Return to Life

Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives

By: Jim B. Tucker

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

A first-person account of Jim Tucker's experiences with a number of extraordinary children with memories of past lives, Return to Life focuses mostly on American cases, presenting each family's story and describing his investigation. His goal 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 cases that provide persuasive evidence that some children do, in fact, possess memories of previous lives. Among others, listeners will meet a boy who describes a previous life on a small island. When Tucker takes him to that island, he finds that some details eerily match the boy's statements and some do not. Another boy points to a photograph from the 1930s and says he used to be one of the men in it. Once the laborious efforts to identify that man are successful, many of the child's numerous memories are found to match the details of his life.

Soon after his second birthday, a third boy begins expressing memories of being a World War II pilot who is eventually identified.Thought-provoking and captivating, Return to Life urges its listeners to think about life and death, and reflect about their own consciousness and spirituality.

©2013 Jim B. Tucker (P)2014 Tantor

Critic reviews

"An important milestone of an emerging scientific paradigm." (Deepak Chopra)

This is a must read.

Well written and very affirming. It is very rich in content. I will read it again.

Nothing new

Would you consider the audio edition of Return to Life to be better than the print version?

The narrator was excellent. He made the book an easy listen, which is probably the reason why I finished it.

What could Jim B. Tucker have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

My disappointment with this book resides on the fact that it adds no original material to the serious literature on re-encarnation (which is a topic I am very interested on). The author worked with Dr. Ian Stevenson, who did most of the academic research on cases of reincarnation available today and basically capitalizes on that relationship.

What about Patrick Lawlor’s performance did you like?

This is a short book that can be listened to in one or two sittings.

Any additional comments?

If you are interested in reincarnation and are not familiar with Ian Stevenson's work, this book may serve to guide you in his direction and expose you to some interesting rigorous research on a number of cases. If you are already unto Stevenson, you can skip this.

I think we do!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This book is not just your mystical, airy fairy book. Mr Tucker has done his research and produced some compelling evidence for Reincarnation.

What did you like best about this story?

The stories were incredible but in the last two chapters he provides his theory and some scientific exploration. This went a bit over my head but it was very interesting.

What does Patrick Lawlor bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Great Narrator. Just suits this book down to the ground.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Interesting ideas!

The author puts forth some interesting ideas about life, death, and consciousness. This is a serious academic exploration, not a collection of ghost stories. That said, keep an open mind.

Very good research

love the stories and research. lost me at the science stuff though lol. not sure what the connection here is ?

Wow! Just, Wow!

I am so blessed to have found this book and listened to it. Jim Tucker presents us with some fascinating stories that provide solid evidence that at least a few of us have lived multiple lives. He then paints for us, in words, a very beautiful picture of the one great mind that is made up of all things, God.

This is a wonderful book.

Interesting, parts are a little boring

The first part of this book is about children who seem to be having memories from a past life.. I find that kind of thing fascinating,and the stories are very well told, giving the listener/reader a complete picture of how steps were taken to try to prove or disprove information given by these children. Towards the end of the book the author goes into detail about quantum leaps, the proof that time is not real, everything is energy, etc., all of which are very fascinating, and are given as a way to try and prove why it's possible that these children are remembering past lives, or dreams.. However, I didn't want to listen to a book about that subject. I've listened to many of them before, and admitingly, most of it is above my ability to grasp the theory. Because of that, I knocked off a star for overall.. I wanted to be entertained, not to have to engage my brain to try and figure out these incredibly complicated theories. I didn't enjoy that part of the book but the rest was very fascinating...

Really thought provoking

The narrator does such a good job, you forget you are not actually listening to the author of this story. If anyone is interested in the subject of reincarnation these stories are so thought provoking. There's one case that he talks about that I've seen featured on the show "Ghost Within My Child", I think I saw it on A&E but I know it's available on YouTube these days as well.

A. good case for the plausibility of reincarnation

A worthy read that takes measures to look at a controversial subject through the lense of scientific inquiry.

great until the last chapter.

I loved the stories of each child, but I did not love the trivialization of life in the last chapter as the authors way of trying to explain how, what, why...