Reincarnation and Biology. A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects is a long-awaited book. As one opens the large two volumes of 2268 pages, it becomes evident why we have waited so long. Readers may experience a mixture of awe and despair when faced with more than 2200 pages. Fortunately, Praeger has also published a small volume, Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect, which Stevenson has written to satisfy the needs of readers who wish to understand the essential content of the larger work without troubling themselves over details. This volume summarizes the findings, the arguments, and the conclusions of the larger work. Both works, the two-volume Reincarnation and Biology. A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects and Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect, contain 26 chapters, bearing the same headings in both works.

It has gradually emerged that cases of the reincarnation type (CORT) are not only characterized by alleged previous-life memories of young children, but also by a pattern of other characteristics. Probably most unexpected is that birthmarks and birth defects are sometimes found that are related to the mode of death of a deceased person about whose life the child-subject may make some correct statements, and who the child may claim to have been in a previous life. Stevenson has expressed the view that these birthmarks and birth defects are the most impressive aspect of the multi-faceted CORT. Now he gives us the evidence - more than 200 cases - nearly all of them personally investigated by Stevenson himself.

This is a medical monograph written with the thoroughness, clarity, and thoughtfulness that is characteristic of Stevenson. There is extensive documentation of each case, including numerous photographs, tables, footnotes and references, and indexes of cases and names. To help us understand the cultural and historical background for some of the cases, Stevenson even presents short reviews of the recent history of two countries (Turkey and Burma) where many birthmark and birth-defect cases have been found.

The first chapter gives an overview of the basic findings regarding CORT. The second chapter, "Bodily changes corresponding to mental images in the person affected," describes numerous cases from the medical literature that show various links between mental images and bodily functions, such as stigmata, hypnotic modification of a variety of bodily functions, and some rare bodily effects that have been observed to occur when persons relive memories of very intense physical injury or trauma. This is the most extensive examination of its kind known to the reviewer, and it is an excellent historical overview.

Stevenson argues that there are common factors underlying the occurrence of physical changes corresponding to mental images. Primarily, they are violence and physical injury coupled with concentrated attention and impressionability (absorption) in the subject. An additional factor is the reactivity of the tissues of the skin which can result in the formation of scars or even dermographisms. Stevenson presents a formula for the occurrence of these bodily effects; CA + DI + PF = CS. CA stands for Concentrated Attention or Absorption, DI for Duration of the Imagery, PF for the Physiological Factors and CS for the resultant Changes in the Skin. Some of these physiological effects are also anomalous in the sense that they do not correspond to known configurations of nerves or blood vessels of the skin.

The next chapter, "Bodily changes corresponding to another person's mental images," reviews the literature on spontaneous telepathic impressions and experiments in which a localized physical effect in one person corresponds to a mental image in another. Less well-known are cases of maternal impressions, which were frequently published in leading medical journals in the 19th and early 20th century. Stevenson found reports of 300 cases which reveal a close correspondence between an impression upon the mind of a pregnant woman and her baby's defects.

The first three chapters serve as an introduction to the main subject of the work: birthmarks and birth defects as they may relate to CORT. It is, however, an understatement to describe these three chapters as an introduction, although they serve both as "mind-openers" to the material in the chapters that follow and as a theoretical basis. Apart from being outstanding reviews, they contain much new material. These three chapters alone (a total 175 pages) would make a highly interesting and provocative book bound to be widely read and cited for a long time to come. Stevenson's scholarship has remarkable breadth and is truly international in scope. He frequently also refers to foreign sources including German, French, and Italian, something too seldom found among American (or even British) scholars. Such thoroughness of scholarship across languages and cultures, often going far into the past, is rare.

The next 12 chapters are devoted to birthmarks as they are found in the investigation of CORT. They are categorized according to the degree of verification of a possible link between an unusual birthmark on a subject's skin and corresponding wounds on the body of a deceased person. Such verification varies widely from case to case, ranging from none at all (although the case may still be of interest), through support from memories of informants, to medical documentation.

A thoughtful reader may consider whether the birthmarks and birth defects correspond by chance. According to Stevenson, the skin of a normal-sized adult would comprise 160 squares each 10 centimeters square. Locating the skin marks in such a grid, he calculates the odds against chance of a single birthmark corresponding in location with a single wound as 1/160. However, the chance explanation is even less likely in cases in which more than one wound and birthmark correspond. For example, Stevenson has 18 cases in which a child claims to remember being shot by a bullet and has two birthmarks which are found to correspond to bullet wounds of entry (small) and exit (larger). Here again a pattern of birthmarks matches a pattern of wounds. In Stevenson's opinion these cases constitute the strongest evidence. When two birthmarks thus correspond to two wounds the odds against chance increase to 1/160 x 1/160, or 1/25000.

An extreme case was Necip Ünlütaskiran of Turkey, who had seven birthmarks, six of which corresponded to wounds described in a medical document. Here the odds against chance coincidence become truly astronomical. Furthermore, Necip's claim that he had stabbed his wife of a previous life in the leg, with a resultant scar, was verified when she was identified.

In the chapter "Prediction of Birthmarks" Stevenson describes cases in which birthmarks could be predicted. For example, in a Turkish case, one birthmark had been reported to him. When he later learned that the death of the alleged previous personality had been caused by bullet wounds, he predicted a second birthmark, returned to the subject and found a second birthmark which corresponded to the exit wound. Such rare cases and so-called experimental birthmark cases are extremely important, particularly because they offer the possibility of moving these cases somewhat beyond the criticism applied to most spontaneous cases and introducing an element of experimental control.

