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Past Lives: Did You Know The University of Virginia School of Medicine Has Been Studying Past Lives for Over 50 Years?

I’ve been an existential thinker as long as I can remember—my first memories of questioning our existence and consciousness would be from the age of 5. I remember laying on my floor in my bedroom, during the early evening time, closing my eyes and gazing into that darkness. I saw wiggling patterns and what felt like “life” beyond the veil. Questioning the Bible stories I learned in Sunday school “What really happens after we die? Where does this part of me that is thinking actually go?”. Looking back on it, this experience 25 years ago was my first informal memory of doing shadow work—of literally and metaphorically looking into the darkness without fear or judgment, but with pure curiosity and wonder. 


So, you can imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon The University of Virginia’s School of Medicine Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS). For the last 50 years, The Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS) has been investigating the extraordinary experiences of the relationship to the mind, body, and beyond. Most interestingly to those of us with deep spiritual feelings of past live notions, the DOPS program is studying the phenomena of past lives by challenging the main strain of scientific paradigms in their study of the nature of human consciousness and the interaction it has with physical reality. 


This program has collected 2500 cases of reincarnation over the last 50 years from all around the world. Some folks may now be thinking “Wow, that is a lot in 5o years” or “Wow, that does not feel like a lot in 50 years”. Although, let’s take a critical lens on this program. Most of these cases have been found outside of the United States, where the culture supports the existence of past life phenomena. This means in order to do this work properly and within scientific rigor, the researchers have to invest a great deal of resources into every single case. Even after 50 years of study and 20,000 pages of scientific work being published, the DOPS department believes there is still a vast amount of research to be done on this topic. 


In a 2021, Academic studies on claimed past-life memories: A scoping review, Moraes and fellow researchers allege that “in many cases, the child’s statements correspond accurately to the life and death of a deceased individual. Some children have birthmarks or birth defects congruent with wounds or marks on the deceased person, using postmortem reports to confirm. Older children may retain these apparent memories, but they generally seem to fade around the age of seven”. The review also describes how this is a cross-cultural phenomenon worthy of academic exploration, although there are some barriers such as language, and limited investigation of folks over the age of 7(since the memories seem to fade then) that fall with the DOPS current methodological standard.


Regardless, I find this whole program absolutely fascinating and had to share it with all of you folks! What do you think about DOPS and their research?




Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS). https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/. University of Virginia Health. 


Lucam J. Moraes, MSca,*, Gabrielle S. Barbosaa, Jo~ ao Pedro G.B. Castroa, Jim B. Tucker, MDb

,Alexander Moreira-Almeida, MD, PhDa. 2021. Academic studies on claimed past-life memories: A scoping review. University of Virginia Health. 

2 commentaires


Jen K
Jen K
05 avr. 2024

I never knew there has been research ongoing about past lives. Much like you, I questioned the same around the same age as well. I had communication with Spirit and those passed on.

J'aime
revsierrajoleen
revsierrajoleen
14 juin 2024
En réponse à

Isn't it wild!? What a beautiful connection and experience!

J'aime

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