Out on a Limb?

Various Books on Reincarnation

- Back in 1986 I remember being fascinated with Shirley MacLaine’s third autobiography “Out on a Limb.” In it she began writing about her past lives and other paranormal experiences. These ideas shocked a lot of people but at the same time seeded a new public awareness and began a discussion about reincarnation and the meaning of life. Shortly thereafter I was able to meet Shirley in person when I visited her on the set of the Oprah Winfrey Show!

A couple of years later in 1988 Brian Weiss released his famous blockbuster, Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives, which further opened the door to discussion on this important topic.

In the mid-1990s I began to hear about the regression hypnotherapy work of Dolores Cannon. At the time she was learning to employ somnambulistic subjects to get in touch with long “dead” individuals such as Nostradamus. Her work actually started in the late 1960’s when she and her husband who was a trained hypnotherapist, began working with a woman who asked them to take her back into her own past lives. They had never done this sort of thing, but gave it a try and the result was a mass of detailed past-life material that eventually became her book, Five Lives Remembered! This is not well known but makes for an excellent and very convincing read!

In the 1930s Edgar Cayce briefly delved into the topic of prior lives during some of the readings he gave while in a deep trance state. What makes what he revealed in some cases even more credible is the fact that as a devout Sunday School teacher and a Christian, in his waking consciousness, he would never have believed in reincarnation on a bet! So we know he was not making anything up!

In 1956 the famous book, The Search for Bridey Murphy, by Morey Bernstein was published. It created a sensation and most likely was the biggest catalyst to ignite widespread discussion about reincarnation.

While Cayce, Bernstein, Cannon and Weiss can be considered modern day publicists of regression hypnotherapy, my vote goes to A.R. Martin, who is almost unknown today. George Schwimmer, a noted regressionist, had this to say about Mr. Martin, “Although past-life regression is considered by many to be a fairly recent technique, A.R. Martin began conducting past-life regressions sixty-five years ago, the first person known to do so in the United States. His ground-breaking research, book, and conclusions are important in understanding that the core of life is spiritual, that we come to Earth repeatedly to learn needed lessons, and that the purpose of past-life recall is to help us to grow spiritually.”

Researches into Reincarnation and Beyond by A.R. Martin. (Rare Book) Mr. Martin conducted his pioneering work into regression hypnotherapy back in the early 1930s. He was self-taught and conducted something like 500 regressions, most of which were recorded by his steno-graphically trained daughters, as they did not have a convenient means of sound recording back then. I own a copy of his one and only book, Researches in Reincarnation and Beyond, of which only 1,000 copies were published.

In Shirley MacLaine’s book she told of a woman who was afraid of bearing a child. When the woman went to Cayce about her fear, he informed her that in an earlier life she’d been a frontier wife in the American West whose children had been killed in an Indian raid. This information enabled the woman to bear children without undue anxiety.

She offered another example. Cayce, she said, once was asked about Judas Iscariot. Sparrow said Cayce revealed that the soul of Judas, the betrayer of Christ, was at that moment inhabiting the body of a man then alive. “But he said the man (with Judas’ soul) was leading a constructive life, and it would have been devastating for him to learn who he once had been.”

In my own more recent experience, we were able to interview Dena Oller, (YouTube Video Interview Link) one of Dolores Cannon’s certified regression hypnotherapists, which they call the QHHT (Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique). Here is her report of a recent healing session.

Third Eye Healing “Regression therapy is an amazing healing tool. Clients come to have sessions for various reasons. Some are just seekers to fulfill a curiosity while others for a healing. Whatever the reason, the journey through the process is magical. Like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. I know that sounds cliché but it’s true! Before a session I ask my clients to bring a list of ten questions they want answers to.

A few weeks ago a client came to me for a session, she brought her ten questions. One of the questions was about her third eye. She wanted to know if something had happened in a past-life that affected her psychic ability to “see.” She participates in shamanic journeying and wanted to have the same exciting experiences as the other people in the group were having.

During our session I asked her to go to the root cause of the issue she was having with her third eye, the pineal gland. I ask the client to go to the root cause because through cellular memory these experiences can follow us up through other lifetimes. She went to a lifetime where she was flying and the craft she was flying crashed and damaged the third eye.

A few weeks passed since her session when I received a call from her. She was almost too excited to get the words out! Over the weekend she went to a shamanic journey circle and her experience was like nothing she had experienced before. She could see and with great detail and color! She expressed her gratitude for the experience and the healing. Because of experiences like this and the impact this therapy has on someone’s life, past-life regression is an invaluable healing tool with endless possibilities.”

While her client’s experience may seem kind of “out there,” in my opinion, it is not “out on a limb,” it’s the type of experience which is starting to become more commonplace for many souls ‘having a human experience’ not only on planet Earth, but in other galaxies and planets as well!