THE EVIDENCE FOR SURVIVAL.

A New Horizons Research Paper.

Copyright! New Horizons Research Foundation. November 1986.

FOREWORD.

This paper was prepared to provide guidelines f o r a Conference on the Evidence f o r Survival, held at New Horizons Research Foundation on November 15th 1986.

The paper covers three aspects of b e l i e f i n Survival, and includes an account of the current thinking and the proofs adduced f o r these b e l i e f s .

Evidence f o r Survival i s discussed i n r e l i g i o u s and s p i r i t u a l i s t i c b e l i e f s ; the evidence f o r survival as experienced i n out-of-body experiences, and the so-called 'near-death'experience, and the evidence f o r survival as expressed i n reincarnation b e l i e f s , and the research work that has been done i n t h i s f i e l d , i n p a r t i c u l a r by Dr. Ian Stevenson.

INTRODUCTION.

From time immemorial mankind has expressed b e l i e f i n some form of survival of his/her own personality - i t seems to be a b u i l t - i n i n t e g r a l part of the human personality. Very few people r e a l l y believe wholeheartedly that nothing of them w i l l survive a f t e r death, however scep t i c a l or ' s c i e n t i f i c ' they may declare themselves to be. And mankind has been endlessly searching f o r proof, re a l i r r e f u t a b l e proof, that what he so wants to believe i s indeed so. Survival i n some form or other i s taught as the basic b e l i e f i n most r e l i g i o n s , whether as in the Christian r e l i g i o n , or reincarnation as i n many eastern r e l i g i o n s , or as a ' s p i r i t ' as i n some primitive r e l i g i o n s . Prizes have been offered from time to time (some of them very large money prizes) to that person who could prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that man survives death, but the prizes remain unclaimed. B e l i e f i n human survival of death remains today, as i t has from the very beginning of time, a matter of f a i t h and not s c i e n t i f i c proof.

However, people continue to pursue the problem and from time to time claims are made that proof i n one form or another exists. These claims are usually made in the area of parapsychological research, a f i e l d of research that has over the years concerned i t s e l f with proof of survival, along with other phenomena that have been investigated. The o r i g i n a l Society f o r Psychical Research i n England, founded more than a hundred years ago counted proof of survival of death as i t s main fo c a l point, and the t r a d i t i o n has continued to t h i s day.

In t h i s paper we propose only to confine ourselves to a very b r i e f overview of the work done and the theories put forward as to the nature and r e a l i t y of survival by parapsychologists during the l a s t hundred years or so. We w i l l leave aside completely a l l matters pertaining to r e l i g i o u s b e l i e f and f a i t h ; the l i t e r a t u r e on these aspects i s overwhelming, and i t would be impossible to encompass any of these discussions in such a short paper as t h i s . We propose to s t a r t with the advent of modern sp i r i t u a l i s m and psychical research, to talk about near-death experiences and the current thinking of the v a l i d i t y of t h i s kind of experience, and to look at the modern evidence f o r an old b e l i e f coming out of the eastern r e l i g i o n s , namely the b e l i e f i n the reincarnation of the soul, s p i r i t , or personality of the person who has recently died.

SPIRITUALISM.

The story of the growth of Spiritualism has to he looked at against the background of V i c t o r i a n society and conventionalism. I t i s generally accepted that the Fox s i s t e r s of Rochester, New York, became the originators of the s p i r t u a l i s t movement. Readers of our previous papers on pol t e r g e i s t phenomena w i l l r eadily understand how t h i s came about. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Fox with t h e i r two daughters Margaret, aged f i f t e e n and Kate aged twelve. Typical p o l t e r g e i s t type phenomena were experienced, mainly taking the form or knockings, hangings, rappings, and the sound of furniture being dragged around. These were a l l attributed to the work of a ghost. Having decided that a ghost was responsible, i t only remained to discover and decide the i d e n t i t y of t h i s ghost, and i t was decided that the ghost was that of a murdered peddler, a man who had been murdered by the previous occupants of the house, and whose unquiet s p i r i t now sought redress. The story was reminiscent of so many other similar p o l t e r g e i s t manifestations, notably that of the Cock Lane ghost, of course, which had happened more than a century e a r l i e r , when charges of murder were also l a i d by the alleged 'ghost'. These phenomena were taking place i n March 1848. 'As i n the Cock Lane a f f a i r , the alleged murderer was brought to confront the accusing s p i r i t , and he strenuously denied the charges, and indeed, no r e a l evidence was discovered that anyone had i n f a c t been murdered. Even a f t e r the ' s p i r i t ' had managed to s p e l l out the name of the murdered man, and d e t a i l s of his supposed family l i f e , no such person was traced, neither was any person answering his description reported missing. The Fox g i r l s communicated with the s p i r i t by means of the same kind of rapping code that had been used i n Cock Lane, and i n fac t the whole a f f a i r was strongly reminiscent of the e a r l i e r happenings i n England.

But times were dif f e r e n t , and the climate of thinking about these kinds of happenings was undergoing a change. To begin with "table rapping'\ as i t became called, started as a parlour game. I t was the time of the In d u s t r i a l Revolution, and people were becoming more interested i n i n t e l l e c t u a l matters; they had more leis u r e time, and they were more receptive to new ideas. The idea spread around the world; Queen V i c t o r i a and her family, the Russian Czars, members of the French n o b i l i t y , - -everyone indulged i n the new game of communicating with the s p i r i t s ; i t became as popular a pastime as Monopoly and Scrabble became as parlour games another century l a t e r . But they never l o s t sight of the fact that they believed they were communicating with "real"' s p i r i t s , the souls of people who had died, and who had come back to earth to talk to those l e f t behind, f o r whatever reason. Mostly the conversation that took place between

the l i v i n g and the dead was lighthearted and irrelevant? accusations of f o u l play and revenge were not common.

At t h i s same time, especially i n England, which l a t e r became the centre of spiritualism, r e l i g i o u s thought and theory was undergoing another one of i t s upheavals. I t was the age of the hellfire-and-damnation evangelistic preachers. In the late 1850's Spurgeon preached at the Crystal Palace i n London before a crowd of 23,654 people, the beginning of the era that has i t s modern counterpart i n the popular evangelism of preachers l i k e B i l l y Graham. The Church of England b u i l t two hundred new churches between 1826 and I856,but within the churches people were caught between the c o n f l i c t i n g claims of the spectacular evangelists, the i n t e l l e c t u a l theologians, the established church, and the e f f o r t made by the Pope to r e f i t f i b l i s h the heirarchy of the Roman Catholic Church i n England. Amid a l l t h i s confusion i t i s not surprising that the new r e l i g i o n , spiritualism, quietly raised i t s head and commenced to grow. Orthodox r e l i g i o n was i n a state of p a r t i c u l a r confusion just as public interest i n s p i r i t u a l i s m was growing. Some theologians were saying that what was lacking i n r e l i g i o n was not a philosophical but a moral need of a revelation. Here was a new moral revelation. I f one could communicate with the souls of the dead, as was being claimedj then surely t h i s was a l l that was needed to turn people towards a better practice of true C h r i s t i a n i t y . A number of clergymen found they could reconcile t h i s new development with t h e i r r e l i g i o u s b e l i e f s , and i n 1855 spiti^ualism o f f i c i a l l y became a r e l i g i o n when the f i r s t s p i r i t u a l i s t newspaper with r e l i g i o u s aspirations was founded - The Yorkshire S p i r i t u a l i s t Telegraph. I t was quietly accepted as another branch of the nonconformist movement. Spiritualism, i s of course, a branch of C h r i s t i a n i t y , the difference between i t and other orthodox Christian r e l i g i o n s i s that the emphasis i s on the in s t r u c t i o n that comes from the s p i r i t s i n the form of revelations and divine truths. In s p i r i t u a l i s t i c c i r c l e s i t had become common to accept one person i n the seance c i r c l e as the medium, or the chosen person through whom the messages came. Communication with the s p i r i t s i s through t h i s one p a r t i c u l a r person. The same i s true whether the c i r c l e was part of a r e l i g i o u s service, or whether the members of the c i r c l e were s i t t i n g just f o r fun, or as happened l a t e r f o r the purposes of s c i e n t i f i c investigation.

Spiritualism i s today a worldwide movement, having many thousands of adherents, and the essential b e l i e f remains the same, that during a meeting with a medium present, the

s p i r i t s of the dead can return and communicate i n an everyday fashion with the people i n the church, or c i r c l e . I t i s no longer a matter of b l i n d f a i t h f o r the believer i n spiritualism, the proof i s there, as f a r as they are concerned, for a l l to see. To a s p i r i t u a l i s t the information received i n a mediumistic c i r c l e affords a l l the proof needed f o r survival of the s p i r i t .

