Aside from Dr. Ian Stevenson, another study from Peter John Ramster had documented cases about past life.
Believe It or NOT!
YouTube - Reincarnation-Regression (banned video) 1/11
Peter John Ramster apparently has made more films than written books: see the
Worldcat listing of his works. His other book appears to be
The Truth about Reincarnation from 1980, which was published by Rigby, Ltd, Adelaide, South Australia, a general publishing company that published from the early 1900s through at least the 1980s (
see for example). The blurb of the
The Truth about Reincarnation (1980) says:
The astounding story of how psychologist Peter Ramster discovered that many of his patients could actually remember their past lives. While he was using hypnotherapy to help a patient with her problems, she suddenly spoke to him as a woman from another age Under trance, she told him that she had lived in California during the period of the American War of Independence. Having made this startling discovery. Peter Ramster researched further He soon found that all persons capable of deep trance could recall having lived at different times in some cases thousands of years ago and in different countries. In this book, giving genuine case-histories and transcripts from tape-recorded conversations, he tells the whole amazing story.
The blurb of
The Search for Lives Past (1992) says:
In my efforts to discover the truth about reincarnation, I concentrated my research on the unconscious psyche of the subjects. First, I tried to remove all unconscious blocks, fears, repression and neuroses which might either hamper recall or create fantasy. The next step was to make the subject recall and ability he or she might have had during a previous existence, the ability to speak or write a different language, or some artistic talent which could not possibly have been learned in this life. All the while my main aim was to ascertain the truth.
I think that his first work is a reliable source insofar as it is published by a reputable publishing company in Australia. The first work also lends credence to the reliability of the second work. But perhaps these are not sufficient for sources for WP. The Victor Zammit link purports to be a summary of Ramster's work from several sources:
The following information is taken from Peter Ramster's very important book, In Search of Lives Past (1990) and from a speech he gave to the Australian Hypnotherapists ninth National Convention at the Sydney Sheraton Wentworth Hotel on the 27th March, 1994 and from the films he made on reincarnation. In 1983 he produced a stunning television documentary in which four women from Sydney, who had never been out of Australia, gave details under hypnosis of their past lives. Then, accompanied by television cameras and independent witnesses, they were taken to the other side of the world....
One
could cite the original Ramster sources, using Zammit as providing a summary of that work, since the original material is not readily available. Again, that might not be adequate for WP. One can certainly order the two books via used book sellers. --
EPadmirateur (
talk) 22:13, 2 July 2008 (UTC) I have found interesting references to Ramsters work on youyube, but I'm unsure about wikipedia policy on references from there? Ian Lawton cites Ramsters work from "The Search For Lives Past" in his "The little book of the soul". Lawton reads himself in a series of youtube videos. Part 8, 9A & 9B is about Ramster's cases.
YouTube - The Little Book of the Soul PART 8 YouTube - The Little Book of the Soul PART 9A YouTube - The Little Book of the Soul PART 9B Ramster's TV documentary from 1983 covering the same cases is also on youtube in 11 parts - #1 is here,
YouTube - Reincarnation-Regression (banned video) 1/11 you can follow youtube's lead for the rest. Most interesting.
Hepcat65 (
talk) 16:12, 6 July 2008 (UTC)
Further references: to Peter Ramster's films on reincarnation:
- Peter Ramster and Brian Morris,Reincarnation, Sydney: Soundsense films (1982). OCLC 64353767.
- Peter Ramster, God doesn't play dice, Los Angeles, CA: Hemdale Home Video, Inc. (1991). OCLC 43043701. (I am presuming this is a film about reincarnation.)
- Peter Ramster, Life Death & Rebirth - A Film, no date given, listed on his web site:
A film about reincarnation and life after death - including case histories of children who prove their past life recollections and adults cured of lifelong afflictions through past life recall under hypnosis or who have had evidential near death experiences.
Two members of the University of Wollongong community have collaborated in the production of a documentary to be screened by Prime -TV on Tuesday 15 August. The film- 'The Reincarnation Experiments', documents the work of Peter Ramster, a practising psychologist of 30 years, who is studying immunology at UOW, while Information Systems senior Lecturer Robert MacGregor, has written the films soundtrack. 'The Reincarnation Experiments' focuses on the use of hypnosis by Peter Ramster to treat patients suffering psychological problems- in particular phobias and how, when hypnotised, some patients are able to provide detailed accounts of past lives.
"While treating patients I use hypnosis to take them back to their childhood in an attempt to identify the source of their individual problem or phobia, but I found some people spontaneously start talking about past lives", Mr Ramster said. Mr Ramster said since he began seriously examining the phenomena in the mid 70s he has had over 1,000 patients describe past lives to him while under hypnosis.
In an attempt "to extricate the memory’s fantasy from fact", Mr Ramster has hypnotised patients repeatedly over several years at intervals of six months, so as to correlate the information given and determine which specific facts remain consistent through time. "Boring people to tears over long periods of time", is how Mr Ramster describes his method of hypnosis.
After having viewed the documentary of Ramster's work from 1983 (
on YouTube), I think the books and films are sufficiently reliable sources to document the essential features of Ramster's work. I think critical commentary that is directed generally to reincarnation regression or specifically toward Ramster's work also needs to be included. --
EPadmirateur (
talk) 04:13, 14 July