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The Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS),
formerly the Division of Personality Studies, is a unit of the
Department
of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences at the
University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, VA. The Division of Perceptual
Studies (DOPS) was founded as a research unit of the
Department of Psychiatric Medicine at UVA by Dr. Ian Stevenson in
1967. (see History and Description
for more information about the founding of
DOPS).
Utilizing scientific methods, the researchers within
The Division of Perceptual Studies
investigate apparent paranormal phenomena, especially:
Children Who Claim to Remember Previous
Lives (reincarnation)
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Read an article about the research
being done here at DOPS in the January/February 2014 edition
of
The Atlantic magazine. The
article is by Jake Flanagin.
Videos on the topic of Reincarnation
Research:
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Watch a video of Dr. Jim Tucker
describing a young boy who has memories of a previous life in
which he was his own grandfather. In this video, Dr. Tucker
discusses his own research as well as the research conducted by the
esteemed founder of DOPS, the late Dr. Ian Stevenson. Click here to
view the video.
Radio Interviews on the topic of Reincarnation Research:
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Listen to Dr. Jim Tucker describe some of the findings, including
unusual play, behavior patterns, specific phobias, and birthmarks or
birth defects specifically related to the life and death of a previous
personality. He discusses the interpretation of the data and
details about the methodology as well as possible pitfalls of
individual cases. This interview was
conducted by Dean
Radin Ph.D. on December 8,
2010. This interview was done for the
IONS Telseminars series. Dean Radin is well known for
his best selling books The Conscious Universe (HarperOne,
1997) and Entangled Minds (Simon & Schuster, 2006).
Dr. Radin is currently Senior Scientist at
the Institute of Noetic
Sciences (IONS) and Adjunct Faculty in the
Department of Psychology at Sonoma State University.
Near-Death Experiences
Video on the topic of Near Death Experience Research:
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This video is an excerpt of a
Nour Foundation panel discussion at the September 11, 2008
United Nations Symposium, "Beyond the Mind-Body Problem: New
Paradigms in the Science of Consciousness," In this video, Dr.
Bruce Greyson is discussing "Near Death Experiences-Beyond the
Mind Body Problem". Click
here to view the video.
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Here is another excerpt from the same
Nour Foundation panel discussion in 2008. In this
portion of the video, Dr. Greyson is discussing the idea of
consciousness beyond physical brain activity. Click here to
view the video.
Radio Interviews on the topic of Near Death
Experiences:
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Listen to Dr. Bruce Greyson discussing how cumulative research into
Near Death Experiences challenges both a classical physical view of
reality and an exclusively neuroscience-based view of
consciousness. This interview was
conducted by Dean
Radin Ph.D. on October 13, 2010. The
interview was done for the
IONS Teleseminars series. Dean Radin is well known for
his best selling books The Conscious Universe (HarperOne,
1997) and Entangled Minds (Simon & Schuster, 2006).
Dr. Radin is currently Senior Scientist at
the Institute of Noetic
Sciences (IONS) and Adjunct Faculty in the
Department of Psychology at Sonoma State University.
- Listen to Dr. Bruce Greyson discussing Near
Death Experiences in an interview from November,
2006, hosted by Sarah McConnell on the
award winning public radio program With Good
Reason .
Other areas we are interested in studying at the Division
of Perceptual Studies:
We welcome written accounts of
experiences of these kinds. See What We
Study and Contacting
Us .
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Recent books written by the DOPS
research faculty

- Dr. Jim Tucker, in a follow-up to his book Life
Before Life, explores American cases of young
children who report specific memories of previous lives. Dr.
Tucker has interviewed 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 into the cases. 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. Dr. Tucker has found cases that provide persuasive
evidence that some children do, in fact, possess memories of previous
lives.
- To find out more about this book and other aspects of Dr. Tucker's
research follow this link to his website .
- Dr. Tucker's new book Return to
Life is now available. Follow this link to
order the book .
- Ian Stevenson was a prominent and internationally-known
psychiatrist, researcher, prolific author, and well-regarded figure in
the field of psychical research. Science, the Self,
and Survival after Death: Selected Writings of Ian
Stevenson is the first book devoted to surveying the
entirety of his work and the extraordinary scope and variety of his
research. He studied universal questions that cut to the core of a
person’s identity: What is consciousness? How did we become the unique
individuals that we are? Do we survive in some form after death?
Stevenson’s writings on the nature of science and the mind-body
relationship, as well as his empirical research, demonstrate his
strongly held belief that the methods of science can be applied
successfully to such humanly vital questions. Featuring a selection of
his papers and excerpts from his books, this collection presents the
larger context of Stevenson’s work and illustrates the issues and
questions that guided him throughout his
career. Our esteemed colleague, Emily Williams
Kelly, is the editor of this collection of Dr. Stevenson's
writing.
- Click here to view the Table of
Contents
- Follow this link to
buy the book.
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The Handbook of
Near-Death Experience: Thirty Years of
Investigation In this book, DOPS researchers Bruce
Greyson, Carlos Alvarado, Nancy Zingrone, Edward F. Kelly,
and Emily Williams Kelly as well as many other notable researchers
in the field of near-death experiences share the history and current
state of near-death experience research and knowledge. They
explore controversies in the field, offer specific accounts of
NDE's from the research, and express their hopes for the future of
investigation into this fascinating phenomenon. The book is edited by
Janice Miner Holden, Bruce Greyson, and Debbie James.
- Click here for a list of other
publications by Dr. Bruce
Greyson as listed on Google Scholar. Also,
see our DOPS Publications
Page for pdfs of articles by Dr. Greyson and our
other esteemed DOPS research colleagues.
- Follow this link to
buy the
book.

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Edward F. Kelly, Emily Williams Kelly,
Adam Crabtree, Alan Gauld, Michael Grosso,
and Bruce Greyson have co-authored Irreducible Mind: Toward a
Psychology for the 21st Century . Current
mainstream scientific opinion holds that all aspects of human mind and
consciousness are generated by physical processes occurring in the
brain. This book demonstrates with empirical evidence that this
reductive materialism is not only incomplete but false.
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