The continuance of personality and behavioral traits over lifetimes doesn't contradict Buddhist teachings. In fact many examples of this are found in the Tipitaka, like the monk who exhibited arrogance because he had been a brahmin in many previous lives, or the one who would chew the cud because he had formerly been an ox.Individual wrote:His work contradicts Buddhist teachings because he is suggesting there is a mechanism for post-mortem personality transfer. In Theravada Abhidhamma, the existence of "personality" period is reject and what's commonly regarded as consciousness (vinnana) is impermanent, like all things, and notself.
This seeming continuance of personality traits doesn't require one to posit a personality that persists over lifetimes, or even during a lifetime. In the Abhidhamma such traits are accounted for in the teaching on conditional relations, with particular reference to association condition, repetition condition and natural decisive support condition.
I agree that his methodology is very problematic. Faith in rebirth based on Stevenson's findings is built on quicksand.Stevenson does not simply make observations, but created some pretty wildly speculative conclusions. He gains support from people who are looking for false evidence to support what they already blindly believe.
Kind regards,
Ciarán