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Ian Pretyman Stevenson (October 31, 1918 – February 8, 2007) was a
Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source o ...
-born American
psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...
, the founder and director of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the
University of Virginia School of Medicine The University of Virginia School of Medicine (UVA SoM) is the graduate medical school of the University of Virginia. The school's facilities are on the University of Virginia grounds adjacent to The Lawn, Academical Village in Charlottesville, V ...
. He was a professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine for fifty years. He was chair of their department of psychiatry from 1957 to 1967, Carlson Professor of Psychiatry from 1967 to 2001, and Research Professor of Psychiatry from 2002 until his death in 2007. As founder and director of the University of Virginia School of Medicine's Division of Perceptual Studies (originally named "Division of Personality Studies"), which investigates the
paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...
, Stevenson became known for his research into cases he considered suggestive of reincarnation – the idea that emotions, memories, and even physical bodily features can be passed on from one incarnation to another. In the course of his forty years doing international fieldwork, he researched three thousand cases of children who claimed to remember past lives. His position was that certain
phobia A phobia is an anxiety disorder defined by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically result in a rapid onset of fear and are usually present for more than six months. Those affected go to great lengths to avoi ...
s,
philia ''Philia'' (; ), is one of the four ancient Greek words for love: ''philia'', ''storge'', ''agape'' and ''eros''. In Aristotle's ''Nicomachean Ethics'', philia is usually translated as "friendship" or affection. The complete opposite is cal ...
s, unusual abilities and illnesses could not be fully explained by genetics or the environment. He believed that, in addition to genetics and the environment, reincarnation might possibly provide a third, contributing factor. Stevenson helped to found the Society for Scientific Exploration in 1982, and was the author of around three hundred papers and fourteen books on reincarnation, including '' Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation'' (1966), ''Cases of the Reincarnation Type'' (four volumes, 1975-1983) and '' European Cases of the Reincarnation Type'' (2003). His 1997 work ''Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects'' reported two hundred cases in which birthmarks and birth defects seemed to correspond in some way to a wound on the deceased person whose life the child recalled. He wrote a shorter version of the same research for the general reader, ''
Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect ''Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect'' is a 1997 book by psychiatrist Ian Stevenson, published by Praeger. The book is about birthmarks and birth defects ostensibly associated with reincarnation. ''Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersec ...
'' (1997). Reaction to his work was mixed. In an obituary for Stevenson in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
,''
Margalit Fox Margalit Fox (born 1961) is an American writer. She began her career in publishing in the 1980s, before switching to journalism in the 1990s. She joined the obituary department of ''The New York Times'' in 2004, and authored over 1,400 obituarie ...
wrote that Stevenson's
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saw him as a misunderstood genius, that his detractors regarded him as earnest but gullible, but that most scientists had simply ignored his research. His life and work became the subject of the supportive books '' Old Souls: The Scientific Search for Proof of Past Lives'' (1999) by
Tom Shroder Tom Shroder (born 1954 in New York City) is a journalist, writer and editor who worked for the ''Washington Post'' for many years. Biography Shroder is the author of ''The Most Famous Writer Who Ever Lived: A True Story of My Family'' (2016) an ...
(a '' Washington Post'' journalist), ''
Life Before Life __NOTOC__ ''Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives'' is a 2005 book written by psychiatrist Jim B. Tucker, which presents an overview of more than 40 years of reincarnation research at the Universit ...
'' (2005) by Jim B. Tucker (a psychiatrist and colleague at the University of Virginia who now heads the division Stevenson founded), and ''Science, the Self, and Survival after Death'' (2012), by Emily Williams Kelly.
Critics A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governme ...
, particularly the philosophers C.T.K. Chari (1909–1993) and Paul Edwards (1923–2004), raised a number of issues, including instances where the children or parents interviewed by Stevenson had deceived him, instances of Stevenson asking leading questions in his interviews, and problems with working through translators who credulously believed what the interviewees were saying at face value. Stevenson's critics contend that ultimately his conclusions are undermined by confirmation bias, where cases not supportive of his hypothesis were not presented as counting against it, and
motivated reasoning Motivated reasoning is the phenomenon in cognitive science and social psychology in which emotional biases lead to justifications or decisions based on their desirability rather than an accurate reflection of the evidence. It is the "tendency to ...
since Stevenson had always maintained a personal belief in reincarnation as a fact of reality rather than also considering the possibility that it may not happen at all.Carroll 2009, article on his website ''The Skeptic's Dictionary''


Background


Personal life and education

Ian Stevenson was born in Montreal and raised in Ottawa, one of three children. His father, John Stevenson, was a Scottish lawyer who was working in Ottawa as the Canadian correspondent for ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fo ...
'' of London or ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. His mother, Ruth, had an interest in
theosophy Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion ...
and an extensive library on the subject, to which Stevenson attributed his own early interest in the paranormal. As a child he was often bedridden with
bronchitis Bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchi (large and medium-sized airways) in the lungs that causes coughing. Bronchitis usually begins as an infection in the nose, ears, throat, or sinuses. The infection then makes its way down to the bronchi. S ...
, a condition that continued into adulthood and engendered in him a lifelong love of books. According to Emily Williams Kelly, a colleague of his at the University of Virginia, he maintained a list of the books he had read, which numbered 3,535 between 1935 and 2003. He studied medicine at St. Andrews University in Scotland from 1937 to 1939, but had to complete his studies in Canada because of the outbreak of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. He graduated from
McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University ...
with a B.S.c. in 1942 and an M.D. in 1943. He was married to Octavia Reynolds from 1947 until her death in 1983. In 1985, he married Dr. Margaret Pertzoff (1926–2009), professor of history at
Randolph-Macon Woman's College Randolph College is a private liberal arts and sciences college in Lynchburg, Virginia. Founded in 1891 as Randolph-Macon Woman's College, it was renamed on July 1, 2007, when it became coeducational. The college offers 32 majors; 42 minors; ...
. She did not share his views on the paranormal, but tolerated them with what Stevenson called "benevolent silences."


