Personality and abilities of children claiming previous-life memories.

Young children who claim memories of a previous life can be found in many countries, particularly in Asia. The child frequently states where he/she lived previously, often claims violent death in the previous life and shows phobias/philias, and sometimes has birthmarks or deformities that he/she associates with the previous life. The Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale, Raven Progressive Matrices, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, and the Child Behavior Checklist were administered to 23 children in Sri Lanka who, mostly at an earlier age, had consistently been claiming memories of a previous life. They had greater verbal skills and better memory than their peers, performed much better in school, and were more socially active, but were not more suggestible. As judged by their parents, they had a higher Child Behavior Checklist problem score than their peers, but not according to their teachers.