Rating: 
Summary: Not what it purports to be -- Dr. Stevenson deserves better
Review: Overall, this was a bit of a disappointment. The subtitle, "The Scientific Evidence for Past Lives," is typical of the "grabber" subtitles which publishers use to sell books but which often bear little relationship to the contents. Shroder accompanies Dr. Ian Stevenson (who is now 80 years old and has been meticulously documenting past-life memories for 40 years) on follow-up visits to Lebanon and India. A really huge portion of the book comprises Shroder's whining about the conditions he is forced to endure, which is interesting in small doses but eventually gets tedious. (Rethink your vacation to India, folks.) We do get snippets of Stevenson's interviews with subjects who remember past lives, but these are disjointed and hardly rise to the level of "the scientific evidence." In fact, all Stevenson seems to encounter on these visits are fairly weak cases and dead-ends. The real evidence -- reams of it -- is found in Stevenson's own works, such as "Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation" and "Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect." Shroder's book gives the reader some insight into Stevenson's personality and methodology, but no real understanding of the scope and depth of his work. Shroder's knowledge of this field is distinctly thin -- this book is at precisely the level of what you see in the newspaper every day, where a reporter spends a few days immersed in a highly complex subject to which others have devoted their entire lives, then purports to sum it all up in a few pages of generalities. Shroder's attitude was also somewhat off-putting to me. Although he frequently expresses admiration for Stevenson, his tone occasionally struck me as arrogant and condescending -- as though the reader were supposed to give him (Shroder) credit for even undertaking this project instead of laughing at a subject so widely regarded as silly by his journalistic peers. His doubts regarding Stevenson's research are standard fare which Stevenson and his colleagues have been wrestling with for decades, yet the responses are not fleshed out and the reader is left with the impression that Stevenson was no match for a hard-boiled journalist. I suspect that those who will derive the greatest enjoyment from this book will be those who have assumed that reincarnation is complete nonsense with no basis in fact, and who thus will be intrigued that "one of their own" came away puzzled if not convinced. For those who are already familiar with the work of Stevenson, this book may be worthwhile as an insight (albeit not a very deep one) into the man and his methods. For those looking for "the scientific evidence for past lives" -- well, it's really not here.
Rating: 
Summary: fair
Review: Read the bible before you read this book
Rating: 
Summary: humble and honest challenge to top scientific assumptions
Review: Shroder honestly recognizes his limitations in scientific literacy in the time of writing this book as opposed to his other journalist friend in the book who easily jump to the skeptic wagon due to his formation under the umbrella of scientific orthodoxy. And this is the virtue of the author for appraching the most important scientific subject of the millenium. Any personal compromise with mainstream scientific professional institutions would have worked against the simple and shocking objetivity of the book in depicting events that require a complete overhaul of our more cherished scientific assumptions about the physical substratum of consciousness. As the author describes through his dialogues with Stevenson and others we are in a loss of explaining at last two aspects of the cases showed in the book: a)What are the biological:spacetime, termodynamic, electromagnetic and complexity measures of the hypothetical entities that are necessary to postulate for understanding the "transitions" between personalities? b)Why the curious differences (even in the better cases) between the memories of some facts about previous personalities and the facts verified during the stage of research?. All this in middle of amazing quantity of true correspondences.
Rating:
Summary: As scientific as it can get
Review: Shroder, a Washington Post journalist, starts off skeptical, but intrigued by the possibility of reincarnation. He persuades Dr. Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia, who has written extensively on the topic, to take him along on field trips to Lebanon and India so he can evaluate the quality of research for himself. His journalistic descriptions of the persons involved and scenes are a real delight. There were times when he might have been in danger of life and limb and he describes all this lightheartedly, but with a keen eye for color. More to the point, he carefully examines the rationale for Dr. Stevenson's belief that reincarnation is not only possible, but actually common. He summarizes the case made by the doctor's critics and weighs in with his views on the biases inherent in both. What impressses him most is the ambiguity inherent in the strongest of Dr. Stevenson's cases. There are scores of minor mistakes - misrecalling the number of siblings in a previous life, errors in recollection of dress etc. - in the subjects recollections of previous existence along with powerfully accurate memories of startling detail. Do such errors "prove" that the subject is lying or mistaken, or do they "prove" the opposite since human memory is faulty in this birth as well so how can we expect perfect recall of previous births? Where you plonk down on this has more to do with your own biases than anything else. What Shroder is convinced about is that Dr. Stevenson has done more than enough to establish that there is more here than meets the eye and that the entire subject matter is deserving of sincere investigation. The scientific community is still too far from undertaking such an investigation and this is Dr. Stevenson's greatest regret. Shroder does a fine job of depicting the 80 year old investigator's sincerity, diligence and frustration at his inability to get others to take up the baton he is ready to pass on. Excellent sources in bibliography for anyone who wants to do his/her own follow-on research.
Rating:
Summary: 'reincarnation?'
Review: Small children-one step further,could'nt 'reincarnation'be an ancestor,or relative in the spirit world trying to sort something out,Jungs universal knowledge also a contact with the same spirit world.Having had the dubios priveledge of being there myself,it seems to me we really do get just one kick at the can.To quote "And he said unto him,If they hear not Moses and the prophets,neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." lk.16:31.That one shouldn't be too difficult,the pharisees of today still don't beleive,but my truth is not everyone else,s,however truth speaks to our inner conscious no matter how much we deny for whatever reason.Truth is reason.
