View source for Bridey Murphy

{{short description|Purported example of a recalled past life}}
[[File:Bridey Murphy.png|thumb|Virginia Tighe, who was given the pseudonym "Ruth Simmons"]]
'''Bridey Murphy''' (December 20, 1798-1864) is a purported 19th-century Irishwoman whom U.S. housewife '''Virginia Tighe''' (April 27, 1923 – July 12, 1995) claimed to be in a past life. The case was investigated by researchers and concluded to be the result of [[cryptomnesia]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gravitz |first1=Melvin A. |title=The Search for Bridey Murphy: Implications for Modern Hypnosis |journal=American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis |date=2002 |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=3–10 |doi=10.1080/00029157.2002.10403492|pmid=12116612 |s2cid=1838105 }}</ref><ref>[[Terence Hines|Hines, Terence]]. (2003). ''Pseudoscience and the Paranormal''. Prometheus Books. p. 107. {{ISBN|1-57392-979-4}}</ref>

==Hypnotic regression==
{{Main|Past life regression}}
{{More citations needed section|date=September 2024}}
In 1952, Colorado businessman and amateur [[hypnosis|hypnotist]] '''Morey Bernstein''' (1919–1999) put housewife Virginia Tighe of [[Pueblo, Colorado]], in a trance that elicited revelations about Tighe's alleged past life as a 19th-century Irishwoman.<ref name="randi-1995">{{Cite book |last=Randi |first=James |title=[[An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural|An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural: Decidedly Skeptical Definitions of Alternative Realities]] |date=1995 |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |isbn=978-0-312-15119-5 |location=New York, NY|author-link=James Randi}}</ref> Bernstein used a technique called [[hypnotic regression]], during which the subject is gradually taken back to childhood. He then attempted to take Virginia one step further, before birth (so-called "past life regression"), and was astonished to find he was listening to Bridey Murphy.

Tighe's tale began in 1806, when Bridey was eight years old and living in a house in [[Cork (city)|Cork]]. She was the daughter of Duncan Murphy, a barrister, and his wife Kathleen. At the age of 17 ({{circa}} 1815), she married barrister Sean Brian McCarthy, who she claimed taught at [[Queen's University Belfast]], to which she moved. Tighe told of a fall that caused Bridey's death c. 1864, and of watching her own funeral, describing her tombstone and the state of being in life after death. It was, she recalled, a feeling of neither pain nor happiness. 

Somehow, she was reborn in America 59 years later, although Tighe/Bridey was not clear how this event happened. Tighe herself was born as Virginia Mae Reese in the [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]] in 1923, had never been to Ireland, and did not speak with even the slightest hint of an [[Irish accent]]. Murphy, however, spoke with a heavy brogue and used Irish expressions (some of which were [[Anachronism|not actually used]] in the 19th century).<ref name="randi-1995" />

==Book publication and response==
[[File:Morey Bernstein hypnotist.png|thumb|Hypnotist Morey Bernstein with Virginia Tighe]]
The story of Bridey Murphy was first told in a series of articles by William J. Barker, published in the ''[[Denver Post]]'' in 1954.<ref name="NYT Morrow obit">{{cite news
 | authorlink1 = Robert McG. Thomas Jr.
 | author1 = Robert McG. Thomas Jr
 | title = Virginia Mae Morrow Dies at 70; Created Bridey Murphy Hoopla
 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/21/obituaries/virginia-mae-morrow-dies-at-70-created-bridey-murphy-hoopla.html
 | work = [[The New York Times]]
 | date = 1995-07-21
 | accessdate = 2019-07-18
}}</ref> In early 1956, Doubleday released a book by Bernstein, ''The Search for Bridey Murphy''.  [[Film rights]] had already been sold by the time of its publication (see {{slink||Film adaptation}} below).<ref name="parade">{{cite magazine
 | author1 = Lloyd Shearer
 | authorlink1 = Lloyd Shearer
 | title = The amazing story of Bridey Murphy: Has this woman lived twice?
 |magazine=[[Parade magazine|Parade]]
 | page = 10
 | date = 1956-01-01
}}</ref> At her insistence, Tighe was given the pseudonym "Ruth Mills Simmons".

