Children Who Have Lived Before: Reincarnation today

by Trutz Hardo

In this book, children from all around the world remember their past lives, and eminent scientists explain how many of these children's stories have been followed up to verify whether their statements have any foundation in fact. Incredibly, when subjected to scientific investigation, children's memories about their past lives can invariably be confirmed in every detail.Supported by overwhelming scientific evidence, the children's stories in this book suggest that reincarnation is a reality for us all. Whether they are from England, Europe, the USA, Lebanon, South Africa, Israel, India, Brazil, Sri Lanka or Turkey, children who have lived before offer us insights into our global future, as well as profound messages from our collective past. This book is a must for anyone interested in the subject of reincarnation.'[Trutz Hardo presents] convincing evidence on reincarnation that will even give the toughest sceptic much to think about. I hope that finally many readers will learn the truth of reincarnation' Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, author of 'On Death and Dying'

Genres: Nonfiction, Spirituality, Biography, Paranormal, Science, Psychology, Religion

221 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Sverre · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book owes most of its content to the paranormal researcher Dr Ian Stevenson. The uncanny and unexplainable (by conventional science) "coincidences" of children verbally relating to and referencing the circumstances and relationships of their "former incarnations" is described in detail. Incredibly, birthmarks, scars and disabilities appear in the newly born to mirror corresponding physical injuries, wounds and afflictions suffered by their "former personalities." Although Stevenson left the door open for explanations other than reincarnation, Hardo is an unabashed reincarnation propagandist and leaves no doubt where he stands.

Most of the cases presented concern individuals from cultures whose religious beliefs embrace reincarnation. Also, most of those who reincarnate do so in proximity to where they lived previously. Another curiosity is that--although other researchers have indicated that souls usually take from several years to several decades to reincarnate--many of these reincarnations occur within weeks or months of death. (One takes place within days, soon after the baby has been born!) It also seems significant that most of the reincarnated had met with violent or gruesome deaths. Another commonality in these cases was poverty and little or no education. I would have liked to have more balanced material by case histories being presented from more Western cultures and subjects who died in more conventional circumstances or who reincarnated cross-culturally.

The author Trutz Hardo is an advocate for and practitioner of regression therapy. After all the case material has been given he ends the book with two insightful and challenging sections entitled "The Influence of Reincarnation at a Personal Level" (14 concise items) and "The Influence of Reincarnation on Society as a Whole" (also 14 items). These points are arguably utopian in that they pretty much proclaim the solution to all personal and social problems by the world adopting reincarnationism. That beggars the question: "Why are reincarnationist (mostly Eastern) cultures just as greedy, unjust, dishonest and warlike as non-reincaranationist (mostly Western) ones?" However, the points he offers are well worth considering by reincarnationists or anyone who is supportive of reincarnationist cultures. It would do the world a lot of good if put into action.

This is a fascinating "goosebumpy" presentment. People who are strongly resistant to reincarnationism would feel conflicted by the material presented in this book. Some would find outs by attributing the stated "facts" to the subjects being delusional, or subjected to demon possession or thought-transference. But, that won't explain away the physical facts as described and shown photographically.

[Tracey Allen at Carpe Librum · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of this book is self explanatory, Children Who Have Lived Before is about reincarnation and in particular about children who remember their past lives.

Cases where children say things like "you're not my real mum" or "why am I a girl this time?" and "I have a husband and 3 children in the town of XYZ, take me there." In some cultures this is acceptable and their cases are verified by testing the children's knowledge of the previous life (as with the Dalai Lama).

However in other cultures their behaviour is ignored, often discouraged and sometimes even punished.

This is a topic I'm very interested in, and one that gives me goosebumps when I hear a good story. A Facebook friend recently posted that her son walked past her dancing with her husband in the kitchen, rolled his eyes and said: "I really hated that dancing back in 1896." Creepy huh?

Many of the cases in Children Who Have Lived Before were interesting, and it certainly seemed as though the children in question were tested. They were asked to identify the house they once lived in, their parents and loved ones by name, even down to objects they owned and the things that had changed in the environment around them. I particularly enjoyed the chapter about birthmarks often relating to injuries from their previous incarnation.

The main gripe I have with this book though (and why I won't be rating it highly) is that it quoted so heavily from the investigative work done by Dr. Ian Stevenson, and the majority of cases used were more than 30 years old.

For a book published in 2005 I expected the content to be a little more current.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book a lot. The author describes well-researched cases of reincarnation in children from Asia and Turkey. At times it gets repetitive as he is at pains to give all the evidence (e.g. the same story told from the perspective of several relatives and friends of the deceased whose soul now lives in the child) and it's tricky to follow all the various Asian and Indian names. The stories are so fascinating and all involve somewhat violent deaths either by accident or by murder. A child is born at some later time (from one day to several years later) in the same region, and when they start to talk, they talk about a previous life. They state they have different parents, or a wife and children, and live in a certain town (which they name). In India the belief is that children talking of past lives should be punished and beaten to stop them from talking about it (to aid them forget it) but this doesn't usually work as the children are stubborn in their desires to be taken back to their former families. As they grow and become adults, they gradually forget the details of their former lives and shun any publicity associated with. Many children are born with puzzling birth defects such as missing fingers or birthmarks, which are often identified by the child as the site of bullets, axe thrusts, or similar. The author intersperses these cases with explanations which are helpful but repetitive. A great book. I'll be reading more on this subject for sure!

