"Memories" is the forty-first episode and the sixth episode of the third season (1988–89) of the television series ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, su ...

''. In this episode, a specialist in

past life regression Past life regression is a method that uses hypnosis to recover what practitioners believe are memories of past lives or incarnations. The practice is widely considered discredited and unscientific by medical practitioners, and experts generally re ...

enters an alternate reality in which

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is a ...

is real and everyone remembers all their past lives.

Plot

Past life regression therapist Mary McNeal has had great success in using hypnosis to make patients remember past lives, but when she tries to trigger memories of her own past lives, the recordings of her hypnosis technique just bore her to sleep. One day Mary pays a

house call A house call is medical consultation performed by a doctor or other healthcare professionals visiting the home of a patient or client, instead of the patient visiting the doctor's clinic or hospital. In some locations, families used to pay du ...

, but her patient says she already knows about her past lives and dismisses her. Mary finds her office is now an employment counseling center. Accepting that reality is now changed such that she no longer has a job, she agrees to a session with Jim Sinclair, the employment counselor. She has no useful skills in her current life, since in this reality everyone remembers all their past lives, leaving no demand for regression therapists, so Jim asks her for her background from her past lives. She tells him she cannot recall any of them. He does not believe her, so she leaves. Mary finds a woman outside suffering from exposure and offers to get help. The woman refuses and reminds Mary that the law grants people the right to commit

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

so as to move on from a unsatisfactory life to a potentially better one. Mary convinces her that she is needed here and runs to get help, but is abducted by Jim. Jim reveals he is a member of a

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

organization. He and his associate accuse her of pretending not to recall her past lives because she is a reincarnation of a notorious person who could face retribution for crimes in previous lives. They give her truth serum and interrogate her about her past lives, but she insists she does not remember. Convinced she is telling the truth, they ask Mary to help them forget their past lives, to stop trying to avenge injuries or yearn for joys from the past. Mary goes to work with Jim, using hypnosis to make people forget about their past lives.

External links

* {{The Twilight Zone (1985 TV series) episodes 1988 American television episodes The Twilight Zone (1985 TV series season 3) episodes Unemployment in fiction Alternate history television episodes Fiction about memory Television episodes about reincarnation Television episodes about parallel universes fr:Régression de mémoire