Reincarnation: Fact or Fiction?
Posted by Maureen
My first book had to be a paranormal romantic suspense. But which aspects of the paranormal would I select? It was a no-brainer. Like a homing pigeon, I pinpointed reincarnation coupled with an ancient race’s religious belief in shape-shifting.
Here’s the thing. While embarking on my spiritual journey ten years ago, I read a fascinating book entitled Many Lives, Many Masters written by Dr. Brian Weiss, renowned psychiatrist. This book is a case study describing one of Dr. Weiss’ patients whose mysterious ailments disappeared when, using hypnosis, he regressed her into the past lives where traumas had occurred. Intrigued, I started researching the notion of reincarnation, reading voraciously, talking to energy healers, and even undergoing a couple of regressions under the competent care of a qualified hypnotherapist.
Armed with personal experience and a ton of research, I incorporated reincarnation along with the notion of both karmic and genetic memory in my first book, The Jaguar Legacy. Here’s the gist of my paranormal concept: Triggered by the energy of the archaeological dig, my heroine makes an unnerving discovery: In her past life, she was an Olmec High Priestess, trained to kill at an early age, thirsty for power, and possessing the paranormal ability to shape-shift into a jaguar.
As I wrote the flashback scenes, it occurred to me that the past life I wrote about in The Jaguar Legacy was one of my own. Certainly, it was the part of the book that flowed most easily, the only part that required little or no editing. Not only did the flashbacks evolve painlessly, but while writing those scenes, I discovered many facets of the physical location I had been unaware of at the beginning of the book.
Only my imagination? Possibly. I don’t rule out the possibility, but in my heart, I think not.
I would love to hear about your thoughts on reincarnation (pro and con), even some of your own past life experiences (those of you who remember them).