Ian Stevenson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Ian_Stevenson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Stevenson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ian Pretyman Stevenson (October 31, 1918 – February 8,

2007) was a Canadian psychiatrist. He worked for the Ian Stevenson
University of Virginia School of Medicine for 50 years, as
chair of the 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.[1]

Stevenson was the founder and director of the university's

Division of Perceptual Studies, which investigates the
paranormal, and became known internationally for his
research into reincarnation, the idea that emotions, memories,
and even physical injuries in the form of birthmarks, can be
transferred from one life to another.[2] He traveled
extensively over a period of 40 years investigating 3,000 Born October 31, 1918
cases of children claiming to remember past lives.[3] Montreal, Canada

Stevenson's position was that certain phobias, philias, unusual Died February 8, 2007 (aged 88)
abilities and illnesses could not be explained by heredity or Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
the environment, and that personality transfer provided a Cause of Pneumonia
third type of explanation, though he was never able to suggest death
what kind of physical process might be involved.[4] He
Citizenship Canadian by birth; American,
helped to found the Society for Scientific Exploration in
naturalized 1949
1982, and was the author of around 300 papers and 14 books
on reincarnation, including Twenty Cases Suggestive of Education University of St. Andrews
Reincarnation (1966) and European Cases of the (1937–1939)
Reincarnation Type (2003). His major work was the BSc (McGill University, 1942)
2,268-page, two-volume Reincarnation and Biology: A MD (McGill University School of
Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Medicine, 1943)
Defects (1997), which reported 200 cases of birthmarks that
he believed corresponded with a wound on the deceased Occupation Psychiatrist, director of the Division of
person whose life the child purported to recall. He wrote a Perceptual Studies at the University of
shorter version of the same research for the general reader, Virginia School of Medicine
Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect (1997).[5] Known for Reincarnation research

Reaction to his work was mixed. The New York Times wrote Influenced Bruce Greyson, Jim B. Tucker,
that his supporters saw him as a misunderstood genius, but Satwant Pasricha, Robert Almeder,
most scientists ignored his work, regarding him as earnest but Carol Bowman
[6]
gullible. His life and work became the subject of two Spouse(s) Octavia Reynolds (m. 1947)
supportive books, Old Souls (1999) by Tom Shroder, a Margaret Pertzoff (m. 1985)
Washington Post journalist, and Life Before Life (2005) by
Parents Ian and Ruth Stevenson
Jim B. Tucker, a psychiatrist and colleague at the University
of Virginia. Critics raised a number of issues, including that
the children he interviewed or their parents had deceived him; that interviewing children without suggesting
material to them is difficult; that the difficulties were compounded by Stevenson working through translators

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who believed what the children were saying; and that his conclusions were undermined by confirmation bias,
where cases not supportive of his hypothesis did not count against it.[7]

1 Personal life and education

2 Career and research interests
2.1 Early career
2.2 Reincarnation research
2.2.1 Early work
2.2.2 Overview
2.3 Reception
2.3.1 Case study
3 Retirement, death and experiment
4 Works
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
8 Further reading

Stevenson was born 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 of London or The New York Times.[8] His
mother, Ruth, had an interest in theosophy, and Stevenson attributed his interest in the paranormal to his
mother's library on the subject. As a child he was often bedridden with bronchitis, a condition that continued
into adulthood.[9] Emily Williams Kelly, a colleague of his at the University of Virginia, wrote that the illness led
to a lifelong reading habit, which saw him read 3,535 books between 1935 and 2003, according to a list he
kept.[1]

He studied medicine at St. Andrews University from 1937 to 1939, but had to complete his studies in Canada
because of the outbreak of the Second World War.[10] He graduated from McGill University with a BSc in 1942
and an MD in 1943. He was married to Octavia Reynolds from 1947 until her death in 1983.[1] In 1985 he
married Dr. Margaret Pertzoff (1926–2009), professor of history at Randolph-Macon Woman's College. She did
not share his views on the paranormal, but tolerated them with what Stevenson called "benevolent silences."[11]

Early career

After graduating Stevenson conducted research in biochemistry. 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.[9] 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

