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Characteristics of Cases of the Reincarnation Type in Turkey and their Comparison with Cases

in Two other Cultures* IAN STEVENSON

Umverstty of Virginia School of Mediant, Vtrgima, U.S.A.

Introduction

1953 I have been collecting data on cases of the reincarnation type from a number of different cultures. In addition to studying individual cases with regard to the competing hypotheses which might explain the re- ported experiences in this type of case, I have lmtiated studies of the charac- teristics of all the cases (now numbering nearly a thousand) in different cul- tures To date a sufficiently numerous group of cases has been collected for each of the following cultures" Eskimos of Alaska, Tlingits of Alaska; Thais, Ceylonese (Smhalese and Tamil cases), Indian, Druses of Lebanon, Syna and northern Israel, Turks; and Western Europeans living in Europe and North Amenca.

In 1966 I published a summary of characteristics found in 43 cases of the reincarnation type among the Thngits of Alaska.̂ In another article I have summarized the mam features of 28 Ceylonese cases of the reincarnation type.* In the present article I provide similar data on 52 Turkish cases and compare the characteristics of these cases with those occurring among the Thngits and among the Geylonese. The analysis of data from other cultures besides the Ceylonese has not yet progressed to the pomt of permitting vahd comparisons widi the Turkish and Thngit cases except m a few features of the cases.

Thanks are due to the Parapsychology Foundation for grants in support of my investi- gations in parapsychology M Re$at Bayer of Istanbul accompanied me on both my field tnps to southern Turkey and I am much mdebted to him for his painstaking mter- pretattons of the statements of witnesses as weU as for his translations of various written documents Some of the cases here reported were first identified and studied by M. Bayer m several vmts he made hirnwif to the region of the cases. M Bayer has additionally made available to me his extensive knowledge of Tuiicey and of Islamic sects. Mr Zekenya K i h ; gave me valuable information about cases Stevenson, I., Cultural Patterns m Cases Suggestive of Remcamation Amcmg the Tiingit Indians c^ Southeastern Alaska. J . Amer Soc. Psychxcd Res 60 229-243, 1966. Stevenson, I , Characteristics oi Cases of the Remcamauon Type m Ceylon (to be publuhcd).

2 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGY

By a case of the reincarnation type I mean one m which the subject claims that he has hved before and justifies this claim by narrating memones of this previous life. The usual subject is a child between the ages of two and five when he first begins to speak of a previous life, but occasionally the subject IS older and in Europe and North Amenca often an adult. A number of cases have other associated features additional to the subject's claimed memories. Two other common features are "announcing dreams" (usually dreamed by the subject's mother when pregnant) concermng the identity of the person ostensibly being reborn, and birthmarks or deformities of the subject corre- sponding in appearance and location to wounds on the body of the related previous personahty.^ In addition, most of the subjects show behavioral traits which the informants report resemble those of the related previous personality to a significant extent

The actual claims of the subject to remember accurately details of a previ- ous life are often examined by the families concerned. More recently they have been investigated by myself m the course of numerous field trips to places where these cases are found most abundantly. I have reported elsewhere details of 21 cases suggestive of reincarnation from several different cultures*-^ and further reports are in preparation *'5 In these case reports and accompanying discussions I have tned to weigh the ments of the cases with regard to the evidence they provide for the claims made for them, namely, that the subject has had real memones of a previous life. In the present report I am not con- cerned with asserting the authenticity of any single case or its interpretation as evidence for reincarnation. Instead, I am offering a summary of" charac- teristics of the whole group of Turkish cases so far analyzed That the discovered charactenstics may also bear on the authenticity of the individual cases I shall consider later.

Before presenting the actual data of the cases I shall briefly describe the people among whom these cases are found most abundantly m Turkey, and then summanze their main ideas about reincarnation.

The Belief in Reincarnation in Turkey

The vast majonty of Turkish people are Mushms, and orthodox Mushms do not beheve in reincarnation. There are, however, a number of Islamic

1 I use the term "present personality" for the subject, l e , the pwrson who has the memones of a previous life or who is otherwise identified as being the remcamation of a deceased person whom I refer to as the "previous personahty " I refer to the interval between the death of the previous ptersonality and the birth of the subject (or present j)ersonality) as the "intermission "

