Inquérito nacional de casos sugestivos de reencarnação na população brasileira adulta

Abstract

Religious/spiritual beliefs are predominant in many cultures and a variety of studies focus on their impact. Belief in life after death is associated to less psychiatric symptoms. Belief in reincarnation, shared by millions around the world, may be associated to a healthier lifestyle e less psychiatric symptoms in bereavement. In the 1960’s, the scientific investigation of children who claim past-life memories began – the so called Cases of the Reincarnation Type. However, we have only a few knowledgment about adults who claim those kind of memories and their impact on health. Aims: to investigate the profile of adults who claim past-life memories in Brazilian population, as well as its characteristics, content, impact and associations with mental health, happiness, religiosity/spirituality – R/S. Methods: online recruitment and research. Participants filled in a questionnarie with sociodemographics, questions about features of the alleged memories, and instruments of R/S (BMMRS), for the screening of common mental disorders (SRQ-20) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (IES-R) symptoms. They also described their alleged memories freely. Descriptive and inferential statistics (independent T test, Anova with Bonferroni correction, multivariate logistic regression). Bardin’s content analysis of the memories and of their impact on participants/familiy lives. Results: Most of the participants (n=402) are female (79.1%), white (75.4%), bachelor/undergraduate (68.1%), worker (50.5%), mean age (41.6±12.4), spiritist (54.5%), with interest/frequency in another religion (55.5%) and self-assestment as very/moderately spiritual (91.3%). Alleged past-life memories began spontaneously in 82.3% of the cases, mean age (19.9±13.8). Cases of the Reincarnation Type features: birthmark/defect (54%), skill/talent not learned (47.5%), memories manifested during play in childhood (27.9%), philia (30.3%) and phobia in childhood (71.1%). Persistent phobia in 71% of the cases. Subjective Happiness (4.75±1.15), associated to philia in childhood OR0.33 (0.19-0.54). Suggestive symptoms of common mental disorders (46%), associated to philia OR3.99 (2.34-6.99) and phobia in childhood OR2.60 (1.51-4.57). Suggestive symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (38.8%) associated to phobia in childhood OR1.79 (1.07-3.05). Different R/S dimmensions associated to higher levels of happiness and suggestive symptoms of mental disorders. Content analysis reveals memories of ordinary lives, most with intense suffering. Categories of negative influence of the memories in subject/family lives were more frequent. Conclusions: Cases of the Reincarnation Type in Brazilian adult population reiterate common features of cases of children, except female prevalence. They are well-educated, white, workers. They are Christians, interested in more than one religion, consider themselves more spiritual than religious. High prevalence of mental disorders symptoms may represent a deleterious effect of the alleged memories and R/S operate as a protective factor. The study highlights the importance of the investigation of supposed past-lives in adults, a neglected mental health issue.