reincarnation studies

[Kyle]

For a long time, I avoided labeling what I do as "reincarnation studies" but this is changing. I've been looking through lots of sites out there to find high-quality case studies of reincarnation, and I am truly surprised to see so much academic research as well as independent scholarship in this area. For instance, I found a site, reincarnationresearch.com, with some impressive case studies.

For one, did you know that Lady Gaga totally believes she is the reincarnation of her dear aunt Joanne who died at age 19? And there's a Swedish writer who has since age 2 been saying that she's Anne Frank reincarnated. I'm starting to look at some of these cases astrologically.

I'd be interested to know if anyone on this forum might have reincarnation-related stories to share. My own "kindred births" include an early American novelist and a psychiatrist who held therapy sessions with the recently departed, aided by his wife who served as the medium for these exchanges. Here's a piece I wrote about the novelist:


Even though I had never heard of him, Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) is generally regarded by scholars as the most important American novelist before James Fenimore Cooper. After surveying a few brief online bios, I ended up reading a more substantial biography that was published in 1822, 12 years after his death. This is part of the work I do these days, studying biographies of historical figures. But first, these figures must be found, and this is accomplished with the aid of astrological software to find potential kindred spirits or parallel lives, based on one's date of birth. I encountered Charles B. while studying my own birth.

Since childhood, Charles displayed a delicate constitution and a bookish, solitary nature. Perhaps he struggled with his restless talents, chafing at his own sense of familial duty that would one day lead him to study law. After completing law school, he turned his back on a profession that felt entirely wrong to him, to the disappointment of family and friends. But the strength of his calling to the writer's path was enough to overcome misgivings of his own or others. His novels gained him recognition on both sides of the Atlantic. Tragically, he died of tuberculosis before reaching forty, but his legacy as the first substantial American novelist lives on. Brown's novels are still topics of discussion and debate today.

We both were solitary sons who diverged from our expected paths, disappointed our parents, and followed our passions. His writing genre, now called American Gothic, tends toward the macabre – an early influence on Edgar Allen Poe – and suits the darker side of my imagination. He was a feminist and a Quaker; I am a feminist and a lapsed Buddhist. All of which is to say, some of my best friends are dead people, and I am happy to count Charles Brockden Brown among them.

[Kyle]

Does anyone know if Seth or Jane made any statements about Jane's more recent past lives? I believe Rob Butts wrote about ancient Roman times, but that's a long time ago.

[Deb]

How did you make a connection between you and Charles Brockden Brown, was it during hypnosis? How did you get a name?

I can't say I have any good stories about other incarnations of myself. I've had feelings come to me, almost like mental glimpses, of me being someone else but can't say for sure it's true. I've glimpsed myself as an old Asian male, living in a house on a platform that had rice paper walls; a female Native American running through woods; a young female tending a garden wearing a dress and apron and bonnet, with windmills on a distant hill.

I don't recall reading about Jane's more recent past lives, but I haven't read the Early or Personal sessions, just bits of them here and there. There was a dream she had where she was a 16th century nun in Normandy. It's mentioned in DE&VF2 (931), and later in PS06 Seth explains the dream. Since Jane struggled with the idea of reincarnation, she may have blocked Seth.

I've read enough stories about kids saying they were someone else, with details as far as a name, experiences and knowledge that checks out. The one that most impressed me was James Leininger, who said he was a reincarnated American pilot during WWII. I saw a video/documentary about him a year or two ago, and his memories have now faded.

https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/wp-content/uploads/sites/360/2017/04/REI42-Tucker-James-LeiningerPIIS1550830716000331.pdf

I couldn't find the original video, but this is probably enough info. He was older in the one I saw, stocky and bearded, and didn't seem to be too happy about his experience, he felt it affected his childhood in a negative way (as in "not normal").

[Kyle]

How did you make a connection between you and Charles Brockden Brown, was it during hypnosis? How did you get a name?

Hi Deb,

I found Charles B. by using astrological software that I wrote. Based on my planets at birth, it helps me find others with the same "planet figures" as in my chart. It shows a list of persons in Wikipedia who were born during a narrow time window. Please let me know if you might be curious to participate in something like this.

The Leininger case is really impressive, and thanks for these links. I've just rediscovered it because I never looked at that case astrologically before. In fact, it was the first case of its kind that I found, where there is so much evidence and where birthdates are available for both births. As for the thing we all want to know, yes, there is in fact a dramatic planetary correspondence between these two births, one that would happen by chance about once in 180 years. So I like to call this corroboration of the planetary sort, though it doesn't have to prove anything to me.

I also have to say that I did have a few regression sessions with a therapist many years ago, but I couldn't identify with the couple of characters that I came across in regression. I'm having much better findings doing it my way. natch.

[Deb]

I found Charles B. by using astrological software that I wrote.

That you wrote yourself! Now that's cool. 

Please let me know if you might be curious to participate in something like this.

