cryptomnesia - The Skeptic's Dictionary

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class="header"> <div class="logo"> <img src="_images/logo_01.png" alt="The Skeptic's Dictionary" width="270" height="60" border="0" />           <br /> by <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/bio.html">Robert Todd Carroll</a> * est. 1994 </div> <div class="slogan"> <img src="_images/slogan_01.gif" alt="A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions" width="362" height="30" /> </div> </div> <div class="menu"> <ul> <li></li><li><a href="http://skepdic.com/">Home</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/news/">Newsletter</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/feedback.html">Feedback</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/faq.html">FAQ & Interviews</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/tour.html">Site Map</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="middle"> <div class="left"> <h2>Topical Indexes</h2> <ul class="nav_1"> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/tialtmed.html">Alternatives to Medicine</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/ticriticalthinking.html">Critical 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href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#X">x</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#Y">y</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#Z">z</a></li> </ul> <webContent><h1>cryptomnesia</h1> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">Cryptomnesia is, literally, <i>hidden memory</i>. The term was coined by psychology professor <a href="http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/researchers/flournoy.htm">Th茅odore Flournoy</a> (1854-1921) and is used to explain the origin of experiences that people believe to be original but which are actually based on <a href="http://skepdic.com/memory.html">memories</a> of events they've forgotten. It seems likely that most so-called <a HREF="pastlife.html">past life regressions</a> induced through hypnosis are <a HREF="confab.html">confabulations</a> fed by cryptomnesia. For example, Virginia Tighe's hypnotic recollections of <a HREF="bridey.html">Bridey Murphy</a> of Cork, Ireland (Bridie Murphey Corkell), if not deliberately fraudulent, are most likely recollections of events that happened in this life but which she had forgotten. Likewise, the "past-life" memories of Ann Evans, produced while under hypnosis by Arnall <a href="bloxham.html">Bloxham</a>, were almost certainly unconsciously produced <a href="confab.html">confabulations</a>.</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">Cryptomnesia may also explain how the apparent plagiarism of such people as Helen Keller or George Harrison of the Beatles might actually be cases of hidden memory. Harrison didn't intend to plagiarize the Chiffon's "He's So Fine" in "My Sweet Lord." Nor did Keller intend to plagiarize Margaret Canby's "The Frost Fairies" when she wrote "The Frost King." Both may simply be cases of not having a conscious memory of their experiences of the works in question. </font> </p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">The first recorded instance of cryptomnesia occurred in 1874 and involved William Stanton Moses, a medium who, during a s茅ance, claimed to be in contact with the spirits if two brothers who had recently died in India. The deaths were verified, but "further research showed that the obituary ran in a newspaper six days before the s茅ance and all information in the obituary was given in the s茅ance and nothing more was added."<a href="http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/c/cryptomnesia.html">*</a></font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><b>See also</b> <a href="autowrite.html">automatic writing</a> and <a href="http://skepdic.com/memory.html">memory</a>.</font></p> <hr width="25%" align="left" noshade> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><b>further reading</b> </font> </p> <p style="text-align: left"><b><font face="Arial" size="3">books and articles</font></b></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1573920940/roberttoddcarrolA/">Baker, Robert A<i>. Hidden Memories : Voices and Visions from Within </i>(Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1996).</a> </font> </p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">Brown, Alan S. and Dana R. Murphy. (1989). "Cryptomnesia: Delineating Inadvertent Plagiarism," <i>Journal of Experimental Psychology</i> 15.3: 432-42.</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0767400135/roberttoddcarrolA/">Schick, Jr., Theodore and Lewis Vaughn, <i>How to Think About Weird Things</i>  2nd ed. (Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1998),</a> </font> </p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=051757165X/roberttoddcarrolA/"> Shultz, Ted. "Voices from Beyond: The Age-Old Mystery of Channeling," in <i>The Fringes of Reason</i>, ed. Ted Schultz (New York: Harmony Books, 1988).</a></font><p style="text-align: left"> <font face="Arial" size="3"> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0805805087/roberttoddcarrolA/"> Zusne,  Leonard and Warren Jones. 2nd ed. <i>Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking </i>2nd edition. (Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc. 1989).</a></font><p style="text-align: left"> <b><font face="Arial" size="3">websites</font></b></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"> <a href="http://www.apa.org/monitor/feb02/glitch.html">"Plagiarism or memory glitch? Inadvertent plagiarism complicates efforts to end cheating" by Siri Carpenter</a></font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font size="3"> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/books/07book.html?hp"> Christmas Essay Was Not His, Author Admits </a></font></p> <p></webContent>Last updated 26-Oct-2015 </p> </div> </div> <div class="right"> <div class="right_it"> <div class="search"> <form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/custom" target="_top"> <input type="hidden" name="domains" value="skepdic.com" /> <input type="text" name="q" maxlength="255" value="" size="20" /> <input type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" /> <br /> <div class="search_2"> <input type="radio" name="sitesearch" value="" /> Web     <input type="radio" name="sitesearch" value="skepdic.com" checked="checked" /> Skepdic.com <br /> <img src="_images/logo_google.gif" alt="Google" width="48" height="19" /> </div> <input type="hidden" name="client" value="pub-3542920166946725" /> <input type="hidden" name="forid" value="1" /> <input type="hidden" name="ie" value="ISO-8859-1" /> <input type="hidden" name="oe" value="ISO-8859-1" /> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="GALT:#008000;GL:1;DIV:#336699;VLC:663399;AH:center;BGC:FFFFFF;LBGC:336699;ALC:0000FF;LC:0000FF;T:000000;GFNT:0000FF;GIMP:0000FF;FORID:1;" /> <input type="hidden" name="hl" value="en" /> </form> </div> <div class="center"> <p align="right"><a href="http://skepdic.com/authorpage.html"><strong>Books by R. 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cryptomnesia - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com