This book actually provides a good introduction to the work of Dr. Stevenson, who collected thousands of cases of children who spontaneously (without hypnosis) remember their own past lives. He methodically documents each child's statements of a previous life and identifies the deceased person the child remembers being.

For Westerners the idea that some children (age three to five) not only remember a previous existence, but can identify loved ones from it, is quite bizarre. Those kinds of "memories" are not very detailed ones, it's more like memories from your early childhood - you remember only some fragments, mostly associated with some important/significant/unusual events at that time. And this is one of the points that make those kinds of memories (from past life), quite real.

According to Stevenson, the orthodox theory (and it is just a theory) conceives human personality as the product of a person's genetic material inherited from his ancestors through his parents (influences of his prenatal and postnatal environment). But that theory cannot fully explain early childhood phobias, some of the abilities that seem to develop spontaneously, or even children convinced that they are the wrong sex. But if one accepts the possibility of reincarnation, one can entertain the idea that these children are demonstrating strong likes, dislikes, skills, and even genius that are the logical results of previous experiences. There again you will find cases of children acting as if they did not belong in their families (they treat parents and siblings with indifference, even hostility). This phenomenon is usually thought to have been caused by infantile trauma. In some cases, it could be so. But in other cases, it could be some kind of "left overs" from the "old life".

Difficult to believe? For some, maybe. But I'm sure I'm not the only one who wonders about things like that. This book doesn't give you 100% answer, but it's a start in the right direction. Another point to consider is that almost nobody (in the "Western" world) is bold enough to talk to a small child about something like that (lack of time, lack of interest, fear of unknown, lack of belief - reason for that could be anything). And because of that, those memories are nearly always forgotten by adulthood (this can be attributed to lack of memory rehearsal; as very young children do not usually engage in rehearsal of remembered information, except very specific ones such as fire can cause pain and so on). Which gives another really good question: why would you want to remember? Sure, one reason could be that it is some kind of "proof" that "something" is there, on the other side - that the human soul lives on. But most of us seems to "knows" that (or subconsciously "feel" that) anyway.

It seems like on one hand, the whole process of forgetting past life makes sense: all your friends from the other life are most likely gone, all the love ones too, your have new memories now, new life, new future - so why would you want to remember it (most likely it would drive you crazy after a while anyway)? There is not point in that - it's much better to "wipe the slate clean" (so to speak) and start over a new life again. From this point of view, this whole process seems to be a very naturalistic phenomenon.

On the other, it doesn't in the way that, in the new life you are probably going to make the same mistakes again (or quite similar) as you did in the old one. Sure, you will also make some different choices too (after all it will be a different life), but mistakes will happen. You will have to learn similar basic things/feelings again: how to write, speak, how to hate, love and so on. I just don't see, how in this case, the so called "soul" can actually learn something - by repeating almost everything again, without remembering some "bad choices and mistakes" from the other "old life". The life will be new, but feelings (such as love, hate, pain, anger, wonder, or various emotions associated with mood, temperament, and personality), will be pretty much the same. But then again, maybe it's all about something different than just "learning".

Anyway, for somebody who is interested in such subjects, this is a good book to start. It doesn't give you all the answers to the above, no book can do that, but it is close enough to put you on the right track. The other recommended books, 2 of them written by Stevenson himself, would be: "Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation", "Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect" and "Yesterday's Children: The Search for My Family from the Past" by Jenny Cockell (or even go for something like "Lake of Memory Rising" - by William R. Fix).

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Old Souls: Compelling Evidence from Children Who Remember Past Lives (Scientific Search for Proof of Past Lives)