A three-year-old girl from Iowa suddenly told her parents that she used to be called Joe Wilke. She was growing up in a strictly Catholic family in which any discussion on the subject of reincarnation was forbidden. The girl also told her parents that her wife was called Sheila and that they had both been fatally injured in a motorbike accident on the 20th July 1975 in Brookfield Illinois. Professor Banerjee had heard of the claims this girl had made and asked her to tell him everything once more. He then wrote to Dr. Adrian Finkelstein, who was living in Chicago, asking him to find out whether there was any truth in what the girl was saying. Dr. Adrian Finkelstein wrote back saying: The police investigation stated that a Joseph Wilke and his wife from Brookfield had died on the 20th July 1975 at 5:33pm in an accident involving his Honda motorbike.

 

A sceptic could well say that someone was playing games with Dr. Banerjee by telling a three-year-old girl about an accident he had heard about, and then telling the girl to recount the story to the research scientist as if it was her own from a past life. A little girl would not fool Professor Banerjee, an experienced research scientist. I will now tell you about another case that this Professor investigated, and which in my eyes is even stronger proof of reincarnation.

 

In Adana, on the southern coast of Turkey, lived Mehemet Altinklish and his family. One-day his two-year-old son said to him, “I don’t want to live here any more. I want to go back to my home and children.” His father said, “What did you just say Ismail?” “Don’t call me Ismail, my name is Abeit,” the child replied. His father then wanted to know from where he got these ideas. His son explained that his real name was Abeit Suzulmus and that he had been the owner of a large garden nursery until three men had broken in and killed him.

 

His father clearly remembered that several months before the birth of his son, a man named Abeit Suzulmus, the owner of a large garden centre who lived just over a kilometer away from Mr. Altinklish had been killed with an iron bar by three men. There had been many newspaper reports about this incident, which had happened on the 31st January 1956. Mr. Suzulmus had employed three men who applied for a job in one of his garden centres. These three men had locked him into a shed and had murdered him. After that they had broken into the house and had killed his second wife and her two children. The three murderers were caught. After a sensational trial two of them were hanged, while the third died in prison.

 

Ismail continued to insist that he is Abeit and repeatedly begged his father to take him to his previous home. He often cried out in his sleep, “Gulsarin! Gulsarin!” and woke up crying. His parents knew that this person he was calling in his sleep was his daughter from his past life, since he had told his parents about her. When Ismail was three years old his father finally agreed for him to be taken to the house of the murdered gardener.

 

Eleven people accompanied him. Ismail insisted that no one should show him where the house is, for he claimed he could find his way there. Even though his companions tried to mislead him several times Ismail continued on his way knowing exactly where he was going. The boy had never walked this way before.

 

When they had entered the house there were about 30 people waiting for them. They wanted to put the boy to the test to see whether he would recognise members of his former family. He immediately went up to one of the women, called her by name and told the others that this was his first wife. Then he saw his former daughter whom he had called out by name with such longing in his sleep. The same happened with his second daughter and his son who were also present. Finally he said, “Now I want to show you where I was murdered.” He led them to the shed in which the brutal crime had been committed. There he pointed out certain things that had since changed.

 

The newspapers published two articles about this family reunion. One story read as follows: The boy Ismail had recognised an ice cream vendor and had called him by name asking him, “Do you remember me?” The man said no, and Ismail continued, “I am Abeit. In the past you used to sell watermelons and vegetables instead of ice-cream.” The salesman agreed that this was so. The boy also told him that he had been the one who had circumcised him long ago. By now the ice-cream salesman was also convinced that this boy had really been the nursery owner he had once known.

 

One day Ismail met a man and reminded him that he had lent him some money when he was Abeit, and that he still owed this money to the Suzulmus family. The man agreed that this was true. Another time he saw a man who was leading a cow on a rope. Ismail talked to him and asked whether that was the ‘yellow one’ that used to belong to Mr. Suzulmus. The man told him it was.

 

Professor Banerjee is absolutely convinced that none of these stories were invented. The two families had nothing to gain by telling lies, since that could well bring them into conflict with their religious leaders. When Professor Banerjee was investigating this case and was interviewing the families, he was asked to keep quiet about the things he was told. Besides those families avoided each other. The murder victim’s family was probably accusing Ismail’s family of having started all this talk.