Cryptomnesia

In Cryptomnesia, a forgotten memory returns to the subject but he identifies it wrongly as his own,a new and original thought. This happens, because the subject doesn't remember the source of the memory, and thus doesn't recognize it as something from the past.

The word was first used by the psychiatrist Théodore Flournoy, in reference to the case of medium Hélène Smith (alias Catherine-Élise Müller, who claimed to communicate with Martians, and to be a reincarnation of a Hindu princess and Marie Antoinette) to suggest the high incidence in psychism of "latent memories on the part of the medium that come out, sometimes greatly disfigured by a subliminal work of imagination or reasoning, as so often happens in our ordinary dreams."

Psychiatrist Carl C. Jung claims cryptomnesia is not only a normal mental process but a necessary on as well. If it were not for this process the human mind would always be cluttered or overloaded with random information. The mind would literally explode.In his book "Man and his symbols", he says "The ability to reach a rich vein of such material [of the unconscious] and to translate it effectively into philosophy, literature, music or scientific discovery is one of the hallmarks of what is commonly called genius."

The phenomenon isn't uncommon in literary and music circuits; where it is often confused with 'plagiarism' or vice versa. Some examples :

Friedrich Nietzsche's book Thus Spoke Zarathustra includes an almost word for word account of an incident also included in a book published about 1835, half a century before Nietzsche wrote. Later, Nietzsche's sister confirmed that he had indeed read the original account when he was 11 years old.

Readers of Lord Byron's closet drama Manfred noted a strong resemblance to Johann von Goethe's Faustus. Byron was apparently thankful for the compliment; however, he claimed that he had never read Faustus.

Helen Keller seriously compromised her and her teacher's credibility with an incident of cryptomnesia which was misapprehended as plagiarism. The Frost King, which Keller wrote out of buried memories of a fairytale read to her four years previously, left Keller a nervous wreck, and unable to write fiction for the rest of her life.

While researching benzene, the German chemist dreamed of a snake with its tail in its mouth. Kekulé interpreted the snake as a representation of the closed-carbon ring of benzene, but the symbol of the snake with its tail in its mouth is an ancient one known as the 'Ouroboros'. It can be found in Greek manuscripts from as long ago as the third century BC.

And I'm sure there are many more. Most of the reincarnation episodes can be explained through cryptomnesia. Reinforcing my belief that the roots of many unexplained behaviours can be traced back to our subconscious.