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Children Who Have Lived Before: Reincarnation today

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Trutz Hardo has put together an interesting collection of stories in this book; although most are taken from other books, such as those written by Ian Stevenson and Carol Bowman. In between all the stories, are the authors thoughts and beliefs on reincarnation...many which come across as authoritative and unbending to other opinions.

Hardo is a total believer in reincarnation, which is not bad, in my opinion. But he also seems to feel EVERYONE should believe in reincarnation, and believe in it exactly as he does. He even states at one point in the book that obviously everyone that had reached that point in the book must certainly now believe in reincarnation! In other words, he starts sounding like a missionary...no different from missionaries of organized religions. Reincarnation answers most of his questions about life, and he believes it would be that way for everyone, if they just gave it genuine consideration, and read stories that "proved" reincarnation was a reality.

He also adheres to "God's Laws of Karma"...which he says means one must reap everything one sows in one's current life or future lives. Thus, if you were cruel in your last life, it makes no difference that you are no such thing in this one, and all the rest of your lives...you must still reap that cruelty! It's supposedly the only way you'll learn not to be cruel...even though, you actually obviously learned it some other way! :) I mean, really, is this way of thinking anything but a simple minded type of vengeance...that even makes God responsible for the revenge? (Roy Stemman deals with this matter very nicely in his book "One Soul, Many Lives", using an excellent quote from English journalist Hannen Swaffer.)

For some reason, Hardo appears to believe all humans are cruel in the beginning, and then must go through many lifetimes to become loving. Why he believes this, he does not say. It almost sounds like the belief that we are all sinners due to the Garden of Eden. Hardo ends the book by listing all the ways life on Earth will improve once everyone believes in reincarnation. I don't know...I doubt believing in reincarnation will make "saints" out of all the "sinners" anymore than any organized religion has done so. :)

Children from England and around the world share their past life memories in Children Who Have Lived Before, a title which follows cases which not only recount past lives led, but includes some thought-provoking insights on kids who've been born with lost limbs and are able to describe when and where they lost them in a past life. The case for reincarnation moves up a notch in this absorbing, unique title, packed with case histories and reflections on how children's statements were verified.

If, as a reader, you are not well informed about theories of reincarnation and after-death studies this may be the book for you. It is easily understood, presents 30+ case studies that are quite compelling, and provides a great deal of optimism for the existence of conscious life beyond physical death.

If, on the other hand, you have a fairly high degree of understanding of the works of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and Ian Stevenson, you will find parts of this book to be a bit troubling. First neither Ross nor Stevenson ever said that they have provided complete proof that there is either life after death or a phenomenon called reincarnation. Both scientists went to great lengths to state that these were merely viable options to the other conclusions that could be reached for the circumstances that they were exploring. They stated that these were possible explanations and not 'the' explanations. For this author, Trutz Hardo, to claim otherwise is somewhat slanderous on his part. Secondly, I am not sure if it merely because of a translation process, but there are a few parts in the text that the English interpretation makes little or no sense. Thirdly, the author has attempted to make a god-like icon out of Stevenson that he may, or may not, have actually deserved. Admittedly, he was a very hard working, dedicated and single-focused scientist who preformed as objectively as possible in a highly subjective and emotionally charged subject area. He was very humble and while his findings were quite compelling, he never wanted his works to have been compared to the likes of Galileo as Mr. Hardo inanely attempts to do. Lastly, the author has a tendency to be a bit Pollyannaish in his projection of the ramifications to these after-death studies. He suggests, in his ending summary, that the major religions will soon come to grasp the importance of these studies and, by doing so, will transform there long held tenets such that they come to embrace reincarnation. That will never happen! We have centuries of Jewish, Christian and Islamic dogma that have been created on a basis of having rejected the concept of multiple lives at their early beginnings. They certainly are not about to reform their stances based on meta-physical studies no matter how convincing they may be. There is nothing that is more slow moving than the forward progression of archaic church dogma, and that includes evolution.

While I do advise the reading of this book to also include a bit of caution, I do advise that it be read. The case studies, alone, are worth the purchase price.