Many lives

Lately I've been reading Helen Wambach's 1978 book Reliving Past Lives. Wambach was a somewhat controversial researcher in the field of reincarnation. Her technique, which evolved gradually, was to hypnotize groups of subjects, who then wrote down their posthypnotic recollections of past lives. Wambach tabulated these stories according to gender, age at time of death, economic status, etc.

Her results seem to be broadly consistent with the historical facts. Roughly 50% of the lives remembered were female, and 50% male (even though a large majority of the research subjects were women). A significant majority of the recollected lives were spent in poverty; a smaller number of lives were middle-class, and a minimal percentage were affluent. This matches what we know of preindustrial societies. Many lives were brief, ending in infancy or early childhood -- just what we would expect of an age before antibiotics and other lifesaving treatments.

Those who say that the subconscious is simply confabulating all this information might be hard-pressed to explain why the subconscious would so often invent a life that ended in infancy or that was played out in poverty and obscurity.

Of course, as with any such research, there are questions and potential problems. Few of the test subjects provided readily verifiable information. Some of the information that purportedly came through was highly dubious. On pages 150-151, we are told of one particular test subject who claimed to remember living in a highly technological society prior to 2000 B.C. He even remembered "operating an electronic board" and wearing "some kind of soft silver-metallic cloth, like a jumpsuit." Wambach wonders if this particular memory, which was unique in her studies, had something to do with Atlantis. It sounds like confabulation to me, probably inspired by science fiction stories.

Two passages in Wambach's book stood out for me, not because they cast any particular light on reincarnation, but for other reasons. The first comes from the regression of a female test subject who remembered herself herself as an Italian woman born in 1540.

At her death in that life she described herself as quite old and very willing to go. Her family, gathered around her, was crying, and she wanted to reassure them. She described her death experience as follows: "As soon as I get out of the body, I want to tell them that I'm fine, but I can't reach them. Then it seems as though I am going somewhere. It's almost like being pulled somewhere. The feeling is like a subway, I'm going through a tunnel and there's a lot of white light, hazy white light at the end of the tunnel. like it's really nice." [page 67]

Wambach's book was published in 1978, three years after Raymond Moody's famous book Life After Life, which popularized the ideas of the tunnel and the white light. It is, therefore, conceivable that Wambach was simply drawing on Moody for this description. But the hypnotic regression in question occurred some years earlier -- the exact date is unclear, but it was certainly before the publication of Moody's book. If Wambach is reporting the subject's testimony accurately, then it predated Life After Life, while mirroring many of the NDEs described there.

The second excerpt recounts one of several dreams Wambach had during the early stages of her research, when her mind was opening up more fully to the reality of paranormal phenomena.

A third interesting dream came several weeks later. I had set an alarm to wake myself in the middle of the night, hoping to catch more of the delightful new dream series I was experiencing. When the alarm rang at 2:00 AM, I awoke slowly and came gradually up to consciousness from the deeper ranges of sleep. I was aware that I had been conferring with two other persons. I don't know where we were, and I didn't see the faces or bodies of the other two, but somehow I knew that we were very closely allied in some activity. In the midst of our discussion -- or thought exchange -- the alarm had gone off. I was startled, and I looked at the other two and thought to myself, "Who am I supposed to be? Where do I go when I wake up? Oh yes -- I'm pretending to be Helen Wambach." [pages 56-57]

The author herself does not place much emphasis on this dream, regarding it as quite possibly a product of her subconscious. But I find the statement "Oh yes -- I'm pretending to be Helen Wambach" highly interesting. It reminds me of the occasional disorientation I've experienced upon waking from a deep sleep. I've found that I ask myself nonverbally, Where am I now? and then a rapid series of places where I've lived flashes through my mind until I settle on the particular location where I'm currently living. It's as if I have to relocate myself in space and time.

I would imagine that this experience is not unusual, and while it's certainly not proof of anything, it perhaps lends some credence to the idea that our ego-persona is akin to a costume or mask that we can put on and take off as circumstances require.

Which, in turn, would tie in quite neatly with the whole idea of reincarnation, wouldn't it?

Comments

[Tony S]

I too have had the experience too of waking and not really knowing who I was, where I was, or what that noise is (baby, alarm clock, etc) that woke me. Very strange feeling, but it all comes back after a couple of moments.

I also agree that it doesn't prove anything.

[Chris]

Though I always remember who I am after waking, I do often have the sensation that the person I was before going to bed was some other individual entirely, and that I am a new creation. In addition, the very fact of my awareness feels utterly wondrous and baffling.

