Research Proposal

Research Proposal

Working/Tentative Title:

Children’s Past Lives: Patterns, Cases, and Psychological Causes

Topic Description:

The general overview of the issue that will be discussed pertains to the cases of children who vividly recall their “past lives.” This paper will discuss the cases of children who have recorded their recollections and explore the connections it has uncovered that are parallel to other lives. The paper will also explore the patterns children who have these past life experiences are subject to having. Looking into explanations, psychological studies will be explored to make connections between different factors, which can cause why children have these past life memories. The debates regarding this topic are centered around doubt about how accurate these parallels are.

Research Question:

Many children can vividly remember and provide descriptions of what they preserve as their “past life.” How much accuracy of one’s past life truly parallels with these cases? Do these cases pose any benefits for children? Are children just highly imaginative? Do psychological factors play a role in their experiences, or could this influence be by surrounding beliefs? Could there be any overlap or patterns between these cases or children?

Theoretical Frame(s):

One of the theoretical frames that I will be using within my discussion is the idea and belief of reincarnation. Throughout these texts, reincarnation has been brought up as a common and widespread belief that has provided groups of people with a possible “explanation.”  The continuity of life and death has mostly been intertwined or mentioned within cases and literature pertaining to one’s past lives. Having this theory helps with the analysis of case studies because there is already a foundational understanding or concept mounted. 

Another one of the theoretical frameworks that will be used to analyze case studies regarding overlap or patterns within cases is the idea of a “maternal impression,” This idea has been mentioned in two works of literature that I have explored thus far. This concept feeds into the psychological “answers” to this phenomenon and builds on synchronicity within cases. Additionally, it puts a name onto the reasoning for these connections.  

Case(s) or Examples:

    One case that I will be working with is one that has been recognized as one of the experiences that has many accurate statements. Like most children with past life experiences, Ryan Hammons’ recollection began at the early age of five. The exploration began when Ryan discovers himself and his “friend” George in a book capturing stills from a 1932 movie called “Night After Night.” Before exposing Ryan’s dad to his past life, Ryan’s mother kept records of all the statements made by her son and the past life he claims to remember. He knew that he was a movie star who lived this grand life back in Hollywood within his past life. With this began the start of new details resurfacing and a quest for Ryan’s parents to find the legitimacy of their son’s allegations. The picture’s information did not lead the parents to find anything about this other persona trapped within their son. The actor within the movie barely even spoke during it, but Ryan had vivid details about the time of the shooting. In the few scenes, the actor was a part of throughout the movie, Ryan could directly pick him out of the other actors. He spent days and nights wondering about his old life but could not remember the name of the man. Throughout this time, Ryan’s mother noted the “adult-talk” that her son always spoke as. At just five years old, his mother remembers him explaining that the man in the photo is what he is on the inside, even if he did not look the same. More clues about Ryan’s past life evolved when he remembered a memory of a man named Senator Five, a person he knew as a “dirty, mean guy” (Hammons) he met in New York when he was an agent. During this time, Ryan’s parents sought out a well-known psychiatrist in this field, Dr. Tucker. A television show that was incorporating Dr. Tucker’s work reached out to see if Ryan' could be on the show to see whether they could fill in the missing pieces of his past life. A Hollywood historian was able to locate a picture of the mystery man’s family. Ryan was easily able to pick out from the four pictures provided and identify the relationship between them. Then, another round of pictures, this time with older men, was presented, and instantaneously Ryan identifies his “Senator Five,” which, as Dr. Tucker explains, was actually named “Senator Ive.” Within the last round of pictures, Ryan was able to find a familiar picture and was able to pick out the man’s name, Marty Martyn. Ryan’s mother, who accounts for her son’s love of playing an agent, discovers that Marytn’s occupation was a Hollywood agent running a talent agency. In this case, there were some loose ends. Ryan, who claims that his past life only lived till 61, within the death certificate, showed a birth year that puts him at the age of 59 when he passed. However, Ryan’s memory was consistent with Census reports and marriage indexes that show another birth year, making Martyn 61, just as Ryan had said. Marty Martyn’s biological daughter has also confirmed many of Ryan/Martyn’s personal memories and could not be found in any documents.    

    Another case that I will be discussing introduces the patterns within many cases. The birthmark has been thought to be linked with a past life. Within a study done by Tucker and Keil, a case of an unusual birthmark heavily points towards a link to the past life. The discussion begins by talking about a man who is portrayed as “MMS” who lived within an airforce base with his wife. During an exercise, MMS jumped out of a plane, however as inferred, the change of wind made MMS have a malfunction, and his parachute covered his body which was launched into a pond. The military hospital was unable to revive him, and there was no detailed report that could be located. His widow married a man sometime later and soon gave birth to a boy who is regarded as “YTK.”  This baby had several congenital disabilities, one substantial one being the rope-like marks found on his legs and the marks of rings on his hand. Like other children with past life experiences, from the ages of three and five years old, YTK began to talk about “coming from the sky, being tangled in ropes, and dying in a pond.” (Keil and Tucker 1069) During this investigation, there were no other reports with these rope-like marks on any other child. Keil and Tucker emphasize two central ideas. In contrast to the birthmarks that have been reported to serve as a link to previous lives, in this case, there was no report of the deceased having these marks on their body. In addition, they speak on this term “maternal interpretations” (Keil and Tucker 1074), in which YTK’s mother could have unknowingly feed information and made him believe the family’s interpretations. Ian Stevenson also reports, another case showcases this rope-like birthmark on another child who can also recount a past life experience. The subject named NT was killed, tied down with rope, and placed within a well. During this time, the child’s mother was reported to be already two and half months pregnant, who also happened to witness the police retrieving the body with the ropes. Stevenson likewise infers this “maternal impression” (Stevenson 144) within his study but mentions that this “cannot account for HW’s statements” (Stevenson 144). Both cases provide this pattern of a past life’s death playing a role on the children. While these two cases focus on the rope-like indications, this parallel pattern fits the past life criteria being brought over physically.  

Working Bibliography:

Haraldsson, Erlendur. “Children Who Speak of Past-Life Experiences: Is There a Psychological Explanation?” Psychology & Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, vol. 76, no. 1, Mar. 2003, p. 55. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1348/14760830260569256.

Kean, Leslie. Surviving Death: a Journalist Investigates Evidence for an Afterlife. Three Rivers Press, an Imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2018.

Keil, H. H. Jürgen, and Jim B. Tucker. “An Unusual Birthmark Case Thought to Be Linked to a Person Who Had Previously Died.” Psychological Reports, vol. 87, no. 3_suppl, SAGE Publications, 2000, pp. 1067–74, doi:10.2466/pr0.2000.87.3f.1067.

O’Dell, Michael. “Reincarnation as a Concept.” Journal for Spiritual & Consciousness Studies, vol. 37, no. 3, July 2014, pp. 137–142. EBSCOhost, login.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=96894386&site=ehost-live.

  Pasricha, Satwant K. “Do Attitudes of Families Concerned Influence Features of Children Who Claim to Remember Previous Lives?” Indian Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 53, no. 1, Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd, 2011, pp. 21–24, doi:10.4103/0019-5545.75554.

Shroder, Tom. Old Souls : the Scientific Evidence for Past Lives. Simon & Schuster, 1999.

Stevenson, Ian. “Ropelike Birthmarks on Children Who Claim to Remember Past Lives.” Psychological Reports, vol. 89, no. 1, Aug. 2001, p. 142. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2466/pr0.2001.89.1.142.

Tucker, Jim B. Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives. St. Martin's Griffin, 2015.