Jim b tucker md is a child psychiatrist at the university of virginia where he directs research into childrens reports of past life memories at the division of personality studies and serves as medical director of the child family psychiatry clinic he is the author of life before life and the new york times best seller return to life. Culled from reports across the world life before life offers the reader case study after involving young children who claim to have lived before their current physical existences at the time this book was written 2500 such i. Children who report past life memories typically begin talking spontaneously about a previous life when they are two to three years old some talk about the life of a deceased family member while others describe the life of a stranger they may recount details about previous family members events in the previous life or the way they died in that life the children tend to show a strong . Life before life a scientific investigation of childrens memories of previous lives is a 2005 book written by psychiatrist jim b tucker which presents an overview of more than 40 years of reincarnation research at the university of virginia into childrens reports of past life memories. Larry dossey md author of the extraordinary healing power of ordinary things calls life before life extraordinarily important and c norman shealy md author of youthful aging secret of the fountain notes that it adds to the increasingly impressive science of consciousness and the continuity of mind memory