Virginia Tighe Morrow was the Colorado housewife who recalled a past-life in 18th century Ireland while under hypnosis. This created a sensation in the 1950's and resulted in a book and movie about her experiences, (her name then was Virginia Burns Tighe and she went by Ginny).
Whether Mrs. Morrow really had a past life as Bridey Murphy, or even if there was a Bridey Murphy who lived the life Mrs. Morrow so vividly described in a thick Irish brogue during in taped hypnotic sessions in 1952 and 1953, has been the subject of intense emotional debate for more than four decades.
The debate began when her story was first told in articles by William J. Barker in The Denver Post in 1954, and it engaged a far wider audience when "The Search for Bridey Murphy" was published by Doubleday in 1956 and made into a movie the same year.
The book was by Morey Bernstein, the amateur hypnotist who had elicited the recollections in Pueblo, Colo. It became a best seller and was reissued in 1965 with additional material by Mr. Barker, but has been out of print for several years.
Whether Mrs. Morrow's account was dismissed out of hand or accepted as proof of reincarnation, Bridey Murphy became a 1950's phenomenon rivaling the Hula-Hoop. There were Bridey Murphy parties ("come as you were") and Bridey Murphy jokes (parents greeting newborns with "Welcome back").
The book triggered an interest in reincarnation and the use of hypnosis to regress a subject to early childhood, and perhaps beyond. It also spawned efforts to debunk Mrs. Morrow's recollections.
The notion that the book was an out-and-out hoax never gained much credence for several reasons. Mr. Bernstein, for example, was a wealthy and highly respected Pueblo businessman who had been experimenting with hypnosis for years.
His hypnosis sessions with Mrs. Morrow, which began on a lark after a party, were conducted in front of respected witnesses who vouched for the apparent authenticity of Mrs. Morrow's regression.
She insisted that her real name not be used in the book, which called her Ruth Simmons, and then avoided practically every opportunity to cash in on the Bridey Murphy phenomenon.
Efforts to debunk Bridey Murphy focused on the assumption that her detailed recollections an Irish life a century earlier were simply an outpouring of long-forgotten childhood memories.
In the 1965 edition, Mr. Barker took on the debunkers point by point. Yes, for example, as a child in Chicago Mrs. Morrow had lived across the street from a woman named Bridey (a common diminutive of Bridget), but so what? Mrs. Morrow said she had never known the woman's first name.
As for the visiting aunt of Scotch-Irish extraction who supposedly regaled her with tales from Ireland, the woman was born in New York and had no special interest in Ireland, and Mrs. Morrow was 18, not an impressionable toddler, when she was around.
Mrs. Morrow, whose original last name was Reese, was born in Madison, Wis., on April 27, 1925, and raised by an aunt and uncle in Chicago. After studying at Northwestern University, she went with a friend to Denver, where she got a job and met her first husband, Hugh Bryan Tighe, and they moved to Pueblo. Later, they moved back to the Denver area and were divorced around 1968. She later married Denver steel executive Richard Morrow.
Whatever the explanation of her highly detailed recollections, the one person who seemed immune to the debate was Mrs. Morrow. As for all the fuss she had kicked up, she once said, "If I had known what was going to happen I would never have lain down on the couch."
Mrs. Morrow is survived by the three children from her first marriage, Marilou Butler of Nashville, TN. (and her children Marnee and Matthew), Nanci Tighe Lee of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia (and her children Kourtney and Scott) and daughter Teri Francis of San Jose, CA, two stepchildren, Pam Zimmer of El Cajon, Calif., and Randy Morrow of Littleton, Colo., and 10 grandchildren.
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Source: Excerpts from New York Times obituary- Virginia Mae Morrow Dies at 70; Created Bridey Murphy Hoopla, By ROBERT McG. THOMAS Jr. Published: July 21, 1995.
Another good resource with detailed information about the recollections of Bridey Murphy's childhood that were verified (and unverified) are available at: https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/bridey-murphy
Whether Mrs. Morrow really had a past life as Bridey Murphy, or even if there was a Bridey Murphy who lived the life Mrs. Morrow so vividly described in a thick Irish brogue during in taped hypnotic sessions in 1952 and 1953, has been the subject of intense emotional debate for more than four decades.
The debate began when her story was first told in articles by William J. Barker in The Denver Post in 1954, and it engaged a far wider audience when "The Search for Bridey Murphy" was published by Doubleday in 1956 and made into a movie the same year.
The book was by Morey Bernstein, the amateur hypnotist who had elicited the recollections in Pueblo, Colo. It became a best seller and was reissued in 1965 with additional material by Mr. Barker, but has been out of print for several years.
Whether Mrs. Morrow's account was dismissed out of hand or accepted as proof of reincarnation, Bridey Murphy became a 1950's phenomenon rivaling the Hula-Hoop. There were Bridey Murphy parties ("come as you were") and Bridey Murphy jokes (parents greeting newborns with "Welcome back").
The book triggered an interest in reincarnation and the use of hypnosis to regress a subject to early childhood, and perhaps beyond. It also spawned efforts to debunk Mrs. Morrow's recollections.
