Does hypnotic age regression produce historically accurate memories?
Hypnotic age regression involves the hypnotized person’s ability to “relive” an earlier period of his/her life. It is to be distinguished from thinking about the past, or remembering it; the age regressed person experiences being a younger age in a subjectively vivid and compelling manner, and this is accompanied, quite often, by what appear to be age appropriate changes in voice, mannerisms and handwriting. Although the age regressed person’s behavior can be very convincing subjectively, that is no guarantee of the historical accuracy of anything that a person recalls about his/her past during age regression. Orne (1951) reports the case of a German-born experimental subject, regressed to age six, when he spoke no English. Drawings that he had made at that age were compared to ones he made when hypnotically regressed to age six, including two drawings he completed while age regressed after he had seen his actual productions of that age. The drawings reported in this study are reproduc
