https://factslegend.

org/30-interesting-shanti-devi-reincarnation-facts/
30 Interesting Shanti Devi Reincarnation Facts
written by Sankalan Baidya April 18, 2015

We often come across claims of reincarnation from almost everywhere in this world but the most
authentic case to be ever recorded was that of Shanti Devi of India. The case went viral with years of
its surfacing and many national and international scholars investigated the case, eventually
concluding that whatever Shanti Devi claimed was indeed true. So, here are 30 interesting Shanti
Devi reincarnation facts that will amaze you if you believe in rebirth.

Interesting Shanti Devi Reincarnation Facts: 1-10

1. Shanti Devi was born on December 11, 1926 in a little known town of Delhi. She did not speak
much until she reached the age of 4 but otherwise she was just a normal girl like any other in the
locality.
2. At the age of four, the little girl started claiming that the home where she lived was not her real
home and that her parents were not her real parents. She even claimed that her name was Lugdi and
not Shanti Devi.
3. Shanti Devi even claimed that she was married and had a son with her husband. She said that her
husband lived in Mathura (145 kilometers from Delhi) but never uttered his name.
4. Shanti Devi told that not only was she married but that she died 10 days after child birth.
5. She even said that her husband was a cloth merchant and that his shop was located right in front of
Dwarkadhish Temple.
6. That little girl even mentioned three distinctive features of her husband. She said that her husband
wore reading glasses, had a wart on left cheek and was a fair skinned man.
7. During meals at her home, she used to tell her parents that at her Mathura home she used to eat
different kinds of sweets.
8. She often narrated the types of dresses she used to wear at her home in Mathura. These incidents
disturbed her parents who sought help from family physician. At this stage, she was only 6 years old.
9. When the physician met her, Shanti Devi narrated everything that happened till her death after
childbirth and that included the complicated surgical procedures she underwent.
10. The physician was left absolutely stunned by the detailed narration unable to figure out how a little
girl like her would even know about such complicated surgical procedures.
Interesting Shanti Devi Reincarnation Facts: 11-20
11. Shanti Devi uttered her husband’s name for the first time only when she was 9 years old. She did
not speak his name because it was customary in India not to utter husband’s name even when
specifically asked.
12. A teacher named Babu Bishanchand from Ramjas High School Daryaganj, who was also a distant
relative of Shanti Devi, lured her into saying her husband’s named stating that he would take Shanti
Devi to Mathura only if she told him her husband’s name.
13. Shanti Devi whispered into Bishanchand’s ears that her husband’s name was Pandit Kedar Nath
Chaube. Bishanchand wrote a letter to Pandit Kedar Nath Chaube detailing everything and requested
Kedar Nath to visit Delhi. To this, Kedar Nath replied that whatever Shanti Devi had said was true and
that his wife Ludgi indeed died 10 days after childbirth.
14. Kedar Nath also said in the reply that Pandit Kanjimal – one of his relatives lived in Delhi and
should be allowed to meet Shanti Devi.
15. Pandit Kanjimal personally met Shanti Devi and was surprised to find the amount of details she
gave about Kedar Nath. Thus, he (Kanjimal) arranged for Shanti Devi’s and Kedar Nath’s meeting.
Kedar Nath did come along with his and Ludgi’s son and his present wife.
16. Kedar Nath was however posed as elder brother of himself but Shanti Devi recognized him
immediately and also his son Navneet Lal and even pointed out to her mother the fair color of Kedar
Nath and the wart on his left cheek.
17. During Kedar Nath’s stay in Delhi, Shanti Devi instructed her mother to make pumpkin squash and
parathas stuffed with potatoes as they were Kedar Nath’s favorite. To this Kedar Nath was completely
left speechless as they were indeed his favorite food.
18. To be completely convinced, Kedar Nath asked Shanti Devi to say something very unusual. To
this, Shanti Devi spoke of a well in Kedar Nath’s home’s courtyard where she (Lugdi) used to take
bath.
19. Shanti Devi even asked Kedar Nath why he remarried because he promised her (Lugdi) during
death that he would not remarry. To this Kedar Nath was left with absolutely no answer.
20. Kedar Nath even asked for spending some time alone with Shanti Devi before retiring for night. It
was after that night that he completely accepted that Shanti Devi was indeed the reincarnation of
Lugdi.
Interesting Shanti Devi Reincarnation Facts: 21-30
21. Later investigations revealed that that night Kedar Nath asked Shanti Devi how she became
pregnant even when she was unable to get up because of arthritis. To this Shanti Devi explained the
entire process of intercourse to Kedar Nath.
22. Shanti Devi’s news spread like wildfire and reached Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi appointed 15
prominent people including parliamentarians, media members and national leaders for investigating
the case.
23. These 15 people took Shanti Devi to Mathura. On the station, she was show a stranger from
Mathura and was asked if she could recognize him. She immediately touched his feet and recognized
him as her husband’s elder brother, who he actually was.
24. On their way to Kedar Nath’s home, Shanti Devi spoke of changes that took place in Mathura after
her death and all turned out to be true when inquired with local people.
25. On reaching home, Shanti Devi immediately recognized her father-in-law in the midst of a crowd.
She even recognized several of her items, her bedroom and event took the investigators to a different
house where she and Kedar Nath lived separately for a few years after marriage.
26. She even answered several questions which involved words only known to Chaubes of Mathura
used and no one outside Chaube clan would normally know those words.
27. Shanti Devi was also asked to take the investigators to the well she spoke of in Delhi. She did
take them there but found nothing and was surprised. Kedar Nath then revealed the well by removing
a piece of large stone.
28. Eventually after a lot of probing and questioning, the researchers declared that Shanti Devi was
actually the reincarnation of Lugdi.
29. Soon, Shanti Devi’s case received international exposure and many scholars, saints, critics and
researchers came to find out the truth.
30. One of the prominent Swedish critics of those days named Sture Lonnerstrand came down to
India with an intention to prove the entire story to be hoax but eventually after his investigation, he
explicitly accepted the fact and said that Shanti Devi’s case was the only proven case of reincarnation
he came across.

