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Why Is Everyone Famous in a Past Lifetime?, July 25, 2004
A prior reviewer criticized Return of the Revolutionaries because many of the subjects were famous in past lives. In truth, most people are not famous in prior lifetimes. In researching objective evidence of reincarnation, though, for a person to be found in a historical record, they must have had some impact on society. As such, there is a selection bias in cases that can be researched. If the person was not of some repute in a prior era, there would not be an historic record.
Several independently researched cases in Return of the Revolutionaries do not involve famous people. These include the cases of Penney Peirce/Alice Cary, Robert Snow/Carroll Beckwith and cases researched by Ian Stevenson, MD, at the University of Virginia. These Stevenson cases include Suzanne Ghanem/Hannah Monsour and Daniel Jurdi/Rashid Kaddege.
Further, Neale Donald Walsh, author of the Conversations with God series, is identified as a little known minister in Boston. A spirit guide channeled through Kevin Ryerson made this past life match involving Mr. Walsch. A record of this minister was subsequently found and facial features and personality traits matched. Mr. Walsch subsequently agreed to be featured as a reincarnation case in Revolutionaries.
Rather than criticizing the use of a medium in this work, one must conclude that the number of seemingly accurate matches made by Kevin Ryerson's spirit guide makes this spirit guide a valuable resource. Only close minded individuals, who do not look at the reincarnation cases with an open mind and heart, would summarily reject the use of someone like Kevin Ryerson.
There are reasons why people believe they are someone famous, and why psychics tell people they were someone famous, in prior lifetimes. These include the following:
- Landmark Associations - Most people who think that they are someone famous, or who have been told by a psychic that they are a famous personage, are not the famous person in question. Rather, the famous person acts as a landmark for the era. For example, someone who resonates with Cleopatra was not necessarily the queen, but rather, this person may have simply lived in Egypt during that time, they may have been a servant to Cleopatra, or perhaps even a relative.
- Since the person or psychic cannot come up with the name of this individual in the past lifetime, the name that represents the lifetime symbolically, i.e., Cleopatra, is drawn upon. In general, getting accurate names and historical data is the most difficult thing to get in regressions and in psychic readings. Images and general location, time of a past lifetime are easier to access.
- Guidance Incarnations - People do have spiritual guides, who can influence people on the earth plane. Generally, guides have a karmic relationship with the person. In prior lifetimes, the spirit guide may have been a family member, teacher or close friend when both individuals were incarnate. For example, an individual may have been an art student of Leonardo da Vinci. In this lifetime, da Vinci may be acting as a guide to this person, who is again an artist. The person my get inspiration from da Vinci and even think he or she is da Vinci, but it is not the case. In a true reincarnation case, the person would have to look like Da Vinci, have the same personality traits, passions and karmic group around them.
A reviewer also argues that the research is not scientific. The reviewer failed to mention that the limitations of the research are discussed in the book and the intent is that research involving hard science will follow. In addition, it should be noted that several people of genius caliber, including neurosurgeon Norm Shealy, who invented the TENS unit, Kary Mullis, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, and Dean Brown, a physicist who worked with Albert Einstein at Princeton, support the reincarnation research found in Revolutionaries.
Finally, one must keep in mind the great social change and benefit that objective evidence of reincarnation can bring. This evidence shows that people can change religious, ethnic and racial affiliation from lifetime to lifetime. If people realize that one can be born Jewish in one lifetime and Muslim or Christian in another, then conflicts based on these differences could dissolve.
A case in point involves Barbro Karlen, who has had memories since childhood of being Anne Frank. Barbro was born into a Christian family in contemporary times. I like to point out that if 60 years ago, the German people knew that one could be born Jewish in one lifetime and Christian in another, then there might never have been a Holocaust.
This is why research on objective evidence of reincarnation is so important and why it will eventually transform the world in a positive way.
Walter Semkiw, MD