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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).[1] He became an American citizen in 1949.[12]

Kelly writes that Stevenson became dissatisfied with the reductionism he

encountered in biochemistry, and wanted to study the whole person instead.[1]
He became interested in psychosomatic medicine, psychiatry and
psychoanalysis, and in the late 1940s worked at New York Hospital exploring
psychosomatic illness and the effects of stress.[13] He taught at Louisiana State
University School of Medicine from 1949 to 1957 as assistant, then associate,
professor of psychiatry. In the 1950s he met the English writer Aldous Huxley
(1894–1963), known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs, and studied the
effects of LSD and mescaline, one of the first academics to do so. Kelly writes
that he tried LSD himself, describing three days of "perfect serenity" and
writing that at the time he felt he could "never be angry again," though he also
Stevenson met Aldous Huxley
wrote: "As it happens that didn't work out, but the memory of it persisted as
(above) in the 1950s and tried
something to hope for."[1] LSD, which he said made him
feel that he could never be
From 1951 he studied psychoanalysis at the New Orleans Psychoanalytic
Institute and the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, graduating from the angry again.[1]
latter in 1958, a year after being appointed head of the department of
psychiatry at the University of Virginia.[1] He argued against the orthodoxy within psychiatry and
psychoanalysis at the time that the personality is more plastic 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.[14] He wrote that their response prepared him for the rejection he experienced
over his work on the paranormal.[9]

Reincarnation research

Early work

Stevenson came to believe that behaviorism and psychoanalysis were unable to explain the formation of
personality, and that neither environment nor heredity could account for certain phenomena. In 1958 and 1959
he wrote several book reviews about the paranormal and parapsychology, and articles about psychosomatic
illness and extrasensory perception for Harper's.[15] Jim Tucker writes that in 1958 the American Society for
Psychical Research announced a competition, in honor of the philosopher William James (1842–1910), 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 winning entry, "The Evidence for Survival from Claimed Memories
of Former Incarnations" (1960), reviewed 44 published cases of people, mostly children, who claimed to
remember past lives.[16]

The paper 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 Tucker, Stevenson found 25 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.[16] Chester Carlson (1906–1968),
the inventor of xerography, also offered financial help. Tucker writes that this allowed Stevenson to step down
as chair of the psychiatry department and set up the Division of Personality Studies within the department –

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later renamed the Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS).[17] When Carlson died in 1968 he left $1 million 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.[18]

Overview

Further information: Reincarnation research

Stevenson traveled extensively, sometimes as much as 55,000 miles a year, interviewing children from Africa to
Alaska, and collecting 3,000 case studies.[1] Remi Cadoret wrote in the American Journal of Psychiatry that
typically the children would start talking about past-life memories (and often violent deaths) at the age of two to
four, and would stop by the age of eight. The descriptions would be accompanied by unusual behavior such as
phobias, and the children might have a birthmark or birth defect the same shape as wounds on the body of the
deceased person whose life was purportedly being recalled.[19]

Stevenson's research is associated with what Robert Almeder, professor emeritus of philosophy at Georgia State
University, calls the minimalist reincarnation hypothesis. Almeder describes this as the view that: "There is
something essential to some human personalities ... which we cannot plausibly construe solely in terms of either
brain states, or properties of brain states ... and, further, after biological death this non-reducible essential trait
sometimes persists for some time, in some way, in some place, and for some reason or other, existing
independently of the person's former brain and body. Moreover, after some time, some of these irreducible
essential traits of human personality, for some reason or other, and by some mechanism or other, come to reside
in other human bodies either some time during the gestation period, at birth, or shortly after birth."[20]

Tom Shroder wrote in The Washington Post that in scores of cases Stevenson could find no alternative
explanation for the phenomena he recorded. One boy in Beirut described having been a mechanic who died
after being hit by a car. According to Schroder, witnesses said the boy offered the name of the driver, the
location of the accident, and the names of the dead man's sisters, parents and cousins. The details apparently
matched the life of a man who had died before the boy was born, and who, Stevenson was told, was
unconnected to the boy's family.[21]

