The Reincarnation of St. Thomas, Bodies of Light
and the Phenomenon of Split Incarnation
In his books, Disappearance of the Universe and Your Immortal Reality, Gary Renard describes how he lead an ordinary life, first as a professional musician and then as a stock market trader, when two spirit beings appeared in his living room and started a discourse with him. These spirit beings, Arten, a man, and Pursah, a woman, first appeared during Christmas week of 1992 and told Gary that they would appear to him on 17 occasions. The conversations between Arten, Pursah and Gary that took place during these appearances are captured in Disappearance of the Universe, which is now being translated into 14 languages.
A few years back, if someone had told me that spirit beings appeared to them in human form to help create a book on spirituality, I would have concluded that person had a very fantastic imagination. I am now much more open to the possibility that this can occur, having become a close friend of Wayne Peterson, who has had similar experiences over the last 20 years. Wayne is a retired US Diplomat and former Director of the Fulbright Scholarship Program in Washington, DC, who has had many visitations from spirit masters who materialize in human form, converse with him, then disappear as quickly as they appeared. Wayne describes his experiences in his book, Extraordinary Times, Extraordinary Beings.
These experiences continue to happen around Wayne. The spirit being Wayne is most in touch with is named Maitreya, who typically appears as a very tall, thin man with an olive complexion who likes to wear white hats. A peculiar property of his hats is that when different people look at Maitreya at the same time, such as at presentations and book signings that Wayne has done, they all see a white hat, but each person sees a different shaped hat.
In January 2007, Wayne’s neighbor, a nice lady who recently read his book, had to go to her doctor. It was early in the morning and she was the only one in the waiting room. After registering she turned around and saw a tall, thin man with an olive complexion, wearing a white hat, standing in the waiting room reading Wayne’s book, Extraordinary Times, Extraordinary Beings. Excited, the lady ran up to the man and exclaimed, “My neighbor wrote that book!”
The tall man in the white hat ignored her remark and simply stated, “This is a good book. More people should be reading it.” The lady was then called by the receptionist to be roomed to see the doctor but before she went in, she turned around to ask the tall man how he came across Wayne’s book. The man had disappeared. When the neighbor lady told Wayne of this event, he explained that she had seen Maitreya, who Wayne has similarly seen in many unexpected settings.
How might this occur? There is a phenomenon called remote viewing, where individuals can project their consciousness to distant locations and accurately report what is transpiring there. Physicists Hal Puthoff, PhD and Russell Targ, PhD, studied remote viewing at the Stanford Research Institute for over 20 years. Their research was funded by the CIA.
Some have referred to such excursions outside of our bodies as astral projection or traveling in our astral bodies. Imagine that a very sophisticated spiritual being can do this and manifest their astral body in such an intense way that it appears physical and can even be touched. Let us call such bodies “light bodies,” as they seem to be created from energy. We can understand the appearances of intelligent spirit beings such as Maitreya, Arten and Pursah through the phenomenon of light bodies. If the viewer has the gift of clairvoyance, then these light bodies are more easily seen, though as described in the example of Wayne’s friend in her doctor’s office, clairvoyance is not always required to see light bodies.
One more point of interest is that Wayne Peterson had the opportunity to present his experiences with spiritual masters who can manifest in light bodies to a Vatican delegation a few years ago in Washington. The head of the delegation was Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI. At the time, Cardinal Raztinger revealed that Pope John Paul II knew of these phenomena, but that it was for the Holy Father to determine whether they should be discussed publicly. Wayne presented his information on the spiritual masters to Cardinal Ratzinger for over three hours.
Gary Renard’s work revolves around a metaphysical book entitled, A Course in Miracles, which is a channeled work whose author is claimed to be none other than Jesus. The medium who transcribed this book was Helen Schucman, Ph.D., who was assisted by her colleague, Bill Thetford, PhD. When the transcribing of messages started, both Helen and Bill were tenured Professors of Medical Psychology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. When Helen began receiving telepathic messages asking her to transcribe a book, she initially resisted, thinking the concept quite bizarre. The spiritual source persisted, though, and Helen relented, and A Course in Miracles was created. A well known teacher of the Course, who has often appeared on Oprah, is Marianne Williamson. To learn more about the transcription of the Course, go to web site of the Foundation for Inner Peace.
