It was identical to the one he saw in Puri temple. The face and every feature of the idol were exactly the same. He returned to the old man but the old man instead of allowing him to ask questions; began to reveal that both the idols were prepared by the same craftsman of the same lady. He then recounted that he himself was that craftsman. While the temple was being erected, for the purposes of strengthening competition, the King announced an honor for the craftsman who would make a unique idol. Many skilled persons got inspired and involved in using their creativity. He also prepared one. His idol was appreciated highest by the jury; but because of envy other craftsmen protested by saying that he crafted his own wife’s features hence it was not an act of creativity so he does not deserve the honor. But the King held that this piece is being appreciated the highest and would continue to receive appreciations; it does not matter if it reflected a live person. The old man added that the current life daughter of Mishraji was his daughter in that life time. He said that God is great and kind enough to make him blind in this birth as he could learn many things which he would not have with intact vision.

I would like to share some of the observations of Prof. Pasricha on reincarnation as understood by me.

1. She estimated the distance between the birth place of current personality and residence/death of remembered previous personality. The range of this distance was noted to be 0.2 km to 565.5 km with a median distance of 10 km giving an impression of possible re-birth of such cases in nearby geographical regions.
2. At what age a child begins to speak of his/her previous personality? Her analysis revealed a range of 2-4 years. It means very young children begin to speak of their previous life. It may be possible that they remember the events of their previous lives prior to verbally or behaviourally expressing them and break the ice as soon as they develop the speech mechanism to the extent required for making the statements.
3. The empirical observations of Prof. Pasricha revealed that at the median age of 79 months, such cases stopped spontaneously speaking of their previous lives. They however, would reveal when specifically asked to do so.
4. An interesting observation was the presence of unusual features in such cases which were readily comprehensible in the context of previous life personalities. For example, phobias and unusual religious inclinations. A child having hydrophobia revealed that his previous personality had drowned in a canal and died. A Hindu boy who was a Muslim in his previous personality, makes gestures of Islam.
5. What triggers memories of previous life in these children? The answer was nothing specific. About 75% children began to reveal their previous personality spontaneously but exposure to the events and persons related to the previous personality stimulated recall of further details.
6. Whether mode of death in previous life has any bearing on the remembrance of such cases. She observed that the mode of death of previous personality in 52% cases was natural and in 48% cases it was violent or unnatural which exceeded the proportion of violent death in general population (6.7%). The deaths by accident, suicide, murder were grouped into the category of violent or unnatural deaths.
7. What is the rest period between the end of previous personality and re-birth? This question was addressed by her in the analysis of intermission between death of related previous personality and presumed re-birth. A median interval of 14.5 months was observed with a range of 1 day to 224 months.
8. Birth marks are assigned a special significance within the researches on the cases of reincarnation type. Some of the cases present one or the other marks on the body at the time of birth which may be noticed by the family immediately or within a few days of the birth. Such cases of birth marks may give a reasonable account of the circumstances of death of a previous personality which resulted in these birth marks. About 42% of her subjects had birth marks.
9. In some of the cases, she observed announcing dreams. An “announcing dream” is a dream which is supposed to reveal the identity of the deceased person being reborn. Usually, a few expectant mothers may have such dreams and in exceptional cases, such dreams may occur to other family members too.
10. In some cases it was seen that the previous personality took rebirth in one’s own family.

Prof. Pasricha is a behavioral scientist and conducts her investigations accordingly. While communicating the results of her investigations, she would conform to the scientific language. She would prefer to say evidence/cases suggestive of reincarnation instead of cases of confirmed re-birth. As part of interpretation of her results she evaluated her findings against many conceivable hypotheses which are briefly discussed below.

Fraud: In fraud, a person deceives or gain advantages by deliberate trickery. It may be possible that for financial or other kind of gains, a child may act fraudulently and pose as a rebirth of a specific person. But fraud does not explain most of the cases because very young children begin to speak of their previous personality, and as such at young age it is highly unlikely that a child can conceive, plan and execute fraudulent activities; collect details of previous personality and remain consistent over time. The elderly persons in the family can coach a child for speaking something for a gain; but this coaching can become readily evident in the course of explorations. Prof. Pasricha encountered a case of such fraud in her research.

Genetic or Inherited Memory: When a memory is present at birth in the absence of corresponding sensory experience, it is called genetic memory. It is based on the idea that common experiences of a specie become incorporated into its genetic code. It explains only general and vague tendencies of a specie to behave in a certain manner and it is common to all members of that specie. It does not include detailed memory of isolated experiences such as name of specific places, persons and the description of an event in an individual member of the specie. The children of reincarnation type exhibit specific memories of their previous personality which cannot be explained by the concept of genetic memory.

Cryptomnesia: In cryptomnesia there is an activation of previously acquired but forgotten memory. The person feels as if it is a fresh and new memory. For Cryptomnesia to occur, it need be demonstrated that the experience/memory was acquired; forgotten and then retrieved with an impression as if it is a new memory. For young children of 2-4 years of age, it is highly improbable to attribute that they acquired the information of previous personality from some other sources; forgot them and then spontaneously retrieved. In many cases, the family of pervious life personality were not known to the child and family of current personality.

Paramnesia: In paramnesia, an imagined/fantasized or dreamt event is believed in as genuine and correct. However, the cases of reincarnation type give account of accurate and genuine details and hence, they do not fall under this category. In déjà vu there is a sense of familiarity with the places or events upon first time exposure. This is a triggered phenomenon in response to some cues and is limited just to the sense of familiarity. It does not involve a detailed or vivid account of the experiences related to the events and places such as seen in cases of reincarnation type.

Extra-sensory Perception: Through extra-sensory perception (ESP), a person may remotely and without normal and physical means of communication, may acquire the information related to an object or experience.  It may be said that the cases of reincarnation type acquired the information through this ability. Alright, it may appear plausible at its face value to some extent. This ability is usually generic and not restricted to a highly narrowed events, experiences and information. If cases of reincarnation type have such ESP abilities then it should get manifested in areas other than the statements related to the previous personality. In most cases of reincarnation type there was no evidence of this generic ability of ESP. Moreover, ESP can only be restricted to psychosocial aspects. It is nearly impossible that an access into previous personality information can cause birth marks and defects in body which are found to have correspondence with previous personalities.

Possession: Possession is a paranormal and/or supernatural event in which it is said that spirits, gods, demons, animas, extraterrestrials, or other disincarnate or extraterrestrial entities take control of a human body, resulting in noticeable changes in health and behaviour. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Spirit_possession Retrieved on 23rd July 2011). A positive consideration of this hypothesis to explain the cases of reincarnation type can be a major shift towards the hypothesis of reincarnation because possession itself is based on the hypothesis of survival of consciousness after physical death. If this survived thing which is known by different names such as consciousness, spirit can take over another human being then the same entity can take re-births. However, the concept of possession implies duality of consciousness in the possessed person that is the consciousness of the previous personality and the consciousness of the current personality which take hold of the person in alternating manner. But the cases of reincarnation type cannot be explained on the basis of this duality of awareness.

Reincarnation: To an astute researcher, the only explanation for such cases is that of rebirth. Most of the cases investigated by Prof. Pasricha favor the hypothesis of reincarnation. That is, the cases do suggest for a possibility of re-birth of the claimed previous personalities.

The support to the reincarnation theory may come from multiple sources which include spontaneous recall of previous life, past life regression, extra-ordinary talents in early childhood and so on. But still there is a need for more scientific investigations particularly for establishing the mechanism of reincarnation.