Memories and Past Life Regression Therapy

Growing up as a follower of Hinduism, I’ve often heard the term ‘Karma’. Be it an individual on a fast road to success or one in deplorable straits they all, get attributed to their past life. Because, in this unfair world we’ve got to find some fairness in it to have some peace of mind, don’t we?

Back in the 1930s, one of the most famous case was of a woman proclaiming herself as a re-incarnated individual. This sparked much debate in the research community.

The known facts of the case:

• Born in 11th December 1926, Shanti Devi was like any other child her age except she didn’t speak much.
• At the age of four, she started saying that her current parents were not her ‘actual’ parents and that her ‘actual’ home is in Mathura.
• As she grew, her claims became more detailed.
• She claimed that she was Lugdi Devi – the wife of Pandit Kedarnath Chaube (a merchant in Mathura) and the mother of son Navneet Lal.
• A shop merchant in Mathura who went by the name Pandit Kedarnath Chaube did in fact had a wife named Lugdi Devi who had died during child birth few years back.

Now, as one might wonder, the credibility of such claims is still unclear. Be that as it may, it still had given us some food for thought.

• Can memories be fabricated?
• Can a forgotten memory come back as new and original?

They say you’ve got to believe in your success for you to be successful. Akin to how the right mindset can heal most ailments, could belief alone be what drives Past life regression therapy?

What is Past life regression therapy?

A method that uses hypnosis to recover what practitioners believe are memories of past lives or incarnations.

According to the practitioners, by addressing the events that an individual went through before he or she was born in this life, their various mental disorders could be treated.

The regression could be to periods of their infancy, but also to periods of their gestational development, or periods before they were born with their current body, but their soul may have been embodied in another body, i.e., past lives.

Here’s a short video of what I think poses some very thought-provoking arguments on Past life.

The way they go about it:

Practitioners use hypnosis and suggestion to promote recall in their patients. They use a series of questions designed to elicit memories and statements.

A detailed study conducted by a study by Nicholas P. Spanos from Carleton University, Ontario, Canada illustrates a technique to accessing memories as follows:

“You are now in a different life, living in another life that you have lived before in another time. You are now reliving that other life that you lived once before in a different time.”

“What name can I call you by? I want you to look down and tell me what you are wearing. Describe everything you are wearing in detail. Where are you?”

They also use bridging techniques from a client’s current life problem to dredge up past life memories to surface.

Sources of memories:

When it comes to hypnosis it is delivered through suggestions.

Now, if we are told to close our eyes and tell what our life had been before we were born, our mind produces certain images. Images that might or might not be influenced by what we’ve seen, heard and experienced in our life till then.

In an article I recently came upon, the author illustrates how we unconsciously plagiarize existing ideas through Cryptomnesia.

What is Cryptomnesia?

It is a memory bias whereby a person may falsely recall generating a thought, an idea, a tune, a name, or a joke, not deliberately engaging in plagiarism but rather experiencing a memory as if it were a new inspiration.

It is said that Cryptomnesia is likely occur when one’s ability to track sources is impaired.

Experiences like Déjà vu, can be attributed to Cryptomnesia.

So then, can’t one argue that during hypnosis, what one perceives as their past life memories could very well be something that they have seen/read about in their life?

Hold that thought, there’s more.

I remember getting an elbow injury a couple of months back. Strangely enough, I didn’t remember how I got that injury. When asked on how I got that, I came up blank. I couldn’t recall but then I came up with an “I must have hit the door on the way out or something” with an added imagery. Pretty vague, but made sense.

Now, I am clear on the distorted truth. What if one isn’t? Then, they might be Confabulating.

What is Confabulation?

Confabulation is a type of memory error in which gaps in a person’s memory are unconsciously filled with fabricated, misinterpreted, or distorted information.

Let’s be clear that confabulating is not the same as lying. In that, it is unintentional.

When confabulating, the person believes what they are remembering is true. They can also be very elaborate and detailed.

It is of two types:

Provoked Confabulation: In response to a specific question, one cooks up an untrue story.

Spontaneous Confabulation: Rare but occurs when a fabricated story is spun unprovoked.

Research says that confabulating can occur due to overlearning.

A factor that arises due to one information being prominent at the forefront of your mind. Due to the dominating thought, specific facts and memories related to it can be dredged up that leads to memory distortions

So again, can’t one argue that during Past life regression therapy, one in fact could be confabulating?

Due to the very questionable nature of past life therapy, it is still largely unrecognized and is considered unethical.

Conclusion

Each of us are unique in what we experience. So, past life may very well not be a myth, like shown in the video. Still, it is also true that sometimes we only see what we want to see.

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