News, Announcements
and Comments

I just culled through the dead links on this page as of 1/31/12, and it strikes me
that some of the best articles have been pushed so far down that no-one may see them.
I place the more crucial and time-sensitive material at the top, but if you're new here,
my suggestion is to scan down the entire page and see what might jump out at you...

That's me, on a webcam at the beach here in
North Myrtle Beach, a couple of miles north of my home and
about a 15-minutes' drive north of the Meher Spiritual Center.
Click on the image for a larger view. And, welcome!

Pianist Liz Story will be performing along with Lisa Downing and Louis Colaiannia in Sedona, Arizona on February 25, 2012 at 7:00 pm at the Sedona Creative Life Center. I only wish I was close enough to go...it's one of my life ambitions to see Liz Story in concert.
The first chapter of my new, as-yet unpublished manuscript, "Matthew Franklin Whittier in his own words" has been published in the "Controversy Corner" section of the "Mischievous Peeps" website, for followers of Meher Baba. An introduction and brief bio are included. Click on "Chapter 1" in the side navigation bar to read the chapter. See also an announcement flyer for the book (pdf file). I hope to be releasing it as an e-book soon.
I've just finished drafting a second book, this one describing my life with my wife-in-spirit, Abby, today. I've hired an artist to create a few whimsical drawings of me and Abby together, as described in the book. I am doing all of this on a shoestring. If you'd like to donate something to defray the cost of hiring the artist, feel free to drop me a line. It would be very much appreciated.
The link for "In Another Life: Reincarnation in America" in the Spirit Enlightened Film Festival.
A new television show is planned portraying the past lives of famous people, as revealed by Hollywood medical intuitive Linda Freud. It's not clear whether these matches will be verified in any historical sense (as I am doing with "Matthew Franklin Whittier in his own words"). I'm interested to see that it will be shot in 3D (a trend I've been predicting for a long time, which no-one would believe me about). It also strikes me that the healing approach that Ms. Freud is taking is only common sense. It only seems outlandish because of the depths to which science has sunk because of being hijacked by the philosophy of materialism. Some day this will be normal and unremarkable, just like 3D media. Lastly, I am amused by the long diatribe on "forward-looking statements" comprising the second half of this press release. I guess you might as well hire a full-time live-in lawyer these days. I'm going to publish two books if I can afford to, and I've got a pro-bono lawyer helping me. Got a problem with that?
Three college students in different majors (only one of which is relevant to the topic) give the materialistic party line, as though they were thinking for themselves. My documentary, this entire website, and both upcoming books are all intended to poke a hole in this reasoning, which is spurious. So I cannot do it here in an introductory paragraph. There are, perhaps 25 misconceptions in these three short paragraphs, and each could take a chapter to unravel. I'll just take the first one. It is not that one religion shows the true way and the others do not. It is that there is, by definition, a supra-rational Truth that all religions attempt to express by codifying and documenting the life and teachings of the founder, who experienced it directly and taught what little he could of it to different cultures in different ways. The simple-but-elegant Hindu story of the blind men and the elephant effectively answers this first student. Atheism is also a religion, in the sense of it being a belief system, except that there was no-one at the head of it who experienced Truth directly. Abby's comment: "The atheist says, 'I refuse to touch the elephant, and therefore it doesn't exist!'" (See also my Update for August 2, 2006.)
A woman's infant daughter is kidnapped, and for the next 23 years, her true mother keeps her daughter's picture by her bedside. Reunited, they speak every day. See Abby's journal entry for Feb. 10, in which she mentions that the mother-child bond can be like the soul mate bond, overcoming great hardships including physical death.
A five-year-old boy is run over by a truck and gets a sprained ankle, and he attributes the rescue to an angel. The laws of physical cause-and-effect can be superseded by other laws and other forces, and angels may indeed be the agents of intervention. If you don't believe in forces that occasionally overrule the physical laws, I welcome you to try this experiment, yourself. Let me know, and I'll run the video for you.
A new reincarnation proof case: Hans Fickler from Switzerland had a near-death experience after being accidentally overdosed with pain medication for a knew injury. Then he began having past-life dreams, with provable memories. A very strong case (video with English subtitles--click on the "CC" icon).
Abby wants to add this article about the Victoria's Secret model who quit because the kind of modeling she would have to do for them was dishonoring God and her husband, and setting a bad example for girls who look up to her as a role model. As a real Victorian, Abby says that the real Victoria's secret is to be fun, smart, creative, and moral at the same time.
A recent interview with Practical Druidry Radio aired on Pagan Radio Network on Sunday, January 15. My first interview with Pagans--the interviewer was very knowledgeable.
I'm channeling my twin flame, Abby's, photography from the other side, and I've made a separate section on my Flickr.com page for her (look for her "set" on the right). We've also added a section of "collaborations," in which it's more that she prompts me or leads me to the subject, whereupon I shoot it and we do the cropping and other adjustments together; while with her own photographs, I try to follow her inner prompting through the entire process.
Lady Gaga feels that she is the reincarnation of her aunt. If you want to see proven cases of people reincarnating back into their own extended family, read "Return From Heaven" by Carol Bowman (a review is in the Books section of this website). Meanwhile, what interests me here is the reporting. Look at the opening line of the article: "The singer, known for her wacky outfits, feels she has two hearts and her spiritual beliefs have made people think she is crazy." If you read the mention about "two hearts" she is, of course, speaking metaphorically. We shouldn't be too hard on the Times of India--even PBS can't follow the rules of professional journalism when it comes to reincarnation (see below).
Meanwhile, British actor William Roache discusses his spiritual beliefs in an interview, which are quite in-line with what I've studied and what I present on this website. The writer covering the interview, however, uses phrases like "...has revealed a wackier side..." and "In the bizarre interview he claimed...". Personally, what I find "bizarre" is the writer's ignorant skepticism.
In 2002, PBS aired a special about Benjamin Franklin. I watched the introduction, breathless, because I knew Franklin was one of the most prominent figures in American history who believed in reincarnation. I was deeply disappointed, however, when I saw that they misquoted Franklin so as to make it appear he believed in one lifetime only. See the actual historical quote, how PBS misquoted it, and the relevant clip from the show, here.
Speaking of public broadcasting, I happened to catch this interesting announcement recently...
Some things never change... A writer is suing director James Cameron for having stolen his story, "KRZ 2068" and using substantial portions of it in the movie "Avatar." Just so, if my past-life memory and my research is correct, Charles Dickens stole Matthew Franklin Whittier's work to create "A Christmas Carol." The evidence is set out in my as-yet unpublished manuscript, "Matthew Franklin Whittier in his own words." Here's my recent press release.
"A skeptic saying he could believe in reincarnation if he had sufficient proof is like an alcoholic saying he could quit drinking any time he wants."--Stephen Sakellarios
I ran across the term "terminal lucidity" in the comments under one of my video interviews that's gone viral on YouTube. It means that someone who has long been in a state of dementia can suddenly "return" to normal consciousness shortly before death. This puts the lie to the concept that the mind is the brain. It is, however, perfectly in line with the idea that the mind becomes identified in its functioning with the state of the brain, but can, under certain circumstances, free itself. Here's a personal account, and here is the blogger's discussion and links. What's interesting to me is that I've been studying this field for some 13 years, and have never heard of it until now...clearly, evidence that does not fit into the currently accepted paradigm is devalued.
A local article about the Meher Spiritual Center, here in Myrtle Beach, established by my spiritual master, Meher Baba. My own article about Meher Baba, "A Tapestry of Meher Baba's Connections with the West," which has received over 200 hits this month (11/11), is in the Articles section of this website. I began explicitly stating my discipleship on this website years ago not to try to convert anybody, but because I felt that not to reveal all of my primary sources would make it look like I was trying to teach on my own authority, as though I know things beyond my personal experience. I am not typical of Meher Baba's followers in my efforts to educate the public about reincarnation, nor in my claim to have identified an actual past life. Then again, I would be hard-pressed to find a "typical" follower, since they are all such individuals!
This was the final question on Jeopardy, Dec. 1st of last year. A detailed description, with documentation, of how Bobby McFerrin used a quote by Meher Baba for the theme of his hit song, "Don't Worry, Be Happy," is in my article, "A Tapestry of Meher Baba's Connections with the West" on the articles page of this website (it got over 200 hits last month). The article was originally published several years ago on website Omplace.com.
Raymond Moody lectures about "shared death experiences," and without citing any basis for them, suggests two concepts about reincarnation that I feel, from my studies, are misleading. My extended comments--probably the beginnings of an article if I can ever get around to it. These mistakes may continue to work their way into popular acceptance, but at least somebody has to try to say something.
A forum in which couples are continuing their relationship after one of them has passed, as Abby and I are doing.
A scathing review of a theatrical re-make of "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever," which has a reincarnation plot. One wonders whether the reviewer isn't responding emotionally to the idea of reincarnation more than to the production itself. It was easier to be a black woman in the front of the bus in Alabama in the 50's, than to champion the cause of reincarnation, today.
A Christian writer on "Hebrews 9: The Problem with Reincarnation." I would reverse the title: "Reincarnation: the Problem with Hebrews 9." Or how about, "Reincarnation: the Problem with Paul." Paul's writings had no business being included in the Bible as scripture in the first place. As near as I can tell, not being a Biblical scholar, Paul was a Pharisee, and retained many of his beliefs, including resurrection (i.e., for ordinary mortals) from his Pharisee background. So this is not Christianity at all, it is grafted-on teachings from the Pharisees--you know, those traditional guys who opposed Jesus? Maybe they're back again... The rather favorable Wiki article on the Pharisees states the following: "Pharisaic views were non-creedal and non-dogmatic, and heterogeneous. No single tractate of the key Rabbinic texts, the Mishnah and the Talmud, is devoted to theological issues; these texts are concerned primarily with interpretations of Jewish law, and anecdotes about the sages and their values. Only one chapter of the Mishnah deals with theological issues; it asserts that three kinds of people will have no share in "the world to come:" those who deny the resurrection of the dead, those who deny the divinity of the Torah, and Epicureans (who deny divine supervision of human affairs)." Nowhere in the Bible does it say that Paul changed his Pharisee belief in resurrection of the dead after his reputed conversion, which suggests to me that he either claimed an experience he didn't really have (that's right, a scam), or else that the conversion experience didn't change all of his beliefs.
A priest and leading exorcist states his views on yoga and Harry Potter. I think he's not entirely wrong, but it's his polarized state of consciousness I find disturbing--"black and white," in other words. In counseling terms, it's not so much his content, it's his process. Hatha yoga can degenerate into worship of the body. And I've always felt very uncomfortable about Harry Potter, a feeling that only intensified when I finally watched one of the films. They're not about truth, they're about gratuitous occultism, and they're not innocuous by a long shot. Still, I don't condemn all yoga, or Hinduism itself, or all fantasy movies ("Lord of the Rings" by Catholic author J.R.R. Tolkien is deeply spiritual), or all metaphysical studies (obviously). A man came riding his bicycle through a checkpoint every day carrying a large bag of sand over one shoulder. The guards had a feeling he was smuggling something, but as closely as they examined that bag, they never could find anything. Finally it turned out he was smuggling bicycles... So don't get sucked into such people's black-and-white paradigm, arguing their stated views from within their paradigm. If there is a Satan, he works by encouraging polarized thinking. Yogi Baba Hari Dass told the following story: A group of men were walking through the woods, when they heard someone cry out, "Watch out for the trap, don't get caught in the trap!" But when they got close enough to see, it turned out to be a parrot caught in a trap.
I've found an anti-slavery sermon delivered by Congregationalist minister David Root, of Dover, New Hampshire, in nearby Haverhill, Massachusetts on August 2, 1836, to the Anti-Slavery Society. Matthew Franklin Whittier, an abolitionist, and his first wife, Abby Poyen, were married two days later by another Congregationalist minister in Haverhill, Massachusetts on August 4, 1836. Very likely they attended this sermon. Look at the logic--it reminds me vividly of the current arguments against materialism. Matthew's brother (now famous), John Greenleaf Whittier, was secretary of the Society and was the one who wrote, requesting that Root publish the sermon. Keep in mind that this sermon, which sounds like much ado about the obvious now, would have been considered radical at the time. I have expressed the opinion several times on this website that thinking men and women of the 19th century were battling societal ignorance on two fronts--slavery, and materialism. They won the first fight, and have reincarnated to continue the second.
On the other hand, Matthew Franklin Whittier, in the mid-1800's, was mischievously pushing the envelope with his character, "Ethan Spike's" malapropisms, as when Spike referred to the stars as the "heavingly bodies." That was all for adults, however. I think he would have sympathized with parents' concerns about Ben & Jerry's new ice cream flavor, "Schweddy Balls"... When I was in sixth grade, a very popular joke was going around among the boys with a punch line that you got the hapless listener to say, "rubber balls." Suddenly the joke disappeared and was never referred to again...
An interview with author Jewelle St. James, about her forthcoming book, "The Lennon-Bronte Connection." I've read "All You Need in Love," and found it highly credible despite the seemingly incredible claim of a past-life connection with John Lennon. I've recently read the book and there's a review now in the Recommended Books section of this website.
I was recently a guest on Spectrum Radio Network, and the interview is now archived on their website.

I rarely promote any commercial products on this website, but my friend Jay Mohler makes these magnificent yarn mandalas he calls "ojos de Dios," or "eyes of God," and I'd like to perhaps generate a couple of sales for him. He also sells kits to make them if you're handy with such things. I understand from Jay that they're catching on in Russia, Brazil and India. If anybody mentions my website I think he'll treat me to Mexican lunch, so be sure and tell him!
I'm talking to crows now...
I was recently interviewed about my new book (see below) on Common Threads by Fred Stella, President of The Interfaith Dialogue Association. Common Threads airs on WGVU-FM, an NPR affiliate at Grand Valley State University. You can listen to the interview on the radio interviews archive page of this website.
