Old Souls

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This article is about the book Old Souls. For the Los Angeles band, see Old Souls (band).

Old Souls: The Scientific Evidence For Past Lives
Author	Tom Shroder
Cover artist	Julie Metz
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Nonfiction
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Publication date	1999
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	256
ISBN	ISBN 0-684-85192-X

For over 40 years Professor Ian Stevenson, from the University of Virginia, has been documenting cases suggesting past life recollection. Old Souls is a first-hand report of his work, based on Washington Post editor Tom Shroder's travels with Stevenson to Lebanon, India and the American South.^[1]

Professor Stevenson's methodology involves listening to stories, comparing and contrasting variants of stories, and constructing long, detailed narratives that attempt to "capture" the complex experience of his informants, who claim to remember incidents from past lives. In this sense Stevenson's work is similar to that of ethnographers and cultural anthropologists.^[2]

Stevenson's informants are children spontaneously remembering recent quite ordinary lives, as opposed to adults remembering under hypnosis romantic or heroic lives in the distant past. In addition, birthmarks that occur at the sites of injury in the previous life constitute an important part of Stevenson's evidence.^[2]

Though Shroder's writing style belies his journalistic background the narrative works to keep the reader interested. At the outset, Shroder sees his role not only as observer, but also as skeptic. But as his journey with Stevenson progresses, Shroder finds it increasingly difficult to reject the possibility of past lives.^[1]

[edit] See also

• Jim Tucker
• Life Before Life
• Reincarnation research
• Children's Past Lives
• Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} Little Johnny Just Isn't Himself Today
2. ^ ^{a b} Old Souls: The Scientific Evidence for Past Lives

[edit] External links

• Old Souls
• Ian Stevenson; Sought To Document Memories Of Past Lives in Children The Washington Post, 11 February 2007.
• Old Souls, The Scientific Evidence for Past Lives