Reincarnation in Asian Cultures and Some Proven Cases
By Najla Zaidi | 13 Aug, 2025

Proven cases of people who remember precise details of their past lives have added credibility to the widespread belief that souls move on to other bodies after death.

Reincarnation, the concept that the soul or consciousness is reborn into a new body after death, is not only a fundamental aspect of many Asian religions and philosophies but is a part of the belief systems of many.

27% of adults say reincarnation is definitely or probably true and that the dead can be reincarnated into this world, according to a Pew suvey.  Another 39% of people who say their religion is “nothing in particular” are among the most likely to believe that people can be reincarnated.  Women at 32% are also more likely than men to say they believe that the dead can be reincarnated and that the dead can be reunited with loved ones in the afterlife.

The birthplace of reincarnation seems to be in South Asia.  Evidence of its existence is found in the Vedas, the oldest Hindu scriptures, dating back to around 1500 BCE.  Reincarnation is recognized by Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.  It's also found in both Chinese and Japanese traditions.

In Hinduism the soul is the unchanging eternal essence of a living being, which journeys through reincarnations until it attains self-knowledge.  Hindu traditions assert that the body dies, but not the soul, which they believe to be eternal, and indestructible.  It is referred to as Ātman because it does not change and cannot change by its innate nature.  The Bhagavad Gita states, “Just as in the body childhood, adulthood and old age happen to an embodied being. So also, he (the embodied being) acquires another body. The wise one is not deluded about this.” 

In contrast to Hinduism, Buddhism asserts that there is “no soul, no Self.”  Buddhism, believes a rebirth theory without a Self, and considers realization of non-Self or Emptiness as Nirvana.  Buddhist scriptures say that Gautama Buddha believed in the existence of an afterlife in another world and in reincarnation.  The Buddha also asserted that karma influences rebirth, and that the cycles of repeated births and deaths are endless. 

Jainism, in contrast to Buddhism, accepts the foundational assumption that soul (Jiva) exists and asserts that this soul is involved in reincarnating.  Jainism also considers self-discipline as an important means to spiritual liberation that ends the cycle of reincarnation, while Buddhism does not.

Sikhism teaches that the soul passes from one body to another in endless cycles of Saṃsāra, until liberation from the death and rebirth cycle.  Each birth begins with karma, and these actions leave a karmic signature on one's soul which influences future rebirths.  However, they believe God’s grace can liberate them from the endless cycle of reincarnating.  The way out of the reincarnation cycle is to live an ethical life, devote yourself to God and constantly remember God in your daily life.

Taoist manuscripts from the Han dynasty said that Lao Tzu appeared on earth as different persons in different times beginning in the era of Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.  In the third century BC, Chuang Tzu states, "Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end.  There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without a starting point.  Existence without limitation is Space.  Continuity without a starting point is Time. There is birth, there is death, there is issuing forth, there is entering in." 

A Chinese researcher recently discovered that 25% of Chinese Christians in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are convinced about reincarnation, which they closely tie into their adherence to ancestor reverence. 

Within Japanese Zen philosophy, reincarnation is accepted by some but rejected by others.  Folk Zen, practiced by religious lay people, generally accepts the various supernatural elements of Buddhism such as rebirth.  Philosophical Zen differs in that it emphasizes the present moment. 

SEEKING PROVEN CASES OF REINCARNATION

With so many cultures believing, researchers have been looking for proof and there have been cases that defy logic.

Over a period of 40 years, psychiatrist Ian Stevenson, from the University of Virginia, recorded case studies of young children who claimed to remember past lives.  Others followed his footsteps and together they formed a database.  The case data collected by researchers affiliated with the Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS) at the University of Virginia have been coded with more than 200 variables and put into the database for statistical analyses. 

More than 2,500 cases have been studied, and their specifications have been published and preserved in the archives of the DOPS.  A whopping 68% of the cases are considered, “solved” because there was enough evidence to suggest their reality.  There are 3 historical cases that are famous for their detailed accounts.

Born on December 11, 1926, in Delhi, India, Shanti Devi is one of the most well-documented cases of reincarnation.  Devi was born less than a year after the death of her past life self, Lugdi Devi, who died on October 4, 1925.  Sture Lönnerstrand, a Swedish author and critic, studied Devi’s case and brought it to the western world.  “Shanti Devi’s reincarnation case is the only fully explained and proven case of reincarnation there has been,” he stated at the time. 

At the tender age of 4, she told her parents that her home was in Mathura (a town 160 km from New Delhi) and that she was married.  She told her mother that her mother was someone else and looked different.  She also refused to eat her family’s non-vegetarian diet.  Then at school, her principal noticed she was using Mathura dialect and not only named her husband, “Kedarnath Chobay,” but also stated that she had a son.  Expecting no reply, the principal wrote a letter to her supposed husband.  To his shock, Chobay replied. 

Devi was then taken to meet her husband and immediately not only recognized him, but also her son.  She went on to tell him in detail about their lives together, including where she had hidden some money.  Devi was accurate on every account.  She became such a popular figure that she was adopted by Mahatma Ghandi.  Lönnerstrand interviewed all the living participants in the case and confirmed that her story was true.

Born on April 10, 1998, in San Francisco, James Lieninger had violent memories of a past life.  Beginning at the age of 4, Leininger made statements and demonstrated behaviors that suggested he remembered the life of an American pilot killed during World War II.  He started having vivid nightmares about plane crashes and would wake up screaming, “Airplane crash!” “Plane on fire!” 

Several of his accurate statements were documented before the previous personality was identified, making him part of the limited number of cases that include such records.  In addition, he demonstrated knowledge about events from 50 years before he was born. 

Leininger gave details that included the name of an American aircraft carrier, the first and last name of a friend who was on the ship with him, and a location along with other specifics about the fatal crash.  His father Bruce Lieninger was able to find that James’s past life personality was a young pilot named James M. Huston, Jr, who had died in a plane crash during World War II.

The Leininger’s found that James Huston had a sister, Anne Barron, who was still alive and living in California.  They contacted her and she validated specific details Leininger recalled of James Huston’s family life, details only Anne Barron knew.  After speaking with James, she became convinced that he was the reincarnation of her brother James Huston Jr.  

Takeharu was born on May 12, 2012, in Hiroshima, Japan.  Like Leininger, Takeharu claimed to have fought in the Second World War and have been killed in a battle.  He had knowledge about the battleship Yamato where he had been a soldier.  Takeharu also had a phobia of water and would act out in play the crucial scene of the battle in which he claimed to have died.

He displayed unusual skills like performing a dance he said he knew in the past life but had never learned in the present one.  He also exhibited xenoglossy, where he could speak a language that he claimed to have spoken in his past life but never learned in the present. Takeharu’s past life personality was not conclusive, but he presented enough documented information that his case was considered solved.

Reincarnation can be viewed as evidence of the survival of consciousness since there are thousands of reported cases with striking similarities and synchronicities between a deceased person and the believed reincarnated one.

Although reincarnation remains a mystery, renowned physicist Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf, concluded that Stevenson’s work had established that, “The statistical probability that reincarnation does in fact occur is so overwhelming that cumulatively the evidence is not inferior to that for most if not all branches of science.”