The Epoch Times posted an interesting article about the extraordinary work that Dr. Jim Tucker is continuing in regards to connections between birthmarks and past lives.
Pioneered by the lat Dr. Ian Stevenson, the research involves hundreds of documented cases of children and adults with reports of some recollection of a past live and somehow is connected to a particular birthmark, like the following case:
Grandmother of a little boy from Thailand made a fervent request while she lay dying. “When I come back, I want to be a male.” When the woman eventually passed away, her daughter-in-law took some white paste and drew a broad line on the back of the deceased woman’s neck in hopes that one day she would be identified in her next life.
The little boy, named Cloy was born just a few years after his grandmother’s passing. Clearly noticeable at his birth was a white line on the back of his neck, as if someone had drawn it directly onto his skin.
As he got older and could communicate, he began to state emphatically that he is his grandmother! His adamancy grew, even to the point where he exclaimed that the rice field which his grandmother once owned belonged to him!
In some Asian countries, there is a common practice that involves marking the deceased with ash or paste so that when the soul is reincarnated, the relatives can recognize them from the designated marking.
Although markings (birthmarks) or even deformities of the body are less documented among the cases of past life evidence, they do occur. The details are still quite nebulous as to where birthmarks originate from, although roughly 80 percent of all babies are born with some sort of mark or discoloration on their body. Sometimes the marks fade over the years and other times they remain.
This is one of many cases recounted by Dr. Jim Tucker at the University of Virginia in which birthmarks seem to relate to past lives.
The late Dr. Ian Stevenson, whose work Tucker continues, investigated 210 cases of children with birthmarks or defects that related to memories they retained from past lives.
Stevenson obtained a post-mortem report in 49 cases. The wound and birthmark were within 10 square centimeters of each other on the body in 43 percent of these cases, and many were much closer to the same location.
In some cultures, people mark the deceased with soot or paste to recognize them when they are reborn.
Here are a few examples of birthmarks related to past life memories studied by Stevenson.
A boy born in India without fingers on his right hand remembered another life in which he was a boy who had his fingers amputated after sticking them in a fodder chopping machine.
A boy in Turkey with a malformed right ear remembered having been shot and killed at close range on that side of his head.
A boy named Maha Ram in India could remember being killed in a previous life with a shotgun fired at close range. He remembered enough details of his past life for Stevenson to find the autopsy report of the man supposedly reincarnated as Ram. The birthmarks on Ram’s chest corresponded to the bullet wounds.
Some anecdotal accounts of birthmarks from past lives that have not been verified are shared on a past life discussion blog post.
Karen Kubicko posted photos of herself in high school with a birthmark on her neck and a photo of herself later in life without the birthmark. She said she remembered in 2011 that in a previous life she was a woman named Helen who was hit by a stray bullet in the neck and died in 1927.
The mark was where the bullet had hit in her vision.
After she remembered this, the mark gradually disappeared.
Another person on the blog said she had a birthmark on the back of her leg. She remembered a past life in which a snake bit her there. A few years later, she realized the mark had faded away. She said the area is not often exposed, so light exposure or other such external elements are not to blame.
Folklore Associated with Birthmarks
Traditional beliefs and folklore surrounding birthmarks come from all over the world. For example, in Italy, Spain and some parts of the Arab world, birthmarks are regarded as unfulfilled wishes that a mother experienced during pregnancy. King Henry VIII’s wife, Anne Boleyn, possessed a birthmark that common lore of the time associated with witchcraft.
Other old wives’ tales associated with birthmarks include:
If a mother eats strawberries, her baby will be born with a strawberry birthmark.
If a mother drinks too much coffee, her baby will have light brown birthmarks.
If a mother touches her body in the same spot regularly while walking, the baby will be born with a birthmark in the same spot.
If a mother looks at a mouse while pregnant, her baby will have a birthmark that grows hair
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