Is it known (even better - documented ... ) that the majority of regressions both (a) yield one or more specific past life claims and (b) produce claims too mundane to get publicity?
Even if most regressed subjects reported no famous past lives, any demonstrable consistency in generating past life reports would tend to promote belief in the regression process.
Regression consistency and variance: the best book I have read, by far, on this is “
Exploring Reincarnation,” by Hans TenDam. Getting my minor quibble out of the way: it is a long and sometimes difficult read, as the author’s English seems to degrade about page 220 and the book then goes on for another 200 pages.
I was delighted with his baselines, analyses, conclusions – and wicked sense of humor about Scientology, Hinduism, etc. His framing of the question and setting parameters for the topic was truly exemplary. It is not often I run across a mind as focused and clever as Mr. TenDam’s. I think this book will prove to be a seminal source for PLR research linked to similar, interdisciplinary topics.
Variance was noted and explained as being based in the different approaches, baseline assumptions, and goals of the regression. Scientology and popular, cash-driven regressions had more of the “I was Cleopatra in my past life” stories. The popular regressions had the most variance in process, and the most variance in the types of past lives recalled, with many famous historical characters being recalled. I view this as a result of the sensationalist goals and poor process controls.
Consistency: Clinical psychologists who stumbled into PLR as a type of hypnotism to help clients reported the most consistent, mundane past life stories (almost 100%). The goal was to help clients resolve personal psychological difficulties, not PLR. However, the past lives kept coming up, from thousands of sessions around the world – and not just English-speaking sources. There is much similarity in orientation, approach, and process in the clinical psychologist-based PLR sessions, so it is not surprising that the results are similar as well.
My personal experience with PLR: 35 years ago, a friend and I went to a psychic fair and paid $5 to do a group hypnotic PLR with about 20 other strangers. We were hypnotized and I promptly fell into a deep sleep. I didn’t remember a thing (and really hope I didn’t snore too loudly). My friend, however, recalled in vivid detail her life as the head of the Atlantean priestesses, the only one wearing a purple robe, etc. In that life, she was politically powerful, and had psychic, telekinetic, and prophetic abilities.
This single PLR experience changed her life, and not for the better. Based on this experience, she became a spiritual teacher in the American Theosophist tradition and was “empowered” to tell everyone what was wrong with them! Over the years, I ran out of tactful conversational diversions. We drifted apart completely about 4 years ago when I insisted she not tell my husband that he could cure himself of his incurable neurological disease.