The notion that the book was an out-and-out hoax never gained much credence for several reasons. Mr. Bernstein, for example, was a wealthy and highly respected Pueblo businessman who had been experimenting with hypnosis for years.
His hypnosis sessions with Mrs. Morrow, which began on a lark after a party, were conducted in front of respected witnesses who vouched for the apparent authenticity of Mrs. Morrow's regression.
She insisted that her real name not be used in the book, which called her Ruth Simmons, and then avoided practically every opportunity to cash in on the Bridey Murphy phenomenon.
Efforts to debunk Bridey Murphy focused on the assumption that her detailed recollections an Irish life a century earlier were simply an outpouring of long-forgotten childhood memories.
In the 1965 edition, Mr. Barker took on the debunkers point by point. Yes, for example, as a child in Chicago Mrs. Morrow had lived across the street from a woman named Bridey (a common diminutive of Bridget), but so what? Mrs. Morrow said she had never known the woman's first name.
As for the visiting aunt of Scotch-Irish extraction who supposedly regaled her with tales from Ireland, the woman was born in New York and had no special interest in Ireland, and Mrs. Morrow was 18, not an impressionable toddler, when she was around.
Mrs. Morrow, whose original last name was Reese, was born in Madison, Wis., on April 27, 1925, and raised by an aunt and uncle in Chicago. After studying at Northwestern University, she went with a friend to Denver, where she got a job and met her first husband, Hugh Bryan Tighe, and they moved to Pueblo. Later, they moved back to the Denver area and were divorced around 1968. She later married Denver steel executive Richard Morrow.
Whatever the explanation of her highly detailed recollections, the one person who seemed immune to the debate was Mrs. Morrow. As for all the fuss she had kicked up, she once said, "If I had known what was going to happen I would never have lain down on the couch."
Mrs. Morrow is survived by the three children from her first marriage, Marilou Butler of Nashville, TN. (and her children Marnee and Matthew), Nanci Tighe Lee of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia (and her children Kourtney and Scott) and daughter Teri Francis of San Jose, CA, two stepchildren, Pam Zimmer of El Cajon, Calif., and Randy Morrow of Littleton, Colo., and 10 grandchildren.
--
Source: Excerpts from New York Times obituary- Virginia Mae Morrow Dies at 70; Created Bridey Murphy Hoopla, By ROBERT McG. THOMAS Jr. Published: July 21, 1995.
Another good resource with detailed information about the recollections of Bridey Murphy's childhood that were verified (and unverified) are available at: https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/bridey-murphy
Virginia Tighe Morrow was the Colorado housewife who recalled a past-life in 18th century Ireland while under hypnosis. This created a sensation in the 1950's and resulted in a book and movie about her experiences, (her name then was Virginia Burns Tighe and she went by Ginny).
Whether Mrs. Morrow really had a past life as Bridey Murphy, or even if there was a Bridey Murphy who lived the life Mrs. Morrow so vividly described in a thick Irish brogue during in taped hypnotic sessions in 1952 and 1953, has been the subject of intense emotional debate for more than four decades.
The debate began when her story was first told in articles by William J. Barker in The Denver Post in 1954, and it engaged a far wider audience when "The Search for Bridey Murphy" was published by Doubleday in 1956 and made into a movie the same year.
The book was by Morey Bernstein, the amateur hypnotist who had elicited the recollections in Pueblo, Colo. It became a best seller and was reissued in 1965 with additional material by Mr. Barker, but has been out of print for several years.
Whether Mrs. Morrow's account was dismissed out of hand or accepted as proof of reincarnation, Bridey Murphy became a 1950's phenomenon rivaling the Hula-Hoop. There were Bridey Murphy parties ("come as you were") and Bridey Murphy jokes (parents greeting newborns with "Welcome back").
The book triggered an interest in reincarnation and the use of hypnosis to regress a subject to early childhood, and perhaps beyond. It also spawned efforts to debunk Mrs. Morrow's recollections.
The notion that the book was an out-and-out hoax never gained much credence for several reasons. Mr. Bernstein, for example, was a wealthy and highly respected Pueblo businessman who had been experimenting with hypnosis for years.
His hypnosis sessions with Mrs. Morrow, which began on a lark after a party, were conducted in front of respected witnesses who vouched for the apparent authenticity of Mrs. Morrow's regression.
She insisted that her real name not be used in the book, which called her Ruth Simmons, and then avoided practically every opportunity to cash in on the Bridey Murphy phenomenon.
Efforts to debunk Bridey Murphy focused on the assumption that her detailed recollections an Irish life a century earlier were simply an outpouring of long-forgotten childhood memories.
In the 1965 edition, Mr. Barker took on the debunkers point by point. Yes, for example, as a child in Chicago Mrs. Morrow had lived across the street from a woman named Bridey (a common diminutive of Bridget), but so what? Mrs. Morrow said she had never known the woman's first name.
As for the visiting aunt of Scotch-Irish extraction who supposedly regaled her with tales from Ireland, the woman was born in New York and had no special interest in Ireland, and Mrs. Morrow was 18, not an impressionable toddler, when she was around.
