In the past half a century, reincarnation has become a subject of scientific inquiry due to the availability of information that are verifiable. The physicist Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf stated that “the statistical probability that reincarnation does in fact occur is so overwhelming . . . that cumulatively the evidence is not inferior to that for most if not all branches of science.”
There are four main sources of evidences (click on each for details):
These are individuals who remember their past lives, and whose detailed memories have been independently verified to be correct.
Those who exhibit body marks or characteristics that are connected with the previous life, such as scars, deformities or marks.
Those who remember and speak a language unlearned in the current life but which was known to the subject in a previous life.
Testimonies of famous people regarding their memories of a previous life.
![Shanti Devi was born in Delhi, India.[1] As a little girl in the 1930s, she began to claim to remember details of a past life. According to these accounts, when she was about four years old, she told her parents that her real home was in Mathura where her husband lived, about 145 km from her home in Delhi. She also shared three unique features about her husband – he was fair, wore glasses, and had a big wart on his left cheek. She also stated her husband's shop was located right in front of the Dwarkadhish temple in Mathura.[2] Discouraged by her parents, she ran away from home at age six, trying to reach Mathura. Back home, she stated in school that she was married and had died ten days after having given birth to a child. Interviewed by her teacher and headmaster, she used words from the Mathura dialect and divulged the name of her merchant husband, "Kedar Nath". The headmaster located a merchant by that name in Mathura who had lost his wife, Lugdi Devi, nine years earlier, ten days after having given birth to a son. Kedar Nath traveled to Delhi, pretending to be his own brother, but Shanti Devi immediately recognized him and Lugdi Devi's son. As she knew several details of Kedar Nath's life with his wife, he was soon convinced that Shanti Devi was indeed the reincarnation of Lugdi Devi.[3] The case was brought to the attention of Mahatma Gandhi who set up a commission to investigate. The commission traveled with Shanti Devi to Mathura, arriving on 15 November 1935. There she recognized several family members, including the grandfather of Lugdi Devi. She found out that Kedar Nath had neglected to keep a number of promises he had made to Lugdi Devi on her deathbed. She then traveled home with her parents. The commission's report, published in 1936, concluded that Shanti Devi was indeed the reincarnation of Lugdi Devi.[3] Two further reports were written at the time. The report by Bal Chand Nahata was published as a Hindi booklet by the name Punarjanma Ki Paryalochana. In this, he stated that "Whatever material that has come before us, does not warrant us to conclude that Shanti Devi has former life recollections or that this case proves reincarnation".[4] This argument was disputed by Indra Sen, a devotee of Sri Aurobindo, in an article later.[5] A further report, based on interviews conducted in 1936, was published in 1952.[6] Shanti Devi did not marry. She told her story again at the end of the 1950s, and once more in 1986 when she was interviewed by Ian Stevenson and K.S. Rawat. In this interview she also related her near death experiences when Lugdi Devi died.[1] K.S. Rawat continued his investigations in 1987, and the last interview took place only four days before her death on 27 December 1987.[7] A Swedish author who had visited her twice published a book about the case in 1994; the English translation appeared in 1998.[8]](http://reincarnation.theosophical.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/shantidevi3.jpg "Shanti Devi")
Yes, there is overwhelming evidence that shows that there is an entity in human beings separate from the physical body. The latest ones are the near-death experience researches that show that during a period when the physical body is clinically dead, the consciousness is perceived to be floating above the body and can observe and hear the things happening around such as in the operating room. There have been so much testimony and investigation on this matter that this research field is definitely scientific. The link between reincarnation and after-death survival of the consciousness was pioneered by Dr. Ian Stevenson in his monograph entitled “The Evidence for Survival from Claimed Memories of Former Incarnations” which can be downloaded here https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/wp-content/uploads/sites/360/2016/12/STE1.pdf. He subsequently wrote ten books on his extensive researches.