An Indian child was born with small stubs instead of fingers on one hand. The child remembered existing in a previous life as a child who put his hand in a farm machine and lost his fingers. Stevenson noted that in most medical cases of brachydactyly (shortened fingers) the bones are still present in the fingers. Usually, only the middle finger bone is shortened. But in this case, there were no finger bones present at all. Also, cases where the fingers of only one hand are affected are rare. Stevenson (1993, p. 411) said he could not find a single published case in the medical literature. A Burmese girl was born with the lower part of her right leg missing. Stevenson (1993, pp. 411–412) reported, “She said that she remembered the life of a girl who was run over by a train. Eyewitnesses said that the train severed the girl’s right leg first, before running over the trunk.”
Some might suppose that children, aware of their birthmarks, may have invented imaginary past lives with histories that corresponded with the birthmarks. But we should remember that in many cases Stevenson has verified not only the existence of the past life person but has, through examination of the deceased person’s medical records, also verified the wound or incision matching the living subject’s birthmark.
Stevenson (1997, pp. 2099–2100) offered this explanation of this kind of evidence: “I believe that the cases I have described in this work strongly suggest . . . an influence by a deceased person on the embryo of a person who will be born later and (in most cases) come to have memories of the events in the life of that deceased person. . . . they further suggest an interaction between mind and body during life and the survival of mind after death. They also suggest that the form of a deceased person concerned in such a case can influence the form of the succeeding person who will remember the first person’s life. And finally, they suggest that memories of the first person’s life exist on some intermediate vehicle between death and presumed rebirth.” Putting it a little more directly, Stevenson (1997, p. 2102) concluded that “sometimes mental images in the mind of a deceased person who has survived death can influence the form of an embryo or fetus so as to cause birthmarks and birth defects.”
Paranormal Healings by Humans acting as mediums for Spirits
João Texeira da Faria, later known as João de Deus (John of God), is a Brazilian psychic healer of international fame. Hereafter, I will call him John of God. I have relied on Pelligrino-Estrich (1997) for the accounts of his activities found in this section. John of God was born in 1942 in a small town in the state of Goias, Brazil. His family was very poor, and he had little formal education. When he was sixteen years old and wandering jobless, he stopped to bathe in a creek near Campo Grande. He then heard a woman’s voice calling him. He saw in the shade of some trees a beautiful woman with fair hair. He spoke with her for some time. That night, he concluded it must have been Saint Rita of Cascia (1386–1456), the “saint of the impossible,” a patron of the dispossessed and desperate. He returned to the creek the next day, but instead of the woman, he saw a beam of light. When he turned away, he heard the woman’s voice say, “João. You must go to the Redemptor Spiritual Center in Campo Grande. They are waiting for you there.” Simultaneously, the beam of light disappeared. John went to the center, where a man greeted him, saying he was expected. John lost consciousness, and woke three hours later to find people congratulating him. He was informed that he had been possessed by “the entity of King Solomon” and had healed many persons. John remained at the center for three months as a healer and decided this was his life’s mission. He traveled from place to place, moving when physicians, dentists, or priests would have the local police charge him with criminal offences, such as medical malpractice. Finally, he set up his permanent clinic in its present location at Abadiania, Brazil, in 1978. In 1981, he was brought into court for practicing medicine illegally, but a jury acquitted him (Pelligrino-Estrich 1997, pp. 32–39). In 1987, John of God himself suffered a stroke, which partially paralyzed half his body. Eventually, he successfully cured himself (Pelligrino-Estrich
1997, pp. 26–27).
John of God’s clinic is in the village of Abadiania in the Goias Plateau. Thousands of people from around the world have come there for healings. The clinic is a small white building. Inside, early in the morning of a typical day, John rests in a small room, decorated with pictures of Christ, the Madonna, and Dom Inacio, the principal entity who works through John to give cures. In fact, the clinic is called Casa de Dom Inacio, the House of Dom Inacio. The cures start each day at eight o’clock in the morning and continue into the night. John of God has received honorary degrees and awards from many famous persons, governments, and institutions. For example, the President of Peru gave him that country’s Medal of Honor for curing his son (Pelligrino-Estrich 1997, pp.15–16).
There are several rooms in the clinic. There is a small room where John of God begins his day by calling upon one of thirty-three spirit entities to enter him. Pelligrino-Estrich (1997, p. 42) says, “The entities are spirits of deceased doctors, surgeons, healers, psychologists and theologians who are of such high soul elevation they need no longer reincarnate to our physical plane. They do, however, continue to elevate in the spirit plane by the extent of their benevolence and charitable works.” Over all the entities are Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and Dom Inacio (St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order). After the entity enters him and takes over his body, John of God begins his work. Although he can incorporate only one entity, he can change entities at will. Also, entities can work on patients without entering into John of God’s body (Pelligrino-Estrich 1997, p. 44).
People coming before him first pass through two rooms, called “current rooms,” where mediums sit on both sides, for the purpose of generating spiritual energy, or current. In the first current room are twenty or thirty mediums in meditation; in the second, or main, current room are fifty mediums. As the patients walk through the two rows of mediums in the second current room, they come before John of God, who is sitting on a seat covered with white cloth. As the patient comes before John of God, the entity within him assesses the patient’s past lives, medical condition, spiritual consciousness, and present circumstances. Depending on the nature of the case, the entity prescribes various treatments, including herbal remedies, invisible operations, or visible operations. Herbal remedies are provided by the clinic’s pharmacy. Those requiring invisible operations go to a treatment room. The most severe cases lie down in beds and enter into a coma while entities operate invisibly upon them. Others sit upon their beds, guided in prayer and meditation by twelve special healing mediums, while they also undergo invisible operations by the entities. Twice a day, John of God enters this room and says, “In the name of Jesus Christ you are all cured. Let what needs to be done be done in the name of God” (Pelligrino-Estrich 1997, p. 19). At this time, the invisible operations are completed internally. Pelligrino-Estrich (1997, p.19) says, “Scientific teams have found by X-rays, following these invisible operations, that there are incisions and stitches internally.”