I’m somewhat baffled by past life regression hypnosis. Filmmaker Richard Martini writes a lot about it, and his point is that new information can be gleaned from the process. In other words, one can investigate and prove whether what the regressee (is that a word?) is saying is true. Martini likes to say that what the subject reports can be verified “forensically”, which is just a fancy way of saying you can pin it down and prove that it is true. If accurate information is provided which the hypnosis subject could not have known prior to the hypnotic session, then we have proof that a past life has been lived by that subject. It sounds convincing, but the problem is that mainstream scientists do not accept hypnosis as a valid experimental tool. I suppose they feel that the hypnotist may suggest that the subject say certain things. Or they may feel that the subject is exhibiting cryptomnesia: remembering details learned earlier but forgotten, only to reappear in the past life regression session. Martini insists that regression session reports are consistent and that the results cannot be ascribed to cryptomnesia. He says he has filmed 45 sessions and has completed five or six sessions himself and that everyone reports that before birth we as souls choose to come to this life, we plan it out with others, and when we die we are reunited with those whom we knew in life and we ponder what lessons we learned. We do this repeatedly, sometimes on this planet, sometimes on other planets. Martini reports that there are thousands of other sessions which he has not filmed but which have been verified where people say the same thing. One of two things is true: either 1) Richard Martini is a New Age quack who is just having his fifteen minutes of fame and is making some money off the books he writes on this topic, or 2) Richard Martini is reporting information which would totally revolutionize our view of human existence. It seems to me that the idea of reincarnation as reported by past life regression hypnosis is at least worthy of some serious scientific inquiry, yet aside from some work done at the University of Virginia and a few other researchers I know of no widespread research into the topic. Maybe most scientists feel they can’t touch the topic with a ten-foot pole lest they jeopardize their careers. Or maybe the funding just isn’t there (research is done at the University of Virginia only because of a large endowment which the contributer insisted be used for research into reincarnation). Whatever the reason, the situation as it stands is odd.