Rating:
Summary: very young children-should ring a bell
Review: Suppose- please remember this is just suppose- we all lived together in the spirit world before we came to earth to get a body.Think of deja vu, kindred spirits,.or I know wev'e met before-but find there is no way you could have in this life. It has been noticed now and again,that very small children seem to be in touch with that spirit world.References escape me,it's been a while since reincarnation interested me.For someone contemplating suicide,if we continue our supposition,-this earth life is our probation,it decides (we decide) where we will spend our eternal progression.- The "catch" being you end up in the spirit world again in the same condition you left this earth. For non beleivers there is the tibetan book of the dead, for bible scholars too much is interpeted or mis- either for or against,apologies to the jesuits.
Rating:
Summary: A dissapointing evaluation of the evidence
Review: The author learned of the research of Ian Stevenson, M.D. and decided to accompany him to evaluate the subjects first hand. The book spends more time describing the details of the trips and the surroundings the author found himself in than on describing the subjects themselves. In support of the evidence of reincarnation the author concludes that the subjects are truthful and the evidence cannot be explained by any other explanation than reincarnation, but it is much more interesting to read the evidence in the several books that Ian Stevenson has written about his case studies.
Rating:
Summary: Eye-opening material presented in a watered-down context
Review: The book describes a journalist's travels with Dr. Ian Stevenson, a University of Virginia professor of psychiatry, who collects information about people who have past-life memories. He describes Stevenson's working style and focuses on his efforts to verify information from multiple sources. The information is quite striking, and the book describes clearly the field research problems that arise as the researcher tries to verify old and rehashed information. Probably because Stevenson has been hooted by skeptics for years, the author goes to a great length to show how the 'past-life' information would be attributed to hearsay or other motives (like children wanting a richer house or a better caste). When these explanations seem improbable, the author implies that the answer is reincarnation, a soul transference. The data strikingly indicate that batches of information along with emotions and physical changes of dead people under some circumstances appear in the bodies of others who were generally born at a proximal time and space. This phenomenon is rare but quite unlike anything else. Surprisingly, the author belittles the scientifically minded, laboratory-based parapsychologists who believe Stevenson's data but who don't rush to the reincarnation conclusion. And though he often mentions ideas about scientific methodology, he neither presents it nor abides by it. Reincarnation is a concept with much baggage from many religions and certainly dates from a time when humanity did not know how the human brain works. Using the data to declare a religious concept a fact does injustice to the data. Humanity should really find out why these phenomena exist, but their classification as reincarnation decreases the probability that serious psychophysiologists will study them. In a way, the book was a write-down. The author includes many digressions, such as details about the trips, so the narration is something like a reincarnation travelogue. Maybe this was designed to make the book more accessible to less educated people, but it turned me off. I skipped as much as I could and tried to focus on the cases. For people looking into this phenomenon seriously, some bibliographical references would be very appropriate at times, but the author skipped them, leaving the reader with the vagueness feeling that some metaphysical books give. Finally, the author does not summarize, does not pull out general principles. He has every right to believe in reincarnation. But if this is the reason for these data, which religious brand fits it best? Are people better humans the next time around (apparently no). Are they better off? Are they paying for sins? We get no data-based theory of reincarnation, which is what one would expect from someone espousing the scientific method. Overall, this is light-weight reading. For readers who really want to understand the issues, I recommend instead Ian Stevenson's books and articles, such as 'Where reincarnation and biology intersect'.
Rating:
Summary: 'Scenic' Taxi Ride
Review: The title of this book promises "compelling evidence" but what it offers instead is only "compelling writing." For all of Tom Shroder's self-proclaimed healthy skepticism he really offers the reader nothing but second and third-hand stories that are all easily explainable and full of gaping holes. The fact that many of these cases come from cultures that believe in reincarnation (i.e. the social norm says reincarnation is an everyday event) should warn the reader that what follows may well be tainted and skewed data. Hardly a scientific work, Old Souls, is just another pseudo-science [take-off]. Admittedly, Shroder's writing style is punchy and journalistic, taking the reader along for an interesting ride. After a few chapters though it gets "old" and the "souls" all appear to be (perhaps well-intentioned) con artists taking two white guys in a foreign country for an endless series of "scenic" taxi rides that never actually go anywhere.
Rating:
Summary: Unfortunately doesn't get to the main points directly.
Review: This book could be much better if Shroder made his main points more directly. All the visits and running around Lebanon and India, interesting as they are, seem, well, off the path. Is the book worth reading? Definitely. The gain of truth lies in having the theory of reincarnation challenged. It has problems, for instance, how likely is one to find claims of reincarnation among people like the Druse of Lebanon who already believe in reincarnation. There's also the world population explosion problem, namely, where are all these (new born) souls coming from? There are also issues with alternative, although sometime implausible, explanations for how these "old souls" might have learned what they claimed to know in this life. These are valid criticisms that Shroder points out which is worthwhile to remember. I found, however, most interesting Shroder's review and criticism of the popular book, "Many Master, Many Lives", by Brian Weiss. Shroder points numerous holes in the Weiss book. Shroder doesn't disprove Weiss's claims, only that Weiss reincarnation is so seriously flawed and furthermore, at odds in many ways with Stevenson's cases. However, all this information must be sifted from Shroder's travel tales, diary-like narrative which distracts from the gist of the argument and unfortunately makes the book drag.
|
