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Scientific context and criticism
Mainstream psychiatry and psychology do not accept past-life regression as evidence of reincarnation or as an established therapy. Experimental work (for example by Nicholas Spanos) found that 'past-life' reports under hypnosis are shaped by suggestion, expectation and things the person already knows, and hypnosis can produce confident but false memories. A 2017 review in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry discussed the ethical problems of offering it as treatment. Weiss and his supporters regard the clinical experiences as meaningful; there are no controlled trials showing they are past lives.
Life
Brian Weiss is an American psychiatrist. He studied at Columbia University and Yale School of Medicine and was later chairman of psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami. In Many Lives, Many Masters (1988) he described a patient, 'Catherine', who under hypnosis reported memories that he interpreted as past lives, and whose symptoms he says improved. The book sold in very large numbers and was translated into many languages. He went on to write about regression therapy (Through Time into Healing, 1992) and 'future-life progression' (Same Soul, Many Bodies, 2004), and has run workshops on these methods.
The system
- Hypnotic regression to recover what are interpreted as past-life memories.
- Healing framed as understanding the origin of a symptom in an earlier life.
- Reincarnation and the soul's continuity as the background worldview.
Key works
- Many Lives, Many Masters (1988) Amazon
- Through Time into Healing (1992) Amazon
- Same Soul, Many Bodies (2004) Amazon
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Where to start
- Many Lives, Many Masters is the source text; read it alongside the research on memory and hypnosis linked below.
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