A central message of A Course in Miracles is the importance of forgiveness, consistent with a core message of Jesus. In my work with Kevin Ryerson, I asked Ahtun Re, the spirit guide who has demonstrated an ability to make accurate past life matches, whether it is true that Jesus was the source of the Course. Ahtun Re told me that this was indeed true.
A Course in Miracles is a profound but very challenging work. Gary Renard’s books are bringing a new audience and new life to the Course as his conversational and humorous approach makes the messages of the Course much more accessible. Further, to my delight, whereas the Course largely skirts the issue of reincarnation, in Gary’s books, reincarnation is a central theme. Indeed, the purpose of the Course, in Gary’s mind, is to learn how to end the cycle of death and rebirth, to end reincarnation, so that one can remain in the spiritual world and in the bliss of heaven. The key to accomplish this involves making forgiveness a habitual mode of functioning. When this is attained, one’s mind can be developed to that point that one’s spiritual eyes become open. When this occurs, the spiritual world appears and the physical world, the material universe, disappears.
In reading Disappearance of the Universe, my attention was caught by a statement made by Gary Renard’s spirit guides, Arten and Pursah, in which Gary is identified as the reincarnation of the Apostle Thomas, also known as the Doubting Thomas, a past life that Gary himself now accepts. As my primary spiritual work deals with reincarnation, I asked Ahtun Re whether this was true. Ahtun Re confirmed that Gary Renard is the reincarnation of St. Thomas.
I must point out at this time that usually, when I ask Ahtun Re if a particular individual is the reincarnation of a famous person, Ahtun Re usually says that they are not. Commonly, people come to believe that they were a famous person in the past because they were associated with or knew that famous person in a past lifetime. The famous individual serves as a landmark for that incarnation and, as such, I call these “landmark associations.” For example, a person may have been an apprentice to Michelangelo and receives intuitive information that he or she has some connection to the great artist. Psychics can also pick up the connection and even tell the individual that they were Michelangelo. In fact, though, Michelangelo is just serving as a landmark for that incarnation, in which the person was an apprentice. Landmark associations occur often.
One reason that I find Ahtun Re, Kevin Ryerson’s spirit guide, such a valuable resource is that he seems to be able to sort out landmark associations from true past life matches. As a discarnate spirit with access to what some call Universal Mind or the Akashic Records, Ahtun Re is able to analyze past life associations more accurately. To support this claim, I have witnessed Ahtun Re make accurate past life matches involving very obscure, unknown individuals, an ability that very few others possess. Cases that demonstrate Ahtun Re’s abilities include Neale Donald Walsch, Ralph Nader, Carl Sagan and many others. As such, when Ahtun Re confirms a match, I take heed.
Ahtun Re’s confirmation that Gary Renard is the reincarnation of the Apostle Thomas was particularly interesting to me, as another incarnation of Thomas had previously been identified. Michael Tamura, a spiritual teacher and author of You Are the Answer, has been clairvoyant since childhood. As an adult, Michael established a career training individuals with clairvoyant abilities at the Berkeley Psychic Institute, where he served as Seminary Director for 18 years. I had met Michael around the year 2000, when I went to him to see if he could validate the reincarnation cases that I was working on from the time of the American Revolution. At our first meeting, Michael revealed that he himself had memories of being a member of the Continental Congress and that he was on the committee that was assigned to write the Declaration of Independence. Michael related that he had very clear memories of working in this committee and the discussions that were involved, though he did not know which particular member of the Congress he was.
After my work with Kevin Ryerson began in October 2001 and I came to appreciate that Kevin’s spirit guide, Ahtun Re, could make accurate past life matches, it was derived through Ahtun Re that Michael Tamura was Roger Sherman, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence from Connecticut. Sherman rose from a modest start and early in his life, worked as a cobbler. As a delegate to the Continental Congress, Sherman was known as one of the most deeply spiritual men of the Congress. When I passed this information on to Michael, he noted that ever since he was young, Michael had a fascination for the design of shoes and that as a young man; he even submitted a sandal design for a patent. After reviewing biographical information on Sherman, Michael came to accept that he is the reincarnation of Roger Sherman. Image comparisons revealed a similarity in facial architecture, though Michael’s Japanese heritage contributes to some differences.