Sources for above:

https://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/hinduism/2002/06/i-have-lived-before-the-reincarnation-of-shanti-
devi.aspx#

"I Have Lived Before": The Reincarnation of Shanti Devi

The most thoroughly researched reincarnation case in history backs up Hindu beliefs
about past lives.
Excerpted with permission of Pearson Education Company.

Shanti Devi, a girl growing up in Delhi in the 1930s, spoke very little until she was four
years old. When she did start talking, she alarmed everyone in her family. "This is not my
real home! I have a husband and a son in Mathura! I must return to them!"

This was India, so instead of taking their daughter to a psychiatrist for a dose of Ritalin, her
parents told her, "That was then. This is now. Forget your past life. You're with us this
time."
But Shanti Devi wouldn't give up. She talked about her former family to anyone who would
listen. One of her teachers at school sent a letter to the address Shanti Devi gave as her
"real home" in Mathura, inquiring if a woman who had died there not too many years ago.
To his astonishment, he soon received a reply from Shanti Devi's previous husband,
admitting that his young wife Lugdi Devi had passed away some years previously, after
giving birth to their son. The details Shanti Devi had given about her old house and
members of her previous family were all confirmed.
This launched the most thoroughly researched investigation of a case of reincarnation in
modern history. Everyone got in on the act, including Mahatma Gandhi and several
prominent Indian members of the Indian government. A team of researchers, working
under stringent conditions to ensure that Shanti Devi couldn't possibly be getting her
information from any other source, accompanied the little girl to Mathura. On her own, she
was able to lead them to her previous home, and correctly described what it had looked like
years earlier before its recent refurbishing. She was also able to relate extremely intimate
information, such as extramarital affairs of family members, that no one outside the family
could possibly have known.
The award-winning Swedish journalist Sture Lonnerstrand spent several weeks with Shanti
Devi later in her life, recording her story and verifying information about the famous
government investigation.
Why Don't I Remember?
I know you're thinking, "If we lived before, how come we don't remember?" Shanti Devi
may have recalled her previous life, but most of us sure don't.
Actually we do, according to the Hindus. The very fact that we're drawn to a certain people
and certain places is a reflection of the dim memory of pervious lives we all possess. The
fact that most of us don't remember our last life in detail like Shanti Devi is due to the
nature of the soul.
In the West, those of us who believe in a soul at all think of it in very straightforward way.
There's the body. It dies. There's the soul. It lives forever. For Hindus the topic is not so
simple. Hindus believe the universe is multidimensional, and so is the soul.
***
At the moment of rebirth, Hindus believe, the infant takes its first gulp of air and becomes a
breathing being. This jolts the brain and subtle body, causing a force called vaishnava
shakti to act. In most people, it cuts off detailed memories of the past life.
In fact, it also cuts off detailed memories of this life, which is why people don't' remember
much of what happened in the first three or four years of their current life either. The soul is
still completing its "hook up" to the new physical brain, and not all the data from the
previous file is downloaded. It's still there though, preserved in an internal drive called
the karmashaya, a storage bin of previous thoughts and actions that's a little hard for us to
access because it's buried deep in the subtle body, not the physical brain.
Presence of Mind
I'm guessing your next question is, "Well, then how did Shanti Devi remember her past
life?" This gets interesting.
Perhaps you've heard of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Numbers of ancient, spiritually
advanced cultures carefully trained people so they would know how to go through the
process of death consciously. Often-as in the Egyptian texts and some Gnostic Christian
books, too-this involved memorizing lots of key phrases and detailed imagery.
The point in all these traditions is that if you don't want to lose yourself, if you want to
attain the type of immortality that comes from the ability to hang on to your present identity
from life to life, then during the process of death you must keep your presence of mind!
Lugdi Devi, Shanti Devi's previous self, had been using an old trick recommended by yogis
for thousands of years. During her Lugdi life she had kept repeating the name of God
constantly, with full devotion, day and night. At the time of her death, her mind stayed with
the divine name. It helped her remain calm and alert through a process when most people
lose consciousness. As she was being reborn, her awareness remained with the name of
God rather than locking into her new physical brain. So she didn't forget her previous
identity.
What's My Karma?
The process of reincarnation is driven by karma. Where, when, and in what circumstances
we next reincarnate is due, in large measure, to our thoughts, words, and actions in the past
and present.
To be reborn in a human body is a great blessing. Human bodies, far more so than animal
and plant bodies, are capable of devoting themselves to the spiritual life.
We can lose our human status, Hindu sages warn. If we don't take advantage of our human
birth but continue living like animals, we may return an animal body in our next life.
Particularly pernicious people, one holy text warns, could even be reborn as "flies, gnats,
and biting insects"!
Don't assume that reincarnation takes place in linear time. To the Hindu, time and space are
multidimensional. According to a Hindu classic called the Yoga Vasishtha, your next
incarnation, or your last incarnation for that matter, may be happening right now. Your next
life may actually occur in the past! This is because your innermost spirit exists outside of
time and space, and can travel to wherever and to whenever it wants.
https://www.carolbowman.com/dr-ian-stevenson/case-shanti-devi/
C A R O L B O W M A N , PA S T L I F E T H E R A P Y
BY DR. K.S. RAWAT
Shanti Devi is one of the best cases of children's past life memories to ever be recorded. It was
investigated by a committee of prominent citizens appointed by Mahatma Gandhi, who accompanied
Shanti Devi to the village of her past-life recollections and recorded what they witnessed.

