Reincarnation

Cultură generală / Lider

by Paul Roland

Do you ever get the feeling that you don't quite belong to the present, or that you've lived before?

Reincarnation - the belief that we are all reborn many times - lies at the heart of many of the oldest religions, philosophies, and faiths. It is being recognized by more and more people today as the truth behind who we really are.

If you want evidence of reincarnation, you'll find it within these pages. Read about the children who identified long-dead family members from photographs they had never seen before, the sisters who could remember how they died, and the man who was a Confederate colonel in the American Civil War and still has the scars to prove it.

This book also includes:

• A self-regression exercise to help you find out who you once were
• Instructions to identify the physical symptoms of past-life trauma
• Out of body experiences, near death experiences, and how to heal the past
• Exclusive interviews with Carol Bowman, one of America's foremost past-life regression therapists, and celebrity regression specialist Lee Everett, who reveals some of the past lives of Elton John and Brian May

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Roland

Reviews

[Heikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reincarnation is one of the most interesting issues regarding human life.

Before we go into the review, you need to decide your attitude to the issue at this point. Are you of the opinion that a) there is no soul, or if there is, it disintegrates at death, b) the soul takes abode in either Heaven or Hell after death, or c) the soul is durable and survives to be born again.

My own take is that Option A is such a waste - all the experience collected during life is just thrown into the winds. Option B is a curious construct that doesn't work for me; if you don't believe in Hell, there's no need to escape it into Heaven. Option C works for me: nothing goes to waste in nature, and Man is part of it, so I rather like thinking souls get recycled too.

But then, on to the review. Paul Roland has written a very nice book on the subject. If you are an experienced reader, you may not find much new in this, but if this is your first foray into the subject, you can hardly find a better book to start with. It is a well-crafted and solemnly written journey into the esoteric.

The cover states that this book contains "Remarkable stories of people who recall past lives." That is true. It also contains a wonderful section that looks into history and the way major religions have viewed reincarnation in times past. It is refreshing to read such lucid and well-balanced text on, say, how early Christianity was completely at ease with reincarnation, until power struggles and bickering inside the Church caused it to be extracted from the Corpus.

As for the stories themselves, the author is careful not to state that any of these stories are true. They are just stories, in the same vein as the Bible too is a collection of stories, with no intrinsic truth value as such, but are out there for us to choose to believe them or not. This is in contrast to many other books where the authors state categorically that an instance of reincarnation is conclusively proven. That is not and probably never will be the case.

Some of the stories are from historical times, and there's a tad too many cases from the 1800s. I would like the book to have concentrated a bit more on modern times and tales. But an example of the stories that caught my eye, as one who has a long-standing interest in the Pacific air war, was that of a small boy, James Leininger, who stated he died as a fighter pilot over Chichi Jima in 1945. The boy started having nightmares at 3, and was able to tell his parents he died flying a Corsair from a carrier called Natoma Bay. He told his amazed parents he was formerly known as James Huston.

While some of his story has been debunked by skeptics in the Internet, and rightly so, some of the features escape explanation. He happened to name his three GI dolls Walter, Leon, and Billie, and when his parents tracked down survivor comrades of the pilot the boy claimed to be, the names were those of mates fallen before the demise of Huston. Coincidental statistics are formidable.

There are also interesting stories of people who have been cured of illnesses, when they have learned of a traumatic experience in a past life. For example, one who had trouble breathing, found in regression that he'd been buried alive at a construction site. You may now say it's mental placebo; if sugar pills cure real ailments, surely this can happen too? I agree. But the cures are impressive nevertheless.

Another interesting feature of the book is the section on well known people with an interest in reincarnation. Henry Ford is on record here as saying, "Genius is experience. [...] it is the fruit of long experience in many lives." General Patton's talent in strategy was known to all, but he ascribed it to having served as a soldier in many armies over the centuries.

This is such an interesting issue that I do ask all of you to look into it. Is it true? You be the judge.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, detailed account of reincarnation, starting from world religious belief and ending with a past-life regression you can try yourself. There were some new perspectives I hadn't seen discussed in such volumes before. However, the two main flaws with this book are that 1. the author presents case studies and other things as "fact" but does not cite his sources; and 2. he barely touches on the sceptic's view and counters it with little more than a few glib comments - wouldn't it be better to play devil's advocate and debate the topic properly with opposing arguments? This would be a far more effective way to convince doubting minds.

[Michael Travis Travis Jasper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This non-fiction book on the topic of reincarnation is a quick easy read about past and present beliefs on the subject in religions and according to therapists and doctors. It recounts tales of past life memories and regressions with varying degrees of evidence. Many stories are quite convincing. Good introduction to the subject.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book briefly covers different religious views on reincarnation, looks at historical cases and more recent ones, while providing insights from a number of Jungian psychologists on the topic. If you take this with a pinch of salt, it's quite enjoyable.

[Andrea Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll give it three stars out of five. I did not read that last chapter.

[Ludmila Draghici · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book was a gift but it's hard to read, no fact checks, poorly designed.

[Louisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A highly interesting, very well researched and balanced book on reincarnation. What gives this book it’s value is its evaluation of the arguments against the plausibility of reincarnation, thus seeming less ‘new age’ and more balanced. It also supports the arguments for the existence of reincarnation with a variety of strong and fascinating cases. I didn’t care too much for the first section which evaluates various religions and their take on the subject but after this when the book moves onto evidence it gets really interesting!

[Savannah Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

First chapter explaining the history of reincarnation throughout time is so many references to scripture from different religions. Understandable as to why it is in there for context but it was a bit overwhelming. Throughout the rest of the book, it is very much written like an essay. Lots of quoting, references, things of that nature. I think it’s good to ensure you have that frame of mind prior to reading it.

[sequoia spirit · Rating 3 out of 5]

a quick read.. the first part of the history of reincarnation didn't interest me.. religion and such, nah.. i did like the quoted stories of people recounting their experiences with reincarnation.. it is a subject that greatly interests me, but more so of how to regress myself.. i suppose i'm looking for something more of a workshop type book..
anyway, interesting enough, but not completely captivating..

[Peregrine 12 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd never read a book on reincarnation before, so this was interesting to me. Some of the writing wasn't that great and the book starts off with the premise that everyone is either curious about reincarnation or in denial of it, but aside from that the book presents several different views on the topic. It's interesting, but in no way meant to be a scientific text.

[Sherry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting book about a subject in which I am very interested. It had the right recipe of information but something was lacking. The stories and quotes included were interesting but seemed to lack substance. Since the subject has always fascinated me, I thought the book would too but it didn't do much to grab my attention.

[Catherine Buchan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. It challenges people's ideas about the after life and reincarnation.

[Nancy Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good enough

This book covers a lot of ground so I think it's a good book for people just learning about reincarnation. It's good but the transitions felt a bit choppy.