Thanks for your response Paul.

As you say, there are bound to be books on almost any subject, from both sides of the argument. Of course there are sceptical takes on reincarnation. I don't intend to read them in detail but, as I said, I suspect that they think that reincarnation is impossible in principle, because they probably think that the brain is responsible for consciousness, which therefore dies with it.

If past life memories and vivid near-death-experiences aren't real, then the authors have to have a convincing argument as to how the brain creates these illusions. Susan Blackmore's suggestion that it is a brain malfunction seems like clutching at straws to me. The fact that Stevenson was mentioned in everything you found suggests that he is credible, and should be taken seriously.

It's good to know that you keep away from in-principle positions. I thought you came close to that when you stated that "Human memories are literally encoded in the brain". That claim is certainly debatable. And I was surprised to discover, when following your links, to find a wikipedia article and a Youtube video; I was expecting to find something along the lines of peer-reviewed Nature papers. (The wikipedia article is of course detailed and contains many scientific references.) I suspect that many of these neuroscientists merely assume that the memories are encoded. I'm guessing that it would be very difficult to identify the precise location in the brain where a specific memory can be located.