Since I have known Michael Tamura, he has asserted that the apostles who surrounded Jesus are reincarnated at this time. For several years, Michael would not reveal how he knew this to be true or how he might be involved with the apostles. It was not until over the July 4 weekend of 2005 that Michael revealed to me that he is the reincarnation of the Apostle Thomas. Though I love and admire Michael, I took his proclamation with some skepticism. In my next session with Kevin Ryerson, I asked Ahtun Re whether this was true, that Michael was the Apostle Thomas. Ahtun Re said it was true, which I found to be mind boggling. In some ways it made sense, for how many people on this planet have the spirit gifts that allow them to be able to professionally train other clairvoyants over a period of decades? Still, in 2005, it was hard to accept for sure.
In 2006, when I read Gary Renard’s book, Disappearance of the Universe, in which he too claimed to be the reincarnation of the Apostle Thomas, which Ahtun Re also confirmed, an interesting thing happened which seemed to support the claims of Michael and Gary in an objective way. I was put in touch with Gary by mutual friends. When I spoke to him, I conveyed that Ahtun Re confirmed that he is indeed the reincarnation of St. Thomas, but that he had a “split” whose name is Michael Tamura. I use the term “split incarnation” to describe the phenomenon of a soul splitting itself and inhabiting more than one human body at one time. Another way of thinking of this is that the soul projects its energy or consciousness into more than one body at a time. Other authors have termed this phenomenon as “parallel lives.”
A set of cases which dramatically demonstrates split incarnation involves Penney Peirce, who learned of two prior lifetimes which overlapped by almost 30 years. These cases illustrate split incarnation in a compelling manner, in which facial features, personality traits and passions are shown to be consistent in a series of three lifetimes. Penney’s two prior lifetimes, as Alice Cary and Charles Parkhurst, overlapped by 30 years, demonstrating that a soul can inhabit two human bodies at one time. A chapter on the past lives of Penney Peirce and the phenomenon of split incarnation is found in Return of the Revolutionaries and Born Again.
The development that seems to lend credence to the assertion that Michael Tamura and Gary Renard are both the reincarnation of the Apostle Thomas involves Roger Sherman. When I told Gary about his split, Michael Tamura, I also told him that if he was St Thomas in a past lifetime, then he was also Roger Sherman in a lifetime during the American Revolution. Subsequently, a few weeks later, Gary contacted me and revealed the he had accessed memories from the lifetime of Sherman. Further, Gary sent me a picture of him in which he bore an uncanny resemblance to Roger Sherman. An image comparing facial features of Gary Renard, Roger Sherman and Michael Tamura is provided here:
So we see how Gary Renard, who was not previously aware of a past lifetime as Roger Sherman, but who we hypothesize was Sherman if he was the Apostle Thomas, bears an uncanny resemblance to Sherman. Further, Gary has gained memories of the Sherman lifetime. By extrapolation, in the images of Gary Renard and Michael Tamura, we can appreciate the facial features of the Apostle Thomas.
Apostles’ Comedy Club
It is also important to note the similarities in the personalities of Michael and Gary. To me the most striking set of characteristics, which make them both unique, is that they demonstrate a very developed sense of humor, which infuses their spiritual teachings in an unusual way. Normal, spirituality is serious business, but not for Gary and Michael. Jokes are as plentiful in their teachings as truths. Raphaelle Tamura, Michael’s wife, has also noted many similarities in the personas of Michael and Gary. I have provided her analysis below, which Raphaelle sent to me in an e-mail communication:
“Dear Walter,
Thanks for reminding me about getting this information to you. I read Gary's books with so much enjoyment and "ahas!," that I am now carrying it in my store and have sold a case and a half already (people trust my book recommendations). Most of the folks buying his books are nowhere close to being A Course of Miracle followers...however, many, like me, have been inspired to start taking the Course. In fact, I picked up ACIM about five years ago, but set it aside, because it was too "intellectual" for me. I came from a very intellectual family, but still I found it to be a little daunting for me. However, after reading both of Gary's books, I am now, slowly but surely taking in The Course, with as much relish and enjoyment as I took in with Gary's book -- only more slowly.
As promised, here are the similarities with Michael and Gary:
1. Look alike (though Michael is Japanese, if you added Japanese features to Gary's Caucasian face or visa versa, you would see close similarities (at least I do!)
2. Both Gary and Michael married girls named Karen. This was Michael's first wife. She mothered his two kids and Michael and Karen are still in occasional contact. They divorced around 1988. We married in 1993.
