Ian Stevenson

Ian Pretyman Stevenson, MD, (October 31, 1918–February 8, 2007) was a Canadian biochemist and professor of psychiatry. Until his retirement in 2002, he was head of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia, one of a small number of academic facilities around the world that study the paranormal. Stevenson was known for his study of reincarnation, which he termed the survival of the personality after death. He traveled extens... more

Ian Pretyman Stevenson, MD, (October 31, 1918–February 8, 2007) was a Canadian biochemist and professor of psychiatry. Until his retirement in 2002, he was head of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia, one of a small number of academic facilities around the world that study the paranormal. Stevenson was known for his study of reincarnation, which he termed the survival of the personality after death. He traveled extensively for 40 years to investigate 3,000 childhood cases that suggested to him the possibility of past lives. Stevenson saw reincarnation as an explanation for a range of phobias and unusual abilities, although he never suggested a physical process by which a personality might survive death. He studied topics such as near-death experiences and apparitions (death-bed visions), as well as more mainstream topics such as tissue oxidation, psychosomatic medicine, the mind-body dichotomy and psychedelic drugs. Stevenson's work tended to polarize... less