Early career

After graduating, Stevenson conducted research in
biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...
. His first residency was at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal (1944–1945), but his lung condition continued to bother him, and one of his professors at McGill advised him to move to Arizona for his health., pp. 13–14. He took up a residency at St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona (1945–1946). After that, he held a fellowship in internal medicine at the Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation in New Orleans, became a Denis Fellow in Biochemistry at Tulane University School of Medicine (1946–1947), and a Commonwealth Fund Fellow in Medicine at Cornell University Medical College and New York Hospital (1947–1949). He became a U.S. citizen in 1949. Emily Williams Kelly writes that Stevenson became dissatisfied with the
reductionism Reductionism is any of several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between phenomena which can be described in terms of other simpler or more fundamental phenomena. It is also described as an intellectual and philosophical pos ...
he encountered in biochemistry, and wanted to study the whole person. He became interested in
psychosomatic medicine Psychosomatic medicine is an interdisciplinary medical field exploring the relationships among social, psychological, behavioral factors on bodily processes and quality of life in humans and animals. The academic forebear of the modern field of ...
, psychiatry and
psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might ...
, and in the late 1940s, worked at New York Hospital exploring psychosomatic illness and the effects of stress, and in particular why one person's response to stress might be asthma and another's high blood pressure.. He taught at
Louisiana State University School of Medicine Louisiana State University School of Medicine refers to two separate medical schools in Louisiana: LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans and LSU School of Medicine in Shreveport. See also * LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans * LSU Health Scienc ...
from 1949 to 1957 as assistant, then associate, professor of psychiatry. In the 1950s, he met
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxley ...
(1894–1963), known for his advocacy of
psychedelic drug Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science o ...
s, and studied the effects of L.S.D. and
mescaline Mescaline or mescalin (3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine) is a naturally occurring psychedelic protoalkaloid of the substituted phenethylamine class, known for its hallucinogenic effects comparable to those of LSD and psilocybin. Biological sour ...
, one of the first academics to do so. Ian Stevenson, in his course of studies, tried and studied L.S.D. himself, describing three days of "perfect serenity." He wrote that at the time he felt he could "never be angry again," but added, "As it happens that didn't work out, but the memory of it persisted as something to hope for." From 1951, he studied psychoanalysis at the New Orleans Psychoanalytic Institute and the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, graduating from the latter in 1958, a year after being appointed head of the department of psychiatry at the University of Virginia. He argued against the orthodoxy within psychiatry and psychoanalysis at the time that the personality is more
plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptabi ...
in the early years; his paper on the subject, "Is the human personality more plastic in infancy and childhood?" (''American Journal of Psychiatry'', 1957), was not received well by his colleagues. He wrote that their response prepared him for the rejection he experienced over his work on the paranormal.


Reincarnation research


Early interest

Stevenson described as the
leitmotif A leitmotif or leitmotiv () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is an anglici ...
of his career his interest in why one person would develop one disease, and another something different. He came to believe that neither environment nor heredity could account for certain fears, illnesses and special abilities, and that some form of personality or memory transfer might provide a third type of explanation. He acknowledged, however, the absence of evidence of a physical process by which a personality could survive death and transfer to another body, and he was careful not to commit himself fully to the position that reincarnation occurs. He argued only that his case studies could not, in his view, be explained by environment or heredity, and that "reincarnation is the best – even though not the only – explanation for the stronger cases we have investigated." He said in 1974, looking back on his work:
at I do believe is that, of the cases we now know, reincarnation--at least for some--is the best explanation that we have been able to come up with. There is an impressive body of evidence and it is getting stronger all the time. I think a rational person, if he wants, can believe in reincarnation on the basis of evidence.
In 1958 and 1959, Stevenson contributed several articles and book reviews to '' Harper's'' about
parapsychology Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near- ...
, including psychosomatic illness and
extrasensory perception Extrasensory perception or ESP, also called sixth sense, is a claimed paranormal ability pertaining to reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses, but sensed with the mind. The term was adopted by Duke Universit ...
, and in 1958, he submitted the winning entry to a competition organized by the
American Society for Psychical Research The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the United States dedicated to parapsychology. It maintains offices and a library, in New York City, which are open to both members and the gener ...
, in honor of the philosopher
William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the la ...
(1842–1910). The prize was for the best essay on "paranormal mental phenomena and their relationship to the problem of survival of the human personality after bodily death." Stevenson's essay, "The Evidence for Survival from Claimed Memories of Former Incarnations" (1960), reviewed forty-four published cases of people, mostly children, who claimed to remember past lives. It caught the attention of Eileen J. Garrett (1893–1970), the founder of the Parapsychology Foundation, who gave Stevenson a grant to travel to India to interview a child who was claiming to have past-life memories. According to Jim Tucker, Stevenson found twenty-five other cases in just four weeks in India and was able to publish his first book on the subject in 1966, '' Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation''.
Chester Carlson Chester Floyd Carlson (February 8, 1906 – September 19, 1968) was an American physicist, inventor, and patent attorney born in Seattle, Washington. Carlson invented electrophotography, the process used by millions of photocopiers worldwide. Ca ...
(1906–1968), the inventor of
xerography Xerography is a dry photocopying technique. Originally called electrophotography, it was renamed xerography—from the roots el, ξηρός, label=none ''xeros'', meaning "dry" and -γραφία ''-graphia'', meaning "writing"—to emphasiz ...
, offered further financial help. Jim Tucker writes that this allowed Stevenson to step down as chair of the psychiatry department and set up a separate division within the department, which he called the Division of Personality Studies, later renamed the Division of Perceptual Studies."History and description"
Division of Perceptual Studies, University of Virginia.
When Carlson died in 1968, he left $1,000,000 to the University of Virginia to continue Stevenson's work. The bequest caused controversy within the university because of the nature of the research, but the donation was accepted, and Stevenson became the first Carlson Professor of Psychiatry.


