Has Warnasiri Adikari lived more than once? Warnasiri was born
in a village in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) about 30km from Colombo on 9
November 1957. At the age of four the boy began telling his father
about a former life. In 1962 Francis Story, who was a lecturer on
Buddhist philosophy, invited Professor Ian Stevenson, a well-known
American researcher into reincarnation, to investigate.
When the boy met the two men he gave them details about his former
life, including the village where he had lived -- Kimbulgoda, 10km
from his house at that time. His family never went to this village,
nor did they know anyone there. But the child's story reached
Kimbulgoda. A Mrs Ranaweera recognised some of his memories as
experiences of her son Ananda Mahipala, who had died suddenly on 26
October 1956. When Warnasiri eventually visited Kimbulgoda, he
immediately located the place where he had lived, although the
house had been torn down. He also picked out his former mother
amongst a crowd of women, but could not identify his former
sisters.
New body, old soul Reincarnation, the concept that
humans are reborn again and again, is a centuries-old belief found
throughout the world. The ancient Egyptians made elaborate
preparations to free the soul after death and allow its rebirth.
The ancienet Greeks believed in many life cycles and indigenous
peoples in Africa, Australasia and the Americas have all subscribed
to reincarnation in some form. The idea of continual rebirth is a
central tenet of Hinduism and Buddhism.
During the 20th century the idea of reincarnation has taken hold in
Western societies. A 1981 Gallup poll showed that 21% of American
Protestants and 25% of Catholics believed in reincarnation. A 1979
survey in Britain found that 28% believed. Views have been
influenced by the spread of Eastern religious thinking, as well as
direct experiences that seem best explained by reincarnation.
Direct experiences may be either spontaneous or induced by age
regression under hypnosis. The most thorough research on
spontaneous memories has been conducted by Professor Stevenson at
the University of Virginia -- he has more than 2000 cases on file.
Typically, like Warnasiri Adikari, a young child will make
statements about a previous life, many of which can be verified.
The child may show behavioural characteristics of the former
personality and may recognise the person's belongings. Stevenson's
research even ties memories to birthmarks and birth defects
associated with the past life.
Hypnotic regression has become popular since 1980 for its
therapeutic purposes. Patients suffering allergies, phobias or
nightmares seek cures by retracing memory to find the sources of
their problems. Dr Denys Kelsey, a British psychiatrist who has
worked with hypnosis since the 1950s, treated one patient wtih a
phobia of flying, which was traced back to a German pilot killed in
a raid over Britain. In "reliving" the incident, the patient made
and immediate and permanent recovery.
A case involving both spontaneous and hypnotic memories was
reported in Yesterday's
Children by Jenny Cockell in 1993. The patient remembered
being Mary, a young Irishwoman who died in the 1930s. She
identified the village where Mary had lived and traced some of
Mary's children. She got their names wrong, but Mary's eldest son
was astonished when she remembered an incident about snaring a
hare, which had stuck in his own memory from the age of 6.
Read the book, seen the movie One explanation
offered for hypnotic memories is cryptomnesia, or hidden memory,
whereby a person recalls details of a book or film without
conscious awareness of it. But this cannot apply to children who
remember events before they can read. Other theories attribute
past-life memories to spirit possessions, multiple personality
disorders caused by physical or mental trauma, ESP or a hypnotist's
power of suggestion.
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