University of Virginia Library

Life After Death?

The Doctor May Have Something Here

By Rob Buford
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Think of it. Robert, a six year
old boy of the Belgian town of
Knocke was totally convinced that
a portrait of his Uncle Albert, a
victim of World War I, was in fact a
picture of himself.

His paternal grandmother,
whose favorite child had been the
same Uncle Albert, noted a succession
of uncanny similarities
between her son and grandson:
Robert called her names only
Albert had used, held knowledge
only she and her son had possessed
and was a natural athlete, a great
diver, just like his uncle.

One time, someone pointed a
motion picture camera at the boy
and began filming - click, click,
click - "Don't, don't," screamed
the kid, "they killed me that way
last time." His uncle had died
storming a German machine gun
emplacement.

This and scores of other cases of
a like nature comprise the bulk of
research material for Dr. Ian
Stevenson's work on reincarnation.
Alumni Professor of Psychiatry at
the University, Dr. Stevenson is the
country's foremost investigator of
phenomena involving afterlife. A
major article in the October 20
issue of LOOK Magazine deals with
the man and his work.

An unorthodox subject it is for
a man so highly respected in the
scientific world. Not that the doctor
is without his detractors - some
of whom view him as a sensationalist.
Chief among his backers and
benefactors was the late Chester
Carlson who invented Xerox.

Hundreds of cases of claimed or
suspected life after death have
come under the scrutiny of Dr.
Stevenson and his worldwide network
of agents, who keep him
informed of new possibilities in
their localities. The doctor travels
extensively and within the last 18
months has visited India. Great
Britain, Lebanon (all twice), as well
as Thailand, Turkey and Germany.

A subject who is alive should be
reached promptly, says Dr. Stevenson,
and "when a child less than
three years old reports memories,
we have, if we arrive promptly, the
chance to exclude firmly the possibility
that he acquired the information
ordinarily."

The investigations involve far
more than simple interviews and
subsequent speculation. As many as
twenty persons may be contacted
in reference to the case subject -
family, neighbors, anyone connected
with the remembered or the
discovered subject. A further check
may come several years later when
the circle of investigation is often
widened and intensified.

Nothing is overlooked if Dr.
Stevenson can help it. Painstakingly,
he goes over public documents
- birth and death certificates,
real estate records, phone
book entries and information from
city directories. Only with this sort
of effort has Dr. Stevenson been
able to legitimize his field of study
in the eyes of a scientific community
more given to straitlaced
skepticism than willing acceptance.

Uphill, then, the doctor is going,
but his measure of success shows
through in a reading of the LOOK
article, which itself relates several
other stories like that of young
Robert - accounts of Midwest
Americans and Indian residents of
Delhi alike - each sharing the
striking preoccupation that theirs is
a life lived before.

Dr. Stevenson conceives of more
than a few alternative explanations
for reported cases of reincarnation.
The first is, as some will assume in
all instances, fraud. He low-rates it,
according to the magazine story,
stressing that the rewards for
claiming oneself as a reincarnated
soul are low. Publicity goes not
much further, and the doctor's
experience teaches him that few
people are inclined to make claims
they know to be untrue. Such cases
are simply too hard to verify - too
easy to refute.

Another explanation suggests
the deriving of memories from
sources which are somehow forgotten,
thus giving rise to the illusion
that reincarnation has occurred:

Case: A young man under
hypnosis talked in a tongue later
identified as Oscan, a dialect of
third century B.C. Italy. Strange
stuff, until it was discovered that
the source of the man's knowledge
of the language was a copy of an
Oscan grammar book lying open
before the subject's eyes as he
daydreamed. Subconsciously, his
mind had picked up the information,
storing parts of what he read.

Other reasons offered for
apparent cases are race memory
(memories of races passed through
the genes from one generation to
the next); possession (occupation
of the rememberer's body by a
living or surviving disparate
personality); the more familiar
extrasensory perception of the
apparent memories in the minds of
living persons; precognition; and
communications from a surviving
personality. Dr. Stevenson discounts
them all, although they may
be relevant in some cases.

More work is the doctor's
suggestion for a stronger case for
the existence of reincarnation, and
he states the need for both private
assistance and information relay
from the general public are essential
if a pattern is to be identified
substantially.

The president of the American
Society for Psychical Research, Dr.
Gardner Murphy, has praised the
work of his colleague, saying, "I
know of no investigator today using
better and more rational methods."

Currently, there exist no sure
answers to the questions of life
after death, but as the LOOK article
illustrates, Dr. Stevenson has
done much to create the essential
elements of scientific respectability
for his field. The issue appears this
week and is deserving not only as a
study of a local figure, but as a
matter of considerable importance
in our evolving scientific scope and
knowledge.