To read Ian Stevenson’s work, you must have a strong will to study, as you will have to concentrate, you have to pay attention so that you don’t miss any detail. His material is dense, it is hard. It contains scientific terms, not easy to understand for the average person. I haven’t read all his books and articles yet, but I consider I know his work quite well and so there are stages in which I forget a bit about him. And I shouldn’t do it. Ian Stevenson is a referent for me. He was a real scientist, a real Truth Seeker, as I call them... a colleague, there is no use denying it. I realize we have many things in common. And I think it is very curious that the obstacles we both encounter along the way are basically the same: ignorance, materialism, mockery... and, of course, fundamentalism.
When I started my own path, creating a rational reincarnation forum, I already made it clear it was not a forum based on religious or New Age beliefs. People with spiritualist influence didn’t take long to turn up, though fortunately they left shortly after, possibly when they saw my approach was totally different. For some reason, spiritism is widespread in Spanish-speaking countries. We have the “original” spiritism of Allan Kardec, but the communications transmitted by various mediums such as the Brazilian Chico Javier, the American Jane Roberts, who channeled an alleged spirit called Seth, or the Theosophy figures like Madame Blavatsky —to give just a few examples—, are also very known. I studied them superficially, just enough to understand there was something amiss: the contradictions were constant in all of them, and besides, in many cases such teachings were highly influenced by the religion the medium professed. They never convinced me. But the worst thing is there are many people who do believe in these “teachings”. Many of them also get easily dazzled by what is told in those books and they take it as the Absolute Truth. They become fundamentalists. They and I have in common that we believe in reincarnation, but no more than that. The main difference is that I base on facts. If possible, facts studied and verified in a scientific way like the cases presented by Ian Stevenson in his books. If that is not possible, experiences and accounts of people (me included) that I have been following for some time and I know they are serious, people that usually have spontaneous past life memories and have researched their memories to verify them historically. I draw my conclusions from there, and so I consider that mine is something else than a simple belief.