This book is a detailed exposition of 20 cases of children who demonstrated early knowledge of the lives of individuals who had died previously. The strong investigative efforts of Dr. Ian Stevenson and his assistants uncover the validity of many of these memories of each child. Cases were presented from India, Ceylon, Brazil, Alaska and Lebanon. In Dr. Stevenson's words, "The history of cases suggestive of reincarnation in India (and elsewhere) follow an almost conventional pattern. The case usually starts when a small child of two to four years of age begins talking to his parents or siblings of a life he led in another time and place. The child usually feels a considerable pull back toward the events of the life and he frequently importunes his parents to let him return to the community where he claims that he formerly lived. If the child makes enough particular statements about the previous life, the parents (usually reluctantly) begin inquiries about their accuracy. Often, indeed usually, such attempts at verification do not occur until several years after the child has begun to speak of the previous life. If some verification results, members of the two families visit each other and ask the child whether he recognizes places, objects, and people of his supposed previous existence." Tables are presented for each child which shows all the elements of his/her recollections, how the information was obtained, how it was verified, and comments. A narrative of each investigation is provided. The book concludes with a general discussion of possible hypotheses of children's recollection other than reincarnation, such as fraud, information gained from others, extra-sensory perception (ESP), motivation and capacity of parents to deceive, and spirit possession.

Reincarnation is the most probable hypothesis for most of these cases because:

• The large number of witnesses and the lack of apparent motivation and opportunity make the hypothesis of fraud extremely unlikely.
• The large amount of information possessed by the child is not generally consistent with the hypothesis that the child obtained that information through investigated contact between the families.
• Demonstration of similar personality characteristics and skills not learned in the current life and the lack of motivation for the long length of identification with a past life make the hypothesis of the child gaining his recollections and behavior through extra-sensory perception improbable.
• When there is correlation between congenital deformities or birthmarks possessed by the child and the history of the previous individual, the hypothesis of random occurrence is improbable.

Dr. Stevenson considers that these cases are suggestive of reincarnation but individually or collectively do not offer anything like a proof of reincarnation.

The reader is likely to arrive at a stronger conclusion--that the great mass of verified detail does in fact constitute a proof that reincarnation can take place, shown beyond a reasonable doubt.

To understand the credibility and results of this investigation of reincarnation which are at the very heart of the evidential basis for the existence of an afterlife.