Michael Cremo - Human Devolution - A Vedic Alternative To Darwin's Theory

Stevenson (1997) reviewed 50 cases of maternal impressions. For example, Sylvia Hirst Ewing believed she was a reincarnation of a deceased woman named Julia Ford. Ford had a small hole in her skin near the middle of her right eye. Sylvia Ewing had a similar cavity. It would sometimes exude pus, or mucus, or a tearlike liquid. When she became pregnant, Sylvia Ewing constantly worried that her child would be born with a similar disfiguring hole. The child, Calvin Ewing, was born on January 28, 1969, with a hole at exactly the same place as his mother (Stevenson 1992, p. 364).

In some cases, the maternal impressions occur in dreams (Stevenson 1992, p. 364). Brydon (1886) reported a case in which a woman four months pregnant dreamed that a rat had chewed off the big toe of her right foot. When her child was born, it was missing the big toe of its right foot. Hammond (1868) reported a case in which a pregnant woman dreamed about a man who had lost part of his ear. Her child was born with a defective ear, matching the one the woman saw in her dream. Hammond (1868, p. 19) stated: “I have examined this child, and the ear looks exactly as if the portion had been cut off with a sharp knife.”

Karl Ernst von Baer (1792–1876) was the founder of modern embryology. He told how his sister, while away from her home, saw a fire in the distance and strongly feared it was her own house burning. At the time, she was six or seven months pregnant. When her daughter was born, she had a red mark on her forehead. The red mark was pointed at the tip, like a flame (Stevenson 1997, pp. 105–106).

The Druse are an Islamic sect, living mostly in Israel, Syria, and Lebanon. Tamimi Mishlib was an Israeli Druse woman. The Druse have a belief that a pregnant woman can produce a birthmark on a child within the womb under the following conditions: (1) she develops a desire to eat a certain food, (2) she does not eat that food, (3) while resisting the desire to eat the food she presses her finger on a part of her body. The result should be that the child is born with a birthmark at the same place on its body. For this psychosomatic operation to work, it should be carried out during the period when the child within the womb is particularly sensitive to this effect, i.e., the first three months of pregnancy. Tamimi Mishlib decided to test this folk belief. One day she felt a strong desire to eat some honey. She did not eat the honey, but simply looked at it. While looking at the honey, she pressed her right forearm with the thumb of her left hand. Her son, Hamad Mishlib, was born with a birthmark on his right forearm, corresponding to the place she pressed her own forearm (Stevenson 1997, pp. 150–151).

Reincarnation effects on Biological Form

As we saw in chapter 6, psychiatrist Ian Stevenson has documented cases of past life memories spontaneously reported by young children. Out of 895 cases of children who claimed to remember a previous life, unusual birthmarks and/or birth defects were reported in 309 of the subjects (Stevenson 1993, p. 405). These birthmarks or defects corresponded in appearance and location to wounds or other marks on the deceased person whose life the child remembered. The marks on the deceased person were verified by statements from living witnesses who knew the deceased person. In 49 cases, Stevenson was able to also use postmortem medical reports and death certificates to verify the wounds or marks on the prior personality. A correspondence between a birthmark on the living child and a wound on the deceased person was judged satisfactory if both the birthmark and wound occurred within an area of 10 square centimeters at the same anatomical location. Stevenson noted that out of the 49 cases where medical documentation was available, the marks corresponded in 43 (88 percent) of the cases (Stevenson 1993, p. 405). This strong correlation increased the confidence in the accuracy of informants’ memories concerning wounds and other marks on deceased persons for the other cases. For 18 cases in which two birthmarks on a subject corresponded to gunshot wounds of entry and exit, in 14 cases the evidence clearly showed that the smaller birthmark corresponded to the wound of entry and the larger birthmark corresponded to the wound of exit. Exit wounds are nearly always larger than entry wounds. According to Stevenson (1997, pp. 1131–1137), the probability that the location of a single birthmark would correspond to a wound from a previous life is about 1 in 160. The probability that the locations of two birthmarks would correspond to the locations of two wounds is 1 in 25,600. Stevenson (1997, p. 1135) cites cases in which the birthmarks and wounds occur within 5 centimeters of each other. In the case of single birthmark/wound correlations, the probability for such occurrences is 1 in 645, and the probability of double birthmark/wound correlations is 1 in 416,025. Let us now consider some examples of unusual birthmarks related to wounds suffered in a past life. Henry Demmert III was born with a mark corresponding to a knife wound suffered by Henry Demmert, Jr. (Stevenson 1997, pp. 417–421). Henry Demmert, Jr., was born in Juneau, Alaska, on December 6, 1929. He was the son of Henry Demmert, Sr., and his wife Muriel. Because they were Tlingit Indians, Henry and Muriel also gave their son the Tlingit name Shtani. Muriel Demmert died soon thereafter, and in 1932 Henry Demmert, Sr., married his second wife, Gertrude. When Henry Demmert, Jr., grew up, he worked as a fisherman in Juneau. On March 6, 1957, he went to a party where he and others drank a lot of alcohol. A fight broke out around 5:30 the next morning, and Henry Demmert, Jr., was stabbed in the heart. He died at the Juneau hospital at 6:45 a.m. The death certificate said the attacker’s knife cut and wounded the left lung and heart.

Henry Demmert, Sr., and his second wife, Gertrude, had a daughter Carole. She married Cyrus Robinson, and they had a child, Henry Robinson. Shortly before Henry was born Gertrude Demmert had a dream about him. The child was searching for Henry Demmert, Sr., and Gertrude. Henry Robinson was born on October 5, 1968. When Henry Demmert, Sr., and Gertrude saw their newly born grandson, they both noticed a birthmark at the same place as the stab wound that had killed Henry Demmert, Jr. Shortly after Henry was born, his parents separated. Henry Demmert, Sr., and Gertrude adopted him. They gave him the name Henry Demmert III, believing him to be a reincarnation of their son Henry Demmert, Jr. They also gave him the same Tlingit name (Shtani) they had given Henry Demmert, Jr. When Henry Demmert III was about two years old, he made some statements to his grandfather about his wound. Stevenson (1997, p. 420) reported, “Pointing to his birthmark he said that he had ‘got hurt there.’ He added that this had happened when he ‘was big.’”

In 1978, Ian Stevenson examined Henry Demmert III and photographed the birthmark. Stevenson (1997, p. 420) said: “The birthmark was inferior and slightly lateral to the left nipple. It was located at approximately the level of sixth rib. It was . . . approximately 3 centimeters long and 8 millimeters wide. The medial end of the birthmark was slightly more pointed than the lateral end. The birthmark was not elevated. It may have been fractionally depressed below the surrounding skin.” Stevenson (1997, p. 420) added: “A knife-entering the chest at the site of the birthmark, or near it, would penetrate the heart if directed medially and upward. No other member of the family had a birthmark in this location.” The birthmark had an approximately triangular shape. Stevenson (1997, p. 421) commented: “The suggestion of triangularity in the birthmark may provide an indication that the weapon stabbing Henry Demmert, Jr., had a single cutting edge, like a clasp knife or a kitchen knife, instead of having two cutting edges like a dagger.”