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The Case for Reincarnation
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The idea of reincarnation - the belief that the soul continues after death to be reborn into a new body - is becoming an important alternative for the modern consciousness, helping people to gain a profound new understanding of their behavior, their thoughts, and their purpose in life. Some popular public figures, like Shirley MacLaine, have dared to speak openly of their past lives, but many of us wonder what legitimate evidence for reincarnation exists and how it can offer a provocative new direction for our world.
Now, in this carefully researched and fascinating volume, author Joe Fisher looks at the ancient origins of the belief in rebirth, its place in religion, and its relationship to the new physics. He gives testimony from leading experts in hypnotic regression and past-life therapy about the life-changing results of their work. He interviews the world's top reincarnation investigators and reports their startling findings, particularly the documented cases of infants who recall past lives. And he shows how nay individual can learn about his or her previous incarnations with specific exercises to stimulate the "Magical Memory"... and what exciting possibilities for positive change these revelations can bring to our lives and our times.
The idea of reincarnation - the belief that the soul continues after death to be reborn into a new body - is becoming an important alternative for the modern consciousness, helping people to gain a profound new understanding of their behavior, their thoughts, and their purpose in life. Some popular public figures, like Shirley MacLaine, have dared to speak openly of their past lives, but many of us wonder what legitimate evidence for reincarnation exists and how it can offer a provocative new direction for our world.
Now, in this carefully researched and fascinating volume, author Joe Fisher looks at the ancient origins of the belief in rebirth, its place in religion, and its relationship to the new physics. He gives testimony from leading experts in hypnotic regression and past-life therapy about the life-changing results of their work. He interviews the world's top reincarnation investigators and reports their startling findings, particularly the documented cases of infants who recall past lives. And he shows how nay individual can learn about his or her previous incarnations with specific exercises to stimulate the "Magical Memory"... and what exciting possibilities for positive change these revelations can bring to our lives and our times.
- GenresSpiritualityNonfiction
280 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1998
5 people are currently reading
130 people want to read
About the author
Joe Fisher
44 books10 followersJoe Fisher, 53, author of The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts, died on Wednesday, May 9, 2001, by jumping off a limestone cliff at Elora Gorge, near his hometown of Fergus, Ontario, Canada. A variety of personal problems, including a growing list of unpaid bills for the writer, appeared to have pushed him over the edge. In one of his last communications with his editor-in-chief, Patrick Huyghe at Paraview Books, Fisher noted that the spirits were still after him for having written his final book.
Joe Fisher was an investigative writer specializing in metaphysical topics. His books had sold more than one million copies in 22 languages.
Andrew Joseph Fisher was born and educated in England; he held dual citizenship with Canada, his home base since 1971. He regularly gave workshops and seminars based on his explorations into the supernatural.
A veteran broadcaster who gave more than 200 radio and television interviews on his work, Fisher started his career as a junior reporter on The Staffordshire Advertiser where he became, at 22 years of age, the youngest news editor in England. After emigrating to Canada, he worked as an investigative reporter and feature writer for both The Toronto Sun and The Toronto Star. His journalistic stints were interspersed with excursions to Greece, Ireland, Ecuador, Morocco and Peru where he pursued personal writing projects. At Ecuador's Colegio Americano in Quito, he taught English and composed journals which were later edited for the book Cotopaxi Visions: Travels in Ecuador.
In 1981, Joe Fisher left daily journalism to concentrate on writing books and freelance articles. Since then, he has traveled widely (Australia and Antarctica are recent destinations) and contributed to periodicals ranging from Canada's national dailies, The National Post and The Globe & Mail, to magazines including Outpost, Equinox, Ocean Drive and Life & Soul.
Joe Fisher's books included the contemporary metaphysical classics The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts, Life Between Life, The Case For Reincarnation and Predictions. While His Holiness The Dalai Lama wrote the preface to The Case For Reincarnation, film rights to Hungry Ghosts have been optioned to a Los Angeles film company which is moving towards production.
For five years, Fisher painstakingly investigated the claims of channelers and the mysterious voices that speak through them. The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts, his last book, is his gripping journey into a realm of darkness and deception. The revised edition includes a new foreword by Colin Wilson, and an epilogue that updates events since the book was first published in the U.K. a decade ago.
In 1987, Fisher was presented with The Leask Award by The Spiritual Science Institute of Canada for "making an outstanding contribution to the field of spiritual awareness."
