In 1952, Colorado businessman and amateur hypnotist Morey Bernstein put housewife Virginia Tighe of Pueblo, Colorado, in a trance that sparked off startling revelations about Tighe\\\'s alleged past life as a 19th century Irishwoman and her rebirth in the United States 59 years later. 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, and suddenly was astonished to find he was listening to Bridey Murphy. 
- From Wikipedia.org

~

The Search for Bridey Murphy is a nonfiction account of these hypnotherapy sessions taken largely from Bernstein\\\'s recorded transcripts (note that Virginia Tighe is renamed to Ruth Simmons), and is said to have caused quite a sensation when it was published in 1956. 

A very interesting and readable account, dealing with such subjects as past lives, the afterlife, reincarnation, hypnosis / hypnotherapy, that is well worth a read even you\\\'re skeptical about these subjects.