Division of Perceptual Studies
University of Virginia School of Medicine · 2024 · University of Virginia
Summary
Academic research unit founded by Ian Stevenson studying claimed past-life memories, near-death experiences, and related cases.
Why it matters here
The leading academic group publishing on cases of children claiming past-life memories and on Greyson's NDE work.
Linked claims
A subset of past-life cases include birthmarks or birth defects whose location matches reported wounds — sometimes with autopsy verification.
A consistent core experience — peace, light, life review, OBE — reported across cultures and prospective hospital studies.
Decades of cases of young children making specific, verifiable claims about a deceased stranger's life — across many cultures, with reproducible sub-patterns (≈70% violent deaths, family-rebirth clusters).
If past-life cases are taken seriously, reincarnation is the most economical narrative — but several other models also fit the data.
NDEs, past-life cases, terminal lucidity and mediumship cluster suggestively. Each line is contested; together they earn a hearing.
Brief return of clear cognition shortly before death in patients with severe dementia or brain injury — observed across hospice care.
Related evidence hubs
Children's past-life memories, birthmark cases, and the rebirth interpretation.
Past-life memories, karma, soul contracts.
Evidence around dying, near-death experience, and what (if anything) continues.
The nature of subjective experience.
Whether anything of mind continues.
Structured experiences during cardiac arrest and crisis.
World religions and traditions, scored as systems.
Brief return of clear cognition before death.