The phenomenon of past life memories can probably be explained from the standpoint of cryptomnesia ("kryptos" - hidden, "mneme" - memory).
This term was invented at the beginning of the nineteenth century by the Swiss psychologist Theodore Flournoy, referring to them memories that are not accessible to consciousness.
In a detailed and extensive book, Hidden Memories: Voices and Images within Us, Dr. Robert A. Baker interprets many past life experiences based on known data on the psychological functions of a “normal” brain.
A psychology professor who has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and the University of Kentucky, Baker explains past life memories in part by cryptomnesia, and in part by confabulation (making up facts to fill in memory gaps).
By combining these two functions of a normal, healthy brain, you can create vibrant, fulfilling past lives. Baker argues that the brain does not store memories as finished episodes; the brain is not film. Memories are stored in the form of scraps and pieces and, if necessary, reconstructed into a whole picture.
Memories are known to be unreliable. The more often they are retrieved from memory, the more active is the reconstruction: the brain embellishes, fills in the gaps and ultimately creates what seems to be a truly authentic, albeit sometimes inaccurate, memory. If you compare the memories of different people about the same event, you will find an amazing difference in the details - all these are the tricks of the brain, in each case constructing the incident in its own individual way.
Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, while at home, suddenly remembered his past life in ancient Rome. This memory gave impetus to others - and previous lives rushed like a river.
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In the books that I have read on this topic, one case follows another: people, for reasons of tact, devoid of names and surnames, are asked in all details about their past lives. But in no book was the subject asked with the same persistence about his current life. Why did none of the authors ask Philip Dick if he recently went to the dentist?
Dick's first vivid memories came after a tooth was extracted - he was injected with sodium pentothal as an anesthetic.
Many of his hallucinations, including aliens and reincarnation, were associated with visits to the dentist, excessive use of alcohol and amphetamines, stress to which he exposed himself, and lack of sleep.
He sincerely believed in his hallucinations, which is confirmed by a letter sent to 70 friends: the letter said that Dick is a reborn Jesus and now lives in Sri Lanka. A year later, Dick died of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was only 53 years old.
Hallucinations add brightness to memories of a past life. Baker writes:
“The main property of hallucinations is that they seem to be very real and can have all the sensory properties of our normal everyday perception, including visual images, sound, smell, taste and tactile sensations. Such hallucinations consist of memories stored in memory, imagination and dreams, and this conglomerate, created by our brain, is projected into consciousness."
Baker emphasizes that hallucinations are not uncommon, and it is not at all necessary to see them as a sign of mental or mental illness.
When deciding that he is dealing with a memory of a real event from the patient's current or past life, the therapist should not be limited to the question: "How long have we been to the dentist?" The reasons for hallucinations or non-standard functioning of memory are many, and all of them are well studied. Questions must be asked. For example, do you smoke a lot?
Have you recently been exposed to flashing lights? Do you have high blood pressure? Have you ever had a lack of sleep or unforeseen stress? Are you taking amphetamines, possibly because of allergies, or levodopa (a drug, antiparkinsonian drug) if you have Parkinson's disease?
Have you recently taken ketamine and found yourself trapped in a hold causing sensory starvation? Did you overdo it with physical activity? Were there ritual dances all night long, which can cause a state close to trance and hallucinations?
Did you limit yourself too harshly in food, and were you dehydrated? Did the oxygen level in the blood rise or fall sharply, for example, due to deliberately rapid or slow breathing? Or maybe you were sad and lonely and just wanted some attention?
The latter reason is often undeservedly neglected. In what I read about the work of psychotherapists with the past lives of patients, I did not see even a hint of such questions from the doctor's side.
Using extensive material with references to his own experience and research of other scientists, Baker shows how the brain assimilates a huge amount of information, filtering out most of it and leaving only a small portion to everyday consciousness. That is, our consciousness has immediate access to only a small part of what is stored in memory.
When an event spurs on memory, the brain pulls bits of information out of storage cells and, according to theory, reconstructs the memory. The brain provides the missing fragments, rejecting a huge amount of stored knowledge and images that are not related to this reconstructed memory. This process is very fast. We can't keep track of him.
Testing has shown over and over again that human memory is cunning and devious. The more unconscious the reconstruction process, the less reliable the memory.
What if some outside interference triggers the brain to place memories outside the context in which they are stored? Will we then recognize our memories? And won't we attribute them to some other life, and not the one we are living now? And isn't this what happens when a person falls into his past lives?
Lynn Kelly