Case studies


Overview

The bequest from Chester Carlson allowed Stevenson to travel extensively, sometimes as much as 55,000 miles a year, collecting around three thousand case studies based on interviews with children from Africa to Alaska. In one case of claimed reincarnation, as Stevenson recounted it, a newborn girl in Sri Lanka screamed whenever she was carried near a bus or a bath. When she was old enough to talk, he said, she recounted a previous life as a girl of 8 or 9 who drowned after a bus knocked her into a flooded
rice paddy A paddy field is a flooded field of arable land used for growing semiaquatic crops, most notably rice and taro. It originates from the Neolithic rice-farming cultures of the Yangtze River basin in southern China, associated with pre-Aus ...
; later investigation found the family of just such a dead girl living four or five kilometers away. The two families, Stevenson said, were believed to have had no contact. According to journalist Tom Shroder, "In interviewing witnesses and reviewing documents, Stevenson searched for alternate ways to account for the testimony: that the child came upon the information in some normal way, that the witnesses were engaged in fraud or self-delusion, that the correlations were the result of coincidence or misunderstanding. But in scores of cases, Stevenson concluded that no normal explanation sufficed." In some cases, a child in a "past life" case may have birthmarks or birth defects that in some way correspond to physical features of the "previous person" whose life the child seems to remember. Stevenson's ''Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects'' (1997) examined two hundred cases of birth defects or birthmarks on children claiming past-life memories. These included children with malformed or missing fingers who said they recalled the lives of people who had lost fingers; a boy with birthmarks resembling entrance and exit wounds who said he recalled the life of someone who had been shot; and a child with a scar around her skull three centimetres wide who said she recalled the life of a man who had had skull surgery. In many of the cases, in Stevenson's view, the witness testimony or autopsy reports appeared to support the existence of the injuries on the deceased's body.


