True Reincarnation Files: Kemal
The following is a true story…
When Kemal, a young boy living in Turkey, began talking about a past life, his parents didn’t think much of it. Kemal’s family believed in reincarnation, as was typical of other Alevi Muslims in their community. But then Kemal’s memories began to sound strangely specific.
He’d lived as an Armenian Christian man in Istanbul, more than 500 miles away, Kemal claimed. He had been quite wealthy in this previous life, due to his successful leather trading business, and always carried an oversized leather bag. He spent summers at his lakefront home that had views of a marina and a church behind it. A prominent celebrity named Aysegul lived next door, he said. Kemal had been a father, he believed, and his children had had Greek names. The family’s last name had been Karakas.
The flurry of details stunned Kemal’s parents. Their son had never been to Istanbul, but investigators travelled there to try to verify his memories. They found Aysegul’s former home, and right away they were drawn to the stately, three-story house that sat unoccupied beside it. Behind the empty home was a church and a line of boats, tied up near the lakeshore, just as Kemal had described. Could Kemal have lived there as Mr. Karakas in a past life? To find out, investigators needed to track down the home’s previous owners.
Unfortunately, there were no Armenians living in that neighborhood, and the leaders at the closest Armenian church didn’t believe anyone from its congregation had ever owned the unoccupied lakefront home. Investigators took three trips, and spoke with dozens of neighbors, until they finally got a break in the case.
An elderly man remembered an Armenian family living in the house many years before. A local historian corroborated the old man’s account and offered shocking information about the family. A rich Armenian Christian had owned the home with his Greek Orthodox wife and two children. They typically spent summers there and then returned to a second home in a different part of town, where the man traded leather goods. He often carried a large leather bag. That man had died in 1940 or 1941. His name had been Karakas.
Cases of people remembering previous lives as someone outside their present community interest me most. Kamal was a young Muslim who believed he had once lived as a Christian. Some people have recalled living before as someone of a different ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. If true, such variation in former lives is strong evidence for the idea of a universal soul that can take many shapes. Perhaps if more people remembered their former lives, they would be more accepting of those from different communities and backgrounds.
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I reviewed many fascinating, real cases like Kemal’s while conducting research for my new novel, DON’T GET CLOSE. In the book, scientists believe a controversial experiment will reveal what happens after death, and an infamous reincarnation cult will stop at nothing to ensure they never learn the shocking truth.
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Have you ever wondered if you lived as someone else in a past life? Medical and academic researchers have investigated thousands of possible cases of reincarnation. The strongest cases share these eight characteristics.
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