The Principal Reincarnation Researchers

Satwant Pasricha, Ph.D.

Satwant K. Pasricha is an Indian clinical psychologist who has done extensive field investigations of children with past-life memories, much of it in association with Ian Stevenson. She was awarded her Ph.D. in Psychology from Bangalore University in 1978 with a dissertation that described her reincarnation research. The dissertation was published in 1990 as Claims of Reincarnation: An Empirical Study of Cases in India.

Pasricha became involved in psychical research because she was not satisfied with the conventional explanations of certain unusual behavior, including that often considered paranormal. She joined the faculty of the Indian National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in December, 1980, as a Lecturer in Clinical Parapsychology and was promoted step by step to become Professor of Clinical Psychology. At NMHANS, she was expected to spend most her time teaching and seeing patients, but was also able to continue her field work. She retired from NIMHANS in 2010 and is presently at the Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.

Pasricha, a native Hindi and Punjabi speaker, met Stevenson in 1973 and began assisting him as an interpreter the following year. She quickly graduated to the status of a colleague, however, and is the senior author of the first paper they published together, describing three Indian cases with significant behavioral features (Pasricha & Stevenson, 1977). Another early report described a schizophrenic man who claimed memories of his grandfather while in his psychosis (Pasricha, Murthy & Murthy, 1978). Also during this period she and anthropologist David Barker conducted what is still the only systematic survey of reincarnation memory claims, in a development block in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (Barker & Pasricha, 1979).

Over the years, Pasricha has been involved in several important investigations, including those of Sharada, who at 32 developed an alternate personality who spoke fluent Bengali (Stevenson & Pasricha, 1980), and Sumitra, who when she was about 17 seemed to die and then revived claiming to be someone else (Stevenson, Pasricha, & McClean-Rice, 1989). She and Stevenson compared cases they had investigated independently, finding them to be very similar in their main features (Pasricha & Stevenson, 1979). They also re-investigated Indian cases that had been studied in the 1920s and 1930s and compared them with cases they had themselves investigated after 1960, again finding them to be very similar (Pasricha & Stevenson, 1987).

Pasricha has tested hypotheses frequently put forward by critics and skeptics of a reincarnation interpretation of children’s past-life memory claims, including the idea that they are no more than responses to expectations about how the memories might manifest (Pasricha, 1990b) and that parents are guiding the development of the cases (Pasricha, 1992; 2011a). She has tried to answer the question of why there are so many fewer cases in south India than in north India (Pasricha, 2001) and has described a series of comparatively rare northern Indian cases with birthmarks and other physical signs (Pasricha, 1998).

In addition to her reincarnation research, Pasricha has studied Indian near-death experiences (Pasricha, 1993, 1995; Pasricha & Stevenson, 1986). These NDE papers are collected along with many of her reincarnation contributions in her second book, Can the Mind Survive Beyond Death? In Pursuit of Scientific Evidence, also called  Can the Mind Survive Death?: Reincarnation Research(2008). Pasricha has been recognized with several awards in India. She has published both in India and internationally in peer-reviewed journals. She remains closely associated with Stevenson’s Division of Personality Studies (now Division of Perceptual Studies, DOPS) at the University of Virginia and reports of her case investigations are on file there. She is the International Affiliate of the Parapsychology Foundation in India.

Pasricha’s publications on reincarnation are listed below.

Sources

http://www.pflyceum.org/49.html

Publications on Reincarnation

Publications marked with an asterisk are included in Can the Mind Survive Beyond Death? In Pursuit of Scientific Evidence (2 Vols). New Dehli: Harman Publishing House, 2008.

Barker, D. R., & Pasricha, S. K. (1979). Reincarnation cases in Fatehabad: A systematic survey in north India. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 14, 231-240.

*Cook, E. W., Pasricha, S., Samararatne, G., Maung U W., & Stevenson, I. (1983a). A review and analysis of “unsolved” cases of the reincarnation type. I: Introduction and illustrative case reports. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 77, 45-62.

*Cook, E. W., Pasricha, S., Samararatne, G., Maung U W., & Stevenson, I. (1983b). A review and analysis of “unsolved” cases of the reincarnation type. II: Comparison of features of solved and unsolved cases. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 77, 115-135.

