Shanti Devi

It's a curious story, however, we need to take all into consideration. How reliable are the sources that reported what she was saying as a child? How reliable are the sources that reported what happened upon her arrival in Mathura? How reliable is testimony from her teachers, parents and even Kedarnath Chaube himself? Did someone have something to gain by exaggerating or making up facts?

I think that surely there could be another explanation (apart from reincarnation), but the reincarnation hypothesis is hard to disprove in any case. I wonder if there is some academic research rigorously looking into the exact circumstances (I reckon this is an interesting subject, so I guess someone at least tried to do that).

I'm always impressed by how this comes back. This is an extraordinary claim and it does not have extraordinary evidence.

Ive heard of a similar story second by my ex wife about her cousin when he was three. The short version is they both walked into a liquor store one day and her cousin recognized a woman as being from a construction site where she worked. He started discussing details with her that a three old just wouldn't know. After the fact my ex would ask him questions about his "past life" after enough prodding he'd become visibly uncomfortable and sad about talking about his death. Once he turned five or so he stopped remembering.

I've always wanted to believe, and given its second hand nature and the credibility of the source I count it as weak evidence at best. Obviously nothing even close to proof, but I've always found these stories intriguing since then.

This is a fascinating documentary on this topic about a scottish boy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wvbEQytuQk

I've seen some pretty convoluted justifications as to why certain posts belong on HN. I suspect one for this post will rank among the best of them.

To those swayed by its supposed evidence, I would suggest this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Improbability-Principle-Coincidenc...