Before - by Jim B Tucker (Paperback)

About the Book

Comprised of two previously published works, with new reading group guide: Life before life: a scientific investigation of children's memories of previous lives / Jim B. Tucker. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005; and, Return to life: extraordinary cases of children who remember past lives / Jim B. Tucker, M.D. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2013.

Book Synopsis

A fully updated 2-in-1 edition, with a new introduction by the author, combining Dr. Jim B. Tucker's bestselling books about children who remember past lives--Return to Life and Life Before Life.

These two books contain first-person accounts of Jim B. Tucker's experiences with a number of extraordinary children with memories of past lives, and expands on the international work started by Tucker's University of Virginia colleague Ian Stevenson.

Tucker's work has been lauded by the likes of parapsychologist Carol Bowman and Deepak Chopra, and has been described by some as quantum physics. His goal in each case of a child reporting memories of previous lives is to determine what happened--what the child has said, how the parents have reacted, whether the child's statements match the life of a particular deceased person, and whether the child could have learned such information through normal means. Tucker has found case studies that provide persuasive evidence that some children do, in fact, possess memories of previous lives.

Thought-provoking and captivating, the stories in Before urge readers, skeptics and supporters alike to think about life, death, and reincarnation and to reflect about their own consciousness and spirituality.

Review Quotes

"In this very elegant book, Dr. Tucker offers the most convincing scientific evidence for the fact that our consciousness survives physical death. And indeed, takes quantum leaps of creativity in the form of reincarnation. The model that Dr. Tucker presents opens a new vision of who we are, limitless beings that fill up all of space and time." --Deepak Chopra, author of Life After Death: The Burden of Proof

"[A][ solid case for reincarnation.... Tucker introduces powerful grounds for credulous speculation." --Booklist

"Jim Tucker gives us a clear, concise and eminently rational insight into a 40 year investigation of what is unquestionably the best evidence for the existence of reincarnation. We are lucky to have in him a worthy successor to Ian Stevenson." --TOM SHRODER, author of Old Souls: Compelling Evidence From Children Who Remember Past Lives

"Anyone with an open mind, on reading Dr. Jim B. Tucker's Life Before Life, will realize that our conventional concepts of life and death are ripe for revision. The possibilities raised by this book for human destiny are as hopeful as the current view is grim. Life Before Life is extraordinarily important." --Larry Dossey, M.D., author of The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things, Reinventing Medicine, and Healing Words

"With his training as a pediatric psychiatrist, and the mind of an inquiring scientist, Dr. Jim Tucker takes a fresh look at one of life's most intriguing questions: 'Does consciousness survive death?' Through the hundreds of case studies of his predecessor, Dr. Ian Stevenson, and his own cases, Dr. Tucker adds new insight to this amazing research, and draws us closer to understanding this perennial mystery." --CAROL BOWMAN, author of Children's Past Lives and Return From Heaven

"Life Before Life adds to the increasingly impressive science of consciousness and the continuity of mind/memory...this book is the tip of an important iceberg that will continue to expand our knowledge of the spiritual reality of Life." --C. NORMAN SHEALY, M.D., Ph.D., President, Holos University Graduate Seminary; Founding President, American Holistic Medical Association; author of Youthful Aging--Secret of the Fountain

"Jim B. Tucker's fine presentation of Ian Stevenson's decades of rigorous scientific research into evidence of children's apparent past-life recollections expresses the true spirit of scientific skepticism, rather than the knee-jerk materialism that all too often waves that proud banner." --B. ALAN WALLACE, President of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies

"In Return to Life, Jim Tucker painstakingly and meticulously documents the recycling of memories from beyond the barrier of physical death. He then rigorously offers a scientific theory to explain how our consciousness transcends space/time and is, hence, eternal. This book is an important milestone of an emerging scientific paradigm that suggests that consciousness conceives governs constructs and becomes the universe or perhaps multiple universes." --Deepak Chopra

"A breezy page-turner...Tucker presents these cases...with professioanlism and palpable respect." --Spirituality and Health

"Jim Tucker is a worthy successor to Dr. Ian Stevenson. He approaches these fascinating cases of children who appear to remember previous lives with an intelligent curiosity, sober judgment, and a real knack for telling a story, which is a good thing, because these are great stories." --Tom Shroder, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and author of Old Souls: Compelling Evidence from Children Who Remember Past Lives

"These incredible cases are not simply solid grounds for accepting some form of reincarnation into our Western worldview. These are heart-rending, poignant reminders that many of us do not quite 'fit' into the cultural and religious worlds into which we are born. Obviously, we are more than these worlds. Way, way more." --Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of Authors of the Impossible: The Sacred and the Paranormal

"Researchers at the University of Virginia Medical School's Department of Perceptual Studies are studying reports from children around the world who claim to remember their past lives. More than 2,500 such reports have been analyzed by the Project's founder Ian Sevenson and several colleagues, among them Jim Tucker. Their work has immense implications for our understanding of the world and human nature, but has received relatively little attention from mainstream scientists and religious groups. Return to Life, like Dr. Tucker's previous book, Life Before Life, opens a door on this historic research. Even if you disagree with Tucker's brief speculations about the afterlife, you will get a good look at the kind of evidence for reincarnation that the University of Virginia team is assembling. It is astonishing to me that their work is not better known." --Michael Murphy, Founder and Chairman Emeritus, Esalen Institute, and co-author of God and the Evolving Universe

"With Return to Life, Dr. Jim B. Tucker has driven a very large nail in the coffin of materialism. This is an important contribution to the growing body of evidence that consciousness survives the death of the brain and body. The fear of death and annihilation has caused more suffering in human history than all the physical diseases combined. This book is a powerful antidote to that dread." --Larry Dossey, MD, author of One Mind: How Our Individual Mind Is Part of a Great Consciousness and Why It Matters

"Return to Life comes as a resounding wake-up call regarding human existence. For decades, materialists have insisted that consciousness is nothing more than a function or emergent property of the brain. But the fact is that scientifically, the origins and nature of consciousness and its role in nature remain a mystery. The greatest obstacle to illuminating these issues through scientific discovery is not ignorance, but the illusion that we already have the answers. The empirical evidence that Dr. Tucker presents in this book challenges the reductionistic, metaphysical beliefs of scientific materialism. If his research methods are flawed, the scientific community should bring this to his and the public's attention. If they are irreproachable, then the empirical facts he reveals compel us to reassess even our most fundamental assumptions about consciousness, human nature, and the universe at large." --B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D., President of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies and author of Dreaming Yourself Awake

About the Author

Jim B. Tucker, M.D. is the Bonner-Lowry Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. He is the Director of the UVA Division of Perceptual Studies, where he is continuing the research of Ian Stevenson into children's reports of past-life memories, and his work has been featured on NBC Nightly News, CBS Sunday Morning, NPR Weekend Edition, and numerous other programs. He lives in Charlottesville with his wife.