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her childhood and was then surprised to find that she But then, scientists are only now coming around to the appeared to slip further back to a previous incarnation, idea of consciousness, or life, surviving the death of the as Irishwoman Bridey Murphy." body. As for consciousness taking on another morta To cut a long story short, Tighe described herself as body, scientists are still far from figuring out tha eight-year-old Bridey living in a wooden house called __ possibility. [he Meadows in Cork, Ireland. She said that she was the In 1957, Martin Gardner, considered one of the mos' daughter of Duncan Murphy, a barrister, and his wife influential figures in scepticism, especially for his athleen, and that she married lawyer Sean Brian questioning of fringe science and New Age ideas, said: McCarthy at the age of seventeen and moved to Belfast. "Almost any hypnotic subject capable of going into a Bridey narrated the details of a fall that caused her deep trance will babble about a previous incarnation i death, and she described her own funeral as well as her — the hypnotist asks him to. He will babble just as freely ombstone and the state of being in life after death. about his future incarnations... In every case of this sor’ Bernstein published a book'! on the case which went on _ where there has been adequate checking on the subject's o become a bestseller—and also drew the attention of past, it has been found that the subject was weaving sceptics who believed that the case together long-forgotten bits o merited investigation. information acquired during his early According to the book, Virginia years." Tighe, born in the Midwest in 1923 (and referred to in the book as Ruth Expect Healing, and You Will Receive It Simmons). had never pee to Ireland Dr Baker surmised It cannot be said that the view of and did not speak with even the Q sceptics has no scientific validation. slightest hint of an Irish accent. The that hypnosis The late Dr Nicholas Spanos, who was investigating team found no records used in past-life- the director of the Laboratory for corresponding to Bridey's supposed . . Experimental Hypnosis and a birth and death dates or to a wooden regression healing professor at Carleton University in ouse called The Meadows, only of a helps recipients Ottawa, Canada, demonstrated that place by that name near Cork. They there are three important elements to pointed out that most houses in relax and also a successful past-life regression. First, reland were made of brick or stone ‘ the subject must be hypnotisable. and not of wood, as Bridey had gives them Second, it helps if the subject is described, and that she had incorrectly pronounced her usband's name. Only her descriptions of the Antrim coastline and her account of a journey from Belfast to Cork were accurate. She claimed that she went to a St Theresa's Church. There was indeed one where she said there was, but it was not built until after the supposed eminent sceptical investigators o! Bridey had died. The young ghosts, alien abductions, Bridey shopped for provisions with a grocer named Farr, apparitions and other paranormal phenomena. He and it was discovered that such a grocer had existed. divided 60 students into three sections. Nevertheless, the inconsistencies in the story led the The first group was told that they were about to experts finally to turn to Tighe's own childhood and experience the most amazing therapy that would involve parentage to ferret out any Irish connection. They found their actually recalling memories from a past life. hat her parents were both part-lrish and that she had The second group was told that they were going to ived with them until the age of three (Bernstein had said —_ experience a therapy that may or may not be able to help hat she was brought up by a Norwegian uncle and his _ them recall memories from a past life. German-Scottish-Irish wife). More significantly, they The third group was told that they were about to ound that an Irish immigrant named Bridie Murphy experience a crazy therapy that some believed was Corkell (1892-1957) lived across the street from Tighe's supposed to help them recall memories of a past life, childhood home in Chicago, Illinois. even though it didn't really work on anyone who was Ask a scientist and the odds are that you will be told normal. Then all three groups listened to the same hat Virginia Tighe's memories of her previous life can be hypnotic script. Eighty-five per cent of those in the first explained as coming from her long-forgotten childhood. group recalled a memory from a past life, compared to open to belief in reincarnation. The third most important elemen is that the hypnotist has to convey the expectation that the client really will remember a pas life.” The influence of the hypnotist's expectations was demonstrated by the late psychologist Rober Baker, PhD, one of the world's pre- suggestions and the impetus to imagine and even to fantasise. used in past-life- regression healing helps recipients relax and also gives them suggestions and the impetus to imagine and even to fantasise. 44 «NEXUS JUNE - JULY 2011 Dr Baker surmised that hypnosis www.nexusmagazine.com