*Pasricha, S. K. (1983). New information favoring a paranormal interpretation in the case of Rakesh Gaur. European Journal of Parapsychology, 5, 77-85.

Pasricha, S. K. (1990a). Claims of Reincarnation: An Empirical Study of Cases in India. New Delhi: Harman Publishing House.

*Pasricha, S. [K.] (1990b). Three conjectured features of reincarnation type cases in north India: Responses of persons unfamiliar with actual cases. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 84, 227-233.

*Pasricha, S. [K.] (1992). Are reincarnation type cases shaped by parental guidance? An empirical study concerning the limits of parents’ influence on children. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 6, 167-180.

*Pasricha S. [K.] (1996a). Phobias in cases of the reincarnation type. NIMHANS Journal, 14, 51-55.

Pasricha S. [K.] (1996b). The phenomenon of reincarnation in children. In M. S. Bhatia & N. K. Dhar (Eds.), A comprehensive textbook of child and adolescent psychiatry (vol. 20, pp 1-23). Delhi: CBS Publishers and Distributors.

*Pasricha, S. K. (1998a). Cases of the reincarnation type in northern India with birthmarks and birth defects. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 12, 259-293.

*Pasricha S. K. (1998b). Children who claimed to remember previous lives with major change in religion. NIMHANS Journal, 16, 93–100.

*Pasricha, S. K. (2000). Twins who claimed to remember previous lives. NIMHANS Journal, 18(1-2), 39-51.

*Pasricha, S. K. (2001a). Cases of the reincarnation type in South India: Why so few reports? Journal of Scientific Exploration, 15, 211-221.

Pasricha, S. K. (2001b). Experience in rebirth research in India. In N. Senanayake (Ed.), Trends in rebirth research: Proceedings of an international seminar. Ratmalana, Sri Lanka: Sarvodaya Vishva Lekha.

Pasricha, S. K. (2008). Can the Mind Survive Beyond Death? In Pursuit of Scientific Evidence (2 Vols). New Delhi: Harman Publishing House.

Pasricha, S. K. (2011a). Do attitudes of families concerned influence features of children who claim to remember previous lives? Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 53(1), 21–24.

Pasricha, S. K. (2011b). Relevance of para-psychology in psychiatric practice. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 53(1), 4–8. PMCID: PMC3056186 doi: 10.4103/0019-5545.75544.

*Pasricha, S. K., & Barker, D. R. (1981). A case of the reincarnation type in India: The case of Rakesh Gaur. European Journal of Parapsychology, 3, 381-408.

*Pasricha, S. K., Keil, [H. H.] J., Tucker, J. B., & Stevenson, I. (2005). Some bodily malformations attributed to previous lives. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 19, 359-383.

Pasricha, S. K., Murthy, H. N., & Murthy, V. N. (1978). Examination of the claims of reincarnation in a psychotic condition. Indian Journal of Clinical Psychology, 5, 197-202.

*Pasricha, S. K. & Murthy, V. N. (1980). The scientific investigation of rebirth cases: Problems of field work and in the analysis of data. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 22, 206-210.

*Pasricha, S. [K.], & Stevenson, I. (1977). Three cases of the reincarnation type in India. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 19, 36-42.

*Pasricha, S. [K.], & Stevenson, I. (1979). A partly independent replication of investigations of cases suggestive of reincarnation. European Journal of Parapsychology, 3, 51-69.

*Pasricha, S. [K.], & Stevenson, I. (1987). Indian cases of the reincarnation type two generations apart. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 54, 239-246.

*Stevenson, I., & Pasricha, S. [K.] (1980). A preliminary report of an unusual case of the reincarnation type in with xenoglossy. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 74, 331-348.

*Stevenson, I., Pasricha, S. [K.], & McClean-Rice, N. (1989). A case of the possession type in India with evidence of paranormal knowledge. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 3, 81-101.

*Stevenson, I., Pasricha, S. [K.], & Samararatne, G. (1988). Deception and self-deception in cases of the reincarnation type: Seven illustrative cases in Asia. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 82, 1-31.