Nevertheless, f o r more than a century controversy has s t i l l raged over the v a l i d i t y of the arguments put forward by s p i r i t u a l i s t s as proof of survival of the s p i r i t . In t h i s peper we propose to ignore a l l the various charges of fraud that have been l e v e l l e d against many mediums and s p i r i t u a l i s t s . I t i s clear that i n situations where such fundamental b e l i e f s are involved, and where so much i s at stake i n people's l i v e s and personal happiness, crooks and confidence t r i c k s t e r s take advantage of the more g u l l i b l e , as they do indeed i n every other walk of l i f e . I t i s more important to examine what i s happening i n those many situations where deliberate fraud i s not involved, and try to arrive at some conclusions as to whether the events do, i n fact, afford genuine and positive proof of survival, as opposed to just f a i t h and b e l i e f , or whether there can be a more ordinary and r a t i o n a l explanation f o r phenomena that may be occurring.

The Society f o r Psychical Research was founded i n B r i t a i n i n 1882, and from i t s inception the main interest of the founders was to find proof of survival. Other interests came l a t e r . The Society was founded l a r g e l y by a group of s c i e n t i s t s and philosophers connected with T r i n i t y College, Cambridge. Although the aims, as stated i n the o r i g i n a l A r t i c l e s of Association did indeed express a wide interest i n a l l areas of psychical phenomena, i t remains a f a c t that the members who signed those o r i g i n a l A r t i c l e s were a l l primarily, and some of them very personally, interested i n discovering proof of survival. The f i r s t President was Henry Sidgwick. Sidgwick was a Fellow of T r i n i t y at the age of twentyone, and he became Lecturer i n Moral Sciences, then Praelector i n Moral and Political Philosophy, and afterwards Knightbridge Professor. The year that Sidgwick became a fellow, 1859. was the year of publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species. I t i s important to r e a l i s e the struggle that was happening i n the minds of thinking people with Darwin's revolutionary ideas on the one hand, and the new b e l i e f s i n s p i r i t u a l i s m on the other; a struggle that i s s t i l l with us today. (For the interested reader the S.P.R. has just published an account of i t s f i r s t hundred years of investigation, The Society f o r Psychical Research, 1882-1982 A History, Renee Haynes, MacDonald & Co).

The S.P.R. investigated proof of survival i n three areas. They studied the evidence f o r the r e a l i t y of ghosts, they studied mediums and t h e i r messages; and they looked at the evidence f o r survival as produced through automatic writing and messages received i n t h i s way from the alleged s p i r i t s of those who had died.

The Society carried out a phenomenal amount of work during those early years. One tremendous piece of work was that known as the 'Census of Hallucinations." Four hundred and ten people distributed a car e f u l l y thought out questionnaire world-wide, and collected the r e p l i e s . The enquiry lasted from the spring of 1889 u n t i l the spring of 1892, and i t s results were published and discussed i n great d e t a i l in subsequent journals of the SPR. I t would be impossible to relate, even in b r i e f d e t a i l , a l l the work and thinking that has been done on the subject of ghosts and apparitions and t h e i r causes. However, i t i s now recognized that the experience of seeing a ghost does not prove that what i s seen i s an independent s p i r i t . Ghosts are an a r t i f a c t of the mind of the person concerned, the experience i s real, but the ghost i s notj This does not mean, of course, that we understand completely the mechanism by which ghosts are created, f a r from i t . All we are saying that researchers now generally believe that i n some way ghosts are created i n the mind of the person v i s u a l i z i n g them. Just as when a hypnotist hynpotizes a person, and then t e l l s that person that someone i s s i t t i n g on a nearby chair, someone known to the person hypnotized, then that person, and only that person w i l l see the chair occupied as stated. This "apparition" i s so strong that i f someone else goes to s i t on the chair the hypnotized one w i l l c a l l out, saying "Look out, you are s i t t i n g on...." Under hypnotism the mind can create a ghost. Similarly many ghosts are seen i n " c r i s i s situations*when i t seems telepathy plays a role i n creating not only an apparition of the person to whom the c r i s i s i s happening, but the circumstances around which the event i s occuring, and sometimes other people as well. In our modern work on the UFO phenomenon we have come to r e a l i s e that many reported sightings of UFO's are actually hallucinatory i n nature, and that indeed some UFOs are modern ghosts. So over the century parapsychological researchers have come to r e a l i s e that the experience of seeing a ghost does not afford proof of survival of the s p i r i t .

What about mediums, and the s p i r i t u a l i s t s ? Not a l l mediums are s p i r i t u a l i s t s , although i n a l l s p i r i t u a l i s t c i r c l e s a medium i s necessary to convey the messages. But many people over the years have developed mediumistic powers; some of these have become very famous indeed, and hundreds of

them have had t h e i r claims investigated and checked by parapsychologists. One of the most famous of these mediums, Eileen Garrett founded an investigatory Society herself, the Parapsychology ^Foundation•, which has contributed enormously to the research e f f o r t s of parapsychologists world-wide. Eileen herself also wrote many books on the subject.

T r a d i t i o n a l l y the medium receives messages which he or she believes i s coming from the 'other world' usually through a p a r t i c u l a r person. Sometimes the medium w i l l claim to "see" the communicator, other times the medium w i l l merely "hear 1* mentally the voice. In e a r l i e r times a medium usually claimed only one communicator, t h e i r own special s p i r i t guide, and a l l messages came through that one s p i r i t . In the modern framework there are mediums who claim large numbers of s p i r i t communicators. Putting aside a l l the fraudulent operators, and assessing only those whose a b i l i t i e s seem genuine, one can only express disappointment at the quality of the messages received. When spir i t u a l i s m was started ,the hope was that some of the r e l i g i o u s questions that were troubling people so much might be answered. The reasoning went that i f there were indeed people on the "other side", surely they could t e l l us something of what i t was l i k e , how we should behave on this earth i n order to reach the highest heaven, and so on. Rather l i k e the parable i n the Bible of the Rich man who when he died saw Lazarus, the beggar i n Abraham's bosom, enjoying a l l the delights of heaven, while he himself langushed i n H e l l . Unable to be helped himself i n his predicament he begged that messengers could be sent back to warn his family of the dangers that lay ahead, but was refused - on the ground that i f people would not believe a l l the prophets who had already been, they would not believe these messengers. But b e l i e f aside, the so-c a l l e d "messages" that emanate from the mediums are generally t r i v i a l , banal, and t o t a l l y uninformative about anything that i s not already known to some at least of the l i s t e n e r s . One has only to read the accounts of our P h i l i p experiment to r e a l i z e what i s happening i n mediumistic c i r c l e s . As i n the ghostly experience,there i s no doubt that telepathy plays a part i n creating the messages, and we are compelled to say that many many people believe strongly i n these messages, and some derive great comfort. The mediumistic c i r c l e can be a source of great support to people, but i n our opinion i t does not afford i r r e f u t a b l e proof of survival of the s p i r i t . Conversely, however, one must be aware of possible dangers in taking these messages too seriously. The messages generally r e f l e c t the innermost thoughts and desires of the medium and the people i n the c i r c l e . Used wrongly there could be disaster. One has only to think of the old p o l t e r g e i s t cases of Cock Lane, f o r instance, where Kent was almost accused of a murder he most ce r t a i n l y did not commit, or the blacksmith i n the Fox case who was accused of murdering the peddler.

The t h i r d area where these early researchers looked f o r proof of survival was that of'automatic writing.** This i s a s k i l l that anyone can acquire with some degree of practice. When one doodles on a pad while l i s t e n i n g to a speaker, or t a l k i n g on the telephone, that i s a form of automatic writing. The essence i s that one hold a pencil, or pen, lossely i n the hand, and while not paying attention to what i s "being written, one allows the hand to wande-r over the paper at w i l l . At f i r s t only squiggles and meaningless l i n e s w i l l appear, hut i n time and with practice, words and sentences w i l l follow. The same process can be followed i n painting, and some a r t i s t s have produced many fine paintings automatically. The theory that used to be held was that in t h i s "automatic" state a s p i r i t could ''take over" and write messages and give information that would not be known to the person doing the writing.

