Birthmarks May Be Indicators Of Suffering In Our Past Lives, According To This 1961 Study Of Children Who Recalled Past Life Memories
If your child has ever told a story or described an event that they definitely did not experience in this lifetime, then they might have been recalling a past life memory.
Memories of past lives are thought to remain with young children since they are closer to what possibly came before. There are records of children recalling everything from fighting in World War II to being Hollywood agents to actually being in their mother’s womb.
And sometimes, young children speak about more unsettling details– such as family strife or even their supposed cause of death in the past.
This phenomenon hints at reincarnation, or the belief that a person’s soul can be reborn in a new physical form or body after biological death. Interestingly, though, one 1961 study suggested that past life memories are not the only evidence of reincarnation.
That year, Ian Stevenson– who was the chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia at the time– began to study children from all over the world who claimed to remember their past lives. And though every case was different, nearly all of the children still had a striking similarity– a birthmark.
More specifically, when Ian interviewed the children about their memories, many spoke of how they suffered in their past life. And most commonly, these instances of suffering coincided with memories of their death.
And what Ian found was that those children who spoke about violent or suffering pasts had birthmarks that reflected their stories.
Ian noted how the birthmarks were not like the common “beauty marks” or small discolorations that people have on their skin, either. Instead, they were much more prominent, unusual in size or shape, and commonly raised or puckered rather than flat on the skin.
Eighteen of the children also had two of these birthmarks in opposing places, which signified entry and exit wounds.
anoushkatoronto – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purpose only, not the actual person
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Most notably, a boy named Chanai from Thailand was born with one small, round birthmark on the back of his head. And above his left eye, Chanai had a larger and more abnormally-shaped mark.
And while Ian interviewed Chanai, he learned that the boy remembered being a schoolteacher named Bua Kai.
The boy also recalled being shot while bicycling to school one day and was even able to provide the names of previous family members.
Still, birthmarks are not the only indicators of reincarnation, according to the study. Instead, Ian found that birth defects may run in the same vein and represent supposed connections between present and past lives.
One such case involved a boy from the United States who was born with pulmonary valve atresia– a condition that prevents the proper oxygenation of blood. He was also born with an improperly formed right ventricle due to the condition.
And bizarrely, the boy’s birth defect was strikingly similar to the fatal gunshot wound his grandfather had suffered during a robbery.
As he got older, the boy also recalled his grandfather’s death several times and even provided numerous accurate details about his grandfather’s personal belongings.
So, Ian concluded that birthmarks and birth defects might be examples of psychosomatic phenomena in which the mind and body interact.
In other words, if a deceased person’s spirit or consciousness can somehow continue into a new physical form, then a mental image of the past may alter their fetal development.
Of course, there have been various critiques and rejections of this conclusion over the years. For instance, William Roll– a parapsychologist– suggested that perhaps telepathy is a better way to explain this phenomenon as opposed to reincarnation.
And Paul Edwards, a philosopher, was highly critical of reincarnation as a whole– arguing that there was no good reason to believe such a process exists, and even if it did, it would not carry over physical scars.
Despite the pushback, though, Ian’s study was still a very early investigation of past life memories that was ahead of its time. And if you choose to believe his findings, then perhaps there is more evidence of reincarnation and a “before” than just oral stories alone.
To learn more about Ian Stevenson’s study findings, you can read Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects, linked here.
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