Children Who Remember Past Lives
By Ian Stevenson, MD

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Ian Stevenson, M.D., is a cautious man. Throughout an academic career that has spanned forty years, he has interviewed thousands of children who claim to remember their past lives. Carefully sifting through the evidence, Stevenson looks for empirical data to support those claims. Some of the case studies are compelling. Yet, even when all other explanations fail, Stevenson never claims to have found “proof” of reincarnation—only evidence suggestive of reincarnation. Ian Stevenson is the author of many books, among them: Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation, Children Who Remember Past Lives, and Cases of the Reincarnation Type, Volumes 1-4. The following excerpt (courtesy of the University Press of Virginia) is taken from a case study found in Volume 3 of the latter series. It concerns a deaf-mute boy from Turkey who claimed to have drowned in a nearby river during his previous life.

The Case of Süleyman Zeytun

The present case derives its main interest from the fact that the subject, Süleyman Zeytun, was born deaf and has remained deaf and mute ever since. He therefore made no verbal statements about the previous life that he indicated, by other means, he remembered. He communicated his memories by gestures and at the same time showed by various actions behavior appropriate for the person whose life he seemed to be remembering. His total deafness seems to me to preclude, as well as we can expect, the hypothesis advanced as an interpretation of some cases, according to which the subject was somehow tutored to make the gestures and show the behavior that together comprise the case. I am not claiming that Süleyman Zeytun could not be taught, because obviously he has learned many things during and since his childhood. I am only expressing the opinion that, given the circumstances of his particular family, it seems unlikely that anyone would have had the time, or the desire, to coach him to make the various gestures and to show the conduct that he demonstrated.

Summary of the Case and Its Investigation

Süleyman Zeytun was born in 1938 in the village of Kayisli, which is about twenty kilometers from Adana. His parents were Ramazan Zeytun and his wife, Bedia. Süleyman’s father had become a small shopkeeper in Adana by the time I became acquainted with the family in 1964. Süleyman was the oldest child of the family. After his birth, his parents had three more sons and two daughters. All the other children were normal as to hearing and speech except for the youngest daughter, who was, like Süleyman, a deaf-mute.

When Süleyman was barely able to walk and at the age of between two and three—at which age, had he been normal, he would have started to talk—he began by gestures and behavior to indicate that he was remembering the life of a man, Mehmet Cosman (also of Kayisli village), who had drowned at the age of forty while washing his horse in 1938.

When Süleyman first began making gestures in an effort to tell his family about the events leading up to the death of the previous personality, they could make no sense of what he was trying to communicate. A little later, however, when he began visiting the home next door, where the widow and children of Mehmet Cosman lived, they connected his gestures with the death of Mehmet Cosman. At about the same time Süleyman made the identification of his gestures with Mehmet Cosman even more certain by indicating the place in the River Seyhan (which flows past Kayish) where Mehmet Cosman had drowned.

I first learned about this case in March, 1964, when I was in Adana to study some other cases. We quickly appreciated the unusual condition of the subject and began investigating the case almost immediately. During this same stay in Adana I interviewed all the informants who were available then, and I also met Süleyman himself for the first time. In October and November 1967, I resumed the investigation of the case, going over some details with earlier informants and interviewing some new ones. On subsequent visits to Adana in 1970, 1971, and 1973, I saw Süleyman or his father (or both) and obtained further news of him.

Relevant Facts of Geography and Possibilities for Normal Means of Communication between the Two Families

Both the families concerned in this case lived, at the time of its development, in the village of Kayisli. They were in fact close neighbors, although not relatives. The house of Mehmet Cosman was about 30 meters from that of Ramazan Zeytun and was indeed, in one direction, the next house one came to when walking from the Zeytun house.

All the facts communicated by Süleyman through his gestures and other behavior were already known to his family at the time he showed the behavior by which he wished, as it seems, to tell other persons that he believed he had been Mehmet Cosman in a previous life.

The Life and Death of Mehmet Cosman

Mehmet Cosman was a cultivator of the village of Kayisli who was born about 1898 and drowned in 1938. He married in the 1930s and had several children before he died. He was not deaf.

There were no eyewitnesses of his drowning, but the circumstances of his death were afterwards reconstructed from available evidence and justifiable inferences. I obtained the following information from Mehmet Cosman’s brother, Saban, who had recovered his brother’s body from the river, and from Süleyman’s father, Ramazan Zeytun.

