On a dark and dreary day in 1952, Morey Bernstein hypnotized Virginia Tighe.
She began speaking in an Irish brogue and claimed that she was Bridey Murphy
from Cork, Ireland. Bernstein hypnotized Virginia aka Bridey many times
after that. While under hypnosis, she sang Irish songs and told Irish
stories, always as Bridey Murphy. Bernstein wrote a book,The Search for
Bridey Murphy , and it became a best-seller. Recordings of the hypnotic
sessions were made and translated into more than a dozen languages. The
recording sold well, too. The reincarnation boom had begun.
Newspapers sent reporters to Ireland to investigate. Was there a red-headed
Bridey Murphy who lived in Ireland in the nineteenth century? Who knows,
but one paper--the Chicago American--found her in Chicago in the 20th
century. Bridie Murphey Corkell lived in the house across the street from
where Elizabeth Tighe grew up. What Elizabeth reported while hypnotized were
not memories of a previous life but memories from her early childhood. Many
people were impressed with the details of her memories, but the details were
not evidence of authenticity.
As Martin Gardner says, "Almost any hypnotic subject capable of going into a
deep trance will babble about a previous incarnation if the hypnotist asks
him to. He will babble just as freely about his future incarnations....In
every case of this sort where there has been adequate checking on the
subject's past, it has been found that the subject's unconscious mind was
weaving together long forgotten bits of information acquired during his
early years." Or, the subject just makes it up. Whatever else the hypnotic
state is, it is a state where one's fantasies are energetically displayed.
