ICRR awarded €50,000 grant for PRCDb
Readers of our newsletter Back Again might recall that ICRR has been working tentatively on creating the Published Reincarnation Case Database (PRCDb), a comprehensive database made up of all datapoints of the roughly 500 reincarnation cases that have been published. We decided to use artificial intelligence to convert the texts into datapoints, both for speed and for prevention of human error and experimenter bias.
The database’s purpose is to allow quick and easy statistical calculations that will tell us more about reincarnation and how it works. Some very good theoretical advancements have already resulted from statistical work in reincarnation research, but it’s been hampered by the fact that the only existing database is private and thus not available to most researchers. PRCDb will be open to all, and as such will lift the quantitatively analytical capacity of reincarnation research to another level.
In the summer of 2024 we ramped up our efforts so as to apply for a major grant to fund the project, obtaining some very promising results from AI testing. We submitted the application on August 31.
On Dec. 5 we learned that the grant was approved, so we are now proud and excited to be required to say about PRCDb from now on: This work was supported by the BIAL Foundation (371/24). The BIAL Foundation is the largest existing institutional grantor for parapsychological work, operating since 1994. They awarded us €50,000, and both work and payment are planned to start on Feb. 3. We have scheduled system launch—the day when the database becomes available to all researchers for use—for Nov. 30, 2026.
The PRCDb team is comprised of all four members of the ICRR Board of Directors: KM Wehrstein (project manager), Alexei Medvedev (AI specialist), Benjamin Bagley (web developer/designer) and Bob Giacalone (statistics and research methods specialist), plus ICRR Science Council member Ohkado Masayuki (principal investigator), and members Jacob Williamson (human coder), Aviv Yeshayav (IT assistant) and Mark Egan (SPSS specialist). The eight of us hail from seven nations and four continents.
So what does this mean for the future of reincarnation research and ICRR?
Most obviously, it will generate a burgeoning of statistical studies on reincarnation, and in fact the start of this is built into the project, as once the system is built it will need to be study-tested. That will start with us, and over the three-year period of the grant we have scheduled for one online conference, five conference presentations, seven conference papers and four journal articles. Test study topics range from how many reincarnates recall freely choosing aspects of their past lives to how likely the alternative explanations for reincarnation (e.g., fraud, fantasy, psychic powers, etc.) really are to how prevalent are lasting effects of past lives… and many more.
Following our own study testing, we’ll continue with beta-testers from outside the team, several of whom we have lined up, with interesting ideas like Sharon Rawlette’s testing of the full body of published reincarnation cases for date synchronicities. And then of course we’ll open the doors to everyone.
As well, by establishing and refining the technology for parapsychological AI database creation, ICRR will be able to help other fields within life-after-death research or even parapsychology generally to build their own databases of cases, possibly helping enable the whole field reach a new level of scientific capability.
But there are also great possibilities for public outreach. ICRR can send out a press release about every study whose author gives us permission to. (Do people want to know, say, how many people with past-life memories recall choosing who their next parents would be? Of course they do!) KM Wehrstein wants to publish a popular book entitled Reincarnation: The Stats to show what statistical studies say about reincarnation. The potential for increasing both quantity and quality of reincarnation info in the public discourse is exciting!
And we’re sure there are more benefits we aren’t anticipating yet.
Congratulations to everyone on the PRCDb team, thanks to our supporters, friends and members, and our deepest gratitude to BIAL.
-KMW
2 comments on “ICRR awarded €50,000 grant for PRCDb”
Very intriguing topic of research.
I follow your organization on Facebook and read your exciting announcement! I have been a transformational spiritual teacher for over 4 decades and I assist people in remembering their previous lives. Is there any way for me to get involved in some way with what you are doing? I personally have recalled several lifetimes that generated amazing transformative results in my current life. I encourage discovering past lives as a way to clear up issues in this life, not just for curiosity reasons. Also, I wrote a “fictionalized” book about my personal experiences remembering various soul relationships brought from other lives. Let me know if there is any sort of connection I can have. Thank you and I’m so thrilled to have this work enter more mainstream thinking…. FINALLY!