2 Stevenson, I , Twenty Cases Suggestive of Retncarnatton Proceedmgs Amer Soc Psychical R e s , Vol 26, 1966, 1-362

3 Story, F , and Stevenson, I , A Case of the Remcamation Type m Ceylon J Amer Soc Psychical Res 61 130-145, 1967

4 Stevenson, I and Story, F , A Case of the Remcamation Type m Ceylon The Case of Disna SamEirasmghe (to be published)

5 Stevenson, I , Thirty Addtttoncd Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation (in preparation)

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REINCARNATION TYPE IN TURKEY 3

sects which do believe in reincarnation. Most of these are derivatives of the Shiites who, with the Sunms, form the two great branches of Islam. A behef in reincarnation among Shiites can be traced at least to the eighth century ^ It IS particularly prominent among the Ismaihs and their offshoots, notably the Druses of Lebanon and Syria In southern Turkey the behef m reincarnation IS found especially, and one might almost say exclusively, among the Alevis, who are, m ultimate derivation, a Shiite sect ^ Large numbers of Alevis live in south central Turkey m and around Adana, Mersin, Iskenderun and An- takya The Alevis of this area are mostly Arabic-speaking peoples whose ances- tors entered Turkey early m the nineteenth century In 1832 Ibrahim Pasha, son of Muhamid Ah, the powerful Governor (under Turhsh suzerainty) of Egypt, invaded Syria and then southern Turkey itself. His invading army included large numbers of Arabic-speakmg Alevis (from Syria) and many of these settled in south central Turkey. Alevis may also be found m other parts of Turkey, chiefly Anatolia and southeastern Turkey,

So far as my own investigations have gone, cases of the reincarnation type m Turkey occur only among the Alevis who beheve m reincarnation Although, as mentioned above, most of the Alevis of south central Turkey are Arabic- speaking, I found one case in a village of entirely Turkish-speaking Alevis, and no cases at all in Turkish Mushms who were not Alevis.

Among the Alevis the belief in reincarnation is accepted as axiomatic. Some of my informants expressed astonishment or amusement that money should be spent in the investigation of something so obviously true as reincar- nation Despite their estabhshed convictions as to the occurrence of reincar- nation, the Turkish Alevis do not have an elaborated doctrine concerning it comparable to those found m Hinduism and Buddhism My Turkish informants nevertheless told me about some of their common associated beliefs which I will briefly summarize.

Rebirth m animals is accepted among the Turkish Alevis in contrast to Its demal by the neighboring Druses. The Turkish Alevis do not, however, accept that a personality can change its sex between incarnations, in this re- spect according with the Druse belief and that of the Tlingits of Alaska (Sex change from one life to another is, however, permitted m other cultures such as in Ceylon^ and India ) They believe that physical infirmities present at birth or downward changes m social circumstances from one hfe to another express the just results of misconduct m a previous life. But the penalty does not have to be earned in the life immediately preceding the present one of misfortunes This topic came into discussion especially in the case of a man who was born deaf and has remained mute. This man by gestures and other

1 Dietnch, E L , Die Lehre von der Reinkamation im Islam Z^tschnft fur Religionsge- schichte und GnsUsgeschuhU Vol 9, 129-149, 1957

2 Grande Encyclop^e Turque "Inonu " Istanbul In preparation and pubhcation since 1943 (Passages translated from Turkish to French by M Re?at Bayer)

3 O^ at n 2 on p 1

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behavior indicated that he remembered a previous life m which he was drown- ed. (I shall report this case m detail elsewhere.)^ The drowned man was, according to my informants, a person of exemplary character. My informants attributed the deafness in this subject to some misconduct far back m the chain of hves, at any rate long antedating the life in which the previous personahty was drowned.

On the question of whether every man reincarnates or some only, my informants were of divided opinions. Some contended that only persons who die a violent death are reborn. Others, however, asserted that everyone rein- carnates, but only those who die violently remember a previous life. It will be seen later that the Turkish case material seems to support both these views.

Many of my Turkish informants beheve that reincarnation occurs instantly after death, another associated behef held by the Druses. I have found, however, that the Druses take immediate remcamation as a dogma, whereas some Turkish informants said that the interval between death and rebirth might be longer.

Dietrich asserted that the Islamic sects beheving in reincarnation derive this belief from the infusion into Islam of the rehgions of peoples conquered by the early Muslims.* In the great Islamic conquests of the seventh and eighth centunes A.D , large numbers of Mamcheans and neo-Platonic Greeks were overrun by the Arabs and some of their behefe assimilated Dietrich thought the behef in reincarnation among Islamic sects to be essentially extra-Islamic. He denied any support for the behef in the Koran. But the Alevis of Turkey cite passages in the Koran which can be mterpreted as favoring reincarnation.* These passages, like similar ones m the Bible, are ambiguous. Persons who wish to draw on scriptural authority to sustam a behef m reincarnation may find such support m the Koran, but others are not compeUed to do so.