The most famous piece of research done i n t h i s area was carried out by the early researchers of the S.P.R. and i s known as the "Cross Correspondences". Books have been written on the subject and i t would be impossible to do justice to the work here, we can only give the b r i e f e s t of summaries. In order to understand this work at a l l i t i s necessary to r e a l i s e that these early researchers seemed to take f o r granted that the more elaborate and time-consuming the method was, the more valuable the r e s u l t s would be-i n f a c t a message i n code was more valuable than a message en c l a i r / I t was also suggested that complicated procedures helped the person receiving the communication by removing them so to speak to a "distance" from the communicator, and thus they were spared the shock of f e e l i n g that something within themselves i s at work.

The cross correspondences were started by a Mrs. V e r r a l l i n Cambridge i n March 1901. She had been a Lecturer i n Cla s s i c s and had read Latin and Greek at Newnham College. Her husband was C l a s s i c a l Lecturer and Tutor at T r i n i t y College. Mayers was a personal friend. Her f i r s t automatic writings were in fluent Latin, but l a t e r English sentences and snatches of Greek appeared. One of the early founders of the SPR, Edmund Gurney, who had died i n 1888 was one of the supposed "communicators". I t was re a l i s e d that some of the writings were instances of cryptomnesia (the emergence of memories no longer present i n the conscious mind); also there were instances of telepathy recorded.

Myers had suggested during his l i f e t i m e "the formation of a group e f f o r t by the dead to provide evidence f o r s u r v i v a l " and he had been trying "to obtain connexions between the utterances, spoken or written, of d i f f e r e n t automatists"

during the two years before his death, which was i n 1901, just before Mrs. V e r r a l l started her automatic writing. The correspondences developed rapidly - they were s c r i p t s automatically written which were l a t e r found to be interconnected, though produced by people i n diff e r e n t places, d i f f e r e n t continents, people who were at f i r s t completely unaware of one another's work, even of one another's existence. Some of the s c r i p t s did not make sense u n t i l they had been set side by side. Others presented i d e n t i c a l ideas i n diff e r e n t form. Some of the people involved over the years were very inte r e s t i n g personalities indeed; they include Kipling's s i s t e r , A l i c e Fleming, Ali c e Johnson, (a colleague of Mrs. Sidgwicks at Newnham at the Balfour Laboratory), Mrs. V e r r a l l ' s daughter^ who married W.H, Salter) ?Mrs. Coombe Tennant, Dame Edith Lyttelton, .the"Macs" a family of two brothers and three s i s t e r s in Glasgow. With the exception of this l a s t family the rest of the correspondents had strong university connexions, and were often related to one another by blood, marriage, or shared interests. Several were Professors or Tutors in c l a s s i c a l subjects, the l i t e r a t u r e , history, and philosophy of ancient Greece and Rome; the majority had some knowledge of c l a s s i c a l myths and legends, a deep f a m i l i a r i t y with the themes and rhythms of the Authorised Version of the Bible, and an extensive resonance with English poetry. I t was not simply that they 'spoke the same language' but that i t provoked the same echoes in them a l l . I t i s important to recognize t h i s background.

The cross correspondences were carried on f o r many years; Mrs. V e r r a l l continued u n t i l the end of her l i f e i n 1916, and i n fact they were continued by some people u n t i l 1932. There are said to be some 3,000 s c r i p t s s t i l l i n existence, though many of these are lodged i n the safe keeping of T r i n i t y College l i b r a r y u n t i l the end of the century, as they are believed to contain much confidential material regarding the l i v e s of the participants, and are not meant to be published u n t i l a f t e r the death of both the pariticpants and t h e i r children.

Many of the communications apparently came from Myers himself, but as the number of people taking part i n the correspondences increased, so did the number of apparent communicators. These included Francis Balfour, who was k i l l e d i n a mountaineering accident i n 1882, Mary L y t t e l t o n and her sister-in-law, Laura, who died i n the mid 19?0's, Myers'cousin Annie Marshall, who died i n mysterious and tragic circumstances i n 1886, and Henry Sidgwick himself who died i n 1900. Others appeared as well, but the main communicators seemed to have been th i s group of people

who were so closely associated with the automatists themselves.

The cross correspondences l o s t t h e i r e f f e c t as evidence simply because the task of evaluating them became too complex. As mentioned the amount of material produced over the years was massive, but -^t0haBE#ne4vun|'or.Jijna,tely that- the content consisted almost e n t i r e l y of oblique references, c l a s s i c a l allusions, obscure phrases, fragments of poetry and the l i k e - nothing was written i n p l a i n everday language. Everything had to be interpreted. Unfortunately many of the people attempting to decipher the s c r i p t s had d i f f e r i n g views of the interpretations to be placed upon some of them. To give but a b r i e f i l l u s t r a t i o n of what we mean we w i l l quote, very b r i e f l y , some d e t a i l s of what became known as the "Palm Sunday Case"; a section of the cross correspondences that was believed by many people to provide proof of survival.

Arthur Balfour, as a young man, had been deeply i n love with Mary Catherine Lyttelton when she died of typhoid fever on Palm Sunday i n 1875. He had p r i v a t e l y asked that she be buried with his dead mother's emerald r i n g on her finger; he had p r i v a t e l y been given a tress of her hair and had had made a bronzed s i l v e r box i n which to keep t h i s lock. Sidelong references kept cropping up i n the correspondences, but i t was 1912 before these references apparently f e l l into place. At t h i s time a team of investigators started to make a determined e f f o r t to interpret some of the scripts; t h i s team consisted of Eleanor Sidgwick (Balfour's s i s t e r ) , Gerald Balfour (his brother) Oliver Lodge, Alic e Johnson, and J.G. Piddington. Arthur Balfour had kept each Palm Sunday as the anniversary of Mary's death. Mrs. Coombe Tennant was the writer of the s c r i p t , who apparently had never heard of the a f f a i r , and i n her writings she produced allusi o n s to a dead g i r l , and the "love that waits beyond death". She also wrote references to theTalm Maiden" the*May Flower, and to the'"faithful knight" (Balfour never married). Other s c r i p t writers across the years alluded to the lock of hair, the s i l v e r box, to Rosetti's Blessed Damozel, to the name of Mary by way of the nursery rhyme l i n e s about " s i l v e r b e l l s and cockle s h e l l s 1 ' to the name of Arthur by way of Arthurian legends, and by way of the Duke of Wellington who won the Battle of Waterloo. Mrs. Haynes writes i n her History of the Society f o r Psychical Research mentioned previously, "The cumulative e f f e c t was impressive, though the impatient reader sometimes gets a f e e l i n g that people are searching f o r the beads of a broken necklace

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i n a dustbin f u l l of Christmas t i n s e l and cracker mottoes".

In f a c t the volume of correspondences and the elusive manner in which the s c r i p t s were written completed defeated any p o s s i b i l i t y of using them to prove survival. Also the fa c t that so many of the participants shared the same background and way of thinking made i t very possible that in those instances that looked as i f they might possibly furnish some evidential proof of survival i t could equally be possible that some form of telepathy was responsible f o r the facts that were being put forward. I t i s also_quite possible to place d i f f e r e n t interpretations on many of the s c r i p t s , according to who i s attempting the interpretation. In conclusion, fascinating as the cross correspondences are, (and people are s t i l l attempting to interpret them today) they do not convince the modern reader of the r e a l i t y of survival. Unquestionably the automatists, and the investigators, had a most interesting and enjoyable time with these s c r i p t s , and most ce r t a i n l y the experiments were taken seriously, and the references and allusions pursued i n great d e t a i l and most meticulously, but we cannot accept them as proving survival.

We mentioned e a r l i e r that Myers had thoughf of the p o s s i b i l i t y of gathering together on the "other side"£i.e. a f t e r death) a number of people who had been interested i n investigating these matters, and organizing them as a group to attempt to communicate through mediums, automatists, and others. This would seem a reasonable and r a t i o n a l thing to do, assuming that s p i r i t s do i n f a c t exist and are able to communicate with each other. Other people since then have thoughf of the p o s s i b i l i t y of arranging some form of communication a f t e r they have died. Some have l e f t sealed messages, only to be opened a f t e r there seems to be r e a l proof that they have managed to.communicate. This presents some d i f f i c u l t i e s J i f the medium or automatist i s wrong, then the message has been revealed and the chance l o s t f o r anyone else to attempt communication. Houdini, a renowned magician and sceptic l e f t such a message, which was never s a t i s f a c t o r i l y communicated, although claims were made. Of recent years other people have l e f t sealed messages, sometimes i n code, which they hope to be able to communicate from the other side. Robert Thouless, a distinguished parapsychologist from Cambridge who died only a few years ago l e f t a message but,as f a r as one i s aware, that message has never been received from him i n the great beyond.

So-called s p i r i t communication has been singularly unsatisfactory in providing any kind of proof of survival.

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OUT-OF-BODY AND 'NEAR DEATH' EXPERIENCES.