3. Both Gary and Michael played in rock bands and then stopped. Michael continues to love music. He plays guitar and keyboard and uses music as therapy for himself and his creativity, though he has little time for it these days. He has written many songs. Michael ended his actual musical career before he left high school, though many of his spiritual songs are still sung in one church.
4. Michael has mild-medium scoliosis. This has caused him problems with his back and energy over the years. Michael has stories, like Gary’s, of working with chiropractors, etc. to help him with this problem. Also, he has done much energy work on this condition.
5. Had EST Training early on -- though Michael's experience of it was quite different from Gary's.
6. Great sense of humor. Both seem to have this in abundance. I hope this aspect will make their meeting and getting to know one another (eventually) a lot of fun!
7. Loves to Meditate. Michael spends more time than anyone I know meditating. Obviously, this was Gary's "ticket" to having Pursah and Arten visit him. For Michael, his personal spiritual guidance has been through his meditations.
8. Loves talking to and teaching people. Michael also loves both, though he claims to have been a shy boy (I have never seen this part of him, though!)
9. Loves nature and animals. We have a dog and a cat. We live in some of the most beautiful nature on the west coast (Mt. Shasta area) -- the opposite coast to where Gary lives. We have only been to the east coast a few brief times. Michael lived in Philadelphia in his early years for a few years.
10. Gary and Michael enjoy sensual pleasures such as good food, though Michael is vegetarian and Gary is not.
One difference is that Michael’s primary work is as a healer. Gary says he couldn't heal a houseplant, but I think that isn't really true. Anyhow, Michael's whole life has been about healing and teaching healing, spiritual healing, that is. Michael received his main training through a teacher in Berkeley, California, Lewis S. Bostwick.Blessings, Raphaelle
December 10, 2006”
In Raphaelle’s analysis of the characters of her husband, Michael, and Gary Renard, we see how character traits and talents of two splits are very similar, though each split can have a different focus or mission in life. Traits, talents and practices in common between Michael and Gary include clairvoyance, intense meditation, wacky senses of humor, authorship of spiritual books, very social natures, being musicians in early life, love of nature and similar facial features. In addition, forgiveness is a core teaching for both Michael and Gary. Raphaelle has noted that one difference is that Michael has a passion for spiritual healing. In my research, I have studied a number of cases of split incarnation and the cases of Michael Tamura and Gary Renard is an excellent example of this phenomenon.
In my mind, two questions arise regarding split incarnation. One is how many people on earth represent split incarnation and the other is how many splits can a soul have incarnate on earth at one time? I asked Ahtun Re, Kevin Ryerson’s spirit guide, these two questions. Ahtun Re estimated that three percent of souls on earth at this time are capable of having splits. As such, if we assume that these souls have two human incarnations at a time, splits make up approximately 6 percent of the humanity’s population.
In terms of how many splits a particular soul can have at one time, Ahtun Re stated that the upper limit is seven at a time, though this number of splits for a single soul is very, very rare.
The nature and power of the soul is truly amazing. To learn more about Gary and Michael, go to their web sites:
Gary Renard: www.garyrenard.com
Michael Tamura: www.michaeltamura.com
The Reincarnation of the St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross
St. Teresa was born in Avila, Spain, March 28, 1515 and died on October 4, 1582. St. Teresa was a reformer, along with St. John of the Cross, of the Carmelite Order of the Roman Catholic Church.
Let me describe how the reincarnation of St. Teresa of Avila has been identified in contemporary times. In 2005, Barbro Karlen, the reincarnation of Anne Frank, Wayne Peterson and I were invited to do a presentations at the Institute for the Advancement of Service (IAS), outside of Washington, DC, which was founded and is directed by Susan Trout. Susan is also the author of Born To Serve: The Evolution of the Soul Through Service and The Awakened Leader: Leadership as a Classroom of the Soul.
After Barbro, Wayne and I completed our presentations, Susan shared with me that over the years, multiple psychics have told her that she is the reincarnation of St. Teresa of Avila. Susan told me that she herself believes this is true, but she requested that I ask Ahtun Re, Kevin Ryerson’s spirit guide who has demonstrated an ability to make accurate past life matches, his opinion of this match. In the weeks that followed, in a session that I had with Kevin, Ahtun Re confirmed that Susan Trout is the reincarnation of St. Teresa of Avila. Susan has been kind enough to provide a narrative recounting her association to St. Teresa, which is presented below, but let me first diverge to share how the identity of the reincarnation of St. John of the Cross, in contemporary times, was established.
