# Can people really recall past lives: an update! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 23, 2001, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-really-recall-past-lives-an-update/59232 "2001-03-23T22:49:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2001, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-really-recall-past-lives-an-update/59232/1 "2001-03-23T22:49:49Z")
In Unca Cecil’s column on [reincarnation](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_287.html), a “Bruce Goldman, DDS” takes umberage at Cecil’s rational and funny dismissal of Bridie Murphy et al. Well, in Martin Gardner’s newest (wonderful) book From the Wandering Jew to William F. Buckley, Jr, our esteemed dentist turns up again. Apparently now, the Boston dentist isn’t only _re_gressing people, he’s “progressess patients to observe events in their future incarnations…Dr. Goldberg treats patients for causes they will experience in future lives!” :rolleyes:\ Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2001, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-really-recall-past-lives-an-update/59232/2 "2001-03-24T13:42:26Z")
Interested parties might also enjoy the detailed chapter on Bridey Murphy in Gardner’s venerable _Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science_. It’s a good read overall, if a bit dated. Definitely required reading for skeptics. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2001, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-really-recall-past-lives-an-update/59232/3 "2001-03-24T13:43:55Z")
Does this mean the IRS is going to collect taxes from them for their future earnings, too? My mind is boggling. Bring coffee. (Oh, btw, good morning Fenris). 😃 ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2001, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-really-recall-past-lives-an-update/59232/4 "2001-03-24T13:59:20Z")
Oh, thank heavens you linked to the column, too, so I could find out that Dr. Goldman, in addition to the dentist degree, had some background in counseling ( :eek: ) as well - I was envisioning him drilling for cavities one would get in the future and my mind rebelled. good morning \*\* Fenris, DDG, Podkayne\*\* what are y’all doin’ up so early? (my son had to work at 6:30 am, so we’re operating on about 3 hours worth of sleep here). ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2001, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-really-recall-past-lives-an-update/59232/5 "2001-03-24T14:56:40Z")
**Poddy** : I agree, and the only reason I didn’t mention Fads and Fallacies is that I was afraid of sounding like an evanglist on that book. I think I’ve recommended it two or three times in the last few weeks here. But (and I say this with all due reverence for The Master) as good a book as any of Cecil’s. (I think the dated-ness makes it more fun, somehow). Cecil may have Sperm Trees, but Gardner has Nazi Lunar Ice. Cecil has “vagely Manson-esque” dungeon masters, Garnder has people who describe planetary and atomic motion as “Zig-Zag and Swirl” (based on the twin forces of pressure and suction. Cecil knows the secrets of Lava Lamps and Gardner discusses a anti-Newtonist who writes his (obviously peer-reviewed :rolleyes:) papers in trochaic tetrameter (as per Hiawatha, by Longfellow): I assert without a question That the chirping of a cricket Or the twitter of a swallow Scatters through the air around it… Like I said, next to Cecil’s books, Fads and Fallicies may be my favorite of this genre. **DDG** I was hoping that when the revolution comes, Goldman can serve time for the damage he’s yet to do to people with this crackpot “counseling”. **Wring** Waddaya mean, early? It’s about 7:30, which means I slept in about 2 hours. Which is unusual for me. I agree with **DDG**. Must. Get. Coffee. Oh, and good morning to everyone too! 😃 Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-really-recall-past-lives-an-update/59232/6 "2001-04-01T05:06:08Z")
Someone else has heard of the _Welteislehre_? Fenris, I begin to think we’re identical twins separated at birth! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-really-recall-past-lives-an-update/59232/7 "2001-04-01T14:54:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Polycarp \* > \*\*Someone else has heard of the _Welteislehre_? > > Fenris, I begin to think we’re identical twins separated at birth! 🙂 \*\* I’ll agree to that, if only because it reflects well on me. 😉 I don’t know much about WEL, mostly what I’ve read from the page or two in Fads and Fallacies, plus a couple of web sites but what I’ve read sounds stupidly cool in a Velikofsikian way. Fenris