This article is reprinted with permission from the March/April, 1997 issue of Venture Inward
Magazine, the magazine of the A.R.E., (the Edgar Cayce research organization). It was written by Dr.
K.S.Rawat, a Stevenson-style researcher based in India. Dr. Rawat is a frequent contributor to the Past
Life Forum, and welcomes comments.

People hear of many cases of reincarnation these days, but in the early 30s, information about a girl
born in a little-known locality of Delhi, who claimed to remember a past life, was considered great
news indeed. The girl at first was known only to the local people, but gradually news of her spread all
over the country and finally all over the world. It was natural that the world should wonder about the
authenticity of her story.

Shanti Devi, born in 1926, was the subject of speculation all of her life. In 1985 questions were even
raised about her existence in a special issue on reincarnation in a prominent weekly English journal of
India. This dismayed me that someone would raise such doubts without conducting a proper study. In
February 1986, I had gone to Delhi to meet Ian Stevenson, the leading expert in reincarnation research
from the University of Virginia. Dr. Stevenson had already investigated her case, so I showed him the
article. A few days later I met Shanti Devi and spent about an hour and half with her. Later, I
interviewed many people connected with the case at Delhi, Mathura, and Jaipurand, including Shanti
Devi's relatives in this life and from her past life as Lugdi Bai. I also examined the books and articles
published on Shanti Devi from time to time, besides several reports prepared on her by eminent
scholars. This is her story, perhaps the most famous reincarnation case on record.

On January 18, 1902, Chaturbhuj, a resident of Mathura, was blessed with a daughter, who was named
Lugdi. When Lugdi reached the age of 10, she was married to Kedarnath Chaube, a shopkeeper of the
same locality. It was the second marriage for Kedarnath, as his earlier wife had died. Kedarnath
Chaube owned a cloth shop in Mathura and also a branch shop at Hardwar. Lugdi was very religious
and had been to several pilgrimage places at a very young age. While on one pilgrimage, she was
injured in her leg for which she had to be treated, both at Mathura and later at Agra.

When Lugdi became pregnant for the first time, her child was stillborn following a Cesarean section.
For her second pregnancy, the worried husband took her to the government hospital at Agra, where a
son was born, again through a Cesarean on September 25, 1925. Nine days later, however, on October
4, Lugdi's condition deteriorated and she died.

One year ten months and seven days after Lugdi's death, on December 11, 1926, Babu Rang Bahadur
Mathur of Chirawala Mohulla, a small locality of Delhi, was blessed with a daughter, whom they
named Shanti Devi. She was just like any other girl except that until the age of four she did not speak
much. But when she started talking, she was a different girl--she talked about her "husband" and her
"children."

She said that her husband was in Mathura where he owned a cloth shop and they had a son. She called
herself Chaubine (Chaube's wife). The parents considered it a child's fantasy and took no notice. They
got worried, however, when she talked repeatedly about it and, over time, narrated a number of
incidents connected with her life in Mathura with her husband. On occasions at meals, she would say,
"In my house in Mathura, I ate different kinds of sweets." Sometimes when her mother was dressing
her, she would tell what type of dresses she used to wear. She mentioned three distinctive features
about her husband: he was fair, had a big wart on his left cheek, and wore reading glasses. She also
mentioned that her husband's shop was located in front of Dwarkadhish temple.

By this time Shanti Devi was six years old, and her parents were perplexed and worried by such
statements. The girl even gave a detailed account of her death following childbirth. They consulted
their family physician, who was amazed how a little girl narrated so many details of the complicated
surgical procedures. The mystery, thus, continued to deepen. The parents started thinking that these
memories might have been of a past life.

Shanti Devi as an adult

As the girl grew older, she persisted in asking her parents to be taken to
Mathura. She, however, never mentioned her husband's name up to the
age of eight or nine. It is customary in India that wives do not utter the
name of their husbands. Even when specifically asked, she would blush
and say that she would recognize him, if taken there, but would not say
his name. One day a distant relation, Babu Bishanchand, a teacher in
 Ramjas High School Daryaganj in Delhi, told Shanti Devi that if she
told him her husband's name, he would take her to Mathura. Lured by
this offer, she whispered into his ear the name Pandit Kedarnath
Chaube. Bishanchand then told her that he would arrange for the trip to
Mathura after due inquiries. He wrote a letter to Pandit Kedarnath
Chaube, detailing all the statements made by Shanti Devi, and asked
him to visit Delhi. Kedarnath replied confirming most of her statements
and suggested that one of his relatives, Pandit Kanjimal, who lived in
Delhi, be allowed to meet this girl.

A meeting with Kanjimal was arranged, during which Shanti Devi recognized him as her husband's
cousin. She gave some details about her house in Mathura and informed him of the location where she
had buried some money. When asked whether she could go by herself from the railway station to her
house in Mathura, she replied in the affirmative, if they would take her there.

Kanjimal was so impressed that he went to Mathura to persuade Kedarnath to visit Delhi. Kedarnath
came to Delhi on November 12, 1935, with Lugdi's son Navneet Lal and his present wife. They went
to Rang Bahadur's house the next day. To mislead Shanti Devi, Kanjimal introduced Kedarnath as the
latter's elder brother. Shanti Devi blushed and stood on one side. Someone asked why she was blushing
in front of her husband's elder brother. Shanti said in a low firm voice, "No, he is not my husband's
brother. He is my husband himself." Then she addressed her mother, "Didn't I tell you that he is fair
and he has a wart on the left side cheek near his ear?"

