Autism & Past-Life Memory: What We're Learning, with Jim Matlock, PhD
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In the 1960s, Ian Stevenson studied the possibility of reincarnation and memories of past lives in adults and children. His work at the University of Virginia was revolutionary and set the tone for current research into these topics. James Matlock, PhD, is one of the most recent researchers to explore the possibilities of reincarnation in people with different cognitive styles.
In this presentation, Dr. Matlock explores how autism may impact memory retrieval and how these cognitive differences might enable the phenomenon of past-life memories (PML). He will discuss whether behavior, identity, and invisible companions play a role in past-life memories. Why do some individuals report no PLMs while expressing subtle, non-verbal physical and behavioral traits of the previously known person, while others hold strong, detailed, and persistent recollections of PLMs well into adulthood? Autism is known to suppress episodic memory formation while leaving other types of memory unaffected, suggesting that neurological changes could be a key factor in both suppression and enhancement of PLM recall.
Bridging psychology, neuroscience, and consciousness research, this presentation raises intriguing questions about the role of the brain in shaping memory and what that might mean for our understanding of identity, cognitive development, and the possibility of memories of previous lives.
Biography: James G. Matlock received his PhD in anthropology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He has had a longstanding engagement in parapsychology and has written on the history of parapsychology, the anthropology of religion, postmortem survival, and reincarnation in both anthropology and parapsychology. He has worked at the American Society for Psychical Research and the Rhine Research Center and is currently a Research Fellow with the Parapsychology Foundation. He teaches a course on reincarnation online through the Alvarado Zingrone Institute for Research and Education. He is co-author, with Erlendur Haraldsson, of I Saw a Light and Came Here: Children’s Experiences of Reincarnation (2016) and the author of Signs of Reincarnation: Exploring Beliefs, Cases, and Theory (2019). The latter received a Best Book of the Year award from the Parapsychological Association. For more information, see Matlock's website, jamesgmatlock.com, and his biographical entry on the SPR's Psi Encyclopedia, https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/james-g-matlock.
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