James G. Matlock, PhD, an anthropologist, is coauthor (with Erlendur Haraldsson) of I Saw a Light and Came Here: Children’s Experiences of Reincarnation. He is a regular contributor to the online Psi Encyclopedia sponsored by the Society for Psychical Research in London. He has authored dozens of academic papers concerning reincarnation and related areas.

Here he describes his own theoretical model of the reincarnation process — based on empirical data. He suggests, in agreement with F.W.H. Myers, that the stream of consciousness contains both a supraliminal and a subliminal component. This consciousness can exist independent of the physical body. It interacts with the body through psychokinesis. Reincarnation, then, occurs through a process akin to possession.

(Recorded on November 14, 2017)

Published on June 5, 2018