Two psychological experiences that have seemed to o f f e r possible proof of survival of the human s p i r i t are those that have become known as''out-of-body experiences^and the ''near -death" experience. While these are usually discussed as i f they are d i f f e r e n t types of experience, we believe i t i s probable that they are d i f f e r e n t manifestations of the same experience.

Mi When we issued our extensive questionnaire some years ago, to which we have referred i n other papers, one of the questions asked was "Have you ever had the experience of f l o a t i n g

^ away from your body". More than seventeen hundred people out of a t o t a l of some three thousand three hundred and f o r t y persons who re p l i e d claimed to have had t h i s experience.' This was somewhat higher a percentage than we might have

™ expected. Typically, i n an out-of-body experience the person concerned i s aware that,while the physical body i s i n a p a r t i c u l a r place or position,some other aspect of the ' s e l f

M i s separated from this body and having a separate experience. Sometimes, f o r instance, a person w i l l say /'I was l y i n g on the bed, half asleep, half awake, when suddenly I was

^ conscious that I was up near the c e i l i n g , looking down on my body which was s t i l l on the bed". A f r i e n d of ours told us how, when her c h i l d was small, she was walking along a road, pushing the pram, when she suddenly re a l i s e d she could

1-1' see herself from the side of the road pushing the pram i n the middle of the road, among oncoming t r a f f i c . Usually the shock of t h i s experience of apparently " s p l i t t i n g " ' i s

mi s u f f i c i e n t to terminate the experience, and the person w i l l usually state th i s , saying something l i k e "I f e l t t o t a l l y shocked, and then a f e l t a j a r r i n g of my body, and I was

— bacok inside my own body again". The sit u a t i o n i s not at a l l uncommon i n times of c r i s i s . Many people %when undergoing an operation f o r instance }have had the experience of being up on the c e i l i n g watching the surgeons operating on t h e i r anaesthetized body, and they can often not only describe the operation but repeat what the surgeons aid s t a f f have said. S i m i l a r l y many people who have been involved i n accidents

j have watched attempts to extricate and resuscitate them from a point somewhere above the body. The psychologiEal term f o r t h i s experience i s "disassociation" and i t would appear

. that at times of stress, c r i s i s , or acute emotion, the mind can, i n some mysterious way disassociate i t s e l f from the physical body, usually when i t seems necessary that the physical body i s needing protection from too much stress

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Generally speaking when t h i s experience happens the person concerned does not f e e l that his 'spirit,' or whatever he c a l l s that part of himself i s outside of the body, moves out of sight of the physical body; i f the experience happens inside a room both parts of the personality remain within the room. However some people claim to have the experience of being able to leave the physical body behind completely and move outside of the immediate environment. This phenomenon has become known as a s t r a l t r a v e l . Conversely, some people f e e l that they are bound to t h e i r physical body by a sometimes v i s i b l e , sometimes i n v i s i b l e cord or t i e , and that i f t h i s t i e i s broken and the connection i s severed, then they w i l l die, and they can go to great lengths to ensure that t h i s cord i s not broken. Generally speaking t h i s l a t t e r b e l i e f i s one that has grown out of s p i r i t u a l i s t i c b e l i e f s about what happens i n this kind of situation.

Over the years much has been written about th i s kind of experience, and many people have related t h e i r own experiences. The experience has been put forward as one that offers proof of s u r v i v a l . The reasoning i s that i f some part of the human personality can ' s p l i t ' i n this way apart from the physical body, then that part that has s p l i t o f f must be the human soul or s p i r i t , and i s that part of the personality which survives death. This soul or s p i r i t carries with i t a l l the memories, knowledge, emotions and personality of the personfrom whom i t derived. I t should be mentioned here that people having t h i s experience cannot describe the form i n which they are clothed i n t h i s out-of-body personality, i t seems to be purely a mental phenomenon.

Parapsychologists have long been interested i n t h i s kind of experience; much research has been done. Again., however, i t has not been possible to point to t h i s phenomenon and say "here i s proof positive that the soul survives a f t e r death'.' To begin with, of course, the insurmountable objection i s that these are experiences of the l i v i n g . The person concerned i s not dead, and does not die, and the ' s p l i t ' part of the personality returns to the body, even those who claim a s t r a l t r a v e l f o r great distances - return to t h e i r bodies. Also, there are no accounts i n the l i t e r a t u r e of t h i s phenomenon of the ' s p i r i t s ' meeting up with other such s p i r i t s during the time they are absent from the body. One would expect that i f the s p i r i t was r e a l l y something separate that could survive on i t s own i t would i n those periods outside the body meet up with other l i k e s p i r i t s and exchange some information or ideas* Nothing l i k e that has been reported. Even those s p i r i t s that a s t r a l l y t r a v e l do not report meeting up with other s p i r i t s , although they may claim to have seen and known what i s happening i n other parts of the world.

Studies of these accounts over a long period of time lead us to believe that out-of-body experiences are i n fa c t a protective mechanism to help the body deal with a period of intense emotional or physical stress. Nevertheless, ''dissociation" i s an extremely interesting phenomenon, the mechanics of which we cer t a i n l y do not understand, and there i s nothing wrong with the reasoning that t h i s might be the way the s p i r i t leaves the body at death, and that i t _ s survival might be i n that form. A l l we are saying that there has been no incontrovertible proof found over the years. Experiments have been done with people claiming the a b i l i t y to leave the body at w i l l and perform special a l i o t e d tasks. I f this could happen i t would go f a r towards affording the proof we are looking for. Unfortunately these experiments are d i f f i c u l t to set up. Alex Tanous, a well known American writer and researcher i n t h i s f i e l d , claimed to have the a b i l i t y to move out of his body at w i l l , and experiments were done with him at the o f f i c e s of the American SPR. Although some of these were very interesting, one has to say in fairness they do not afford proof. Experiments i n t h i s f i e l d are d i f f i c u l t to do, as we have said,* so many other factors have to be ruled out. Most parapsychologists today accept the r e a l i t y of telepathy, the communication between minds, and so many phenomena can be explained by the fact that telepathy exists. The experiments with Alex Tanous were designed to rule out telepathy. The researchers at the American SPR set up various objects i n a closed room, and these objects were moved around randomly by some form of mechanical means, so that nobody involved i n the experiment was aware of the arrangement of the objects. Tanous was l y i n g on a couch i n another part of the building, and his task was to go out of his body, and enter t h i s room by a tiny window and then subsequently report the arrangement of the objects. These experiments were carried out over a number of months, and as we have said, the results were not conclusive.

Many spontaneous out-of-body experiences involving a s t r a l t r a v e l can also be explained by means of telepathy, and so do not afford the kind of proof we are looking for.

Of recent years much attention has been focussed on what we believe to be another manifestation of the out-of-body experience, namely that which happens at the time of death, or near death. This has become known as the "near-death 1' experience, and attention was e s p e c i a l l y drawn to th i s by Dr. Kubler-Ross the Swiss born p s y c h i a t r i s t and aurtiioar:. i n 1959 of a book On Death and Dying, which became a world

b e s t - s e l l e r . In fact i t continues to be a b e s t - s e l l e r to t h i s day, and i s undoubtedly the most highly regarded book on i t s subject, regarded as a c l a s s i c i n dealing with the process of dying. Because of her high reputation i n this f i e l d , and her wide experiences, much attention was paid to Dr. Kubler-Ross when a few years a f t e r the publication of her book she came out with claims that a f t e r l i s t e n i n g to the accounts of "near-death" experiences of more than 1,000 people she herself had become to believe i n l i f e a f t e r death. The near-death experience as described by Kubler-Ross, and many other writers who jumped on the band-wagon,is e s s e n t i a l l y that the person about to die w i l l often see a long tunnel, with a glowing beautiful l i g h t at the end; at the same time they themselves are consciously aware of shedding t h e i r bodies, and moving towards t h i s l i g h t . There i s never any panic, fear or pain, only a p e r f e c t l y serene peace. They f e e l as perfectly free and beautiful as a b u t t e r f l y shedding i t s cocoon. At the time that Dr. Kifbler-Ross made her claims, because of her international renown people listened with great respect and attention, and many researchers, as well as many doctors and nurses, attempted to v e r i f y what she was saying. Some considerable time l a t e r i t was revealed that Dr. Kubler-Ross had embraced the s p i r i t u a l i s t i c r e l i g i o n and had become completely subjective i n her approach to the subject. This somewhat reduced her c r e d i b i l i t y .

