Review: Many Lives, Many Masters
November 13, 2008 by akemi · 17 Comments
Through a few synchronicities, I found myself picking up a copy of Dr. Brian Weiss’ classic Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives. In fact, mine is a Japanese translation – it is worldwide famous classic.
Scientist meets reincarnation
Dr. Brian Weiss was the head of the psychiatry department at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach when, in 1980, he met a patient who would change his life. He is also the graduate of Columbia University and Yale Medical School. Because of his background, he was only interested in things that can be proven scientifically. Not the type who would subscribe to New Age stuffs, you know.
He used conventional psychiatric therapy on this patient for 18 months and saw no real progress. Then he tried hypnotherapy.
What happened was something he found hard to accept as a doctor and scientist: His patient started recalling her past lives during the hypnotherapy. She also pointed out critical facts about his personal life that she had no way to know. Further, she channeled messages from the “masters” that she could connect in the time between physical incarnations.
I am emphasizing his educational and professional background because I know so many people are skeptical about New Age stuff like reincarnation, thinking it is not scientific. While it is not scientifically proven yet, it has been observed by many sane and well-educated scientists like Dr. Weiss.
Why the New Age is not a New Age at all
Dr. Weiss also addresses the issues many people with Christian or Jewish faith have about reincarnation. He explains the historical manipulation to the Bible by Roman Emperor Constantine. According to him, there were descriptions in the Bible until then that support the idea of reincarnation.
I’m glad I read this part because I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who told me that, as a Catholic, she was taught not to believe in reincarnation. Just like churches use to teach not to believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution. (What, they still do?) Until then, I thought many people are skeptical about reincarnation because it is not proven in modern science – I didn’t know there was religious restrictions.
The so-called New Age is not new at all. It is millennium old. It just has been covered up by certain authorities for a long time. We are now rediscovering what our wise ancestors knew both in the eastern and western worlds. (Reincarnation is a basic idea in Buddhism.)
Masters, angels, spirit guides
This book is not only great introduction to past life regression therapy and the idea of reincarnation, but also contains fascinating messages from the “Masters”. Some people may call them angels or spirit guides. These are truly wise messages for life.
Guided by these Masters, Dr. Weiss comes to the realization that each soul chooses the birth setting (time, place, the parents) and the life lessons for the upcoming lifetime. When it completes the lessons, it can leave. Souls need to incarnate as physical beings because there are certain lessons that can only be learned as physical beings.
The meaning of life from the soul’s perspective
This is deep. We usually think of life from the live already-born person’s perspective. Few of us stop and think why we came to be born. We are born already, and before we notice, we are caught up with what’s called life. Most of the time, we are buried in the superficial aspects of life – what to wear to work today, what’s for dinner, what to do this weekend, whether we have enough money, etc. etc.
Even when we have enough resources to realize the importance of setting goals and improving our life and ourselves, we think from the same current perspective – for example, I want to grow my business to certain level so that I can enjoy some material wealth, I want to travel more to see the world firsthand, I want to enrich my social life more, I want to eat healthy and stay fit, etc. etc.
But have we thought about the deeper meaning of life from the soul’s perspective? Why did your soul choose to incarnate this time? What lessons did your soul want to learn in this lifetime? Why did you choose your specific birth setting? How did your birth setting help you learn the lessons you intended to learn? How are you progressing in your lessons? What lessons are left to be learned in this lifetime?
The issue of life and death
Dr. Weiss says the biggest fear of humans is the fear of death, and this understanding – that souls incarnate many times – can alleviate this fear. Maybe. To me, however, I’m more afraid of failing to learn the lessons I have placed on myself before birth. Does that mean I have to live on and on or come back to go through the lessons again in my next lifetime? Like a failed student? (No way!)
I’m seriously reviewing my life progress from the soul’s perspective. This book was like a wakeup call for me. It’s not like I’ve been living lazily without goals – I consider myself to be conscious and awake. But still I feel the need to review the goals themselves from the soul’s perspective.