As of July 27th, I just completed an on-site audio interview with a fellow who appears to have a very strong reincarnation case. He had quite a number of flashbacks as a child, the obscure and very specific details of which correspond to actual events recorded in the history of L.W.R. Blair, a plantation owner and politician in Camden, South Carolina, who, partly due to his correspondence with Theodore Parker, a Unitarian minister, Transcendentalist and abolitionist in Boston, pressed for legislation to help blacks after the Civl War and was killed by one of his political adversaries. Incidentally, on this trip, at the Camden historical archives, I found this much of a historical connection between Blair and Matthew Franklin Whittier (my own past-life personality who also lived in Boston and was also an abolitionist): Matthew's daughter, Lizzie Pickard, taught one of Blair's former slaves, Neil Blair, in 1867 in Camden. I am withholding this man's identity for the present, but I have posted the interview on the "Interviews" section of this website. Barring fraud, which I think is very unlikely in this case, this fellow has even stronger evidence for his past-life match than I do. He's writing a book also, and I'll probably be recommending it if he succeeds in publishing it. I have absolutely no interest in competition--I am just trying to get the best information out there.
Recently released from Lewellyn book publishers, "True Police Stories of the Strange & Unexplained" by Ingrid P. Dean. I read the earlier, self-published version which was called "Spirit of the Badge." When the very people who uphold what is real, legitimate and lawful in our society are having intuitive and paranormal experiences, but society as a whole acts like such experiences are aberrations, something very strange is going on! This readable book of personal accounts has a much more sophisticated thematic basis than it appears. I highly recommend it.
Liz Story's new and improved website is back online. Her music draws upon higher realms of existence, but she never breathes a word about it. Like love, the less said about it, the better; and as Jesus remarked, "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."
A photograph from ca. 1870 has surfaced that looks a lot like actor Nicholas Cage. We don't know anything about the man, himself. It could be reincarnation, but people have seen thousands of 19th century photographs before one matched Cage, so it could just be a selection effect (i.e., everybody knows what Cage looks like, and if enough people keep looking at enough old photos long enough, someone's bound to find a look-alike). See one of my recent Updates, where I explain why this selection effect does not apply to my proposed reincarnation match with Matthew Franklin Whittier (nobody knows what I look like and nobody was looking). Still, I will say that the personality coming through the photo matches Cage, not just his physical features. Too bad we don't know more about him, and too bad we can't match that up with any dreams or past-life flashbacks that Cage may have had, and documented, previously.
New developments... Another, similar look-alike photo match for John Travolta was also posted on e-bay--but ebay has removed both listings! What's interesting to me are the reactions. Do you think the photos were really removed because of "branding" issues? Do you have any idea how strong the prejudice against reincarnation is? By the way, Scientology did not invent reincarnation. I'm not an expert on Scientology but it strikes me as a rather dangerous cult that has borrowed some genuine teachings and used them in its own ways. So equating reincarnation with Scientology is yet another subtle way of smearing reincarnation (see the articles in this page where murderers who believe in reincarnation are reported on as though nobody else believes in it).
Actress Stephanie Beacham releases a new book entitled "Many Lives" describing her past-life memories. The article, however, has to describe her Hollywood travails in great detail before finally getting to the reincarnation part at the very end of the article, while the book itself is mentioned only in the blurb at the bottom. Just scroll down and start there first, unless you are more interested in Hollywood and Playboy.
Charla Nash reveals her new face. Think...if you are not your face, then who are you? Your brain? Who was Pam Reynolds during her brain operation, then?
A scholarly and yet entertaining article on reincarnation in Judaism, by Rabbi Zoë Klein.
Pop singer Miley Cyrus expresses belief in reincarnation. Meanwhile, in a masterpiece of tact, the Hindu's invite her to look deeper into it. Miley's pop version (i.e., coming back as a form of marine life) isn't accurate, but it is a sign of how reincarnation awareness is moving into the mainstream. Remember, "where there's smoke, there's fire."
An upcoming film about reincarnation, from an Indian actor-turned-filmmaker, will be aimed at a world-wide market.
Louis Hart sounds a note of caution about seeking to remember past lives. Although his warning may be on the extreme side, I've been suggesting that casual exploration is not without risk for some years now, as a more-or-less lone voice. I've never heard of the "string of lives" phenomenon he speaks of--if it occurs it's quite rare. To comment on a couple issues he brings up in passing: most people re-experience ordinary (i.e. non-famous) past lives, running the entire gamut of pleasant to unpleasant. But actually, there are so many different ways to be "famous" that everybody can get--and probably has gotten--their "15 minutes of fame" in one lifetime or another. It just takes a few lifetimes of concentrated effort in a particular field to achieve it. Secondly, everyone has passed through the process of evolution, but after achieving the human form, people do not reincarnate backwards into animal bodies.
Michael Tymn writes in his blog on "The Enigma of Reincarnation," addressing the seeming contradiction that, on the one hand, we have objective proof of reincarnation, and on the other, we have various (but, I would add, by no means all) channelled spirit entities refuting it. I am adding my comments separately.
A Greek colleague, Athanasios N. Komianos, has recently released a new book entitled "Rapid Entity Attachment Release," and asked me to comment on it. Because of the stultifying influence of materialism, modern science has thrown the baby out with the bath water where the debilitating effects of spirit attachment are concerned. I have read some commentators who claim that as much as 3/4 of the population of a typical mental hospital could be discharged if spirit attachment problems were addressed. Komianos presents a method of using low-impact electronics as a practical method--having only read the online sample, and not having any expertise in this area, I can't comment on its potential. I told the author I only had to make two brief caveats. First, barbaric traditional methods of spirit releasement from various cultures are mentioned, without, I felt, sufficient outrage expressed, and without making it clear that these are aberrations of occult understanding, not valid expressions of it. Secondly, I felt that the book paints all relationships with disincarnate persons in a negative light. Any relationship with a spirit is defined as "spirit attachment," whereas it is not so in my experience. The author readily conceded both points, but said he felt he didn't want to offend traditional practitioners by criticizing their methods, and he simply had not taken the second point into consideration, being turned off by new age channeling claims. With these caveats, which I hope will be addressed in subsequent issues, I applaud the book as a significant contribution to a very important topic.
CBS News "Sunday Morning's" May 15th episode included a story on reincarnation. A poll was cited in which one in ten respondents said they had had a past-life memory. There's some question about how precise the wording was in this poll ("Do you think you lived in a past life?" vs. "Do you remember living in a past life?")--I'm trying to follow up on it. A couple brief comments on this clip. First, of all the interviews they must have shot at this conference--and as a video producer, I know they shoot way more than they use--they only used the ones in which the person remembers something famous and implausible. This is deliberately skewed reporting. Secondly, Mr. Shermer's objection was also my objection when I was an atheist as a young man. There's a simple answer--the mind conforms to the state of the brain so long as it is functioning within the parameters of the brain. This is precisely why hypnosis causes past-life memories to slip through, because it loosens the mind's dependence on the brain. In short, the mind "plays by the rules" while it is functioning through the brain. I also disagree with both Shermer and Dr. Tucker about proof. First, define "proof." You cannot directly see your rear end contacting the seat of your chair (unless you have a glass chair and you are a contortionist)--but you know you are, in fact, seated on the chair. You can prove it, right? You can sit on a glass chair and photograph it--you can get a reliable witness to confirm it. You can feel it. You can clearly extrapolate it from what you can see. Well, there is presently as much proof for reincarnation as you could obtain that you are seated on your chair. I am not exaggerating--to the contrary, anyone not reporting this is deliberately watering down the evidence (the way the CBS editor decided to use three implausible interviews out of perhaps dozens--never underestimate the power of an editor). Look into the evidence for reincarnation personally--don't accept any second-hand reports, study the cases themselves.
This article suggests that Polynesians (in this case, the Maori's) had, in addition to their popular religion, an esoteric tradition in line with the Perennial Philosophy, which was kept secret until conversion pressure from missionaries forced it into the mainstream. If I understand correctly, my astral partner Abby had a lifetime in a Polynesian culture, where I met her as a European sailor. It was Abby who taught me metaphysics when we next met in New England.
Another article describing the cultural clash going on right now between two world views, materialism and dualism (i.e., that mind and body are two different, interacting elements). Stephen Hawking has emerged as the new public spokesperson for scientific materialism. It goes to show you that intellectual brilliance is no match for ignorant, unexamined assumptions. I have little to add except to note that the dialogue itself is exciting--though this battle has been going on for at least 150 years now. Materialism won by dazzling society with technological achievements; but it is about to be overthrown entirely. There isn't "room in this town for the both of them," as they used to say in the old Westerns. Either man is a soulless biocomputer, or he is a "spiritual being having a physical experience." I would only comment on the one quote, "The skeptical part of me about the past life thing is that, just statistically, the odds are that in my past life, I was a Chinese peasant, right?" said Prothero. "But hardly anybody ever is a Chinese peasant. You know, everybody is Cleopatra or Mark Antony or Jesus, you know?" This concept is an old saw that reincarnation opponents keep dragging out of the closet. There is no statistical basis for it whatsoever, it's just a myth. It was promulgated at a time when not many people had undergone hypnotic regression therapy, and only the most sensationalized claims came to the public's attention as a curiosity (in short, it was an impression created by reporting). Now, we have thousands of transcripts, and even a cursory perusal of them will immediately show you that people are remembering being peasants, street waifs, ordinary farmers, etc., representing the entire range of human experience. What's interesting to me is that people who should know better, including professors like Dr. Prothero, keep hauling out these unsubstantiated myths as "logic" while claiming the high ground of objectivity. Professor Prothero, read "Other Lives, Other Selves" by Roger Woolger, and then please publicly recant your statement--thanks!
A British man convicted of one murder and charged with several others, who has mental difficulties resulting from a stroke, told a medical expert he was the reincarnation of a man who was born in 1852. This is sort of like saying that a prostitute admitted she has a vibrator. The question is, why report only the prostitute, and not the 50 million other women who also have vibrators? The U.S. population as of this writing is 311,710,828. If the recent CBS News "Sunday Morning" poll, cited above, indeed found that 1 in 10 people reported having had a past-life memory, that means close to 32 million Americans have had a past-life memory. Of those 32 million, I would guess thousands have a specific enough memory to pin down their birth date. Why report only the guy accused of murder? (It's obvious why.) This is kind of a strange case, anyway--did they have any evidence other than the confessions of a mentally-confused person who wants to be in jail so he can be looked-after? Perhaps his admission to the doctor about reincarnation proved, on the face of it, that he was nuts and likely to murder somebody. Maybe he did it--I'm just saying, I don't see any mention of evidence. I believe in reincarnation, and unlike the skeptics, who stick to their dogmatic views come hell or high water, I like to see evidence and some rational reason to believe something. Personally, I'd guess more than one in ten Americans have had a past-life memory, but one in ten might recognize it as such.
On the other hand, here we have a murderer who (legal protocol notwithstanding) is clearly guilty, who "hears voices." Although there are perfectly healthy psychics who hear the voices of people in the astral world, hearing voices may also be a sign of spirit attachment. An earthbound spirit can influence such a susceptible person to commit acts he might never have committed in his right mind. See my reference to Mr. Komianos' book, above. Paranormal experience is not necessarily hallucination. If it is genuine, it may or may not indicate a pathological psychological condition. When someone drives fast ignoring traffic rules, they may be drunk, they may be reckless, or they may be rushing someone to the hospital. You don't know which it is until you look at each case more closely.
While we are on the subject of murders, believe it or not, I didn't follow the Casey Anthony case. I just now read up on it after the fact, and my impression is that she was so extremely narcissistic that when her boyfriend didn't want her if she came with "baggage," she killed her daughter. What I'm going to say now is just speculation--but what occurs to me is that when a child is killed, the parents get the exact emotional inverse of what this woman experienced, which is the only way to balance out the karma. So even as this woman now wants to get rid of her daughter as an impediment to her personal happiness, the next time it comes around, she will intensely not want it. My younger son was murdered by a babysitter at age 7 months in 1983, so if you are asking "how does he dare speculate such things?" that is how I dare. Karma is a very complicated subject, which I don't pretend to understand fully--but this is sort of an educated guess based on what I've studied. When a terrible karma comes back around, as unbelievable as it may seem, last time you wanted it that way--your intensely not wanting it the second time is the only way the impression can be nullified.
Sheikh Saoud bin al-Thani is convinced that he has identified a past life as the late Maharaja Yeshwant Rao Holkar II, who passed in 1961, and he is avidly collecting items from his previous lifetime. I have copies of letters and stories written by myself in the 1800's, but nothing that belonged to him personally--I can understand the appeal. Just to hold a pipe or pen of his would be fascinating....
The extreme end of the cynical viewpoint, which just sort of lumps reincarnation in with everything else as an absurd belief on the face of it. Truth reflects through each viewpoint in various degrees, and that includes the skeptical viewpoint. But hate can never perceive Truth. Skepticism with love leads to knowledge; skepticism with hate leads to ignorance, though it may have the superficial appearance of knowledge. How do you learn that lesson? By reincarnating. People like this throw the baby out with the bath water. Hatefully laugh at someone with them, and you guarantee the experience of being hatefully laughed at, yourself, in some lifetime or other. Meanwhile, to me, this fellow appears absurdly ignorant. I could turn the same hateful humor on him easily enough; but I'm trying to quit.
China bans movies about time travel; and the article mentions that reincarnation movies are already banned there. Presumably, the documentary this website supports, "In Another Life," is banned as well. They are quite correct--several time-travel movies (not the ones mentioned in the article) are metaphors for reincarnation. I would say that China is trying to suppress reincarnation for the same political reasons that Emperor Justinian prevailed on the Christian Church to ban it in 553 AD via the 5th Council (against the protests of the Pope). In the world view that a proper understanding of reincarnation ushers in, morality, and hence behavior, is individualized and not so amenable to state control.
Actress Shirley Maclaine talks with Oprah Winfrey about her sex life, reincarnation, and other topics. For the record, not all people who believe in reincarnation also believe in "open marriage" (I would guess by far most do not). I, for one, am strictly monogamous, and despite having been a young man during the hippie era, never agreed with the "sexual revolution" idealogy and never participated in it--I was too busy looking, consciously or unconsciously, for my soul mate from past lives. This admittedly had its own problems because I was projecting that feeling onto the wrong women, until I finally found her. But I never cheated on the persons I had projected that feeling on. For my interview on Shirley Maclaine's internet radio station, see the "Radio Interviews" section of this website.
