Writings

This page lists my books, journal papers, and other writings, except for book reviews. Essay reviews are listed along with journal papers, but my shorter book reviews are listed on their own page.

Items are ordered under three headings (Books, Journal Papers and Book Chapters, and Unpublished Writings) with the most recent first under each heading. Most are available in PDF format for easy viewing and download. For a list of my contributions to the online Psi Encyclopedia, see here.

 Books

Signs cover final


My new book, Signs of Reincarnation: Exploring Beliefs, Cases, and Theory, was published by Rowman & Littlefield on June 15, 2019, simultaneously in hardback, paper, and ebook formats. Enter the code RLFANDF30 during checkout from the publisher’s website for a 30% discount off the list price.

Signs of Reincarnation provides the first comprehensive look at the belief in reincarnation and the evidence for past lives from historical records, anthropological studies, and contemporary research. I discuss various ways the evidence may be interpreted and show that although reincarnation entails a rejection of the materialist notion that consciousness is generated by the brain, it does not require the acceptance of any radically new concepts or the abandonment of well-established findings in mainstream psychology or biology. This book offers students, scholars, and anyone interested in the possibility of reincarnation an essential grounding in beliefs, cases, and theory, while opening doors for future research into the extension of consciousness beyond our present lives.

I Saw cover

I Saw a Light and Came Here: Children’s Experiences of Reincarnation, co-authored with Erlendur Haraldsson, is available from Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com. The first two thirds of the book is by Erlendur. He describes cases of children who remember previous lives, mostly in Sri Lanka and Lebanon, and other survival phenomena, such as apparitions and mediumship, that he has investigated over the years. In the last third of the book, I bring in cross-cultural data, new cases and analysis, and thoughts on the meaning of it all. 

Click here for a review of the book in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research.

 Journal Papers and Book Chapters

2023. Congenital physical anomalies associated with deceased persons in reincarnation cases with intermissions of less than nine months. Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, 19(2), 170-175..

2022. Apparent past-life memories in a recurring dream of the 1934 Los Angeles New Year’s Flood. Journal of Anomalous Experience and Cognition, 2(2), 389-422..

2022. Clarifying muddied waters, Part 2: What the Sudduth-Tucker debate about James Leininger suggests for reincarnation research. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 36(4), 760–781.

2022. Clarifying muddied waters, Part 1: A secure timeline for the James Leininger case. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 36(1), 100-120.

2021. Personal survival and reincarnation. (Comments on Heiner Schwenke, Past life experiences:  Reliving one’s own past life or participation in the lives of others, Journal of Anomalistics, 21, 367-397.)  Journal of Anomalistics, 21, 398-402.

2020.  The reincarnation of Jennifer Schultz? Paranormal Review, No. 93, 12-15.

2017. Historical Tlingit near-death and reincarnation-intermission experiences: Case studies and theoretical reflectionsJournal of Near-Death Studies, 36, 215-242.

2016 (with Iris Giesler-Petersen). Asian versus Western intermission memories: Universal features and cultural variations. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 35(1), 3-29. 

2016. The myth of mortality: Comments on Martin and Augustine’s The Myth of an Afterlife. In J. Palmer (Ed.), Special book review section: Do we survive death? A philosophical examination (pp. 190-203). Journal of Parapsychology, 80, 169-264.

2016. Whose prejudice? A response to the replies of Augustine, Smythe, and Larsen. In J. Palmer (Ed.), Special book review section: Do we survive death? A philosophical examination (pp. 235-250). Journal of Parapsychology, 80, 169-264.

2015. Past-life readings. In M. G. Cardin (Ed), Ghosts, Spirits, and Psychics: The Paranormal from Alchemy to Zombies (pp. 217-219). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

2015. Past-life regression. In M. G. Cardin (Ed), Ghosts, Spirits, and Psychics: The Paranormal from Alchemy to Zombies (pp. 219-221). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

2011. Ian Stevenson’s Twenty cases suggestive of reincarnation: An historical review and assessment. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 25, 789–820. 

1998. Dispersed, nucleated, dispersed: Changing Matses settlement patterns, 1969-1995. In D. Picchi (Ed.), Unsettled Communities: Changing Perspectives on South American Indigenous Settlements. South American Indian Studies, No. 5, pp. 33-45.

1996. Reincarnation. In D. Levinson & M. Ember (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology (Vol. 3, pp. 1086-1088). New York: Henry Holt. 

1995. Death symbolism in matrilineal societies: A replication study. Cross-Cultural Research, 29, 158-177. 

1995. Universals and variation in religious belief and practice. In C. R. Ember & M. Ember (Eds.), Cross-Cultural Research for the Social Sciences. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice- Hall.

1994 (with Antonia Mills). A trait index to North American Indian and Inuit reincarnation. In A. Mills & R. Slobodin (Eds.), Amerindian Rebirth: Reincarnation Belief among North American Indians and Inuit (pp. 299-356). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

1994. Alternate generation equivalence and the recycling of souls: Amerindian rebirth in global perspective. In A. Mills & R. Slobodin (Eds.), Amerindian Rebirth: Reincarnation Belief among North American Indians and Inuit (pp. 263-283). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 

1992. Interpreting the case of Imad Elawar. Journal of Religion and Psychical Research, 15, 91-98.

1991. Children’s memories of previous lives. In A. A. Drewes & S. A. Drucker (Eds.), Parapsychological Research with Children: An Annotated Bibliography (pp. 30-37). Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow.

1991. Records of the Parapsychology Laboratory: An inventory of the collection in the Duke University Library. Journal of Parapsychology, 55, 301-314.

1990. Past life memory case studies. In S. Krippner (Ed.), Advances in Parapsychological Research 6 (pp. 184-267). Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 

1990. Of names and signs: Reincarnation, inheritance and social structure on the Northwest Coast. Anthropology of Consciousness, 1(3-4), 9-18.

1989. Age and stimulus in past life memory cases: A study of published cases. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 83, 303-316.

1988. Some further perspectives on reincarnation research: A rejoinder to D. Scott Rogo. Journal of Religion and Psychical Research, 11, 63-70.

1988. The decline of past life memory with subject’s age in spontaneous reincarnation cases. In M. L. Albertson, D. S. Ward, & K. P. Freeman (Eds.), Paranormal Research (pp. 388-401). Ft. Collins, CO: Rocky Mountain Research Institute.  

1988. Leonora or Leonore:A note on Mrs. Piper’s first name. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 82, 281-290.

1987. Cat’s paw: Margery and the Rhines, 1926. Journal of Parapsychology, 51, 229-247. 

1987. Archives and psychical research. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 81, 233-255.  

1993. A Cross-Cultural Study of Reincarnation Ideologies and their Social Correlates. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Hunter College, City University of New York.