In India and other Asian countries where Hinduism and Buddhism are prominent, reincarnation has long been accepted as fact. But for America it got a real boost in the early 1950s with Bridey Murphy.
It was 1952, to be exact, when a man named Morey Bernstein hypnotized a young woman named Virginia Tighe.
While she was under hypnosis, Bernstein told his patient to go back to the time she was a little girl. In response she began to talk and act like a five-year-old. When he told her that she was now an infant, she started gurgling and cooing like one.
That’s when Bernstein tried something daring. He told the woman that he wanted her to keep going back—to the time before she was born. I don’t know what Bernstein expected, but he says he got the shock of his life when his patient suddenly began speaking in a strong Irish brogue. She told him her name was Bridey Murphy and that she was living in a small village in Ireland—in the 1700s. She described the house and village in which she lived and told minute details about her life.
There were several more sessions during which Bernstein took Ms. Tighe back to 18th-century Ireland. Every time, the young woman gave her name as Bridey Murphy. She sang Irish songs and told Irish stories, all in the most convincing Irish accent.
Bernstein wrote about the experience in a best-selling book titled The Search for Bridey Murphy, and it started a furor. Many people were convinced that Bernstein’s story was proof of reincarnation. The study of “past lives” became a hot topic—and big business. Everywhere, hypnotists were finding that what Bernstein said was true. When their clients were taken back, through hypnotism, to the time before they were born, they invariably told clear details of what seemed to be previous lives.
WHO WAS BRIDEY MURPHY?
So what about Bridey Murphy? Did she ever really exist? Several newspapers sent reporters to Ireland to investigate, but none of them were able to find the slightest bit of evidence. If she ever really lived there, she left nothing at all to mark her existence—not even a tombstone.
That lack of concrete proof didn’t bother those who wanted to believe in reincarnation. Bridey Murphy had become something of a “poster child” for reincarnation, and they weren’t about to let her go. They pointed out that her story had the ring of authenticity. Where, they asked, could she have learned such exacting details about rural life in 1700s Ireland unless she had lived there?
Apparently they never considered the possibilities: books, movies, plays, school, or magazines. Maybe even…a neighbor.
According to the Chicago American newspaper, the latter is exactly where the “myth” of Bridey Murphy came from—a neighbor. While all of their competitors were in Ireland looking for Ms. Murphy, a reporter for the American apparently found her right at home…in Chicago. He discovered a woman named Bridie Murphy Corkell lived in the house across the street from where Virginia Tighe grew up. What Virginia remembered under hypnosis was apparently not from a former life, but rather bits and pieces of information she had learned while she was a little girl.
ANY STRANGE DREAMS LATELY?
What we might conclude from this is that Virginia Tighe’s past-life memory was really the product of what psychologists call cryptomnesia. Cryptomnesia refers to the human brain’s ability to store every piece of information it encounters, no matter how random or trivial that information might be. Sometimes this information is stored deep down in the subconscious, making it possible for us to know things we don’t even know we know. Occasionally bits and pieces of this information may get scrambled together into a confusing mess.
Have you ever had a really strange dream? You woke up and thought, Wow! Where did that one come from? But after you thought about it for a while, you could see all sorts of things that had happened to you during the day had been put together into the craziest dream since Pharaoh.
I’ve had that experience many times, and I’ve also noticed some of the information and events that made their way into my dream were majorly trivial. I didn’t realize they had even made a dent in my subconscious when I first experienced them. Obviously the impact was greater than I suspected, or I wouldn’t have wound up dreaming about them.
Not too long ago I dreamed I was a doctor, working on a very primitive Indian reservation somewhere in Arizona or New Mexico. The dream was quite vivid and real. For a few seconds after I woke up, I thought I really was a doctor and was even a bit worried about some of the patients I had been treating. Later on, when I looked back on the dream, I could see that it was assembled from fragments of information my mind was trying to process—information from a book, a fundraising letter I read, a few minutes of a television show, and probably quite a few other places.
Now suppose I had been hypnotized when all of this information was fresh on my mind and taken back to the time before I was born as Bill Myers? I might have remembered my days in the Old West, perhaps as an Indian or a settler living among the Indians.
