Case Studies by Dr. Ian Stevenson

Reincarnation Story 1: The Case of Purnima Ekanayake

Psychology professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Iceland, Erlendur Haraldsson, researched the strange case of Purnima Ekanayake, a girl who claimed to have been a manufacturer of incense who died in a traffic accident.

Purnima was nine when Professor Erlendur Haraldsson saw her for the first time in September 1996 at her home in Bakamuna, a small town in the district center of Polunnaruwa, Sri Lanka. She was still talking about her former life, which is unusual at that age because most children stop doing this around the age of five or six years. According to her parents, she had started talking about her past life when she was just three years old. At the age of 4, after seeing a famous TV show that featured the Kelaniya Temple (Temple of pilgrimage for Buddhists in Sri Lanka and 145 km from Bakamuna), Purnima said she knew that temple. A few days later, the girl went with her parents to visit the city of Kelaniya Temple. Upon reaching the city, Purnima said: “I used to live on the other side of the river (Kelaniya River).”

Over time Purnima’s talks became more bizarre, she started talking about having another mother and another father who worked in an incense factory. She also talked about a terrible accident with a Zoku (a kind of bus). Despite the strange “statements”, Purnima’s parents did not pay much attention thinking she was just a smart girl with great imagination.

At the age of 6 years, Purnima realizes that her mother was sad about a car accident that had occurred near the house in which one person died. So she tried to comfort her mother saying:

“Don’t worry about that, I’ve come here after an accident.”

Her parents, surprised, conclude that their daughter seems to be having memories of another person, or more specifically a past life.

For three years, Erlendur Haraldsson investigated the claims of Purnima, the research methodology consisted of interviews with all witnesses involved, together and separately. According to the memories of the previous life of Purnima, she had been a man. He worked in a factory making incense with the name brand of Ambiga. According to her, he was the best incense maker in the family. Also reported of his death: “After the accident, I just closed my eyes and came here”, “I was hit by a bus” “A piece of iron was in my body,” she said.

A family acquaintance, Professor Sumanasiri, who lived near the area where Purnima claimed to have lived, decided to investigate and find the alleged previous family of the girl. She tells him as a male:

* She lived across the river from Kelaniya Temple
* The company manufactured Ambiga incense and Gita Pichcha
* She sold incense on a bicycle
* She had a fatal accident with a larger vehicle

With this information, Sumanasiri began to research. He asked the locals if they knew any incense factories in the area. There were three, all of them small family businesses. To the surprise of Sumanarisi, a company called Ambiga manufactured incense and Geta Pichcha. Posing as a buyer of incense, Sumanarisi began to ask some questions to the owner of the factory: La Wijisiri. At one point in the conversation, Wijisiri said his brother Jinadasa had died in an accident with a bus when bringing incense from a market riding a bicycle in September 1985, two years before the birth of Purnima.

When Sumanarisi returned, he reported his findings to Purnima’s father. A week and a half later, the little girl, her parents and Sumanasiri made a surprise visit to the Wijisiri family. When the group arrived at the house of Wijisiri, who arrived a little later, Purnima met for the first time the two daughters of Wijisiri. When Wijisiri entered the house, the little girl looked up and said:

“This is my brother.”

Wijisiri did not like the visit, let alone having a conversation with Purnima, so he asked everyone to leave, but Purnima started talking about incense, how it was made and asked about the packages of incense made by the family.

“Have you changed the packages?” Said Purnima.

Wijisiri was silent. After the death of his brother Jinadasa, Wijisiri changed the color and design of the packages. Purnima also asked about his knee. Wijisiri had suffered an accident and had fractured his knee, it was Jinadasa was who took care of him.

“How is Somasiri and Padmasiri?” Said Purnima.

Somasiri and Padmasiri were Jinadasa’s best friends. Everyone gasped as the conversation became deeper, Wijisiri was convinced that something astonishing had happened: Purnima was the reincarnation of Jinadasa.

Purnima was born with prominent marks on her lower chest. When Purnima’s family met Jinadasa’s family, the girl talked about these marks; she said the wheels passed over her chest and her left side.