Well, I might just be interested, I'm always curious. What's involved? While I don't know a thing about astrology, five years ago I was planning my first solo trip to Europe and was a little nervous. A friend recommended I have a chart/reading done by someone she swore by. I had a chart done in January (natal?), and then a follow up in June (solar?), about a week before my trip. I still have those, will PM them to you if you're curious. We did a phone consultation, and she was very accurate in what she told me. I wish I still had the recordings, I lost the one from the first session.

[Kyle]

I can't say I have any good stories about other incarnations of myself. I've had feelings come to me, almost like mental glimpses, of me being someone else but can't say for sure it's true. I've glimpsed myself as an old Asian male, living in a house on a platform that had rice paper walls; a female Native American running through woods; a young female tending a garden wearing a dress and apron and bonnet, with windmills on a distant hill.

I don't recall reading about Jane's more recent past lives, but I haven't read the Early or Personal sessions, just bits of them here and there. There was a dream she had where she was a 16th century nun in Normandy. It's mentioned in DE&VF2 (931), and later in PS06 Seth explains the dream. Since Jane struggled with the idea of reincarnation, she may have blocked Seth.

Deb, thanks for sharing your experiences. Your mental glimpses are about the same level of detail as my own from regression sessions. I got a glimpse of a Native American life also, in the Southwest. There was a terrifying flood in a canyon, maybe that was my death. This brings up another question: What does it mean when a child has a persistent fear or aversion about a certain kind of death? I remember being really scared as a child of dying in a fire or just being in a fire. I grew out of that, but later it made me wonder if that was a death memory.

I guess many of us in the West struggle with the idea of reincarnation; I certainly have, myself. It surprises me that Jane did, too, even though I know she was skeptical about many things that Seth said, at least in the early years. Maybe she never entirely lost that skepticism; that's one reason I'm drawn to her work.

[Tob]

(Does anyone know if Seth or Jane made any statements about Jane's more recent past lives? I believe Rob Butts wrote about ancient Roman times, but that's a long time ago.)

Boston, 19th century, session no 59

[Deb]

Boston, 19th century, session no 59

Holy cow, thank you, how on Earth did you remember that? That was one of the first books I read and I can't say I remember much of anything from it.

There are excerpts from Session 59 in ESP Power (Chapter 11), and the session is in TES2. If anyone doesn't already know this, you can download an abbreviated PDF version of Mary's spreadsheet containing ALL of the sessions, in date order, here.

Rob had been hypnotized by Jane and did a regression with him. There's a list of Jane's questions, Rob's answers, about being a little boy in Maryland. Later Seth explained how the process could be improved, and added details of perhaps another past life. Seth to Rob about a different incarnation of his, and Jane is mentioned:

Steep steps led up to your house at that time. Your wife's name I believe when you grew was Nell B-r-o-w-n-e-l-l. You will find an affinity to horses or with horses if you try to paint them.
("What was my name in that life?")
Your name was Williams, as your hypnotic session showed. You met Ruburt in Boston, in this country, after an absence from him. You did have five children in the family, that is, two brothers and three sisters, one sister dying before you were grown.

—TES2 Session 59 June 3, 1964

More info can be found here, at Finding Seth.

I find this interesting:

"I do not know how much further Ruburt will go along with me... Ruburt has used his reserves of energy for the night, attempting to block me. However quite a bit of good information came through and so I must say good night, this time for Ruburt's sake, as he is blocking Walter Zeh or Z-i-a-k-a material most strongly."

—TES2 Session 59 June 3, 1964

[Tob]

Boston, 19th century, session no 59

Holy cow, thank you, how on Earth did you remember that? That was one of the first books I read and I can't say I remember much of anything from it.

-----------------------

"I am just reading the session at the moment. Along the timeline between Mesopotamia (Jane Roberts was once Seth), and Boston was Triev in Denmark. This is where they all 'hugged and killed' each other, figuratively speaking and where Seth was involved as well. He was a ship owner. Furthermore, there is some reincarnational material centered around a person by the name of Nebene (Robert Butts) in the Middle East, an episode which did unfold in their appartment involving several visitors. Physical and otherwise. Chapter 5 of Jane Roberts' Aspects book.

[Kyle]

Thanks, Deb and Tob!

The part about Jane's life as a medium in Boston is valuable, food for thought. In a post I made elsewhere, I identified Malinda Cramer as a possible counterpart (incarnation) of Jane's and described it as metaphorical, but I could almost call it an ideal probability, in the sense of a probable incarnation that tells a coherent story and resonates with my imagination. This can support a process of 'editing' your life script, to mention one possibility.

But what I'm looking for now is to find documented reincarnations and compare them with my astrological findings. Thus far, I have found only one case where there are strong correspondences between the two. And yet, the astrological findings have a numinosity of their own, as if being channeled by the planets.

So, what have we here? Probable lives with parallels? Whatever they are, this is not simply an exercise for the imagination. This is not the astrology you know. This is a creative venture in keeping with the spirit of Seth's insistence on our creative powers. In seeing historical figures as reference points, I connect with the past in a poetic and resonant way, despite having no human channel to rely on. Okay, I guess I am channeling the planets. 😊