Past life regression

Past life regression (PLR), Past life therapy (PLT), regression or memory regression is a method that uses hypnosis to recover what practitioners believe are memories of past lives or incarnations. The practice is widely considered discredited and unscientific by medical practitioners, and experts generally regard claims of recovered memories of past lives as fantasies or delusions or a type of confabulation. Past-life regression is typically undertaken either in pursuit of a spiritual experience, or in a psychotherapeutic setting. Most advocates loosely adhere to beliefs about reincarnation.

The technique used during past-life regression involves the subject answering a series of questions while hypnotized to reveal identity and events of alleged past lives, a method similar to that used in recovered memory therapy and one that, similarly, often misrepresents recovered memories as faithful recordings of previous events rather than constructed sets of recollections. The use of hypnosis and suggestive questions can tend to leave the subject particularly likely to hold distorted or false memories. The source of the memories is more likely cryptomnesia and confabulations that combine experiences, knowledge, imagination and suggestion or guidance from the hypnotist than recall of a previous existence. Once created, those memories are indistinguishable from memories based on events that occurred during the subject's life.

Investigations of memories reported during past-life regression have revealed that they contain historical inaccuracies which originate from common beliefs about history, modern popular culture, or books that discuss historical events. Experiments with subjects undergoing past-life regression indicate that a belief in reincarnation and suggestions by the hypnotist are the two most important factors regarding the contents of memories reported.

In the 2nd century BC, the Hindu scholar Patañjali, in his Yoga Sutras, discussed the idea of the soul becoming burdened with an accumulation of impressions as part of the karma from previous lives. Patañjali called the process of past-life regression prati-prasava (literally "reverse birthing"), and saw it as addressing current problems through memories of past lives. Some types of yoga continue to use prati-prasav as a practice. In the religious mythology of China, the deity Meng Po, also known as the "Lady of Forgetfulness", prevents souls from remembering their past lives: she gives them the "Mi Hun Tang (literally "soul beguiling soup")" that erases all memories before they climb the wheel of reincarnation.

Past life regression can be found in Jainism. The seven truths of Jainism deal with the soul and its attachment to karma. The fourth truth, Bandha, tells us that karma can stick to your soul. The seventh truth, Moksha, tells us that in order to be freed from the cycle of rebirth and death, one must separate karma from the soul. In order to find out what karma is attached to your soul, you can participate in “Jati-Smaran", which is remembering past lives.

The nineteenth century saw the rise of Spiritualism, involving séances and other techniques for contacting departed spirits. Allan Kardec (1804–1869) sought to codify the lessons obtained in a set of five books, the Spiritist Codification (theSpiritist Pentateuch, 1857–1868), including The Spirits Book (1857) and Heaven and Hell (1865). These books introduce concepts of how spirits evolve through a series of incarnations.

Madame Blavatsky (1831–1891), co-founder of the Theosophical Society, introduced the Sanskrit term Akasha, beginning in Isis Unveiled (1877) as a vague life force that was continuously redefined, always vaguely, in subsequent publications. Separately in Isis Unveiled, she referred to "indestructible tablets of the astral light" recording both the past and future of human thought and action.

These concepts were combined into a single idea: the Akashic records, espoused by Alfred Percy Sinnett in his book Esoteric Buddhism (1883). The idea that the "Akashic records" held past life data set the stage, whereby Western practitioners of the paranormal could sidestep the notion of forgetfulness that, in traditional teachings about reincarnation, had prevented memories of former lives from being accessed.