However,as we have said,many other researchers attempted to gather the same kind of information that Dr. Kubler-Ross had gathered, and i t soon became clear that the facts were not as clear-cut as would appear. F i r s t of a l l , we have to state that the over-riding obstacle to overcome,in the f i r s t p l a c e , i s the fact that these are only near-death experiences, the persons concerned recovered to t e l l the tale* Their souls were s t i l l with them; those who do die are not apparently able to come back and t e l l us what i t was l i k e when they got to the end of the tunnel. These other researchers found however that i n these near-death experiences there was a mixed message. Clearly those researchers who themselves believed i n the experience published only those cases which confirmed t h e i r b e l i e f . I t was found that i n fact i n the near-death s i t u a t i o n people have a l l kinds of experiences, generally related to th e i r c u l t u r a l background, or t h e i r own expectations. I t i s , of course, well-known that many people at the point of death appear to see the "ghosts" or s p i r i t s of t h e i r own loved ones, come to help them cross over. The intensely r e l i g i o u s w i l l see angels, saints, even Jesus himself, while those with a g u i l y conscience and having l i v e d a "bad" l i f e have been known to meet with the D e v i l . T r a d i t i o n a l l y of course,

those most l i k e l y to he aware of the experiences of the dying are members of the medical professions, and i n 1961 Dr. K a r l i s Osis conducted a survey f o r the Parapsychological Association of New York on the Deathbed Observations by Physicians and Nurses. This was a most valuable contribution to the whole f i e l d . Prom the summary we note that elated moods were estimated to occur i n approximately one in twenty cases; extreme exaltation was reported i n 753 of the cases reported (we should mention that 10,000 questonnaires were sent out to doctors and nurses) Visual hallucinations occurred ten times more frequently than to people i n normal health, and these hallucinations as we have indicated were either of a r e l i g i o u s nature, or of scenes of indescribable beauty and colour. The study also e l i c i t e d the fact that the patient's perception of and response to the actual environment was int a c t during the experience of the hallucinations. The study was complex and computerized, and too long to discuss i n d e t a i l here, but the results confirm what many nuses and doctors f e e l actually happens at the time of death or near death.

I r i s reports that,having nursed herself f o r many years, she has seen a l l types of apparent near-death experiences, and has f e l t from the f i r s t time of reading Kubler-Ross' work that i t i s unwise to generalize. In discussion with other nurses, both i n Toronto and England these impressions are confirmed. For instance, I r i s reports - "I remember a patient who before she went up for operation told me she f e l t she would die under the anaesthetic. She was only due f o r a small exploratory procedure which carried no r i s k . However, she did "die" and had to be resuscitated three times before coming out from the anaesthetic. When she came round she said to me "I did die didn't I?" I had been instructed by the surgeon not to t e l l her, as she was to have another more serious operation l a t e r , so I denied that she had died. I asked her why she thought she had died but she had had no experience of death, i t was just a t o t a l blank, she just thought she must have died. She l a t e r had the other operation and there was no trouble. I also remember patients havinghaHueinations of r e l a t i v e s , or children coming to fetch them into the other world. I also nursed patients who had g u i l t y consciences and did i n fact see devils, or people they had wronged. But I f e e l , as do most other nurses I have known, that most people do die free from pain, and so i n a peaceful and serene manner, but what they experience at the moment of death i s not something that they are able to communicate to those at the bedside. Death f o r most people i s not an unpleasant or painf u l experience, but what l i e s beyond i s I believe s t i l l an unknown factor. Faith i n the hereafter i s another matter e n t i r e l y /

As an inte r e s t i n g footnote to t h i s section a survey was done recently at the John Kennediy University i n C a l i f o r n i a of people who have had experiences i n seeing UFOs. This was done under the auspices of the university's consciousness study department. Lorraine Davis, who conducted the study a f t e r attending a seminar on the near-death experience,when she was struck by the s i m i l a r i t i e s between the experiences of those near death of the b r i l l i a n t swirls of l i g h t , s p i r a l l i n g into a tunnel with long-dead r e l a t i v e s beckoning at the end of the tunnel, and the experiences of some people reporting UFO contacts of similar bright swirls of l i g h t , forming into apparent UFO's with space people beckoning.

To carry out her study, Davis borrowed a questionnaire that had been used by University of Connecticut psychologist Kenneth Ring to study the near-death experience, and sent i t to 26l people reporting UFO's or contacts with extra t e r r e s t r i a She received 93 r e p l i e s and proceeded to compare them to those answers given by Ring's subjects. As i t turned out Davis says there were three changes in those who said they'd either hovered near death or seen a UFO. Their attitude towards themselves and others became less egocentric, t h e i r attitudes towards r e l i g i o n shifted from atheism or narrow sectarianism to a more universal s p i r i t u a l i t y , and they reported an increase i n psychic a b i l i t y .

Davis concluded that "UFO sightings and near-death experiences are both examples of altered states of the human evolution towards higher l e v e l s of consciousness". She goes on to say "The UFO participant was thrust into t h i s psychic state by a p r e c i p i t a t i n g event just as the near-death experience subject was transformed by the nearness of death".

These conclusions did not s i t well with some of Davis' subjects "Are you saying I imagined the whole thing?" re p l i e d at l e a s t one participant. Davis says "No, i f the UFO experience does take place i n an altered state of consciousness" she says "perhaps a nuts-and-bolts machine i s materalized f o r a few minutes. Who knows? I t ' s c e r t a i n l y possible to perceive and experience i n other states of consciousness, sometimes with an even greater sense of r e a l i t y than that which we experience on a day-to-day basis".

C r i t i c i s m of t h i s view however has come from other psychologists notably Richard Haines, author of Observing UFOs. He says that Davis and others i n the f i e l d should spend more time v a l i d a t i n g methodology. "A major problem with t h i s sort of transcendental analysis"he says " i s that you actually generate your own terminology, as you go along. There i s very poor agreement among people concerning even the most general concepts i n t h i s f i e l d " .

Davis does have one avid supporter though, the respectable Ring. He says "As long as there's a sudden traumatic p r e c i p i t a t i n g event - approaching death i s an example -the transcendental experience can occur".

REINCARNATION.

So, i f neither spiritualism, out-of-body or near-death experiences o f f e r us d e f i n i t i v e proof of survival, what hope of proof i s there i n reincarnation theories?

The idea of reincarnation appears early i n the history of philosophy. References to i t occur i n the Vedas of ancient India, and i t forms a central part of the doctrines of Brahmanism and Buddhism to t h i s day. In ancient Greece a number of philosophers such as Empedocles and Pythagoras taught reincarnation, while Plato made i t an important assumption i n his philosophy. Numerous modern philosophers such as Hume, Goethe, Lessing and Schopenhauer have either endorsed the idea of'reincarnation or expressed sympathetic inter e s t i n i t . Other philosophers such as McTaggart, Broad and Ducasse have found reincarnation plausible and at t r a c t i v e as a hypothesis about survival, although most of these have interested themselves i n reincarnation more as a mechanism o^ survival, that i s , as explanatory of the further fate of the deceased personality. They have assumed survival or accepted i t s p r o b a b i l i t y from other evidence and have not drawn much or at a l l on the evidence f o r reincarnation i t s e l f . Reincarnation i s being increasingly adopted as an a r t i c l e of f a i t h today by a large number of people i n various r e l i g i o u s demoninations.

Reincarnation implies the state of being "embodied anew", that i s , t h a t the soul or s p i r i t of a deceased person, a f t e r an interim period i n the otherworld, i s reborn i n accordance with the merits acquired during i t s previous l i f e t i m e . The human soul, i t i s believed, i s a fragment of the divine, and w i l l ultimately return to i t s divine source. But i t i s necessary f o r i t s own evolution that i t should savour to the f u l l the various experiences that l i f e provides and learn to distinguish the good from the bad, the eternal from the temporal. However i t s ultimate destiny i s f a r too great f o r t his education to be completed i n one b r i e f sojourn on earth, and i n the limited range of one l i f e t i m e , and a single bodily form. I t i s believed that only the soul that has suffered through much t r i b u l a t i o n can a t t a i n the divine purpose f o r which i t i s intended, and reach i t s goal of perfection.

B e l i e f i n reincarnation was taught among the early-Christians but i t was condemned by the Second Council of Constantinople, convened by the Emperor Justinian i n 553» and became f o r a time a h e r e t i c a l doctrine.

