Apparent Past-Life Memories in a Recurring Dream of the 1934 Los Angeles New Year’s Flood

Abstract

As with memories of the present life, memories of apparent previous lives may appear in dreams, sometimes in nightmarish dreams. This paper presents the case study of a dream of a traumatic event (a death) that transpired 36 years before the birth of the dreamer. The dream recurred several times a month from age 4 until the dreamer was in his 20s. The dream invariably caused waking in distress and in a cold sweat and was recalled after waking. These are characteristics of posttraumatic nightmares, although the trauma here would seem to derive from a former life, not the dreamer’s present life. The dreamer continues to recall the event in his 50s and is still severely affected by it. Recurring nightmares are common in past-life memory reports, but this case is unusual in that the dream was detailed enough to permit verification of its main elements as well as the identification of the dream protagonist. The event in question was obscure enough, yet the dreamer’s recollection precise enough, that it is unlikely that the dreamer or his family could have learned about it before his dreams began. I consider the possibility that the dreamer acquired the information through anomalous cognition but reject it partly for lack of evidence that emotions of this order can be acquired via psi. Although no single case can provide convincing evidence for reincarnation, this case adds to the growing body of research that makes the possibility worthy of serious consideration.

Clarifying Muddied Waters, Part 2: What the Sudduth-Tucker Exchange Concerning James Leininger Suggests for Reincarnation Research

“…Although Haraldsson,Keil,and Mills have published in journals,11 as have Hassler, Ohkado, and Wehrstein, Tucker and I have favored books over journal publication. We both have journal publications (Matlock, 2022a;Tucker, 2016;Tucker & Keil, 2001), but have described most of our cases in books (Haraldsson & Matlock, 2016;Matlock, 2019;Tucker, 2013Tucker, , 2021.…”

“…Ohkado Masayuki (Ohkado, 2013, 2017 has written about several Japanese cases. Meanwhile, Jim Tucker (2013Tucker ( , 2021 and I (Haraldsson & Matlock, 2016;Matlock, 2019Matlock, , 2022a, along with K. M. Wehrstein (2019Wehrstein ( , 2021, have concentrated on cases in English-speaking regions.…”

“…They were crucial to Bruce Leininger in pursuing James's memory claims. Scott Perry recalled an historic event, the 1937 Los Angeles New Year's Flood, which is documented in newspaper archives which, along with genealogical, meteorological, and other online records, proved invaluable in studying his case (Matlock, 2022a). K. M. Wehrstein (2019Wehrstein ( , 2021 relied on online resources in her investigation of Will's adult memories of Wilhelm Emmerich and Wilhelm Schmidt.…”