Not sure if I'm in the right forum, I'm new here. Feel free to move it if this is better suited on a different one.
I've been a major follower of Ian Stevenson and Jim Tucker's work for several years now, I have read nearly all of their books, and am aspiring to become a researcher in their vein, but also apply more hard scientific methodology to the study of children's past life memories. One subject that has always puzzled me is the fact that these kids, for the most part, seem to have all but forgotten the past life by about the age of 7, and often forget they ever talked about it at all. I've seen little in-depth discussion of this topic here, so I'd like to strike one up. The community here seems to simply deem it an inevitability, from what I've seen, but why? What do we think is the root cause of this "seven-year itch", and can preventative action be taken against it?
The main idea I've thought of for a cause is simply normal childhood forgetting. For those unfamiliar with the neuropsychological literature on early childhood memory, infantile or childhood amnesia is said to progress in two stages. The first phase, lasting from birth to about 2 years, is effectively total and leaves us with little to no memory of those years, and a second, less profound stage occurs around age 7 (hint, hint) at which many of our remaining earliest memories, those from around 2-3 years of age, tend to fade. Do PLM's simply meet this fate? While it's tempting to attribute childhood PLM loss to this, I think they are different phenomena, for a couple reasons. 1 is that the memory loss tends more to resemble the acute amnesia seen from ages 0-2 than the more-forgiving second phase; almost nothing is retained of the past-life memories in most cases. Second, PLM decay seems to usually begin occurring around age 5 and only finishes at about 7; contrarily, the science on childhood amnesia states that the second phase begins at about 7. I think they're separate, then, but I would love to hear the community's thoughts on this theory, and whether it lines up more than I'm seeing. I also don't have any more ideas as to the actual cause, so I'd love to see some suggestions as to that as well. Fire away.
That brings me to my other point: how can it be mitigated? It seems inexorable right now, and only the luckiest few are unaffected, but we'd all rather it not be this way. I'd compare it to Alzheimer's disease on one level, and the Notre Dame fire on another; not only is it a tragedy on an individual level to see their memories deteriorate, but these are national treasures, living legends, and infinite wisdom we're losing. Therefore, I see this as an urgency and I'd like to use this discussion to theory-craft possible interventions for promoting PLM retention into adulthood. Reminder strategies have been found to be effective for mitigating other forms of childhood amnesia, so they ought to work here as well; therefore, writing statements down and reminding your kids later, as many members of this community do, seems like an excellent starting method, as is taking them to locations and people connected with the past life. But of course, the problem is that it still doesn't seem to consistently be enough to prevent abject memory loss later on. How can we encourage kids to engage with their memories on a regular basis, in ways that will reinforce them and improve later recall? I'm excited to hear all your thoughts!
I've been a major follower of Ian Stevenson and Jim Tucker's work for several years now, I have read nearly all of their books, and am aspiring to become a researcher in their vein, but also apply more hard scientific methodology to the study of children's past life memories. One subject that has always puzzled me is the fact that these kids, for the most part, seem to have all but forgotten the past life by about the age of 7, and often forget they ever talked about it at all. I've seen little in-depth discussion of this topic here, so I'd like to strike one up. The community here seems to simply deem it an inevitability, from what I've seen, but why? What do we think is the root cause of this "seven-year itch", and can preventative action be taken against it?
The main idea I've thought of for a cause is simply normal childhood forgetting. For those unfamiliar with the neuropsychological literature on early childhood memory, infantile or childhood amnesia is said to progress in two stages. The first phase, lasting from birth to about 2 years, is effectively total and leaves us with little to no memory of those years, and a second, less profound stage occurs around age 7 (hint, hint) at which many of our remaining earliest memories, those from around 2-3 years of age, tend to fade. Do PLM's simply meet this fate? While it's tempting to attribute childhood PLM loss to this, I think they are different phenomena, for a couple reasons. 1 is that the memory loss tends more to resemble the acute amnesia seen from ages 0-2 than the more-forgiving second phase; almost nothing is retained of the past-life memories in most cases. Second, PLM decay seems to usually begin occurring around age 5 and only finishes at about 7; contrarily, the science on childhood amnesia states that the second phase begins at about 7. I think they're separate, then, but I would love to hear the community's thoughts on this theory, and whether it lines up more than I'm seeing. I also don't have any more ideas as to the actual cause, so I'd love to see some suggestions as to that as well. Fire away.
That brings me to my other point: how can it be mitigated? It seems inexorable right now, and only the luckiest few are unaffected, but we'd all rather it not be this way. I'd compare it to Alzheimer's disease on one level, and the Notre Dame fire on another; not only is it a tragedy on an individual level to see their memories deteriorate, but these are national treasures, living legends, and infinite wisdom we're losing. Therefore, I see this as an urgency and I'd like to use this discussion to theory-craft possible interventions for promoting PLM retention into adulthood. Reminder strategies have been found to be effective for mitigating other forms of childhood amnesia, so they ought to work here as well; therefore, writing statements down and reminding your kids later, as many members of this community do, seems like an excellent starting method, as is taking them to locations and people connected with the past life. But of course, the problem is that it still doesn't seem to consistently be enough to prevent abject memory loss later on. How can we encourage kids to engage with their memories on a regular basis, in ways that will reinforce them and improve later recall? I'm excited to hear all your thoughts!