Dr. Joseph S Maresca reviews Past Lives of the Rich and Famous by Sylvia Browne in Hearst’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Browne discusses Elizabeth Taylor who lived 47 times before. Taylor was Anata of Babylonia. In the 1500s, she was a member of a Benedictine convent in Switzerland. She lived as Marie Lilliane and died at 89 years of age. Browne explains that specific memories of past lives are on the other side. But are they?
The story of Mother Teresa is equally fascinating. Browne relates how the Mother Teresa lived in the person of Leah during the time of Christ. Leah came to know Jesus Christ through the Apostle Luke. In addition, she attended the Sermon on the Mount. Mother Teresa lived through her 54th and last incarnation according to the author.
And there is this:
There may be remnants of Christ’s DNA on the Shroud of Turin. If DNA traces could be found on the Shroud of Turin, the DNA could be dated to the time of Christ. These aspects should be addressed by Browne.
Yeah, right, that’s a good idea.
In addition, the crucifixion itself was an event bathed in blood. If blood stains could be recovered from Golgatha Hill, these stains could be used to create a Christ-like human form in the laboratory. The implications of this event would be very controversial for the Judeo-Christian world.
Ya think?
Browne’s notions could be put to the test in other ways. For instance, there would have to be specific burial plots of two people thought to have identical past lives. Samples of the DNA would have to be tested after exhuming the bodies. If the samples matched, the claims might be proven. Such an experiment would require the approval of medical science due to the ethical and moral issues inherent in conducting such tests.
Science? Fiction? Science Fiction? None of the genre’s quite fit, do they? What’s sad is this was published in a paper with an online circulation of 4 million people; and some people will believe this stuff.
Source: Book Review: Past Lives of the Rich and Famous by Sylvia Browne – seattlepi.com
You know, I just don’t know. I have ordered Silvia’s book because I am interested in the subject. Last September I had the privilege of sitting next to a thirteen year old boy named Norpa Rinpoche at the Buddhist Drikung Monastery about 50 miles from Lhasa. He is said to be the reincarnate of the monastery’s abbott who passed away 30 years ago. Being the ignorant, uninformed Westerner that I am I asked his superior, “how do you know?” Reincarnation is such an accepted belief among Easterners that the question is just not asked. It is not a belief; it is a way of life.
At age 3 Norpa Rinpoche identified the home in which the deceased abbott was born. At age 7 he picked out the abbott’s personal effects from an assortment of the personal effects of others, all mixed together randomly. I was told that a review of the deceased’s writings also pointed to Norpa Rinpoche as his reincarnate. The Tibetan Buddhists are closely monitored by the Chinese who, among other controls over Tibetan religious expression, require that all reincarnates be approved as such by the government. After documenting the case the Chinese approved Norpa Rinpoche as a reincarnate.
For me personally, while I am not quiet sure if reincarnation is real of not, I can’t afford to be wrong. If I do return I want to bring as much of what I have learned in this life back with me and am living accordingly, making sure that I have sufficient mind control to deal with the barrage of thoughts that will hit me when that last breath is taken. My Christian belief that you get one and only one shot at life gave rise to a “bucket list” and the need to cram as much worldly experience as I can into my one and only lifetime. Needless to say, the first think to hit the trash can in my preparation for death(I am 72 years young) was my bucket list, replaced by meditation exercises.
I am afraid the Western travel and entertainment industry would be devastated if everyone adopted reincarnation.
A good source for deeper studies are the materials published by the late Professor C.T.K. Chari, who taught at Madras Christian College, India, and investigated cases in Burma and Sri Lanka (see http://www.ctkchari.org).
While doing a course in Parapsychology my professor called for volunteers willing to be hypnotized for regression and a fifteen-year-old girl could see her grandfather reading a newspaper and the background was green. She tried her best to read what he had been reading but did not succeed as she could not support the strain. Her parents happened to be present on that day, the last day of the course, to see their daughter receive her certificate and the father confirmed that he came from a family of landowners, therefore the green background. This experience is more in keeping with what is learnt in modern psychology.
In another course the importance of scientific control was stressed and the professor was known to have unmasked people claiming to perform miracles or other feats. Uri Geller could not bend any spoon in his presence and there were around ten journalists, including one from a TV channel, around. It was reported that Geller took the first flight back to Tel Aviv that very day. The professor had also challenged a famous man claiming to perform miracles to do it in his presence, under scientific control. All that had to be done was to fill a cavity, but there could be nothing more than uttering a word or making a gesture. The challenge was not accepted.
Buddhist belief in reincarnation actually comes from Hinduism, which is much more older, and involves metempsychosis. For further reading see the works of the Indian Anglican wandering monk Sadhu Sundar Singh where he dwells on Tibet and the book on World Philosophies by Professor David E. Cooper.