A physics prodigy questions Einstein's theories. There is no "free lunch" for talents in the economy of the universe. Children with special talents worked hard to get them in previous lifetimes. Note that guitarist Eric Johnson, mentioned above, was also a child prodigy.
Speaking of Einstein, a lot of people are struggling with unemployment these days, so I'm bringing back the skit I did 20 years ago when I learned video production at a community access TV station. Don't feel bad--even Einstein is having trouble getting a job. That's me 20 years ago with the origami crane...
A brief explanation of how reincarnation was removed from Christianity, referring to the Fifth Council in 553 AD (the one in which the doctrine of the "pre-existence of the soul" was declared anathema, pushed through by Emperor Justinian in a meeting that was boycotted by the Pope). See also a more detailed discussion. And, note the scripture reference in the first article--I had never picked up on the fact that you can't have many mothers in this world unless you reincarnate. Oops--major censor clerical error!!
I might as well assert it as a done deal--I'm the reincarnation of Matthew Franklin Whittier, poet John Greenleaf Whittier's bad-boy younger brother. Or so the history describes him. John Greenleaf became famous by writing popular pieces like "Snowbound". I've uncovered a very interesting history behind that poem, in which JGW put a nice rosy cast on his childhood. You can get a sense of what it was really like by reading between the lines. I happened upon one stanza which gives you some idea--and I've taken the liberty of re-writing it as Matthew might have done. FYI, JGW is known to have similarly "embellished" a number of his historical subjects, so it should come as no surprise that he did so in describing his own childhood. Unfortunate that he chose to do so for his niece (Matthew's daughter Lizzie), contradicting what Matthew had undoubtedly told her and thus making him look bad in her eyes. And, ironic that these fairy stories later became "Snowbound", which launched his public success. No wonder we see in the history that Matthew refused to allow "Snowbound" to be dedicated to him.
Matthew would have loved this...finally, the question of "free will" has been solved, as a philosopher from ancient Greece, Phistophicles, returns to share his pearls of wisdom on this and other topics of perennial interest. Warning--some of Phistophicles' humor is on the blue side.
"The supreme irony of materialism is that the materialist accepts as real and substantial only that evidence which comes from his physical senses, while everything else is considered unreal--and what does he use to come to that conclusion? His mind, which is beyond his physical senses."--Stephen Sakellarios You may think it egotistical of me to quote myself on my own website, and you may be right ;-).
This article about a sculptor whose work was rejected by the Royal Academy--sort of--and yet also accepted--sort of--is for all the station managers, film distributors, and festival judges who saw nothing particularly noteworthy in "In Another Life". Perhaps they just thought it was mediocre...
ABC's "20/20" reports on people being contacted from the other side, by their family members who died in the 9/11 attack (video). Although much is made of the little girl being told "knock-knock jokes," note the other part of her testimony--that she gave the names of her father's friends from work, and picked them out by name in photographs, having no normal way of knowing that information. In short, unlike other channels, ABC's programming is not withholding evidentials in their reporting, which means they are allowing reporters to show the full strength of some of these cases (despite the fact that they do interview the obligatory skeptical scientist). This is a huge step forward from traditional media treatment of paranormal phenomena. It was also ABC's Primetime which broke the Leininger case--someone in ABC's top management is clearly paranormal-friendly, perhaps because he or she has had some personal experience. See also this article about children who see spirits, as well as my Update for 6/5/10.
A skeptical article reports on the 1956 "Bridey Murphy" case, claiming it was debunked. The article is extremely biased, and its conclusion is a flat-out lie, i.e., that Morey Bertstein ever admitted he had "suggested it all" to Virginia Teague. According to William J. Barker, who writes in the 1989 edition of "The Search for Bridey Murphy," there was, in fact, a place called "The Meadows" outside the town and the village of Cork. Bridey didn't say the house was called "The Meadows"--she said the address was "The Meadows". An 1801 map shows a suburban portion of the city formally called "Mardike Meadows," which Barker describes as being "a thousand yards wide, and 400 yards north to south between two arms of the River Lee." (pp 247-248). She did pronounce the word "Sean" correctly (p. 234), and many other historical words and phrases besides. Interestingly, one of the reporters who attempted to discredit the Bridey Murphy story recently passed on. This article says that "a woman named Bridey Murphy had lived in Chicago, across the street from Tighe when she was a child." According to Barker, however, the woman who lived across the street was named Mrs. Anthony Bridie Murphy Corkell. Virginia Teague's response was: "There was a woman named Corkell who lived across from us at one point, but I don't remember ever having heard her first or maiden name. ...Mrs. Corkell had several children whom we knew, but I have no recollection of ever having talked with Mrs. Corkell." In short, it was the supposed "debunking" of the Bridey Murphy case which was the scam, not the case itself, and it was conducted in the same way that Benjamin Franklin's words were twisted backwards in the PBS special, above. There was a website, under construction after several years, which was designed to provide an in-depth, unbiased look at the Bridey Murphy case, but as of 5/11 it has gone off-line. The Wiki article for Bridey Murphy cites the same skeptical views as the above; but someone is trying to counter it as of 5/4/11. Perhaps the "pro" comments will be edited out (I am realizing just how political Wikipedia is. Whoever becomes the page editor controls the topic and pushes his or her agenda). Here is an obituary for the subject, Virginia Teague, which is less cynical in tone and which references (without citations) Barker's commentary.
In 1956, Meher Baba gave a rare press conference in NY at the Delmonico Hotel. One of the questions put to him by reporters concerned reincarnation, and specifically, the Bridey Murphy story. Baba, who was silent, communicated through hand gestures, which were interpreted by his assistant Eruch Jessawala with help from his secretary, Adi K. Irani. He suggested that the reporters read his book, "God Speaks," which can now be read online. Here is the actual audio clip of this portion of the press conference (used by permission). For more information on Meher Baba, see my article in the Articles section of this website.
Physicist Stephen Hawking concludes that gravity, not God, created the universe. If you want to see what really happened, once again, the answer is in "God Speaks" (above).
The musical Cats, based on a work by T.S. Eliot, incorporates a reincarnation theme. From Wikipedia, we read about Eliot: "From 1911-1914, he was back at Harvard studying Indian philosophy and Sanskrit." This is how reincarnation information seeps into the popular culture indirectly, in forms that are palatable. See a rare video clip of Jane Brown, a disciple of Meher Baba, singing "Memory" from the musical, performing with her late husband Bob Brown (used by permission of the artist).
If this article isn't exaggerating, the Chinese government has banned Tibetan monks from reincarnating without permission. See also the article below, in which the Catholic Church is considering retroactively rescuing unbaptized babies from limbo.
Catholic theologians consider getting rid of the concept of "limbo." This is the mess that resulted from the political intrigue that made Origen's teachings about the pre-existence of the soul anathema in 553 AD, at the urging of then-emperor Justinian, against the protests of then-pope Vigilius, resulting in reincarnation being banned as a heresy. I am having trouble commenting on this without being disparaging. These people have used the beauty of Jesus's teachings to convince grieving parents for hundreds of years that their unbaptized babies are hanging for eternity in some blah existence, and now a group of theologians are going to change the policy--and presto-chango, all the babies from now on (and all the babies of hundreds of years in the past, if the policy is made retroactive, I suppose) will graduate into heaven. Is this fair? Do the theologians imagine they have this kind of power? Isn't anybody questioning this nonsense? Would a loving, all-powerful God allow these theologians to decide such a thing--not only for Catholics, but for everybody else? Or, if the Catholic church made a mistake and they are admitting it, what happened to the dogma that the Catholic church is infallible? If it is fallible, could it also have been wrong about reincarnation? Wouldn't anybody like to know what really happens? Does anybody doubt the kind of suffering that clinging to mistaken dogma can cause? So the result is that people lose yet more respect for the teachings of Jesus, associating this stuff with him, when he actually taught with an understanding of reincarnation.
A blog post by Rabbi Adam Jacobs discussing commonalities in Judaic and Eastern teachings on reincarnation, and speculating on a common origin. Of course, if something truly exists, it could be discovered and taught by both cultures independent of any historical link--one doesn't have to posit historical transmission of ideas the way that materialistic, reductionistic historians always attempt to do. But both independent discovery and historical transmission could have occurred simultaneously.
Speculation about Michael Jackson having been the reincarnation of Mozart. I'd consider it possible for reasons that no-one else mentions--that both of them seemed extremely talented, but superficial. Jackson's music has always struck me as intense without significance; Mozart's has always struck me as extremely clever without depth for the most part. Both of them, I would interpret, were basically "pop stars" who became famous because they appealed to the masses. This might also explain Jackson's plastic surgeries--he may have been trying to revert to his physical appearance in an earlier incarnation (consciously or unconsciously). Without proof, however, it remains speculation. For example, one would want to see documentation from Jackson as a child, remembering details of Mozart's life that were not revealed publicly until much later. So past-life matches based on pattern, talent and appearance similarities should be just the starting point for research, and should not be considered conclusive in themselves. Likewise for results from psychic readings.
About four years ago I ran a warning on this page about the dangers of cell phone use. What clued me in was, while e-mail marketing my rapidly failing business to individual attorneys in large law firms, early in 2007, I noticed that some of them listed, as one of their 2-3 areas of specialty, "cell phones." At the time, I mistakenly assumed they were defending brain cancer victims, and concluded this was proof that cell phones cause brain cancer. Here's Alston & Bird's page today, which includes their litigation services on brain cancer caused by cell phones--I think that was the firm whose website I visited in 2007, but they no-longer list it as a specialty for each individual attorney. Turns out Alston & Bird have a thriving business defending the cell phone companies--so, in a sense, I stand corrected--but in a round-about sense, not. Why? Because they couldn't have so much business if there wasn't some truth to it. (Note that their "victory" consisted of suppressing no less than six expert witnesses--I'm not spelling out what this scenario means in human terms, I think you can extrapolate it for yourself.) Now, the warning has finally hit Yahoo.com. Keep your cell phone use to a minimum--don't use wireless phones, or WiFi. Try not to live too close to a cell phone tower. Don't use your laptop on your lap. I'm always ahead of my time and people don't take me seriously until later on, but you may want to take me seriously about this one right now and find out it's for real, later.
Just to put a bit of historical perspective on the article above, check out this old cigarette commercial--"you'll feel better" (or maybe not).
U2 lead singer Bono is compared with Beethoven. I had read someone making this comparison in reincarnationist circles some time ago, but hadn't followed up on it because I wasn't very familiar with U2's music. Awhile back, however, I watched a 3D IMAX movie of U2 in concert (see excerpts). Very powerful, and it reminded me of the proposed reincarnation match, so with the memory of Bono's personality fresh in my mind, I compared photos. It looks to me as good a match as the ones I've studied which have historical verification, which, of course, we don't have here. It struck me that the musical phrasing on a couple of U2's songs is, indeed, reminiscent of what I remember from Beethoven's Ninth, and it has a very similar energy embedded in it. And I can well-believe that Bono and Beethoven had a similar force of personality (based on seeing Bono perform from about three feet away for an hour and a half in 3D--this guy is sincere and he's giving 150%). So I think it's a possible match from everything I've studied. (See also my speculation for a past-life match for Georg Frederic Handel if you haven't read it already.)
Okay, let's try a little experiment here. Launch the "excerpts" link above. Watch the clip through the first and second samples. When you get to the third sample clip in the edited piece, "Where the Streets Have No Name," whistle the theme from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony--you know the hymn, "Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee"--along with it. Works for me. Okay, Bono could have been influenced by Beethoven--but put the musical similarity, the vibes or spiritual power, the similar visage, the talent and the personality all together...
As a follow-up to the above item, I rented the Rosebowl "360 degrees" concert. When I had first watched it live on YouTube, I could have sworn U2 played a kind of cartoonish version of Beethoven's Ninth just before going into "Amazing Grace," which then led into "Where the Streets Have No Name" (the tune I reference above). But none of the YouTube concert clips had it. In the concert video, however, it's right at the opening of the concert! Why it's there, I can't say, but at least I know for sure I wasn't imagining it. Is it a satircal rebuttal? Coincidence? A serious tip-of-the hat (as in, "Look at us now!")? Anyway, you be the judge. My personal take on it is that this is precisely the hubris Beethoven would have reacted with. Note that denial of a reincarnation match, in the style of the previous personality, may be an indicator in its own right (see also below). (See also this very interesting excerpt from an Edgar Cayce reading.) Excerpt presented for educational/illustrative purposes under "fair use".
Comedienne Joy Behar has a past-life regression with Dr. Brian Weiss on "The View". She reports experiencing a past life in the court of Louis XIV as an observer of some kind, but remains unconvinced and sarcastic about it. Quite consistent for someone connected with the 17th Century French court. In reincarnation, you find, if you study it, that there is no free lunch. Every habit, every tendency, has a past-life history and came from somewhere. In short, it's hardly proof but it would certainly make sense. As to which came first, the chicken or the egg (i.e., did she create a symbolic past that fit with her personality, or did she remember an actual past that has shaped her personality), for that you have to study cases that have clear proof in the form of historical validation, and there are quite a few of those.
This admiring girlfriend doesn't believe in reincarnation, but if she did... What she's really trying to say is "I remember it emotionally and intuitively, but not intellectually, and besides society tells me it isn't real." Emotional past-life memory seems to be more easily accessed than cognitive memory in the normal waking state of consciousness.
The things I run across by Googling keyword "reincarnation" under the "news" category...this is the fundamentalist rap. In order to separate out the truth from the ignorant slogans, I'd have to dissect it piece by piece, which I'm not going to do (though it could be fun, in a tedious way...I also like to restore photographs). Let's just take the worst part: "God's spirit says so many people have died and are dying and going to that place called Hell simply because they didn't know my Son (Jesus) was and is the only way to Heaven." If God would send you to eternal torment just for not believing that His son was the only way to heaven, I don't want any part of that God--and this is precisely how many caring, thinking people who have turned away from organized religion feel. And they are right. The people who reject that "god" are the real Christians. Suppose that someone tells your family that your father is an ax murderer. You don't believe it; your brother does. When it is proven to be nonsense, who is going to feel sheepish? If he has a tenedency to grind, he may even need some dental work...
