Nadene Goldfoot
On the 15th of July, 1988, Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, Brian L. Weiss, MD, was published. His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives has been talked about ever since. He had accidently discovered reincarnation through this patient.
To help his patient, he had used hypnotism on her in order to discover the origin of her problems, and had rather accidently taken her back before her birth. She had a Bridey Murphy experience, becoming another person in another life!!!
The tale of Bridey Murphy was the first story I had ever heard of that is similar to Weiss's experience. Not many people realize that, throughout the 1950s, the United States developed an infatuation with reincarnation due to the tale of Bridey Murphy. Under hypnosis, a Colorado housewife named Virginia Tighe claimed to be a reincarnated Irish housewife named Bridey Murphy. Speaking in a thick Irish brogue, Murphy told those in the rooms with her tales of her life in Ireland – which had taken place 100 years before. This case of Colorado reincarnation in 1952 led to a media frenzy and widespread fascination with the concept of past life regression and reincarnation.
As reporters researched the story, it became increasing apparent Tighe's claims were inaccurate. After the discovery of a neighbor she had known growing up named Bridie, people came to believe this was a case of cryptomnesia. This is a phenomenon in which someone recalls lost memories and falsely believes them to be new, leading to confusing recollections that may explain past-life memories. Despite the fact Tighe was likely not the reincarnation of Murphy – Murphy had not been resurrected in her body – the case continues to be a fascinating study in public curiosity and the fallible nature of memory.
Reincarnation is the religious belief of the Hindus. "Reincarnation, also called transmigration or metempsychosis, in religion and philosophy, rebirth of the aspect of an individual that persists after bodily death—whether it be consciousness, mind, the soul, or some other entity—in one or more successive existences." The soul is seen as immortal and the only thing that becomes perishable is the body. Upon death, the soul becomes transmigrated into a new infant (or animal) to live again. The term transmigration means passing of soul from one body to another after death.
Shirley MacLaine, singer, dancer, actress and writer, wrote 'Out On A Limb," about her own experience with reincarnation, published in 1983. It details MacLaine's journeys through New Age spirituality. The book follows her from southern California to various locations including New York City, Europe, and Hawaii, culminating in a life-changing trip to the Andes Mountains in Peru. Central characters.
The book received both acclaim and criticism for its candor in dealing with such topics as reincarnation, meditation, mediumship (trance-channeling), and even unidentified flying objects. It made Shirley MacLaine the butt of many jokes, especially by late-night television comedians. Out on a Limb was adapted for television broadcast in 1987. The five-hour ABC miniseries starred MacLaine (as herself).
The prominent psychiatrist, Brian Weiss, is Jewish. What does Judaism say about reincarnation? We do believe in it, which is a new belief from Kabbalah, also a newer layer of Judaism. You can say that a few are into it, but most may not be believers of it. So it may not have been that big a shock when his patent regressed into another person. However, he may not have known about the condition of cryptomnesia.
Rabbi Hayyim Angel has also written an essay on "Afterlife in Jewish Thought." Here is an excerpt:
"There is a paucity of explicit references to afterlife—whether a bodily
resurrection or a soul world—in Tanakh. The Torah promises this-worldly
rewards and punishments for faithfulness or lack thereof to God and the
Torah. It does not promise heaven for righteousness, nor does it threaten
hell or the absence of heaven for sinfulness. Given the
ancient world’s
belief in, and even obsession with immortality and
afterlife, the Torah’s
silence is all the more remarkable.
Aside from the lack of explicit references to afterlife in the Torah, one
might have expected an appeal to afterlife in the Book of Job. For all the
arguments raised by Job’s so-called friends, they never invoke afterlife in
their attempts to vindicate Job’s unfair suffering. Rather, Job and his
friends agree with the biblical premise that ultimate justice must occur
during one’s lifetime. Job insisted that his suffering was unjust, whereas
his friends assumed that he must have deserved his punishment."
However, according to Chabad who teach about such
things, , whose comment on
reincarnation in the Kabbalah, is that : "The soul is
eternal, a spark of the Divine, or
as the prophet Job calls it “a part of G‑d above.” The soul
exists before it enters the body and it lives after the body is
laid to rest. Though the soul’s place of origin is in the higher
worlds, there is something that the soul can achieve in a body
that it cannot achieve in the heavenly realms. It has already
been explained that the purpose of creation is to make an
abode for the Divine in this world. Although higher worlds are
glorious in terms of revelation and offer the best reward for a
soul after it has achieved its earthly mission, the heavenly
realms are not the purpose of creation. It was G‑d’s desire to
create a world where His presence would be acutely
concealed and darkness and evil would
prevail. He charged
his children with the task of creating a home in
this world, and
the soul fulfills that mission by its adherence
to Torah and Mitzvot.(good deeds-like visiting
the
sick.) The earliest roots of Kabbala are traced to Merkava
mysticism. It began to flourish in Palestine in the 1st
century
ce and had as its main concern ecstatic and mystical
contemplation of the divine throne, or “chariot”
(merkava),
seen in a vision by Ezekiel, the prophet (Ezekiel 1).