Sources of Case Material

The cases here analyzed were studied during two visits to Turkey which ; I made m 1964 and 1967 I stayed m the cities of Adana, Iskenderun, and ]' Antakya. The cases were studied m these cities and in the smaller towns, e.g., "[ Tarsus, Mersm, Samandog, and villages of the environs. I have spent less than SIX weeks altogether m this part of Turkey, but during this period obtained »

1 Op at n 5 on p 2 2 Op ctt n I on p 3 3 Typical passages m the Koran which are cited m support of the belief m remcamation

are the followmg "How disbeheve ye m Allah when ye were dead and He gave life to you Then He will give you death, then life ^ a m , and then unto Him ye will return" (Surah 2, Verse 28), and "Allah hath caused you to grow firom the earth, and after- wards He maketh you return thereto, and He will bring you forth agam, a forthbrmging" (Surah 71, Verses 17-18)

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REINCARNATION TYPE IN TURKEY 5

some information on about seventy cases of the remcamation type.^ For about 15 of the cases I obtained no more information than the name of the subject or main witnesses. Time did not permit direct study of these cases. In 56 cases enough information was obtained from firsthand witnesses to permit judgments about their authenticity. Each of these cases was given a careful study through interviewing all available witnesses Four cases were seen to be atypical or of insufficient authenticity to justify inclusion in the series to be analyzed. In one of these cases the child had no claimed memones, but had shown evidence of precocity m spelling which was attributed to learning in a previous life. In another case the father refused to permit an adequate investigation of the case. In the other two cases the parents seemed to have made identifications of the previous personahty on extremely slender evidence and the details nar- rated about the case were implausible. After rejection of these four cases the remaining 52 cases were then included m the present analysis.

In nearly all of these cases the child had had memones of a previous life. In several, however, the child had had no memones, but the case was included because of the reported close correspondence of a birthmark with wounds on the body of the presumed previous personahty. No case has been mcluded, however, solely on the basis of an "announcing dream" since these are ex- penences of other people and not of the subject himself The analyzed cases then are those m which there were reported pnma facie evidences of some paranormal phenomena m the subject, either memones or birthmarks or both.

No Turkish ca&c has been included unless I myself saw, and m most instances, interviewed the subject. (Naturally interviews were out of the question with a few infants and very small children.) The Thngit and Geylonese matenal does, however, include some cases in which I did not see or interview the subjects. Among the Thngit cases I have included m the senes a small number of cases m which the subject was dead, provided the testimony of a firsthand witness seemed rehable. And among the Ceylon cases I have included some investigated by my colleague, Mr. Francis Story, who is an expenenced ob- server of these cases.

Reported and Reed Incidences of Reincarnation Cases in South Central Turkey I make no claim to have conducted a systematic census of cases of the

remcamation type m Turkey, or elsewhere. Cases were brought to my attention by persons who knew of my interest (or that of M. Bayer) in studying such cases, and this was necessarily a haphazard way of teaming about them. Only a very small portion of the cities and villages inhabited by Alevis m this area were visited. The population of Alevis (mostly Arabic-speakmg) of the area is perhaps about 100,000. From the numbers of cases found m any one village, sometimes as many as five or six, we can easily infer that a full census of cases

Some of the cases were first reported to M Rqat Bayer who accompanied me on my tnpM to southern Turkey and also made several tnps there alone to gather information £1 r\/\i tt ^\\^t t^^ttma

about the cases

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m this area would show the actual incidence to be very much higher than the small number which have been reported to date.

Characteristics of the Turkish Reincamatioii Cases

Sex of Subjects and Related Previous Personalities Table I shows that there was a preponderance of males among the subjects

of the Turkish cases. This male preponderance was found also m the Thngit matenal, but not m that from Ceylon. I may say that m cases from most other cultures (still not fully zinalyzed) the numbers of male and female subjects are nearly equal, so the Turkish and Thngit cases are deviant in the marked preponderance of male subjects they show.

No Turkish subject of a case claimed to recall a previous life as a member of the opposite sex. Thngit subjects also never claimed to remember a previous life as a member of the opposite sex. In contrast, there are three Ceylon cases of this type. A case report of one of these (Gnanatilleka) has already been pubhshed^ and a detailed report of another is m preparation.^ Here again, the Ceylonese czises are more typical of the entire collection of cases from all cultures in which about ten per cent of the subjects claim to remember a previous hfe as a member of the opposite sex.

Males Females

Total

Table 1 Number and Sex of Subjects tn the Three Series

Turkish Cases

44 8

Ceylon Cases^

15 13

Tltngtt Cases'

34 13

1 Includes 26 Sinhalese cases and 2 Tamil cases 2 Includes 5 Thngit cases not analyzed m the report of 1966 (Fn 1) and omits (because of

low authenticity) 1 Thngit case in the previous total of 43

No Turkish subject investigated at first hand claimed to remember a previ- ous life as a subhuman animal. I did hear secondhand reports of two Turkish subjects who had made such claims, but one of these had died and the other was inaccessible so neither case is included m the present senes.