[Pat]

I've never had any sort of experience like that so maybe I'm the odd one out here. :P

I've always been rather neutral to the concept of reincarnation -- soke of them, particularly if they're done by less-than-trustworthy regressors, seem like pure fantasy (ex: the technologically-advanced prehistoric society Michael mentioned; I've heard more mundane ones where the facts simply don't match up) but then others, like Michale pointed out in this post, seem to be plausible. So I don't really know what to think.

[Michael H]

And what of Chuang Tzu?

"Once I, Chuang Tzu, dreamed I was a butterfly and was happy as a butterfly. I was conscious that I was quite pleased with myself, but I did not know that I was Tzu. Suddenly I awoke, and there was I, visibly Tzu. I do not know whether it was Tzu dreaming that he was a butterfly or the butterfly dreaming that he was Tzu. Between Tzu and the butterfly there must be some distinction. [But one may be the other.] This is called the transformation of things."

[Topher Cooper]

"Those who say that the subconscious is simply confabulating all this information might be hard-pressed to explain why the subconscious would so often invent a life that ended in infancy or that was played out in poverty and obscurity."

Unfortunately, another characteristic of hypnosis, in addition to confabulation, is compliance. Whenever you deal with hypnosis you have the potential for an experimenter effect on steroids.

In a case like this you need to be as concerned for the hypnotist's expectations as for the subjects'. Hypnotic subjects are generally very good at picking up on what the hypnotist is looking for and giving it to them. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult not to signal some degree of approval or disapproval, at the very least.

Say she has gotten what feels to her to be too many regressions to males. Subtle emphasis in her wording might clue the next subject to be "female", but even if that's not the case, if there is any ambiguity at the beginning of the report that starts to be resolved, however subtly, in the "wrong" direction, the subject can pick up on it take their cue from it.

Similarly with rank and length of life. Any introduction before hypnosis as to what she is trying to accomplish could be disastrous in this regard -- but even if she had the sense and training to keep all wording neutral there is no way of avoiding subtle cuing.

This experiment demands extreme double-blind conditions, but its nature makes that almost impossible.

Now, if she had gotten results that she thought was wrong but which turned out to be correct, then I would at least find the results having some value as evidence. Even in that case, we can't know what she knew unconsciously but didn't know consciously, so the evidence would have to be considered weak unless the correctness represented a new discovery after her results came in.

That's why I'll stick to Dr. Stevenson's work. I have enough experience with hypnosis to not give past lives regression much credence.

[John]

I think some of this can be legitimate but for the reasons Topher said, it's not entirely trustworthy.

It's Dr. Stevenson's work that is the most trustworthy and telling.

[marcos ferreira]

Another reason why the 50/50 gender split may not be all that significant: it appeared again when she took subjects into future lives under hypnosis (similar preponderance of female volunteers).

While we can't yet comment directly on the accuracy of those sessions (based around the 22nd and 24th centuries), she also delved into future memories of the years leading up to the millenium (the experiments took place in 1980-3).

By the logic of future-life regression (progression?), these memories should be accessible even if they took place during the subject's current life, because the future life will remember them.

Specific predictions included a fifth Arab-Israeli war, a massively destructive nuclear explosion in Europe during 1999, a new US currency, and a series of man-made and natural catastrophes that would wipe out a significant proportion of the Earth's population in a short space of time.

Nothing about the fall of communism, the internet, the Gulf War, Baywatch...

[Greg Taylor]

Michael P. wrote:

"But I find the statement "Oh yes -- I'm pretending to be Helen Wambach" highly interesting."

You should try chewing a quid of Salvia divinorum leaves. You really won't be sure anymore whether 'this' world is the real one...
;)

Kind regards,
Greg

[Michael Prescott]

Say she has gotten what feels to her to be too many regressions to males. Subtle emphasis in her wording might clue the next subject to be "female" ...

Well, she does say, on p. 89, "I memorized my questions so that I would be sure to ask exactly the same questions in each workshop. I had found that to vary even one word of my hypnotic suggestions and questions changed the responses of my subjects; it was therefore important that I not deviate from the formula I had set up in advance. I prepared data sheets for each of the three [regressions], with the questions written out and spaces left for my subjects to write in the answers that came to them under hypnosis."

Also, remember that she hypnotized groups of 20 people or more at a time, and that the subjects did not speak during hypnosis; they wrote down their answers on the questionnaires after coming out of the trance.

It seems to me that reasonable precautions were taken against influencing the test subjects, though of course the procedures can never be airtight. On the other hand, Wambach herself admits in the above quote that the subjects were highly suggestible, which may cast doubt on anything they "remembered."