===The Bridey Murphy craze===
The best-selling book created a sensation; people would throw Bridey Murphy-themed "come as you were" parties and dances, and jokes abounded, such as cartoons of parents greeting newborns with "welcome back!"<ref name="NYT Morrow obit"/><ref>{{cite news
 | title = Bridey Murphy Dance Held
 | url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AWhSAAAAIBAJ&pg=6143%2C4067483
 | work = [[St. Petersburg Times]]
 | page = 27
 | date = 1956-09-10
 | accessdate = 2019-07-18
}}</ref>

Popular songs of the time included "The Ballad of Bridey Murphy" by [[Fran Allison]], "The Love of Bridey Murphy" by Billy Devroe's Devilaires, and "Do You Believe (In Reincarnation)" by [[Lalo Guerrero]]. There was a "Reincarnation cocktail".{{efn|A March 1956 issue of ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine attributes the cocktail to Walt McCrystal of the "Doctors' Club" of Houston, and gives the following recipe: "a jigger vodka and a 1/2 jigger of [[maraschino]] liqueur shaken with lemon juice and crushed ice and topped with a cupful of flaming rum."<ref name=Life>{{cite magazine|last1=Brean|first1=Herbert|title=Bridey Murphy Puts Nation in a Hypnotizzy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6FYEAAAAMBAJ&q=bridey+murphy&pg=PA30|accessdate=23 November 2014|magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]]|date=19 March 1956|pages=28–35}}</ref>}}

[[Stan Freberg]] recorded a satirical sketch in 1956 titled "The Quest For Bridey Hammerschlaugen", parodying the LP released of excerpts of the first hypnosis session.<ref>''The Search for Bridey Murphy'', Research Recordings No. 101 (1956). LP with excerpts of the actual first hypnosis session. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue4t58yk2Gs Part 1]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UrxKTkki9c Part 2]. Accessed September 12, 2019.</ref> Freberg hypnotizes Goldie Smith (voiced by [[June Foray]]) to regress her to different eras, with humorous interruptions by Smith. At the end, Smith hypnotizes Freberg, who becomes Davy Crockett. When Smith mocks Freberg-as-Crockett for not being able to profit from the recent [[Davy Crockett craze]], "Crockett" replies that in his next life, he "may be Walt Disney."<ref>Stan Freberg, "The Great Pretender" / "The Quest For Bridey Hammerschlaugen", [[Capitol Records]] No. 3396, release date April 9, 1956</ref>

The past-life themed 1956 film ''[[I've Lived Before]]'' is said to have been inspired by the craze.<ref>{{cite web
  |url = http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie-synopsis/i%27ve-lived-before/
  |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130227052934/http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie-synopsis/i've-lived-before/
  |url-status=dead
  |archive-date = 2013-02-27
  |accessdate = 2019-07-18
  |title = I've Lived Before
  |author = Hal Erickson
  |website = movies.msn.com
}}</ref>

===Research challenging the story===
The biographical details related by Bridey were not rigorously checked before the book's publication. However, once the book had become a bestseller, almost every detail was thoroughly checked by reporters who were sent to Ireland to track down the background of the elusive woman. It was then that the first doubts about her "reincarnation" began to appear.<ref>Harris, Melvin. (1986). ''[[Sorry – You've Been Duped]]''. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. pp. 153-154. {{ISBN|0 297 78964 3}}</ref>
Bridey said she was born on December 20, 1798, in Cork and that she had died in 1864. No record was found of either event.<ref>Civil registration of all deaths in Ireland began on 1 January 1864. [http://www.groireland.ie/history.htm The General Register Office: History] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100701133947/http://www.groireland.ie/history.htm |date=2010-07-01 }}.</ref> Also, no evidence could be found of a wooden house called The Meadows, in which Bridey said she had lived, just of a place of that name near Cork. Additionally, during the 19th century, most houses in Ireland were made of brick or stone. Bridey pronounced her husband's name as "See-an", although Seán is typically pronounced "Shawn", especially in Ireland. [[Queen's University Belfast]] did not exist at the time Bridey claimed her husband was working there. Brian, which is what Bridey preferred to call her husband, was also the middle name of the man to whom Virginia Tighe was married. Tighe claimed Bridey went to a St. Theresa's Church, which did indeed exist, but it was not built until 1911, long after Bridey was said to have died.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

Some of the details provided by Tighe proved to be more plausible. For example, her descriptions of the [[County Antrim|Antrim]] coastline were very accurate, as was her account of a journey from Belfast to Cork. She recounted that the young Bridey shopped for provisions with a grocer named Farr; it was discovered that such a grocer had existed, although this may simply have been a coincidence.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

