Observations placeholder
Stevenson, Dr Ian - Past life in the Lebanon
Identifier
005018
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
There are two ways in which this could be interpreted. Either we view it as a ‘past life’ of the child in which case this is perception recall. The alternative is that somehow the child has gained access to perceptions that are not its own – a form of inter composer communication. In the first instance it provides some small proof of reincarnation if the second applies it does not.
An example to demonstrate, this one from the Lebanon, the woman whose perceptions the child had access to was shot by her husband whilst putting out laundry.....
A description of the experience
Tom Schröder – Old Souls [documenting the case histories of Dr Ian Stevenson]
Thirty five years ago, an impoverished young woman named Salma lived on the bottom floor of a two story plaster walled building set into the hill where she tended to her many children and her abusive drunk of a husband, taking in laundry from students at the national university in Aley.....
The [child] who said she remembered Salma's dismal life was Itidal Abul-Hisn.......
Itidal's sister, Intisar, was several years older and had been able to provide testimony about when Itidal first manifested [these] memories.
'She began talking about it when she was three, and stopped bringing it up at about ten’ Intisar recalled 'Usually she would mention it whenever she saw younger children. She would take candies and hide them, say she was hiding them for 'her children'. She would also save candies to give to a child in our village who she said had the same name as one of her previous ... children. She would say, 'I want to go to my family in Aley, please take me there'. When we finally went, she showed us where her house had been'....................
Baz.... said that he had known Salma and her family well. 'Her family was quite poor' he said 'she worked at people's homes and took in laundry for students at the national university there'.
Itidal had said 'she' [as Salma] was shot at 3 am but she also said she had been hanging laundry at the time. The middle of the night seemed like a strange time to be hanging laundry.
'Do you remember what time of day she was murdered?' I asked.
'I heard shots' Baz replied 'It was before dawn, maybe three or four. Of course, I went to look to see what was going wrong. She was on the ground, on her back, the clothes she was hanging were next to her on the ground.... I was the first one there but she was already dead, shot from the back'
'Why would she have been hanging laundry at 3am?'
'Well she began work at dawn. If she wanted to do anything for her own family, she needed to get up much earlier. It wasn't an easy life.'