Mrs. Morrow, whose original last name was Reese, was born in Madison, Wis., on April 27, 1925, and raised by an aunt and uncle in Chicago. After studying at Northwestern University, she went with a friend to Denver, where she got a job and met her first husband, Hugh Bryan Tighe, and they moved to Pueblo. Later, they moved back to the Denver area and were divorced around 1968. She later married Denver steel executive Richard Morrow.
Whatever the explanation of her highly detailed recollections, the one person who seemed immune to the debate was Mrs. Morrow. As for all the fuss she had kicked up, she once said, "If I had known what was going to happen I would never have lain down on the couch."
Mrs. Morrow is survived by the three children from her first marriage, Marilou Butler of Nashville, TN. (and her children Marnee and Matthew), Nanci Tighe Lee of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia (and her children Kourtney and Scott) and daughter Teri Francis of San Jose, CA, two stepchildren, Pam Zimmer of El Cajon, Calif., and Randy Morrow of Littleton, Colo., and 10 grandchildren.
--
Source: Excerpts from New York Times obituary- Virginia Mae Morrow Dies at 70; Created Bridey Murphy Hoopla, By ROBERT McG. THOMAS Jr. Published: July 21, 1995.
Another good resource with detailed information about the recollections of Bridey Murphy's childhood that were verified (and unverified) are available at: https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/bridey-murphy
Whether Mrs. Morrow really had a past life as Bridey Murphy, or even if there was a Bridey Murphy who lived the life Mrs. Morrow so vividly described in a thick Irish brogue during in taped hypnotic sessions in 1952 and 1953, has been the subject of intense emotional debate for more than four decades.
The debate began when her story was first told in articles by William J. Barker in The Denver Post in 1954, and it engaged a far wider audience when "The Search for Bridey Murphy" was published by Doubleday in 1956 and made into a movie the same year.
The book was by Morey Bernstein, the amateur hypnotist who had elicited the recollections in Pueblo, Colo. It became a best seller and was reissued in 1965 with additional material by Mr. Barker, but has been out of print for several years.
Whether Mrs. Morrow's account was dismissed out of hand or accepted as proof of reincarnation, Bridey Murphy became a 1950's phenomenon rivaling the Hula-Hoop. There were Bridey Murphy parties ("come as you were") and Bridey Murphy jokes (parents greeting newborns with "Welcome back").
The book triggered an interest in reincarnation and the use of hypnosis to regress a subject to early childhood, and perhaps beyond. It also spawned efforts to debunk Mrs. Morrow's recollections.
The notion that the book was an out-and-out hoax never gained much credence for several reasons. Mr. Bernstein, for example, was a wealthy and highly respected Pueblo businessman who had been experimenting with hypnosis for years.
His hypnosis sessions with Mrs. Morrow, which began on a lark after a party, were conducted in front of respected witnesses who vouched for the apparent authenticity of Mrs. Morrow's regression.
She insisted that her real name not be used in the book, which called her Ruth Simmons, and then avoided practically every opportunity to cash in on the Bridey Murphy phenomenon.
Efforts to debunk Bridey Murphy focused on the assumption that her detailed recollections an Irish life a century earlier were simply an outpouring of long-forgotten childhood memories.
In the 1965 edition, Mr. Barker took on the debunkers point by point. Yes, for example, as a child in Chicago Mrs. Morrow had lived across the street from a woman named Bridey (a common diminutive of Bridget), but so what? Mrs. Morrow said she had never known the woman's first name.
As for the visiting aunt of Scotch-Irish extraction who supposedly regaled her with tales from Ireland, the woman was born in New York and had no special interest in Ireland, and Mrs. Morrow was 18, not an impressionable toddler, when she was around.
Mrs. Morrow, whose original last name was Reese, was born in Madison, Wis., on April 27, 1925, and raised by an aunt and uncle in Chicago. After studying at Northwestern University, she went with a friend to Denver, where she got a job and met her first husband, Hugh Bryan Tighe, and they moved to Pueblo. Later, they moved back to the Denver area and were divorced around 1968. She later married Denver steel executive Richard Morrow.
Whatever the explanation of her highly detailed recollections, the one person who seemed immune to the debate was Mrs. Morrow. As for all the fuss she had kicked up, she once said, "If I had known what was going to happen I would never have lain down on the couch."
Mrs. Morrow is survived by the three children from her first marriage, Marilou Butler of Nashville, TN. (and her children Marnee and Matthew), Nanci Tighe Lee of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia (and her children Kourtney and Scott) and daughter Teri Francis of San Jose, CA, two stepchildren, Pam Zimmer of El Cajon, Calif., and Randy Morrow of Littleton, Colo., and 10 grandchildren.
--
Source: Excerpts from New York Times obituary- Virginia Mae Morrow Dies at 70; Created Bridey Murphy Hoopla, By ROBERT McG. THOMAS Jr. Published: July 21, 1995.
Another good resource with detailed information about the recollections of Bridey Murphy's childhood that were verified (and unverified) are available at: https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/bridey-murphy
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