Mind Power Lab

Debate on Past Life Regression

• Hypnosis is a legitimate area of psychology
• Age regression is an established and universally acceptable procedure of hypnotherapy.
• Even age regression has potential for eliciting false memories which may be believed as true by a subject.
• Study of dream is also an acceptable area in psychology.
• Psychology studies both verbal and non-verbal behaviors of human beings.
• In past life regression, a subject comes up with a story which appears to be his former lives
• Till date little scientific researches have been conducted on this phenomena of past life regression.
• Only case reports are available from various practitioners across world.
• The most influential work is done by Dr. Brian Weiss, a psychiatrist of Miami. His book 'Many Lives, Many Masters' is an international bestseller; easily available in most cities in India.
• The case reports clearly indicate value of past life regression.
• The most controversial aspect in this procedure is the concept of 'Past Life" and explanation in terms of the hypothesis of reincarnation.
• The work of Prof. Ian Stevenson and Prof. Satwant Pasricha particularly birth marks, birth defects, similarities in behavioral features is suggestive of the possibility of reincarnation; however, it has not yet received wide acceptance. Their work is based on the study of the children of 'reincarnation type'.
• 'Past life regression' is not a procedure to strengthen the hypothesis of reincarnation because of marked possibility of contaminations in the reports obtained through this procedure.
• No body knows the mechanisms and theories which could scientifically explain 'past life regression'
• Use of the hypothesis of reincarnation for past life regression flows from the observations that in a few cases the reports of past life regression got validated just like the 'previous personality' in Prof. Stevenson and Prof. Pasricha's work. Secondly, the narratives of the subjects emerge in a manner that appear to be a former life.
• Until it is established scientifically, one can not say that the narratives of a subject correspond to his former existence.
• We may have apprehension, that the subjects undergoing past life regression may come to believe in the hypothesis of reincarnation and we may be instrumental in shaping such a belief.
• Yet we do not have any data which can suggest the magnitude of the population in which the belief in reincarnation is shaped by the application of past life regression.
• A skeptic/non-believer when personally experiences past life regression procedure, comes up with the stories of similar nature suggestive of former lives.
• Belief in reincarnation is not a pre-requisite for past life regression.
• If a subject is told, that whatever stories emerge in past life regression, do not necessarily correspond to former lives. This procedure is not yet accepted by the scientific community. Despite this orientation, subjects opt for it and may get benefitted.
• The point of debate is not to condemn and discard this procedure, but to take up methodologically sophisticated research work and try to explain the phenomena in terms of existing theories or formulation of new theories.