Is There Life after Death? Fifty Years of Research at UVA
February 22, 2017
Jim B. Tucker
Bruce Greyson
Edward F. Kelly
J. Kim Penberthy
http://www.uvadops.org
Does some aspect of our personality survive bodily death? Long a philosophical and theological question, in the 20th century this became the subject of scientific research. Fifty years ago, in 1967, Ian Stevenson, then chair of UVA’s Department of Psychiatry, created a research unit—now named the Division of Perceptual Studies—to study what, if anything, of the human personality survives after death. Dr. Stevenson’s own research investigated hundreds of accounts of young children who claimed to recall past lives.
In this Medical Center Hour, faculty from the Division of Perceptual Studies highlight the unit’s work since its founding, including studies of purported past lives, near-death experiences, and mind-brain interactions in phenomena such as deep meditation, veridical out-of-body experiences, deathbed visions, apparent communication from deceased persons, altered states of consciousness, and terminal lucidity in persons with irreversible brain damage. As the division enters its second half-century, what are its research priorities and partnerships?
History of the Health Sciences Lecture
Co-presented with Historical Collections, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library and the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, UVA
8 Responses to “Is There Life after Death? Fifty Years of Research at UVA”
i studied parapsychology as a Masters degree level many years ago –
There are several problems with Stevenson’s method. He often worked with translators in countries about which he knew very little. Questioning anybody is tricky, but questioning children is especially tricky. “Interviewer bias is the central driving force in the creation of suggestive interviews” (Bruck, Ceci, and Helmsbrooke 1998; quoted in Mills and Lyon: 303). Questioning children and adults via a translator introduces another element of uncertainty regarding the bias of the questioning technique. Most of the interviews took place in countries where reincarnation is an accepted belief. So, the translator would be “typically imbued with the cultural expectations that past-life recall is a valid phenomenon” (Mills and Lynn: 303). Stevenson, being non-fluent in the language and the culture, was in no position to assess the reliability of the questioning by the translator.
There is also the obvious problem of confirmation bias. The ideal, according to Stevenson, was to seek out PLE stories and then try to confirm them. Failure to confirm, however, did not count against the reincarnation hypothesis. In fact, nothing could be discovered using Stevenson’s methods that could ever disconfirm the reincarnation hypothesis. Many scientists would consider this a fatal flaw in his methodology
Also it seems very suspicious that the families (past) invariably turned out to be wealthy, while the families who claimed associations, were all from among the lower (poor) classes.
When I was 4 years old I used to say that when i was older I used to be a teacher. I demanded respect ..I used to look at my little hands and wonder how the heck I had found myself in this small body and ask my parents about it. I come from a religious (Christian) environment and there was no information about reincarnation in the Greek community 40 years ago…it wasn’t in our culture and there were only 2 tv channels…
When I grew older I visited an astrologer who told me than in a previous like I had been a teacher of higher knowledge…in this life I’ve become an English teacher and a piano teacher…weird…isn’t it? for this reason I totally believe in reincarnation…I even had a death experience into a swimming pool at the age of 5 and I can reassure you that death doesn’t hurt…it is the absolute peace and calmness…I can still recall myself sinking and it was like I didn’t need to breath at all…I was just watching the swimming pool wall going up as I was going down…then I don’t remember anything else..I found myself out of the pool spitting water…
I am glad science is opening the door to the phsycic realm…
Ha ha ha.. all easy to explain naturally.. gullibility is widely spread.. near death is not death!! Useless term! Any questions? 🙂
Hindus have believed in reincarnation for thousands of years.
I am surprised that I do not see any Indians in your research team.
Thank you for “scientifically” proving what Hindus have known for thousands of years.
I do not believe in soul. But how cat people see their body and the surrounding with exact details? It is not delusion so. I am just confused.
I wonder how people like Dawkins, who reject every theory outside the pure material , would counter this study.Coincidence isn’t a argument anymore.
The qigong masters can manifest these abilities at will – like qigong master Chunyi Lin of http://springforestqigong.com He took part in a medical healing “external qi” study done by Dr. Ann Vincent – randomized controlled “gold standard” that healed people of chronic pain when Western medicine had not been able to heal them for 5 years. She called the results “especially impressive” and they are peer-reviewed published.