Many in the publishing community, as well as friends of Fisher's, are expressing shock at his death. A Fergus-area friend, writer Sheila O'Hearn said: "He believed in giving of himself for other people. He felt, for him, that's what life was all about." Her husband, Ray Krzyzanowski remarked: "He's going to be really missed. He was my only real friend here. I'm going to miss him.'
Fisher's family have decided there will be no services.
--Loren Coleman
http://www.anomalist.com/milestones/f...
Joe Fisher was an investigative writer specializing in metaphysical topics. His books had sold more than one million copies in 22 languages.
Andrew Joseph Fisher was born and educated in England; he held dual citizenship with Canada, his home base since 1971. He regularly gave workshops and seminars based on his explorations into the supernatural.
A veteran broadcaster who gave more than 200 radio and television interviews on his work, Fisher started his career as a junior reporter on The Staffordshire Advertiser where he became, at 22 years of age, the youngest news editor in England. After emigrating to Canada, he worked as an investigative reporter and feature writer for both The Toronto Sun and The Toronto Star. His journalistic stints were interspersed with excursions to Greece, Ireland, Ecuador, Morocco and Peru where he pursued personal writing projects. At Ecuador's Colegio Americano in Quito, he taught English and composed journals which were later edited for the book Cotopaxi Visions: Travels in Ecuador.
In 1981, Joe Fisher left daily journalism to concentrate on writing books and freelance articles. Since then, he has traveled widely (Australia and Antarctica are recent destinations) and contributed to periodicals ranging from Canada's national dailies, The National Post and The Globe & Mail, to magazines including Outpost, Equinox, Ocean Drive and Life & Soul.
Joe Fisher's books included the contemporary metaphysical classics The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts, Life Between Life, The Case For Reincarnation and Predictions. While His Holiness The Dalai Lama wrote the preface to The Case For Reincarnation, film rights to Hungry Ghosts have been optioned to a Los Angeles film company which is moving towards production.
For five years, Fisher painstakingly investigated the claims of channelers and the mysterious voices that speak through them. The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts, his last book, is his gripping journey into a realm of darkness and deception. The revised edition includes a new foreword by Colin Wilson, and an epilogue that updates events since the book was first published in the U.K. a decade ago.
In 1987, Fisher was presented with The Leask Award by The Spiritual Science Institute of Canada for "making an outstanding contribution to the field of spiritual awareness."
Many in the publishing community, as well as friends of Fisher's, are expressing shock at his death. A Fergus-area friend, writer Sheila O'Hearn said: "He believed in giving of himself for other people. He felt, for him, that's what life was all about." Her husband, Ray Krzyzanowski remarked: "He's going to be really missed. He was my only real friend here. I'm going to miss him.'
Fisher's family have decided there will be no services.
--Loren Coleman
http://www.anomalist.com/milestones/f...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 14, 2023
A ‘POSITIVE’ ASSESSMENT OF THE EVIDENCE FOR REINCARNATION
Author Joe Fisher wrote in the Foreword of this 1984 book, “Scientific proof of reincarnation, it is claimed, is no more than fifteen years away… Yet scientific proof will never be more convincing than the pilot light which, fueled by the need for rebirth, burns in the human soul. [This book] however, will not be relying on subjective testimony. Evidence will be drawn from empirical research, medical assessment, spiritual wisdom, metaphysical investigation, historical record, mystical perception and wide ranging contemporary experience. The book endeavors to show that knowledge of rebirth expands our vision of who we are as all as granting greater meaning to our role in the universal order.”
He continues, ‘Because the human race is beleaguered by impending world crises, reincarnation has never appealed so forcefully to the psyche… Westerners are being drawn to enrich their lives through a greater understanding of the ancient wisdom. Many are intrigued, initially, by the revelations of past-life therapy, the research findings of medical professionals and the implications of the so-called new physics… [This book] defines and explains this instinct, and pursues its significance for modern humanity.”