She then asked her mother to prepare meals for the guests. When the mother asked what should she
prepare, she said that he was fond of stuffed potato parathas and pumpkin squash. Kedarnath was
dumbfounded as these were his favorite dishes. Then Kedarnath asked whether she could tell them
anything unusual to establish full faith in her. Shanti replied, "Yes, there is a well in the courtyard of
our house, where I used to take my bath."

Shanti was emotionally overwhelmed on seeing Navneet, the son in her previous life. Tears welled in
her eyes when she hugged him. She asked her mother to bring all her toys and give them to Navneet.
But she was too excited to wait for her mother to act and ran to bring them. Kedarnath asked her how
she had recognized Navneet as her son, when she had seen him only once as an infant before she died.
Shanti explained that her son was a part of her soul and the soul is able to easily recognize this fact.

After dinner, Shanti asked Kedarnath, "Why did you marry her?" referring to his present wife. "Had
we not decided that you will not remarry?" Kedarnath had no reply.

During his stay at Delhi, Kedarnath found Shanti Devi's behavior similar to that of Lugdi in many
ways. Before retiring for the night, he asked to be allowed to talk with her alone and later said that he
was fully convinced that Shanti Devi was his wife Lugdi Bai because there were many things she had
mentioned which no one except Lugdi could have known.

Shanti Devi became upset before Kedarnath's return to Mathura on November 15. She begged to be
allowed to go to Mathura with him but her parents refused.
Her story spread all over the country through the media and many intellectuals got interested in it.
When Mahatma Gandhi heard about it, he called Shanti Devi, talked to her, and then requested her to
stay in his ashram. (When I interviewed Shanti Devi in 1986, she still remembered the incident.)

Gandhi appointed a committee of 15 prominent people, including parliamentarians, national leaders,

and members from the media, to study the case. The committee persuaded her parents to allow her to
accompany them to Mathura. They left by rail with Shanti Devi on November 24, 1935. The
committee's report describes some of what happened:

"As the train approached Mathura, she became flushed with joy and remarked that by the time they
reach Mathura the doors of the temple of Dwarkadhish would be closed. Her exact language
was,'Mandir ke pat band ho jayenge,' so typically used in Mathura.

"The first incident which attracted our attention on reaching Mathura happened on the platform itself.
The girl was in L. Deshbandhu's arms. He had hardly gone 15 paces when an older man, wearing a
typical Mathura dress, whom she had never met before, came in front of her, mixed in the small crowd,
and paused for a while. She was asked whether she could recognize him. His presence reacted so
quickly on her that she at once came down from Mr. Gupta's lap and touched the stranger's feet with
deep veneration and stood aside. On inquiring, she whispered in L. Deshbandhu's ear that the person
was her 'Jeth' (older brother of her husband). All this was so spontaneous and natural that it left
everybody stunned with surprise. The man was Babu Ram Chaubey, who was really the elder brother
of Kedarnath Chaubey."

The committee members took her in a tonga, instructing the driver to follow her directions. On the way
she described the changes that had taken place since her time, which were all correct. She recognized
some of the important landmarks which she had mentioned earlier without having been there.

As they neared the house, she got down from the tonga and noticed an elderly person in the crowd. She
immediately bowed to him and told others that he was her father-in-law, and truly it was so. When she
reached the front of her house, she went in without any hesitation and was able to locate her bedroom.
She also recognized many items of hers. She was tested by being asked where the "jajroo" (lavatory)
was, and she told where it was. She was asked what was meant by "katora." She correctly said that it
meant paratha (a type of fried pancake). Both words are prevalent only in the Chaubes of Mathura and
no outsider would normally know of them.

Shanti then asked to be taken to her other house where she had lived with Kedarnath for several years.
She guided the driver there without any difficulty. One of the committee members, Pandit Neki Ram
Sharma, asked her about the well of which she had talked in Delhi. She ran in one direction; but, not
finding a well there, she was confused. Even then she said with some conviction that there was a well
there. Kedarnath removed a stone at that spot and, sure enough, they found a well. As for the buried
money, Shanti Devi took the party to the second floor and showed them a spot where they found a
flower pot but no money. The girl, however, insisted that the money was there. Kedarnath later
confessed that he had taken out the money after Lugdi's death.

When she was taken to her parents' home, where at first she identified her aunt as her mother, but soon
corrected her mistake, she went to sit in her lap. She also recognized her father. The mother and
daughter wept openly at their meeting. It was a scene which moved everybody there.
Shanti Devi was then taken to Dwarkadhish temple and to other places she had talked of earlier and
almost all her statements were verified to be correct.

The publication of the committee's report attracted worldwide attention. Many learned personalities,
including saints, parapsychologists, and philosophers came to study the case, some in support and
some as critics trying to prove it a hoax.

I met Shanti Devi, first in February 1986 and then in December 1987, and interviewed her in detail
about her past-life memories and her recollections at Mathura. I also interviewed her younger brother,
Viresh Narain Mathur, who had accompanied her to Mathura on her first visit. Then I went to Mathura
and asked her various relatives to describe when Shanti Devi first visited them at the age of nine. I also
interrogated a close friend of Kedarnath who gave me some explicit information about the way
Kedarnath became convinced that Shanti was actually his wife in her past life.

