Last winter when I visited friends in Hawaii, I came across a remarkable book on their
bookshelf: Many Lives Many Masters by Brian Weiss. It is a true story about a prominent psychiatrist and his patient who were both changed by the patient’s past-life memories. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested metaphysics. It is a thought-provoking, fascinating story that took courage to write.
Catherine came to see Dr. Weiss because she was plagued by fears, phobias and anxieties that were keeping her from living a happy, fulfilled life. After 18 months Dr. Weiss had still not made any significant progress treating her, so he tried regressing her to her childhood through hypnosis. She remembered some childhood trauma, but she didn’t get any better. So Dr. Weiss told her to go back to the time when her symptoms arose and she began telling him in great detail about a past life.
Neither Catherine or Dr. Weiss believed in reincarnation. Weiss was skeptical at first but as Catherine continued to remember past lives his doubts eroded. Catherine’s past-life recalls occurred in many time periods and she was both male and female. In all of them, she was an ordinary person: a servant, soldier or peasant. Many of her lives were hard and her deaths brutal, such as having her throat cut or drowning in a flood. However, it was remarkable that as she remembered these lives she started healing from her fears and anxieties.
Dr. Weiss began to research past lives and learned about Ian Stevenson who interviewed 2,000 children with past-life recall. Weiss also discovered references to past lives in the Old and New Testaments that were taken out in 325 A. D. by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Still it took him awhile to fully embrace the idea of past lives. He studied them as a scientist would, and kept detailed records of his sessions with Catherine.
Interestingly in one session Catherine told Weiss that he was her uncle and teacher in 1568 B.C. It became apparent that it wasn’t an accident that she and Weiss came together in this life.
In each lifetime, Weiss would take her to the moment of death and she would float out of her body, toward a light where guides or spiritual masters were always waiting for her. Even though her deaths experiences were similar, her religious beliefs about the afterlife were different in each lifetime.
As well as remembering past lives, Catherine began to talk about her in-between–lives state. In that state Catherine could channel guides or masters who spoke to Weiss. Once they gave her a message from Weiss’s father and son, both of who had died. The son had died as an infant from a heart defect and had come to show Dr. Weiss “that medicine could only go so far, that its scope is limited.” (p. 55)
From these inner guides Weiss learned that “we are all in school… (and) No one is greater than another.” (p. 210) We learn a “systematic body of spiritual knowledge. This knowledge spoke of love and hope, faith, and charity.” (p. 172)
From these past-life memories, Catherine got rid of her symptoms and became a much happier person. Meanwhile Weiss had a spiritual awakening and eventually felt guided to write this book about what he’d learned. He thought it would comfort people to know that we never die, that we have lived countess life times, and there are spirits that are guiding us.
Dr. Weiss has written many other books about his experiences with patients remembering past lives. You can check out his website at: http://www.brianweiss.com.
I also found an interesting You Tube video interview with Dr. Weiss Entreparentesis – Dr. Brian Weiss.
In this You Tube Weiss explains that consciousness survives death and that everything is about love. In each life we have to come back here to get it right, but eventually we move to a higher place.
Knowing that our loved ones never really die helps people find joy. In one of his past lives Dr. Weiss was killed for talking about past lives. But in this life he feels incredibly blessed to be able to share this information and in return he meets wonderful people all over this planet.
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This is a great book and it gives clear documented info that we’ve lived before. I had a problem that wasn’t resolving. I had a dream about a past life that showed me why I was struggling with this issue. Understanding the past helped me to move through my fears around taking next step. I feel more a peace and able to move forward in my life.
Thank you for sharing, Laura. Remembering past lives can be very healing. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out where a fear comes from. I knew a child who was afraid to cross bridges. I suspect that fear is connected to a past life. My niece used to wake up crying as a child. In her past life her family died in a fire while she was staying overnight at a friend’s house.
I too have explored my past lives, one in which I was killed for publishing a book and my family were jailed and killed as well. This explains why they all had an animosity toward me about my careers choices. I had a natural writing ability since childhood, love reading, and had an awareness as early as seven-years-old that I would write books. This is only one past life that influenced my life today. And knowing what influenced the fears of the past, helped me heal and find courage to move forward and live this life more fully.
Great story, Darlene. It’s interesting how your past life had such a strong impact on this life.
Very good stepping stones for others to see part of the big picture, and that it is very real…
Great u-tube video. Funny how most seem to be from New Jersey,ha,ha!