This is apparently what happened to another woman, who, under hypnosis, impressed the experts with stories about her life as Livonia, a Roman citizen of the late third century. Her story was so impressive that it was even featured in a book and television show.
But a researcher named Melvin Harris started combing through libraries, looking for information on ancient Rome that might have found its way into the woman’s memories. He found it in two historical novels written by Louis de Wohl years before the past-life regression. His novels not only contained facts regarding daily life in Rome during the third century but also included many of the characters and events that had filled the woman’s “past-life memory.”1
Had she been intentionally trying to deceive?
I doubt it.
Remember, she was under hypnosis. But her hypnotist had asked her to do something that was impossible, which was to go back in time before she was born. When that happened, her mind apparently latched onto information she had read years before and then “forgotten.”
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE TEACH?
There’s no evidence to support a belief in reincarnation. But some people are going to believe in it no matter what. They even point to the third chapter of John as proof that Jesus taught it. The passage in question involves Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council:
Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”
Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:3-8)
There is not one serious Bible scholar who believes Jesus is talking about anything other than the rebirth process that takes place in our spirit when we put our trust in Christ.
This verse definitely does not refer to reincarnation. In fact…
REINCARNATION OPPOSES JESUS CHRIST
• Jesus says that anyone who accepts what he did for them on the cross and follows him is immediately clean of all their wrongs and guilt.
• Reincarnation teaches the sins committed in past lifetimes must be worked off by that person in the next, until he finally reaches a state of holiness and purity.
• Jesus says that once we die, those who accept the work he did for them on the cross and follow him will go to heaven to live forever with God. Those who don’t will live forever apart from God.
• Reincarnation says we’ll all live again and again here on earth until we get everything right.
• The Bible teaches that “man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27, emphasis mine).
• According to reincarnation, we die again and again. There is really no judgment, only karma, which will be dealt with in our next life.
In short, reincarnation leaves no room for Christ’s death on the cross. If reincarnation were true, it would mean Christ’s death was useless. We’d have no need for anyone to save us if we can reach perfection on our own over dozens or hundreds of lifetimes.
Nowhere does the Bible even hint that reincarnation might be true. Instead, it stresses again and again that every human being is a unique individual created in the image of God himself.
And yet, more and more Americans seem to be accepting this imported Eastern belief as fact, including many Christians.
In 1984 a Gallup Poll showed that fewer than 40 million Americans believed in reincarnation. By 1991 the number of American believers had reached 50 million. That’s more than 10 million new adherents in just seven years. And according to the Harris poll, 27 percent of Americans believe in reincarnation today—that’s over one out of four Americans.
A friend of mine, a guy who says he believes in Christ and attends church every Sunday, recently told me about a deceased relative who had a very sad life. He said he hoped she would have a happier life “the next time around.”
When I challenged him on this, he bristled and said that he didn’t see anything wrong with reincarnation—after all, “God never said it isn’t true.” My response was that Christ may not have addressed reincarnation per se, but there’s simply no way to square his teachings, or the rest of the Bible’s teachings, with reincarnation.
Still, my friend’s attitude isn’t uncommon. Several recent books attempt to make belief in reincarnation palatable to Christians. The theme of these books is always the same: The early church fathers accepted reincarnation as a fact, but over the centuries, this truth became perverted, twisted, and eventually lost.
That’s simply not true.
As we’ve already seen there’s absolutely no way to hold to a belief in reincarnation and to Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross. But, thanks in large part to books, the media, and celebrities, belief in reincarnation and past-lives regression continues growing in popularity.
THE PROBLEM WITH KARMA
But forget the celebs—what does the Bible say?
It teaches that every individual is responsible for his own actions in this life. He isn’t going to suffer in this life because of something he did in a previous existence, as reincarnation teaches. That common Eastern belief is known as “karma,” and it causes incredible suffering throughout the world.
Take the Hindu country of Nepal. When a child is born into a poor family or with a disability or sickness, his neighbors think it’s due to some sin he committed in a previous life. No one will offer a helping hand. Why should they? If a child is suffering because of bad karma, it’s because his soul is being purified, and it would be wrong to try to help him.
When I visited Nepal, I was shocked to see dozens of desperately poor children living on the streets by themselves. When I asked about these kids, I was told they were orphans who had been expelled from their village.
