Healing Through Prenatal and Perinatal Memory Recall: A Phenomenological Investigation

This qualitative study focuses on the experience of healing through prenatal
and perinatal recall. Interviews were conducted with seven adults who variously attested to having healed
conditions of: syncope, phobias, arthritis, asthma, migraines, depression, suicidality, obsessive-compulsion,
side pain, and dysfunctional interpersonal patterns. Intentions were to: (a) illuminate the experience, (b)
examine the benefits and drawbacks, and (c) underscore the impact of obstetric intervention. Literature Review:
Reviewed literature includes research on transcendent, fetal, cellular, and somatic memory/consciousness
(within a holonomic paradigm), current repression and false memory debates, hypnosis, breathwork,
psychedelic, and primal psychotherapies, somatotropic therapy with infants and children, and obstetric
intervention. Method: Existential-phenomenological research methods were used with Hycner’s (1982) 15-step
analysis for interview data. Two in-depth interviews, a demographics form, and a follow-up question were the
instruments used to access data. Results: Data analysis revealed seven individual, two unique, and two general
themes. The general themes included: “A Range of Intensely Felt, Mostly Negative, Emotional, Physical, or
Feeling States, and Transpersonal Experiences,” which captured the structural underpinnings of the
phenomenon, and were expressed by all seven participants