Reception


Criticism

The ''Journal of the American Medical Association'' referred to Stevenson's ''Cases of the Reincarnation Type'' (1975) as a "painstaking and unemotional" collection of cases that were "difficult to explain on any assumption other than reincarnation." In September 1977, the ''
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease ''The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal on psychopathology. It was established in 1874 as the ''Chicago Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease''. "Chicago" was dropped from the title beginning in 1876. Articl ...
'' devoted most of one issue to Stevenson's research.Brody, September 1977
Writing in the journal, the psychiatrist Harold Lief described Stevenson as a methodical investigator and added, "Either he is making a colossal mistake, or he will be known (I have said as much to him) as 'the Galileo of the 20th century'."Lief, September 1977
The issue proved popular: the journal's editor, the psychiatrist
Eugene Brody Eugene Bloor Brody (1921–2010) was an American psychiatrist. Brody was chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Dean for Social and Behavioral Studies at the University of Maryland. Brody was ...
, said he had received 300–400 requests for reprints.Edwards 1996, p. 253. Despite this early interest, most scientists ignored Stevenson's work. According to his ''New York Times'' obituary, his detractors saw him as "earnest, dogged but ultimately misguided, led astray by gullibility, wishful thinking and a tendency to see science where others saw superstition." Critics suggested that the children or their parents had deceived him, that he was too willing to believe them, and that he had asked them leading questions.
Robert Todd Carroll Robert Todd Carroll (May 18, 1945 – August 25, 2016) was an American author, philosopher and academic, best known for The Skeptic's Dictionary. He described himself as a naturalist, an atheist, a materialist, a metaphysical libertarian, and a ...
wrote in his ''Skeptic's Dictionary'' that Stevenson's results were subject to confirmation bias, in that cases not supportive of the hypothesis were not presented as counting against it.Carroll 2009, article on his website ''The Skeptic's Dictionary''
Leonard Angel, a philosopher of religion, told ''The New York Times'' that Stevenson did not follow proper standards. " t you do have to look carefully to see it; that's why he's been very persuasive to many people." In an article in ''
Skeptical Inquirer ''Skeptical Inquirer'' is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle: ''The Magazine for Science and Reason''. Mission statement and goals Daniel Loxton, writing in 2 ...
'' Angel examined Stevenson’s ''Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation'' (1974) and concluded that the research was so poorly conducted as to cast doubt on all Stevenson's work. He says that Stevenson failed to clearly and concisely document the claims made before attempting to verify them. Among a number of other faults, Angel says, Stevenson asked leading questions and did not properly tabulate or account for all erroneous statements. Angel writes:
Skeptics Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...
have written that Stevenson's evidence was anecdotal and by applying
Occam's razor Occam's razor, Ockham's razor, or Ocham's razor ( la, novacula Occami), also known as the principle of parsimony or the law of parsimony ( la, lex parsimoniae), is the problem-solving principle that "entities should not be multiplied beyond neces ...
there are prosaic explanations for the cases without invoking the paranormal. Science writer
Terence Hines Terence Hines (born 22 March 1951) is a professor of psychology at Pace University, New York, and adjunct professor of neurology at the New York Medical College; he is also a science writer. Hines has a BA from Duke University, and an MA and ...
has written: Robert Baker wrote that many of the alleged past-life experiences investigated by Stevenson and other parapsychologists can be explained in terms of known psychological factors. Baker attributed the recalling of past lives to a mixture of
cryptomnesia Cryptomnesia occurs when a forgotten memory returns without its being recognized as such by the subject, who believes it is something new and original. It is a memory bias whereby a person may falsely recall generating a thought, an idea, a tune ...
and
confabulation In psychology, confabulation is a memory error defined as the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world. It is generally associated with certain types of brain damage (especially aneurysm in the an ...
. British author and religious studies scholar, Ian Wilson, argued that a large number of Stevenson's cases consisted of poor children remembering wealthy lives or belonging to a higher caste. He speculated that such cases may represent a scheme to obtain money from the family of the alleged former incarnation. The philosopher C.T.K. Chari of
Madras Christian College Madras Christian College (MCC) is a liberal arts and sciences college in Chennai, India. Founded in 1837, MCC is one of Asia's oldest extant colleges. The college is affiliated to the University of Madras but functions as an autonomous institu ...
in Chennai, a specialist in parapsychology, argued that Stevenson was naive and that the case studies were undermined by his lack of local knowledge. Chari wrote that many of the cases had come from societies, such as that of India, where people believed in reincarnation, and that the stories were simply
cultural artifact A cultural artifact, or cultural artefact (see American and British English spelling differences), is a term used in the social sciences, particularly anthropology, ethnology and sociology for anything created by humans which gives information ...
s; he argued that, for children in many Asian countries, the recall of a past life is the equivalent of an imaginary playmate. The philosopher Keith Augustine made a similar argument. Responding to this cultural argument, Stevenson said that it was precisely those societies that listened to children's claims about past lives, which in Europe or North America would normally be dismissed without investigation.. To address the cultural concern, he wrote '' European Cases of the Reincarnation Type'' (2003), which presented forty cases he had examined in Europe. Moreover, Joseph Prabhu, professor emeritus of philosophy and religion at California State University, wrote that it is not true "that these cases are mainly to be found in cultures, where the belief in reincarnation is prevalent. In July 1974 Stevenson's colleague at the University of Virginia, J. G. Pratt, carried out a census of Stevenson's cases and found that of the 1339 cases then in Stevenson's file, 'the United States has the most, with 324 cases (not counting American Indian and Eskimo) and the next five countries in descending order are Burma (139 cases), India (135), Turkey (114), and Great Britain (111).'" The philosopher Paul Edwards, editor-in-chief of Macmillan's ''
Encyclopedia of Philosophy '' The Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' is one of the major English encyclopedias of philosophy. The first edition of the encyclopedia was edited by philosopher Paul Edwards (1923–2004), and it was published in two separate printings by Macmilla ...
'', became Stevenson's chief critic. From 1986 onwards, he devoted several articles to Stevenson's work, and discussed Stevenson in his ''Reincarnation: A Critical Examination'' (1996). He argued that Stevenson's views were "absurd nonsense" and that when examined in detail his case studies had "big holes" and "do not even begin to add up to a significant counterweight to the initial presumption against reincarnation." Stevenson, Edwards wrote, "evidently lives in a cloud-cuckoo-land." Champe Ransom, whom Stevenson hired as an assistant in the 1970s, wrote an unpublished report about Stevenson's work, which Edwards cites in his ''Immortality'' (1992) and ''Reincarnation'' (1996). According to Ransom, Edwards wrote, Stevenson asked the children leading questions, filled in gaps in the narrative, did not spend enough time interviewing them, and left too long a period between the claimed recall and the interview; it was often years after the first mention of a recall that Stevenson learned about it. In only eleven of the 1,111 cases Ransom looked at had there been no contact between the families of the deceased and of the child before the interview; in addition, according to Ransom, seven of those eleven cases were seriously flawed. He also wrote that there were problems with the way Stevenson presented the cases, in that he would report his witnesses' conclusions, rather than the data upon which the conclusions rested. Weaknesses in cases would be reported in a separate part of his books, rather than during the discussion of the cases themselves. Ransom concluded that it all amounted to anecdotal evidence of the weakest kind. In ''Death and Personal Survival'' (1992), Robert Almeder, professor emeritus of philosophy at Georgia State University, holds that Ransom was false in stating that there were only 11 cases with no prior contact between the two families concerned.. According to Almeder there were 23 such cases.Almeder 1992, pp
34ff60
Edwards cited the case of Corliss Chotkin, Jr., in
Angoon, Alaska Angoon (sometimes formerly spelled Angun, tli, Aangóon) is a city on Admiralty Island in Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 572; by the 2010 census the population had declined to 459. The ...
, described in Stevenson's ''Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation'' (1966), as an example that relied entirely on the word of one woman, the niece of Victor Vincent, a fisherman. (Victor Vincent was the person whose life Corliss Chotkin, Jr., seemed to remember.) Edwards wrote that, among the many weaknesses in the case, the family were religious believers in reincarnation, Chotkin had birthmarks that were said to have resembled scars that Vincent had but Stevenson had not seen Vincent's scars, and all the significant details relied on the niece. Edwards said that Stevenson offered no information about her, except that several people told him she had a tendency, as Stevenson put it, to embellish or invent stories. Edwards wrote that similar weaknesses could be found in all Stevenson's case studies.Edwards 1996, pp. 136–138; Stevenson 1966
pp. 259–269
In Stevenson's defense, Robert Almeder wrote in 1997 that the Chotkin case was one of Stevenson's weaker ones. Edwards charged that Stevenson referred to himself as a scientist but did not act like one. According to Edwards, he failed to respond to, or even mention, significant objections; the large bibliography in Stevenson's ''Children Who Remember Previous Lives'' (1987) does not include one paper or book from his opponents. Stevenson wrote an introduction to a book, ''Second Time Round'' (1975), in which Edward Ryall, an Englishman, told of what he believed to be his memories of a past life as John Fletcher, a man who was born in 1645 in Taunton, England, and died forty years later near his home in Westonzoyland, Somerset. John Taylor. (1980). ''Science and the Supernatural: An Investigation of Paranormal Phenomena Including Psychic Healing, Clairvoyance, Telepathy, and Precognition by a Distinguished Physicist and Mathematician''. Temple Smith. pp. 127-130. Stevenson investigated the case and discovered that some of the historical features from Ryall's book were accurate. Stevenson wrote, "I think it most probable that he has memories of a real previous life and that he is indeed John Fletcher reborn, as he believes himself to be". In 1976, however, John Taylor discovered that none of the available church records at the Westonzoyland church from 1645 to 1685 had entries for births, marriages, or deaths for the name Fletcher. Since no trace of the name could be found, he concluded that no man called John Fletcher actually existed and that the supposed memories were a fantasy Ryall had developed over the years. Stevenson later altered his opinion about the case. In his book '' European Cases of the Reincarnation Type,'' he wrote, "I can no longer believe that ''all'' of Edward Ryall's apparent memories derive from a previous life, because some of his details are clearly wrong," but he still suggested that Ryall acquired some information about 17th-century Somerset by paranormal means.