“But why?” I demanded.
The explanation was infuriating…
When a child is orphaned, it’s considered to be his fault from a past life. Instead of helping him, his neighbors throw him out of their village and forbid him to come back. They think they’re being kind. They’re hoping the child will go off somewhere and quietly starve to death. Then, once his short, unhappy life is over—and he will have paid for his bad karma—he can be reborn into a better life. These starving children eat handfuls of dirt in an attempt to stop the hunger pains that tear at their stomachs. It’s an outrageous tragedy, and it’s totally due to the belief in reincarnation.
I know a Christian missionary in Nepal who goes by the name of Simon Peter. Now, being a missionary in a country like Nepal is taking your life into your hands. Until a few years ago, it was against the law to even talk about Jesus to anyone outside of your immediate family. If you were caught speaking to a non-relative about Christ, you could spend a year in prison. If you helped someone become a Christian or baptized them, you could be thrown into prison for up to six years.
So what did Simon Peter do? He went out and adopted dozens of orphans—children whose villages were just waiting for them to die. Once they were officially his sons and daughters, he was legally free to teach these children about Christ. To date, this incredible man has legally adopted 80 of these little ones whom nobody wanted.
Many are grown now, and most, if not all, are on fire for God. Some have graduated from Bible colleges. Others have started churches. Needless to say, they take what Jesus did for them on the cross very seriously, knowing firsthand how awful life would be if they had to suffer for their own sins through the brutality of reincarnation.
TRUST HYPNOTISM?
Before we leave the subject of reincarnation, let’s go back for just a moment to revisit the whole idea of exploring past lives through hypnotism.
What happens when we allow ourselves to be put into a hypnotic trance? Basically, we surrender control of our minds to another person. Some experts believe hypnotism is dangerous for precisely this reason. Scripture tells us to surrender ourselves to no one but God.
Researcher Robert A. Morey states, “A hypnotic trance is the exact mental state which mediums and witches have been self-inducing for centuries in order to open themselves up to spirit or demonic control. Hypnotic regression to a ‘past life’ can easily be an occult experience.”
He continues with another sober observation:
Here lies the ultimate explanation for those “unexplainable” recall cases. In every situation where a person recalled a “past life,” and this life was researched and proven factual in even intimate details, and not fraudulent, the person was involved in occult practices. Supernatural knowledge was gained by contact with satanic beings.2
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that all hypnotism is wrong. For me, the jury is still out on this. However, I am saying it’s a dangerous area and anything that happens to a person who is under hypnosis should be viewed with extreme skepticism.
I’ve never been hypnotized, nor do I intend to be, so I’ll never know what it’s like. But an acquaintance who went under hypnosis because she was writing a magazine article on the subject said it was an experience she’ll never forget.
The hypnotist told her she was sitting beside a clear stream in a mountain setting. She remembered that when he said this, she could see the spot clearly and described it as one of the most beautiful places she had ever been. Then he told her to dangle her toes in the water.
“I could actually feel it,” she told me. “It was cold and wet...It was real!”
But it wasn’t real at all. That’s the danger with hypnotism. Besides flirting with the occult, it also blurs the lines between reality and fantasy. It’s capable of distorting the truth and making us believe a lie. It can make us think we’re beside a beautiful mountain stream, when we’re really sitting in a sterile office building in downtown Los Angeles. And it can make us believe that we’ve lived before—in ancient Ireland or perhaps Rome.
TO SUM UP
Half of the world’s population believes in reincarnation. But that doesn’t make it any less a lie. We’ve seen that a belief in reincarnation is dangerous for several reasons:
1. It lets people off the hook. According to reincarnation, if we mess up in this life, we can always do better next time around.
2. It encourages us to ignore people’s needs. According to karma, if they’re hurting, they deserve it because of something they did in a past life. Better to let them suffer, die, and move on to the next life.
3. It denies the importance of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. It completely opposes what he says about him being the only way to get cleaned up and be with God.
Remember what the Bible says? “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
Not many deaths, but one death. Not many judgments, but one judgment.
And there’s only one way to ensure we will pass through this judgment without harm. Back to those famous words of Jesus:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17)