A man who is convinced he was Paul from the New Testament disagrees with Biblical scholars about reincarnation in the Bible. Long story short, I don't think this fellow was Paul; I don't think Paul taught reincarnation; but reincarnation is definitely referenced in several places in the New Testament. Anyone who denies it is deliberately turning a blind eye to the evidence, whatever their credentials (see John 9:1--no pun intended). What I want to point out about this article is the quote that neither secular nor Christian scholars agree that "... the Bible used to support reincarnation." A Biblical scholar, first of all, knows that there is no such coherent, single entity as "the Bible" to "support" or "not support" anything. No self-respecting scholar would ever phrase it this way in the first place. I would say that some of people who were included in the final compilation called the Bible, like Paul, who was a Pharisee, preached resurrection rather than reincarnation; but that while Jesus taught in parables to the masses, within His inner circle of disciples (which Paul was never part of) reincarnation was taken for granted. Note that in Acts 23:6, we see that Paul still strongly identifies himself as a Pharisee even long after his reputed conversion, and he aligns himself, before the council, with the doctrine of resurrection because he is a Pharisee, i.e., not because Jesus taught it. This Pharisee belief in the "resurrection" is inherently at odds with reincarnation--so what we are really seeing now is not Christian belief against reincarnation, but handed-down Pharisee belief against reincarnation, transmitted through Paul. That tells me that Paul's conversion was either entirely fabricated (because, normally, one would have expected him to entirely abandon his Pharisee beliefs at the same time as the conversion in favor of Jesus' teachings), or if it was sincere, it still didn't change all of his Pharisee beliefs. If his conversion was what it is cracked up to be, one would not expect him to be proudly aligning himself with his Pharisee origins, defending their beliefs, in his time of public trial, but rather, one would have expected some mention of Jesus and His teachings instead. If Paul had really been an apostle, one would have expected he would have been privvy to the inner-circle teachings, and if he didn't espouse them publicly, one would at least expect him not to align himself publicly with something that negates them. On the home page of this website, you will find a quote from the Gospel of Thomas in which Jesus speaks of reincarnation in parables.
You can't take it with you--at least, not if the financial authorities have anything to say about it. They are shutting down the "Reincarnation Bank," but add that no-one has stepped forward to claim they've lost money in it. Does that prove that it works? ;-)
A film about the afterlife and reincarnation called "Nosso Lar" is doing very well at the box office in Brazil.
While we are on the subject of skeptics (read, cynics), check out this article reacting to a report about the Leininger case, and be sure to read the reader comments. The Leininger case is one of several which contain strong elements of proof (for one I found, see the Angela Grubbs case in the Interviews section of this website). If, however, one gives a watered-down, partial presentation of the proof, one can then easily shoot it down. Once the watered-down, under-reported version is presented as though it were the actual case, then one can heap ridicule on it and give the appearance of wisdom. If you take 15 or 20 people doing this in a row, you also have the appearance of social validation reinforcing the cynical conclusion. It is not so simple, however. Study the Leininger case carefully. Have the courage to study it with a truly open mind. Tick off the evidence, memories the child had which he had no normal way of knowing, which later checked out historically. Factor in his emotional state. Study the principles of past-life memory, so you are knowledgeable about the subject rather than passing judgment from a state of ignorance. Then study the other cases like it, and let them all sit in a row in their full, native strength. If you have the sincere interest to put this kind of time into it, and the courage to be loyal to the truth however it falls out, you will stand against a room full of cynics and say, "This is real."
A writer for Psychology Today blogs about Dr. Ian Stevenson's work in a respectful tone, but still concludes his studies were not fully scientific (as though "Psychology Today" was known for being fully scientific). I think he's wrong, and here's my commentary as to why I think so.
These people are experiencing what look like dreams of past lives as the opposite sex, but are interpreting them as anything and everything but. See R.D. Laing's concept of "mystification", in which children are taught they are not experiencing what they are experiencing. Society teaches us that reincarnation is impossible, so when we experience it, we must interpret it some other way.
Child prodigies are one type of evidence for reincarnation. There is no free lunch, and no, it's not reducible to "genes." It's very simple--prodigies come in with the talent, which they got the hard way in past lives, and then they build on it. If you really want proof of reincarnation, and you're not being stubborn about it, this video of drummer Tony Royster, Jr. at age 12 ought to do it. Could you have played drums like this at age 12? With lessons? With really good lessons?
And speaking of drummers, drummer Phil Collins believes that he fought at the Alamo. This article is written semi-skeptically by someone who has to look up the word "reincarnation" in Wikipedia before writing it. He concludes that reincarnation is only believed in by "Druids, the Theosophical Society, the Church of Scientology," then comments wryly that you "wouldn't fancy a pint with any of these dudes." Actually, according to the polls, if you are quaffing a pint with two other guys in the UK, chances are good one of you believes in reincarnation. Good writing, clever wrap-up...and a clear case of someone with a flip attitude who hasn't bothered to scratch the surface of his subject. How odd that the ancient Celts, now reincarnated and scattered around the globe, are trying so hard to bring this concept back into favor, while the men of their homeland are so brainwashed by those who came in from outside that they now scoff at it.
A small break in the glass at a huge, shark-filled aquarium in a mega-mall in Dubai (see "Mindsight," below, for why this is relevant...)
An article about near-death experiences, including those in which a blind person was able to see once out of their body, and details of what they saw were corroborated. See also this video on YouTube. If these reports are accurate, they put to rest the idea that NDE's are mere hallucination. See also this review of "Mindsight" by Kenneth Ring and Sharon Cooper. The book is only $12.95, but apparently it's out of print and used copies are going for over $100. There's an address for the publisher at the bottom of this review. I recently obtained a copy through interlibrary loan. It describes a pioneering study which provides clear evidence, if not proof to a scientific standard, that there are, in fact, cases in which people who could not see were suddenly able to see--at least in some sense--from a vantage point outside their physical bodies, and that details of their reports were independently corroborated. In what I felt was one of the strongest cases, a blind man was hurriedly given a tie, not told what it looked like, suffered a medical emergency, and reported afterward the pattern on the tie. Maddeningly, the person who had given him the tie was contacted, and told researchers that after many years she could not remember the details of the tie's pattern, but confirmed the rest of the story. In a second case, a woman who could not possibly have seen, described her ex-husband and then-lover standing in the hallway as the hospital staff frantically wheeled her down the hall and tried to get into the elevator. She claimed that the gurney ran into the elevator doors--neither of the two men could confirm this crucial point, but did describe frantic activity. These kinds of frustrations in the research were typical. In at least one of the cases, there is a clear corroboration--a blind woman, while out of her body, viewed the kitchen dishes piled up unwashed. Her husband, embarrassed, admitted that was the case. Another blind woman, while out of her body, went to a friend's home and saw her throwing up after having drunk too much, and described her holding her long hair aside with her left hand. The friend confirmed the details. A much larger sample size is needed. But there is, I would say, just barely enough evidence here to indicate to any reasonable person that the NDE is a real phenomenon rather than being a brain-based hallucination. And that means that the materialistic paradigm is indeed cracking. This may be a "hairline fracture", but a hairline fracture in a huge dam is highly significant.
The "Unsolved Mysteries" episode featuring the Bruce Kelly/James Johnston case (James the Submarine Man) has been posted on YouTube. See also the review for the book, "James the Submarine Man" in the Book Reviews section of this website, and the article in the Articles section. The book is out of print and is very difficult to find, but if you take the time to write me personally, I may be able to help you find one. I consider this to be one of the strongest hypnosis-based proof cases on record. Note that linked from my review is a list of questions I submitted to Bruce Kelly, clarifying certain points in the book that have a bearing on its strength as a proof case. It is clear from the record that the core facts regarding the submarine's name and number, James Johnston's first and last name, the location where the submarine sank, and at least one other crew member's first and last name, came up before Kelly had any normal way of knowing the information. Here are the links to segment 1 and segment 2 of the episode.
Recently I was contacted by a university student majoring in biopsychology who engaged in a friendly debate with me by e-mail about the evidence for reincarnation. He has agreed to allow me to post our conversation. Enjoy, and draw your own conclusions!
"Belief and Interest in Reincarnation Growing in U.S." I would only comment that I have a different take on past-life regression. From what I've seen, when people aren't properly hypnotized, and they are encouraged to let their imagination run free, they do so, and what you get is imagination. When they are hypnotized, however, past-life memories "bubble up" forcefully, and the subject will actually argue with the therapist if the therapist tries to suggest anything different. Furthermore, there are a number of very strong proof cases (such as the "James the Submarine Man" case--see the Articles section of this website) based on hypnosis. Now, here is a column by a Christian writer, responding to the article above. The last portion of the article is dedicated to defending against reincarnation from the traditional Christian point of view, and true to form, Hebrews 9:27 is cited. You will see elsewhere in this website that my interpretation is that Paul taught against reincarnation, but Jesus and His direct disciples took it for granted. This whole mess got started because of the mischief of including Paul's teachings in the Bible, so that now they are solidly identified with Christianity. Working the scenario backwards, here's my take on it: I suspect that Paul essentially plagarized the apostles' teachings but mixed them liberally with his own beliefs, which he had not entirely given up after his conversion (whether it was genuine or not). Where he sounds magnificently wise, that's the apostles talking (who got it from Jesus, presumably). Where he teaches nonsense like "eternal hell," that's Paul talking. Reincarnation is real and it is being proven as fact. Two thousand years after this mistake of taking Paul's teachings as holy scripture, Christians are going to have to choose--go into la-la land where their religion denies something which has been proven as fact, or let go of Paul. It's going to be hard and it probably won't be a smooth transition. Regarding the other objections at the end of the article, it's a myth that "most people report famous past lives," or even laudible ones. Well, it's probably true in the sense that people are much more likely to want to publicly share the past lives they are proud of. But privately, all sorts of obscure and not very flattering past-life memories also come up for people. See my further comments.
From "Today in History," for October 22, 1926:
"The Ladder," J. Frank Davis' drama about reincarnation, opens today for a 789-performance run. Among its stars, Antoinette Perry, later namesake of the Broadway awards. The show is unusual in that its producer will keep it running long after it begins to lose money, often allowing people in for free, because he thinks the world needs to hear its essage. He will lose a half million pre-Depression dollars on it.
Here is another version of the story, mentioning J. Frank Davis' financial backer, Edgar Davis. In this account, a negative review is cited--very likely, this was as much due to prejudice against the topic as the play's own merit or lack of merit. In "The Door to the Future" by paranormal writer Jess Stearn, even more background is provided. Edgar Cayce had given a friend, Dave Kahn, a tip on finding oil. Edgar Davis followed up on this tip, and after much persistence, struck oil and sold out to Standard Oil for $12 million. Financing "The Ladder" at a loss was his way of paying his debt to Cayce. (pp 54-57) It's an interesting story because the automatic assumption that the whole thing was nonsense is obviously not true if you dig deeply enough (no pun intended).
A review of "How to Mellify a Corpse," which deals with the wisdom, technology and superstitions of the ancients. Pythagoras is mentioned as not only believing in reincarnation, but relating some of his past lives (the author calls his accounts "tiresome"). Be careful what you consign to "superstition" and myth. Plato also taught reincarnation; but when I was writing individually to philosophy professors promoting "In Another Life," the specialists in Plato ignored me. Presumably, they all rationalize that Plato was having a superstitious "senior moment" when he taught reincarnation, but they love everything else he wrote. How convenient for them.
Forensic pathologist Janis Amatuzio, MD has written a book entitled "Forever Yours," describing the experiences which have led her to conclude that physical death is not the end. From one of the press kit articles on the website: "I wrote the book from my heart, and I wrote it to comfort people," said Amatuzio, who added that it was "taking a professional risk to talk about the stuff you can't prove."
A couple look at their childhood photos and realize they crossed paths in Disney World as toddlers. There are no coincidences--such things happen due to karmic connections from past lives.
Yet another reporter describes her past-life regression experience. Her concluding comment is typical: "It all makes sense now." Not to be too much of a wet blanket, but it should be said that there are potential side-effects, including "bleed-through" of unwanted past-life personality traits and emotions, experiencing severely traumatic scenes, seeing aspects of yourself in a past life which are uncomfortable to integrate into your present-life identity, inappropriate attachment to people in this life who are recognized from a past life, and the possibility that in a future life you will remember past-life scenes when you don't want them, because the natural memory barrier has been forced open in this life. For this reason I don't publicly recommend it for sheer curiosity, except in the context of formal research; I do recommend it for therapy, but strongly suggest that you get a competent therapist. Just think of this as the "surgeon general's warning" label they don't have yet because they don't believe it's real yet.
A novel crafted around the declaration in the 5th Ecumenical Council in 553 AD that Origen's teachings of the pre-existence of the soul were "anathema." My reading on the subject says that Pope Vigilius boycotted the meeting (called by Emperor Justinian just before the official council convened), but not that the Pope was held captive until he signed. The meeting, according to my reading, simply went on without him.
Actress Emma Roberts is told by a psychic that she is the reincarnation of actress Carole Lombard. Something told me to pay attention to this one, so I compared photos... It's in line with what I've come to expect with past-life matches, about 85% similar with the basic "look" intact, plus the personality behind the eyes having a similar "feel" to it. The more recent personality is likely to have learned something, and that learning will be reflected as a difference in their attitude (in this case, less arrogance, perhaps). See also Jeff Keene's case in the Cases page. I don't consider a psychic reading and physical similarity as proof, but I note that some psychics have been proven as genuine, and that physical similarity like this often occurs in reincarnation cases that have been historically proven, so this proposed match is consistent.
An interview with author Susan Schecter about her new novel, a love story with a reincarnation theme, entitled "Lifetimes Ago: A Love Story Inspired from Past Life Memories".
