Katharina Buczek
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.