The gender split in the failed predictions, on the other hand, is troubling. Perhaps this is an indication that the results in general are not reliable.

Overall, I agree that Stevenson's work is much more compelling, but Wambach's work is at least worth looking at.

[william]

I suspect that with hypnosis some of the data might be valid and some might be pure fantasy. When I was hypnotized I remember most of the people doing the hypnosis saying "don’t be concerned if what you are saying is real or unreal to you just relax and let your mind go". I remember when they stated that a big red flag went up in my head.

I read once they hypnotized a person and that person said they were a certain person in a past life but that person they thought they were was a fictional character in a book.

I studied Newton’s life between lives book I really liked the statements his clients were making under hypnosis. But! the more I studied hypnosis the more I saw a need for caution.

The Bridey Murphy case is one of the best cases for past life hypnosis but was butchered by the press and out and out lies by some to discredit the sitter. Most just read the headlines about the case and did not take the time to read what the years of research about this case revealed. It turned out the sitter in this case who claimed to be Bridey Murphy in a past life knew more about the history of Ireland than the so called expert they used to validate this sitters statements.

Hypnosis is like mixing the conscious with sub consciousness and maybe even some past lives. Kind of like a grab bag pick what you want out of it.

One thing I have read that most people when taken to the future under hypnosis most state that the world population is very small. Could be to conditioning as most people I suspect think a nuclear war will wipe out much of the population.

As a side note being under hypnosis was a wonderful experience. Compete focus on the person’s questions. Kind of like a trance state I suspect.

[Hope Rivers]

Hi Michael and his Posters!

I have recently come across this site and have been reading through some of the more recent posts. I have posted once on one of the previous discussions, it's always nice to see great thinkers gravitating towards each other. It appears most of the posters here are Americans, I'm from Western Australia,in my late 30's, with a history of paranormal experiences.

I thought maybe you may appreciate reading about my most recent experience, I have no doubts that my experience was an encounter in another realm.

The night before last I was having a dream, it would have been early morning around 4am, I suddenly became lucid and woke in the dream, it was like paralysis, the dream content had disappeared, I knew I was in my room, in my bed sleeping and at that precise moment, I heard a man say "There is a presence in the midst". I woke immediately after this somewhat alarmed.

I have had a similar experience to this in my 20's except I heard the phone ring and my mum answering it and talking to my sister's ex's mother. Again I was in that lucid state, just before waking. I heard them both speaking to each as though I had become the receiver. I heard their conversation clearly and loud, like through a set of headphones in stereo. Upon waking I thought it must have been a dream and didnt think much of it, until I mentioned it to mum later. She went white when I went on and recalled her conversation and everything my sister's ex mum said back to her. Yes the phone call did take place and everything I heard them discussing via my dream state was what they discussed.

So now when I think of this and what happened the other morning, I can't help thinking whoever this man was, he knew instantly the minute I went into that "receiver state". His tone of voice was very even, no hint of suprise or anything.

I'm kinda freaked out about it now, it's amazing the stuff that runs through your mind, like are there spirits in this house watching me? did I go somewhere, where and what's there? who and or how many was he talking too? and why didnt the other(s) he was conversing with see me when he did? are they good, bad or whatever? or nah it was just a dream, stop obsessing.

I've had so many experiences since a young girl, I've recently toyed with the idea of writing them all down, maybe turn it some sort of book, so I can pass on to my kids in the future. It may be comforting should they begin to have similar experiences.

I'm interested to know whether anyone else here has had encounters with spirit world?

[william]

as we are talking about past lives this is an interesting video on the research at the university of virgina by jim tucker.

http://www.ial.goldthread.com/interviews.html

[william]

Hope rivers: thanks for the compliments on the great mind thing. Here is a website that has put my series of dreams/visions that I had nearly 20 years ago. Interesting name you have.

http://www.beyondreligion.com/
su_personal/dreamsvisions-visions.htm

Also this person's website is an interesting one as he was a Christian minister for 40 years and then started to have what he believed were visions of past life experiences.

To say it changed his view of life is an understatement. He now calls religion kindergarten. Worth the time to read his story. We were speaking of paradigms recently on this blog and his is an interesting paradigm shift. Below is his website.

http://www.beyondreligion.com/

[Hope Rivers]

Thanks William,

I have actually been to that site before, which one was your dream?

Also your reference to that ministers shift from christian religion seems typical of christians who have been dictated how to intepret the bible by "religious" types that cant see outside the box. I see this to be abusive and very destructive.
But I have nothing against the bible and what it represents, Jesus Christ was a brilliant spiritual teacher and prophet when he lived on earth.

