Global InformationIan Stevenson information
Ian Stevenson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | October 31, 1918 Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Died | February 8, 2007 (aged 88) Charlottesville, Virginia, United States |
| Citizenship | Canadian by birth; American, naturalized 1949 |
| Education | University of St. Andrews (1937–1939) BSc (McGill University, 1942) MD (McGill University School of Medicine, 1943) |
| Occupation(s) | Psychiatrist, director of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia School of Medicine |
| Known for | Reincarnation research, near death studies, medical history taking |
| Spouses | Octavia Reynolds (m. 1947)Margaret Pertzoff (m. 1985) |
Ian Pretyman Stevenson (October 31, 1918 – February 8, 2007) was a Canadian-born American psychiatrist, the founder and director of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He was a professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine for fifty years. He was chair of their department of psychiatry from 1957 to 1967, Carlson Professor of Psychiatry from 1967 to 2001, and Research Professor of Psychiatry from 2002 until his death in 2007.[1]
As founder and director of the University of Virginia School of Medicine's Division of Perceptual Studies (originally named "Division of Personality Studies"), which investigates the paranormal, Stevenson became known for his research into cases he considered suggestive of reincarnation – the idea that emotions, memories, and even physical bodily features can be passed on from one incarnation to another.[2] In the course of his forty years doing international fieldwork, he researched three thousand cases of children who claimed to remember past lives.[3][4][5] His position was that certain phobias, philias, unusual abilities and illnesses could not be fully explained by genetics or the environment. He believed that, in addition to genetics and the environment, reincarnation might possibly provide a third, contributing factor.[6][7]
Stevenson helped to found the Society for Scientific Exploration in 1982,[8] and was the author of around three hundred papers and fourteen books on reincarnation, including Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation (1966), Cases of the Reincarnation Type (four volumes, 1975-1983) and European Cases of the Reincarnation Type (2003). His 1997 work Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects reported two hundred cases in which birthmarks and birth defects seemed to correspond in some way to a wound on the deceased person whose life the child recalled. He wrote a shorter version of the same research for the general reader, Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect (1997).[9]
Stevenson was cautious in making claims about reincarnation.[10] He emphasized that the information he collected only suggests that reincarnation is possible but does not prove that it occurs.[11][12][13] He did, however, believe he had produced a body of evidence for reincarnation that must be taken seriously.[14] He said, "[T]he evidence is not flawless and it certainly does not compel such a belief. Even the best of it is open to alternative interpretations, [but] one can only censure those who say there is no evidence whatever."[15]
Reaction to his work was mixed. In an obituary for Stevenson in The New York Times, Margalit Fox wrote that Stevenson's supporters saw him as a misunderstood genius, that his detractors regarded him as earnest but gullible, but that most scientists had simply ignored his research.[11] Stevenson based his research on anecdotal case reports that were dismissed by the scientific community as unreliable because Stevenson did no controlled experimental work.[16] His case reports were also criticized as they contained errors and omissions.[16] Critics contend that ultimately Stevenson's conclusions are undermined by confirmation bias, mistakes, and motivated reasoning.[14] Supporters of his work include Jim B. Tucker, a psychiatrist and colleague at the University of Virginia who now heads the division Stevenson founded.
- ^ Williams Kelly, Emily (May 12, 2022). "Dr. Stevenson's obituary" (PDF). University of Virginia School of Medicine.
- ^ Tanne, Janice Hopkins (31 March 2007). "Ian Pretyman Stevenson". BMJ. 334 (7595): 700. doi:10.1136/bmj.39141.529792.65. PMC 1839221.
- ^ Woodhouse 1996, pp. 143–144.
- ^ Bache 2000, p. 34ff.
- ^ "Professor Ian Stevenson". Archived from the original on December 23, 2007. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
- ^ Stevenson, I (2000). "The phenomenon of claimed memories of previous lives: Possible interpretations and importance". Medical Hypotheses. 54 (4): 652–9. doi:10.1054/mehy.1999.0920. PMID 10859660. S2CID 15947669.
- ^ Stevenson, I (1977). "The explanatory value of the idea of reincarnation". The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 164 (5): 305–26. doi:10.1097/00005053-197705000-00002. PMID 864444. S2CID 30398311.
- ^ Sturrock, Peter (2008). "Ian Stevenson and the Society for Scientific Exploration". Journal of Scientific Exploration. 22 (1): 125–127. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.561.2521.
- ^ For his having been on the founding committee of the Society for Scientific Exploration, see "Stevenson 2006" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 21, 2006. Retrieved September 1, 2016., p. 19.
- ^ Sarah Thomason. Xenoglossy in Gordon Stein. (1996). The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-021-5, p. 2 of the pdf on the author's website.
- ^ a b Fox, Margalit (February 18, 2007). "Ian Stevenson Dies at 88; Studied Claims of Past Lives". The New York Times.
- ^ Almeder, Robert 1992, p. 60.
- ^ Prabhu, Joseph, "The Idea of Reincarnation," in "Death and Afterlife," Stephen T. Davis, ed., Palgrave Macmillan, 1989, p. 74. "Stevenson is scrupulous in asserting that he has uncovered possible evidence for reincarnation and not definitive proof."
- ^ a b Carroll 2009, article on his website The Skeptic's Dictionary.
- ^ Carroll 2009, article on his website The Skeptic's Dictionary, quoting Stevenson 1989.
- ^ a b Angel, Leonard (2015). Is There Adequate Empirical Evidence for Reincarnation? An Analysis of Ian Stevenson’s Work. In Keith Augustine & Michael Martin (eds.). The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 575-583. ISBN 978-0-8108-8677-3