US Study: Souls of Those Who Died Suddenly 'Reborn' Faster
Researchers at the University of Virginia, analysing 1,678 children's accounts of supposed memories of past lives, found that the gap before 'rebirth' is shorter after a sudden death. The authors stress this is not proof of reincarnation and the link is rather weak.
Researchers at the University of Virginia in the United States analysed 1,678 accounts of children who describe what they say are memories of a previous life. They found that the time between an identified person's death and the birth of the child was shorter when the death was sudden or unexpected. The results were published in the journal Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice. The authors themselves stress that this is not proof of reincarnation.
The data used
The university's Division of Perceptual Studies has collected information on thousands of such cases since the 1960s, building the largest dataset of its kind. Children's stories about episodes from the lives of strangers are sometimes so detailed and match real events so closely that believers in reincarnation regard them as memories of the soul. Clear scientific evidence for the existence of a soul has still not been obtained.
What the analysis showed
Of the 1,678 cases in which a specific person was identified, the possible 'transition' time could be calculated for 1,319. The average was 16 months. The more unexpected the death (an accident, violence or sudden health problems), the shorter the interval tended to be.
Where death was completely unexpected, the interval averaged 12 months, about 43% less than when the death was foreseeable. For natural deaths it lasted about 21 months. The relationship held even after the researchers took into account the reliability of verified information, the accuracy of children's testimony, whether families knew each other, social status and religious beliefs.
Cautious conclusions
The researchers acknowledge that the observed link is rather weak. They also note that no generally accepted mechanism connects the two factors, and say what matters is that the circumstances of death affect the interval at all. In their view, patterns seen across many cases are hard to explain as exaggeration or invention, yet they cannot fully explain the coincidence.
They add that many cultures and religious traditions hold that a person who dies unexpectedly leaves things unfinished, and that people who die violently or suddenly keep a closer bond with the living world.
