Suitbert Ertel
Georg-Elias-Müller-Institut für Psychologie
Department of Biology
University of Goettinge
When a young child claims to have lived a previous life, I. Stevenson considers the case as a "solved" rebirth case, if there is enough evidence that the previous person (PP) had existed. His interpretation of the child's account by rebirth implies that some mental entity, often called "soul", exists. After completing life in body PP the soul would resume, after some time of discarnate existence, a new life in body (S). Stevenson does not exclude other possible explanations. I suggest to also consider an explanation in terms of "imprinting". PP mother's memory-stored mental information about PP's life experience (mainly the mother's) might be transferred by her to some other woman's embryo or fetus (S). The paranormal mechanisms might be telepathy (information transmission) and DMILS (direct mental influence on the child's developing physical organism). My hypothesis took shape with an interview in Sri Lanka of two families of one rebirth case that Stevenson had already examined in 1982.