Attempting to provide evidence for reincarnation scientifically may seem like a fools' game, but if there is potential evidence for the phenomenon, it would certainly be foolish to ignore it. That is, it would be foolish to dismiss the evidence without first looking at it. It would be begging the question to accept whatever is offered uncritically. In any event, there is a little-known collection of case studies by Ian Stevenson, a medical doctor, collected in many books, which purports to bolster the case for reincarnation. The book I'm reading right now is called "Where reincarnation and biology intersect," so-called because of the occurence of birthmarks on supposedly reincarnated individuals which correspond to wounds sustained at death. The documentation is extremely careful, and there is no indication of deliberate falsification. Certainly Stevenson is sincere. He also frequently provides counterevidence in particular instances when not all evidence points to the same conclusion. On the other hand, there are passages where his thinking seems sloppy. There are a number of case studies that are extremely convincing, and I'd like to share one with you.
Necip Unlutaskiran was born in Adana, Turkey, in 1951. Necip's mother had a dream before he was born in which a man she did not recognize showed himself to her with bleeding wounds. She did not know how to interpret this dream, but it made some sense when she saw, after Necip's birth, that he had seven birthmarks. Some of these were more prominent than others, and a few had faded by the time I first examined Necip, when he was about 13 years old.
Necip was late in speaking and late also, compared to other subjects of these cases, about speaking of a previous life. From age 6 on he began to say that he had children and asked his mother to take him to them. He said that he had lived in Mersin (a city about 80 kilometers from Adana). He said that his name was Necip and that he had been stabbed; as he described the stabbing, he pointed to various parts of his body to indicate where he had been stabbed.
His parents at first paid little attention to these statements, which they found more annoying than interesting. Their stance changed when Necip was about 12 years old. His mother took him to meet her father, who was then living, with his second wife, in a village near Mersin. Necip had never met his grandfather's second wife before, but he suddenly said that he recognized her as from the previous life that he claimed to have lived in Mersin. She had known a man in Mersin named Necip Budak and was able to confirm the accuracy of Necip's statements. This meeting increased Necip's wish to go to Mersin, and his grandfather took him there. There he recognized several members of the family of Necip Budak. They further confirmed the accuracy of Necip's statements for the life of Necip Budak.
It seems that Necip Budak had been a quarrelsome sort of person, especially when drunk. One day he began teasing and then taunting an acquaintance, who, perhaps drunk himself, stabbed Necip Budak repeatedly with a knife. Necip Budak collapsed on the street and was taken to a hospital, where his wounds were noted and where he died the next day.
Among the statements that Necip made, the most impressive was his claim that he had once stabbed "his" (Necip Budak's) wife in the leg and that she thereafter had a scar on her leg. Necip Budak's widow admitted the truth of the statement, and, taking some ladies into the back room, she showed them the scar on her thigh.
Necip expressed great affection toward the children of Necip Budak and fond attachment toward his wife. Indeed, he manifested keen jealousy regarding her second husband and wanted to tear up a photograph of this man.
In the number of wounds matching birthmarks-six in all-Necip's case exceeds all other cases (having medical documents) that I have investigated. In the monograph [a different book] I give a tabular summary of these and show their correspondence to the wounds on Necip Budak recorded in the hospital where he died.