A skeptical Psychology Today blog by lecturer Steve Stewart-Williams. It's nonsense--basically, he's like the proverbial ostrich sticking his head in the sand and saying, "I don't see any lions." You will find my response below the article. Note that this fellow gets invited to give lectures--presumably, because he tells classes what the professors want them to hear. I have yet to be invited to speak to a class, even though "In Another Life" has been purchased by some 65-70 college professors and this website has been disseminating the best information on the subject for about 12 years now.
A British woman, after having migraine headaches, wakes up with a Chinese accent that won't go away (video). Note to skeptics--want to apply "Occam's Razor" to this one? And no, it's not fraud--I've reported on several of these cases over the last few years, and none of them look like fraud to me. They look like ordinary people coming to grips with a rare condition, as gracefully as possible...
Here is another example. Note carefully the evidence and the train of logic. Scientists, if they have done their homework, know that the same effect is being seemingly caused, or at least heralded, by different medical conditions (here we have coma--above, we have migraines). There is a glaring logical error in the way this case was explained--do you see it? There is no medical explanation for the fact that the girl's German went from the beginning level to fluency, as a result of brain damage. One has to look very carefully at the scientific establishment's analyses of these cases to discern that they are irrational and that the proponents of these explanations are in denial--just as one has to look very carefully at any person's delusional system to pick out the part that isn't rational. Again, to apply Occam's Razor, the simplest explanation is that the girl had been German in a past life; feeling this press of past-life memory inside her, she was trying to learn it again in this life; after the coma, some portion of her brain was damaged which permitted fuller access to those memories, since the brain is a pass-through mechanism which, under normal conditions, favors current-life memories over past-life memories. (That one person only got the accent, while the other got the entire language, would be consistent as well--it would, presumably, depend on the type and extent of damage.) Here is another article which stresses the girl's increased proficiency level more.
I want to quote Phil, from Elgin, IL, who has recently left this comment on my "guest map" (which link is located near the bottom of the home page): "For anyone who has done any research on this subject at all, the knowledge of one's spirit continuing to exist and taking on another body is a simple conclusion." Thanks, Phil, that about says it all.
I just finished reading this book, "Butterfly Kisses," a new novel by Sharmila Jayasinghe Niriella which revolves around a reincarnation theme. I enjoyed it immensely--the writing style is intimate, real, and engaging. It's a 200 page book and I read it in two sittings. This is the only source from which to order it. I highly recommend this one--very real, very human, and quite accurate as regards its portrayal of past-life memories of the kind studied by Dr. Stevenson and Dr. Tucker (below).
An interview with Dr. Jim Tucker, successor to Dr. Ian Stevenson, about their research into past-life memory and reincarnation. See also the video interview with Dr. Tucker on the "Interviews" page of this website.
A YouTube segment of a television program on reincarnation, describing the Shanti Devi case. Typically, the editing style is full of flourishes and effects, chilling music, etc. It takes the typical "pro-con" approach, balancing the case with an obligatory skeptic (who voices an absurd, global condemnation). The most glaring error, in my opinion, is that the case being presented is so badly under-reported. What is needed is to list all the "hits" in succession. Then the game would be up--the skeptic would look like the dishonest idiot* he is--and the entire pro-con format would be irrelevant. For example, the Shanti Devi case is the one in which the little girl spoke privately with her past-life husband, telling him details about their former sex-life, including the adjustments they had to make because of her physical disability in that lifetime (see also the Recommended Books page). My point is that these programs deliberately underreport the strength of these cases so that they can continue to work within the pro-con format; because, no documentary which deviates from the pro-con format can get accepted for broadcast. "In Another Life" abandons the pro-con format, and even being free on the internet, most days one or two people in the entire planet watch it. But this situation is going to change soon. *Sound too harsh? What would you say to someone who told you, "I have investigated hundreds of airplanes, and I am certain that not a single one of them could fly."? Such a person is either so biased as to be delusional, or is being deliberately dishonest due to a political agenda, for money, or for some other reason. This is what we get representing the skeptical side when we are forced by society to retain the pro-con format for a topic which has moved beyond it.
A science writer describes a recent "Sages and Scientists" symposium at the Chopra Center, including a presentation by Dr. Tucker.
Remember this commercial? "If I've only one life, let me live it as a blonde..." Pretty insidious, and typical of the kind of mischief that suppressing the truth about reincarnation can play in society. How many foolish things have people justified because "we only go around once"?
A Wiccan perspective on reincarnation. I don't know much about Wicca per se, but this presentation is certainly right in line with the "perennial philosophy".
A fun article discussing the markings and symbols of a dollar bill, but denying that any of the symbols relate to Freemasonry. I don't know a lot about Freemasonry, but I do know this much, that Benjamin Franklin, one of the three men credited with designing the bill, was a Mason and also believed in reincarnation.
An open-minded article in the Times of India about past-life regression.
The Leininger family was on Larry King Live, with Deepak Chopra, on Dec. 22nd, and I just got a chance to watch the recorded program today, 1/30. (See also a transcript of the show.) The Leininger case is one of Carol Bowman's, which was first shown on ABC's "Prime Time". It's a very strong proof case (see below), and is even more remarkable because it has gotten mainstream media exposure. The Leininger family was interviewed for a few minutes, long enough to describe their case briefly. Dr. Jim Tucker was also interviewed, and with his usual aplomb, simply stated what the evidence is and how strong it is. Deepak Chopra came out like a lion, and he and skeptic Michael Shermer (see below) locked horns. Mr. Shermer sounded the same old skeptical note--it can't be proven or disproven, we can never know for sure, etc. It's the skeptical mantra now...but it isn't supported by the facts anymore. It's like continuing to claim that man can never fly, even past the point when planes are already flying. A three-year-old boy (if I understand the Leininger case correctly) cannot name his past-life ship, plus a fellow crew member, and be accurate, due to coincidence. A three-year-old boy is not "into airplanes" the way a 10-year-old boy might be. Let Mr. Shermer take any three-year-old boy and get him to correctly name an obscure WWII aircraft carrier plus correctly name one of its obscure crew members. Let him find a three-year-old who knows that the bulbous object on the bottom of a Corsair is a drop-tank. If he does, he will have found yet another past-life case....

Here is a highly sarcastic article by Mr. Shermer, and here is my own response to his article.

The Leininger case also made it to Yahoo.com's front page
on 6/8/09 and again on 6/9/09. I think it was essentially the same video
as from the Primetime episode, linked above. Somebody in ABC is
reincarnation-friendly, or trust me, it wouldn't be there.
A child prodigy artist. Here's a musical prodigy. Child prodigies are one type of evidence for reincarnation. More examples can be found elsewhere in this News page.
A writer muses about reincarnation, karma and cosmic justice in light of the recent earthquake disaster in Haiti. Here are my comments.
An open-minded Christian reporter responds to another reporter who lost his religion reporting on Christianity. Interesting, to me, is his comment about finding portions of the Bhagavad Gita inspiring, and that, in response to a comment made by his meditation teacher, Dr. Mehta, "I don't believe in reincarnation--at least not at this point of my spiritual journey--but I celebrate Dr. Mehta's candid and pure faith in Hinduism as much as I celebrate the unwavering faith of any Christian who believes in Christ's redemptive death and resurrection." Open-mindedness is an admirable quality, but I could never rest with this kind of attitude. The contradictions bothered me too much, and I insisted on knowing the truth of it and dissolving the contradictions in some deeper, more inclusive understanding. Thanks to Meher Baba's teachings, I was able to do that, up to the limits of the intellect and my own capacity, which is why I periodically point people to them. I don't care if anybody follows up on it, but I would be remiss not to at least put up a signpost here and there. Whatever you see in this website that I seem to know, comes primarily from that source.
An open-minded pastor discusses his near-death experience when he was seven years old. This kind of open-mindedness is a bit more to my liking. What he knows is based on experience--what he doesn't know yet remains to be seen. Most importantly, he cares deeply what's real and what isn't real, but he simply takes stock of what he knows for sure and what he doesn't. It's a scientific attitude, but not a materialistic scientific attitude. With so much evidence for the afterlife and the immortality of the soul, cynical materialism can no-longer claim to be a scientific attitude in its true sense.
The scientific establishment in India reacts to the entertainment-based past-life regression reality TV show there (see next article). What is fascinating to me, as always, is the psychology and sociology of the thing. The people quoted in this article supposedly represent the bastion of objectivity (i.e., Western objectivity), as it has been transplanted in a society which has understood reincarnation for millenia. (If one wants to accuse all Indians who have taught reincarnation of being ignorant and superstitious, one had better be prepared to accuse Swami Vivekananda of being ignorant and superstitious--if one has the balls!) But several of the statements in this article are simply lies. I would go so far as to say they are intentional lies. Here's one: "So-called past life regression through hypnotism has been tested and debunked, and besides, it has dangers." It has not, actually, been debunked at all. On the contrary, it has been proven through multiple cases that past-life regression can uncover memories of actual past lives. If you don't believe me, watch this. (See also this article where a past-life therapist discusses a few of her validated cases--and remember that as William James, one of the founders of modern psychology, said, it only takes one white crow to prove that all crows are not black.) Okay, you may or may not be convinced, but an objective scientist would at least cite Ramster, who is a colleague. The quote is correct, however, in stating that there are dangers. Regression practitioners rarely mention this part! Another quote from the article: "Past life regression therapy claims to use hypnosis to delve into the memories of people's past lives. It has no scientific basis and there is no evidence to show that hypnosis helps recall past life events. 'Science has not been able to establish that we have a past life. Psychologists and psychiatrists do not accept it either,' said Dr Yusuf Matcheswala, a practicing psychiatrist." Well, I think psychiatrist Dr. Jim Tucker might disagree with him (see Dr. Tucker's interview in the Interviews section of this website). The point is, this article is making sweeping generalizations that are demonstrably false. Some scientists, psychologists, and psychiatrists do publicly accept that past-life therapy is valid, can retrieve real past-life memories, and is based on solid science. We don't know the full numbers, because many more accept it privately, afraid to go public for fear of their careers. (See, for example, my archived radio interview on WRFG, where I was joined by psychologist Paul Schenk who told me that was the first time he had gone public.) Therefore, whenever you see anyone make the sweeping statement that scientists, psychologists and psychiatrists all agree that past-life therapy is without substance, you can know they are speaking an untruth, and that either they do know better, or they could easily know better.
An Indian TV reality show will consist entirely of past-life regressions performed before an audience. Fortunately the sessions will be conducted by an experienced clinician. I don't like the circus atmosphere but it will certainly serve to educate people, especially if the idea catches on elsewhere. If it's a live show, it may also occasionally serve to educate people as to why one shouldn't toy with this technique, if a subject stumbles on a particularly gruesome past-life memory. Nor do I see any plans for follow-through, to see how it may affect them in the weeks and months after the session.
A young college student in India kills himself after watching a reincarnation-themed movie 25 times. The writer's take on it is that myths are dangerous; the filmmaker's take on it is that myths are entertaining. Neither take reincarnation seriously--only the boy did. Unfortunately, what he took seriously was a half-baked interpretation by people who were using it as entertainment. What's dangerous here is toying with a powerful concept which has, in modern society, degenerated into myth and entertainment. Suicide is less likely to result in reincarnation than it is to lead to a hellish state of consciousness between lifetimes, or to being stuck as an earthbound "ghost" near the physical plane. If good information were provided about reincarnation, and if it were taken seriously by those presenting it to the public, people would never consider suicide based on that information. Depending on their real motives, I think that a gullible and ill-informed person like this would probably be assisted by helpers on the other side--but all my studies tell me that suicide is a very unwise choice.
Doctors mistakenly assume for 23 years that a fully-conscious, paralyzed man is in a coma. Materialism causes medicine to take the entire subject of consciousness far too lightly, and coma is one particularly neglected area. Conventional wisdom has it that people in comas can still hear you, which is quite plausible when you consider what we're learning about near-death experiences (search on "Mindsight" below). See also Roger La Bord, who claims to be able to communicate psychically with people who are in a coma.
Galileo's missing fingers, vertebra and tooth are found! At the time he advanced his theories, he was condemned (see the last paragraph of the article). No-one is after Dr. Ian Stevenson's fingers yet, but at some point it might be a good idea to install a gate or something...
Here's an article about a retiring professor who had expertise in statistical analysis, and who came to a different conclusion about Stevenson's work (I reproduced the article on this website after it went offline):
Prof. Doris Wilsdorf, Professor of Applied Science at the University of Virginia, teaching her last seminar on Science and Religion. Note the statement, referring as I assume to the work of her colleague at that school, Dr. Ian Stevenson: "Using the mathematical 'Theory of Theories,' Wilsdorf has shown that reincarnation can indeed exist by multiplying the probabilities of the unusual aspects of particular cases together, convincing her students that there is a point when 'coincidence' cannot describe thousands of scientific cases and studies."
On this 60-Minutes segment, Lesley Stahl meets the inspiration for the lead character in the classic film Jurassic Park and reports on how famed dinosaur hunter Jack Horner is shaking up the paleontology world. Of particular interest to me is the resistance his findings have encountered from mainstream paleontologists, which is reminiscent of mainstream science's reactions to Dr. Ian Stevenson's reincarnation studies. In particular, it strikes me that many of the objections are irrational. Isn't that a fascinating paradox in terms of the psychology and the sociology of science?
Alfred Russel Wallace developed a spiritually-based theory of evolution parallel with Charles Darwin's materialistic version. I ran across an article (since gone off-line) about Giuseppe Sermonti, an Italian geneticist who is criticizing Darwin's theory. The text read that if one believed in reincarnation, one might think he had been a poet in a past life because of his writing style. So, it occurred to me on a whim to compare photographs. I had originally listed all the websites where I found these images, but the Sermonti link which contained the photograph has gone offline. This portrait can, however, still be found via Google Images last time I checked. Understand I have no idea if this is a genuine past-life match, except that it would be consistent with commonly-observed patterns and it makes intuitive sense. I do not feel that these kinds of comparisons are proof to a scientific standard, in and of themselves, but they are very interesting.

