In a personal essay in the Journal of Scientific Exploration in 2006 Ian Stevenson wrote: “We all die of some affliction. What determines the nature of that affliction? I believe the search for the answer may lead us to think that the nature of our illnesses may derive at least in part from previous lives. The cases of children who claim to remember previous lives and who have related birthmarks and birth defects suggest this; some such children have related internal diseases. My own physical condition, defects of my bronchial tubes (from early childhood on) of which I have written separately, has given me a personal interest in this important question. Let no one think I know the answer. I am still seeking.”

Stevenson was born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1918. He died last month of a chronic lung infection. As a sickly child often bedridden with bronchitis, he was cared for by his devoted mother. He read widely in …