However the hypothesis of reincarnation has always had many followers and^as we have remarked, today i t i s becoming an increasingly popular philosophy. One cannot deny the at t r a c t i o n of b e l i e f i n such a philosophy. For instance, i t i s hard to explain the existence of a c h i l d who dies i n infancy, bringing nothing but heartbreak to i t s parents. The questions are asked,"What was the purpose of t h i s c h i l d ' s short l i f e ? " , "What i s i t s f i n a l destiny"? "Does i t go to heaven?" I f so, i s t h i s f a i r that a small c h i l d should go straight to the happy lands without struggling with t h i s l i f e on earth, while others have to struggle through a long, and perhaps miserable l i f e ? How tempting i t i s to believe that when things go wrong i n t h i s l i f e , a l l w i l l be redressed i n the next incarnation. Reincarnation theory i s undoubtedly a doctrine of comfort, absolving God from any charges of i n j u s t i c e , favouritism, cruelty or caprice. Each person i s ultimately responsible f o r h i s or her own destiny, and i t a l l works out equally i n the end. Those who have a good l i f e i n th i s time around are either reaping the reward of sufferings i n previous l i v e s , or w i l l pay the penalty in future l i v e s , and those who suffer now have something good to look forward to i n the next l i f e . Some reincarnation theories hold that the soul does not necessarily return i n human form, i t may be reborn as a plant, or an animal; these b e l i e f s are held by certain Hindu sects, and we w i l l not concern ourselves with them here, we w i l l only consider those theories that hold that the soul i s reborn i n human form.

S t i l l there are many questions to be addressed i f one i s looking at thi s reincarnation theory. How long i s i t between incranations? Is the process in d e f i n i t e ? How many chances does one get? Does one always return i n a body of the same sex, or i s t h i s varied? What about culture and r a c i a l background? Can one remember one l i f e from the next? I f not, how ef f e c t i v e are the lessons learned i n a previous l i f e ? The questions are endless, and mostly unanswered even t h e o r e t i c a l l y .

The Tibetans believe that the Bodhisattva named Avalokitesvara becameincarnate as the i r s p i r i t u a l head, the Dalai Lama, and that each successive Dalai Lama i s the embodiment of that august being. This idea determines the choice of successor to t h e i r deceased p o n t i f f . When a Dalai Lama died h i s soul does not wait i n .the otherworld as do the shades of lesser mortals, but immediately occupies

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body of a c h i l d born at the moment of his death. I t i s the task of a senior committee of lamas to fin d the c h i l d i n question. This i s done by testing the c h i l d that i s believed to be the reincarnation; favourite objects of the dead Dalai Lama are offered the ch i l d , among other objects, and i f the c h i l d chooses the previous favourite objects of the departed s p i r i t t h i s i s taken as a sign; there are many tests, of course, but they are a l l designed to f i n d signs of the i d e n t i t y of the dead Dalai Lama i n the body of the young c h i l d . (These tests are usually conducted when the c h i l d i s about two years old, the present Dalai Lama was i d e n t i f i e d as the authentic reincarnation of the previous one at age two years). Many others of the senior lamas in Tibet are also chosen i n the same way. In Tibet the theory has always been held through the centuries that the new incarnation w i l l occur almost immediately a f t e r the death of his predecessor, that the soul w i l l be reincarnated as a Tibetan, and that i t w i l l be male. Interestingly enough, now that the Tibetan nation has become scattered throughout the world, and the old culture i s i n disarray

«•* i n Tibet, we f i n d Tibetans accepting the p o s s i b i l i t y that reincarnations might occur among western people, and that they may not occur immediately a f t e r the death of the

, m previous incarnation. One of the most famous of Tibetan lamas died some four to fi v e years ago, and the Tibetan community i s s t i l l awaiting h i s reincarnation, and are

^ mentally prepared f o r t h i s perhaps to happen i n the western world. Certainly the discovery of the new lama has been delayed much longer than would have been usual i n Tibet.

d Does the returning soul have any say as to which w i l l be i t s future body? Some philosophies say''yes," the soul has a choice, others deny the choice.

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Is t h i s a v a l i d theory, or i s reincarnation merely a form of wish-fulfilment, or panacea to help one cope with a l l the troubles encountered i n t h i s l i f e ? What kind of proof i s there?

The only kind of proof that we can examine are the memories that people claim to have brought over with them from the otherworld, together with any possible indications they may be able to make that can help us to evaluate the truth of t h e i r claims. Many prominent and eminent people have made claims from time to time that they can remember previous incarnations; unfortunately suspicion i s created i n the mind of sceptics when one reads of so many people who claim to reme'iper t h e i r previous l i v e s as Egyptian pharoahs, Babylonian kings, Persian rulers, Chinese princesses, and so on. The number of people who claim to have been Cleopatra i n a previous l i f e i s phenomenal* One wonders i f the cause of these claims i s a subconscious wish i n the minds of those leading a dreary l i f e i n t h i s world.

Considering that the greater part of the population of the world i s made up of very ordinary people, i t i s surprising how few of these feature i n the memories of those claiming reincarnation. There are many other minor puzzles to be considered when adopting a b e l i e f i n reincarnation. Some people l i k e to play around with the numbers involved and point out that world population i s growing too f a s t to accommodate the numbers of souls waiting to f i n d new bodies. The question of when a t o t a l l y new soul i s born i s one that has not been decided, nor do we know how we are supposed to recognise a new soul as opposed to an 'old soul'. Believers i n the reincarnation theory w i l l often point to people, i n p a r t i c u l a r children, who appear to have acquired a great deal of unusual knowledge, or experience, at a very young age, and assert that the reason they have these a b i l i t i e s i s because they are 'old souls' they are using a b i l i t i e s and knowledge that they have brough over with them from a previous existence. Child prodigies are often referred to i n t h i s way.

But these are a l l theories. What about facts? What actual proof i s there that a soul or s p i r i t can leave a dead or dying body and re-enter another body to l i v e a l i f e a l l over again? I f t h i s could be proved then indeed we have our proof of survival, t h i s i s what we have been looking for.

We w i l l discuss the theories that have been advanced as proof under three headings. F i r s t l y , the anecdotal type of proof, the stories of people who claim that they can remember i n appreciable d e t a i l t h e i r own past l i f e or l i v e s ; secondly, we w i l l discuss the work of Dr. Ian Stevenson, who i s Professor of Psychiatry, i n the Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of V i r g i n i a School of Medicine, and who has conducted the most extensive study of cases of alleged reincarnation ever undertaken, and f i n a l l y we w i l l discuss modern methods of retrogressive hypnotism being currently used to uncover memories of past l i v e s i n order to help deal with current problems of health and anxiety i n pateients.

Two books of recent years soared to the top of the best s e l l e r l i s t s and caught the public fancy on the subject of reincarnation. The Search f o r Bridey Murphy, (Morey Bernstein, 1956, Doubleday & Co) and The Search f o r the G i r l with the Blue Eyes (Jess Stearn,Doubleday, 1968) both purported to be accounts of young women who, under hypnosis, were able to remember a great number of d e t a i l s of t h e i r alleged previous l i v e s . The books were the centre of

a great deal of controversy f o r various reasons. Attempts were made to v e r i f y the facts as given by the subjects regarding t h e i r previous existence, but i n most cases i t was not possible to v e r i f y these facts. (This i s one disadvantage when the previous l i f e i s that of an ordinary person, as opposed to someone famous, t h e i r l i v e s are not usually well documented, and v e r i f i c a t i o n i s d i f f c u l t to obtain.) Attempts were made to check the v a l i d i t y of the claims by looking at the language used when under hypnosis by the subjects to see i f the vocabulary conformed to the language used at the time of the previous l i f e , and the customs of the times were also checked against what was claimed i n the stories. This kind of attempted v e r i f i c a t i o n i s extremely f r u s t r a t i n g , time consuming, and unsatisfactory as proof. Often the references available to the investigator are also available to the claimant, books, t e l e v i s i o n programmes, and so on a s s i s t i n disseminating information of t h i s nature. I t i s very d i f f i c u l t to f i n d evidence that something said i n hypnotic trance i s a fact that could not possibly have been known to the person when in a normal state of mind.

Ruth Simmons was the subject i n Morey Bernstin's book The Search f o r Bridey Murphy and under hypnosis she revealed that she had l i v e d the l i f e of an I r i s h g i r l , named Bridey Murphy i n the 19th century back i n Ireland. The whole story collapsed some months l a t e r when a newspaper reporter discovered that as a c h i l d Ruth Simmons had actually l i v e d opposite an Irishwoman named Bridey Murphy as a small c h i l d , and that many of the 'authentic' d e t a i l s of Ireland came from t h i s lady's r e c o l l e c t i o n . A l l the same, the people who believed i n reincarnation continued to buy the book, and refused to be discouraged. The G i r l with the Blue Eyes was an a t t r a c t i v e young woman, l i v i n g i n Vancouver, Joanne Ma elver, whose re c o l l e c t i o n s of a previous l i f e were Chose of a young woman, Susan Ganier, l i v i n g a sheltered l i f e i n Central Ontario a century previously. Again every e f f o r t was made to arrive at a clear-cut conclusion that the Vancouver g i r l under hypnosis was revealing knowledge that only the g i r l i n the previous incarnation could have possessed. The author of the book, Jess Stearn, i n h i s conclusions admits that there was no conclusive proof that Joanne and Susan had shared one soul.

