How long have we been around?

On his first trip to his parents’ hometown in India, the youth became consumed by vivid memories of a past life, started viewing his mother and father as “alien” and insisted he belonged with another family, his doctor recounts in a recently published medical journal article.

The memories corresponded eerily with the profile of a person known to locals in the Indian town of Jaipur. “He remembered with a strong, emotionally charged tone,” said Dr. Amin Muhammed Gadit, the St. John’s psychiatrist who eventually treated the boy. “He is convinced that he had a previous life.” The strange case and its dramatic impact on the boy proved an unusual challenge for Dr. Gadit, who could find no sign of a mental disorder in his patient. But it parallels hundreds of experiences investigated by a little-known — and controversial — fraternity of academics who maintain that something such as reincarnation is often the only apparent explanation for what they discover.

Read complete article here. {via National Post}