Hi Lisa,
I think you can tell your friend that she's ko-koo for Cocoa-Puffs.
I'm not going to get much into the metaphysical/philosophical aspects of reincarnation online, but I will mention that by observing the rejenitive/cycle aspects of nature, it is not completely odd that certain cultures and religions would formulate ideas of reincarnation. And considering that matter has "memory", it is not completely odd that people would have these beliefs today; although the notion of 'past lives' is a giant leap from watching a physical representation of memory in matter, such as the regeneration of muscle tissue for example.
My notion as to your friend being "a kook" mostly comes from the fact that she would use the modern psychoanalytical pseudo-theory of past life regression to try to cure phobias. Although such ideas have gotten attention in pop culture in recent years, most of these methods have been pretty well debunked, leaving no scientific validity to the idea of past lives.
The nominal success in therapy, arguably, could be attributed to the same reasons that psychodynamic therapy works today without the involvement of the notion of "past lives;" the basics steps being... 1. Find the cause of the pathology, with a belief that the phobia comes from repressed unconscious impulse, no matter how valid or arbitrary (blame a phobia on a past life, your mother, a bad experience in adolescents, etc.), 2. come up with a cognitive solution, no matter how valid or arbitrary (recreate a past life experience, call your mom and discuss an issue, or go back to the mountain you almost fell off of when you were 13 [maybe through hypnosis, or roleplaying, or even physically], etc.), 3. Then implement said solution in a convincing enough manner so that you believe the problem is fixed.
Bottom line is that with this therapy (which, conveniently can be time consuming and expensive) you can achieve some success depending on the problem; but this is regardless of how factual the "cause" of the pathology is. The cure involves in changing mindset and behavior to recondition the response; and this is only one of a variety of ways to achieve this.
The thing with phobia's, however, is that there are much easier, more direct ways in curing them. The Psychodynamic perspective tends to be much more drawn out and inefficient when it comes to changing basic behaviors and reactions, such as curing phobias, quiting smoking, etc.
A more direct approach that a non-kook might suggest would be to take a behavioral approach. The exact origin of the phobia is both subjective and incidental; the important thing is that 1. It is irrational, and 2. It is a conditioned response. Using simple, operant conditioning methods can recondition the response in about 60-90 minutes for most phobias. The "exposure method" (gradual, calculated exposure to the phobia in a controlled setting) seems to get the most reliable results.
But, hey, a cure in 60-90 minutes? Naw, that's way too easy. Better to spend therapy session after therapy session at $150 a pop wondering if reincarnation is real...
Paul Janulis