In Stevenson's collection there are also cases that may appear to many readers to have only slight or no evidential value, but which he finds revealing for one reason or another. For example, there are 21 cases of children who made no statements whatsoever about the previous personality (as well as an additional 7 who made only one or two statements) and who were identified by adults solely on the basis of their birthmarks which resembled fatal wounds inflicted on someone they knew or came to learn about. According to local beliefs, such identification is often supported by someone having had "announcing dreams" before the child was born, a feature unlikely to impress Western readers.

The birthmarks figuring in Stevenson's cases are also of interest because most of them differ from the kind of birthmark that almost everyone has. They often are hairless areas of puckered, scarlike tissue, raised above surrounding tissues or depressed relative to them; a few are areas of decreased pigmentation. Some are bleeding and oozing when the baby is born. Those that resemble nevi and moles in appearance are often larger than ordinary nevi and also often occur in unusual locations. The same can be said for birth defects figuring in the cases. Not only are birth defects in general rare compared to birthmarks, but many of those reported by Stevenson are types that are exceedingly rare and in some instances almost unique.

In some cases, birthmarks are found to match wounds that resulted from surgical operations. A real oddity is the case of Jacinta Agbo of Nigeria, who had the most extraordinary birthmark Stevenson has ever seen. "It consisted of an area, about 3 centimeters wide, of pale scarlike tissue that extended around her entire head (Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect, p. 57)." Later, a person was identified who in a quarrel had been hit on the head with a club and was sewn up to treat an extensive incision in the scalp. "Jacinta's birthmark was much wider than the incision would have been, and this is why I believe it corresponded to a bandage placed by the surgeon around the hea p. 58)."

The second volume of Reincarnation and Biology deals with birth defects and other anomalies as they may derive from previous lives. The (visible) birth defects are divided into those of the extremities, those of the head and neck, those involving two or more regions, and those involving what Stevenson terms "experimental birth defects" (children born with signs of marks that match those on children who were deliberately mutilated or otherwise marked after death). Generally, the birth defect cases are also associated with violent deaths, including murders (some involving mutilations and torture) and accidents. Stevenson also includes four chapters describing cases in which the subject's internal diseases, abnormalities of pigmentation, and other aspects of physical appearance and function may match those of the person whose life a child claims to remember.

A special chapter discusses 42 cases of twins that Stevenson has investigated, in which one or both children speak of memories of previous lives. Particularly interesting is the finding that in 62% of the 34 cases for which the information was available, the two previous personalities had died at the same time or at least on the same occasion. There was also frequently a personal relationship between the previous personalities. Some of the twins were monozygotic and showed considerable differences in behavior in line with characteristics of the previous personalities.

Stevenson has drawn together a massive amount of new data, so much so that I can think of nothing comparable since the publication of Phantasms of the Living (Gurney, et al., 1896) which immediately became a classic and influenced a whole era of research and debate.

One may wonder how the extreme critics will come to view this work. We may conjecture that they will probably react in much the same way as they did to the Phantasms of the Living, namely, by dismissing the work as a collection of spontaneous cases which are investigated after they occur and hence are prone to well-known weaknesses of testimony. Probably a more serious problem to address is the strong cultural differences among the cases. The reported incidence of birthmarks or birth defects varies greatly between cultures, and these differences may be an expression of popular beliefs. It seems that in the cultures from which these cases are drawn, popular beliefs encourage associations between unusual birthmarks and persons who died from wounds or had unusual scars or malformations. These beliefs might affect statements made by a subject when people around him/her have developed expectations or convictions that the child was previously a particular person. These weaknesses are discussed by Stevenson. Beliefs certainly influence expectations and ways of interpreting phenomena. However, is it also justifiable to ask whether the local beliefs have arisen from observations of the kind described by Stevenson?

In some cultures dreams are also frequently interpreted as a foreboding of the identity of the personality of a baby to be born. This belief poses a problem and a potential pitfall for the investigator, especially if he or she comes to the scene years after a case has become established in the extended family or the neighborhood of the subject.

Stevenson's massive and detailed records of cases, which he categorizes and analyzes at length in various ways, should open up a new era of debate about how or if physical attributes at birth can be linked to persons who have died. It has gradually become accepted that our psychological state can influence our health. Stevenson presents evidence that a psychological state - especially near death, and especially if the death is a violent one — may influence the development of future bodies.

In the methodology of the life sciences it is widely accepted that few findings are as vulnerable to subjective biases of the investigator and as dependent on his/her circumspection as those obtained in case studies. Stevenson's birthmark work is bound to be challenged, for it is serious work of great consequence. Arguments will not help much. The meaningful battles will be fought only in the field, via the replication process.

Stevenson's emphasis is on presenting his data in great detail, but he also discusses various explanations and implications of the data, such as those for genetics and for the mind-body problem. In Where Biology and Reincarnation Intersect he concludes:

Yet in saying that I think that reincarnation is the best explanation for many cases, I do not claim that it is the only explanation. Further research may show that it is not even the best one. This is a matter about which my opinion should count for little. I regard my contribution as that of presenting the evidence as clearly as I can. Each reader should study the evidence carefully — preferably in the monograph — and then reach his or her own conclusion (pp. 112-113).

Reincarnation and Biology and Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect together are a work of truly unique proportions. I have not read anything as interesting and fascinating for many years. It is one of a kind and is bound to become a classic, defining a unique and difficult domain. It is the crowning work of a truly outstanding scholar and researcher.

Erlendur Haraldsson
Department of Psychology
University of Iceland
IS-103 Reykjavik, Iceland

References

Gurney, E., Myers, F. W. H., and Podmore, F. (1886). Phantasms of the Living. 2 vols. London: Trübner.

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