2014 Reading: Life Before Life by Jim B. Tucker
Life Before Life: Children’s Memories of Previous Lives
Jim B. Tucker, M.D.
St. Martin’s, 2005
Dr. Tucker recently spoke at my local bookstore. I was interested in attending but had a conflict. I did however, pick up one of his books and have just read it. The book doesn’t claim to prove reincarnation, but it does offer considerable evidence for it in the form of the statements by children of their memories of previous lives. Many cases are offered, and these are, apparently, just a small sampling of the data that Dr. Tucker and his colleagues have amassed.
The cases reported include birthmarks or birth defects that somehow reflect the mode of death of the “prior personality,” or experimental birthmarks that are placed on the prior personality’s body and then carry over, or other memories that are in various ways “verified.” As a good rhetorician, Dr. Tucker also addresses both the objections to the evidence and the alternative explanations, concluding in most cases that reincarnation offers the most logical explanation for the cases.
The author includes an entire chapter to the issue of materialism, and the objection based on the fact that only the material world exists. But, he argues, our knowledge of physics is evolving, and some physicists now acknowledge that materialism may not be all that there is.
It’s all very interesting to me. On the one hand, I am a firm believer in the material world until another form of existence is proven. On the other hand, I find the notion of reincarnation extremely attractive.
When I was in high school, using hypnosis to achieve past life regressions was something of a fad. One of my friends was able to get a local dentist who was a hypnotist to come to small gathering in her basement and to “put us under” to see what he could learn about our past lives. I don’t recall specifics, but some of our group did offer details of past lives. My recollection is that I did not.
Anyway, I’m still fascinated by the subject and now, having read this book, I need to do some more reading.