We s h a l l talk l a t e r about the use of hypnosis i n these circumstances under more controlled conditions than were used i n the two above mentioned cases, but i t i s important not to underestimate the power of hypnosis, or altered states <P)f consciousness to produce memories long forgotten. Hypnosis i s an altered state of consciousness, but other factors can produce altered states of consciousness also, p a r t i c u l a r l y strong emotional stress. We remember a

conversation we had once with the wife of a University-professor. The conversation had turned to the subject of the extraordinary powers of the mind, and t h i s lady told us that she had a few months previously been i n a disturbed emotional state. She had been dreaming a great deal, as a r e s u l t of t h i s strain, and had been talking i n her sleep. However, the language she had been using was one t o t a l l y unknown to her husband who was many times awakened by her t a l k i n g and was l i s t e n i n g . Eventually he tape-recorded what she was saying, and attempted to discover what language she had been using. After a great deal of research i t was discovered that she had been talking i n an obscure d i a l e c t used by l o c a l Indians i n a remote area of the Amazon basin. The lady at f i r s t could make nothing of i t , and then she eventually remembered that she had been told that when she was born, some more than f i f t y years e a r l i e r , her parents had been missionaries i n the Amazon area from which t h i s language came, but when the baby was born they l e f t before the c h i l d was one year old, because of the climate, and had never returned. She said they hardly ever mentioned having been there to her r e c o l l e c t i o n , and they cer t a i n l y never spoke the language. She herself was not able to talk at the time. She theorised that even though she could not talk the l o c a l language had become imprinted i n her mind. The phrases she had used i n her sleep were normal everyday conversation , such as she might have heard around the v i l l a g e . In the altered state of mind induced by her emotional upset t h i s hidden knowledge had been brought to the surface. We have to say that the l i t e r a t u r e quoted does not o f f e r any concrete proof of survival.

But what about more s c i e n t i f i c research? Reincarnation, as we have indicated, i s not an easy subject f o r research. There i s one person who has done more s c i e n t i f i c research i n t h i s f i e l d than anybody else i n the s c i e n t i f i c world. Professor Ian Stevenson, of the University of V i r g i n i a School of Medicine has devoted many years of meticulous research, and has written several imposing and academic volumes d e t a i l i n g cases of alleged reincarnation he has researched. He has spent many years studying the subject. I t would be t o t a l l y impossible to do anything more than make a few comments on his work i n t h i s short paper.

Over a period of twenty f i v e years Stevenson has published books containing the d e t a i l s of some sixty four cases of possible or alleged reincarnation that he has studied. In addition, i n his o r i g i n a l essay on the subject, published i n 1961, he reported b r i e f d e t a i l s on f o r t y four cases he had reeo^ded. The origing are detailed as follows, India, 28, 17 from Burma, 12 from Lebanon and Turkey, 10 i n S r i Lanka, 6 from I t a l y , and the rest scattered i n ones and twos i n other countries, notably only 3 i n the U.S. 3 from England, one i n Canada.

Stevenson states, however, that he has many hundreds of cases l i s t e d on his f i l e s which he has "been unable to study i n depth, f o r various reasons. The overwhelming number of his cases come from south east Asia ( i . e . India, S r i Lanka, Thailand and Burma); most of the remainder come from western Asia ( i . e . southeastern Turkey, Syria and Lebanon), Europe and B r a z i l . Stevenson says that the incidence of reported cases thus varies widely between d i f f e r e n t cultures. He goes on to say, however, that c u l t u r a l influences alone do not necessarily account f o r the data. I t should be noted that Stevenson does not claim that the cases he has researched prove the reincarnation theory; indeed, he i s careful always to state that they are suggestive of reincarnation only, or that they are cases of the reincarnation type. I t i s probably f a i r to say that i f i t were not f o r Stevenson's researches reincarnation would remain a c u r i o s i t y pertaining to eastern r e l i g i o n s , and would probably receive l i t t l e attention i n the western world. Stevenson however i s a man of such firm reputation and his work has been so extensive that a great deal of attention has been paid i n recent years to the p o s s i b i l i t y that reincarnation theory does indeed o f f e r proof of survival of the human s p i r i t .

The majority of Stevenson's cases consist of people, usually children, who retain some memory of a previous l i f e , and have talked about t h i s i n t h e i r early years. (It seems to be a fact that these early memories tend to fade as the c h i l d grows older, and may be t o t a l l y forgotten i n l a t e r l i f e ) . Stevenson personally t r a v e l l e d to the countries where his investigations took place, and i n most cases interviewed the children and t h e i r families himself, and conducted much of the investigation. He was asssLted by teams of helpers i n the countries, of course, but those cases about which he publishes f u l l d e t a i l s he personally vouches f o r the accuracy of the material gathered. The cases vary, naturally, i n the amount of information i t was possible to gather about the alleged previous l i f e of the subject, but some of them are indeed s t r i k i n g . Generally speaking r e c o l l e c t i o n s of a previous existence was of a former l i f e somewhere i n the neighbourhood, sometimes of a family member, an uncle, or grandfather perhaps. Some recoll e c t i o n s , however, were of a l i f e l i v e d f a r away from the present home, and Stevenson records some s t a r t l i n g cases where th i s happened.

Perhaps one of the most s t r i k i n g cases he investigated was of a Burmese family consisting of the parents and ten children. The father was a schoolmaster, and they appeared r e l i a b l e and honest persons. Two of the children, a boy,, and l a t e r a g i r l , claimed to have memories of a previous l i f e , not as Burmese, but as Americans. The boy, who was born f i r s t claimed to have l i v e d i n America during his previous

l i f e , and showed a preference f o r American type food, and appeared to have some mannerisms that would he more commonly found i n America. What was most s t r i k i n g however, i s that the boy i s f a i r haired and blue eyed, and has a t y p i c a l l y western appearance. The inference was that he was the reincarnation of an American member of the forces who was k i l l e d i n Burma. Some years, and seversl children l a t e r , when the mother was again pregnant, t h i s boy announced that the new c h i l d would also have an American background, and would be f a i r l i k e himself, and was, i n fact a r e l a t i o n of his previous American incarnation. When the c h i l d was born, i t was a g i r l , f a i r - h a i r e d and blue-eyed just l i k e the older brother. We attach pictures of these children, given to us by Dr. Stevenson some years ago. The reader w i l l see that the children are quite d i s t i n c t i v e from t h e i r brothers and s i s t e r s , and that they are separated i n the family.

Stevenson, I believe, interviewed t h i s family personally. I t was thought unlike l y that the mother had, i n fact, had r e l a t i o n s with any western man, and that the c h i l d was therefore not the Burmese father's c h i l d . The family was well known in the neighbourhood, and well respected, and i t also appears there were no western people i n that area with whom she might have had any connections. Dr. Stevenson concerned himself very much with the p o s s i b i l i t y that there might have been some inherited gene from a previous generation, and i n fact consulted authorities on this p o s s i b i l i t y (including Dr.Owen), but t h i s p o s s i b i l i t y was ruled out. There remains the question of whether these children could be albinos, and t h i s might be the explanation. Albino children do occur from time to time i n coloured populations, there are quite a few i n Mexico and South America f o r instance, but t h i s does not account f o r the fact that f i r s t the boy had r e c o l l e c t i o n s of a previous l i f e i n the U.S.; he then predicted that h i s s i s t e r would he l i k e himself, and when she arrived she also had memories of an American l i f e .

This was one of Dr. Stevenson's f i r s t cases of apparent reincarnation of a western person i n an eastern body, but since then he has apparently found other instances, and in his l a t e s t volume, No IV, Twelve Cases i n Burma and Thailand, he says that he now has a number of cases where the subjects claim to have been i n previous l i v e s either Japanese, American, English, or Indian. He remarks that although these subjects behave i n ways that are unusual f o r t h e i r families, t h e i r behaviour i s t y p i c a l f o r persons of the country where they claim to have l i v e d t h e i r previous l i v e s . He says of the ones who claim to have been English or American, that they are extreme blonds - albinos almost, or actually - and t h e i r s t r i k i n g appearance (for Burma) makes the interpretation of

2£

t h e i r cases unusually d i f f i c u l t . He hopes to give some further account of these cases i n a l a t e r work. We s h a l l await t h i s volume with great interest. En passant, i t seems to us important that some attention i s given to the problem

mt of albino children appearing i n some of these countries. There does not seem to be much information i n the l i t e r a t u r e available, and i t would seem important to know something

— about t h i s .

