S04E24 - Past Lives

Blake and Jeb go In Research Of PAST LIVES with Leonard Nimoy.

Subjects include reincarnation claims, past-life regression therapy, and some truly baffling Nimoy wardrobe choices.

Link to YouTube Episode (while it lasts)



Topics we cover include:

• Nimoy wandering a Los Angeles graveyard in a strange quasi-military sport coat, and Blake's detective work tying the filming location to Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights.

• The famous Pollock twins case from Hexham, England, where two girls were said to be the reincarnations of their deceased sisters — and how later research complicates the story.

• Dr. Lucia Capacchione's art-therapy / inner-child work and how the show uses regression narratives to explain modern psychological problems.

• Playwright A.J. Stewart (Ada F. Kay), who became convinced she was James IV of Scotland and wrote Falcon: The Autobiography of His Grace James IV King of Scots as if from the king's own perspective.

• Whether past-life regression therapy produces evidence of reincarnation or just vivid, therapist-shaped fantasy, and why skeptics are so wary of hypnosis-based "memories."

   

  NFA (Nimoy Fashion Alert):

  
  

  Cemetery Detective Work:

  Using the 2nd NFA shot, I was able to decipher the tex on the dark tombstone. It is a lot darker in real life with a modern shot.

  

  That "Find a Grave" entry includes the exact location where Nimoy was standing for this episode's cemetery shot.

  Jeb asked for an animated gif of the woman in the castle with secret doors:

  

  The cover of Robert and Loy Young's book about reincarnation:

  

  The twins at the heart of the British (Hexham!) reincarnation story:

  

  And I can't help but scream - DON'T GO NEAR THE EDGE!!! This episode is such a cliffhanger.

  

  
  Deeper reading & sources mentioned:
  Pollock twins case write-up at the Society for Psychical Research's Psi Encyclopedia
  
  Psi Encyclopedia on famous past-life claims (including A.J. Stewart / Ada F. Kay):
  
  Ada F. Kay / A.J. Stewart biography (reincarnation claim & Falcon background)
  
  Evergreen Cemetery (Los Angeles) – history and the Japanese "Garden of the Pines" section
  
  Lucia Capacchione and inner-child / expressive-arts therapy
  
  Skeptical overview of past-life regression therapy (Harriet Hall, Science-Based Medicine):
  
  General background on past-life regression and why psychologists consider it pseudoscientific