Stevenson's Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects
(1997) examined 200 cases of birth defects or unusual birthmarks. These included children with malformed or
missing fingers who said they recalled the lives of people who had lost fingers; a boy with two birthmarks on his
head resembling entrance and exit wounds, who said he recalled the life of someone who was shot; and a child
with a scar around her skull 3 cm wide, who said she recalled the life of a man who had had skull surgery. In
many of the cases, in Stevenson's view, witness testimony or autopsy reports appeared to support the existence
of the injuries on the deceased's body.[16] Stevenson concluded that "reincarnation is the best – even though not
the only – explanation for the stronger cases we have investigated."[22] He nevertheless recognized what
Shroder called a "glaring flaw" in his work, namely the lack of any evidence or suggestion as to how a
personality could survive the death of one body and be carried over to another.[21]

Reception

In September 1977 the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease devoted most of one issue to Stevenson's
research.[23] In the same issue psychiatrist Harold Lief described Stevenson as a methodical investigator,
writing: "Either he is making a colossal mistake, or he will be known (I have said as much to him) as 'the Galileo

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of the 20th century'."[24] The journal's editor, psychiatrist Eugene Brody, said he received 300–400 requests
from scientists for reprints.[25]

Despite this early interest, most scientists ignored his 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."[6] Critics raised a number of issues about his
methodology and objectivity. They suggested that the children or their parents had deceived him; that Stevenson
was too willing to believe them; that interviewing children without inadvertently suggesting material to them is
difficult; that he was working through translators, which compounded the difficulties; that the translators
believed the children, which undermined the objectivity of the research still further; and that the results were
subject to confirmation bias, in that cases not supportive of the hypothesis did not count against it.[7] Leonard
Angel, a philosopher of religion, told The New York Times that Stevenson did not follow proper standards. "[B]ut
you do have to look carefully to see it; that's why he's been very persuasive to many people."[6]

Another criticism was that many of Stevenson's examples were gathered in cultures where people believed in
reincarnation. Stevenson argued that it was precisely those cultures that listened to children's claims about past
lives, which in the West would normally be dismissed without investigation.[3] To address the cultural concern,
Stevenson wrote European Cases of the Reincarnation Type (2003), which presented 40 cases he had examined
in Europe.[26]

Champe Ransom, a lawyer Stevenson hired as an assistant in the 1970s, became critical of his work in what
came to be known as the Ransom report. In it, according to the philosopher Paul Edwards (1923–2004) of the
New School of Social Research in New York, Ransom argued that Stevenson had asked the children leading
questions, had filled in gaps in the narrative, that not enough time was spent interviewing the children, that too
long a period had often elapsed between the claimed recall of a past life and the interview, and that in 90
percent of the cases, the families of the deceased and of the child had met each other before the interview.
Edwards devoted a chapter to criticism of Stevenson in his book Reincarnation: A Critical Examination (1996),
in which he argued that Stevenson's cases read better in summary, but when examined in detail they had "big
holes." He asked which is more likely: that there are astral bodies that transfer themselves to newborns or
embyros, or that the children interviewed or their parents were lying or mistaken.[27]

In support of Stevenson, Robert Almeder argued in Death and Personal Survival (1992) that Edwards had
begged the question by stating in advance of examining Stevenson's work that the idea of consciousness existing
without the brain in the interval between lives was incredible. Almeder's position is that we do not, in fact, know
whether consciousness can exist without a brain. He argued that Edwards's "dogmatic materialism" had forced
him to the view that Stevenson's case studies must be examples of fraud or delusional thinking.[28]

Case study

Edwards cites the case of Corliss Chotkin in Angoon, Alaska, an example that relied entirely on the word of one
woman. Victor Vincent, a fisherman, reportedly told his niece that he would be reborn as her son. According to
the niece (as reported by Stevenson), Vincent said: "I hope I don't stutter then as much as I do now. Your son
will have these scars." She said he showed her two scars caused by surgery, one on the bridge of his nose and
one on his back. He died in 1946 and 18 months later the niece gave birth to a boy, Corliss Chotkin. The boy
had birthmarks in the same places as Vincent's scars, according to the niece. Stevenson heard of the case 14
years later, and in 1962 arrived in Alaska to interview the family.[29]

