Is reincarnation a beautiful fantasy or reality? After hypnosis, many people claim that they can recall prior lives and seem to be able to describe them in great detail. Are they true or just fantasies? Can this be proven scientifically? Has data been collected systematically and analyzed to prove or disprove such contentions? Yes, scientific research is based on a hypothesis, in laymen’s terms a question or questions, and subsequent proof or disproof of the particular theory. In the scientific community, a hypothesis won’t be accepted until evidence shows it has a high probability of being true. It is well known, though, that the scientific community will subject the prediction to still further scrutiny. It is no surprise, then, that the researcher under discussion, Dr. Helen Wambach, a psychologist, maintained a questioning attitude with respect to her study on reincarnation. As a matter of fact, Carol Moore stated that the late Dr. Wambach wanted to “debunk” reincarnation. Dr. Wambach’s books Reliving Past Lives and Life Before Life, published in1978 by Bantam paperback books, discussed evidence of reincarnation found under hypnosis [1], and described her research in detail. In the first half of her book Reliving Past Lives, published in 1978, Dr. Wambach talked about how she became interested in spiritual phenomena, and what got her started with her studies. She also told readers her experience of being confused, even cynical. However, she decided to continue with her research after she found what she believed to be truthful data among the vast amount of data collected. In the second half of the book, she described the data she collected and her analysis.
Dr. Helen Wambach was a lecturer in an institute. Beginning in the late 1960s, Dr. Wambach conducted a 10-year survey of past-life recollections under hypnosis among 1,088 subjects. For historical accuracy, Dr. Wambach asked specific questions about the time periods in which people lived and questions about the daily live in the given periods. Dr. Wambach collected her purposive samples by organizing workshops of about a dozen people each. Dr. Wambach led them on a “four-stage journey” which lasted a full day. She charged minimal fees to fund her long-term study.
The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis describes hypnosis as a state of inner absorption, concentration and focused attention. Hypnosis is a procedure during which a health professional or researcher suggests that the subject experience changes in sensations, perceptions, thoughts, or behavior, i.e., an altered state of consciousness. A cultivator understands that based on brain wave differences, being hypnotized is not similar to sleep, but similar to traditional Buddhist or Taoist meditation. Under such conditions, people could possibly use his/her wisdom eye to observe and experience his/her previous lives.
Under regression therapy to a prior life, the individual can identify with a certain individual of a particular prior time period. Apparently, he/she will experience whatever the individual experienced at that particular point in time, as well as communicate verbally or orally in an ancient language. Interestingly, after awakening from regression therapy the individual will no longer be able to recognize the ancient languages. Sometimes, the individual’s present personality may be able to partake in the regression in a passive role, that is, the individual will view the prior life as if he/she was watching a movie. He/she may hear the words without understanding what is being said.
During the hypnotic session, the hypnotized individual may recall the time and location of the events but somehow fuse it with his personality from this lifetime or the prior lifetime. Sometimes the individual may gain supernormal abilities. He may be able to know the time and location of the particular recall. For example, when a hypnotized individual was asked a specific question about the time period and location, he/she saw with the wisdom eye a date from the Christian era, even if the hypnotized subject recalled a pre-Christian period, or a non-Christian environment. What this tells us is that pinning down the exact space-time location of the recollection can be difficult, though some hypnotized individuals may be able to pinpoint the location on a map.
I believe that these messages were either from a higher being, or from the “clear side” of the hypnotized individual. A higher being is what the Buddha school calls an enlightened being. A “clear side” may refer to what is called in the Buddha school the enlightened side of an individual that can see other realities. It is clear that one cannot achieve an enlightened state under hypnosis. Under the hypnotic state the object’s mind is very relaxed, thus the true self of the individual may dominate. For further information into the subject matter, please refer to two books by Dr. Michael Newton [3][4].
First, Dr. Wambach put the person into a hypnotic state and then asked questions that allowed the individual to recall prior lives. The individual will be aware of everything that is taking place and after emerging from hypnosis; he/she may be able to recall everything that took place during the session. Dr. Wambach’s hypnotized 1,088 people for her study. After careful analysis of the data, Dr. Wambach concluded that the information collected under hypnosis was, with respect to historical records available to her “amazingly accurate” with the exception of 11 subjects. For example, one individual said that he played piano in the 15th century, when, in fact, the piano was invented two centuries later.
Among the eleven subjects, nine gave information that deviated only slightly from the historical time frame. It is amazing that only 1% of the population was found to be inaccurate in the information provided under hypnosis. It is clear to me that if all those memories are mere illusions, such a low fail rate is impossible. Of course, one can not exclude that
some were merely imaginary, as not everyone is able to use his/her wisdom eye. Compared with China, clinical hypnosis is relatively well documented and readily available in western society. I believe that the reason for this is that the mind of westerners is less complex — a consequence of cultural influence. The wisdom eye of westerners is easy to open.
Carol Moore stated that Dr. Wambach asked specific questions about the time periods, including social status, race, gender, clothing, utensils, money, housing, and the like. She used charts and tables to record this information so it would be easier to compare it to the given time period.
With respect to social status, Dr. Wambach categorized people as upper class, middle class and lower class. She found that her population could be separated into10% from the upper class, 20-35% from the middle class and the remaining 55-70% from the lower class. Although the proportion of middle class cases was relatively higher around 1000 BC, the proportion later dropped, and increased again after 1700 AD, comparable to that of 1000BC.
Historical records indicate that craftsmen and merchants were mainly found near the east Mediterranean Sea during that era. Business enterprises were well established. However, approximately between 60-77% of the population lived at or below the poverty level. They wore home made clothes and lived in simple thatched cottages. The majority were farmers who labored every day in the fields. None of the hypnotized individuals recalled being a famous historical figure. Those who recalled a high social position seemed highly dissatisfied with their lives, as if it was a burden to be alive. Those who recalled being a farmer or a member of a primitive tribe appeared to be content with their live. Evaluation of he data strongly suggests that it is highly unlikely that these recollections are from the imagination of the individual. Generally, people imagine themselves as a famous historical figure or a nobleman and not something as mundane as a farmer or member of a primitive tribe.
With respect to the race of the subjects, Dr. Wambach selected mainly middle class whites from California. Their recollections indicated that they had lived in different geographic areas and their hair color was different during the prior life. Dr. Wambach divided them into several categories: Caucasians, Asians, Indians, Blacks and Middle Eastern descent. Around 2000 BC, only 20% of the subjects were Caucasians. They lived widely dispersed throughout what is now known as the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Europe and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, etc., called central steppe during historical times). The subjects’ recollections appeared to be mainly of two different races (approximately 40% each).
Five subjects stated that they lived in Central Asia between 1000 and 2000 BC. They seemed to have lived in tents, which was common to the migrating population in what is called Central Asia today. Amazingly, they found themselves to have white skin color and yellow or golden hair . It doesn’t appear to make any sense, as historical facts indicate that the people of that particular area should be of darker skinned and black hair.
Three of the subjects appeared to have similar recollections. They wore pants made of leather. Historical records also indicate that a limited number of Caucasians, those of white skin and light hair color, had migrated to that region during that time. However, subjects did not think that their recollections had merit, as their historical knowledge did not indicate that Caucasians lived in that region during that era. However, Dr. Wambach believed the recollections to be true. Such discrepancies were found quite frequently among the collection of the data collected by Dr. Wambach. Given that the subjects did not trust their recollections, we believe that it was not imagination, built from the person’s education/reading during this lifetime.
The average age of the subjects was around 30 years and most were born after 1945. Forty-five of the subjects recalled prior lives between 1900 and 1945. One third were Asians. Death from unnatural causes among those living between 1900 and 1945 appeared to be very high. Many of them died during the two world wars, as well as civil wars in Asian countries. Thus, these people reincarnated shortly after they died. Surprisingly, Dr. Wambach found that 69% of the subjects who had died during the1850’s were Caucasians, while between 1900 and 1945, only 40% were Caucasian. It seems that transmigration of the different races increased after 1945. What could have happened during that era? Dr. Wambach joked: that most likely many devotees of the Congregational Church reincarnated into communist China.
Of interest is also that the subject’s gender may not be the same during different life times. For example, a man was surprised that he was a female in a prior life and lived around 480 B.C in China. Another man was an Indian woman in his prior life, who died of dystocia (dystocia is the condition when a foetus cannot be delivered naturally because of its position in the mother’s womb). He described the pain he felt, and became rather upset. Unexpectedly, the ratios between males and females among the subjects were found to be mostly the same during any of the ages.
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