At the end of our lives, we will boldly go where billions have gone before, which is the afterlife, of which we know very little. Quite a few have ventured into the no-man’s land between life and death and returned to report on what they found there. One group has had a near-death experience (NDE). Often, they saw a bright light at the end of a tunnel and experienced a sense of absolute peace. Another group travelled outside their own body while hearing doctors discussing what to do. These are out-of-body experiences (OBE). Some argue that this is evidence of an afterlife. Scientists are unconvinced. NDEs and OBEs could be hallucinations of a dying brain lacking oxygen. Some psychologists claim people believe in an afterlife to cope with their fear of dying.

People who have had an OBE claimed they were fully aware of it. Their memories were vivid. Is this a hallucination of a dying brain? Those who have gone through the experience differ. Scientists claim our consciousness is just the result of chemical processes in our brains. Pills can cure depression or psychosis. A slight change in brain chemistry can turn a rational and intelligent person into a raving lunatic or a serial killer. A brain injury from a car or bike accident can change a person’s personality. Research suggests that brain chemistry may induce OBEs. Still, that doesn’t explain the evidence suggestive of reincarnation.

A psychiatrist named Ian Stevenson has researched thousands of cases. He began in 1960, when he learned of a child in Sri Lanka who claimed to remember a previous life. He questioned the child, his parents and the people the child named as his parents in his former life. Stevenson worked through thousands of similar cases, conducting interviews with the people involved. In many cases, no one close to these children knew about the deceased person, the child claimed to have been in a previous life. It is possible to plant fake memories in someone’s brain. However, there was no evidence to suggest that it had happened, as these memories were spontaneous.

The YouTube film below shows five reincarnation stories:

Stevenson’s work generated criticism, but his integrity remains beyond doubt. He carefully collected the data and investigated the possibility of fraud. Stevenson even hired a sceptic to verify his methods and conclusions. This person claimed that in only 11 of the 1,111 cases he checked, there had been no contact between the families of the deceased and the child before the interview.¹ When the investigators arrived, the evidence was contaminated. The exchange between the families could have altered the account. But there is irony in those numbers, 11 of the 1,111, which was lost on the sceptic. This kind of contact is difficult to avoid in real-life situations. Parents want to check their child’s story and will thus contact the relatives of the deceased before going public.

Why are there only a few thousand credible reincarnation cases on record? Why aren’t billions of people remembering previous lives? If we do reincarnate, one might expect this to be the case. And why do most cases occur in areas where people believe in reincarnation? And why is there so much evidence that our consciousness is a result of chemical processes inside the body? Reincarnation evidence could be a practical joke of our creators. We like to believe there is life after death. Why not play into that? In a simulation, you don’t have a soul, but your consciousness exists in computer memory. Someone else can inherit your memories and even your personality after you pass away. Minds are chemical processes inside the body in the real world. In this world, it only appears like so.

Latest revision: 19 July 2025

Featured image: Relief from the Dazu Rock Carvings in China outlining the Buddhist cycle of reincarnation. User Calton (2004). Wikimedia Commons.

1. Edwards 1992, pp. 13–14; Edwards 1996, p. 275; McClelland 2010, p. 144.