Reincarnation


   
    In 1977 the prestigious and esteemed medical JOURNAL OF NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASE published two research
articles on the subject of reincarnation. Both were written by Dr. Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia School of Medicine. (See
especially his article titled: “The Explanatory Value of the Idea of Reincarnation”.)
    For the past three decades Dr. Stevenson has traveled all over the world studying cases of young children between the ages of two
and six, who possess vivid memories of former incarnations. These memories often incorporate an ability to speak a language which had not
been learned (or even heard) during the current life. This phenomenon is known as xenoglossey. And it is not at all unusual for such
children to name names, dates, places, etc., which can be and often are checked out and verified by research teams such as the one headed
by Ian Stevenson. In some of the most dramatic cases a three or four year old child will have lucid memories of his wife, sons and daughters
in a previous life. Indeed, such children have been known to discuss the most intimate details of their sexual lives vis-a-vis their spouses of
a past incarnation. And they articulate their ideas quite fluently and in adult vocabulary.
    There are essentially two major methods of studying reincarnation. The first of these is the technique employed by Dr. Stevenson.
This involves studying young children with vivid and detailed memories of former lives. The second approach is known as hypnotic age
regression. And it involves placing a person into a deep trance and hypnotically regressing him/her back prior to his/her current lifetime.
Hypnotic age regression is quite a bit more popular than the first approach because (1) it is far less expensive, and (2) it is easier to
accomplish provided that the services of a skilled hypnotist are enlisted. As with the Stevenson approach, detailed data complete with
names, dates, places, etc., often surface. Such data can be and very often are checked out and verified empirically. People often commence
speaking in a foreign language once they are under a deep trance. Of course, the remarkable thing is that these languages and other
information had never been learned by the person in his or her current lifetime.
    So extensive is the use of age regression hypnosis today that some of its practitioners have devised a new school of psychotherapy
that has come to be known as past lives therapy. Since 1976, several books have been published on this approach to psychotherapy, and
these include at least a half-dozen that had been written primarily with the lay person in mind. (See especially the works of Netherton,
Wambach, and Sutphen, all of which are listed in the bibliography.)
    The essential idea behind “past lives therapy” is that pathological, highly debilitating phobias, fears, and other hang-ups are often the
result of traumas that had taken place during former incarnations. Therapy proceeds by gradually bringing the patient back to the traumatic
event and having him/her relive it through the hypnotic process. In other words, just as the conventional psychoanalyst tries to get his/her
client to experience a catharsis and a highly emotional abreaction of a traumatic event of his/her current life, past lives therapy strives
toward this same goal via hypnosis with regard to a past life or lives.
    We do not know why. But past lives psychotherapists have allegedly achieved a far more impressive “cure rate” than have
conventional psychoanalysts. (Again, see the writings of Netherton, Wambach, and Sutphen.) Personally, I do not believe that “insight”
or an emotionally charged “reliving” of a traumatic event (irrespective of whether that event had occurred during the present lifetime or
during a past one) could ever prove sufficient to help the severely love-shy man out of his plight. Nevertheless, a full awareness of the
ultimate source of one’s problem can never hurt and indeed may even help--at least a little bit.
    Up to now Netherton, Wambach and Sutphen have not worked with any severely love-shy men. They have worked primarily with
female clients who had been phobic or severely anxiety-prone at the time they had been treated. Of course, this does not render their highly
impressive and most heartening results any less meaningful or any less important. However, it is certainly to be hoped that their techniques
will soon be tried on the severely love-shy.


Implications

    The highly detailed memories of past lives which Dr. Stevenson found among certain two-to-six year old children are not very
commonplace. But cases do crop up from time to time all over the world, including right here in the United States and Canada. However,
when such memories become conspicuously manifest in the life of a child such significant others as parents, peers and teachers feel quite
“unnerved” about it and frequently take steps (often punitive in nature) to discourage the phenomena. This is why almost all children
forget such memories by the time they reach the age of six. Children become so involved in the excitements and demands of their current
existence that their memories of the past tend to become lost.
    And so it is with people who discover detailed memories of a past life or lives through hypnotic age regression. Mrs. Ruth Simmons,
the quite conventional housewife of Pueblo, Colorado, who had been permitted through hypnosis to recall vivid memories of her former life
as Bridey Murphy in 18th century Cork, Ireland, found herself becoming increasingly upset by these memories--particularly because of the
tremendous amount of unwanted publicity which they attracted. Like hundreds of other people, Mrs. Simmons chose to terminate her
experiences with age-regression hypnosis because the publicity combined with the highly detailed memories that she had been recalling
were causing her current life to become increasingly uncomfortable. Nevertheless, many of her quite detailed memories called up specific
facts which were subsequently verified by research teams who went to Ireland in order to analyze what they could of 18th century Cork.
    I believe that all serious research work on reincarnation entails clear implications for the study of love-shyness. It is true that
comparatively few of us ever manage to remember anything of our past lives. But reincarnational memories may impact upon all people in far
more subtle ways. In essence, some of our behavior may be affected by figments of memory of which we are not consciously aware, and
which we do not think of as being associated with or indicative of past incarnations.
    A good analogy here would be the way in which conventional “ESP” operates. We know that all people have extra-sensory
perception to some extent. Very few people have it to a powerful extent; and most of those who do have it to a powerful extent enjoy this
benefit for only a comparatively brief portion of their lives--much as the children in Dr. Stevenson’s work managed to sustain their strong
reincarnational memories only until about the age of six. Psychic healing ability works the same way. All of us have some psychic healing
ability. But a miniscule proportion of people command very powerful and amazing abilities along these lines. The ability of most people for
serving as a channel for healing energies is quite limited. And some people have even been found to be “negative healers”--sort of like the
“brown thumb” person around plants. These “negative healers” unintentionally sap energy away from the sick and make them worse!
    Helen Wambach of John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California, has age-regressed thousands of quite ordinary people. And she
has found that virtually everyone appears to have at least some past life memories of which they had been entirely unaware and which
could be recaptured. Together with Morris Netherton and Dick Sutphen, Dr. Wambach has been able to show that these memories often
impact upon predilections, interests, long-term traits of temperament, fears, career patterns, esthetic and romantic love predilections, etc., in
ways that the person had never had any awareness of at all.
    Again, as with “ESP” and psychic healing, very few people recall vivid thoughts and feelings or traumatic events from past lives.
However, virtually everyone tested by Wambach recalled something. And those with serious psychoemotional adjustment problems often
recalled a rich supply of memories when they were hypnotically age-regressed. Through the reliving of these memories, many people have
allegedly had their present adjustment problems quite fully remedied.
    In sum, if reincarnation impacts at all on human beings its influence is not likely to be limited to people such as Ruth Simmons or to
four-year old children who vividly recall a life as someone’s father or mother in another time and place. Such memories need not be a
manifest part of everyday consciousness in order to wield an impact upon peoples’ lives. Conventional empirical scientists have forgotten
that man is part spirit and not all physical brain and body. If the spirit mind is indeed immortal, then subtle facets of its past experiences
during former incarnations may well impact in significant and long neglected ways upon the development in the current life of such pesky
problems as severe love-shyness.