Lugdi's brother told me that Shanti Devi, after seeing some women there, remembered her old friends
and inquired about them. Similarly, Lugdi's sister informed me that Shanti Devi told a number of
womenfolk about Lugdi having lent them some money, which they accepted as true. Shanti's emotional
reactions on meeting relatives from her previous life were very significant. The manner in which she
burst into tears on meeting the parents of her past life moved everyone present there. The committee
mentioned in their report that it was a blessing that the past lives are forgotten. They felt that by
bringing Shanti Devi to Mathura they had taken a big responsibility, and we had to forcibly separate
her from the parents she had in the previous life.

During my investigations, a friend of Kedarnath, 72-year-old Pandit Ramnath Chaube, told me of a

very significant event, which I confirmed from other sources. When Kedarnath was in Delhi to meet
Shanti Devi, he stayed at Pandit Ramnath Chaube's place for one night. Everyone had gone to retire,
and only Kedarnath, his wife, his son Navneet, and Shanti were in the room; Navneet was fast asleep.
Kedarnath asked Shanti that when she was suffering from arthritis and could not get up, how did she
become pregnant. She described the whole process of intercourse with him, which left Kedarnath in no
doubt that Shanti was his wife Lugdi in her previous life.

When I mentioned this incident to Shanti Devi during my interview with her, she said, "Yes, that is
what fully convinced him."

Shanti Devi's case is also significant for the fact that it is one of the most thoroughly investigated
cases, studied by hundreds of researchers, critics, scholars, saints, and eminent public figures from all
parts of India and abroad from the mid-1930s on.

One critic, Sture Lonnerstrand, when he heard of this case, came all the way from Sweden to expose
the "fake," as he thought it to be, but after investigation wrote, "This is the only fully explained and
proven case of reincarnation there has been." I don't agree completely with Lonnerstrand--there are
many more cases just as amazing as this one.

I close my story of Shanti Devi with the remarks of Dr. Ian Stevenson, leading authority on
reincarnation, who said: "I also interviewed Shanti Devi, her father, and other pertinent witnesses,
including Kedarnath, the husband claimed in her previous life. My research indicates that she made at
least 24 statements of her memories that matched the verified facts."
If not proof, it is certainly strongly suggestive of reincarnation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanti_Devi

Shanti Devi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shanti Devi (11 December 1926 – 27 December 1987) was an Indian woman who claimed to remember
her past life, and became the subject of reincarnation research. A commission set up by the Indian political
leader Mahatma Gandhi supported her claim, while another report by researcher Bal Chand Nahata
disputed it. Subsequently, several other researchers interviewed her, and published articles and books
about her.

Reincarnation claim[edit]
Shanti Devi was born in Delhi, India.[1] As a little girl in the 1930s, she began to claim to remember details
of a past life. According to these accounts, when she was about four years old, she told her parents that
her real home was in Mathura where her husband lived, about 145 km from her home in Delhi.
Discouraged by her parents, she ran away from home at age six, trying to reach Mathura. Back home, she
stated in school that she was married and had died ten days after having given birth to a child. Interviewed
by her teacher and headmaster, she used words from the Mathura dialect and divulged the name of her
merchant husband, "Kedar Nath". The headmaster located a merchant by that name in Mathura who had
lost his wife, Lugdi Devi, nine years earlier, ten days after having given birth to a son. Kedar Nath traveled
to Delhi, pretending to be his own brother, but Shanti Devi immediately recognized him and Lugdi Devi's
son. As she knew several details of Kedar Nath's life with his wife, he was soon convinced that Shanti Devi
was indeed the reincarnation of Lugdi Devi.[2]
The case was brought to the attention of Mahatma Gandhi who set up a commission to investigate. The
commission traveled with Shanti Devi to Mathura, arriving on 15 November 1935. There she recognized
several family members, including the grandfather of Lugdi Devi. She found out that Kedar Nath had
neglected to keep a number of promises he had made to Lugdi Devi on her deathbed. She then traveled
home with her parents. The commission's report, published in 1936, concluded that Shanti Devi was
indeed the reincarnation of Lugdi Devi.[2]
Two further reports were written at the time. The report by Bal Chand Nahata was published as a Hindi
booklet by the name Punarjanma Ki Paryalochana. In this, he stated that "'Whatever material that has
come before us, does not warrant us to conclude that Shanti Devi has 'former life recollections or that this
case proves reincarnation".[3] This argument was disputed by Indra Sen in an article later.[4] A further report,
based on interviews conducted in 1936, was published in 1952.[5]
Shanti Devi did not marry. She told her story again at the end of the 1950s, and once more in 1986 when
she was interviewed by Ian Stevenson and K.S. Rawat. In this interview she also related her near death
experiences when Lugdi Devi died.[1] K.S. Rawat continued his investigations in 1987, and the last
interview took place only four days before her death on 27 December 1987.[6] A Swedish author who had
visited her twice published a book about the case in 1994; the English translation appeared in 1998.[7]

References[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to:a b K. S. Rawat; T. Rivas (July 2005), "The Life Beyond: Through the eyes of Children who
Claim to Remember Previous Lives", The Journal of Religion and Psychical Research, 28 (3): 126–136,
archived from the original on 2012-05-25
2. ^ Jump up to:a b L. D. Gupta, N. R. Sharma, T. C. Mathur, An Inquiry into the Case of Shanti Devi,
International Aryan League, Delhi, 1936
3. ^ Nahata, Bal Chand. Punarjanma Ki Paryyalochana. Calcutta: Buddiwadi Songh. (Undated.)
4. ^ Sen, Indra. "Shantidevi Further Investigated". Proceedings of the India Philosophical Congress. 1938
5. ^ Bose, Suskil C. A Case of Reincarnation, Calcutta: Satsang, 1952
6. ^ "After Life Death: fact or Fiction". Sunday Post (Kathmandu Post). 14 April 2002.
 7. ^ Sture Lönnerstrand, Shanti Devi: En berättelse om reinkarnation. Stockholm 1994. English translation: I
Have Lived Before: The True Story of the Reincarnation of Shanti Devi, Ozark Mountain Publishing,
1998. ISBN 1-886940-03-7

https://mysteriousfacts.com/kalpana-chawla-reborn-in-india/

Kalpana Chawla Reborn in India?

Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian-American astronaut and the first Indian-born woman in
space. She was killed with her crew members in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster on February
1, 2003.

Four years later, in 2007 a four-year-old girl claimed that she was Kalpana Chawla and she had
died up in the sky. About 35 km’s away from Khurja, is a small village called Nar Mohammadpur
in Uttar Pradesh, India.

In 2007, little Upasana was 4 years old when she visited her relatives at this place. There, she saw
a photograph of Kalpana Chawla with Sunita Williams published in a newspaper.

Immediately she pointed to Kalpana Chawla’s photo and went around telling everybody that it
was her picture. The family and the village residents were shocked.

Upasana’s parents then shared their experiences with her, which made everyone believe that
Upasana could be Kalpana Chawla reborn.

Upasana was born in Pata village from Etawah district in India to an illiterate couple who worked
as daily wage laborers. She was born in March 2003, exactly 2 months after the death of Kalpana
Chawla.

When Upasana started talking, she would point to the sky and say that the planes were coming
to kill her. Then, she said that her name was Kalpana Chawla and she lived in America.
She told everyone that she had a big house and lots of money in the banks in America.
Upasana’s illiterate parents did not know who Kalpana Chawla was. They thought that Upasana
had probably heard somewhere and was making up stories.

After a few months, she started telling her parents that her father’s name was Banarsi Das
Chawla and mother was Rekha or Rakhi. She said that she wanted to go to Chandigarh where
her house was.

Her parents ignored her talks. When Upasana pointed to Kalpana Chawla’s photograph,
everything seemed to relate. The family then tested her again. They showed a number of
photographs with a few of Kalpana Chawla. Upasana picked up all Kalpana Chawla’s pictures and
said this was her.

Upasana also told the story of her death. She said that a huge ball of ice had hit her spacecraft
which then crashed and killed her. Along with the names of Kalpana Chawla’s parents, Upasana
also recalled the names of her mentors and professors.

Another story of reincarnation. It is very difficult to believe. But then the question arises how
would a four-year-old from an illiterate family who had never owned a TV, know about an
astronaut, her name, her parents and her mentors in NASA?

https://www.rd.com/article/chilling-reincarnation-stories/
RD.COM TRUE STORIES
Chilling Reincarnation Stories: Meet 6 People Who Lived
Before
Lauren Cahn Updated: Mar. 26, 2019
Professor Jim Tucker thinks that past lives are possible. Here are startling
accounts of children who may have been reincarnated.

“When I was your age, I changed your diaper,” said the dark-haired boy to his father. Ron looked
down at his smiling son, who had not yet turned two. He thought it was a very strange thing to say, but
he figured he had misheard him.

But as baby Sam made similar remarks over the next few months, Ron and his wife, Cathy, gradually
pieced together an odd story: Sam believed that he was his deceased grandfather, Ron’s late father,
who had returned to his family. More intrigued than alarmed, Ron and Cathy asked Sam, “How did
you come back?”

“I just went whoosh and came out the portal,” he responded.

Although Sam was a precocious child—he’d been speaking in full sentences from the age of 18
months—his parents were stunned to hear him use a word like portal, and they encouraged him to
say more. They asked Sam if he’d had any siblings, and he replied that he’d had a sister who “turned
into a fish.”
“Who turned her into a fish?”

“Some bad guys. She died.”

Eerily enough, Sam’s grandfather had a sister who had been murdered 60 years earlier; her body was
found floating in San Francisco Bay. Ron and Cathy then gently asked Sam, “Do you know how you
died?”

Sam jerked back and slapped the top of his head as if in pain. One year before Sam was born, his
grandfather had died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Is reincarnation real?
Thirty-three percent of Americans (including 29 percent of Christians) think it is, and some 10 percent
of them report being able to recall their own past lives. The Dr. Oz Show has hosted Dr. Tucker as
well as Dr. Eben Alexander, another medical doctor who believes in reincarnation, and there are
several reality TV series on the topic of reincarnation that have aired in recent years, including Life,
Death and Reincarnation, (extraordinary cases studies of people who recollect past lives), The Ghost
Inside My Child (children with past-life memories), and Who Was I: My Past Lives, (a hypnotherapist
guides people through life regressions that lead towards astonishing revelations). These are some of
the signs you may have lived a past life.

Why this fascination? Part of reincarnation’s appeal has to do with its hopeful underlying promise: that
we can do better in our next lives. “With reincarnation, there is always another opportunity,” explains
Stafford Betty, a professor of religious studies at California State University, Bakersfield, and the
author of The Afterlife Unveiled. “The universe takes on a merciful hue. It’s a great improvement over
the doctrine of eternal hell.”

Yet despite the popular interest, few scientists give reincarnation much credence. They regard it as a
field filled with charlatans, scams, and tall tales of having once been royalty.

Reincarnation is “an intriguing psychological phenomenon,” says Christopher C. French, a professor

of psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London, who heads a unit that studies claims of
paranormal experiences. “But I think it is far more likely that such apparent memories are, in fact,
false memories rather than accurate memories of events that were experienced in a past life.”

For more than 45 years, a team at the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia
(UVA) has been collecting stories of people who can recall their past lives. And if the professors
determine that there is some merit to these memories, their findings will call into question the idea that
our humanity ends with our death.