Safed became a center of Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism)
during the 16th century. After the expulsion of the Jews from
Spain in 1492, many prominent rabbis found their way to
Safed, among them the Kabbalists Isaac Luria and Moshe
Kordovero; Joseph Caro, the author of the Shulchan
Aruch and Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, composer of
the Sabbath hymn "Lecha Dodi".
What was important to Weiss and his patient were comments coming from his patient, that were apart from the reporting of the patient, Catherine, said to be coming from "The Messenger." It was a spirit there to teach the doctor as to how to help his patients work on more views of their outlook on life, sort of like our 10 basic laws with some more, like our 613 Jewish laws of behavior. They seem to be very common sense, not going against anything in any religion, but things that have been possibly ignored. It's about the growth of our spirit. They go through 7 stages.
"No. We go through so many stages when we're here. We shed a baby body, go into a child's, from child to an adult, an adult into old age. Why should we go one step beyond and shed the adult body and go on to a spiritual plane!" p. 140.
In religious or mythological cosmology, the seven heavens refer to seven levels or divisions of the Heavens (Heaven). The concept, also found in the ancient Mesopotamian religions, can be found in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; a similar concept is also found in some other religions such as Hinduism.
Latter-day Mormons can distinguish between 1. acelerity, 2. aterrestrial, and a 3. telestial place of heaven.There will only be one living in the heavens, the celestial kingdom. The Trinity (the God existing in three persons), which Christian followers do not appreciate (their concept of God existing as three persons).
Here is a Mormon perspective on the Jewish concept of 7 heavens:
A famous system, which I've never heard of, of Seven Heavens for Jews developed in the 1st millennium CE. The first heaven, called Vilon (*), belongs exclusively to the family of Angels: it is the closest of the seven heavens to our planet: It is home to angels and angels are considered the highest spirits. It is believed by Jews that any attempts to preserve the world around us will result in a good afterlife. This would refer to "repairing the world, Tikkun Olam", that I do know about. There are Jewish claims that all Jews receive new life as a result of reincarnation throughout their lives and into their deaths.
Before I go on any further, I wonder if Weiss's patient, Catherine, might be Mormon or Muslim or a Kabbalaist. She might be repeating lessons learned and forgotten, in that part of the brain.
No doubt that the "lessons" Weiss was uncovering could help him help patients, but he was helping his patient anyway, with his own methods, as it was.
"It's about coexistence...and harmony....the balance of things." I knew the Masters were nearby....... The Masters told her through Catherine that if the person didn't learn an important lesson in this life, they would have to repeat it in another life and get it right before they could go on to another level.
My thoughts on this is that Hitler should be reborn in an ant's body and have to go through all the forms of creation to get it right.
What this is leading to is that one must be a good person in this life. There is no allowing one to shirk their responsibility for being good. Actually, following the commandments, either the 7 for most people or the actual 10 for Jews couldn't hurt in order to reach "Nirvana" or that place of perfect peace and happiness, like heaven. In Hinduism and Buddhism, Nirvana is the highest state that someone can attain, a state of enlightenment, meaning a person's individual desires and suffering go away., the 7th heaven -being perfect. You can't expect another person to take on your errors in life, only you.
The question of following an orthodox Jewish life comes to mind. The reason for all that is expected, that was created more by the rabbis than by the laws that Moses brought to us, the whole package of 613, have developed for a reason, to create a body of religious people who will keep all this in mind. It's a conditioning process, in my opinion, and a good one. It has kept us together for about 4,000 years.
We've reached a new era in all aspects, questioning religion, having the highest of technologies, and yet we have war continuing, viruses that keep on mutating, and the possibility of even destroying our own planet. No wonder we're seeing UFO's or whatever they are now being called-UAPs, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. We may be on the verge of what has always been referred to as "The End Times." it's like math; the highest of intelligence/ the desire to kill. It bubbles over in all the shootings happening, in schools, hospitals, cities. Many children are walking around in fear for their lives. The good old days of my youth may never return. There's no real door we can go through to a past generation like in "Outlanders." We're stuck in the time period we ourselves have helped to create. Everyone needs to work on "repairing the world."
Resource:
Book: many Lives, Many Masters, by Brian L. Weiss, M.D.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptomnesia
https://www.ranker.com/list/bridey-murphy-reincarnation/erin-wisti
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_on_a_Limb_(book)
https://www.jewishideas.org/
https://www.jewishideas.org/heaven-hell-and-afterlife-jewish-thought?gclid=CjwKCAjwtcCVBhA0EiwAT1fY70mntly8DxTYhMsvdBUY7u9gE2W2SZK0E9lBvV8yVatK7l2KiyFbBRoCwBIQAvD_BwE
