Can Birthmarks Reveal Past Lives? A Case Study from Sri Lanka

[wolram]

http://www.spr.ac.uk/JSPRabstracts.php3?year=2000#oct

This case concerns a young boy in Sri Lanka who made several statements regarding a previous life, among them where he had lived and how he was killed when traveling in a truck through a forest. The boy associated two birthmarks with his claimed memories. His statements were recorded and published, and afterwards a person was found in the area whose circumstances had corresponded to the boy's statements. The birthmarks corresponded to the location of injuries of the person later identified as the previous personality.

Children who speak of memories of a previous life may explain birthmarks as related to wounds inflicted upon them in the former life. In this case a girl claims to have been an incense-maker, and to have died in a traffic accident. After a location had been given an incense-maker was identified whose life corresponded to many of her statements. He had died in a traffic accident two years prior to her birth, and the post-mortem report revealed that wounds had been inflicted on him in the same area as her birthmarks.

Very strange, these events seem to be true.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

http://www.spr.ac.uk/JSPRabstracts.php3?year=2000#oct

This case concerns a young boy in Sri Lanka who made several statements regarding a previous life, among them where he had lived and how he was killed when traveling in a truck through a forest. The boy associated two birthmarks with his claimed memories. His statements were recorded and published, and afterwards a person was found in the area whose circumstances had corresponded to the boy's statements. The birthmarks corresponded to the location of injuries of the person later identified as the previous personality.

Children who speak of memories of a previous life may explain birthmarks as related to wounds inflicted upon them in the former life. In this case a girl claims to have been an incense-maker, and to have died in a traffic accident. After a location had been given an incense-maker was identified whose life corresponded to many of her statements. He had died in a traffic accident two years prior to her birth, and the post-mortem report revealed that wounds had been inflicted on him in the same area as her birthmarks.

Very strange, these events seem to be true.

Please note again that this journal may only be used as source of documented claims, and not as scientific evidence. Beyond explanations such as, coincidence, and memories modified to fit the story, we also have to question the credibility of the claims made - how much documented evidence from independent sources exists to support the claim?

The most famous modern claim of reincarnation is probably that of the Dalai Lama.

 

[rootX]

Has there been any record of reincarnation in cultures that do not believe in it?

 

[hvs]

It is often important to remember that illusionists are also capable of creating situations that seem to deny ordinary explanation. However, once you know how the illusion is created, it is often surprisingly obvious (and disappointing).

In this case, I would look to deception before believing assertions on face value.

 

[Grogerian]

Oh Birth marks from last lives well, then i fell off of a bridge got shot and stabbed lots of times or went through multiple lives... Having 78 birthmarks (NF II - Neurofibramatosis 2) i believe this is a myth. if it isn't then cool! i must of had a great life :D

 

[eispi]

A professor of mine made a very interesting point. You can point out all of the cases you want, but without some comparison to how many people make these claims who are wrong or are unsubstantiated, there isn't much to back this up.

 

[Midoryu]

Despite the main point of this thread, I must state some what ifs here. The thing is, if these people, who claim they remember what their past life is, are able to state these things without knowing anything about the facts of their supposed "past lives", then there are several cases to consider, three of which I will state right now.

Case 1: They are most likely hypnotized (ludicrous, but possible) to say these things. But then, being hypnotized poses a more serious threat, since whoever's hypnotizing these people can so flawlessly avoid being found out.

Case 2: They are forced/threatened to say these things (which is much more realistic but sad, since only people who wish to, for whatever reason, spread these claims could be overly religious people or people who wish to earn more money through publicity, etc.)

Case 3: Something to do with electromagnetic fields...It's all about the electromagnetic fields these days. It could be that these people are especially sensitive to electromagnetic fields around the areas which the deaths too place, causing the events of that area to influence the memories and thoughts of the afflicted person. Or something like that, since I'm just a layman with no knowledge on electromagnetic fields whatsoever.

And so on and so on. Which means that if these claims were just a conspiracy, then that'll add to the giant list of "Unexplained Things that Common People Don't Know About". On the other hand, if these claims were real, and there really is reincarnation, then that means we're going to have to bust our asses off trying to explain paranormal happenings while keeping a scientific mind.

 

[WarPhalange]

My sister claimed to have had a past life when she was younger (I think around 3 or so? 3-5 I'd say) but we never did anything about it. =/ My mom wanted to take her to see a fortune teller, so I guess it doesn't matter hahahahaha

 

[epenguin]

Belief in reincarnation is a tempting and rather 'me' belief if I am not mistaken.
I was that individual in a previous life, but people do not seem to go beyond that, I mean presumably I am also a reincarnation of whoever that incarnation had as previous incarnations, and maybe that is still OK.

Only with the greatly expanded populations either most of them did not have previous incarnations or I share a previous incarnation with a whole lot of other people which makes it less me and attractive; I obviously need to make some spiritual progress before I can fully accept this idea.

While writing this I just realized the previous incarnations don't have to be human so the expanding population problem is squared. In fact I am just thinking of someone who must have been a snake.

 

[George Jones]

I have a (now faint) port-wine stain birthmark that is a bunch of blotches that run from my foot to my hip on my left leg. I don't associate memories of previous lives with any of the blotches. I guess it doesn't work for everybody.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I don't remember any of my previous lives, I can't even remember what I was doing last night. But by the law of Karma I am as sure that I was a horrible criminal in my past life as I am that my wife was a saint.

 

[WarPhalange]

Yeah, it would suck to find out you were a murderer or pedophile in a past life. I don't know what I'd do at that point. =/