Familial Relationships Between Subjects and Related Previous Personalities Table 2 shows the familial relationships between present and related

previous personalities m the three senes. In only four Turkish cases were the

1 0^ «< n 2 on p 2 2 Op at a 5 on p 2

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REINCARNATION TYPE IN TURKEY

TabU2

Familial Relatwtuktps between Present and Related Previous Personalities in the Three Series

Personahties related on mother's side Personalities related on the father's side Personalities related as brothers or sisters Clan relationship only No relationship Relationship not known or not learned

(mcludmg cases without sp)ecific identification of previous personality)

Turktsh Cases

0 3 1

41 7

Ceylon Cases

1 1 0

10 16

Tlmgit Cases

31 5 4 2 1 4

52 28 47

subject and related previous personahty members of the same family. This low incidence of famihal relationships is found also m the Ceylonese cases, but the reverse holds for the Tlingit cases. As mentioned in my previous report on the Tlingit cases,^ Thngits attach a great deal of importance to being in the right family. Membership m the Thngit family (and tnbal moiety) comes through the mother. In keeping with this emphasis m the culture is the fact that among the 40 Thngit cases with some known famihal relationship between the subject and related previous personahty, m 31 instances the relationship was through the mother's family. In four other instances the present and previous person- alities were brothers or sisters, thus both bom of the same mother.

The Circumstances of Death of Related Previous Personalities Table 3 shows the distribution of violent and natural deaths m the related

previous personahties of the three senes. In most instances, the mode of death of the related previous jjersonahty was venfied from knowledgeable informants. In a small number of instances, particularly those m which no specific previous personahty had been identified, the mode of death claimed m the memories of the subject was accepted for the purposes of this analysis.

In a small number of cases, assignment to the categories of violent or natural death proved difficult, especially when death followed an accident, but not immediately. One death from electncal burns, although not immediate (the person having died in a hospital), was considered violent, but another from an infection following an accidental wound was considered natural. I n most instances of violent death the immediate cause was a bullet or knife wound or an automobile accident which provided no difficulty in assignment. Drownings were less numerous, but occurred also in all three series. Automobile accidents accounted for some deaths m the Turkish and Ceylonese cases, but not in Thngit cases.

1 0^ ctt n 1 on p. 1

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Mode of Death

Violent Male Female Total

Natural Male Female Total

Unknown Male Female Total

TabU3 Incidence of Modes of Death

Turkish Cases

33 6

11 1

0 1 1

m the Three Senes

Ceylon Cases

5 5

5 6

5 2 7

TlmgtiCaus

19 0

8 7

7 6

Totals 52 28 47

Table 3 shows that violent deaths are much commoner m the Turkish cases than m the Ceylon or Thngit cases. This high mcidence of violent deaths m the Turkish cases may be related to the preponderance of males among the subjects of this group. I have accordingly given the figures for the numbers of males and females involved in the different modes of death.

Incidence of Birthmarks and Deformitus m the Three Senes Table 4 shows the incidence of birthmarks and deformities in the Turkish,

Ceylonese, and Thngit senes. I have already pubhshed descriptions of some of these birthmarks^ and will publish further descnptions (with photographs) of additional examples.* In most instances I have examined the birthmarks myself and photographed them or had them photographed. In a few instances the birthmark was reported as having faded or the subject dechned to allow an examination of the mark. And in another few the subject had died by the time of my investigations.

The birthmarks most frequently relate to fatal bullet or knife wounds on the previous personahty, although a few relate to non-fatal wounds, e.g., wounds of surgical operations. (I have published one detailed report of two birthmarks related to surgical wounds in a Thngit case, that of Corliss Chotkin,

1 Ô ctt n 1 on p 1 and n. 2 on p 2 2 Ô fl* n 5 on p. 2 3 0 / fl* n. 2 on p 2

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REINCARNATION TYPE IN TURKEY

TabU4

Incidence of Birthmarks and DefomaHes of Subjects m the Three Series

Absent Present and related to

Gunshot wounds Kmfe or si>ear wounds Accidental wounds Wounds of bites Wounds of surgical operations Wounds of disease Bums Tattoo marks Naevi (possibly inherited) Miscellaneous, chiefly wounds of accidental and inflicted head injuries

Total

Turkish Cases

II 8 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 7

Ceylon Cases

1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1

TtmgU Cases

7 4 0 1 2 3 1 1 4 1

Total Cases 52 28 47

Incidence ofAnnounang Dreams m the Three Senes Table 5 shows the incidence of announcing dreams m the three series.

I am sure the real incidence of these dreams, at least in Turkey and Alaska, IS considerably higher than my figures indicate. On my first tnps to Alaska I did not realize how frequently these dreams occur and did not begin to make systematic inquiries about them until 1964. In Alaska the announcmg dreams seem well known to both men and women, but m Turkey I found that the women often kept them to themselves. Sometimes males present at interviews were astonished when a woman m response to a question would narrate an announang dream.

