The Pollock Twins: Back from the Dead

**Discussion begins at 4:30**

In the late 1950s, a quiet family in the English town of Hexham experienced a tragedy that would forever change their lives, and eventually become one of the most famous alleged cases of reincarnation in modern history.  In 1957, two young sisters, Joanna and Jacqueline Pollock, were killed in a car accident while walking to church with a friend.  Their parents, devastated by the loss, tried to rebuild their lives while carrying unimaginable grief.  But about a year later, something extraordinary happened.  Their mother gave birth to twin girls: Jennifer and Gillian. Almost immediately, their father became convinced that the twins were somehow the rebirth of the daughters he had lost.  As the girls grew older, they began displaying strange similarities to their deceased sisters, including shared personality traits, specific fears, and even what appeared to be memories of places and events they had never experienced.  One twin was even born with birthmarks that closely resembled scars that Jacqueline had before her death.  The story would go on to attract the attention of researchers studying reincarnation, including psychiatrist Ian Stevenson, who documented cases of children claiming memories of past lives around the world.  But the Pollock Sisters case raises a difficult question: were these eerie similarities evidence of something beyond our understanding… or could they be explained by grief, suggestion, and coincidence?