Dorothy Dandridge | Halle Berry
Halle Berry went to great lengths to make a movie about the actress, Dorothy Dandridge. In Return of the Revolutionaries, I describe a classification of reincarnation past life matches, which I call "affinity cases," in which individuals are attracted to their own past life personas.
It was natural to speculate that Halle Berry may be the reincarnation of Dorothy Dandridge. Comparison of images of the two actresses reveals almost identical facial architecture.
I checked this proposed match with Ahtun Re, the spiritual guide channeled by Kevin Ryerson, who concurred that this is a valid reincarnation case. As such, this represents an affinity case, in which Halle Berry had a natural attraction to her own past life persona, Dorothy Dandridge. If this match is accepted, it embodies another principle of reincarnation, that a soul may continue working on a goal, project or career, from one lifetime to another.
Another person who is a case in by book, Dianne Seaman, has contributed a section to my book regarding the Dandridge/Berry case, which I would like to share. What is fascinating in this account is that one of Dorothy Dandridge's close friends, Geri Branton, is now a friend of Halle Berry's. Dorothy Dandridge died on September 8, 1965; Halle Berry was born August 14, 1968. When Halle Berry won an Oscar in 2002, she was 33 years old. Her friend from the Dandridge lifetime, Geri Branton, was then in her seventies. So in this example, a friendship, as well as a career, has been continued. Let us now turn to Dianne's thoughts regarding the Dandridge/Berry case.
As I watched the Oscars in March 2002 and saw Halle Berry making history as the first black American actress to win the award, I wondered if there was also a longer time frame involved than first met the eye. Had "she" began this journey even before her birth in 1968? Several years ago when I first saw an article on her producing and starring in a film on the life of Dorothy Dandridge, my immediate intuitive reaction was that Halle was the reincarnation of Dandridge. Perhaps because I'd experienced this phenomenon in my own life and also saw the links between lifetimes so often with clients, I've developed the intuitive antennae to spot the dynamic of reincarnation at play.
Doing some research on the two lives later reinforced my instincts. The parallels in both their personal and professional life were numerous. They even looked remarkably alike, which some researchers in the reincarnation field are observing is fairly common. Somewhat alarmingly, Dandridge's best friend, Geri Branton, said she saw great similarities between Berry and Dandridge. "It's amazing, and she does it [portraying Dandridge] so well," Branton said.
Berry appeared horrified when Branton was asked how she was most like Dandridge. "I think that Halle's personal life is shocking in that it's the same," Branton said. "Geri, shhh", Berry said. But Branton, now in her 70s, plowed on ahead. "They're beautiful people, beautiful on the outside but more so on the inside. Generous and lovely," she said. "It's unbelievable. And when I saw Halle the first time, I was taken aback. Really taken aback. They're so very much akin."
At her birth in Cleveland Ohio, curiously also the birthplace of Dandridge, Berry seems to have picked up right where Dorothy had left off, after her tragic early death. Berry set out to accomplish what Dorothy couldn't because of the more extreme racial prejudice of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. She was completing what she'd started as Dandridge. It became her life mission, which when I read about it had the feel to me of a soul mission, a sacred contract, the term popularized by Carolyn Myss.
Berry herself has said that her life parallels Dandridge's life—"being in Hollywood, wanting to be a leading lady and feeling like a leading lady but being in an industry that has no place for us. My struggle has been very much hers, trying to carve a niche for myself as a leading lady. And, although she opened the door for me, because she was never recognized in the way that she should have been, I'm still in the exact same position she was."
But after Oscar night 2002 that is no longer true. Dandridge, who was the first Black woman to be nominated for an academy award for her role in Carmen Jones, may have finally won her award. Sensing the "longer view of life," as Henry Ford called reincarnation, it seemed to me so very fitting and just that Halle Berry would have the distinction of being the first Black actress to actually win the Oscar. In doing so she demonstrates the encouraging and illuminating possibility reincarnation offers—it takes as long as it takes and it's never too late.
Other cases found in Return of the Revolutionaries that may be of interested to readers include those of:
Margaret Mitchell/ Dianne Seaman
Henry Angel/ Rob Regel
Kate Fox/ John Edward
William/ James Jeffrey Mishlove
Robert Morris/ Shirley MacLaine
Thomas Willing/ Warren Beatty
