Thai boy Dalawong was three years old when he met Khiev, an acquaintance of his father. The boy knew in detail that Khiev once collided with a snake. How he knew this remains a mystery.
Dalawong explained that in a past life he was the same snake. He said he was lying in a cave when two dogs came there. He had a fight with dogs, and then with their owner Khiev. Khiev killed the snake.
He confirmed this. Dalawong said that after he died, he saw that his current father ate part of the snake. This was also true.
Dalawong touched Khiev's shoulder where the snake had bitten him. Dalawong took offense at Khiev, but then forgave him. Dalawong said that there is nothing good in being a snake, and Khiev delivered him from this misfortune. The boy began killing snakes, believing that it was a good thing.
When Dalawong was born, he was diagnosed with a strange skin defect: the lower part of his body was covered with scales like a snake.
The case was investigated by Francis Storey, assistant to Dr. Ian Stevenson, a psychiatrist and reincarnation researcher at the University of Virginia.
Stephenson's follower Dr. Tucker cites this case in his book Re-Lived: Incredible Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives.
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Even people who believe in past lives may be skeptical about the likelihood of rebirth from animal to human. Dr. Tucker said he heard children say they were animals in a past life. But they are extremely rare among the thousands of reincarnation cases studied by Dr. Stevenson.
He cited another case of reincarnation from an animal. An American boy named Peter received a candy cane necklace. This item triggered his past life memories. Peter said that he remembered himself as a chimpanzee at the zoo, the boy threw a similar candy necklace into his cage. He didn't know what to do with it and threw it back at the boy.
Peter told his mother in detail how he was caught in nature and brought to the zoo.
Tucker wrote:
“I can believe chimpanzees can have a lucid memory of candy. But I do not believe that a snake is able to remember a specific place and chronology of events and, years later, recognize the person who killed it. Although I do not know what is going on in the head of the snake, it is just beyond my understanding."
At the same time, Tucker is convinced that reincarnation exists, and the mind continues to live after the death of the body. He studied numerous cases of past life memories and believes that the children or their families did not invent them. Tucker suggested that Dalawong learned about Khiev's meeting with the snake in another, possibly also mystically, but was not reborn from the snake.