When I informed Susan of Ahtun Re’s confirmation that she is the reincarnation of Teresa, Susan told me that she was sure that she knew the identity of the reincarnation of St. John of the Cross, who was a mentor and close associate of St. Teresa’s. As St. John of the Cross is not ready to “come out of the confessional,” so to speak, we will change his name and call him, in contemporary times, “Ben.”
Susan related that Ben has served a parallel role to her, as a mentor and spiritual friend, as John of the Cross served for Teresa. Susan explained that Ben bears a striking physical resemblance to John of the Cross and that he is a prolific, intellectual writer, as was John. In a session that I subsequently had with Kevin Ryerson, Ahtun Re confirmed that Ben is indeed the reincarnation of St. John of the Cross.
Of interest, when Susan told Ben about his past life match, Ben revealed that when he was young, he intended to become a monk and when he entered the monastery, the only book he took with him was the collected works of John of the Cross. When he was getting his PhD, Ben wanted to do his dissertation on John of the Cross, but was not allowed to do so. Instead, Ben did his dissertation on St. Teresa of Avila. Susan was unaware of Ben’s deep affinity for St. John of the Cross or St. Teresa when she made the connection between Ben and John. Ben’s deep affinities for these heroes of the Carmelite order, as well as their continuing, parallel work, seem to support the past life matches of St. Teresa of Avila/Susan Trout and John of the Cross/Ben.
One other, unexpected corroboration for Ben being the reincarnation of St. John of the Cross came from a source the surprised me. When I was speaking to Gary Renard about the work that Kevin Ryerson and I were doing and shared with him that Ahtun Re confirmed that he is the reincarnation of St Thomas, I also shared with him that Ben, who Gary knows, was also confirmed to be reincarnation of St. John of the Cross. Ben, in fact, has also been heavily involved in A Course in Miracles. To reflect this, in contemporary times, we could call John of the Cross, “Ben of the Course.” When I told Gary that Ben is the reincarnation of John of the Cross, I expected Gary to be surprised and amazed. Instead, Gary said in a very matter of fact way, “I believe that Ben is John of the Cross.”
Now I was the one who was surprised and a bit miffed that Gary already knew of the match, so I asked Gary, “How did you know that Ben is the reincarnation of John?”
Gary replied, “I was going to contact Ben about a certain matter. Before I called him, Arten and Pursah appeared and told me, ‘Ben is the reincarnation of John of the Cross.’”
I was now amazed at the independent corroboration of Ben being identified by separate spirit guides, at different times, as John of the Cross. Ahtun Re confirmed the match to me months before I had heard of Gary or his books. Arten and Pursah told Gary that Ben was John of the Cross before Gary had every heard of me. It was a little miracle, of sorts.
Let us now turn to Susan Trout’s narrative on her identification with St. Teresa of Avila.
“To complete our soul development in a single lifetime seems impossible to me. Each incarnation offers an opportunity to evolve different slices of our “soul-pie” until wholeness is attained. I believe that my present incarnation expresses this premise; I consider the awareness of any previous incarnations, such as that of Teresa of Avila, simply exists to help guide me to my True Home.
"Forty years ago I was told by a seer that I was a reincarnation of Teresa of Avila. This meant nothing to me at the time as I was raised in a fundamentalist Christian church and told that only men saints mentioned in the Bible were true saints. Knowledge about a Teresa incarnation came at a time in my life when I was in deep despair. Being told that I had once been a saint did not match my desperate state nor my spiritual awareness. Nevertheless, I viewed the information as a message of hope. Subsequently, I have been told of my Teresa incarnation by other spiritual teachers, intuitives, gurus, and Light Workers. I finally decided there was a reason I needed to learn about Teresa’s life some 500 years ago (1515-1582).
"Much has been written about Teresa’s life in Spain as a vigorous reformer of the Carmelite Order and a disciplined explorer of mystical experience. She had a gift for administration and a passion for direct conversation with God. She was considered willful, quirky, vain, and visionary. She had a “mind of her own” and a fierce determination to go against Vatican control and establish convents to perpetuate her reform. Whenever I connect to Teresa, I sense the depth of her inner struggles and her profound desire to transcend her personality “quirks” and join God. I sense the truth that exists beneath her writings and beyond what others write about her. Her life was too much of a struggle for her to believe she was special in any way.
