Several weeks ago, I interpreted a conversation from a psychiatric ward. A worried parent was trying to understand her son’s condition. He had been telling everyone that he remembered another life. It was not a dream or a story to him. He spoke with complete conviction about who he had been and what he had experienced.
As interpreters, we are trained to remain neutral. We do not diagnose, and we do not judge. Our responsibility is to ensure that every word reaches the other person as accurately as possible. Most conversations end when the call ends. Every now and then, however, one follows you long after you have removed your headset.
This was one of those conversations.
Long before I became a medical interpreter, I had always been fascinated by the idea of reincarnation. I do not remember exactly when that curiosity began. Perhaps it started after reading stories about children who claimed to remember another life. Perhaps it came from documentaries or conversations with friends. Whatever the reason, it has always been one of those questions quietly waiting in the back of my mind.
What happens after we die?
Is consciousness simply the result of billions of neurons working together inside our brains?
Or is there something about human existence that we have not yet discovered?
The psychiatric call did not change my beliefs. Instead, it challenged me to ask a different question. Rather than wondering what I wanted to believe, I wanted to know what the evidence actually showed.
To my surprise, scientists have not completely ignored the subject.
One of the most well known researchers was Dr. Ian Stevenson, a psychiatrist at the University of Virginia. Beginning in the 1960s, he spent more than four decades investigating children who claimed to remember previous lives. He deliberately focused on young children because many of them began talking about these memories before they were old enough to have studied history or been exposed to detailed information that might explain their stories.
Over the course of his career, Stevenson documented more than 2,500 cases from countries all over the world. After his retirement, another psychiatrist, Dr. Jim Tucker, continued the research using many of the same methods.
The numbers alone are not what make the research interesting.
It is the similarities between the cases.
Many of the children began describing another life between the ages of two and six. They often spoke about another family, another home, another occupation, or even another death. Some recognized places they had never visited. Others identified people they claimed to know. Many of these memories gradually disappeared as the children grew older.
Why do these reports appear during early childhood?
Why do they often fade with age?
No one has a definitive answer.
One of the best known cases is that of James Leininger. As a young boy, he experienced recurring nightmares about dying in a World War II fighter plane. According to his parents and later investigators, he described details about aircraft, naval ships, and fellow pilots that appeared to match historical records. His story has become one of the most frequently discussed cases in the study of alleged past life memories.
There are many other cases that researchers consider equally intriguing. Some involve children identifying relatives from another family. Others involve birthmarks that Stevenson believed corresponded with fatal injuries sustained by the deceased individual the child claimed to have been.
Reading these accounts, I found myself caught between fascination and skepticism.
Some stories are extraordinary.
Others are less convincing.
Many leave important questions unanswered.
That is precisely why the subject continues to divide researchers.
Skeptics argue that children may unknowingly absorb information from conversations around them. They point out that memories can become distorted over time and that investigators may unintentionally focus on evidence supporting their conclusions while overlooking information that does not. Cultural beliefs may also influence what children say and how adults interpret those statements.
These criticisms are reasonable.
They deserve careful consideration.
Supporters of Stevenson’s work respond that while many cases can be explained through ordinary means, a small number remain difficult to account for using coincidence, suggestion, or known psychological processes alone.
That does not prove reincarnation.
It simply means some cases continue to challenge our understanding.
Perhaps that is where science is at its best.
Many people imagine science as a collection of answers. In reality, science begins with questions. It tests ideas, rejects weak evidence, and follows stronger evidence wherever it leads. Sometimes the final answer is clear. Sometimes the most honest conclusion is that there is still more to learn.
History reminds us that certainty has often been temporary.
There was a time when diseases were believed to be caused by bad air because microorganisms had not yet been discovered. There was a time when meteorites were dismissed because respected scientists could not imagine rocks falling from the sky. There was even a time when continents were thought to be fixed in place because no one understood plate tectonics.
None of these examples prove reincarnation.
They simply remind us to be careful before declaring that every unanswered question has already been answered.
As I continued reading, I noticed something else that fascinated me.
Reincarnation stories appear in cultures that developed independently of one another. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, ancient Greek philosophy, and many Indigenous traditions all contain beliefs that life continues in some form after death.
Perhaps they are all describing the same reality.
Perhaps they reflect a universal human desire to believe that death is not the end.
Perhaps they reveal common patterns in the way our minds create meaning.
I honestly do not know.
I am not sure anyone does.
That uncertainty brought my thoughts back to the psychiatric call that inspired this article.
If someone sincerely believes they remember another life, does that automatically mean they are experiencing mental illness?
Modern psychiatry would say no.
A belief alone is not enough to diagnose a psychiatric disorder. Mental health professionals consider the entire clinical picture. They ask whether the belief causes significant distress, whether it is accompanied by hallucinations or disorganized thinking, and whether it fits within the person’s cultural or religious background. Context matters far more than a single statement.
That distinction is important.
Holding an unusual belief is not the same as living with a mental illness.
Working as an interpreter has taught me that medicine does not always provide immediate answers. Every day, healthcare professionals confront illnesses that remain difficult to diagnose, treatments that do not always work, and experiences that cannot yet be fully explained. Medicine is built on evidence, but it also depends on humility. The willingness to say, “We do not know yet,” is often just as important as the confidence to say, “We do know.”
Perhaps that is the lesson I took away from that conversation.
Not that reincarnation is real.
Not that it is impossible.
But that curiosity and certainty are not the same thing.
We live in a world where people often feel pressured to choose a side. We either believe completely or dismiss completely. Yet some questions deserve neither reaction. They deserve patience. They deserve careful research. Most of all, they deserve the honesty to admit that our understanding is still incomplete.
I do not believe science has proven that we have lived before.
I also do not believe science has completely closed the door on the possibility.
For now, the most intellectually honest answer is also the simplest.
We do not know.
Perhaps one day neuroscience will explain every reported past life memory.
Perhaps future research will uncover something entirely unexpected.
Until then, I think it is worth remaining curious.
After all, every meaningful discovery in human history began with someone asking a question that seemed impossible at the time.
Perhaps the greatest mystery is not whether we have lived before.
Perhaps the greater mystery is why humanity has continued asking the same question for thousands of years.