Concessions from critics

Ian Wilson, one of Stevenson’s critics, acknowledged that Stevenson had brought “a new professionalism to a hitherto crank-prone field.” Paul Edwards wrote that Stevenson “has written more fully and more intelligibly in defense of reincarnation than anybody else.” Though faulting Stevenson’s judgment, Edwards wrote: “I have the highest regard for his honesty. All of his case reports contain items that can be made the basis of criticism. Stevenson could easily have suppressed this information. The fact that he did not speaks well for his integrity.”
Carl Sagan Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on e ...
referred to what were apparently Stevenson's investigations in his book ''
The Demon-Haunted World ''The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark'' is a 1995 book by the astrophysicist Carl Sagan and co-authored by Ann Druyan, in which the authors aim to explain the scientific method to laypeople and to encourage people to learn c ...
'' as an example of carefully collected empirical data, and though he rejected reincarnation as a parsimonious explanation for the stories, he wrote that the phenomenon of alleged past-life memories should be further researched.
Sam Harris Samuel Benjamin Harris (born April 9, 1967) is an American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. His work touches on a range of topics, including rationality, religion, ethics, free will, neuroscience, meditation, psychedelics ...
cited Stevenson's works in his book ''
The End of Faith ''The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason'' is a 2004 book by Sam Harris, concerning organized religion, the clash between religious faith and rational thought, and the problem of intolerance that correlates with religious fun ...
'' as part of a body of data that seems to attest to the reality of psychic phenomena, but that only relies on subjective personal experience.