[william]

For anyone that believes it might be impossible to have past lives may want to read this article on pathological disbeliefs.

http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/JosephsonBpathologic.pdf

Hope: I gave the link above. Go to the website click on visions and dreams and then click on “visions from the other side” sept 2004. The owner of the website titled it.

Also my wife's and her sister's experience last year at their brothers deathbed is on that site. That story is under after death communication and then click on “dad made his presence known” April 2007.

This title is a little misleading as my wife did not know for sure if it was their dad but as you read the story you will see why they thought it was their father.

There is more to the story but john limits the amount of words one can post. My email is at the end of my story so email me if you want more details.

[Michael H]

“I'm interested to know whether anyone else here has had encounters with the spirit world?”

I’m pretty sure several of us here have. As for me, I’m certain we’re already in the spirit world.

Thanks for sharing Hope, and welcome.

[joki]

What do you think about the possibility that reincarnation could be explained by a kind of genetic memory, which is transferred via germ cells. As we know a lot animals are born with special skills like building a nest,.... Even if the person with reincarnation memories has no genetic ancestor to the pastlife person, because he/she lives somewhere far away, could it also be possible that some of his previous ancestors had known this person from somewhere else via talking or teaching (or a book), so that this person has been deeply concerned him and that this kind of memory process was genetically transferred? I think this alternative hypothesis is very vague and an empirical question, but should be regarded. Otherwise how could birthmarks be explained. This kind of information must be received the foutus grows via germ cells or via an unknown process.

[Pat]

I heard an "alternative" theory to reincarnation that is somewhat similar to the one Joki mentioned. In this theory, once a person dies, they are dead, that's it. But their memories/imprints are left upon the earth and may be picked up by sensitive children who think that the imprints are their own. This supposedly explains why sometimes two children can claim to be the same person. As for myself, I'm not sure. I think it falls flat when compared to what I've seen of Stevenson's research.

[Judy]

Once again I am posting here. Mainly for Hope. I have had out-of-body experiences (at night) for the past 30 plus years. Not many lately, but that is mainly because I haven't had much interest in them lately. They perfectly duplicate the experiences of Robert Monroe. Being paralyzed and feeling "vibrations" are part of them. I never know where I'm going and don't seem to be able to "control" them much. Have read Stevenson's research and looked at Jim Tucker's stuff (also there is a good interview with him on Electric Politics). Have become a firm believer in reincarnation. As an aside, I have also been hypnotized. I would not do what the hypnotist wanted me to do (go in the back room for an "exam").

[John]

If there were no other pieces of evidence pointing specifically to transcendence, I would regard that as plausible. However, to me, it just sounds like super-psi applied to reincarnation. The cumulative evidence for a spirit and transcendence shows that while it's not impossible for the theory of picking up on memories to be true, but it seems like a reincarnation is more likely.

To specifically address joki's point, to directly address there are many things that are instinct, like nest building. Building a nest is also very vague a skill; it's merely an impulse to use twigs and branches on a stable part of some sort of structure in order to nest eggs. It pales in comparison to a very specific bit of information, like remembering specifically how much money you owed a store clerk, even with the store clerk's attempt at deceiving you by telling you that you actually owed a different amount that you did. I highly doubt you could pick something up like that without having a subjective experience. Otherwise it would just be gained knowledge that you wouldn't have an emotional feel for.

[joki]

Very interesting, Judy. Have you ever written your sensation down on a paper (to rule out false memory, like Dr. Roll has experienced during an OBE). And have you found the targets than after the experience. Very interesting to talk about. Do you have an email adress?

[Pearl]

I once had a dream where I was looking across a dusty dirt road at a young boy of about 13 years.It was sunny and warm and felt as if it was the Mediterranean area. The boy was dressed in a short white tunic, sandals and had a band round his head .His hair was curly and longish at the back.I said to myself in the dream "Oh thats me !" I was surprised to see "myself" but also knew without doubt it was me.
I thought the boy was either Greek or Roman.
Strange - as I am female , middle aged and live far away from the med (unfortunately!)

[Kevin]

I would also like to say "hello to Hope" (in more ways than one) and offer that,as with so many of the participants in Michael's blog, I, too, have had my share of interesting experiences. Perhaps the closest to a connection with the "spirit world" would be a death apparition of my father at the time of his passing some distance from my location. I'm always happy to share that experience to anyone willing to attend to it, in hope that it will give them one more bit of (admittedly anecdotal) evidence that consciousness DOES survive bodily death. Enjoy Michael's blog (one of the best, despite my mediocre contributions) and participate often.

[Hope Rivers]

Do many posters here meditate regularly? I am curious to find out whether people have had any "past life" regressions this way.

