In 1952, an amateur hypnotist in Colorado performed a past-life regression with a local named Virginia Tighe. In the first hypnosis session, and for many times after, Virginia spoke in an Irish accent, sang Irish songs and told stories, and identified herself as Bridey Murphy from Cork, Ireland, born in 1798 and dead in 1854. The hypnotist, Morey Bernstein, published the bestseller The Search for Bridey Murphy to tell the tale, renaming Virginia as Ruth Simmons. Tapes of the actual hypnosis sessions were also sold, snapped up in droves.

Support for the story came from the number of obscure details about Ireland that Virginia furnished. But disbelief came from numerous sources and for many reasons. Newspapers traveled to Ireland to investigate — did a Bridey Murphy live in Ireland in the 19th century? No evidence was found. But one domestic paper reportedly found a Bridie Murphey Corkell that lived in the house across the street from Virginia’s childhood home in Wisconsin, indicating the stories told under hypnosis were memories rather than past-life experiences. Additionally, other reviewers noted that the obscure details Virginia provided were probably familiar to any person of Irish descent.

The success of the book made many readers look twice at reincarnation and ideas outside of common religious beliefs of life after death, as well as accepted science. Believers say that this accounts for the vociferous attacks upon the book at the time and after.