Support

In support of Stevenson, Almeder argued in ''Death and Personal Survival'' that Edwards had begged the question by stating in advance that the idea of consciousness existing without the brain in the interval between lives was incredible, and that Edwards's "dogmatic materialism" had forced him to the view that Stevenson's case studies must be examples of fraud or delusional thinking. According to Almeder, the possibility of fraud was indeed investigated in the cases Edwards mentioned. In an article published on the website of ''
Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...
'' in 2013, in which Stevenson's work was reviewed favorably, Jesse Bering, a professor of science communication, wrote: "Towards the end of her own storied life, the physicist Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf—whose groundbreaking theories on surface physics earned her the prestigious Heyn Medal from the German Society for Material Sciences, surmised that Stevenson’s work had established that 'the statistical probability that reincarnation does in fact occur is so overwhelming … that cumulatively the evidence is not inferior to that for most if not all branches of science.' "


Xenoglossy

Although Stevenson mainly focused on cases of children who seemed to remember past lives, he also studied two cases in which adults under hypnosis seemed to remember a past life and show rudimentary use of a language they had not learned in the present life. Stevenson called this phenomenon "xenoglossy." The linguist
Sarah Thomason Sarah Grey Thomason (known as "Sally") is an American scholar of linguistics. She is a prolific contributor to academic journals and publications specializing in the field of linguistics, as well as a guest lecturer at different universities arou ...
, critiquing these cases, wrote that Stevenson is "unsophisticated about language" and that the cases are unconvincing. Thomason concluded, "the linguistic evidence is too weak to provide support for the claims of
xenoglossy Xenoglossy (), also written xenoglossia () and sometimes also known as xenolalia, is the supposedly paranormal phenomenon in which a person is allegedly able to speak, write or understand a foreign language that they could not have acquired by n ...
." William J. Samarin, a linguist from the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
, wrote that Stevenson corresponded with linguists in a selective and unprofessional manner. He said that Stevenson corresponded with one linguist in a period of six years "without raising any discussion about the kinds of thing that linguists would need to know." Another linguist, William Frawley, wrote, "Stevenson does not consider enough linguistic evidence in these cases to warrant his metaphysics."


Retirement

Stevenson stepped down as director of the Division of Perceptual Studies in 2002, although he continued to work as Research Professor of Psychiatry.
Bruce Greyson Charles Bruce Greyson (born October 1946) is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. He is author of '' After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond'' (2021), ...
, editor of the ''
Journal of Near-Death Studies The ''Journal of Near-Death Studies'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal devoted to the field of near-death studies. It is published by the International Association for Near-Death Studies. The journal's founding editor-in-chief was ...
'', became director of the division. Jim Tucker, the department's associate professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences, continued Stevenson's research with children, examined in Tucker's book, '' Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives'' (2005).


Death and experiment

Stevenson died of pneumonia on February 8, 2007 at his home in Charlottesville, Virginia. In his will he
endowed A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are of ...
the Stevenson Chair in Philosophy and History of Science including Medicine, at McGill University Department of Social Studies of Medicine. As one experiment to test for personal survival of bodily death, in the 1960s Stevenson set a combination lock using a secret word or phrase and placed it in a filing cabinet in the department, telling his colleagues he would try to pass the code to them after his death. Emily Williams Kelly told ''The New York Times'': "Presumably, if someone had a vivid dream about him, in which there seemed to be a word or a phrase that kept being repeated—I don't quite know how it would work—if it seemed promising enough, we would try to open it using the combination suggested."