TabU5 Incidence of Announcmg Dreams m the Three Senes

Turkish Cases Ceylon Cases Tlmgit Cases

Present 23 1 22 Absent 29 27 25

Total 52 28 47

As already mentioned, the d r e a m e r is usually the p r e g n a n t m o t h e r of the "mcoming personality," but sometimes a female relative or neighbor, and occasionally the father or other male relative or friend, will have an announcmg

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dream. Occasionally also, two or more members of the family will have such a dream. Nearly all the dreams occur towards the end of the pregnancy and most often just before delivery, but a few have occurred after delivery and I have included three instances in which an identifying dream occurred more than a year after the birth of the present personality, but m two of these cases there was also a prenatal dream by another person

As I have described elsewhere, the typical Thngit announcing dream in- cludes images of arrival scenes The "incoming personality" is visualized m the dream as coming with his suitcase into the house, looking around for a bedroom, getting off a ship at a dock, etc.^ In the Turkish announcing dreams this type of symbolism is less common. More often the "incoming personality" simply shows himself, often with the fatal wounds which will be found m the birth- marks, and communicates his wish or intention to be reborn in the family of the dreamer In Tlingit cases the dreamer can nearly always recognize the "in- coming personality," it being expected that a Tlingit will be reborn on his mother's side of the same family. In Turkish cases, however, the "lncomming personality" is usually a stranger and the dreamer may have no idea whatever of his identity. This often leads to delays in identification of the previous related personality which will be discussed next.

Announcing dreams with specific identification are extremely rare m Ceylon and the only instance known to me occurred in a Tamil case in which a young man was thought to have been reborn as his own niece. In this case several members of the faimly had dreams of the deceased young man dunng the mother's pregnancy. Ceylonese mothers do often narrate symbolic dreams, e.g., of a snake, an elephant or other animal during the pregnancy. They interpret these variously as indicating the arrival of a baby of a particular sex, but seem to show no consistency in the interpretation of the dream symbols And they rarely expect to identify an "incoming personality" in advance of birth.

Identtfication of Related Previous Personalities Table 6 summarizes the number of cases m each senes in which the related

previous personality has been identified. As already mentioned, the parents of the subjects of these cases usually make efforts to identify the previous person- ality the child claims to have been. If the mother or a neighbor has had a dream m which a recognizable person indicates that he is being reborn in a particular faimly, a judgment is often made at that time about who the related previous personality is. The identification is hkely to be confirmed by obser- vation of birthmarks on the child. Such early identification of the related previous personality may sometimes lead to suggestions about a previous l- dentity offered by the parents to the child and this may weaken the evidence of paranormal* knowledge about the previous personality which the subject

1 0/> CTf n 1 on p 1 2 By "paranormal," I mean knowledge gamed without the means of the usual sensory

channels

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REINCARNATION TYPE IN TURKEY 11

Tabu 6 Speafic Identification of Related Previous Personality m the Three Senes

Turkish Cases Ceylon Cases Tlmgit Cases

Previous Personality Identified

Previous Personabty Not Identified

Total 52 28 47

m a y later show. T h i s , however, is a s e p a r a t e issue a n d I a m n o t here defending the evidence of p a r a n o r m a l features m a n y o n e case, b u t simply d e s c n b m g t h e patterns found in t h e cjise m a t e r i a l as a w h o l e .

I n t h e T h n g i t cases, t h e c o m b i n a t i o n of a n n o u n c i n g d r e a m s , b i r t h m a r k s a n d m e m b e r s h i p of t h e t w o personalities in t h e same family usually leads to a very early identification of t h e r e l a t e d previous personality I h a v e only two T h n g i t cases m w h i c h t h e previous personality has n o t b e e n identified. I n t h e Ceylon cases, a n n o u n c i n g d r e a m s , b i r t h m a r k s a n d m e m b e r s h i p m t h e s a m e family a r e r a r e . T h e two personahties often live m villages q u i t e far r e m o v e d from e a c h o t h e r . Identification of t h e previous personality is difficult for t h e famihes c o n c e r n e d a n d h a r d l y less so for investigators. I n some instances t h e child simply does n o t give e n o u g h detailed information to p e r m i t t h e t r a c i n g of a r e l a t e d previous personality fitting his s t a t e m e n t s . T h i s is especially t h e case if t h e child does n o t give a c c u r a t e l y t h e n a m e of a village or t o w n or a family n a m e . O n e m a y b e d e a l i n g m some instances w i t h fantasies o n t h e p a r t of the child, t h e r e b e i n g n o a c t u a l previous p e r s o n a h t y a t a l l , b u t this seems i m p r o b a b l e except m a very small n u m b e r of" cases since t h e c h a r a c t e n s t i c s of cases m w h i c h a previous personality has b e e n identified closely resemble those in w h i c h o n e has n o t b e e n found. O n e would expect i n v e n t e d cases to deviate from t h e characteristic p a t t e r n of g e n u i n e cases, a l t h o u g h i m i t a t i o n of k n o w n cases m a y also occur a n d give a n m a u t h e n t i c case t h e a p p e a r a n c e of being typical.