“This was the mark that I got when I was hit by the bus,” said Purnima to Wijisiri. Wijisiri knew Jinadasa’s fatal injuries had occurred on the left side, just below the chest. Jinadasa was killed instantly, it was another brother, Chandradasa, who told the family after seeing the serious injuries on the left side of the chest, that the lower ribs seemed to want to get out.

Some of the most significant details of this case are that the two families were very remote and completely isolated from each other. Fourteen of seventeen matching statements were found and reviewed from events that happened in the life of Jinadasa, who died two years before the birth of Purnima. Birthmarks of Purnima matched the area of Jinadasa’s fatal injuries. The girl also had knowledge of the making of incense, something highly unusual for a little girl. In general, all these aspects: memories, birthmarks and self-knowledge, make the case of Purnima Ekanayake quite unusual.

Reincarnation Story 2: Munna, the Reincarnated Child

The wonderful thing about this case is the incredible number of memories of his past life that the reincarnated child has had. A fact that although this happened many years ago and is still preserved is clear proof that reincarnation is real.

This story starts on January 19, 1951, in India. A boy named Munna, a six-year-old, was playing in front of the store of his father who was the barber in the town. Two passing strangers suddenly took the child without anyone noticing, they took him to a distant place, where he was later murdered.

The father, noting the absence of his son begins a search in the areas around the city, only to find that the child had been beheaded at the edge of a river. Soon the men guilty of this horrible crime were found and handed over to the police, but there was not enough evidence of the crime, so they were released. The child’s family was devastated and his mother started suffering  severe nervous breakdowns.

Six months later, this story begins to take a dazzling turn when in another city in India a child is born, and in his early years begins to show some strange behaviors. At the age of two he asks his parents to take him to his previous home, so he can see his parents and his old toys again. Besides this, the child also has a strange birthmark that crosses the front of his neck.

This child, fearful at times, talks to his parents about his other life where he was killed by two men telling details that until that moment were previously unknown to the public. This gets the attention of Munna’s father who on various occasions tries to approach the boy until his parents finally agree.

As soon as the child sees the barber and his wife, he approaches them and embraces them intensely. He recognizes them. At that time he was only 4 years old.

This beautiful story has been investigated by Professor Atreva, from the city of Varanasi and Dr. Jamuna Prasad, who after speaking with both children’s families concluded that this again was another obvious case of reincarnation.

Reincarnation Story 3: The Twin Sisters

This is an exceptional story of reincarnation. It occurred in 1957 in England. The Joanna (11) and Jacqueline Pollock (6) sisters suffered a car accident in which they were run over near a sidewalk and died.

Mrs. Pollock became pregnant one year after the date of the accident and her husband had told her he had a hunch that this birth would bring twin girls who were their daughters, the same ones who had died a year before.

The odd thing is that the gynecologist who treated Mrs. Pollock said he did not expect more than one baby, but Mrs. Pollock ultimately gave birth to two girls. They were called Jennifer and Gillian.

The girls’ father noticed that one of the babies had, above her right eyebrow, a scar identical to that of the daughter Jacqueline who had fallen when she was three; and the other girl in turn had a mole the size of a thumb, in the same place as had their second deceased daughter.

Four months later, the family moved to another village, but after two and a half years they went back to visit the same place where they were born, and their parents found that the two girls knew the place very well. Even without seeing the school, they could point a finger to where it was, and the same thing happened when they pointed to place where a swing and slide use to be. When the girls went through their old house they recognized every room immediately.

When the girls turned four, their father opened the box in which he kept the dead daughter’s old toys. The strange thing for the parents were when each girl acknowledged which toy belonged to which, and even called the dolls by the names the deceased sister’s used to call them. Also the girls showed fear of passing cars as well as exhibiting the same unusual personality traits as their previous daughters.

Reincarnation Story 4: Ismail Altinklish, Homecoming

In 1956, a boy named Ismail Altinklish was born in Turkey, claiming since his early childhood to have been in a previous life, a gardener named Abeit Szulmus, killed by a blow to the head.

The child had a scar on his head, in the same place where Suzulmus he had been beaten, and would tell his family an entire series of details about his previous existence. Abeit Suzulmus, who lived in the region of Bahcheche with his wife Sahida and their two children, had been killed by several of his employees, who crushed his head with an iron bar.

