70 Living Twice

In 1952 an American housewife named Virginia Tighe was hypnotized and began to talk about her previous life as an Irish girl named Bridey Murphy. In 1956 and it became a best-seller. Thousands of people believed that it gave solid evidence for reincarna- tion—the rebirth of the soul into another body. They flocked to hypnotists to find out what their former lives had been like.

Of course, not everyone immediately believed that Virginia had lived a previous life in Ireland. It was imperative that she spoke with an Irish accent when under hypnosis, but some people looked for further proof. They went all the way to Bridey Murphy. They didn’t find the places she mentioned and didn’t locate but some records of a girl named Bridey—in Virginia’s hometown of Chicago, Illinois. In Chicago they found a woman whose maiden name had been Bridey Murphy and who had lived across the street from Virginia. They found people who remembered that in high school Virginia had liked to talk with an Irish accent. When Virginia was a child, relatives had told her stories about things that had happened to them, and these stories were just like those remembered by Bridey Murphy. In short, there was no evidence at all that Virginia Tighe was from a previous life—only things from her own childhood. Bridey Murphy was just a fantasy, popular with people who wanted a reason to believe in reincarnation.

70 重生两次

1952年，一位名叫弗吉尼亚·泰伊的美国家庭主妇被催眠后，开始讲述她前世是名叫布赖迪·墨菲的爱尔兰女孩。1956年，相关内容成书并成为畅销书。数千人认为这为转世（灵魂重生到另一个身体）提供了确凿证据，他们涌向催眠师，想知道自己的前世是什么样的。

当然，不是所有人都立刻相信弗吉尼亚前世生活在爱尔兰。催眠状态下她确实带着爱尔兰口音，但有些人想要更多证据。他们四处寻找布赖迪·墨菲的踪迹，却没有找到她提到的地方，也没有找到相关记录——但在弗吉尼亚的家乡伊利诺伊州芝加哥，他们发现了一位婚前姓布赖迪·墨菲的女性，她曾住在弗吉尼亚家街对面。他们还找到一些人，记得弗吉尼亚在高中时喜欢用爱尔兰口音说话。弗吉尼亚小时候，亲戚们给她讲过自己的经历，这些故事和布赖迪·墨菲“记得”的故事一模一样。简而言之，完全没有证据证明弗吉尼亚·泰伊有前世——所谓的前世只是她自己童年的经历。布赖迪·墨菲只是一个幻想，受到那些想要相信转世的人的欢迎。