Past life regression

Past life regression (PLR), Past life therapy (PLT), regression or memory regression is a method that uses hypnosis to recover what practitioners believe are memories of past lives or incarnations.[1][2] The practice is widely considered discredited and unscientific by medical practitioners, and experts generally regard claims of recovered memories of past lives as fantasies or delusions or a type of confabulation.[3] Past-life regression is typically undertaken either in pursuit of a spiritual experience, or in a psychotherapeutic setting. Most advocates loosely adhere to beliefs about reincarnation,[4] though religious traditions that incorporate reincarnation generally do not include the idea of repressed memories of past lives.[5]

The technique used during past-life regression involves the subject answering a series of questions while hypnotized to reveal identity and events of alleged past lives, a method similar to that used in recovered memory therapy and one that, similarly, often misrepresents recovered memories as faithful recordings of previous events rather than constructed sets of recollections. The use of hypnosis and suggestive questions can tend to leave the subject particularly likely to hold distorted or false memories.[6] The source of the memories is more likely cryptomnesia and confabulations that combine experiences, knowledge, imagination and suggestion or guidance from the hypnotist than recall of a previous existence. Once created, those memories are indistinguishable from memories based on events that occurred during the subject's life.[4][5]

Investigations of memories reported during past-life regression have revealed that they contain historical inaccuracies which originate from common beliefs about history, modern popular culture, or books that discuss historical events. Experiments with subjects undergoing past-life regression indicate that a belief in reincarnation and suggestions by the hypnotist are the two most important factors regarding the contents of memories reported.[4][7][8]

  1. ^ Remembrances of Lives Past, Article from The New York Times
  2. ^ past life regression, website www.skepdic.com
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Norcross2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c Carroll RT (2003). The Skeptic's Dictionary: a collection of strange beliefs, amusing deceptions, and dangerous delusions. New York: Wiley. pp. 276–7. ISBN 978-0-471-27242-7.
  5. ^ a b Cordón LA (2005). Popular psychology: an encyclopedia. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. pp. 183–5. ISBN 978-0-313-32457-4.
  6. ^ Linse P, Shermer M (2002). The Skeptic encyclopedia of pseudoscience. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO. pp. 206–7. ISBN 978-1-57607-653-8.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Spanos was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sumner was invoked but never defined (see the help page).