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| Meta Title | Do You Believe in Life After Death? These Scientists Study It. - The New York Times |
| Meta Description | Is reincarnation real? Is communication from the “beyond” possible? A small set of academics are trying to find out, case by case. |
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| Boilerpipe Text | The University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies is one of the most prominent parapsychology research units in the world.
Credit...
Matt Eich for The New York Times
The Great Read
Is reincarnation real? Is communication from the “beyond” possible? A small set of academics are trying to find out, case by case.
The University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies is one of the most prominent parapsychology research units in the world.
Credit...
Matt Eich for The New York Times
Jan. 3, 2025
In an otherwise nondescript office
in downtown Charlottesville, Va., a small leather chest sits atop a filing cabinet. Within it lies a combination lock, unopened for more than 50 years. The man who set it is dead.
On its own, the lock is unremarkable — the kind you might use at the gym.
The code, a mnemonic of
a six-letter word converted into numbers, was known only to the psychiatrist Dr. Ian Stevenson, who set it long before he died, and years before he retired as director of the Division of Perceptual Studies, or DOPS, a parapsychology research unit he founded in 1967 within the University of Virginia’s school of medicine.
Dr. Stevenson called this experiment the
Combination Lock Test for Survival
. He reasoned that if he could transmit the code to someone from the grave, it might help answer the questions that had consumed him in life: Is communication from the “beyond” possible? Can the personality survive bodily death? Or, simply: Is reincarnation real?
Subscribe to The Times
to read as many articles as you like.
A version of this article appears in print on
Jan. 5, 2025
, Section ST, Page 7 of the New York edition with the headline: Accounts of Past Lives Peer Beyond Death
.
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The University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies is one of the most prominent parapsychology research units in the world.Credit...Matt Eich for The New York Times
The Great Read
# Do You Believe in Life After Death? These Scientists Study It.
Is reincarnation real? Is communication from the “beyond” possible? A small set of academics are trying to find out, case by case.
The University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies is one of the most prominent parapsychology research units in the world.Credit...Matt Eich for The New York Times
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[](https://www.nytimes.com/by/saskia-solomon)
By [Saskia Solomon](https://www.nytimes.com/by/saskia-solomon)
Reporting from Charlottesville, Va. and Amherst, Va.
- Jan. 3, 2025
[Leer en español](https://www.nytimes.com/es/2025/01/07/espanol/estilos-de-vida/vida-despues-muerte-ciencia.html "Read in Spanish")
In an otherwise nondescript officein downtown Charlottesville, Va., a small leather chest sits atop a filing cabinet. Within it lies a combination lock, unopened for more than 50 years. The man who set it is dead.
On its own, the lock is unremarkable — the kind you might use at the gym.The code, a mnemonic ofa six-letter word converted into numbers, was known only to the psychiatrist Dr. Ian Stevenson, who set it long before he died, and years before he retired as director of the Division of Perceptual Studies, or DOPS, a parapsychology research unit he founded in 1967 within the University of Virginia’s school of medicine.
Dr. Stevenson called this experiment the [Combination Lock Test for Survival](https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/wp-content/uploads/sites/360/2019/09/Combination-Lock-Test-for-Survival-1968.pdf). He reasoned that if he could transmit the code to someone from the grave, it might help answer the questions that had consumed him in life: Is communication from the “beyond” possible? Can the personality survive bodily death? Or, simply: Is reincarnation real?
[Subscribe to The Times](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=8WXW7) to read as many articles as you like.
A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 5, 2025, Section ST, Page 7 of the New York edition with the headline: Accounts of Past Lives Peer Beyond Death. [Order Reprints](https://nytimes.wrightsmedia.com/) \| [Today’s Paper](https://www.nytimes.com/section/todayspaper) \| [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscriptions/Multiproduct/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=48JQY)
See more on: [University of Virginia](https://www.nytimes.com/topic/organization/university-of-virginia)
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| Readable Markdown | 
The University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies is one of the most prominent parapsychology research units in the world.Credit...Matt Eich for The New York Times
The Great Read
Is reincarnation real? Is communication from the “beyond” possible? A small set of academics are trying to find out, case by case.
The University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies is one of the most prominent parapsychology research units in the world.Credit...Matt Eich for The New York Times
- Jan. 3, 2025
In an otherwise nondescript officein downtown Charlottesville, Va., a small leather chest sits atop a filing cabinet. Within it lies a combination lock, unopened for more than 50 years. The man who set it is dead.
On its own, the lock is unremarkable — the kind you might use at the gym.The code, a mnemonic ofa six-letter word converted into numbers, was known only to the psychiatrist Dr. Ian Stevenson, who set it long before he died, and years before he retired as director of the Division of Perceptual Studies, or DOPS, a parapsychology research unit he founded in 1967 within the University of Virginia’s school of medicine.
Dr. Stevenson called this experiment the [Combination Lock Test for Survival](https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/wp-content/uploads/sites/360/2019/09/Combination-Lock-Test-for-Survival-1968.pdf). He reasoned that if he could transmit the code to someone from the grave, it might help answer the questions that had consumed him in life: Is communication from the “beyond” possible? Can the personality survive bodily death? Or, simply: Is reincarnation real?
[Subscribe to The Times](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=8WXW7) to read as many articles as you like.
A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 5, 2025, Section ST, Page 7 of the New York edition with the headline: Accounts of Past Lives Peer Beyond Death. [Order Reprints](https://nytimes.wrightsmedia.com/) \| [Today’s Paper](https://www.nytimes.com/section/todayspaper) \| [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscriptions/Multiproduct/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=48JQY)
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