Reincarnation: A Case of Past Life Recall

In 2004 a Swedish man recalled a previous life in Scotland for a television program about reincarnation produced by Strix Television AB. While under hypnosis in Stockholm, Jesper Bood, then 29, said he had been born John Smith in Dunbar, East Lothian, in 1852. He said he was the son of a blacksmith, also named John Smith and Mary Craig. He became a fisherman when he grew up. Local census and registrar records confirm these names. A later census records a fisherman named John Smith, aged 30 and married to Elizabeth. While hypnotized Bood had called his wife Betsey or Bessie. The family lived in Public Road, Gateside, on what is now the A1 between West Barns and East Linton. The community no longer exists, but records show a blacksmiths forge was operating there at the time.

A local historian, Roy Pugh, who was invited to be a researcher and asviser to the program, was amazed by the penetrating knowledge of Dunbar that Bood had shown. Bood had never been to Scotland before. "I was completely sceptical about the whole idea. But in two days when I walked about Dunbar with this young man, I now know what it means to experience a shiver in the spine and a curious feeling in the hairs on the back of my neck," said Pugh. Bood spoke of it having taken thirty minutes to walk to school, and when descrbing a Dunbar parish church, he said, "It was the first building I saw when I went to school every morning. I know it was close to the sea and that I could see it from my classroom window, it being diagonally opposite from the school." Mr. Pugh said this and other details given by Bood were an accurate description of the church and the former Woodbrush school, which was demolished after it closed in the 1950s. Mr. Bood also described in great detail, the site of a former fisherman's tavern in Lamer Street, which had a green sign hanging from the door. The site Bood had identified indeed once was known as the Jersey Arms, a well known fisherman's hang-out. The image is of the Street in Dunbar where the Jersey Arms used to be, it is now called the Creel restaurant. This case leaves me with some questions, both pro and con. I think a lot of it boils down to how trustworthy the information gained from hypnosis is and also if Mr. Bood could not have come by this information any other way-I am not trying to question his integrity. I just wanted to add this post as a continuing investigation of reincarnation. Personally, I find myself very much wanting to believe Mr. Bood's story while under hypnosis. How about you? The source for this article was the Fortean Times magazine, July 2004 edition. I am anxious to start the next series, but have come across more reincarnation type stories that I think I should do first-it will probably not be a lengthy post-or two at the most. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!