Theories To Explain Past Lives
Researchers have postulated a number of different theories to explain the phenomena elicited. These theories range from the plausible to the esoteric. Let’ s look at just a few of them.
1. Crypto-amnesia. In crypto-amnesia an individual is exposed to certain information, forgets that this was learned information, and it reappears sometime later as a constructed memory. The individual will have no idea that the memory is a fabrication of their own mind and that they never actually experienced the content of the memory. Studies on the abilities of subjects to create fictitious lives while under hypnosis( be these past, present or future) show that some of these fantasy personalities were actually the products of bits and pieces of characters in novels, movies and remembered childhood experiences.
However, it is when these recollections and descriptions become so meticulously detailed( as in the case, for instance, of Dr. Wambach’ s investigations) that we must question the plausibility of crypto-amnesia as a credible explanation for the memories elicited in a Past Life regression.
2. Psychodrama. This is a psychotherapeutic technique in which a patient is given an opportunity to enact the conflicts that are causing or exacerbating the problem through role-playing in either a group or a one-on-one situation. In other words, they take on the role of a fictitious personality and act out their conflicts or problems as someone else. Some have argued that cases suggestive of reincarnation might be a kind of“ psychic” psychodrama in which a segment of the subconscious mind seizes control of the subject during the regression and impersonates a fictitious personality for the purpose of providing insight into the subject’ s hidden conflicts, wishes or desires.
This argument becomes untenable when one considers that genuine psychodrama exists as the result of a projection, be it conscious or unconscious, of one’ s inner conflicts. However, past life recall can contain such a plethora of historical, personal and extremely specific observations, data and often seemingly mundane details so as to rule out the explanation of psychodrama. I, and others, find it difficult to understand how a subject’ s detailed recollections of how to clean a cannon on a 16 th century Spanish