Books: Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian L. Weiss, M.D.

My aesthetician recommended this book to me, knowing that I have a passing interest in past lives and the spiritual. It is, apparently, a cornerstone book in reincarnation literature. And anyway, I recognized Dr. Weiss' name from those Past Life Oracle Cards.

This book in particular is Dr. Weiss' story of a patient named Catherine who came to him with many severe phobias (he's a psychiatrist), and when traditional therapy was not working, hypnotic regression was tried. These regressions revealed not only Catherine's childhood but past lives as well. And sometimes "Masters" would come through and tell Dr. Weiss things about life beyond this one.

I honestly don't know what I think about all this.

On the one hand, I have a natural resistance (or maybe it's a resistance that has been bred into me by my religious upbringing and the world at large). But then, Dr. Weiss exhibits this same hesitancy when he writes about what was happening with Catherine. He goes through the logical possibilities and can find no other explanation than: It's true. Reincarnation is real, and there are spirit guides and Masters on another plane that are there to help us and teach us.

Of course, this is just one woman. She could have been a fluke. But Dr. Weiss claims at the end of this book to have since regressed others into past lives as well.

These past few years, I've been plumbing the depths of my own spirituality and intuition. I can put myself into a trance state, and I've experienced some interesting things that may have been past lives. I guess there's always that iota of doubt. As a writer, I sometimes wonder if I'm "making stuff up." But these things look and feel different from my imagination. And I've had many psychics tell me I should trust what I'm seeing and feeling and sensing. (I've also had them tell me that sometimes, the stories I'm writing that just have to come out, may be based on past life experiences. Um . . .)

And maybe my "Masters" are represented by the weird little pantheon of celebrities that turn up in my dreams to tell me things.

I'd like to maybe have a professional regression some day. Just to see what that's like and how it differs, see if anything different surfaces.

I'm not going to rule on this one way or another. At the very least, I think Dr. Weiss has written an interesting book, one that is food for thought. And if it makes people a little less frightened of death and "what comes after," he's done the world a service.

I know he's written a number of other books since. Don't know if I'll read them. It's a lot to chew over, so I'm not ready for another big meal just yet. (And then again, if it's more of the same, I'd rather eat something else in the meantime.)