Past-life Memories and Foreign Languages
An Exploration of Xenoglossy in Cases of the Reincarnation Type
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31156/jaex.27464Keywords:
reincarnation, past-life memory, children, xenoglossy, language, anomalous cognition, anomalous experience, CORTAbstract
Objective. Decades of research into children who appear to recall a past life have highlighted additional extraordinary features of this phenomenon. We explored a large past-life memory database to understand cases coded as exhibiting xenoglossy—the remarkable claim of individuals speaking a foreign language that they should not be able to speak naturally. Methods. We compared 40 cases that exhibited xenoglossy to 872 that did not, between 1959 and 2020. In a series of binary logistic regressions, we tested variables linked to a novel emotion-trauma hypothesis for the presence of xenoglossy, along with other variables that would suggest an ordinary explanation. Results. Xenoglossy was not associated with variables related to an ordinary explanation. The emotion-trauma hypothesis was supported, in that xenoglossy was associated with: (1) participants’ emotionality, (2) desires to return to their purported previous family, (3) claiming to have died as a result of intentional/violent means, and (4) having a stronger case, which is more suggestive of cases having an anomalous explanation. Conclusion. Akin to other remarkable features documented over the years of past-life memory research (i.e., birthmarks linked to a previous personality’s fatal wound, phobias, philias), xenoglossy is another core feature of a previous personality that seems capable of transferring to a new life. The evidence from the database suggests that the phenomenon of speaking, unnaturally, in a foreign tongue is linked to—and strengthened by—the presence of emotion, distress, and violence/trauma in the expression of children’s past-life memories.
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