Technique

Technique

In the West, past-life regression practitioners use hypnosis and suggestion to promote recall in their patients, using a series of questions designed to elicit statements and memories about the past life's history and identity.^[3] Some practitioners also use bridging techniques from a client’s current-life problem to bring "past-life stories" to conscious awareness.^[11] Practitioners believe that unresolved issues from alleged past lives may be the cause of their patients' problems,^[12] The technique is not taught as part of any medical internships.^[1] Luis Cordón states that this can be problematic as it creates delusions under the guise of therapy. Memories can vary from harmless to actually increasing suffering in the patient or their families. The memories are experienced as vivid as those based on events experienced in one's life, impossible to differentiate from true memories of actual events, and accordingly any damage can be difficult to undo.^[2]

Chinese numerologists use the Buddhist/Taoist text the Three Lives Book to describe details of past lives.^[13] Teachers of Eastern religion claim to be able to use siddhi or abhijna abilities to regress other's lives.^[14]

[edit]Sources of memories

Scientific consensus is that the memories are the result of cryptomnesia, narratives created by the subconscious mind using imagination, forgotten information and suggestions from the therapist.^{[1][2][3][15][16][17][18]} Memories created under hypnosis are indistinguishable from actual memories and can be more vivid than factual memories.^[2][19] The greatest predictor of individuals reporting memories of past lives appears to be their beliefs about the existence in reincarnation - individuals who believe in reincarnation are more likely to report such memories, while sceptics or disbelievers are less so.^[1][5]

Examinations of three cases of apparent past life regression (Bridey Murphy, Jane Evans and an unnamed English woman) revealed memories that were superficially convincing. However, investigation by experts in the languages used and historical periods described revealed flaws in all three patients' recall. The evidence included speech patterns that were "...used by movie makers and writers to convey the flavour of 16th century English speech" rather than actual Renaissance English, a date that was inaccurate but was the same as a recognized printing error in historical pamphlets, and a subject that reported historically accurate information from the Roman era that was identical to information found in a 1947 novel set in the same time as the individual's memories, with the same name reported by the person regressed. Other details cited are common knowledge and not evidence of the factual nature of the memories; subjects asked to provide historical information that would allow checking provided only vague responses that did not allow for verification, and sometimes were unable to provide critical details that would have been common knowledge (e.g. a subject who was unable to provide the name of the Emperor of Japan during the 1940s despite describing a life of a Japanese fighter pilot during World War II).^[4]