Chapter 2 -

Examining reincarnation  

 

 

 

 

If you have read literature on the New Age movement and reincarnation, perhaps you have noticed in books reports about research that has been carried out on this area. You have perhaps noticed that two of the most common methods in this research have been hypnosis and spontaneous reproductions.

   In order to get another perspective on these methods, it is perhaps good for us to read the following information; these methods are not very reliable, neither is the research thorough. We will first look at the use of hypnosis.

 

 The use of hypnosis

 

Not a normal condition. The first reason to question the use of hypnosis is that it is not the normal state in which we usually think and remember. We never start to think and remember things while we are asleep, only when we are awake. This also applies to study: we do it when we are awake, never when we sleep.

   So if we truly had previous lives, we should remember them also in our normal state and not only under hypnosis. The fact that we do not remember our previous lives makes it reasonable for us to wonder whether we have ever lived them.

 

The subconscious. Another problem with hypnosis is that our subconscious can interfere. It is possible that things we remember in the session are not from our former life but from a novel we have read, or from a similar source. This likelihood always exists.

  A Scientific Report on the Search for Bridey Murphy by Harold Rosen provides a good example of this:

 

For example, in hypnosis a man started to speak the Indo-European language Oski, which was spoken in Campani, Italy during the 3^rd century before Christ. He could also write one swearword in Oski. It later became evident after several hypnosis sessions that the man had recently leafed through a grammar book of the Oski language in the library. His subconscious had remembered many idioms of the Oski language, which then “emerged” under hypnosis.

 

Adjusting to a role. The third problem with hypnosis is that perhaps the hypnotized person only adjusts to the role that is expected from him and only responds to the suggestions of the hypnotist. Many researchers think that 95% of hypnosis is only acting out a role and agreeing with the hypnotist (Bradbury Will, s. 174, In i det okända, Reader's Digest, Sthlm 1983). Even the famous reincarnation researcher Ian Stevenson has admitted that acting a role and adjusting to the will of the hypnotist are possible under hypnosis:

 

Those ‘personalities’ that usually appear during hypnosis when the subject experiences a ‘previous life' seem to include various features. They can include things about the person’s personality at this moment, the person’s expectations of what the hypnotist expected from him, the person’s ideas about what his previous life should have been like, and perhaps also paranormal aspects. (3)

 

Unknown spirits. The fourth danger with hypnosis is that in these sessions, people are in contact with unidentified spirits, and the information comes from them. This is very justifiable because many people who are easily hypnotized have experienced plenty of paranormal phenomena in their life, similar to those found in spiritualism.

   For example, Helen Wambach who is a pioneer in examining possible former lives through hypnosis has herself admitted that the interference of spirits is possible in hypnosis. She said:

 

I know many people who have been dealing with occultism, who think that getting possessed by a demon is a real danger for people who are under hypnosis. (…) I was almost misled. When the spirits, odd messages, and automatic writing started to appear in spiritualistic sessions, I learned much more than I had ever anticipated. (4)

 

Spontaneous recollections

 

In addition to hypnosis, reincarnation has been examined by means of so-called spontaneous recollections. Sometimes we can hear very accurate descriptions from a person, often a child, who thinks that he has been someone else and speaks about the previous life. The weaknesses in this method are at least the following:

 

Most people do not remember anything. The worst problem is that the majority of people do not have any recollections of their previous lives. Even H.B. Blavatsky, who was the founder of the theosophical society and who brought the doctrine of reincarnation to the West, admitted this. If we have really lived previous lives, we should also remember them. But why can we not?

 

Bound to the culture. The second observation that we can make is that it is bound to the culture and expectations of people. Where people believe in reincarnation, we also find more recollections but there are less of these in the Western countries. Most of all, they are found among those nations that believe in direct reincarnation after death. Because of the cultural commitment, we can question whether they have any meaning at all because they are not found in the Western countries at all.

 

Other connections. Many people who have “a memory of reincarnation” have also experienced paranormal phenomena, which lead us to doubt whether it is only a question of spirits. It is possible that people receive their information from these unknown spirits and it is not a question of real reincarnation.

   Even Ian Stevenson, the best known researcher of recollections, has admitted that many situations that have been regarded as evidence of reincarnation can actually be about occultist phenomena and connected with unknown spirits. In addition to this, Stevenson received an open letter from a Hinduswami (Sri Sri Somasundara Desika Paramachariya) from South India. In this letter, the Hinduswami warned him about the possibility mentioned above. He wrote:

 

None of those 300 cases about which you told me support reincarnation. (…) In those, it is a question of getting under the power of a spirit, which the wise men from South India do not value very much. (5)

 

Living as the same person. Those cases are very interesting where two children remember to have lived as the same person. This was the case with Said Bouhamsy, a case Ian Stevenson has also thoroughly studied.

   Bouhamsy was a Druus who died in a car accident in 1943. Six months after his death his sister gave birth to a boy whose first words were the names of Bouhamsy’s children. The boy could also tell about the accident that had ended his "previous life," and was terribly afraid of trucks for many years.

   The problem was that later in 1958, another male child was born who also started to recall his previous life as Said Bouhamsy! He remembered the accident and the number of his children and other things like that. He also developed a fear for trucks.

   So, these cases in which two people recall having lived as the same person are impossible to explain through reincarnation. It cannot be the reason why two people recall their life as the same person. Probably also in these cases, it is a question of falling under the power of a spirit.

 

Person is still alive. It sometimes happens that a child recalls his previous life as a person who is still alive! This was the mysterious case of Jasbir Lali, another that Ian Stevenson also examined. 

   In 1954 when Jasbir was 3.5 years old, he almost died of smallpox and soon after recovering from the illness started to speak about how in his previous life he had been a boy from the neighboring village of Sobha Ram. He told precise details about his life as that boy; things whose truthfulness could be checked.

   However, in the case of Jasbir Lali the problem was that Sobha Ram had not died before the birth of Jasbir; he died when Jasbir was 3 years old.

   This case cannot be about reincarnation because the person was still alive. There must be some other explanation.

 

Many Napoleons. There have also been impossible and amusing cases with reincarnations. For example, in America we can find many people who claim that they have lived as Cleopatra or Napoleon! They claim that they have lived as Cleopatra or Napoleon, even though there could have been only one Cleopatra and one Napoleon during the history of the world. We should also note that there are over a hundred people who claim to have lived as H.B. Blavatsky, the founder of the theosophical society!

   A good question in the previous cases is: have the spontaneous recollections been mixed up? What is the foundation for these claims? This same special feature was also noticed by Daniel Home, one of the most famous mediums of his time. He met twenty Alexander the Greats among other notable people, for example. We can understand that these kinds of recollections cannot be true:

 

I have had the pleasure of meeting at least twelve Marie Antoinettes, six or seven Mary, Queen of Scots, a whole group of Louis the Greats and many other kings, and about twenty Alexander the Greats, but never an ordinary person like John Smith. I really would want to meet such an unusual case.

 

The borderline cases, visits beyond the border of death, are not as such included in recollections, but they can also contradict reincarnation. Thus, Maurice Rawlings, for example, who has been a doctor for about 35 years and followed cases of mortal danger and sudden deaths, said that as a doctor he never received any proof of reincarnation when interviewing people. He wrote in his book Rajan taakse ja takaisin (p. 106, To Hell and Back):

 

It is interesting that I have not seen in any visions at the deathbed even one reference to reincarnation, the persons returning to Earth by reincarnating, or them still living in some other person who has already been born. The concept of 'ownership' – living in those who have already been born – was unexpectedly offered by the expert in reincarnation, Ian Stevenson.