Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian L. Weiss M.D. (1988)

I bought this book by accident in a box of used cookbooks. When I discovered it I almost didn't read it because I thought it was just another Bridey-Murphy-type reincarnation book.

It's far more than that. First off, so that the average reader won't think the author is a crackpot, his extensive and impressive credentials as a psychiatrist are described in the Preface. He received his medical degree from Yale and was Chief of Psychiatry at a university-affiliated hospital in Miami.

Brian L. Weiss, M.D., writes of his psychotherapy sessions with a 27-year-old patient named Catherine, who suffered with severe phobias, panic attacks, and anxieties. After being treated for 18 months with non-hypnotic techniques, Catherine had experienced absolutely no improvement.

Weiss then persuaded Catherine to undergo hypnosis. Weiss had previously used hypnotism in successful treatment of patients, but this case proved to be different. After sessions of taking Catherine back to age 3 and uncovering what seemed to be possible causes of her problems, Weiss still achieved no improvement with Catherine. Wondering what of significance could have happened before age 3, Weiss told Catherine to "go back to the time from which your symptoms arise." Much to his surprise, the next words that came out of her mouth were apparently from another lifetime.

At first this seemed impossible to Weiss because he didn't believe in reincarnation. After doing some checking he discovered that there was a huge body of scientific research on the subject. (For those who are interested, one researcher that he talks about is Ian Stevenson, M.D., and there is now at least one website on his work.)

Catherine showed improvement almost immediately and Weiss continued to hypnotize her in weekly sessions. She seemed to go back to about a dozen different lifetimes, and claimed to have lived through 86 lifetimes. When Catherine was in a past life, she would usually recognize and name at least one person there as being from her present life, although they didn't look alike.

As Weiss regressed Catherine back, between lifetimes the Master Spirits would speak through her, seemingly revealing the secrets about the mysteries of life, both on this side and on the other side.

Weiss said that his life would never be the same again. Imagine the position he was in. He had to continue with the hypnotism, because at last he had come up with something that was helping Catherine. Besides, he was always curious as to what would happen during the next session, especially what truths would be revealed by the Masters. On the other hand, he was in a quandary as to what to believe was really going on.

Finally, he accepted that what came forth in Catherine's hypnotic trances was actually as it seemed to be. Why was Weiss ultimately convinced that Catherine had actually lived other lives, as opposed to just having fantasies? There were several reasons. For one thing, she revealed information about things and activities that she definitely didn't know otherwise. Even her vocabulary was different when in trance. Another argument was that when she returned to a lifetime that she had been to previously in trance, even months before, she was always consistent to the last detail. As an experienced psychiatrist, Weiss knew that she wasn't having hallucinations or exhibiting symptoms of mental illness. That leads to another thing. It was only after she was undergoing regular regressions that her psychological problems improved. Eventually they vanished almost completely.

In one of her first past-life sessions, Catherine made stunning revelations to Weiss about deceased members of his own family regarding things she couldn't have known. Shortly after this, Weiss brought his wife, a psychiatric social worker, into the sessions, because he wanted her to hear what was happening for herself. He was afraid to speak of past-life sessions to most of his colleagues for fear they would think he was nuts and his professional reputation would be ruined. He would only speak of it to those who could be trusted and were "safe." It took Weiss four years after the past-life sessions ended to work up the courage to write this book.

This book is certainly a page turner. What I liked best about this book is that if the reader has doubts, and most will, he or she can follow along as Weiss examines his own doubts and go through what he reveals that he went through mentally to resolve his doubts. Of course, it was much easier for Weiss to be convinced of the truth of reincarnation and the messages of the Masters than it is for the reader to be convinced, mainly because most of us don't have benefit of actual first-hand experience of witnessing past-life trances. Even if we did, we might not accept reincarnation, but this book gives readers something to think about.