Source of Wallace image (website in Spanish)
Brief article about Wallace with photo
I think that psychologist/columnist Terry Stawar is taking the long-way around in this article to dismiss past-life therapy as a fad. It will, of course, be a fad at the most superficial level of social consciousness. Whether something (usually a very watered-down version) comes to the mass consciousness briefly has little in and of itself to do with whether it has merit or prolonged utility. I think we will find that past-life therapy has extraordinary utility and effectiveness. I would put it even more strongly--it will replace current psychology the way CD's replaced vinyl records. That's because, especially for certain types of issues like phobias, while standard psychology is handing out pills and blaming your parents for years, past-life therapy gets to the root of the problem in a few sessions and you're cured. In other words, if past-life therapy is not bastardized too badly by popular culture and charlatan practitioners, it will make standard psychotherapy obsolete. However, I also predict we will find out the hard way that it must be used judiciously and with a deep understanding of its potential side-effects, including ramifications for the patient's future lifetimes.
Some magnificent time-lapse nature photography you might enjoy, which has no relevance to reincarnation except, of course, that all of nature is cycles...
While we're at it, here's a very brief video with water closeups, which I did as my very first video project using a VHS camcorder I had bought used from a rental store. I didn't even know what a video tripod was and used my still camera tripod. But I had been doing still photography for awhile. Music by Steven Halpern and Dallas Smith, from the Lifetide album. The falls are Cullasaja Falls near Franklin, NC. Do you think I've had any past lives in Japan?
Author Ann Bradshares has penned a new novel with a reincarnation theme entitled My Name is Memory. Here's some more news--looks like the movie rights are already sewn up. Meanwhile, there's an excerpt, and let me tell you, the metaphysics here are total nonsense (for example, we all reincarnate a vast number of times, and nobody lives just once). Too bad the author didn't study the subject thoroughly, or, perhaps, study it from better sources. Still, it's fascinating to note that reincarnation is becoming a hot topic.
A writer asks columnist David Inman about a reincarnation movie he remembers. What's of interest is Inman's response--not the joke about "carnations," but his opening line, "What's all this I keep hearing about reincarnation?" It suggests that reincarnation awareness in Western society really is rising. This effect, which has registered in Inman's consciousness, is the result of tremendous work over the last 100 years or so by many people the world over who have dedicated their lives to this cause. They have come and gone with little reward or recognition, risking their reputations, relationships, finances and careers for what is about to happen.
Billy Graham answers a question on reincarnation in his column. For my comments on two earlier columns, see the Articles page of this website. This column's response, based on simplified Christian dogma, is, from my perspective, such a mixture of truth and falsehood that it would take yet another lengthy article to try to separate them. One would have to deconstruct it sentence by sentence. I'll just start it here for purposes of illustration. The Incarnation of the Avatar--who repeatedly incarnates at certain intervals through history, one of those incarnations being Jesus the Christ (Christhood being a state of spiritual authority and consciousness), is not the same as the reincarnation of ordinary individuals. One does not preclude the other as Rev. Graham suggests--this is an apples-and-oranges comparison. The Word is the primal vibration from which and by which God created everything. The Christ can be described as an embodiment of that primal vibration, the first manifested thing down from God the Absolute (also called the "Son" of God).
This four-year-old has become famous on the internet for delivering a inspiring locker-room speech from the hockey movie "Miracle". It's clear enough to anyone who's studied reincarnation, and knows that no strong childhood interest comes out of a vacuum, that this young fellow has had a strong interest in hockey before...
An interview with author Stacy Horn about her new book, "Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory." The writer of the article mentions being turned down for an interview with the head of the University of Virginia's Division of Perceptual Studies (formerly headed by Dr. Ian Stevenson), because of some kind of "gag order". I don't know what that's about but on this website there's a long video interview with Dr. Jim Tucker, who has taken up Dr. Stevenson's work there (see the "Interviews" section).
Even country singer Reba McEntire, as popular as she is, comes under fire when she admits she believes in reincarnation.
Dan Whitney, in his column, "Basic Biitner," muses about his personal preference for city life despite living in the country, and considers reincarnation as a possible explanation. Personal, emotional preferences that one feels one has "always had" are actually fairly reliable clues about past lives. Through a careful process of elimination, if one has developed the capacity to be extremely honest with oneself, they can actually be used to ferret out specific historical verifications, as I am attempting to do in proving my own case.
Israeli government bans the practice of past-life therapy. I have reproduced this article on a separate page within the "In Another Life" site because I got a suspicious pop-up when I visited the original article website. I have been warning on this website for some time that there are potential side-effects from hypnotic past-life regression, and recommending it only for therapeutic purposes under the guidance of an experienced therapist, or for legitimate research purposes. One of the dangers I've warned against is "past-life bleedthrough". Based on such instances, the Israeli government has gone to the extreme of banning the practice altogether, ignoring the many instances of impressive cures. The fight has just begun. I'm sure the therapy will take place whether it is banned or not. Ultimately it will displace the mighty drug companies, when a large percentage of what is currently addressed by drugs is found to be curable through two or three sessions of past-life therapy. It's coming, folks, because it's real and it works. But there will be quite a fight, and some of that fight will be backed by special interests. I would guess they already know, though publicly they would ridicule it.
One of the main professional organizations for past-life therapy is the IARRT, International Association for Regression Research and Therapies. If reincarnation were accepted as being real, and past-life therapy were accepted as being valid, such issues should logically be handled by the field's own professional association, rather than banning the entire practice.
An interview with Victor Zammit, who, as an attorney, applies the legal standard to the afterlife and paranormal phenomena. I disagree on one point, as regards the relationship between evolution and reincarnation. For a detailed explanation of the profound relationship between evolution and reincarnation, see "God Speaks" by Meher Baba.
A review of a book entitled "Persons, Souls and Death" by David H. Lund. The whole thing is by philosphers, for philosophers, but what fascinates me is the reviewer. He sounds highly rational, but he dismisses the evidence for paranormal phenomena with a wave of his hand, as follows: "As Lund recognises, most people, and I include myself here, would think that whatever the logical possibilities allowed for by the argumentation in the first part, the claims about the paranormal examined in the second hardly deserve serious attention." This isn't rational or objective thinking at all. It's a sophisticated way of saying, "we all know it's nonsense because we've all agreed it's nonsense." The hospital patient who had a near-death experience and told her nurse that there was a blue tennis shoe on a ledge under a window on the opposite side of the hospital, had the answer to all of this reviewer's sophisticated objections. Basically, it shows you that the most sophisticated intellect can go into denial, and when it does, the result is no more sophisticated than the child who claims he didn't steal cookies from the cookie jar.
The winner of the "irrelevant to reincarnation" category...I received this wrong number message on my answering service a couple weeks ago--which also means that the message didn't get to who it was intended for (probably a building superintendent or a wedding planner). Even though it was several hours later when I heard the message, and the situation had long resolved itself somehow, I felt vaguely responsible...some weird bit of karma left over from a past life? From what I've read, every single interaction with another human being is a result of karma from past lives, even a seemingly random mistake like this one. (Identifying name and phone number deleted.)
Another parent explores Carol Bowman's work, after her three-year-old daughter piped up suddenly mentioning a past life. I sometimes tell people, if you dare, ask around in your circle of family, friends, acquaintences and co-workers, and I'll bet you that if they trust you enough to tell you--which is probably a function of how respectful or disrespectful you are about the topic--you'll discover at least one instance of a child relating a past-life memory. It's that common. (You'll note that this is a Catch-22--if you are disrespectful, you are not going to be told about these events, which then reinforces your belief that they don't occur. This is the answer to the skeptical argument that reincarnation cases seem to occur most often in countries that believe in reincarnation.)
In this edition of the newsletter of the Atlanta Vedanta Society (pdf file) the first article describes Girish Chandra Ghosh's wonderful relationship with the God-Realized master, Sri Ramakrishna. Such a Being as Sri Ramakrishna has no karma of his own, and thus, as a Force beyond karma, is in the unique position of being able to help others regardless of their lifestyle or situation--if only the person's heart responds. (Swami Yogeshananda, former head of the Atlanta Center, now retired, is featured in "In Another Life").
"How A Non-Believer Suddenly Believed." I'm aware that social acceptance of reincarnation is just around the corner--very quickly, the issue will be quality of information and avoiding mis-use of the concept. Two comments on this article--past-life regression is potentially dangerous. In the hippie era, we (I was a hippie) all assumed that drugs were harmless, or nearly harmless, well worth the risk. Now, people interested in reincarnation assume that hypnotic past-life regression is similarly harmless. There will be casualties. Potential dangers are both immediate, as in stumbling upon a traumatic past-life incident without a skilled therapist present, to longer-lasting problems like past-life personality/mood "bleed-through". Some large percentage of the general population won't be able to safely integrate the information. So I continue to recommend past-life regression only for the purposes of therapy, under a skilled therapist, or for legitimate research. Secondly, all my best sources say that human beings do not reincarnate backwards into animal bodies. That means that the animal portion of this writer's account was imagined by her (i.e., assumed, interpreted or extrapolated). If you use that as a yardstick, you can see the degree to which imagination can enter into these memories. Remember that some of these past-life memories have been historically verified. So imagination does not, logically, account for all of them--but it probably accounts for a good many of them. A balanced approach is needed, somewhere between wide-eyed gullible and totally cynical.
A woman who had an abortion explores how reincarnation relates to that issue. From my studies, it's my understanding that the soul (i.e., the subtle body or body made of light and energy) generally enters the fetus at about 5 months, corresponding to the time of "quickening". After this point, abortion could, I would say, aptly be considered as killing a child. Before the soul enters the fetus, it may still be hanging around, in and out, or in some kind of connection or state of anticipation (depending on the sources you read).
I often introduce something on this page as "not being relevant to reincarnation," and then some relevance occurs to me, which is kind of my way of showing just how relevant reincarnation is to everyday life. But this time I'm stumped... I suppose we can ask, did my warped sense of humor come from Mad Magazine, or did Mad Magazine trigger my past-life sense of humor? This tune, It's A Gas, was released on a record inside one of the magazines in 1968, and I was just reminded of it recently.
An article in the Times of India about past-life therapy. Note that it includes a verified case.
A poll taken in the UK shows a high percentage of people in Wales believe in reincarnation.
Former Law Enforcement Officer Does Past Life Regression in Omaha. (I recommend past-life regression only for therapeutic purposes using a qualified and experienced therapist, as there are potential dangers and side-effects.)
Dr. K.S. Rawat conducts a seminar on reincarnation research. Dr. Rawat provided images of children who remembered past lives for the documentary this website supports, "In Another Life."
A biased piece of skeptical propaganda against reincarnation, pretending to be rational and objective. Really, I'm not kidding. You wouldn't necessarily know it if you haven't studied the subject in depth as I have for the past 12 years. Just for starters, people having past-life memory is not rare at all (see the "personal accounts" section of this website), past-life regression has not been discredited, but rather the opposite as far as its potential to stimulate verifiable memories is concerned (see Dr. Peter Ramster's research). Past life regression is by no-means the only, or even the most common source of such memories, especially if you consider that practially all of our children appear to be trying to tell us about a past life until we shame them out of it. The Bridey Murphy case was not really debunked at all--in fact, it was the debunking which was a deliberate scam, and skeptics have repeated the scam until it "stuck" in the public mind that the case had been debunked, on the principle of whoever shouts loudly enough, for long enough, wins. When I use the word "propaganda," I do so because the misstatements are constructed in such a way that it looks like deliberate lying instead of just ignorance about the subject--as though they know full well how much of a threat the evidence for reincarnation is to their point of view, and they have to try to counter it much as a politician running for office might conduct a dirty campaign. These are not "skeptics," but cynics with an agenda, and they do not hold the high ground of rational, objective inquiry into the truth of the matter.
For those of you conversant with astrology, here are 15 possible reincarnation proof cases with comparison charts. Mine is Case #5. Although the author rates it as "probable," I would consider it "speculative" as regards objective evidence. I would consider it "probable" only based on my own knowledge of my personal patterns and how very closely they match to Matthew's patterns; and on some limited subjective past-life memory and sense of recognition. (I recently tried to verify it, but could not get cooperation from those holding his papers and effects. If that situation changes, I'll post the results on this site.) I don't know enough about astrology to evaluate the results shown here. When this author wrote me some years ago, I provided the first few cases, some of which were very solid in terms of objective evidence. He has since expanded the list. The Paul Gaugin/Peter Teekamp and the John B. Gordon/Jeff Keene cases I consider likely; I've speculated about Georg Frederic Handel and Eric Johnson (which I suggested to the author), but have no objective evidence for it, only intuition and some educated guesswork (and maybe, a faint past-life memory of living in Handel's era and being aware of him as a fellow musician--which is to say, that would make this my second life as a fan of his). Keep in mind that in that case, I am guessing there have been quite a few lifetimes in-between, so the comparison chart is not going to look like a comparison for a more recent past life. The solid cases in this list that I personally know of, in terms of objective evidence, are: James Carroll Beckwith/Robert Snow, James Edward Johnston/Bruce Kelly and Francine Donovan/Angela Grubbs. Additionally, if Roy Stemman, former editor of British journal "Reincarnation, International" says he was somebody, it should be taken seriously, though I'm not familiar with that case. Interestingly, of all 15 cases, mine was the only one that upheld "Bailey's theory" (see conclusion at bottom of page).
Another astrologer (ironically, giving his article the same title as my documentary) analyzes the Bruce Kelly/James Johnston case (case #2 in the article above).