By this time, Edwards wrote, the birthmarks had moved, but Stevenson was impressed by the resemblance of

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one of them to a surgical scar, and by the accompanying smaller marks that he believed resembled scars left by
stitches. In addition, according to the niece, Chotkin did indeed have Vincent's stutter, they were both
left-handed, both combed their hair in the same way, both liked boats, and both were religious. On several
occasions when he was two and three years old – again, according to the niece – Chotkin had recognized
Vincent's son, stepdaughter and wife, and when he saw them had said, "There is William, my son," "There's my
Susie," and of the wife, "That's the old lady," which was how Vincent had reportedly referred to his wife. The
niece also said that one of her aunts had had a dream that Vincent was coming to live in the niece's home, and
the niece was sure she had not told the aunt about Vincent's prediction that he would return. The aunt was 90 by
the time Stevenson spoke to her, and could not remember having had any such dream. The niece also said that
Chotkin had known of two events in Vincent's life that he could not otherwise have known about. The boy was a
teenager by the time Stevenson interviewed him, and had no memory of having spoken about such things.[29]

Among the many weaknesses in the case, Edwards noted that the family were religious and believed in
reincarnation, that Stevenson had not seen Vincent's scars, and that all the significant statements about the case
originated with the niece, about whom Stevenson offered no information, except that several people told him
she had a tendency, as he put it, to embellish or invent stories. Edwards wrote that similar criticism could be
made of all Stevenson's case studies.[29]

Stevenson stepped down as director of the Division of Perceptual

Studies in 2002, though he continued to work as Research Professor
of Psychiatry.[17] He died of pneumonia at his retirement home in
Charlottesville, Virginia in February 2007.[21] Bruce Greyson, editor
of the Journal of Near-Death Studies, became director of the
division, while Jim Tucker, the department's associate professor of
psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences, has continued Stevenson's
research with children, examined in his book, Life Before Life: A
Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives
(2005).[30]

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 The child psychiatrist Jim Tucker continues
his colleagues he would try to pass the code to them after his death.
Stevenson's research.[30]
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." The Times reported that, as of February
2007, the lock remains unopened.[6]

Books

Reincarnation. University of Virginia Press.

(1960). Medical History-Taking. Paul B. (1969). The Psychiatric Examination. Little,
Hoeber. Brown.
(1966). Twenty Cases Suggestive of (1970). Telepathic Impressions: A Review and

