James Arthur Flowerdew (1 December 1906 – 30 September 2002) was an English man from Norfolk, England[2] whose claimed recollections of the ancient city of Petra in Jordan are offered as a supposed proof of the existence of reincarnation.
From his adolescence, Flowerdew experienced strange visions of a stone city carved into a cliff, which were particularly strong when he played in the multicolored pebbles on a beach near his home.
In The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Rinpoche claims that before Flowerdew left for Jordan, he was interviewed by an archaeological expert excavating Petra to test his knowledge of the ancient city.
said that Flowerdew had more knowledge of the city than many professionals studying it, and they did not believe him to be an incredible con man (a feat which, in this case, they felt would have taken extraordinary skill).
[5] Many spiritual leaders, including Tibetan Buddhist lama Sogyal Rinpoche, believe that Flowerdew's experience offers highly suggestive evidence for the existence of rebirth or reincarnation.