just found this interesting article... i wonder if these scientists are wrong, or whether this is a piece of a larger puzzle. x


Belief in Reincarnation Tied to Memory Errors

By Melinda Wenner
Special to LiveScience
</FONT>posted: 06 April 2007
09:10 am ET

People who believe they have lived past lives as, say, Indian princesses or battlefield commanders are more likely to make certain types of memory errors, according to a new study.

The propensity to make these mistakes could, in part, explain why people cling to implausible reincarnation claims in the first place.

Researchers recruited people who, after undergoing hypnotic therapy, had come to believe that they had past lives.

Subjects were asked to read aloud a list of 40 non-famous names, and then, after a two-hour wait, told that they were going to see a list consisting of three types of names: non-famous names they had already seen (from the earlier list), famous names, and names of non-famous people that they had not previously seen. Their task was to identify which names were famous.

The researchers found that, compared to control subjects who dismissed the idea of reincarnation, past-life believers were almost twice as likely to misidentify names. In particular, their tendency was to wrongly identify as famous the non-famous names they had seen in the first task. This kind of error, called a source-monitoring error, indicates that a person has difficulty recognizing where a memory came from.

Power of suggestion

People who are likely to make these kinds of errors might end up convincing themselves of things that aren’t true, said lead researcher Maarten Peters of Maastricht University in The Netherlands. When people who are prone to making these mistakes undergo hypnosis and are repeatedly asked to talk about a potential idea—like a past life—they might, as they grow more familiar with it, eventually convert the idea into a full-blown false memory.

This is because they can’t distinguish between things that have really happened and things that have been suggested to them, Peters told LiveScience.

Past life memories are not the only type of implausible memories that have been studied in this manner. Richard McNally, a clinical psychologist at Harvard University, has found that self-proclaimed alien abductees are also twice as likely to commit source monitoring errors.

Creative minds

As for what might make people more prone to committing such errors to begin with, McNally says that it could be the byproduct of especially vivid imagery skills. He has found that people who commonly make source-monitoring errors respond to and imagine experiences more strongly than the average person, and they also tend to be more creative.

“It might be harder to discriminate between a vivid image that you’d generated yourself and the memory of a perception of something you actually saw,” he said in a telephone interview.

Peters also found in his study, detailed in the March issue of Consciousness and Cognition, that people with implausible memories are also more likely to be depressed and to experience sleep problems, and this could also make them more prone to memory mistakes.

And once people make this kind of mistake, they might be inclined to stick to their guns for spiritual reasons, McNally said. “It may be a variant expression of certain religious impulses,” he said. “We suspect that this might be kind of a psychological buffering mechanism against the fear of death.”

http://www.livescience.com/othernews/070406_past_lives.html

I was both an Indian Princess, and a Battlefield Commander!

Is this synchronicity?

Nah! You see, what I believe helps me with my creativity. I don't have memory errors, because I will write about a past life, and then go and reference it to actual written history to check it's validity.

Many times I find that the actual account that is written and therefore established as historical fact is wrong!

Besides, these scientists must keep coming up with ways to describe an illusion anyway. Their goofy little tests do not impress me.

Look, I am the Valkyrie! I know who I am. The Fear Of Death?
Ol' SkullFace, and I are old friends!

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__________________
Love, Michael, The Valkyrie

Hi pilot!
Thanks for the information... It's very interesting and has wide implication upon our society. These kinds of faulty memories have sent people to prison and even to unjust deaths.

Eye witness accounts are least accurate of any evidence, in a court of law.
Good post!
All the best,
Moon

HI Moon,

Just had an interesting thought : I am wondering if Jesus ever claimed to be the re-incarnation of anyone.....

He was sent to an unjust death anyway I guess....or maybe it was all 'just' the way it was supposed to be.




OSIRIS,

Thanks for your post. I am curious : what makes U think your memory of a past life is more accurate than recorded history?

I guess without proof, the only person who will ever believe U is U, and maybe that is all that matters?

pilot. x

The eyes are of little use, If the mind is blind


I don't know whose quote this is....my daughter wrote in on the kitchen cupboard...today....I like it...don't You?

Love Kris
empress of the east

__________________
KRIS
dragon spirit

The Valkyrie make me believe my recall is more accurate then recorded history. Of course this is only in experiences where I was there, and not all of history, just certain events.

Yes, I believe me, and that is all that matters.
I don't need proof to write historical fiction. Just facts in evidence. I write from personal experience as fiction, and my beloved reader may believe it or not.

__________________
Love, Michael, The Valkyrie

"They Have Eyes, Yet Do Not See." Jesus

__________________
Love, Michael, The Valkyrie

Hi there!
I believe Gentle Rick just last week posted this very same article. Those who responded were not swayed due to the lack of vital information and weak journalism.

Lightshow

hi lightshow,

i dont live in last week i live in right now and this article is utterly fascinating to me not because i agree with it which i dont but there is something within it that rings a bell.....

in understanding that nothing can exist in a straight line ( its all spirals of sorts ), then neither can time......

which means there is no such thing as 'past lives'......only bleedthrough from one plane of soul expression to the other parallel expression......

memory is not so much about remembering what happened 'then', but awakening to what is happening NOW as our DNA releases the codes so that we may SEE.

x

There is a passage, in the bible, where it is believed by some, that Jesus was stating that he is the reincarnation of the prophet, Isaiah.

Other passages too, believed to be in reference to reincarnation....

I'll see if I can find them....
Moon