Language English Pages 368 OCLC 39668467 Originally published 1997 Page count 368 Publisher Bantam Books | Publication date 1997 ISBN 978-0-553-57485-2 Followed by Return From Heaven Genre Non-fiction Subjects Reincarnation, Paranormal | |
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Non-fiction books Old Souls, Chariots of the Gods?, Customer Data Integration, The Path: A One‑Mile Walk Thr, LaPorte - Indiana | ||
Children's Past Lives: How Past Life Memories Affect Your Child is a 1997 book by Carol Bowman. It is a non-academic book that was the first to explore the putative phenomenon of children’s spontaneous past life memories.
In the book, Bowman suggests that many children will speak spontaneously (without hypnosis) of their past lives, but not all unusual statements or stories from children are past life memories. Most of the time, children are imitating storybooks, TV or movies. But sometimes a child may talk about a genuine past life. Bowman says there are four ways to tell when a child may be talking about a previous life: look for a matter-of-fact tone, consistency over time, knowledge beyond experience, as well as corresponding behavior and traits.
The book received a positive review from Publishers Weekly and was recommended to readers of the new age community. However, philosopher and skeptic Robert Todd Carroll heavily criticized the book and described it as a "firsthand testimony to ignorance of science, to gullibility and, above all, to wishful thinking."
Carol Bowman's second book, Return from Heaven, published in 2001, focuses specifically on children who appear to have reincarnated in their own previous family or extended family.