Works

;Books *(1960). ''Medical History-Taking''. Paul B. Hoeber. *(1966). '' Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation''. University of Virginia Press. *(1969). ''The Psychiatric Examination''. Little, Brown. *(1970). ''Telepathic Impressions: A Review and Report of 35 New Cases''. University Press of Virginia. *(1971). ''The Diagnostic Interview'' (2nd revised edition of ''Medical History-Taking''). Harper & Row. *(1974). ''Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation'' (second revised and enlarged edition). University of Virginia Press. *(1974). ''Xenoglossy: A Review and Report of A Case''. University of Virginia Press. *(1975). ''Cases of the Reincarnation Type, Vol. I: Ten Cases in India''. University of Virginia Press. *(1978). ''Cases of the Reincarnation Type, Vol. II: Ten Cases in Sri Lanka''. University of Virginia Press. *(1980). ''Cases of the Reincarnation Type, Vol. III: Twelve Cases in Lebanon and Turkey''. University of Virginia Press. *(1983). ''Cases of the Reincarnation Type, Vol. IV: Twelve Cases in Thailand and Burma''. University of Virginia Press. *(1984). ''Unlearned Language: New Studies in Xenoglossy''. University of Virginia Press. *(1987). ''Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation''. University of Virginia Press. *(1997). '' Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects''. Volume 1: ''Birthmarks''. Praeger Publishers. *(1997). '' Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects''. Volume 2: ''Birth Defects and Other Anomalies''. Praeger Publishers. *(1997). ''
Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect ''Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect'' is a 1997 book by psychiatrist Ian Stevenson, published by Praeger. The book is about birthmarks and birth defects ostensibly associated with reincarnation. ''Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersec ...
''. Praeger Publishers (a short, non-technical version of ''Reincarnation and Biology''). *(2000). ''Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation'' (revised edition). McFarland Publishing. *(2003). '' European Cases of the Reincarnation Type''. McFarland & Company. *(2019). ''Handbook of Psychiatry volume Five'' (Co-written with
Javad Nurbakhsh Javad Nurbakhsh (10 December 1926 – 10 October 2008) was the Master ('' pir'') of the Nimatullahi Sufi Order from 1953 until his death. He was also a psychiatrist and a successful writer in the fields of both psychiatry and Sufi mysticism. L ...
and Hamideh Jahangiri). LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing. *(2020). ''Psychological Treatment Techniques For Social Anxiety Disorder'' (Co-written with Aliakbar Shoarinejad and Hamideh Jahangiri). Scholars' Press. ;Selected articles *(1949)
"Why medicine is not a science"
''Harper's'', April. *(1952)
"Illness from the inside"
''Harper's'', March. *(1952)
"Why people change"
''Harper's'', December. *(1954)
"Psychosomatic medicine, Part I"
''Harper's'', July. *(1954)
"Psychosomatic medicine, Part II"
''Harper's'', August. *(1957)
"Tranquilizers and the mind"
''Harper's'', July. *(1957)
"Schizophrenia"
''Harper's'', August. *(1957)
"Is the human personality more plastic in infancy and childhood?"
''American Journal of Psychiatry'', 114(2), pp. 152–161. *(1958)
"Scientists with half-closed minds"
''Harper's'', November. *(1959). "A Proposal for Studying Rapport which Increases Extrasensory Perception," ''Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research'', 53, pp. 66–68. *(1959)
"The Uncomfortable Facts about Extrasensory Perception"
''Harper's'', July. *(1960). "The Evidence for Survival from Claimed Memories of Former Incarnations," ''Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 54, pp. 51–71. *(1960). "The Evidence for Survival from Claimed Memories of Former Incarnations": Part II. Analysis of the Data and Suggestions for Further Investigations, ''Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research'', 54, pp. 95–117. *(1961). "An Example Illustrating the Criteria and Characteristics of Precognitive Dreams," ''Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research'', 55, pp. 98–103. *(1964). "The Blue Orchid of Table Mountain," ''Journal of the Society for Psychical Research'', 42, pp. 401–409. *(1968). "The Combination Lock Test for Survival," ''Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research'', 62, pp. 246–254. *(1970). "Characteristics of Cases of the Reincarnation Type in Turkey and their Comparison with Cases in Two other Cultures," ''International Journal of Comparative Sociology'', 11, pp. 1–17. *(1970). "A Communicator Unknown to Medium and Sitters," ''Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research'', 64, pp. 53–65. *(1970). "Precognition of Disasters," ''Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research'', 64, pp. 187–210. *(1971). "The Substantiability of Spontaneous cases," ''Proceedings of the Parapsychological Association'', No. 5, pp. 91–128. *(1972). "Are Poltergeists Living or Are They Dead?," ''Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research'', 66, pp. 233–252. *(1977). *(1983). *(1986). *(1993). *with Emily Williams Cook and Bruce Greyson (1998). *(1999). *(2000). *(2000). *(2001). *with Satwant K. Pasricha; Jürgen Keil; and Jim B. Tucker (2005). *(2005). Foreword and afterword in Mary Rose Barrington and Zofia Weaver. ''A World in a Grain of Sand: The Clairvoyance of Stefan Ossowiecki''. McFarland Press. An extended list of Stevenson's works is online here: http://www.pflyceum.org/167.html


See also


References


Bibliography

* Almeder, Robert (1992). ''Death and Personal Survival: The Evidence for Life After Death''. Rowman and Littlefield. * * Bache, Christopher (2000). ''Dark Night, Early Dawn: Steps to a Deep Ecology of Mind''. State University of New York Press. *Brody, Eugene B. (1977)
"Research in Reincarnation and Editorial Responsibility: An Editorial"
''The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease'', 165(3), September. *Cadoret, Remi J. (2005)
"Review of European Cases of the Reincarnation Type"
''American Journal of Psychiatry'', 162(4), April. * Carroll, Robert T. (July 7, 2009)
"Ian Stevenson (1918-2007)"
''The Skeptic's Dictionary''. *''The Daily Telegraph'' (February 12, 2007). (obituary). *Debus, Allen G. (1968). ''World Who's Who in Science''. Marquis-Who's Who. * Edwards, Paul (1992). "Introduction" and "The Dependence of Consciousness on the Brain," in Paul Edwards (ed.). ''Immortality''. Prometheus Books. *Edwards, Paul (1996). ''Reincarnation: A Critical Examination''. Prometheus Books. *
Fox, Margalit Margalit Fox (born 1961) is an American writer. She began her career in publishing in the 1980s, before switching to journalism in the 1990s. She joined the obituary department of ''The New York Times'' in 2004, and authored over 1,400 obituarie ...
(February 18, 2007)
"Ian Stevenson Dies at 88; Studied Claims of Past Lives"
''The New York Times''. * Hines Terence (2003). ''Pseudoscience and the Paranormal''. Prometheus Books. *Hopkins Tanne, Janice (April 2, 2007)
"Obituaries: Ian Pretyman Stevenson"
''British Medical Journal''. *Kelly, Emily Williams (2007)
"Ian P. Stevenson"
University of Virginia School of Medicine, February (obituary). *Kelly, Edward F. and Kelly, Emily Williams (2007). '' Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century''. Rowman & Littlefield. *Lester, David (2005). ''Is There Life After Death? An Examination of the Empirical Evidence''. McFarland. * Lief, Harold (1977)
"Commentary on Ian Stevenson’s 'The Evidence of Man’s Survival After Death'"
''The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease'', 165(3), September. *McClelland, Norman C. (2010). ''Encyclopedia of Reincarnation and Karma''. McFarland. *Pandarakalam, James Paul (April 2, 2007)
"Professor Ian Stevenson, an emperor in parapsychology"
''British Medical Journal'' (obituary). * Shroder, Tom (February 11, 2007)
"Ian Stevenson; Sought To Document Memories Of Past Lives in Children"
''The Washington Post'' (obituary). * *Stevenson, Ian (1966). '' Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation''. University of Virginia Press. * *Stevenson, Ian (1989)., The Flora Levy Lecture in the Humanities. *Stevenson, Ian (1992)
"Birthmarks and Birth Defects Corresponding to Wounds on Deceased Persons"
paper presented at the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration, Princeton University, June 11–13. * *Stevenson, Ian (2006)., ''Journal of Scientific Exploration'', 20(1). * *Tucker, Jim B. (2005). ''Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives''. St. Martin's Press. *University of Virginia (undated)., School of Medicine. *University of Virginia (undated)., Division of Perceptual Studies, School of Medicine. *University of Virginia (undated)
"History and description"
Division of Perceptual Studies, School of Medicine. *Woodhouse, Mark (1996). ''Paradigm Wars: Worldviews for a New Age''. Frog Books.