The little Ismail Altinklish had always asked his parents to take him to visit the home of his previous incarnation, and they finally gave in. When they arrived at the former home of Sulzulmus, the boy could recognize all that had belonged to him and his parents found that everything fit the descriptions the child had previously related.

One of the daughters of Abeit visited Ismail, and later, after a long conversation with him, was convinced that her father had reincarnated indeed as the young child Ismail Altinklish. This is probably one of the most well-documented reincarnation stories showing reincarnation to be true.

Reincarnation Story 5: Jenny Cockell, An Amazing Story

Jenny is a British woman who knew from a very young age that she had lived another life. She knew her previous name was Mary, a young woman who had lived in Ireland in the 30’s. And worst of all, that her early death had left her six children helpless leaving her with a desperation that she could still feel like a strange shadow. This was a weight that pushed her to unravel all those apparent sad memories.

At eight years old, Jenny Cockell knew she had not always lived in England. Her dreams were always focused on Ireland during times of hard work and survival. She also knew that her name had not always been Jenny. The other woman, who lived in her dreams was Mary but she never could remember her last name.

Jenny always tried to have a somewhat normal life. Only a few knew that in reality, her life was strained because every day new pieces of the daily life of a woman named Mary came into her thoughts. She knew that Mary, an Irish woman, walked a lot, her house was near a stream and her hands and fingernails were always dirty from the soil from which she harvested and collected potatoes.

She knew that she sometimes would go hungry and never ate meat. Only flour, bread, vegetables…farmed from an area near a railroad. Jenny also knew that Mary had died during childbirth at age 35, and that her death was with great despair and rage. It was too soon, her children were still too young to be left without a mother. What would become of her six children?

Such was the intensity of those feelings and emotions that Jenny Cockell decided to undergo regressive hypnosis. And what was the result? The memories and suffering became more vivid and more details began to appear.

This woman’s story of reincarnation got noticed by the BBC, who expressed interest in these type of cases. They published it in various media formats and, to everyone’s surprise, the repercussion reached Malahaide, a small village in Ireland where a farmer had identified Mary and her six children. Her last name was Sutton and she had died in the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin on October 24, 1932, because of gangrene, pneumonia and toxemia and didn’t leave six, but seven children behind.

Jeffrey (1923), Sonny (1924), Philomena (1925), Christopher (1926), Francis (1928), Bridget (1929), Elizabeth (1932). The farmer tracked down her third son, Jeffrey, in Ireland, who gave him the addresses of two of his brothers Sonny and Francis and what happened then? Was Jenny to know?

Yes, she contacted all of them, developing a very special bond  especially with Sonny for with the details provided, memories and words, each of these children, now adults, recognized Jenny as their real mother reincarnated. The suffering now been attenuated, Jenny’s pain about leaving her young children as the young mother Mary was softened knowing that they had survived, were older, elderly actually and had led a full life while remembering their mother, Mary Sutton, who had given everything to them.

Another amazing reincarnation story that serves to make us think about the afterlife and future lives.

Reincarnation Story 6: Engin Sungur, A Child In Turkey

Another famous reincarnation story is that of Engin Sungur, born in December 1980 in the Hospital Antakya, Hatay, Turkey.

When Sungur was a young boy, he traveled with his family away from his hometown of Tavla. While traveling, he pointed to a village through which they passed, called Hancagiz, and said he used to live there. He said his name was Naif Cicek and that he had gone to Ankara just before he died.

In fact there was a Naif Cicek who had died in that town a year before Sungur was born, but Sungur’s family would not know that for some time. They did not comply immediately with his request to visit the village of his past life.

One day, Cicek’s daughter was in Sungur’s village, in Tavla happening before Sungur’s family and Cicek had any contact. Sungur approached her and said: “I am your father.”

After that, Sungur’s mother took him to Hancagiz to meet the family of Cicek. The child correctly identified several relatives, including the widow of Cicek. He pointed at an oil lamp in the house of Cicek and said that he had made it in that life. He also told a story of how his son had hit him once with his own truck while pushing it.

All the statements made by Sungur were correct, everything matched with the details of the life of Cicek. Other statements made could not be verified, but he made no misstatement.