I was taken back to a medieval fortress after practising chakra meditations for less than a month, it spooked me out so much it was years before I took up meditating again. It wasnt so much the visual content that made me feel this way, although it was dark, damp and eerie it was the sudden dread and familiarisaton with the place. I knew instantly the place was related to my death (or someone's death connected to me). I had this instant knowledge I or whomever was a prisoner there.

Stranger still, when I was married I met this lady through a friend whom had mediumistic giftings, she was visiting my friend when we all met up for coffee, and upon meeting me claimed she had a vision of me hanging with my arms up crossed at the wrists and chained and described a castle similar to that in my experience. She felt it was past life. I hadn't mentioned my experience to anyone, so my first thoughts was she had good telepathic ability. I never thought to ask her, how she saw me, as in what did I look like, what was I wearing etc I assumed I must have retained the same appearance.

Kevin thankyou for your acknowledgement and a warm "hello" back at you! I believe your experience with your father is probably one of the best experiences anyone could ever have, knowing your father loves you so much as to seek you to say goodbye.

[william]

Concerning meditation: After learning that reincarnation was probably a reality back in the mid nineties I set out to become enlightened so I would not have to return to this physical world. Very naive I know but at that time I was doing a lot of reading on enlightened Hindus and their approach to enlightenment was meditation and more meditation.

Well suffice to say I did not become enlightened but I did do a lot of meditation. I was attending self-realization services and they meditate up to six hours at a time. Even went to stay at their ashram in California for two weeks. Also stayed at their very beautiful retreat center for several days on the pacific coast.

Twice while mediating I went into a state of mind I can only describe, as nothingness can’t explain it just nothingness but I was blissful the rest of the day. Several people even commented how blissful I looked.

Once while in meditation I quit breathing for what seem like longest period of time. Really very difficult to describe I did not seem to have a need to breath. My mind was very clear. I thought I had died, as I was no longer breathing. At the time I had a friend coming over to my house and my only thoughts were I did not want to upset her when she walked into the room seeing me dead. Absolutely no fear or even one bit upset that I had died. Cant explain it but that is how I felt.

Never to my knowledge have I had any visions of past lives while in meditation. Have had some visions of past lives while under hypnosis but nothing that is verifiable and I deeply suspect I was just reviewing some movie I had seen in my mind.

[Mike D.]

Pat wrote: "I heard an "alternative" theory to reincarnation that is somewhat similar to the one Joki mentioned. In this theory, once a person dies, they are dead, that's it. But their memories/imprints are left upon the earth and may be picked up by sensitive children who think that the imprints are their own."

What Pat wrote here raised a couple of questions in my mind. Can consciousness itself as pure awareness ever be said to be individual? Or does consciousness "illumine" the memories/personality traits associated with a particular body during that body's lifetime, but is not itself unique to those particular memories and personality traits? Let's say then that the memories and personality traits, upon the death of the body and brain, only survive as unconscious "imprints" that some children (or mediums)can pick up on and identity with. Then would not this "picking up on" be experienced as to some extent the original person "waking up" and being conscious again, since consciousness itself is not individual?

Hope I've stated this clearly enough.

[william]

“Can consciousness itself as pure awareness ever be said to be individual?”

It appears that over many lives maybe even after many lives as a plant and animal consciousness becomes “bundled” and after some time maybe a lot of time this bundled consciousness becomes self-conscious and develops a perceived unique identity. (I.e. me and you)

Now this perceived self-identity (ego?) goes through many human lives and after much joy and suffering begins to ask and seek the meaning of its existence. Then in time I suspect this unique and perceived separate consciousness becomes more advanced in love (compassion) and divine intelligence and slowly starts to realize its destiny.

In time this consciousness does not need to reincarnate back to earth but continues to advance in higher realms of consciousness. How far does this consciousness advance? I suspect all the way back to its original home: pure awareness with attributes of substance and vitality.

Do we really ever lose our identity, which I suspect is one of our greatest fears? Well yes and no. Our identity becomes that that is. I suspect advancement is never a loss but always a gain.

What is the meaning of this circular journey from a spark of awareness to pure awareness? Could it be Oneness expressing itself as infinite possibilities?

[Anna]

I just came across this passage in a book on meditation by Aleister Crowley, and it sent me right back to this blog to post it:

"You will completely forget who you are, what you are, and what you are doing. A similar phenomenon sometimes happens when one is half awake in the morning, and one cannot think what town one is living in. The similarity of these two things is rather significant. It suggests that what is really happening is that you are waking up from the sleep which men call waking, the sleep whose dreams are life."