It was in July and the season for harvesting, thrashing, and milling the grain grown in the area. Horses become covered at this time with chaff and dust engendered in these processes, and Mehmet Cosman took his horse down to the river to wash it. Where the River Seyhan flows past Kayisli, it usually has shallow places that are suitable for washing horses. Ordinarily, the water was low at the place where Mehmet Cosman washed his horse, but on this occasion it had risen. Mehmet Cosman’s horse became restless and bit him on the shoulder. (Marks of the horse’s bite were found on Mehmet Cosman’s shoulder afterwards. Informants differed about the shoulder—right or left—on which the horse had bitten him.) Mehmet Cosman then put a muzzle on the horse. (The muzzle was afterwards found on the body of the drowned horse.) The horse nevertheless continued restless, or became more so, and somehow dragged or carried Mehmet Cosman into deep water, where both drowned. Mehmet Cosman could not swim. His body was recovered two days later and was found to have been somewhat eaten by fish. The arms of the body were around a tree, as if the drowning man had tried to cling to the tree to save himself as he was carried by the current.

Süleyman’s Gestures and Other Behavior Related to the Previous Life

Süleyman could make no verbal statements. I shall therefore combine here my accounts both of the gestures by which he tried to communicate imaged memories of the drowning of Mehmet Cosman (and a few other details of his life) and of his other unusual behavior, which showed a personation of Mehmet Cosman.

When he could barely walk, Süleyman left his own house and went to that of Mehmet Cosman. I have already mentioned that the two houses were close, and there would be nothing unusual in a child going to the house of a near neighbor. In this case, however, the Cosman house lay on the side of the Zeytun house away from the center of the village. To reach the Cosman house, a child emerging from the Zeytun house would have to turn around and go off in a direction opposite to the easiest one to take. I think a child of the Zeytun home would have tended to move toward the main part of the village, where he would have met more people than he would if he went toward the Cosman house. Be that as it may, Süleyman did not just go to the Cosman house once or twice. He visited it constantly and took an intense interest in the affairs of the family. He went to the Cosman house more than to any other house of the village. Süleyman’s mother, Bedia Zeytun, said that he went there “every day.” When he became a little older, he gestured in ways that indicated to the inhabitants of the house that Mehmet Cosman’s wife and children were his family. To communicate his relationship of husband to Hatice Cosman he would hold up two fingers together (as a sign of closeness) and then would point to his heart, presumably to emphasize their love. He indicated the relationship of brother with Saban Cosman by the same gesture of holding up two fingers together.

At the home of Mehmet Cosman, Süleyman pointed out various objects in the house and gestured to communicate that they belonged to him. In particular, he tried to carry off a family Koran and to lead away a buffalo that the Cosmans owned, all the time indicating that these really belonged to him. Süleyman also pointed to a nearby field that belonged to the Cosmans and signaled in his way that he had owned it also. There was no possibility of confusion here with land owned by the Zeytuns, since they had no field near their house in Kayisli.

The most remarkable of Süleyman’s gestures, however, were those by which he reenacted the details of the drowning of Mehmet Cosman. At about the time he first went to the Cosman home, barely able to walk, he also indicated the direction of the River Seyhan where Mehmet Cosman had drowned. Gradually he then communicated with further gestures the details of the drowning. I observed these gestures several times in 1964 and 1967 and had them photographed. By the time of my investigation the gestures had become well rehearsed, and at a signal from one of us, Süleyman obligingly repeated one or more for a photographer. Süleyman’s parents, however, as well as other witnesses, asserted that the gestures, as shown to us, closely resembled those he had used with them when he was a young child.

As demonstrated to me, the gestures concerning the death of Mehmet Cosman indicated the following details:

1. The horse turning the millstone for grinding grain. Süleyman turned his right hand in a circular motion with finger pointing down. The circle was in a horizontal plane. This indicated the rotation of the mill and horse during the grinding.

2. Pulling the horse toward the river to wash it. Süleyman held his two hands slightly apart and in the position of someone who was holding reins. He leaned back as if pulling on the reins to get the horse to go into the water.

3. The horse biting him on the shoulder. Süleyman put his right hand to his left shoulder and clenched it on the shoulder. At the same time he showed his own teeth to reinforce the idea of the horse biting on the shoulder.

4. Winding a cord around the jaws of the horse in order to muzzle it. Süleyman held his left hand down as if on the neck of the horse and then with his right hand made a circular motion in the vertical plane to indicate winding a muzzle of cord around the horse’s mouth.