He reports, “Infant claims of past-life memory from Alaska to Zaire have lured Dr. Ian Stevenson and Hemendra Banerjee around the world countless times. In fact, these two men… for more than two decades have pioneered scientific study into childhood memory that defies ordinary understanding… Assisted by a team of researchers, Stevenson has more than 2,000 child cases filed on computer at his Department of Parapsychology.” (Pg. 18)
He states, ‘Medical experts have attempted to explain child wonders by pointing to glandular abnormalities that cause certain parts of the nervous system to reach peak activity in advance of other bodily areas. That most prodigies are male and infantile gland disorders are mainly found in boys, tends to support this view. Yet the phenomena can only be partially explained by a purely physical interpretation. It’s worth noting that Edgar Cayce and other clairvoyant investigators are in agreement that the glands are the primary agents of karma, the impersonal and ongoing thrust of cause and effect integral to the doctrine of rebirth.” (Pg. 28-29)
He asserts, “The clinical validity of past-life therapy has been established beyond doubt. With increasing regularity over the last thirty years, hundreds of thousands of suffering people have been lulled into altered states of consciousness and guided through the veil of time to re-live, or view with detached wonderment, critical episode of former existences. What they experience is another, superimposed reality fraught with all the immediacy of the therapist’s couch…” (Pg. 35)
He laments, “There was a time when all human beings, being clairvoyant, perceived the process of rebirth as clearly as they understood physical reality. Having a direct line to the supersensible worlds, people were fully aware of the cosmic circumstances, including the necessity of repeated earth lives. But somewhere in the lost reaches of prehistoric antiquity, having arrived at the crossroads of choice, humans elected to tread the path of spiritual degeneration---fossilized in legend as the Fall of Man---and gradually surrendered this preternatural power of clairvoyance. From then on, knowledge of reincarnation gave way to faith and to belief.” (Pg. 51)
He argues, “most Christians are unaware that reincarnation was ever considered seriously by the church. But the fact remains that before Christianity became a vehicle for the imperial ambitions of Roman emperors, rebirth was widely accepted among the persecuted faithful. Taught by a number of early church fathers and treasured by the Christian Gnostics, a movement in the apostolic tradition dedicated to preserving and promulgating the esoteric teachings of Jesus Christ, reincarnation was seen as consistent with Old and New Testament scripture and complementary to the idea of personal salvation through Jesus Christ.” (Pg. 65-66)
He suggests, “As much as the suicidal personality feels able to escape the world by getting rid of the body, reincarnation’s revolving door ensures that all hope of dissolution is sort-lived… How to stifle the self-destructive impulse? The only lasting antidote lies in the recognition that life, not oblivion, waits beyond the last heartbeat. As seductive as suicide might be to the deeply despairing, evolution will not be denied presumptuously.' (Pg. 116)
He points out, “Although the lives of well-heeled criminals and poverty-stricken saints suggest a dearth of justice in the world, justice becomes apparent in the wider context granted by a succession of existences. Only through many lives can joy and misery and the glaring inequalities of life be justified.” (Pg, 160)
He concludes, “the urgency and anxiety springing from the race against time evaporate when we realize we have all the time and all the lives we need. Eternity is our heritage and reincarnation, requiring worldly time for its expression, gives time freely. To steep oneself in infinity brings nothing but exhilaration.” (Pg. 162)
This book will interest many of those studying reincarnation.
Author Joe Fisher wrote in the Foreword of this 1984 book, “Scientific proof of reincarnation, it is claimed, is no more than fifteen years away… Yet scientific proof will never be more convincing than the pilot light which, fueled by the need for rebirth, burns in the human soul. [This book] however, will not be relying on subjective testimony. Evidence will be drawn from empirical research, medical assessment, spiritual wisdom, metaphysical investigation, historical record, mystical perception and wide ranging contemporary experience. The book endeavors to show that knowledge of rebirth expands our vision of who we are as all as granting greater meaning to our role in the universal order.”
He continues, ‘Because the human race is beleaguered by impending world crises, reincarnation has never appealed so forcefully to the psyche… Westerners are being drawn to enrich their lives through a greater understanding of the ancient wisdom. Many are intrigued, initially, by the revelations of past-life therapy, the research findings of medical professionals and the implications of the so-called new physics… [This book] defines and explains this instinct, and pursues its significance for modern humanity.”
