Past-life memories: Reincarnation once again?
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Past-life memories and reincarnation have long been subjects of fascination but their existence may never be conclusively proven or disproven.
One of the best-known investigators of past-life memories was an American psychiatrist called Dr Ian Stevenson. He spent years travelling the world to document hundreds of cases of young children who remembered past lives.
In his research, he found that the children voluntarily started recounting these stories between the ages of two and five yet seemed to have forgotten them by the age of eight or nine.
Stevenson's approach was to interview the children about their memories and then try to establish their validity or otherwise by checking records and interviewing others. In many cases, there was no clear explanation for how the children knew details of another person's life and subsequent death.
Possibly the most famous past-life case was that of an American housewife, Virginia Tighe, in the 1950s. Under hypnosis, Virginia told of a previous life as Bridey Murphy, who she said had lived in Cork in the 19th century. During sessions, the American (who had never been to Ireland) spoke with an Irish accent and could remember complex details of the previous life.
The case brought reincarnation firmly into the spotlight and led to a book, movie and countless newspaper articles.
Dr Anthony McCarthy, an Irish consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist, says: "While there is no great scientific evidence that memories of a previous life have any validity, psychiatrists would try to keep an open mind and see what the context is for what a person is relating.
"Having said that, every single psychotherapist or psychiatrist group would advocate being very cautious of regression therapy. People are open to suggestion while under hypnosis and there is also a significant risk of false memory syndrome."