Famous believers
“One of the most amazing and wonderful discoveries about reincarnation is
finding the large number of famous intellectuals and writers in the Western
world who have expressed a belief in reincarnation in their writings,” states
Anna Jaffin, writing for Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and
Enlightenment. These include such fine minds as the inventor, Thomas
Edison, who Jaffin quotes as having said, “The only survival I can conceive
 is to start a new Earth cycle again,” and automobile industry pioneer, Henry
Ford, who told the San Francisco Examiner in 1928 why he had adopted the
theory of reincarnation when he was 26:

HISTORIA/SHUTTERSTOCK

Work is futile if we cannot utilize the experience we collect in one life in the next. When I discovered
reincarnation it was as if I had found a universal plan….Time was no longer limited….The discovery of
Reincarnation put my mind at ease.”

“Mommy, I’m so homesick”

Among the UVA case studies is the story of an Oklahoma boy named Ryan. A few years ago, the
four-year-old woke up screaming at two in the morning. Over the preceding months, he’d been
pleading with his bewildered mother, Cyndi, to take him to the house where he’d “lived before.” In
tears, he’d beg her to return him to his glittering life in Hollywood— complete with a big house, a pool,
and fast cars—that was so fabulous, he once said, “I can’t live in these conditions. My last home was
much better.”

When Cyndi went into her son’s room that night, Ryan kept repeating the same words—”Mommy, I’m
so homesick”—as she tried to comfort him and rock him to sleep. “He was like a little old man who
couldn’t remember all the details of his life. He was so frustrated and sad,” Cyndi says.

The next morning, she went to the library, borrowed a pile of books about old Hollywood, and brought
them home. With Ryan in her lap, Cyndi went through the volumes; she was hoping the pictures might
soothe him. Instead, he became more and more excited as they looked at one particular book. When
they came to a still of a scene from a 1932 movie called Night After Night, he stopped her.

“Mama,” he shouted, pointing to one of the actors, who wasn’t identified. “That guy’s me! The old me!”

“I was shocked,” Cyndi admits. “I never thought that we’d find the person he thought he was.” But she
was equally relieved. “Ryan had talked about his other life and been so unhappy, and now we had
something to go on.”

Although neither Cyndi nor her husband believed in reincarnation, she went back to the library the
next day and checked out a book about children who possessed memories of their past lives. At the
end of it was a note from the author, professor Jim Tucker, MD, saying that he wanted to hear from
the parents of kids with similar stories. Cyndi sat down to write him a letter.

The ghost hunters

Dr. Tucker was a child psychiatrist in private practice when he heard about the reincarnation research
being conducted by Ian Stevenson, MD, founder and director of the Division of Perceptual Studies at
UVA. He was intrigued and began working with the division in 1996; six years later, when Dr.
Stevenson retired, Dr. Tucker took over as the leader of the division’s past-life research. The UVA
team has gathered more than 2,500 documented cases of children from all over the world who have
detailed memories of former lives, including that of a California toddler with a surprisingly good golf
swing who said he had once been legendary athlete Bobby Jones; a midwestern five-year-old who
shared some of the same memories and physical traits—blindness in his left eye, a mark on his neck,
a limp—as a long- deceased brother; and a girl in India who woke up one day and began speaking
fluently in a dialect she’d never heard before. Dr. Tucker describes these cases in his book Return to
Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives. Need even more proof? Check out
these chilling ghost stories that turned out to be real.

The children in the UVA collection typically began talking about their previous lives when they were
two or three years old and stopped by the age of six or seven. “That is around the same time that we
all lose our memories of early childhood,” Dr. Tucker says. When he first learns about a subject, he
checks for fraud, deliberate or unconscious, by asking two questions: “Do the parents seem credible?”
and “Could the child have picked up the memories through TV, overheard conversations, or other
ordinary means?” If he can rule out fraud, he and his team interview the child and his or her family to
get a detailed account about the previous life. Then the researchers try to find a deceased person
whose life matches the memories. This last part is essential because otherwise, the child’s story
would be just a fantasy.

Close to three-quarters of the cases investigated by the team are “solved,” meaning that a person
from the past matching the child’s memories is identified. In addition, nearly 20 percent of the kids in
the UVA cases have naturally occurring marks or impairments that match scars and injuries on the
past person. One boy who recalled being shot possessed two birthmarks—a large, ragged one over
his left eye and a small, round one on the back of his head—which lined up like a bullet’s entrance
and exit wounds.

In the case of Ryan, the boy longing for a Hollywood past, an archivist pored over books in a film
library until she found a person who appeared to be the man he’d singled out: Hollywood agent Marty
Martyn, who made an unbilled cameo in Night After Night. After Cyndi spoke with Dr. Tucker, he
interviewed Ryan, and then the family contacted Martyn’s daughter. She met with Dr. Tucker, Ryan,
and Cyndi, and along with public records, she confirmed more than 50 details that Ryan had reported
about her father’s life, from his work history to the location and contents of his home. Cyndi felt
tremendous relief when she was told that her son’s story matched Martyn’s. She says, “He wasn’t
crazy! There really was another family.”

The boy who fulfilled his past life’s destiny

BARRY SWEET/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK

Born in Seattle in 1991, Sonam Wangdu was only two years old when he realized he was actually the
fourth reincarnation of the original Tibetan lama (“lama” is the Tibetan word for “guru”), Dezhung
Rinpoche I. The realization was the culmination of a number of signs that had been accumulating
since before the boy was even born. These included the visions of his mother and her own lama, as
well as the words of the third reincarnation of Dezhung, himself (Dezhung Rinpoche III), who informed
his acolytes in 1987 (the year of his death), “I will be reborn in Seattle.”