Some researchers came to the conclusion that the best way to discover the truth was to check back not to Ireland, but rather to Tighe's own childhood and her relationship with her parents. Morey Bernstein stated that Tighe/Simmons was brought up by a Norwegian uncle and his German-Scottish-Irish wife. However, he did not mention that her birth parents were both partly Irish, and that she had lived with them until the age of three. He also did not mention that an Irish immigrant named Bridie Murphy Corkell (1892–1957) lived across the street from Tighe's childhood home in [[Chicago|Chicago, Illinois]].<ref name="1930 census">U.S. Census, April 1, 1930, State of Illinois, County of Cook, City of Chicago, enumeration district 1955, p. 19-A, family 428.</ref><ref>U.S. Census, Jan.&nbsp;1, 1920, State of Illinois, County of Cook, City of Chicago, enumeration district 1548, p. 12-B, family 331.</ref><ref>{{cite news
 | title = Mrs. Bridie Corkell
 | url = 
 | work = [[Chicago Tribune]]
 | page = 19
 | date = 1957-08-10
 | accessdate = 
}}</ref> Bridie emmigrated to the U.S. in 1908. Although Tighe claimed that she did not know Mrs. Corkell's maiden name, Bridie's spinster sister Margaret Murphy was living with the Corkells in the 1930 census.<ref name="1930 census"/> Researchers noted that many of the elements Virginia Tighe described in Bridey's life corresponded to ones in her own childhood.<ref>[[Martin Gardner|Gardner, Martin]]. (1957). ''[[Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science]]''. New York: Dover. pp. 315-320. {{ISBN|978-0-486-20394-2}}</ref> Similarly, Tighe had used an Irish brogue in theatrical plays as a teenager.<ref name="randi-1995" /> [[Cryptomnesia]] has been frequently mentioned as an explanation for Tighe's memories.<ref>Neher, Andrew. (2011). ''Paranormal and Transcendental Experience: A Psychological Examination''. Dover Publications. p. 218</ref><ref>Cordon, Luis A. (2005). ''Popular Psychology: An Encyclopedia''. Greenwood Press. pp. 184-185. {{ISBN|0-313-32457-3}}</ref><ref>[[Leonard Zusne|Zusne. Leonard]]; Jones, Warren H. (2014). ''Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking''. Psychology Press. pp. 142-143. {{ISBN|978-0-805-80507-9}}</ref> Because of correlations with Tighe's past life and discrepancies with the Ireland of the Bridey Murphy story's time, writers such as Michael Shermer consider any paranormal interpretation of the case to be "thoroughly disproven".<ref>[[Michael Shermer|Shermer, Michael]]. (2002). ''[[The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience]]''. Volume One. ABC-CLIO. p. 207. {{ISBN|1-57607-653-9}}</ref>

==Film adaptation==
{{main|The Search for Bridey Murphy{{!}}''The Search for Bridey Murphy''}}
''The Search for Bridey Murphy'' was made into a 1956 film of the same name. Produced by [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]], the film starred [[Teresa Wright]] (as Ruth Simmons), [[Louis Hayward]], and [[Nancy Gates]]. It was directed by [[Noel Langley]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Fowler|first1=Christopher|title=Invisible Ink: No 143, Noel Langley|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/invisible-ink-no-143-noel-langley-8190747.html|newspaper=Independent|date=29 September 2012}}</ref>

==Later events==
''The New York Times'', in Bernstein's obituary, characterized the eventual feelings held by supporters of the story:<ref name="NYT Bernstein obit"/>
{{blockquote|Although Bridey believers concede that the various investigations failed to prove that she had lived as she had been described, they also insist that the investigations failed to prove she had not.}}