[Booklists_ Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Διδακτικό για όσους ενδιαφέρονται για τη μετενσάρκωση και πολυ λεπτομερές, με παραδείγματα από πραγματικά γεγονότα και απαντήσεις απο επιστήμονες. Με δυσκόλεψε σε κάποια σημεία η αγγλική ορολογία αλλά ίσως φταίει που δεν ειμαι πολυ εξοικειωμένη με αγγλόφωνα βιβλία. Θα το θυμάμαι για καιρό!!

[Enora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating!

Writing 3
Story line 3
Characters 5
Impact 5
Entertainment 4

[Emma Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book

[Brenda Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it got bogged down in some details (cases were presented by different witnesses explaining some of the exact same details), it was an interesting, enlightening read as a whole.

[SundayAtDusk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trutz Hardo has put together an interesting collection of stories in this book; although most are taken from other books, such as those written by Ian Stevenson and Carol Bowman. In between all the stories, are the authors thoughts and beliefs on reincarnation; many which come across as authoritative and unbending to other opinions.

Mr. Hardo is a total believer in reincarnation, which is not bad, in my opinion. But he also seems to feel EVERYONE should believe in reincarnation, and believe in it exactly as he does. He even states at one point in the book that obviously everyone that had reached that point in the book must certainly now believe in reincarnation! In other words, he starts sounding like a missionary, no different from missionaries of organized religions. Reincarnation answers most of his questions about life, and he believes it would be that way for everyone, if they just gave it genuine consideration, and read stories that "proved" reincarnation was a reality.

He also adheres to "God's Laws of Karma", which he says means one must reap everything one sows in one's current life or future lives. Thus, if you were cruel in your last life, it makes no difference that you are no such thing in this one, and all the rest of your lives--you must still reap that cruelty. It's supposedly the only way you'll learn not to be cruel . . . even though, you actually obviously learned it some other way. I mean, really, is this way of thinking anything but a simple-minded type of vengeance that makes God responsible for the revenge? (Roy Stemman deals with this matter very nicely in his book "One Soul, Many Lives", using an excellent quote from English journalist Hannen Swaffer.)

For some reason, Mr. Hardo appears to believe all humans are cruel in the beginning, and then must go through many lifetimes to become loving. Why he believes this, he does not say. It almost sounds like the belief that we are all sinners due to the Garden of Eden. The author ends the book by listing all the ways life on Earth will improve once everyone believes in reincarnation. I don't know . . . I doubt believing in reincarnation will make "saints" out of all the "sinners" anymore than any organized religion has done so. :)

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book but I kind of believe in reincarnation. I think if I was a skeptic, I would have quit reading this book pretty quickly. It was more like short reviews of children and their claims. Each story could have been made up as it is in countries I’ll never visit (or even heard of) and people with odd names (at least in my sheltered, white American world). Reminds me of people who go to psychics, if you believe it’s great! If you don’t believe, then it isn’t worth your time.

[Ali Searer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh.

It accomplished its goal, but did it do it well?, The writing style left a lot to be desired (translation?) and I would have expected some newer references and stories for a 2012 book claiming to be irrefutable. That said, it piqued my interest and I'll be digging more into the scientific studies mentioned.

[Eleanor Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another informative book on reincarnation with the science studies behind in and the examples of cases studied. It was also interesting to hear the author's take on things and belief of the studies involved.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating.

[Trinity · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love getting an insight into other perspectives.

[Lisa Sadler · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting read.

I'm not sure if it's enough to convince people of the existence of reincarnation. However, the examples used are thought-provoking. I enjoyed the read.

[Cassie Helwig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting and although I did not like his writing style, the book was a fast read. Because it is a collection of short stories, many only 3 pages long, it is easy to take this somewhere and read when you have a spare 5 minutes. Hardo believes that everything about us is influenced by a past life- our fears, our looks, our choices, etc. He is very persistent that everyone should believe in reincarnation and that current medical doctors should take it into account when mysterious illnesses or chronic pains present the,selves.

[Stella · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75 ⭐

This book was a lot less interesting than I thought it would be, which was very disappointing because I've been wanting to read it for a very long time. Some stories were interesting but others kind of bothered me due to graphic descriptions of death. I also thought this book was very homophobic in some parts which obviously rubbed me the wrong way. I do get that this book was published 20 years ago and the stories are mainly based in third world countries where LGBTQ+ individuals aren't acknowledged or treated very well so my issue isn't really with the author necessarily.

[Yasmin Rofidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite an interesting read. A lot of examples of children who have 'proved' the existence of re-incarnation but I would have liked to have seen a more balanced argument. Does get a bit repetitive at times and the author spoils it a little by seeming to want to base it around trying to prove re-incarnation to the audience.

[Donna Rochow - Poljarevic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extraordinary, very interesting and so amazing. You'll think about this book long after you have finished reading it

[Zoe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Still not a believer but it was interesting none the less.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting topic, poorly written (or poorly translated??)

[Margarita Zindel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The evidence is overwhelming but the writing not so good.

[Mariana Guedes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting cases, but no really deep information.

[Hayley Bessell · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the stories were interesting I found many of the stories didn't follow through and the book was poorly written.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across the title of this book when I was reading a book or article about WWII.

[Naomi Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

Reading all these in depth stories has truly opened my eyes to a world we can't even begin to comprehend instead just scraping the barrel of life as we know it.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

not as good as I'd expected.