"The following aspects of Teresa’s nature seem to be part of my own. Some of what Teresa left undone in her spiritual life 500 years ago is what I seem to be determined to do in my own life. I brought some of her gifts and challenges forward into this life.
Spiritual life: Like Teresa, devotion to God has been the primary focus of my life; all I have ever wanted to be was a willing instrument of God’s Love in service to humanity. In my youth, I withdrew from organized Christianity because I felt it kept me “in kindergarten.” Eventually, I found my spiritual home in Eastern Traditions and in metaphysics/ancient wisdom. I am broad-minded and effortlessly understand universal spiritual experiences and psychological and soul development. I recognize the validity of someone’s psychological and/or spiritual experience even if I can’t recall ever having that experience myself (in this life). Even as a youth, people described me as a very “deep” person, perhaps a Teresa quality.
Writing: I have written two books that I feel are sequels to Teresa’s The Interior Castle. I have had a lifelong interest in understanding soul development, leadership, and service. I felt inspired to write about soul development and service, taking Teresa’s castle metaphor of the soul to its next step. I wrote Born to Serve: The Evolution of the Soul Through Service in 1997 and The Awakened Leader: Leadership as a Classroom of the Soul in 2005.
Physical Likeness: Much is written about Teresa’s attractiveness and the fact she did not age until a year before her death at age 68. No photograph exists of Teresa; a painting was done when she was in her early 60s, about which Teresa commented that because the painter made her look ugly, she would accept it as an opportunity to develop humility. Authors write often about the beauty of her skin, eyes, hands, and feet. As long as I can remember, people have “made a big deal” about the beauty of my skin, eyes, hands, and feet.
Determination: I join Teresa in being described by others as having an extremely strong and developed will and a determination that defies description. Like Teresa, I am determined to follow my vision and bring it into reality by integrating psychological principles, spiritual ideals, and right action.
Nun-Likeness: Throughout my life, colleagues, students, and friends have told me I look like a nun, act like a nun, and lead like a Mother Superior. Catholic nuns I know claim I lead organizations like a true convent, evidenced by stressing coherence of universal psychological and spiritual principles with action in the world and by holding high standards for myself and for others. Unlike Teresa, I am not an extravert nor do I have a buoyant personality. I tend to “hide” my Light…this is in contrast to Teresa, who was expressive in a dramatic way. I feel this shift is an attempt to balance outer and inner energies. Also, I have had to learn how to balance care of self with care of others; Teresa sacrificed her own needs for others and I have the same strong tendency. This imbalance adversely impacted Teresa’s physical and emotional health as it has mine.
Reformer: Just as Teresa was a founder and leader of the reformed Carmelite order, I have been a reformer, leader, and founder of departments, personal growth and healing methodologies, professions, and organizations. Like Teresa, I am intensely driven to bring what is off course back into integrity with its true course. Teresa, however, at times lowered her standards with those she felt would financially support her convents. In this life, I have refused to lower my ethical standards for any reason. This has not made me popular at times for difficult decisions I have had to make, especially in the workplace.
Leader, Organizer, and Administrator: Like Teresa, I am described as incredibly organized and having a sixth sense for how to found, direct, and administrate an organization. My parents claim I was “born organized” and my colleagues say I run a “well-oiled machine.” Nothing misses my eyes and their appreciation for the blending of detail with beauty.
Women: As a helping professional and as a trainer of professionals in both university and nonprofit settings, I have been surrounded by women. I am often their counselor, guide, and teacher. Teresa felt she neglected the care and well-being of many of her nuns as funds were not always available and she could not regularly visit and oversee the well- being of the nunneries she founded. This lifetime, I have felt I had karma with many women (former nuns?) and have wanted to correct these relationships. At times I have confronted a person on an issue in this life because I had neglected to do so in Teresa’s life. I have never wanted to be part of a school of thought with multiple centers because I understood that it was nearly impossible to ethically oversee their well-being.
Men: Much has been written about Teresa’s attraction to men and they to her; she was believed to manipulate men and they her, often so that she would obtain the needed funds and housing for her convents. In this life I have attempted to develop healthy working relationships with men and learn to understand and respect them. I am steadfast in not tolerating unethical behavior on the part of men. Except for a brief marriage, I, like Teresa, have not chosen a life path of marriage and children.