Virginia Tighe disliked being in the spotlight and was skeptical about reincarnation, although in later years she would add, "The older I get the more I want to believe."<ref>{{cite news | author1 = Katy Howell | title = The Return of Bridey Murphy | url = | work = [[San Francisco Examiner]] | page = 29 | date = 1971-11-30 | access-date = 2024-10-10}}</ref> She died in Denver in 1995 (as ''The New York Times'' later put it, "perhaps for the second time").<ref>F. Morrow, "Homemaker known for reincarnation tale dies," ''Denver Post'', 21 July 1995.</ref><ref name="NYT Bernstein obit">{{cite news
 | authorlink1 = Robert McG. Thomas Jr.
 | author1 = Robert McG. Thomas Jr
 | title = Morey Bernstein, Proponent of Bridey Murphy, Dies at 79
 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/11/nyregion/morey-bernstein-proponent-of-bridey-murphy-dies-at-79.html
 | work = The New York Times
 | date = 1999-04-11
 | accessdate = 2019-07-18
 | quote = 
}}</ref> Bernstein gave up hypnotism after Bridey Murphy and began working in business. Success followed, and he became a prominent local philanthropist. He died in Pueblo, Colorado, in 1999.<ref name="NYT Bernstein obit"/>

== References in popular culture ==
Bridey Murphy, a band consisting of [[Bill Cowsill|Bill]], Paul, and [[Barry Cowsill]], and [[Waddy Wachtel]], released a single in 1974, "The Time Has Come."<ref>[http://bapresley.com/silverthreads/music/bands/brideymurphy.html Bridey Murphy Music]</ref>

In [[Robert Wise]]'s 1963 film ''[[The Haunting (1963 film)|The Haunting]]'', [[Julie Harris]]'s character is jokingly accused of being a reincarnation of Bridey Murphy by Russ Tamblyn's character.

In the [[Carl Barks]]-produced [[Scrooge McDuck]] comic book story "Back to Long Ago!" (1956),<ref>''[[Uncle $crooge]]'' #16, cover date October 1956</ref> Scrooge and [[Donald Duck]] get hypnotized to find out about their past lives, learning of their existence as [[sailor]]s [[Malcolm McDuck]] and [[Duck family (Disney)#Pintail Duck|Pintail Duck]] in a [[frigate]] of the [[English Navy]] in 1564. Scrooge's hired hypnotist, "Prof. Mesmer J. Spellcaster, H. P., D. H.," has a row of books on his office shelf that includes ''Quest for Tidie Brophy'', ''Search for Lydie Burfee'', ''Paging Gracie Macie'', and ''The Search for Murphy's Bridie''.

In the movie ''[[Peggy Sue Got Married]]'', Peggy's grandfather mentions reading a book about a woman in Colorado who claimed to have lived 159 years ago in Ireland.

In the ''[[My Favorite Martian]]'' episode "Extra! Extra! Sensory Perception" ''The Search for Murphy's Bridie'' is mentioned when Mrs Brown is accidentally regressed.

In [[Thomas Pynchon]]’s ''[[V.]]'', a character is mentioned as reading ''The Search for Bridey Murphy'', described as a book written by a Colorado businessman to tell people there was life after death.

In Sidney Sheldon's ''[[Tell Me Your Dreams]]'', Bridey Murphy is referenced after a hypnosis session is carried out on the main character.

==See also==
* ''[[On a Clear Day You Can See Forever]]'', a 1965 Broadway musical with a past-life theme, loosely based on the 1926 play ''[[Berkeley Square (play)|Berkeley Square]]''

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*''[[Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science]]'', by [[Martin Gardner]] (Dover Publications, 1957)
*''A Scientific Report on "The Search for Bridey Murphy"'', edited by Milton V. Kline. (Julian Press, 1956) (OCLC: 543329)
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070322152148/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,862245,00.html "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Bridey"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine, June 11, 1956

==External links==
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmvqrV1Ljm8 ''The Search for Bridey Murphy'' (1956) - Entire movie (with hard subtitles)]. Accessed August 30, 2019.
*[http://skepdic.com/bridey.html Bridey Murphy] in ''[[The Skeptic's Dictionary]]''
*{{IMDb title|qid=Q16926497|title=The Search for Bridey Murphy}}
*{{isfdb title|id=826324|title=The Search for Bridey Murphy}}
*[[Cecil Adams]] on [https://www.straightdope.com/21341697/is-it-possible-to-recall-past-lives-through-hypnosis the Bridey Murphy controversy], including a response by Morey Bernstein
*[[Lalo Guerrero]]'s son sings  [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pYJAnXud8c "Do You Believe (In Reincarnation)"], with an introduction explaining its connection to the Bridey Murphy craze

{{authority control}}

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[[Category:Hypnosis]]
[[Category:Parapsychology]]
[[Category:Popular psychology]]
[[Category:Reincarnation]]
[[Category:Nonexistent people]]
[[Category:Legendary Irish people]]
[[Category:Accidental deaths from falls]]