Reincarnation: Real or Delusion? is the title of this abc News article. It's more balanced than similar articles I've posted here as recently as a couple of years ago. Usually, the bigger the news source, the more cynical the reporting. I've noticed, however, that reporters who actually undergo a past-life regression, as a whole, write less cynically than those who don't. Of course, objective students of reincarnation do take into account factors such as cryptomnesia and confirmation bias (see the "Lighter Side" link on my home page for humor built on an intentional exaggeration of confirmation bias). Another very common factor, where past-life regression is concerned, is too-rapid hypnotic induction which leaves the person not actually hypnotized, but still encouraged to use their imagination. However, there are also many cases with very clear historical validation, such as the Cockell case mentioned in the article (several others are presented or linked to in this website). Such validation means that past-life memories can, in a certain percentage of cases, be real memories. Logically, as psychologist William James pointed out with his "white crow" analogy, it only takes one and the entire materialistic paradigm is set on its ear. That question is no-longer up for grabs, but that is precisely the question that skeptics are still attempting to debate. It simply isn't rational, which is why people like myself and Victor Zammit have been pointing out for years that the skeptics do not, actually, hold the high ground of rationality in this business. Note the subtitle of the article: "Though Many Believe in the Existence of the Past Life, Experts Urge Caution." This statement is biased. Know how? It's inherently paradoxical because the "experts" they are referring to are not really experts. They are "experts," alright, in certain realms of knowledge, but they are not "experts" in this field. When you examine this more closely, you see that there is a "brain drain" of skeptical experts. The experts who study reincarnation carefully and who are unbiased, become believers because it's a real phenomenon. The "experts" who are left, by-and-large, either have not studied it carefully or are biased. Therefore this statement is bogus (or at best, based on belief and emotion).
A website dedicated to media about Meher Baba, including photographs, video, music and audio books. The video includes a portion of a documentary by Tim Thelen which includes teachings on reincarnation, and there is also a newsreel from 1932; the audio books are narrated by Don Stevens, who originally edited them for Meher Baba (I audio-edited these narrations and proofread them very carefully, so they are accurate). These books are also available in printed form online (see below).
Several of Meher Baba's written works have recently been published online. "God Speaks," which lays out the entire circular theme of creation, evolution and the involution of consciousness, also explains how integral reincarnation is to this process, and thus ties it in with its deeper meaning. "Discourses" includes several chapters on "Reincarnation and Karma." "Listen, Humanity" contains a jewel of a discourse opening Part II called "Death and Immortality" which, in my opinion, is the single finest source on the subject of death.
An introductory film about Meher Baba.
"God in Human Form," another online film about Meher Baba.
A Malaysian doctor considers the pros and cons of past-life therapy. He expresses a few inaccuracies born of skepticism. In particular, there are too many strongly verified cases involving adults regressed by hypnotic and non-hypnotic methods, as part of past-life therapy or research, to ignore. Dr. Peter Ramster's research provides strong evidence and was carefully conducted. Similar results have been obtained using the non-hypnotic, association-based method pioneered by Dr. Morris Netherton and carried forward by Dr. Roger Woolger. However, these points aside, in a Buddhist country, you see that past-life therapy is at least being openly-acknowledged, along with its benefits and potential drawbacks (I am one of the few people you will see discussing its drawbacks and dangers, but this, also, will eventually become a hot topic of debate). It suggests to me that the Christian countries will follow suit later on, and that we are seeing the very beginnings of a movement that will sweep the practice and understanding of psychotherapy.
Country singer Reba MacEntire goes public with her belief in reincarnation. What's interesting is not that she believes it, but that she is risking losing the Christian portion of her fan base by admitting it. It may be a bigger risk than she realizes. It's also an indication that the old order is cracking and the change is in full swing. Basically, Christians will now have to wake up to the fact that what they have been accepting is a watered-down version of Christianity, originally forced upon Christians by the State in earlier centuries; and that reincarnation was an integral part of what Jesus originally taught, that had erroneously been banned as "anathema".
This is a program about near-death hell experiences. It's from a Christian perspective. I've watched through the first account, and it's deeply moving. Even though I disagree with traditional Christian doctrine on some points, I believe in recognizing truth where you find it. In my opinion, many of the things that traditional Christians teach are true if you regard them as principles (because Jesus taught in universal principles). In the reincarnationist view, a person can enter a hell(ish) state in-between incarnations. Whatever is in the heart becomes the environment, as I understand it. So although traditional Christians may make the whole thing seem to hinge on conversion to their particular religion (either sign up or you're doomed), which I don't believe, they are trying to warn people about something that's quite real. Hell is not "eternal"--the theological implications of that doctrine are really monstrous if you extend them out. However, it certainly must feel eternal, which is basically the same thing as far as being warned is concerned. Rumi said that the sufferings we experience here on earth are as a "sport and a pastime" compared with the hell state in the afterlife. It's a pity that people feel they have only the two choices, either buy the entire fundamentalist package, or else "live for today". Because it has encouraged a lot of people to do the latter. You know the most popular excuse for hedonism: "We only go around once." Show me anything in nature that only goes around once...
A documentary entitled "Coming Back: Reincarnation" has been posted (with or without permission) on Google Video. I've known about it for years and considered it one of my own film's "competitors". They were able to do quite a few of the things I wasn't able to do, either for lack of funding, cooperation or copyright permission, such as a host who follows through the entire film, recognizable stars, genuine cases in hypnotic sessions, and so-on. My program ended up with its own strengths, however, and the limitations I worked under actually drove me toward those things. I don't feel competitive about it anymore; I see "Coming Back: Reincarnation" as a good contribution.
In this British survey of Roman Catholics, 38 percent report believing in reincarnation. The writer goes on to add "even though it has never been part of the church's teaching". This simply isn't true--in fact, Pope Vigilius actually boycotted the meeting, called by Emperor Justinian, in which Origen's teaching of the pre-existence of the soul (which teaching includes reincarnation) was declared "anathema". The article itself is written from a muddled perspective and would require yet another article to sort out its various assumptions. Just as an example, reincarnation is not a "tenet" of Hinduism--it is a fact that Hinduism recognizes, and that the Christian Church used to recognize. A second "muddle" concerns hell--from a reincarnationist perspective, there is a hell(ish) state through which people may pass in-between incarnations, if they have lived in a certain manner against their conscience. (This is commonly understood by people who study reincarnation in depth, so if that 38% of Catholics who accept reincarnation study deeply enough, they will find that the error was thinking that hell was a physical place you are sent to for eternity.) So the article attempts to paint a picture of Catholicism weakening, and cites belief in reincarnation as an example, when actually it may be that people are seeking a purer Catholicism. In that purer Catholicism, Catholics may choose, along with Pope Vigilius, to "boycott" the political move of Emperor Justinian, who tried to make the teachings of one of the great Church Fathers "anathema".
A documentary about Australian psychologist Dr. Peter Ramster's work in hypnotically regressing four subjects and then bringing them to the location they remembered, carefully researching and filming each step in the process. The film is broken into 11 segments on YouTube.com. I doubt it's posted with permission so I don't know how long it will be there, but it's important work that most people won't have the opportunity to see otherwise, so I've decided to link to it for as long as it's available (with apologies to Dr. Ramster). Thanks to Jeff Keene for bringing this to my attention.
Also on YouTube.com, someone has posted the "Proof Positive" episode about Capt. Robert Snow. See also the telephone interview with Capt. Snow on the "Interviews" page of this website.
A brief video of a reincarnation case reminiscent of those studied by the late Dr. Ian Stevenson and colleagues on YouTube.
An interview with Dr. Jim Tucker, successor to Dr. Ian Stevenson. See also the video interview with him on the "Interviews" page of this website.
The writer of this article underwent a past-life regression, and had a profound experience. You will note his tone is not skeptical.
An article in Newsweek on reincarnation which is mostly notable because it's in Newsweek. People who are skeptical and approaching the subject superficially seem only able to be aware of what confirms their perspective. Without dismantling the entire article, I'll point out two obvious errors in skewed reporting, one of commission and one of omission. First, Kaballah is not a "new-age movement". It is an ancient tradition being passed down through generations, a result of the hard-won insights of brilliant, deeply intuitive men of the past. It has been newly-discovered and has become popular as a result of the current hunger for deeper knowledge, because of the spiritual poverty of our current materialistic culture. Secondly, Carol Bowman is briefly mentioned as a therapist. Actually, she has become a therapist relatively recently. For years before, she was, and remains, an author and researcher, extending the findings of Dr. Ian Stevenson and colleagues into the Western world, popularizing them, and acting as an advocate for parents and children who remember past lives. She has presented a number of stunning proof cases, one of which you can find (on James Leininger) in the Articles page of this website. For the writer not to mention these things was tantamount to artificially weakening the case for reincarnation.
Retired attorney Victor Zammit, an Australian, who is bent on showing that the evidence for the afterlife is plenty strong enough to meet the legal standard of proof, has been kicking it into high gear with a series of video presentations. Here is one entitled "The Afterlife on Trial."
A report of a rigorous scientific study on mediumship conducted at the University Arizona.
Yet another link courtesy of Mr. Zammit. This paper is entitled "Pathological Disbelief" by Brian D. Josephson of Cambridge University (pdf file). See also my Update of 8/2/06, which, based on my website stats, seems to be getting quite a few direct hits lately on its own.
A child in India may be the reincarnation of Indian astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who died in the space shuttle Columbia.
A cynical article from India on reincarnation, citing a couple of recent cases in the popular press (one of which is linked to, above). Note that 66% of the readers who answered the poll disagree. There are three serious errors in the logic of the presentation. First, the statement that there is "no scientific basis" is simply false. Such a statement is often cited by skeptics as though it is true by mutual agreement--if they repeat it often enough amongst themselves, they can believe in it (sounds like some other belief systems, doesn't it?). Secondly, the author indulges in the logical error of "straw man", which is, purposely citing weak examples and inferring that they represent all cases. Another logical error is to group reincarnation in with several other unrelated topics, damning by association. Lastly, if you look at the people posting responses, the "pro" responders sound more intelligent, generally, than the "con" responders. If the premise of the article were true, that reincarnation is a superstition, it should be the reverse--the "con" responders should generally sound more intelligent.
A review of a Christian cautionary book entitled The Deceived. The error lies in blanket condemnation, which is based on black-and-white, dogmatic thinking. However, the author is not entirely incorrect, inasmuch as there is plenty of room for imagination, deception and misuse of the concept of reincarnation. Quite a few cases have come across my desk over the years that I've had a public presence, where people have gotten into trouble with a misapplication of reincarnation principles. For example, people can become obsessed with their past life; they can enter into and justify extra-marital affairs based on the concept; they can have persistent, lingering negative feelings or impressions from a past life, when that door is opened via hypnosis. They can also get a "big head" about who they mistakenly believe they were in a past life; they can make an inappropriate career move based on something they mistakenly believe they did in a past life. The list goes on. It is absolutely necessary, in my opinion, for the truth about reincarnation to come out; but it is not something to take lightly. In contrast to our Christian, above, some writers take the opposite position. They view exploration of past lives as a completely harmless panacea for all ills. I believe that these two extreme views--that reincarnation exploration is entirely false and dangerous, or that it is entirely harmless and beneficial--are both erroneous. (For the record, in this website I am concerned about a correct understanding of reincarnation, rather than exploration of past lives; I recommend exploration, per se, only in a therapeutic context with a well-qualified practitioner.)
A story about the reincarnation of a Tibetan spiritual master.
Another case in which a child is recognized as a reincarnation of a former Tibetan master and taken from his parents. I'm going to stick my neck out to suggest that the purpose of reincarnation is to provide varied experience; and one of the primary bases of Buddhism is non-attachment. So it may go contrary to both the underlying purpose of reincarnation, and Buddha's teachings, to try to make a soul repeat his former occupation, even if that occupation is that of a spiritual teacher with a high position in an organized religion. In short, this may sometimes be a misuse of reincarnation understanding. It could be, for example, that being an accountant in New York City would further this soul's spiritual growth more than repeating the life as a Tibetan spiritual teacher.
The website for PBS's Antiques Road Show. Sometimes you have those little insights, and it just occurred to me that, from the point of view of consciousness, each one of us is a walking "Antiques Road Show". We carry around with us so many lives from the past, which are part of our daily life but which we hardly notice or appreciate. And then buried beneath those is what Jesus called the "Pearl of great price," the real Self, so valuable that sacrificing all those lives would be no sacrifice at all; but we're unaware of it.
A new book with a reincarnation theme entitled "The Road Back to Heaven" by Linda Lewis.
A British woman from Bath begins "babbling in French for weeks," and it is attributed to a rare brain disorder which can be brought on by stress. Having found a shorter article, I had thought this could be a case of "xenoglossy" brought on by the emergence of past-life memories, perhaps triggered by changes in the brain. However, when I passed the article on to Dr. Jim Tucker, he sent me this one, which states that the woman lived in France. So there is no proof of reincarnation here. From my perspective I would continue to suspect past-life French influence, because that's the most likely source for an obsession with any locale or culture. Apparently, when the brain or brain function is altered, it is more likely that past-life memories will bleed through. This is true in hypnosis, drug intoxication, and apparently in certain types of brain illnesses. I don't believe it's logical that a brain disease could act, as the sole agent, in so specific a manner as to cause a person to adopt the particular delusion that they are from another country. But for proof of xenoglossy, one will have to go to the literature. A few unproven examples are also included among the personal accounts on this website.
This fascinating article suggests to me what can happen when my work is successful--when I, and others attempting the same kind of work, manage to convince an atheistic skeptic of reincarnation. Note that he pricks the balloon of irrational fundamentalist beliefs--as I do--and takes the work of Dr. Ian Stevenson seriously--as I do. But he also advocates torture, apparently, suggesting that it works and it is a small price compared with the deaths of large numbers of people in war. Well, justifying things like this is a very tricky business. I think that morality is in the smallest act as well as in the biggest. It is a "holographic" model of morality--the whole is contained in each of the parts. If each part of your life is moral, then your life will be moral. How you treat a store clerk on Friday is as important, in this sense, as how you administer your corporation. Besides, if one believes in reincarnation, one then very quickly encounters the idea of karma. I am not sure I'd want the karma of torturing someone to come back around, which it will if my motives are not 100% pure. (Fooling yourself with regard to your motives does not impress karmic law.) Remember when we talk about reincarnation, we are talking about something that has now been scientifically proven to exist. If the sages were right about reincarnation, it follows they were probably right about karma also.
A new book entitled Renaissance II which explores the history of early Christianity and reincarnation. (See also the Links section of this website for more information on this subject.)
