A first-person account of Jim B. Tucker's experiences with a number of
extraordinary children with memories of past lives, New York Times
bestseller Return to Life expands on the international work started by
his University of Virginia colleague Ian Stevenson. Tucker's work,
lauded by the likes of parapsychologist Carol Bowman and Deepak Chopra,
and described by some as quantum physics, focuses mostly on American
cases, presenting each family's story and describing his scientific
investigation. His goal is to determine what happened - what the child
has said, how the parents have reacted, whether the child's statements
match the life of a particular deceased person, and whether the child
could have learned such information through normal means. Tucker has
found case studies that provide persuasive evidence that some children
do, in fact, possess memories of previous lives.
Among others, readers will meet a boy who describes a previous life on a
small island. When Tucker takes him to that island, he finds that some
details eerily match the boy's statements and some do not. Another boy
points to a photograph from the 1930s and says he used to be one of the
men in it. Once the laborious efforts to identify that man are
successful, many of the child's numerous memories are found to match the
details of his life. Soon after his second birthday, a third boy begins
expressing memories of being a World War II pilot who is eventually
identified.
Thought-provoking and captivating, Return to Life urges its readers,
skeptics and supporters alike, to think about life, death, and
reincarnation and to reflect about their own consciousness and
spirituality.
