People who believe they have lived past lives as, say, Indian princesses or battlefield commanders are more likely to make certain types of memory errors, according to a new study. The propensity to make these mistakes could, in part, explain why people cling to implausible reincarnation claims in the first place. Researchers recruited people who, after undergoing hypnotic therapy, had come to believe that they had past lives. Subjects were asked to read aloud a list of 40 non-famous names, and then, after a two-hour wait, told that they were going to see a list consisting of three types of names: non-famous names they had already seen (from the earlier list), famous names, and names of non-famous people that they had not previously seen. Their task was to identify which names were famous.The researchers found that, compared to control subjects who dismissed the idea of reincarnation, past-life believers were almost twice as likely to misidentify names. In particular, their tendency was to wrongly identify as famous the non-famous names they had seen in the first task.

This kind of error, called a source-monitoring error, indicates that a person has difficulty recognizing where a memory came from.People who are likely to make these kinds of errors might end up convincing themselves of things that aren’t true, said lead researcher Maarten Peters of Maastricht University in The Netherlands. When people who are prone to making these mistakes undergo hypnosis and are repeatedly asked to talk about a potential idea — like a past life — they might, as they grow more familiar with it, eventually convert the idea into a full-blown false memory.

View: Full Article | Source: MSNBC

This is why hypnosis is a bad idea I believe in reincarnation, but I think that if you're going to remember it will come to you without force.

Totally agree.

There will always be scientists that try to bring the subject of reincarnation into disrepute, it will probably be a debate that carries on for centuries. Unfortunately, they are always trying to DISPROVE rather than helping to see if reincarnation is a possibility.

Personally, I believe in reincarnation and I don't think that any experiment will make me see any different purely because of the things I have had happen to me. The only thing that would make be disbelieve in reincarnation is myself.

I agree.

I agree fully with the two previous posts also. There have been some amazing stories about reincarnation that do not involve hypnosis, which have given credence to the existence of reincarnation. So this study to me demonstrates that memories under hypnosis are questionable, it does not either prove or disprove the existence of reincarnation. As a scientist by education, it is rather disturbing to me the way scientists trying to disprove the paranormal will take the results of studies such as these and draw unsupported conclusions as to what the results of the studies signify. I have seen this numerous times regarding OBE, near death experiences and other paranormal phenomena. Good science should always be viewed objectively, these conclusions that I have often seen obviously have not been very objectively derived.

My advice, always question the conclusions of a scientific study and see if the results support the conclusion. In this case, they do not, as there are many believers in reincarnation that have not undergone hypnosis. And there have been cases of people who 'remember' past lives who have also not undergone hypnosis such as children remembering their past lives and these I feel give more credence to reincarnation.

Which reminds me of a story about a scientist telling his class about the grasshopper on his desk. He told the grasshopper to jump and the grasshopper jumped. So he cut the legs off the grasshopper and ask the grasshopper to jump and the grasshopper didn't jump. There says the scientist, only proves that if you cut the legs off the grasshopper doesn't hear.

If reincarnation is true, then how do you explain mass growth in population?

If at one point the world had one million people, then following reincarnation theory, for another person to exist/be born, then someone else has to die, to become this new baby. So that would mean the population would always remain the same. But the Earths population is always increasing... so where are all these extra people coming from????

extinct animals

I think the idea is that there are many souls in existence and they can remain as souls without bodies for as long as they'd like before choosing to go into a body. So the explanation for the mass growth in population would be that more souls have decided to inhabit a body on Earth. I don't know much about reincarnation though so I could be wrong.

Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia did studies of past life remembrances, but I understand he only researched cases where people spoke in other languages while under hypnosis (something that can't be made up), and children who were spontaneous in their memories and could be taken to the place where they thought they'd previously lived. I know there's a tendency for people under hypnosis to want to please the hypnotist, but in some cases I understand you can ask the person under hypnosis where they got the information and get an honest answer if it's not a true past life remembrance. I agree with what's been said already, and the answer about the number of people in the world at any particular time.

It reminds me of this story. This was also posted here some time ago, but I failed to find the thread.

ja. I don't believe in PL, and I have heard of cases where it IS false memory syndrome. Interesting article, though! thanx for posting!

I agree, StoneAgeQueen. I've just had too many strange experiences in my life for it to be a misdirected or falsely created memory. And I'm to believe that my 3-year-old niece who told me very seriously one day that she had been a boy with yellow hair a long long time ago was just part of a full-blown false memory? I don't think so.

And I don't think these people who have past-life recall are just adopting these false memories from an external source. I'm sure many people love baseball or watch a movie about an airplane pilot, but they don't believe they were Charles Lindbergh in a past life. I think past-life memory is manifested in what is called "bleedthroughs", and past-life profiles are done by examining a pattern in the person's life: likes, dislikes, phobias, and other things.

THATS BRILLIANT!!! I am so using that!


NICE ONE!!!

You are so right, Bearly. Someone should do some psych studies of people who are unable to learn anything fundamentally new, anything not in their textbooks. ~~~Cebrakon

So what the hell is deja vu? I've always been curious because i feel like i have an episode every day.. If someone can help me understand why then please do.

I'm sorry but this study is BS.