W i t h r e g a r d to t h e identification of t h e previous personality, T u r k i s h cases are s o m e w h a t i n t e r m e d i a t e b e t w e e n t h e Ceylonese cases a n d t h e T h n g i t ones. W h e n a child is b o r n a m o n g t h e T u r k i s h Alevis, t h e a n n o u n c i n g d r e a m (if it occurs) m a y n o t present t h e i m a g e of a person k n o w n to t h e d r e a m e r . S o m e - times a c o m b i n a t i o n of t h e d r e a m a n d b i r t h m a r k s lead t h e family to m a k e a tentative identification w i t h a p a r t i c u l a r person, say someone w h o was k n o w n to have b e e n m u r d e r e d m t h e n e x t village T h e p a r e n t s m a y t h e n forget a b o u t this conjecture u n t i l later, w h e n t h e child begins to talk a b o u t a previous life. His r e m a r k s a n d his recognitions of m e m b e r s of t h e family of t h e person h e claims t o h a v e b e e n m a y t h e n lead to a firmer conviction a b o u t t h e identification of t h e previous personality. I n g e n e r a l , t h e n , a r e l a t e d previous p e r s o n a h t y is identified e v e n t u a l l y in most T u r k i s h cases, b u t r a r e l y a t or soon after b i r t h .

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Median Age at Death of Related Previous Personalities Table 7 shows the median age at death of the related previous personali-

ties for the three senes. These figures should be interpreted cautiously. In the first place, for many cases I have no information at all about the age at death of the previous personahty. This is especially true for the Thngit cases since I coDected much of the Tlingit data before I contemplated analyses hke the present one. Secondly, m many instances the informants could only give the ages within a certain range of years, e.g., "he was between 45 and 55 years old," or the previous personahty would be said to be "a schoolgirl." In a small number of instances without identification of the previous personality I have inferred the age at death from statements of the subjects who rarely state an exact age at death, but who may give an approximation or other relevant information On the other hand, it has been possible to ascertain exact ages for some of the subjects through the study of medical or other documents, so the figures do not always depend only on the memories of informants.

Tabu 7 Median Age at Death of Related Previous Personalities m the Three Series

Turkish Cases Ceylon Cases Thngit Cases

Age m Years 30 (50)» 14 (25) 25 (9)

Expectation of Life at Birth m Country' 48 (1950-51)' 6 1 7 (1962) 69 4* (1957)

1 The figures in parentheses in this row give the number of cases in each group for which reasonably adequate data are available

2 Data fix>m Demographic Yearbook New York United Nations, 1966 3 Figures m parentheses m this row give year from which the data were denved 4 The figure given is for the Umted States of America as a whole Data for expectation of

life among Thngits were not available The actual exjjectation of life among Tlmgits would be considerably lower due to the generally lower quahty of medical care available to them as compared to the average for the nation

Takmg the data of Table 7 with these reservations, we can say that the average previous personahty m Turkish and Thngit cases is a young adult. But the average previous personahty m Ceylon is a considerably younger f>erson, a schoolchild or adolescent. In all three groups, however, there was a wide range at death of the previous personahties. In all three cultures the age at death of the related previous personahties was far below the expected age for these cultures.

Median Interval Between Death of Related Previous Personality and Birth of Present Fersonalttji

Table 8 shows m months the median interval or "intermission" between the death of the previous personahty and the birth of the subject for cases in the three senes. The reservations expressed in the preceding section concerning

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REINCARNATION TYPE IN TURKEY 1 3

TabU8 Median Interval between Death of Related Previous Personality and Birth of Present

Personality m the Three Senes

Turktsh Cases Ceylon Cases TUngit Cases

Interval in Months 9 (34)1 21 (12) 48 (23)

1 The figures in parentheses give the nvimber of cases in each group for which reasonably adequate data are available

the accuracy of the figures given apply with equal or greater force to the data of Table 8. The villagers of southern Turkey have little interest m the passage of time other than as seasonal changes affect their agncultural pursuits. (The villagers of Ceylon and the Thngits of Alaska are httle different in this respect.) Everyone in Turkey is supposed to have an official identity card on which is inscribed at his birth the date and place of birth and other identifying infor- mation. In fact, however, many parents delay having the identity card filled out until several years after the birth of the child or even until he goes to school and the authonties ask to see the card. By this time the actual date of birth may be forgotten Also, vanous motives, e.g., the desire to have a son appear older than he is so he may serve his mihtary duty early and return to the family, often lead to falsification of the identity cards. In view of this unreha- bihty, we must interpret the differences between the three senes cautiously. Suffice it to say, therefore, that the median "intermission" for Thngit cases seems to be definitely longer than it is for the Turkish cases and the "inter- mission" for Geylonese C£ises falls m between the other two senes.