In 1996, the boy, who by then only answered to the name, Trulku-la (which means “reincarnation”),
left his family—forever—to be raised by monks while studying Tibetan Buddhism in Kathmandu,
Nepal and eventually becoming the head of a monastery there. Arriving in Nepal, “dressed in gold and
maroon robes and riding on a luggage cart pushed by his mother, the little lama smiled
widely,” reported SeattleMet in a 2016 follow-up story tracing the boy’s journey over the past 20 years.
“When asked how long he would stay in Nepal, though, the little boy was serene, almost stoic. ‘Lots of
time,’ he said. ‘I’m just going to stay here a long time.'”

And that has proven to be true. The boy is now in his 23rd year of life as the fourth reincarnation of
Dezhung Rinpoche I.

Plane on fire!
It was TV producers who taught Dr. Tucker about the best-known recent reincarnation case study. In
2002, he was contacted to work for and appear on a show about reincarnation (the program never
aired) and was told about James Leininger, a four-year-old Louisiana boy who believed that he was
once a World War II pilot who had been shot down over Iwo Jima.

Bruce and Andrea Leininger first realized that James had these memories when he was two and woke
up from a nightmare, yelling, “Airplane crash! Plane on fire! Little man can’t get out!” He also knew
details about WWII aircraft that it would seem impossible for a toddler to know. For instance, when
Andrea referred to an object on the bottom of a toy plane as a bomb, James corrected her by saying it
was a drop tank. Another time, he and his parents were watching a History Channel documentary,
and the narrator called a Japanese plane a Zero. James insisted that it was a Tony. In both cases, he
was right.
The boy said that he had also been named James in his previous life and that he’d flown off a ship
named the Natoma. The Leiningers discovered a WWII aircraft carrier called the USS Natoma Bay. In
its squadron was a pilot named James Huston, who had been killed in action over the Pacific.

James talked incessantly about his plane crashing, and he was disturbed by nightmares a few times a
week. His desperate mother contacted past-life therapist Carol Bowman for help. Bowman told
Andrea not to dismiss what James was saying and to assure him that whatever happened had
occurred in another life and body and he was safe now. Andrea followed her advice, and James’s
dreams diminished. His parents coauthored Soul Survivor, a 2009 book about their family’s story.

Professor French, who is familiar with Dr. Tucker’s work, says “the main problem with [his]
investigating is that the research typically begins long after the child has been accepted as a genuine
reincarnation by his or her family and friends.” About James Leininger, French says, “Although his
parents insisted they never watched World War II documentaries or talked about military history, we
do know that at 18 months of age, James was taken to a flight museum, where he was fascinated by
the World War II planes. In all probability, the additional details were unintentionally implanted by his
parents and by a counselor who was a firm believer in reincarnation.”

Dr. Tucker says that he has additional documentation for many of James Leininger’s statements, and
they were made before anyone in the family had heard of James Huston or the USS Natoma Bay.
French responds that “children’s utterances are often ambiguous and open to interpretation. For
example, perhaps James said something that just sounded a bit like Natoma?”

Bruce Leininger, James’s father, understands French’s disbelief. “I was the original skeptic,” he says.
“But the information James gave us was so striking and unusual. If someone wants to look at the facts
and challenge them, they’re welcome to examine everything we have.” Bruce laughs at the idea that
he and his wife planted the memories, saying, “You try telling a two-year-old what to believe; you’re
not going to be able to give them a script.”

The reincarnation of Franz Lizst

ASSOCIATED NEWSPAPERS/SHUTTERSTOCK

Vladimir Levinski, who was born David Secombe in England in the 1930s, had such an innate gift for
playing the piano that he was able to teach himself to be a concert pianist (when asked about lessons,
he remarked, “I have no time for them, I have a technique of my own.”) So gifted was Levinski, and at
such a young age, that he came to recognize himself as the reincarnation of Franz Lizst, the German
composer and pianist. By age 21, he was performing for packed concert halls and known as the
“Paganini of the Piano.” Unfortunately, Levinski’s interest in Lizst at times came to border on
obsession, such as when he was playing a concert on January 23, 1952, and stopped playing halfway
through to talk about Lizst. The audience was disappointed, but Levinski, for his part, felt the concert
was a “tremendous success,” in part because he experienced it as only the reincarnation of the
renowned composer and performer, Lizst, could.

Long live hope

For most scientists, reincarnation will always seem like a fantastical notion regardless of how much
evidence is presented, Dr. Tucker knows. For him, success doesn’t mean persuading the naysayers
to accept the existence of reincarnation but rather encouraging people to consider the meaning of
consciousness and how it might survive our deaths.

“I believe in the possibility of reincarnation, which is different from saying that I believe in
reincarnation,” he explains. “I do think these cases require an explanation that is out of the ordinary,
although that certainly doesn’t mean we all reincarnate.”

Does Dr. Tucker believe that in the future, there will be a child who is able to recall Dr. Tucker’s own
memories? “Memories of past lives are not very common, so I don’t expect that,” he says. “But I do
hope there’s some continuation after death for me and for all of us.” Read on for true stories of 10
people who literally came back to life after death.

Originally Published in Reader's Digest

Originally Published: March 26, 2019

Lauren Cahn
Lauren Cahn is a New York-based writer whose work has appeared regularly on Reader's Digest, The
Huffington Post, and a variety of other publications since 2008. She covers life and style, popular culture,
law, religion, health, fitness, yoga, entertaining and entertainment. Lauren is also an author of crime
fiction; her first full-length manuscript, The Trust Game, was short-listed for the 2017 CLUE Award for
emerging talent in the genre of suspense fiction.