Question:

Is it possible to remember an incident from your past by meditation or hypnotism?

Answer:

I can only answer the hypnosis side of this question as I have no real expertise with meditation, just personal experience with it. I would assume the answer would be exactly the same though.

Yes, hypnosis can be used to recall things from your past, but be aware it is incredibly easy to introduce false memories. So if you do intend to pursue this avenue of memory recovery, make sure you are working with somebody specifically trained in working with recovering memories, and not an amateur trying to work it out as they go. For example, if I took you back to a point in your childhood, I might ask something along the lines of “Who, if anybody, is with you?” whereas somebody without training may ask “Is your father with you?” Both questions may seem to be asking more or less the same thing, but the latter directly introduces a specific person into the thoughts of the hypnotee and this can easily lead to a false memory of them being there when in reality they were not (or vice versa). Remember under hypnosis you are in a highly suggestible state, and unless the language used for asking about these memories is very precise, additions (or subtractions) can be made by the subconscious unbeknown to either the hypnotist or the hypnotee. Also if the event involves trauma of any kind, a trained professional will be better positioned to deal with that too.

So to answer the question. Yes, but tread carefully, it’s not as straightforward as it may seem.

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