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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.
Selected articles
(1949). "Why medicine is not a science"
(http://harpers.org/archive/1949/04
/why-medicine-is-not-a-science/) , Harper's,
April.
(1952). "Illness from the inside"
(http://harpers.org/archive/1952/03/illness-
from-the-inside/) , Harper's, March.
(1952). "Why people change" (http://harpers.org
/archive/1953/12/why-people-change/) ,
Harper's, December.
(1954). "Psychosomatic medicine, Part I"
(http://harpers.org/archive/1954/07
/psychosomatic-medicine/) , Harper's, July.
(1954). "Psychosomatic medicine, Part II"
(http://harpers.org/archive/1954/08
/psychosomatic-medicine-2/) , Harper's,
August.
(1957). "Tranquilizers and the mind"
(http://harpers.org/archive/1957/07
/tranquilizers-and-the-mind-the-first-of-two-
articles/) , Harper's, July.
(1957). "Schizophrenia" (http://harpers.org
/archive/1957/08/schizophrenia/) , Harper's,
August.
(1957). "Is the human personality more plastic
in infancy and childhood?"
(http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org
/article.aspx?articleid=146529) , American
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IV: Twelve Cases in Thailand and Burma.
University of Virginia Press.
(1984). Unlearned Language: New Studies in
Xenoglossy. University of Virginia Press.
(1997). Reincarnation and Biology: A
Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and
Birth Defects. Volume 1: Birthmarks. Volume 2:
Birth Defects and Other Anomalies. Praeger
Publishers.
(1997). Where Reincarnation and Biology
Intersect. Praeger Publishers (a short,
non-technical version of Reincarnation and
Biology).
(2000). Children Who Remember Previous
Lives: A Question of Reincarnation, (revised
edition).
(2003). European Cases of the Reincarnation
Type. McFarland & Company.
Journal of Psychiatry, 114(2), pp. 152–161.
(1958). "Scientists with half-closed minds"
(http://harpers.org/archive/1958/11/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" (http://harpers.org
/archive/1959/07/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.
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Ian Stevenson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(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). "The Explanatory Value of the Idea of
Reincarnation" (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
/pubmed/864444) . The Journal of Nervous and
Mental Disease 164 (5): 305–326.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/864444.
(1983). "American children who claim to
remember previous lives"
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6644283)
. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
171 (12): 742–748. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
/pubmed/6644283.
(1986). "Characteristics of Cases of the
Reincarnation Type among the Igbo of Nigeria"
(http://jas.sagepub.com/content/21/3-4/204) .
Journal of Asian and African Studies 21: 204.
http://jas.sagepub.com/content/21/3-4/204.
(1993). "Birthmarks and Birth Defects
Corresponding to Wounds on Deceased
Persons" (http://www.scientificexploration.org
/journal/jse_07_4_stevenson.pdf) . Journal of
Scientific Exploration 7 (4): 403–410.
http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal
/jse_07_4_stevenson.pdf.
with Emily Williams Cook and Bruce Greyson
Afterlife
C. T. K. Chari Part of a series of articles on the paranormal
Near-death experiences
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Stevenson
(1998). "Do Any Near-Death Experiences
Provide Evidence the Survival of Human
Personality after Relevant Features and
Illustrative Case Reports"
(http://scientificexploration.org/journal
/jse_12_3_cook.pdf) . Journal of Scientific
Exploration 12 (3): 377–406.
http://scientificexploration.org/journal
/jse_12_3_cook.pdf.
(1999. "Past lives of twins"
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
/10218554) . Lancet 353 (9161): 1359–1360.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10218554.
(2000). "The phenomenon of claimed memories
of previous lives: possible interpretations and
importance" (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
/pubmed/10859660) . Medical Hypotheses 54
(4): 652–659. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
/pubmed/10859660.
(2000). "The Belief in Reincarnation Among the
Igbo of Nigeria" (http://www.highbeam.com
/doc/1G1-72763292.html) . Journal of Asian
and African Studies 20: 13–30. 1985.
http://www.highbeam.com
/doc/1G1-72763292.html.
(2001). "Ropelike birthmarks on children who
claim to remember past lives"
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
/11729534) . Psychological reports 89 (1):
142–144. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
/11729534.
with Satwant K. Pasricha; Jürgen Keil; and Jim
B. Tucker (2005). "Some Bodily Malformations
Attributed to Previous Lives"
(http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal
/jse_19_3_pasricha.pdf) . Journal of Scientific
Exploration 19 (3): 159–183.
http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal
/jse_19_3_pasricha.pdf.
(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.
Main articles
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Mind–body problem Afterlife · Angel · Astral projection · Aura · Clairvoyance · Close encounter · Cold spot ·
Richard Wiseman
Conjuration · Cryptid · Cryptozoology · Demon · Demonic possession · Demonology ·
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ghosts · Forteana · Ghost · Ghost hunting · Ghost story · Haunted house · Hypnosis ·
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0
abcd Precognition · Psychic · Psychic reading · Psychokinesis · Psychometry · Reincarnation ·
1. ^ 8
efghi 0 Remote viewing · Residual haunting · Shadow people · Spirit photography · Spirit
Kelly 5 possession ·
2007 1