Selection of Parents for Next Incarnation

Sometimes informants report that the previous personahty selected parents for his next incarnation before he died. Table 9 shows the diffenng incidences m the three series of reports of such selection of parents for the next incarnation. I found only two instances of this m Turkey, and I found only one instance among the Ceylonese cases, but it was reported in ten of the Thngit cases.

TabU9

Reported Selection of Parents for Next Btrth Prtor to Death ofPrevums Personality in the Thru Senes

Turktdi Cases Ceylon Cases Tltngit Cases

Number of Instances Reported 2 1 10

1 4 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGY

Discussion

In discussing the data presented from the three senes of cases, I shall first consider some of the principal differences between them and then some of the resemblances.

The marked preponderance of male subjects in the Turkish and to a lesser extent in the Thngit cases, as compared to the Ceylonese ones (and those of most other cultures), is almost certainly not due to a spurious pushing forward of male subjects by the informants Most of the subjects were still children at the time of my investigations and I detected little reserve on the part of parents m presenting children of either sex for study. It is true that men are still dominant m Turkish society, but they are hardly less so m Ceylon. And among the Tlmgits, women and membership in their famihes have very great im- portance.

It seems to me more likely that the preponderance of male subjects in Turkish cases related to the high frequency of violent deaths m the previous personalities. There is a very high incidence of claimed memories of the mode of death, whether natural or violent, among the statements of all the subjects. Emotionally intense expenences are more memorable than experiences with lesser emotional accompamment. Supposmg remcarnation to be the best ex- planation for these cases, then one would expect that a violent death would be more easily remembered by the surviving and reborn person than would a natural one. (As mentioned earlier, many of the Alevis believe either that only persons violently killed reincarnate or that only persons remember their previ- ous hves.) Since, however, men engage in more dangerous vocational acti- vities and are more inclined than women to use violence in settling disputes, one would expect that male subjects would preponderate m the cases of cultures showing a high incidence of violent deaths m the previous personalities. This explanation fits the data of the Turkish cases better than it does those of Thngit cases. For violent deaths of the previous personahties occurred only a little more often proportionately among Thngit cases than among Ceylonese ones (See Table 3). Since, however, no female Thngit subjects were identified with previous personahties who died violent deaths, the preponderance of male Thngit subjects may also be due to the high incidence of males with violent deaths, or contnbuted to by it. Memones enhanced by violent deaths cannot alone account for the preponderance of males m the Turkish cases since as Table 3 shows, the males preponderate by far also in cases with non-violent deaths of the previous personahties.

When I asked my Turkish informants why a particular person was born m a particular family, they would nearly always sigh and say "Allah alone knows" or "Allah willed it." The ideas of the Turkish Alevis on reincarnation are evidently much imbued with the Islamic concept of an ineluctable destiny. The Turkish Alevi believes that his conduct v^ll influence his future incarna- tions but his wishes or willpower cannot do so. It rarely occurs to him to try to plan his next hfe.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REINCARNATION TYPE IN TURKEY 15

For a different reason the Ceylonese also do not often plan another hfe. This reason is that good Buddhists (and Hindus) are trying to get away entirely from any terrestrial rebirth whatever and the planning of another incarnation for them defeats the purpose of trying to get altogether off "the wheel of rebirth."

With both these views the Thngit outlook contrasts rather sharply Many Thngits have an optimistic view of their ability to shape their next life They sometimes state before dying that they wish to be reborn without some defect, e g , a stutter which has bothered them m the present hfe. And they may also choose, from the available mothers of the family, one favonte woman as the mother for the next rebirth. The data of Table 9, although derived from a verv small number of cases, does seem to indicate that this pre-mortem selection of parents occurs more commonly among the Thngits than among the Turks or Ceylonese.

The Turkish and Ceylonese cases again differ from the Thngit ones in the low incidence among the former two of familial relationships between the two personahties. As I have suggested elsewhere, Thngits beheve that they should be reborn m the same tribe, preferably m the mother's immediate family.^ The high incidence of fanulial relationships between the two personalities in Tlingit cases is harmonious with the influence of cultural forces on the shaping of the cases through expectations. It is also harmonious, however, with the interpretation of the cases as instances of reincarnation since, on this hypothesis, we can conceive that cultural expectations would persist after death and influ- ence selection of the next parents The "selection process" may be entirely unconscious although, as we have seen, the Tlingits rather often attempt con- scious selection of the next parents before death.