John of the Cross: Juan de la Cruz, a Carmelite monk, was twenty-five and about to become a hermit in the Primitive Rule of his order, when he met fifty year old Teresa. Teresa persuaded him to head her monastic foundations and be her strong right arm in managing the convents. He eventually became her spiritual director. They were known to love and respect one another dearly, despite their differing natures. Marcelle Auclair, one of Teresa’s most insightful biographers, compared the two: For her, to love was to act. For him, to love was to immerse oneself completely in contemplation.” After her death at age 68, Juan de la Cruz assumed leadership of the convents to insure her work would continue.
"In 1982, I met a well-known and respected spiritual teacher who I immediately recognized as John of the Cross. We have since spoken of the Teresa-Juan incarnation. In this life, I seek his counsel much as I did when he was Teresa’s spiritual director 500 years ago. I respect his wish not to be named.
"Conclusion: The Teresa incarnation has been a way-shower for my spiritual development in this life. It has helped me stay on purpose with my soul development and service and not get lost in the material world. I can choose to evolve and be aware of patterns that disrupted my spiritual growth in a previous life and seek to dissolve them in this one. Remembering Teresa is remembering my True Identity.
Susan Trout, November 19, 2006”
At this point, I would like to deeply thank St. Teresa of Avila/Susan Trout, for the extraordinary contributions she has made on behalf of humanity in two, very hard working incarnations. I would also like to thank St. John of the Cross/Ben of the Course, for continuing to produce metaphysical works of great merit.
The Reincarnation of St. Paul
Nick Bunick was born in a neighborhood of Boston to a family who never owned a car or a home. Nick had natural gifts, though, and in high school became captain of athletic teams, president of his class and went on to college on a scholarship. Though he was not raised a Christian, Nick had a profound love for Jesus every since he was a boy.
As described in his book, In God’s Truth, starting in 1977, nine psychics and mystics, in three different states, independently told Nick that he was the soul who lived 2000 years ago and was known as the Apostle Paul. Nick, who by now had became a successful businessman and who served on the boards of several corporations, found this premise difficult to accept.
Over the years, Nick himself started to receive telepathic messages from angelic beings, who he calls the “messengers.” In the spring of 1996, at 4:44 in the morning, Nick was awakened by the messengers and told that a book about his being St. Paul would be written and distributed in Seattle. 444 had become a symbol for Nick, as important events in his spiritual journey seemed to be associated with the number 444. This is a way that the spiritual world can communicate with us. Though it is relatively difficult for a spirit being to produce a light body that can be seen in the material world, it is fairly easy for a spirit being to set up synchronistic events associated with a symbol, such as 444, which becomes a signal. Angelic beings and spirit guides communicate to us through such signals and symbols.
When Nick went into his office that morning in the spring of 1996, he found a message from Gary Hardin, a writer, who had heard about spiritual experiences that Nick was having and who wanted to write a book about Nick’s story. The book was written in a few weeks and was called, The Messengers. The first half is a narrative which summarizes Nick’s story and the second half consists of transcripts of past life regressions that Nick underwent conducted by Julia Ingram, a professional hypnotherapist, which began in 1991. In these regressions, Nick accessed memories of his past life as the Apostle Paul.
Interestingly, it was Michael Tamura who first told me to read The Messengers. In one of my early sessions with Kevin Ryerson, Ahtun Re confirmed that Nick Bunick is the reincarnation of St. Paul, considered a founder of the Christian Church. In addition, one of the people who has been significant in Nick’s journey is Echo Bodine, who discovered that she had psychic gifts in her teenage years and who has made a career as a spiritual teacher and clairvoyant. In her book, Echos of the Soul, Echo reveals that she was a sibling, a sister, of Jesus, which Ahtun Re has also confirmed. It is likely that Echo and Nick also knew each other in the era of Jesus, as those we know and are close to return to us in successive incarnations.
Nick’s primary interest, in this lifetime, is to set the record straight regarding the early history of Christianity, including the life of Paul and the Church’s purposeful removal of the doctrine of reincarnation from the teachings of the Church. This occurred in 553 AD, at the Fifth Ecumenical Council convened by the Roman Emperor Justinian, who wanted all references of preexistence of the soul, or reincarnation, removed from Church doctrine. In his efforts, he excommunicated the Church Father, Origen, who openly supported reincarnation.