(http://w 4 Spirit world · Spiritualism · Stone Tape · Supernatural · Telepathy · UFO · UFO
ww.medi 0 hypotheses · UFO sightings · Ufology · Will-o'-the-wisp
cine.virg 3 Haunted locations: United Kingdom · United States · world.
inia.edu 2
/clinical 0 Articles on skepticism
/departm 3
ents 3 Cold reading · Committee for Skeptical Inquiry · Debunking · Hoax · James Randi
/psychia /h Educational Foundation · Magical thinking · Prizes for evidence of the paranormal ·
try tt Pseudoskepticism · Scientific skepticism
/sections p:
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ps w Agnosticism · Anomalistics · Argument from ignorance · Argumentum ad populum ·
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s .h reinforcement · Fallacy · Falsifiability · Fringe science · Groupthink · Junk science ·
/Stevens e Protoscience · Pseudoscience · Scientific evidence · Scientific method · Superstition ·
on- al Uncertainty · Urban legend ·
s-Obit- th
Emily.p s Related articles on Social change and Parapsychology
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Ian Stevenson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
c/stevenson.cfm) , University of Virginia
School of Medicine.
2. ^ Hopkins Tanne (British Medical Journal), April 2,
2007 (http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract
/334/7595/700) .
3. ^ a b The Daily Telegraph, February 12, 2007
(http://web.archive.org/web/20070331045018/http:
//www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=
/news/2007/02/12/db1201.xml) .
4. ^ Stevenson, April 2000
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10859660) ;
Stevenson 1977 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
/pubmed/864444) .
5. ^ For his having been on the founding committee of
the Society for Scientific Exploration, see Stevenson
2006 (http://web.archive.org/web/20080514130801
/http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet
/personalitystudies/Stevenson.pdf) , p. 19.
6. ^ a b c d Fox (The New York Times)
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/health
/psychology/18stevenson.html) , February 18, 2007.
7. ^ a b Carroll, July 7, 2009 (http://www.skepdic.com
/stevenson.html) .
8. ^ For the London Times, see Fox (The New York
Times) (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/health
/psychology/18stevenson.html) , February 18, 2007.
For the New York Times, see Pandarakalam
(British Medical Journal), April 2, 2007
(http://www.bmj.com/content/334/7595
/700?tab=responses) .
9. ^ a b c Stevenson 2006 (http://web.archive.org
/web/20080514130801/http:
//www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet
/personalitystudies/Stevenson.pdf) , pp. 13–14.
10. ^ Pandarakalam (British Medical Journal), April 2,
2007 (http://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/11
/01/professor-ian-stevenson-emperor-
parapsychology) .
11. ^ Stevenson 2006 (http://web.archive.org
/web/20080514130801/http:
//www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet
/personalitystudies/Stevenson.pdf) , p. 20.
12. ^ World Who's in Science 1968, p. 1609.
13. ^ Stevenson 1989 (http://web.archive.org
/web/20110720110857/http:
//www.medicine.virginia.edu/clinical/departments
/psychiatry/sections/cspp/dops/publicationslinks
/some-of-my-journeys-in-medicine.pdf) .
14. ^ For the paper, see Stevenson 1957
(http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org
/article.aspx?articleid=146529) , pp. 152–161.
15. ^ Stevenson 2006 (http://web.archive.org
/web/20080514130801/http:
//www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet
10 of 13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Stevenson
/personalitystudies/Stevenson.pdf) , p. 13; "Ian
Stevenson" (http://harpers.org/blog/author
/ianstevenson/) , Harper's.
16. ^ a b c Tucker 2007
(http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal
/jse_21_3_tucker.pdf) , pp. 543–552.
17. ^ a b "History and description"
(http://www.medicine.virginia.edu/clinical
/departments/psychiatry/sections/cspp/dops/we_are-
page#history) , Division of Perceptual Studies,
University of Virginia.
18. ^ Stevenson 2006 (http://web.archive.org
/web/20080514130801/http:
//www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet
/personalitystudies/Stevenson.pdf) , pp. 17–18.
19. ^ Cadoret, April 2005
(http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org
/article.aspx?articleid=177497) , pp. 823–824.
For birthmarks, see Stevenson, June 11–13,
1992 (http://www.childpastlives.org
/library_articles/birthmark.htm) .
20. ^ Almeder 1997
(http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal
/jse_11_4_almeder.pdf) , p. 502.
21. ^ a b c Shroder, February 11, 2007
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content
/article/2007/02/10/AR2007021001393.html) .
22. ^ Tucker 2005, p. 211 (http://books.google.com
/books?id=JuiGUbZTNTQCpg=PA211) .
23. ^ Brody, September 1977 (http://journals.lww.com
/jonmd/Citation/1977/09000
/Research_in_Reincarnation_and_Editorial.1.aspx) .
24. ^ Lief, September 1977 (http://journals.lww.com
/jonmd/Citation/1977/09000
/Commentary_on_Dr__Ian_Stevenson_s__the_Evide
nce_of.3.aspx) .
25. ^ Edwards 1996, p. 253.
26. ^ Cadoret 2005 (http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org
/article.aspx?articleid=177497) .
27. ^ Edwards 1996, p. 256; p. 275 for the Ransom
report.
Also see McClelland 2010, p. 144
(http://books.google.com
/books?id=S_Leq4U5ihkC&pg=PA144) .
28. ^ Almeder 1992, pp. 34ff (http://books.google.com
/books?id=K8-_Vqq6r-cC&pg=PA34) , 60
(http://books.google.com/books?id=K8-_Vqq6r-
cC&pg=PA60) .
29. ^ a b c Edwards 1996, pp. 136–138.
Stevenson 1966, p. 259ff.
ab
30. ^ "Division Staff" (http://web.archive.org
/web/20080514203122/http:
//www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet
/personalitystudies/staff.cfm) , Division of
12/18/2012 1:33 AM
Ian Stevenson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Stevenson

