[shieclulaweew]

The author at the first link #1 says of the Ian Stevenson book:

The % of people said to remember any details of prior lives by the time they're teens, even, absent intervention by the experimenter (e.g. hypnosis---as with "Many Lives, Many Masters") is said to be very tiny. Therefore I doubt that a methodology of just asking people randomly will produce any results, unless you ask thousands; that's kind of time-consuming and expensive.

Most people said to remember any details of a prior life do so at an early age and later forget them later on. So you'd need to find a way to talk to 4 year-olds about this, if you were attempting to do a general survey of the population. To make matters far more difficult these children who do (allegedly) remember details don't volunteer them at such an age, generally; they may also need to be queried as to some specific image or object or name, which they can respond to. This is how Tibetan rebirths are allegedly "found"; they show the kid two sets of objects, one from the dead lama and one from somewhere else. The child who is the rebirth is expected to select only the implements from the dead lama. (yes, there's great potential to manipulate if the intent to do so is present); as for 4 yr olds, generally, whether they do or don't remember some detail of a past life--- they may just be telling you about their magic dragon named "Puff" anyway, unless you have the ability to get to that other knowledge.

Stevenson's research makes it difficult to reject rebirth. It doesn't prove it. Not rejecting, being open to rebirth, is the important thing, as I see it. Others feel that rebirth is both unnecessary and inconvenient for their practice. That may be so---for them.