Reincarnation - true cases of children who have lived before by Trutz Hardo

I came across the name of this book while reading an article and was immediately drawn by the title. Subjects like reincarnation or near death experience have always been very alluring to me. I have spent countless evenings of my childhood coaxing my grandmother for such stories. And needless to say, I have rarely been disappointed. Those are still some of my favourite evenings. When I came across the name of  this book, that old  spirit was rekindled and within an hour, I had ordered this book online.

I do not yet know whether I am a believer or a non-believer here. Here, more than anything, I am a very interested listener/reader and this book did not disappoint me. The book begins with examples of real incidents of reincarnation. These are all scientifically documented examples and the main protagonist is always a child. The writing style is simple and yet those are carefully chosen words because each documentation can be read like a story. However, the author is more a story teller than a good writer and this is often reflected; sometime I would feel that these could have been written better by a favourite author of mine. But at the end, I was not disappointed; the author has done justice to his work. Trutz Hardo has done a good job of plainly telling us the different cases he has studied/researched throughout his career and all of these sums up to a really interesting read.

Through these real life "stories", slowly Trutz Hardo takes us through different aspects of reincarnation. Some of these are simple incidents: a girl recognizing the brother of her past life or another child claiming to miss her grandmom from her previous life. Then there are incidents where a boy could identify his murderer from past life and so accurate was his evidence that the murderer finally admitted to his crime.

The books tells us what happens between two lives - the time when a person is yet to be reborn. Sometime hundreds of years passes before a person is reborn while sometime it can only be a few months between two lives of the same soul. Some "soul"s hover in the earthly plane while some "move on" to an "intermediate realm" during this time. In this intermediate realm, the soul meets old friends and relatives and prepares for his next birth. Sometime, such souls arrange to meet again in the next birth and the author tells us an incident where two best friends are born as twins in their next lives. In this intermediate realm, the soul can still be aware of the people they care about; the emotional being of a soul continues from one life to the another.  The author tells the incident of a young boy (he died in an accident) who would appear in the dream of his aggrieved mother to console her and assure her of his return; he is soon reborn nearby. In his next life, he reconnects with his mother from earlier life. Often, the soul is guided by other wise souls in the choice of his next parents but sometime, it is the individual choice of the soul too. On each rebirth, a soul has an aim - and the soul chooses a set of parents who can help him best fulfill these aims. For example, a man who showed less compassion in his earlier life may choose a life path in his next rebirth that will make him understand compassion better. A man may be reborn as a woman to experience motherhood. Deformities or birthmarks are often a connect between two lives of the same soul and panic attacks or phobia can be often be rooted in one of the  past lives of a soul.

Most of these information is gathered by the author with the help of regression therapies that he conducts with people who believe to have been reincarnated. During such times, often the person remembers incidents of his past lives, as well as his experiences in the intermediate realms.

It is not easy to believe such "science"; nor did I try to believe or disbelieve them while reading this book. These might be true; these might not be true. But it is always interesting to read about such possibilities and I had a very enjoyable read.

Next time I meet a person I instantly like or dislike; will I wonder if this emotion is rooted in past life? I donot know! May be I will wonder :)