Turning now to important resemblances between the Turkish and other cases, we find that the Turkish and Thngit series resemble each other markedly in the high incidences they each show of announcing dreams and birthmarks.

It IS quite certain that the similar high incidences of birthmarks and an- nouncing dreams m the Turkish and Tlingit cases does not derive from any influential contacts between the two groups There certainly has been no effective contact between them since the ancestors of both came out of central Asia thousands of years ago. There has been some contact for more than a thousand years between Arab traders and the Ceylonese, but Muslim influence on the Sinhalese culture has been slight Sinhalese ideas on reincarnation derive from Buddhist traditions and Tamil ideas on it denve from Hindu traditions. Mushms of Ceylon are mostly orthodox and do not believe in reincarnation. Another point of importance is that in neither the Thngit nor the Turkish culture IS there any written or other widely authoritative tradition which dic- tates what pattern reincarnation cases should show. In contrast, there is an extensive hterature of Theravada Buddhism which has much to say for the Geylonese about rebirth and which may influence expectations about cases

1 0|& «; n 1 on p 1

1 6 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGY

occurring in that culture. In all these cultures, however, there exists an oral tradition conceniing reincarnation which may have shaped development of the cases to some extent. It seems significant, however, that patterns of the cases have developed very similarly m two cultures so completely isolated from each other as are the Turkish Alevis and Thngits. These similanties suggest some common infiuence on the cases m both cultures.

The similanties m the cases might occur if they consisted of nothmg but fantasies either wholly invented by the children or elaborated by the parents firom small nuclei furnished by the children. It is known that humans have devised very similar myths in widely different cultures. But it is is also known that myths have a basis m human expenence and denve at least partly from man's effort to mterpret his real expenences. We are, however, m the present matenal not deahng with myths, but with reports of actual expenences. We are much closer to venfiable evidence of what actually happened than we are when trying to understand most myths. To be sure, the reports may be altered by the informants fi-om the onginal primary expenences in ways that we do not recogmze. But the similanty of case after case within the same culture and of whole groups of cases of different cultures strongly suggests that the reports commumcate authentic expenences and that they are reasonably close to the actual events descnbed. If the cases are due to fraud or to fantasy, it is difficult to see how such similar accounts could have been independently invented by so many people. Incidentally, very few of the informants about one case had heard , of other cases, although some of them had lesimed of one or two well-known cases which had reached newspapers. But these isolated and oflen llhterate villagers m Turkey, Ceylon and Alaska have few opportumties for modehng one case on a previous one. It is unreasonable to suppose that the consistent patterns m these groups of cases could denve only firom the imitations of one or several model cases.

To declare the cases authentic, however, is to set aside only the simplest interpretations of fi^ud and fantasy. A decision for authenticity does not by Itself dispose of vanous other interpretations which may still apply to authentic • cases. It merely prepares the way for us to consider these other explanations •

Some of these cases, for example, may be explained as instances of second- ary personahty, including m necessary instances some extrasensory perception - with which the subject gathers mformation about the related previous person- ality who, according to this theory, he wishes he was. The announcing dreams and birthmarks also may give leads to the child and parents for elaboration of a plausible account of a previous personahty. This explanation, however, does not account for the presence of itic birthmarks themselves, nor for some ^ other features of the cases. I have reviewed these alternative hypotheses in . detail elsewhere^ and I believe they are best considered m weighmg the ments | of each individual case.

To return to cultural influences, the evidence fi'om cross-cultural compan-

1 Op at n 2 on p 2

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REINCARNATION TYPE IN TURKEY 1 7

sons of these cases, so far as they have gone, suggests that cultural forces influ- ence the cases at several different levels. At one level cultural factors evidently influence the mere occurrence of the cases, for their mcidence seems much greater in some cultures than in others. These cases occur abundantly m north- ern India, Burma, Tibet, Ceylon, Thailand, southern Turkey, Lebanon, and Alaska They occur much less frequently m other parts of the world.

At another level, cultural influences may account for similarities m the characteristics of the cases in different cultures widely separated, such as I have found in the similar high incidences of birthmarks and announcing dreams m the Turkish and Thngit cultures. In both these cultures the im- portance attached to identity and also to bravery m the face of danger may lead to increased attention to birthmarks and "announcing dreams" and to the more frequent occurrence of both.

And finally, cultural influences may account for differences in the charac- teristics of groups of cases even where they are otherwise rather similar The very great importance attached by the Tlmgits to the matnhneal hne and to being identified on rebirth must surely have something to do with the high frequency of familial relationships between the present and previous person- ahties m the Thngit cases as compared to the low frequency of such famihal relationships in Turkish and Ceylonese cases.

Intenutioiial Journal of Comparatave Sociology, XI