Dr. Jim B. Tucker

Child Psychiatrist & Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, University of Virginia

For the last sixty years, doctors at the University of Virginia Division of Perceptual Studies have investigated cases of young children who report memories of previous lives. Dr. Ian Stevenson, the founder of this work, published numerous scholarly articles and books about cases from all over the world. After working with Dr. Stevenson for several years, Dr. Jim Tucker took over the project when Dr. Stevenson retired. With Life Before Life, he presented an overview of the research. After focusing on American cases, he told of his experiences with some remarkable children in Return to Life, a New York Times best seller. Now comes BEFORE: Children’s Memories of Previous Lives, a 2-in-1 edition combining both books, with a new introduction that includes the fascinating case of a boy who remembered dying in the Vietnam War.

“It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection.” – Voltaire 

“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

“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

“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

Life Before Life

A Scientific Investigation of Children’s Memories of Previous Lives

“The most convincing scientific evidence for the fact that our consciousness survives physical death.”
– Deepak Chopra

​​”Clear, concise and eminently rational.”
– Tom Shroder

“A solid case for reincarnation.”
– Booklist

Return to Life

Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives

​”An important milestone of an emerging scientific paradigm.”
– Deepak Chopra

“A very large nail in the coffin of materialism.”
– Larry Dossey, M.D. 

“A resounding wake-up call regarding human existence.”
– B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D.