Further reading

;Ian Stevenson/reincarnation * Almeder, Robert (2000). , interview with Robert Almeder, professor of philosophy at Georgia State University (video). *Moallem, Ehsan (2014). , presentation of Ian Stevenson's work by Ehsan Moallem (video) *Almeder, Robert (1988). "Response to 'Past Tongues Remembered'," ''
Skeptical Inquirer ''Skeptical Inquirer'' is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle: ''The Magazine for Science and Reason''. Mission statement and goals Daniel Loxton, writing in 2 ...
'', 12, Spring. *Almeder, Robert (1987). ''Beyond Death''. Charles C. Thomas. *Alvarado, Carlos S
"Ian Stevenson, Selected Bibliography"
Parapsychological Association. * * Edwards, Paul (1986). "The Case Against Reincarnation: Part 1," ''
Free Inquiry ''Free Inquiry'' is a bimonthly journal of secular humanist opinion and commentary published by the Council for Secular Humanism, a program of the Center for Inquiry. Philosopher Paul Kurtz was the editor-in-chief from its inception in 1980 until ...
'', 6, Fall, pp. 24–34. *Edwards, Paul (1986/7). "The Case Against Reincarnation: Part 2," ''Free Inquiry'', 7, Winter, pp. 38–43. *Edwards, Paul (1987a). "The Case Against Reincarnation: Part 3," ''Free Inquiry'', 7, Spring, pp. 38–49. *Edwards, Paul (1987b). "The Case Against Reincarnation: Part 4," ''Free Inquiry'', 7, Summer, pp. 46–53. *Griffin, David Ray (1997). ''Parapsychology, Philosophy, and Spirituality: A Postmodern Exploration''. SUNY Press (particularly chapter 6
"Evidence from Cases of the Reincarnation Type"
. * **Almeder, Robert (2001)
"On reincarnation: A reply to Hales"
''Philosophia''. **Hales, Steven (2001b). "Reincarnation redux," ''Philosophia'', 28(1–4): 359–367. *Irwin, Harvey J. (2004). ''An Introduction to Parapsychology''. McFarland. *Martin, Raymond (1994)
"Survival of Bodily Death: A Question of Values"
in John Donnelly (ed.) ''Language, Metaphysics, and Death''. Fordham University Press. *Rockley, Richard (1 November 2002)
"Book Review: ''Children who remember previous lives, A question of reincarnation'', Ian Stevenson"
''Skeptic Report''. * Spence, Lewis (2003)
"Stevenson, Ian"
''Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology''. Kessinger Publishing. * * * Wilson, Ian (1981). ''Mind Out of Time?: Reincarnation Claims Investigated''. Orion Books Limited. * ;Consciousness *Almeder, Robert (2011)
"The Major Objections from Reductive Materialism Against Belief in the Existence of Cartesian Mind-Body Dualism"
in Alexander Moreira-Almeida and Franklin Santana Santos, ''Exploring Frontiers of the Mind-Brain Relationship'', Springer, pp. 16–33 * *Levine, Joseph (2001). ''Purple Haze: The Puzzle of Consciousness''. Oxford University Press. * Penrose, Roger (1994). ''Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness''. Oxford University Press. *Velman, Max and Schneider, Susan (2007). ''The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness''. University of Oxford Press. * Zelazo, Philip David; Moscovitch, Morris; and Thompson, Evan (eds.) (2007). ''The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness''. University of Cambridge Press. ;Miscellaneous *Almeder, Robert (1998). ''Harmless naturalism: The limits of science and the nature of philosophy''. Open Court Publishers. * *Schumacher, Bernard N. (2005). ''Death and Mortality in Contemporary Philosophy''. Cambridge University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Stevenson, Ian 1918 births 2007 deaths 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American physicians 20th-century Canadian essayists 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian physicians 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American physicians Academics from Montreal Alumni of the University of St Andrews American male essayists American male non-fiction writers American medical researchers American people of Scottish descent American psychiatrists Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian male essayists Canadian male non-fiction writers Canadian medical researchers Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian psychiatrists Canadian consciousness researchers and theorists Deaths from pneumonia in Virginia Fringe science McGill University Faculty of Medicine alumni Naturalized citizens of the United States Parapsychologists Physicians from Montreal Physicians from Virginia Psychedelic drug researchers Reincarnation researchers University of Virginia School of Medicine faculty Writers about religion and science