5. Mounting the horse’s back to ride it to the river. Süleyman held his left hand open with fingers extended while he placed his index and middle fingers across the middle of the left hand to suggest the legs hanging down from a man mounted on a horse.

6. The horse having a poor balance in the water and swaying. Süleyman held both hands in front of him about a foot apart and leaned over to the left to indicate the swaying motion of the horse.

7. Falling off the horse into the water. Süleyman extended both his hands and arms laterally and leaned the upper part of his trunk far back to indicate the motions of falling off the horse.

8. Swallowing and aspirating water. Süleyman put the fingers of his right hand into his mouth to indicate taking in water before drowning.

9. Choking and drowning. Süleyman put his right hand around his throat to indicate choking and death.

As I mentioned earlier, when Süleyman began making these gestures, those who watched him only gradually came to understand that he was trying to refer to the life and death of Mehmet Cosman. But the combination of the boy’s behavior toward Mehmet Cosman’s family and his indicating the direction of the River Seyhan led them to conclude eventually that the other gestures mentioned above were the boy’s attempt to narrate the story of Mehmet Cosman’s death. Since no one had seen Mehmet Cosman drown (the body was only found two days afterwards), there is no verification of some of Süleyman’s gestures. Nevertheless, others were known to be correct. These were:

1. Mehmet Cosman drowned at the time of harvest and milling grain.

2. He had taken his horse to the river to wash it.

3. He had washed the horse (and drowned) at the place in the River Seyhan indicated in his gestures by Süleyman. This was established by the site where the drowned body was found and by inference from knowledge of where Mehmet Cosman (and other villagers of Kayisli) habitually washed horses in the river.

4. The horse had bitten him on the shoulder. Informants differed about which of Mehmet Cosman’s shoulders the horse had bitten. Ramazan Zeytun said it was the left shoulder; Saban Cosman (Mehmet’s brother) said it was the right one.

5. He had put a muzzle around the horse’s mouth. The horse, which also drowned, was found with a muzzle around its mouth.

After the death of Mehmet Cosman, his widow, Hatice, needed money and had to work for other people in the village, for example, baking bread for them. When Süleyman saw how hard Hatice was working, he made gestures indicating to her that he deplored her changed situation. He cried during these scenes. (Mehmet Cosman had been devoted to his wife and had tried to keep her from working hard.) Süleyman also gestured sometimes in a way that was interpreted as expressing dissatisfaction with how Mehmet Cosman’s widow was taking care of his children. If she beat any of them, Süleyman would cry. He cried also if she dressed them in old clothes. When Mehmet Cosman’s son, Abdullah, became involved in quarrels with others, Süleyman intervened on Abdullah’s side.

In 1959, when Süleyman was (approximately) twenty-one years old, his family moved to Adana, and Süleyman had fewer opportunities to visit the Cosman family in Kayisli, but when he did go there, he regularly visited this family first. He took presents to Mehmet Cosman’s son, Abdullah. He attended the weddings of Mehmet Cosman’s daughters, crying at each like an affectionate father. The relationship between Süleyman and the widow of Mehmet Cosman also continued cordial, although it was rather that of a mother and son than that of a wife and husband. Süleyman’s attachment to the children of Mehmet Cosman was continuing strong in 1967, when he was about twenty-nine years old. Mehmet Cosman’s daughter Refika Selek said that he then often came to visit and stay with her family in Tarsus.

Süleyman’s Later Development

Süleyman was already a young man in his twenties when I first met him in 1964. As already mentioned, I met him again in 1967 and met him or his father briefly during subsequent visits to south central Turkey.

Süleyman married on March 15, 1970, and when I was in Adana about a year later, in March 1971, I learned that his wife had recently given birth to their first child.

I last saw Süleyman in February 1973. He was working in some vegetable fields and was in good health. His wife had recently given birth to twin boys, one of whom, unfortunately, had died. Ramazan Zeytun told us that Hatice Cosman had died some four or five years earlier and that Süleyman no longer visited the previous family. However, when Süleyman happened to meet one of Mehmet Cosman’s children casually, he would still make gestures to indicate that he considered them his children.

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Stevenson, Ian. Cases of the Reincarnation Type, Volume III. Charlottesville, VA. University of Virginia Press, 1980. Reprinted with permission of the University of Virginia Press.

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