A little reincarnation humor...the "PPPPPhd." We reincarnationists can take a little ribbing...but the reality is, whenever a student shows natural ability, this didn't come out of thin air, and it's not (solely) due to "genes" (modern society's equivalent to "the gods")--it's due to abilities brought forward from past lives.
Exiled Chinese poet Huang Xiang includes frequent references to reincarnation in his oceanic poetry.
Daredevil stuntman Evel Knievel, looking back on his life and thinking about ultimate matters, "wishes there were such a thing as reincarnation." (No comment)
A magnificent essay in Jason Stern's "Esteemed Reader" column for Chronogram.com exploring the deeper issues around being a "revolutionary." (see also the page on this website about compassion and karma)
Rock guitarist, Pete Townshend of The Who, believes he may have been a Sufi mystic in a past life. The reporting is a little bit askew in this article, inasmuch as Townshend did not physically meet Meher Baba, but he continues to be a follower (see the Meher Baba Film Archive International website, which includes a preview of his film about Meher Baba, "O Parvardigar").
An interview with Dr. Jim Tucker, successor to Dr. Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia, who investigates reincarnation cases.
A woman feels she has found the reincarnation of her cat.
A new age interpretation of reincarnation, citing the popular concept of "parallel lives." This idea draws on the teaching that everything is happening in the Eternal Present, something taught by some of the genuine spiritual masters (as listed on the Links page). However, while it is correct in a sense, I think it is off in the sense that you, as a 16th century merchant, are obviously not currently alive in some other dimension. That's why they call it the past, you know? Because while you can relive the impressions of that life, you can't go back in time and change it (all the time-travel movies we've watched notwithstanding). So this teaching must mean something else. The problem is that in the state beyond time, where everything is in the Eternal Present, nothing is happening. It is a state beyond "things happening." It is also a state beyond "things," period. Further, there are not separate individuals in that state. Therefore, this concept attempts to intellectually imagine a state beyond time, but it conveniently neglects to move beyond a state of individual people. What this means--and you can't intellectually grasp the whole truth, but I think this is closer to the truth--is that each of our lives on the planet is, right now, one of the parallel lives. Somewhere, there is someone right now being the merchant. Right now, there is someone being the rich man, and the poor man, and so-on. The roles keep trading off, but all the roles are going on all the time, like a huge game of musical chairs (represented in Hinduism, I believe, by the Dance of Shiva). Each of these is "Us." Even on this plane of existence it is all happening right now, but we experience it in a fragmented way--fragmented into linear time, and also fragmented into separate, individual selves. The master who has reached the highest state of consciousness, however, experiences the true Self simultaneously in all these supposedly individual selves (note it is Shiva's dance, not my dance). So you, the reader, are one of Our "parallel lives," and so-on. This is still not the whole truth of the matter, but I think the idea of parallel lives is somewhat misleading and I want to put in my two cents to question it, while so many reincarnationists are accepting it as reincarnation dogma. I get a sense that it's potentially troublesome for the future. Certainly, it makes the general public shy away from reincarnation as nonsense, just as the idea of incarnating backwards into animal bodies does, because intuitively it just doesn't make sense. We all know people can't go back to being animals; and we all know that the past isn't alive and can't be changed. So, whatever other problems these kinds of teachings may lead to in the future, they have the immediate effect of decreasing the overall credibility of reincarnation, as a concept, in the general population. Further comments
An Indian article [POP-UP WARNING ON THIS LINK] about one of Dr. Walter Semkiw's reincarnation cases, written in a skeptical tone. My reaction to Dr. Semkiw's work is mixed. I like and admire him personally, and appreciate that he gave me 15 minutes to speak at one of his presentations (thanks in part to my friend Jeff Keene also being on the bill). I think he's sincere, and I think his major premise, that it is possible to identify famous people in recent history who have reincarnated and who often show similar personal traits and facial features, is correct. His methods concern me because he has the authority of being a medical doctor and he claims that they are scientific, but in my opinion they fall short of a scientific standard. For that matter, most of the time they fall short of even the legal standard of proof, i.e. "beyond a reasonable doubt." Still, some portion of the cases are genuine, in my opinion. More troubling is his reliance on one medium to confirm his findings. I had the opportunity to see that medium in action at the presentation where I spoke, and I thought he was acting. He supposedly channeled two spirit entities, but used the same idiosyncratic mannerism in both personalities, which was a strong indication of fraud in my opinion. Using mediums is not necessarily a bad idea--but one would need to use several of them under controlled conditions, and then compare their responses. They would have to be given less information in advance. You can't just approach one medium, present a proposed match, get their official stamp of approval on it, and call that science. So the good news is that Dr. Semkiw is creating public awareness of reincarnation case comparison. The bad news is that he is inadvertently tempting the public to ridicule it even further, especially if it is ever shown publicly that, as I suspect, the one medium he relies on (made famous by his association with actress Shirley Maclaine) is fraudulent. How will the public ever get past a knee-jerk, black-or-white reaction to reincarnation? Maybe this is part of the protective function of the universe. People who aren't ready for reincarnation come across pseudo-science and reject the whole idea out-of-hand. People who are ready for reincarnation encounter pseudo-science and say to themselves, "That's a little fishy but something about it is intriguing--I wonder what else there is being done in that field?" And then they look into it a little more and find Dr. Jim Tucker or Carol Bowman. Meanwhile, the people who weren't ready for it are left (safely) ridiculing Dr. Semkiw's work, when there are actually some genuine matches and some valid ideas in it. Famous person cases are comparatively easy to find, so Semkiw can find quite a few of them, and out of such a large number, patterns and principles emerge. His observation that one can compare facial architecture, personality traits, abilities, and life-course are, in my opinion, correct, and it's actually a significant contribution. It's not completely invalid science, it's just extremely sloppy science (I would encourage him to tighten it up by combining Dr. Gary Schwartz's methods of working with several proven mediums under controlled conditions, plus Dr. Ian Stevenson's methods of insisting on documented and verified past-life memories). It's going to take a balanced approach to come to grips with it adequately, but very few people are willing to approach it in this way so far.
A brief essay on the Buddhist perspective on reincarnation. Comments.
An article on rebirthing. An interviewee in "In Another Life" describes a past-life memory experience which occurred during a rebirthing session, which apparently is not unusual. Dr. Roger Woolger explains that past-life traumas create a knot of unresolved emotions which in turn creates a pattern that can manifest in the birth experience, in childhood experiences, and in adulthood as phobias and other psychological problems. In short, these are all part of a whole and are not mutually exclusive. Note the sad report of misuse of rebirthing techniques, and the legal overreaction. The same types of issues may surface in past-life therapy, and the same kind of overreaction may prevail for awhile.
Oriundi, Anthoni Quinn's last film, about reincarnation. Similar to "Birth," "Oriundi" builds up a conviction that a lost love has returned through reincarnation, only to undo that conviction with a trick ending. I have watched a screening copy of the film (my distributor lent it to me), and I thought it was extremely well shot, directed and acted, despite my copy being very badly reproduced. The film appears to be languishing in no-man's land--a film set in Brazil, in Italian, with English subtitles about reincarnation, and the producers can't even send out a copy that doesn't freeze throughout playback, or bother to write back to the distributor who has an interest in it. A thousand obstacles appear in any effort to bring ideas about reincarnation to the public, apparently.
A five-year-old who is physiologically male, but since she could talk has said she feels she is a girl. Given all of the data we have about reincarnation and past-life memory, this is almost certainly a past-life recall issue, the etiology of which modern materialistic science is completely ignoring.
"Miss Witherspoon," a theatrical comedy with a reincarnation theme playing at ACT Theatre in Seattle. Although the metaphysics are a tad off-the-beam when the main character reincarnates as a dog, basically it sounds like the playwright had some knowledge of the subject and treated it respectfully.
A 20-month old prodigy drummer. We are entering an age when people who lived in the 1960's and 70's, and then passed on, are starting to reincarnate. I predict we're going to see more child prodigies with advanced skills in areas specifically related to modern life. Here's another video of prodigy Tony Royster, Jr., who was 12 years old at the time this was filmed. I'm not a drummer, but when I say this is good, I mean this is one of the best, and most mature, drum solos I've ever heard. Here's another link to it in case the first one goes offline.
Skeptical mainstream article about Near-Death Experience (NDE) research, "The Science of Near-Death Experiences." See my article on Reductionism on the Articles page of this website. The entire study, its guiding hypothesis and its interpretation, are based on the erroneous assumption that wakefulness, sleep, dreaming, and consciousness itself are solely biological phenomena. It's circular--once that assumption is made, the interpretation of the results can never transcend it. In effect, near-death experiences are interpreted as being caused by biology, because consciousness itself is interpreted as being caused by biology--and this is a belief. There are no solid philosophical grounds for this assumption. It's a paradox, because if the mind is purely a biological phenomenon, then no intellectual theories or conclusions beyond physical observations and measurements have any substance or reality. Therefore, the intellectual theories and conclusions of science (including these theories and conclusions about near-death experiences) would have no value. What began in science as a decision to study only those things that can be measured physically (while respectfully leaving non-physical realities to philosophy and religion), has gradually been distorted into a belief (an irrational belief) that only the physical exists to be studied, combined with derision for anyone who believes in non-physical realities.
A moderately skeptical popular article about reincarnation, entitled "Do you think that it's possible that we've lived before?" See also my response to him (unanswered to date).
A reporter undergoes past-life regression, having an experience of a past life of an obscure person, which she was unable to verify historically with a brief internet search. However, in this case the regressionist was also a psychic, and in the psychic reading which followed he made a number of strong "hits" on specific information he had no normal way of knowing (which is what genuine psychics are capable of doing, and what separates them from the charlatans).
Boxing champion Johnny Nelson undergoes a hypnotic past-life regression for British television show "Inside Out."
The holographic model of reality. Link courtesy of Victor Zammit's site, an excellent source for information on afterlife research and evidence.
A wish to die well--story of Stephen Keale.
Here is a British article about reincarnation, primarily focusing on Dr. Stevenson's work. The skeptics--and journalists always must quote a skeptic--continue to drag out the same tired argument that it would be possible to find matches for the child's statements in any city. This is nonsense. Why? Because, just for starters, the child will name the town where they lived in the past life. Then without any assistance they will locate the house, give people's names, and describe details, including intimate details. These kinds of specific details--20, or 30, or 40--simply do not exist in any other town with people of those names. But as a fair debunker, you don't get to sift through an entire town, because in many of the best cases I've read this is not a selection process where an entire city is sifted for a matching situation. You only get to choose one house, because in these studies, the child knows exactly where he or she lived. The odds of a child picking one house in a single town, with 30 or 40 specific memories including people's names at that house being accurate, are astronomical. So this skeptical theory evaporates when you compare it with the actual cases. The thing is, it is not poor science at all. It is excellent science, and these kinds of objections were already anticipated in the investigation design. The problem is that it's poor criticism. What the skeptics do is a version of "straw man"--they set up poor science when they test the theory and then criticize their own bad mockup, claiming they've debunked the method. If you wanted to try to fairly debunk these findings, you would have to choose one house only (as the child does) at random in a particular town. You would have to create (in some random way which prevented unconscious use of psychic abilities), say, 30 specific imaginary details including names, and some of those details would have to be intimate details not generally known except to one or two people. These are the kinds of details that would apply only to those people, like details of a couple's sex-life, or where money was buried (actual examples from Stevenson's cases). And then, all or most of those imaginary details including names would have to turn out to be spot-on for that one real household and the people in that household. No debunker I know of has tried this, because of course they know they would be checkmated before they started. You could probably run this fair version of the test for a thousand years and never get a match, but it would still not replicate some aspects of Stevenson's findings, like the child's emotional reactions to the past-life family, xenoglossy and birthmarks. In order to do that, you'd have to randomly choose a young child who would turn out to be able to speak a language he had never been taught (as a debunker you're dead in the water right there), and would have birthmarks corresponding to the death wounds of a child that the family just happened to have lost in the house that you randomly selected from the one town. He would also have to display appropriate, sincere behaviors and emotions toward the people in that randomly-selected household (it would not be easy to randomly select a very young child who could convincingly feign great joy at being reunited with total strangers, for example, no less persuade one to insist on staying with the strangers). See additional comments.
The most recent Gallup poll shows 20% of Americans believing in reincarnation, down a full 5% from the 2001 poll [note this was in June 2005; a November 2005 poll has risen to 21%]. I have no explanation for the result, assuming it is not a polling artifact of some kind. Perhaps current political upheavals and disasters are driving people back into familiar religious beliefs, or the converse, driving them into cynicism about all beliefs. Meanwhile, a Harris poll from 2003 is quoted at 27% of Americans believing in reincarnation. One cause of these fluctuations may be that belief in reincarnation is generated partly by personal experiences, which cuts squarely across all demographic categories. Thus, if I am understanding statistics correctly, ordinary demographic categories wouldn't apply for this variable, and a larger than normal sample size would be required. A too-small sample size might inadvertently skew the results by capturing more or less people who had had these experiences. (Anyone versed in statistics, please correct me if I'm mistaken.) Here's a fascinating thought--the people who constructed the poll may, perhaps, assume that there is really no such thing as reincarnation--i.e., that it is simply and only a belief. Therefore, they built this subtle bias into the poll by not taking into account the possible variable of personal experience. Which goes to show that one's unconscious assumptions can skew even professional pollsters' results. I'm guessing they would be very surprised if they asked those people who profess belief in reincarnation, whether or not they had had a personal experience which proved reincarnation to them. See also the poll I maintain on the home page of this site, and the comments attached to that link. My poll (which cannot be directly compared with the Gallup or Harris polls) has gone up over time from 54% "firmly convinced" in reincarnation, to 55%, as of this writing on 10/08/06. See also this informal online "About" poll on assessments of the evidence for reincarnation.

Sometimes just out of curiosity, I search on the phrase
"In Another Life." This time I ran across this miniature painting
by the same name, for sale on ebay by the artist, "rfenton."
He writes he was just painting a modern house, and this is what
came out! He says he wishes he could have a studio there. I wonder...

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