Does anyone remember their past lives

Subjects were given a memory test known as the false fame paradigm, in which they were asked to recite a list of unfamiliar names. The next day, they were shown a list that included those names, new names, and the names of famous people.

The results: subjects who claimed to have memories of previous lives were more likely than those without such recollections to misidentify more of the previously recited names as belonging to famous people. In other words, people who believe they had previous lives are committing a source-monitoring error, or an error in judgment about the original source of a memory. In this case, they are misremembering the source—themselves—of nonfamous names.

This is important because source-monitoring mistakes are the first in a sequence of events that psychologists believe lead to false memories.

This could be upsetting to the child and, more importantly from our standpoint, could lead the child to make up answers to the questions. It would then be difficult or impossible to separate memories from fantasy. We encourage parents to write down any statements about a past life that their children make. This is particularly important in cases where the children give enough information so that identifying a deceased individual that they are describing might be possible.

In such a situation, having the statements recorded ahead of time would be critical in providing the best evidence that the child actually had experienced memories from a previous life. At the same time, parents should not become so focused on the statements that they and their children lose sight of the fact that the current life is what is most important now. If children persist in saying they want their old family or old home, it might be helpful to explain that while they may have had another family in a previous life, their current family is the one they have for this life.

Parents should acknowledge and value what their children have told them while making clear that the past life is truly in the past. We do not recommend that children undergo past-life regression hypnosis. If you are a parent or a caretaker of a young child, please email our research assistant, Diane Morini at dsm3j virginia.

We will not disclose the names of the people involved in the account in any way, without first seeking explicit permission from the parents. You may note that there are a few published cases in which the actual names are used in presenting details of the case. We want to assure you that this is rare and only done by special permission granted to us by the parents.

For a list of academic papers written by our faculty on the study of past life memories please see Publications on Past-life Memories. Learn More. For a list of books about the study of past life memories, please see to Books on Reincarnation written by our faculty. The list includes two books written by our director, Dr. Ian Stevenson. April 21, When do children start remembering past lives? Is it wild imagination or past life memory? When do these memories go away? Why do only some of us remember past lives?

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