He reports, “Infant claims of past-life memory from Alaska to Zaire have lured Dr. Ian Stevenson and Hemendra Banerjee around the world countless times. In fact, these two men… for more than two decades have pioneered scientific study into childhood memory that defies ordinary understanding… Assisted by a team of researchers, Stevenson has more than 2,000 child cases filed on computer at his Department of Parapsychology.” (Pg. 18)
He states, ‘Medical experts have attempted to explain child wonders by pointing to glandular abnormalities that cause certain parts of the nervous system to reach peak activity in advance of other bodily areas. That most prodigies are male and infantile gland disorders are mainly found in boys, tends to support this view. Yet the phenomena can only be partially explained by a purely physical interpretation. It’s worth noting that Edgar Cayce and other clairvoyant investigators are in agreement that the glands are the primary agents of karma, the impersonal and ongoing thrust of cause and effect integral to the doctrine of rebirth.” (Pg. 28-29)
He asserts, “The clinical validity of past-life therapy has been established beyond doubt. With increasing regularity over the last thirty years, hundreds of thousands of suffering people have been lulled into altered states of consciousness and guided through the veil of time to re-live, or view with detached wonderment, critical episode of former existences. What they experience is another, superimposed reality fraught with all the immediacy of the therapist’s couch…” (Pg. 35)
He laments, “There was a time when all human beings, being clairvoyant, perceived the process of rebirth as clearly as they understood physical reality. Having a direct line to the supersensible worlds, people were fully aware of the cosmic circumstances, including the necessity of repeated earth lives. But somewhere in the lost reaches of prehistoric antiquity, having arrived at the crossroads of choice, humans elected to tread the path of spiritual degeneration---fossilized in legend as the Fall of Man---and gradually surrendered this preternatural power of clairvoyance. From then on, knowledge of reincarnation gave way to faith and to belief.” (Pg. 51)
He argues, “most Christians are unaware that reincarnation was ever considered seriously by the church. But the fact remains that before Christianity became a vehicle for the imperial ambitions of Roman emperors, rebirth was widely accepted among the persecuted faithful. Taught by a number of early church fathers and treasured by the Christian Gnostics, a movement in the apostolic tradition dedicated to preserving and promulgating the esoteric teachings of Jesus Christ, reincarnation was seen as consistent with Old and New Testament scripture and complementary to the idea of personal salvation through Jesus Christ.” (Pg. 65-66)
He suggests, “As much as the suicidal personality feels able to escape the world by getting rid of the body, reincarnation’s revolving door ensures that all hope of dissolution is sort-lived… How to stifle the self-destructive impulse? The only lasting antidote lies in the recognition that life, not oblivion, waits beyond the last heartbeat. As seductive as suicide might be to the deeply despairing, evolution will not be denied presumptuously.' (Pg. 116)
He points out, “Although the lives of well-heeled criminals and poverty-stricken saints suggest a dearth of justice in the world, justice becomes apparent in the wider context granted by a succession of existences. Only through many lives can joy and misery and the glaring inequalities of life be justified.” (Pg, 160)
He concludes, “the urgency and anxiety springing from the race against time evaporate when we realize we have all the time and all the lives we need. Eternity is our heritage and reincarnation, requiring worldly time for its expression, gives time freely. To steep oneself in infinity brings nothing but exhilaration.” (Pg. 162)
This book will interest many of those studying reincarnation.
December 28, 2021
Easily my favorite book of all time. Insanely informative. Explains the cultural history of reincarnation and looks at it through a different lens in each chapter (for example, it looks at reincarnation in the bible in one chapter). Also offers a lot of case studies that support the authors message. Sometimes it feels a little too much like it’s trying to convince you instead of educate, but theres so much great info in this tiny little book- I’m not even mad about it. This book really helped shaped the way I think, how I treat the people around me, and how I approach life in general. I highly recommend The Case for Reincarnation if you are going through something and are feeling overwhelmed in life, or if you just need a spiritual revival- everyone should have this on their shelves!!!!!!!!! xoxo
January 3, 2009
Easily one of the best, most interesting books on reincarnation I've read. Shame it's not more well known.
March 21, 2023
An interesting account of reincarnation and the various beliefs surrounding it. It didn't dwell on just one point of view but gave a good overview of the subject.
July 21, 2011
Preface by the Dalai Lama
October 10, 2012
Excellent book that is a comprehensive review on reincarnation by looking at the ancient origins, it's place in religion and it's relationship to the known laws of physics in the early 1980's.
February 3, 2017
Interessante saggio su un argomento che non mi è consono, e che ho voluto appunto approfondire.
Qua e là ho notato delle piccole incongruenze, forse frutto degli studi durati anni.
Qua e là ho notato delle piccole incongruenze, forse frutto degli studi durati anni.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews