Signs of Reincarnation: Exploring Beliefs, Cases, and Theory

by James G. Matlock, Jeffrey Mishlove (Foreword by)

Overview

Signs of Reincarnation provides the first comprehensive look at the belief in reincarnation and the evidence for past lives from historical records, anthropological studies, and contemporary research. Matlock discusses various ways the evidence may be interpreted and shows that although reincarnation entails a rejection of the materialist notion that consciousness is generated by the brain, it does not require the acceptance of any radically new concepts or the abandonment of well-established findings in mainstream psychology or biology. This book offers students, scholars, and anyone interested in the possibility of reincarnation an essential grounding in beliefs, cases, and theory, while opening doors for future research into the extension of consciousness beyond our present lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538124802
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	06/15/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	408
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

James G. Matlock, Ph.D., is a research fellow with the Parapsychology Foundation in New York. He has worked at the American Society for Psychical Research in New York and the Rhine Research Center in Durham, North Carolina. Matlock has published widely on reincarnation and related issues and is co-author, with Erlendur Haraldsson, of I Saw a Light and Came Here: Children’s Experiences of Reincarnation. He has contributed articles on reincarnation to the online Psi Encyclopedia. Since 2013, he has taught a courses on reincarnation research and theory through the Alvarado Zingrone Institute for Research and Education.He holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Table of Contents

Foreword: A Tale of Two Theories, by Jeffrey Mishlove

Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study of Reincarnation Signs
What is Reincarnation?
Challenge to Materialism

Chapter 2: The Belief in Reincarnation
Signs, Beliefs, and Customs in Animistic Cultures
A Brief History of the Belief in Rebirth, West and East
Karma, God, and the Individual in Rebirth Theory

Chapter 3: Research Methods and Interpretative Frames
Accounts of Past-Life Memory Recorded Before 1960
Ian Stevenson’s Field Research and Its Critics
Interpretive Frames for Reincarnation Cases

Chapter 4: Child Studies: The Principal Signs of Reincarnation
Involuntary Memory of Previous Lives
Behavioral Identification with the Previous Person
Birthmarks and Other Physical Signs

Chapter 5: Child Studies: Secondary Signs of Reincarnation
Signs of Discarnate Agency
Universal, Near-Universal, and Culture-Linked Patterns
The Psychological Impacts of Past-Life Memory

Chapter 6: Past-Life Recall in Adulthood and Third-Party Reports
Developmental Factors in Past-Life Memory Retrieval
Fantasy and Fact in Past Life Regression under Hypnosis
The Contributions of Shamans, Psychics, and Mediums

Chapter 7: The Process of Reincarnation
Beyond Materialism
Personal Identity and Postmortem Survival
Reincarnation and Life

Afterword: Implications of Reincarnation Cases for Biology, by Michael Nahm

References

Glossary of Specialized and Technical Terms

Index

Editorial Reviews

Matlock’s work, particularly his processual soul theory, deserves to be carefully considered by all hard scientists, psychologists, anthropologists, and philosophers, especially in the context of our materialistic world and our understanding of science.

Antonia Mills

An excellent introduction to the important but little-known body of evidence for human rebirth. James Matlock relentlessly and properly confronts traditional beliefs, the behavior of would-be critics, and recent attempts to provide conceptual frameworks accommodating rebirth data. A major contribution!

Edward F. Kelly

Matlock writes a compelling history and analysis of the data supporting cases suggestive of reincarnation. As a neuroscientist, I believe that the data from many cases reported by Matlock and others concerning memories of past lives, cannot be easily explained by any other alternative hypothesis.

Marjorie Woollacott

This is an aptly titled book. Matlock is a research fellow at the Parapsychology Foundation of New York, and his thesis is that reincarnation actually occurs and is not just a fantasy. In the introduction the author writes that "because beliefs about reincarnation provide the backdrop against which the evidence appears, [he] gives some attention to beliefs but ... focuses on the interaction between belief and experience rather than on beliefs as strictly intellectual data.” He goes on to define reincarnation and address its challenge to materialism; summarize signs, beliefs, and customs in animistic cultures; and provide a brief history of belief in rebirth and karma (the effect one’s beliefs and actions have on future lives). In the remaining chapters he discusses his research methods and studies principal signs of reincarnation, secondary signs, and recollections of past lives. The final chapter describes the process of reincarnation. Matlock’s thesis is impossible to prove, but so are other views of the afterlife, for example biblical views of heaven and hell. Recommended. All readers.

Choice Reviews

In this cogently reasoned, appropriately critical, and extremely well sourced book, Matlock makes a strong case for the reincarnation hypothesis, largely by demonstrating that it accounts for the full range of data and case reports better than the paranormal and conventional alternatives. A must read for anyone with a scholarly interest in post-mortem survival and an open mind.

John Palmer

[Matlock] discusses historical and cultural beliefs in reincarnation, methods used to study reincarnation, studies involving children, studies involving adults with past-life memories, and ideas about the process of reincarnation... [T]his book is one of the single best resources for the study of reincarnation available today.

Parapsychological Association

Matlock has written the first comprehensive exploration of reincarnation across cultures. Signs of Reincarnation should be read by anyone seriously interested in the many facets of reincarnation.

Robert Rosenberg

[Matlock] discusses historical and cultural beliefs in reincarnation, methods used to study reincarnation, studies involving children, studies involving adults with past-life memories, and ideas about the process of reincarnation... [T]his book is one of the single best resources for the study of reincarnation available today.

From the Publisher

This is an aptly titled book. Matlock is a research fellow at the Parapsychology Foundation of New York, and his thesis is that reincarnation actually occurs and is not just a fantasy. In the introduction the author writes that "because beliefs about reincarnation provide the backdrop against which the evidence appears, [he] gives some attention to beliefs but ... focuses on the interaction between belief and experience rather than on beliefs as strictly intellectual data.” He goes on to define reincarnation and address its challenge to materialism; summarize signs, beliefs, and customs in animistic cultures; and provide a brief history of belief in rebirth and karma (the effect one’s beliefs and actions have on future lives). In the remaining chapters he discusses his research methods and studies principal signs of reincarnation, secondary signs, and recollections of past lives. The final chapter describes the process of reincarnation. Matlock’s thesis is impossible to prove, but so are other views of the afterlife, for example biblical views of heaven and hell. Recommended. All readers.

Choice

This is an aptly titled book. Matlock is a research fellow at the Parapsychology Foundation of New York, and his thesis is that reincarnation actually occurs and is not just a fantasy. In the introduction the author writes that "because beliefs about reincarnation provide the backdrop against which the evidence appears, [he] gives some attention to beliefs but ... focuses on the interaction between belief and experience rather than on beliefs as strictly intellectual data.” He goes on to define reincarnation and address its challenge to materialism; summarize signs, beliefs, and customs in animistic cultures; and provide a brief history of belief in rebirth and karma (the effect one’s beliefs and actions have on future lives). In the remaining chapters he discusses his research methods and studies principal signs of reincarnation, secondary signs, and recollections of past lives. The final chapter describes the process of reincarnation. Matlock’s thesis is impossible to prove, but so are other views of the afterlife, for example biblical views of heaven and hell.

Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.

CHOICE