Perceptual Studies, University of Virginia.

Almeder, Robert. Death and Personal Survival. Rowman and Littlefield, 1992.
Almeder, Robert. "A Critique of Arguments Offered Against Reincarnation"
(http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_11_4_almeder.pdf) , Journal of Scientific Exploration,
11(4), 1997, pp. 499–526.
Brody, Eugene B. "Research in Reincarnation and Editorial Responsibility: An Editorial"
(http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Citation/1977/09000/Research_in_Reincarnation_and_Editorial.1.aspx) ,
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 165(3), September 1977.
Cadoret, Remi J. "Review of European Cases of the Reincarnation Type" (http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org
/article.aspx?articleid=177497) , American Journal of Psychiatry, 162(4), April 2005.
Carroll, Robert T. "Ian Stevenson (1918-2007)" (http://www.skepdic.com/stevenson.html) , The Skeptic's
Dictionary, July 7, 2009.
The Daily Telegraph. "Professor Ian Stevenson" (http://web.archive.org/web/20070331045018/http:
//www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/12/db1201.xml) , February 12, 2007.
Debus, Allen G. World Who's in Science. Marquis-Who's Who, 1968.
Edwards, Paul. Reincarnation: A Critical Examination. Prometheus Books, 1996.
Fox, Margalit. "Ian Stevenson Dies at 88; Studied Claims of Past Lives" (http://www.nytimes.com
/2007/02/18/health/psychology/18stevenson.html) , The New York Times, February 18, 2007.
Hopkins Tanne, Janice. "Obituaries: Ian Pretyman Stevenson" (http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract
/334/7595/700) , British Medical Journal. April 2, 2007.
Kelly, Emily Williams. "Ian P. Stevenson" (http://www.medicine.virginia.edu/clinical/departments
/psychiatry/sections/cspp/dops/publicationslinks/Stevenson-s-Obit-Emily.pdf) , University of Virginia
School of Medicine, February 2007.
Lief, Harold. "Commentary on Ian Stevenson’s 'The Evidence of Man’s Survival After Death'"
(http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Citation/1977/09000
/Commentary_on_Dr__Ian_Stevenson_s__the_Evidence_of.3.aspx) , The Journal of Nervous and
Mental Disease, 165(3), September 1977.
McClelland, Norman C. Encyclopedia of Reincarnation and Karma. McFarland, 2010.
Pandarakalam, James Paul. "Professor Ian Stevenson, an emperor in parapsychology"
(http://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/11/01/professor-ian-stevenson-emperor-parapsychology) ,
British Medical Journal, April 2, 2007.
Shroder, Tom. "Ian Stevenson; Sought To Document Memories Of Past Lives in Children"
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/10/AR2007021001393.html) , The
Washington Post, February 11, 2007.
Stevenson, Ian. "Is the human personality more plastic in infancy and childhood?"
(http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleid=146529) , American Journal of Psychiatry, 114(2),
1957, pp. 152–161.
Stevenson, Ian. Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation. University of Virginia Press, 1966.
Stevenson, Ian. "The explanatory value of the idea of reincarnation" (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
/pubmed/864444) , The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 164(5), 1977, pp. 305–326.
Stevenson, Ian. "Some of my journeys in medicine" (http://web.archive.org/web/20110720110857/http:
//www.medicine.virginia.edu/clinical/departments/psychiatry/sections/cspp/dops/publicationslinks/some-
of-my-journeys-in-medicine.pdf) , The Flora Levy Lecture in the Humanities, 1989.
Stevenson, Ian. "Birthmarks and Birth Defects Corresponding to Wounds on Deceased Persons"
(http://www.childpastlives.org/library_articles/birthmark.htm) , paper presented at the Eleventh Annual
Meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration, Princeton University, June 11–13, 1992.
Stevenson, Ian. "The phenomenon of claimed memories of previous lives: possible interpretations and

