Daniel and I had an exchange of emails based on the account of Jasbir on discussed by Ian Stevenson in his book “Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation”.
– It starts on p. 34 of Stevenson’s book.
A short summary: Jasbir was down with a serious illness. When he recovered his personality changed to that of Sobha Ram who died around the same time.
– So it appears that Jasbir’s gandhabba left Jasbir’s physical body, and Sobha Ram’s gandhabba took control of that physical body.
For that to happen, the “transition” must have happened quickly. A dead body starts decomposing quickly.
The following was my conclusion in my email to Daniel:
Jasbir’s and other witnesses’ accounts look good. But there is no real evidence of two personalities living in the same body or the same gandhabba living in two bodies SIMULTANEOUSLY.
That is because the dates/times of the death of Sobha Ram are not really known (May 23 or May 23, 1954.)
– Even more problematic is the uncertainty of the “change of personality” of Jasbir. Ref. 24 says it could have happened in April or May of 1954.
– Reference 24 on p. 35 has a summary of those events above.
So, Jasbir may have had the “change of personality” after the death of Sobha Ram, i.e., in principle the gandhabba that came out of the DEAD BODY of Sobha Ram MAY HAVE entered the DEAD BODY of Jasbir.
– In principle, that would be possible as long as that gandhabba entered the dead body of Jasbir IMMEDIATELY AFTER the original gandhabba that was in Jasbir’s body left.
Once a physical body dies, it starts decomposing right away. That is a critical issue.
To add to that: That applies to a zygote in a womb too. Sometimes, a gandhabba takes possession of a zygote but leaves (more like pulled out by kammic forces, due to possible mismatch) after a short while. Then it is possible for another gandhabba to take possession of that zygote (as directed by kammic forces) before the zygote is expelled from the womb.
“Buddhist Explanations of Conception, Abortion, and Contraception”