Stevenson says that he has studied a sub-group of sixteen cases i n Burma where the subjects claim to have l i v e d

— 1 previous l i v e s as Japanese soldiers k i l l e d i n Burma during World War I I . The children subjects of these cases have shown several behaviours that are strange f o r normal

m Burmese children, but t y p i c a l of many Japanese persons. He l i s t s some of these behaviours, and perhaps i t i s useful to l i s t them here, to i l l u s t r a t e the kind of meticulous .research that i s needed i n these cases -these children -

a) complain about the heat i n Burma. b) prefer Japanese clothes, e s p e c i a l l y heavy belts

and trousers c) complain about the spicy food of Burma, and prefer to

eat raw or half-cooked f i s h , black tea and sweet foods. M d) have an a b i l i t y to work hard and endure physical

pain without complaint e) have a tendency towards i n s e n s i t i v i t y , and even

^ harshness towards other persons f) Resist the r i t u a l s of Burmese Budhist worship and

tend towards Japanese r i t u a l styles of worship g) tend to express vexation and even rage whem American

or B r i t i s h people are mentioned. h) have d i f f i c u l t y i n learn ;ing the Burmese language,

with a tendency even i n adulthood to a trace ofa mi foreign accent.

In some cases informants have stated that the c h i l d when young was heard to speak i n a language that could not

m be understood by those around. Unfortunately, most of these cases occurred i n areas where there were no Japanese-speaking people who might have p o s i t i v e l y i d e n t i f i e d the

mi child's language. (This fact, of course, would tend to rule out the p o s s i b i l i t y that the mothers had associated with Japanese people, and so the c h i l d was of Japanese o r i g i n ) .

mi Another feature of many of Stevenson's cases which must be mentioned here i s that many of the children who claimed to be the reincarnation of people who i n some way met with

— a vio l e n t end, bear birthmarks or congenital deformities apparently corresponding to wounds or lesions i n the related previous personality.

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I t i s t o t a l l y impossible to summarise adequately the — immense volume of work done by Dr. Stevenson over the l a s t

twenty f i v e years on t h i s subject. I t i s equally impossible to come to a firm conclusion as to what i t a l l means. Dr. Stevenson himself does not f e e l able to commit himself one

" - way or the other - he i s very careful always to talk about cases suggestive of, or indicative of, the p o s s i b i l i t y of reincarnation. There are s t i l l too many unanswered questions.

mt As we have already mentioned the question of albinism i s one that needs to be explored more f u l l y . There may be significance i n the fact that by f a r the great majority

— of Stevenson's cases occur i n c u l t u r a l backgrounds where there i s a firm b e l i e f i n reincarnation; cases i n western Europe and North America where there i s much scepticism about th i s phenomenon are very few and f a r between. Why do the memories of a previous l i f e fade so quickly? The interested reader w i l l think of many more questions to ask. For those so interested Stevenson's work i s s t i l l

mi r e a d i l y available, and makes fascinating reading. At t h i s time, however, i n spite of a l l the meticulous work done by Dr. Stevenson, we s t i l l f e e l we have to say, that

— reincarnation theory i s not proved s a t i s f a c t o r i l y . I t does not o f f e r us overwhelming proof of survival of the s p i r i t .

^ Hypnotic Time Regression and Reincarnation Memories.

The cases investigated by Dr. Stevenson were not subjected to •M any form of hypnosis (except perhaps f o r a very few), they

were r e l a t i n g t h e i r conscious memories of a previous l i f e . In the cases mentioned e a r l i e r of the g i r l with the blue eyes,

^ and Bridey Murphy, the subjects were hypnotized many times over a period of some months i n order to bring to the surface o f t h e i r minds the memories of t h e i r alleged p r e v i o u s l i v e s . Of recent years more systematic research has been done i n

+* t h i s f i e l d , using hypnosis as the tool, to endeavour to a s s i s t people to r e c a l l previous l i v e s . The process i s usually carried out f o r one of several reasons; i t may be a piece of pure research, i n order to discover memories buried deep i n the subject's subconscious mind; i t may be done f o r fun, as a sort of party game - l e t ' s see what you were i n a previous l i f e ; or i t may be performed i n order to a s s i s t i n a healing process, acting on the assumption that i l l n e s s e s or problems that a person i s suffering i n t h i s l i f e are a sort of carry-over from a previous existence.

•m The technique involves selecting a suitable subject who i s deeply hypnotizable and then imparting active suggestions f o r

tig age regression which permit the subject to experience and recount early childhood memories, and what are often regarded as memories from past l i v e s . The chosen subject i s gradually

mi

mt

mi

taken back i n time to the time of th e i r own b i r t h , and then asked to go beyond and describe where they were before b i r t h , and then to trace back beyond that to previous l i v e s . Some ten years ago we ourselves organized an experiment of t h i s type, and the re s u l t s were printed i n our journal New Horizons (Vol . 2 . No.2. June 1976). The subject of that experiment recorded previous incarnations as follows:

1. Born September 1932, i n Ontario, Canada. 2. 'Martha Paine' born i n Maryland, aged 14 i n 1822, and

died before her 15th birthday. Possibly a distant r e l a t i v e of ThomasPaine of the American Revolution.

3. 'Margaret Campbell" l i v e d near Quebec City and was 17 i n 1707. Was a housekeeper, and l a t e r married a fur trapper named Arsenault.

4. 'Sister Augusta C e c i l i a " spent most of her l i f e i n Portugal near the border with Spain as a nun working i n an orphanage. Was 3̂ - i n 1241. Name was Marguerite before entering the convent.

5. 'Telma' as a young s i s t e r of a leader of a t r i b e i n Mongolia under Ghengis Khan (or Temujin as he was known to her). Age 'about 16 summers' when she was k i l l e d i n a b a t t l e .

6. A slave g i r l (age 'a few seasons') given the name 'Lea' in a temple of I s i s at Memphis i n Egypt.

7. A short l i f e of a few weeks as a female baby who was thrown o f f a c l i f f ( for unknown reasons in a country that cannot be i d e n t i f i e d ) .

There were more, but these could not a l l be i d e n t i f i e d as to place or persons. I t i s inte r e s t i n g that a l l these 'incarnations' were female.

But what does th i s experiment prove? Believers w i l l say that t h i s proves reincarnation, that the memories are true and relate to past l i v e s , disbelievers w i l l i n s i s t the memories are fantasy. To disbelieve i s , of course, not to disprove, and to believe i s not to prove. On the one hand "memories" which t h e i r recipients r e f e r to past l i v e s are of such frequent occurrence under age-regression hypnosis and i n other contexts as to constitute a prima fa c i e case f o r reincarnation. On the other hand the production of such memories, especially i n the parlour game type of hypnotism, occurs i n so f a c i l e a manner as to suggest that the whole thing i s too easy and that perhaps "reincarnation memories" derive from a source other than experience of past l i v e s . I t has to be admitted that we have not as yet discovered methods to d i f f e r e n t i a t e the source, i f indeed two sources exist. I t i s important to note that complete abstract creation can be performed e n t i r e l y i n a dissociated state. I t i s thus possible that a coherent interwovenstory of past l i v e s can be elegantly created while i n deep hypnosis.

Unless or u n t i l such a p o s s i b i l i t y can be set aside, the r e s u l t s of ag e regression studies by means of hypnotic suggestion cannot be regarded as unequivocal proofs of

reincarnation. Whatever the true explanation of 'reincarnation memories' may he, the f a c i l i t y with which, on only s l i g h t provocation, the human mind produces these varied and of tent well-integrated narratives, c e r t a i n l y presents a fascinating problem to psychologists.

So where does a l l t h i s lead us i n our search f o r proof of survival? Unfortunately we have to say nowhere. We cannot say that any of the areas of research that we have examined afford us the proof we are seeking. There i s nothing to say that there i s no survival, none of these theories or experiments disprove survival, they simply do not of f e r us unequivocal and irr e f u t a b l e proof that when we die something of our personality, c a l l i t soul, s p i r i t , or what you w i l l survives beyond the grave. As we have said, those who have f a i t h w i l l s t i l l believe, those who do not have f a i t h w i l l not believe, but one day we s h a l l a l l know the answer.