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Ian Stevenson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Stevenson

importance" (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10859660) , Medical Hypotheses, 54(4), April 2000,

pp. 652-659.
Stevenson, Ian. "Half A Career With the Paranormal" (http://web.archive.org/web/20080514130801/http:
//www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/personalitystudies/Stevenson.pdf) , Journal of Scientific
Exploration, 20(1), 2006.
Tucker, Jim B. Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives. St.
Martin's Press, 2005.
Tucker, Jim B. "Children Who Claim to Remember Previous Lives: Past, Present and Future Research"
(http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_21_3_tucker.pdf) , Journal of Scientific Exploration,
21(3), 2007, pp. 543–552.
University of Virginia. "Ian Stevenson, MD" (http://web.archive.org/web/20080514032033/http:
//www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/psychiatric/stevenson.cfm) , School of Medicine.
University of Virgina. "Division Staff" (http://web.archive.org/web/20080514203122/http:
//www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/personalitystudies/staff.cfm) , Division of Perceptual Studies,
School of Medicine.
University of Virginia. "History and description" (http://www.medicine.virginia.edu/clinical/departments
/psychiatry/sections/cspp/dops/we_are-page#history) , Division of Perceptual Studies, School of
Medicine.

Almeder, Robert. "Reincarnation Evidence: Stevenson's Research" (http://www.youtube.com

/watch?v=hZhMDU9GcVg) , interview with Robert Almeder, professor of philosophy at Georgia State
University.
Alvarado, Carlos S. "Ian Stevenson, Selected Bibliography" (http://archived.parapsych.org/newsletters
/Ian-Stevenson-Bibliography.html) , Parapsychological Association.
Edelmann, Jonathan and Bernet, William. "Setting Criteria for Ideal Reincarnation Research"
(http://www.imprint.co.uk/pdf/Edelman.pdf) , Journal of Consciousness Studies, 14(12), p. 92.
Irwin, Harvey J. An Introduction to Parapsychology. McFarland, 2004.
Kelly, Edward F. and Kelly, Emily Williams. Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st
Century. Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.
Kurtz, Paul. "Two Sources of Unreason in Democratic Society: The paranormal and religion"
(http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119242621/abstract) , Annals of the New York Academy of
Sciences, 775(1), 2006, pp. 493–504.
Rockley, Richard. "Book Review: Children who remember previous lives, A question of reincarnation,
Ian Stevenson" (http://skepticreport.com/sr/?p=482) , Skeptic Report, November 1, 2002.
Spence, Lewis. "Stevenson, Ian" (http://books.google.com/books?id=gq1LhcH48GQC&pg=PA884) ,
Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. Kessinger Publishing, 2003.
Stanford, Rex. "Ian Stevenson: A Man from Whom We Should Learn"
(http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_22_1_stanford.pdf) , Journal of Scientific Exploration,
22(1), 2008, pp. 120–124.

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Categories: 1918 births 2007 deaths Alumni of the University of St Andrews

Canadian expatriate academics in the United States Canadian people of Scottish descent
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Deaths from pneumonia McGill University alumni Reincarnation Reincarnation research
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12 of 13 12/18/2012 1:33 AM
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