There were two divisions of the church at that time. One branch was the Eastern Church, headquartered in Constantinople, which Justinian controlled and which was against reincarnation. On the other hand, the bishops of the Western Church, headquartered in Rome, believed in reincarnation. Justinian convened the Fifth Ecumenical Council in Constantinople with 159 of the Eastern Church bishops present, but with only 6 bishops of Western Church present. Emperor Justinian pulled a fast one and in this council, reincarnation was voted out of the doctrine of the Christian Church. The Pope at the time, Pope Vigilius, was so outraged at Justinian’s unethical behavior and manipulation of the Church, that he boycotted the proceedings of the Fifth Ecumenical Council. The Catholic Encyclopedia indicates that the conflict between the Emperor and the Pope become so severe that the Pope suffered many indignities and was almost killed. This is how reincarnation was taken out of the doctrine of the Christian Church.
Of interest, at least to me, is that Nick Bunick also had an incarnation during the American Revolution. Nick has been identified, through Kevin Ryerson’s spirit guide, Ahtun Re, to have been William Samuel Johnson, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention from Connecticut. Roger Sherman, who in contemporary times has been identified as Gary Renard/Michael Tamura, was also a delegate to the Convention from Connecticut. As such, St Thomas and St Paul were close colleagues at the Constitutional Convention of the United States.
William Samuel Johnson was considered one of the best educated of the members of the Constitutional Convention, though in the years of leading up to the Revolutionary war, he was against violent separation from Britain. Johnson strove to create peace between the Colonies and the mother country. In this quest, though he was elected as a delegate in 1774, Johnson refused to participate in the First Continental Congress. Once the hostilities of war had ended, Johnson did participate in the Continental Congress and later in the Constitutional Convention.
Of special interest, given the past life connection with St. Paul, William Samuel Johnson had a special connection with the Anglican Church of England and he helped reorganize the church in the newly formed United States under an new American bishop or episcopate. Just as Paul had helped build the Church 2000 years ago, Johnson helped rebuild the Church in America 200 years ago.
William Samuel Johnson’s opposition to revolution brings up an issue that needs to be raised. The American Revolution led to the French Revolution and some would say even to the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. On the positive side, these revolutions lead to freedom from monarchies, but with great bloodshed. In retrospect, it would have been better to have created democratic institutions with revolution, even with the vestiges of monarchies that remain in those countries that evolved with war, such as Australia or Canada. In this light, I believe that I speak for those featured in Return of the Revolutionaries, who are actively involved in exploring our past lives, that we would now prefer to be thought of as evolutionaries, not revolutionaries.
This brings up another point of why those who were once apostles around Jesus, then participants in the American Revolution, such as Roger Sherman and William Samuel Johnson, advocates of reincarnation in contemporary times? In the time of Jesus, a concern was freedom from Roman occupation. In an even earlier history of the Jewish people, the concern was freedom from bondage in Egypt. Many of the souls who were led by Moses in the Exodus reincarnated in the time of Jesus in Israel and then sought to participate in the quest for freedom once again during the American Revolution. This does not mean that all the leaders of the American Revolution were around Moses or Jesus, but many were, which helps explain the American Revolutionaries’ perception that providence and God were participating in the creation of the United States.
In contemporary times, the evolutionary impulse is broader and truly universal. Reincarnation research demonstrates that we can change religious, racial and ethnic affiliation from lifetime to lifetime. The evolutionary cause, at least in my mind, is to stop violence and war based on differences in these affiliations.
In a book written by Jim Tucker, MD, of the University of Virginia, entitled Life Before Life, Dr. Tucker summaries the work that the late Ian Stevenon, MD has done over 40 years regarding children who spontaneously remember past lives. In his book, Dr. Tucker addresses and refutes each argument that a skeptic may raise to try to dismiss Dr. Stevenson’s work. The very first case that Dr. Tucker describes in Life Before Life involves Kemal Atasoy, a six year old Muslim boy in Turkey who in great detail recalled a lifetime in which he was a wealthy Christian merchant named Karakas who lived in Istanbul, 500 miles from where Kemal was born and raised. Kemal’s memories were later validated through meticulous research.
In his book, Dr. Tucker asks, “How did this little boy, living in a town 500 miles away, know so many things about a man who had died in Istanbul fifty years before he was born?...What possible explanation could there be? Kemal had a very simple answer; he said that he had been the man in a previous life.”
In the case of Kemal Atasoy, a Muslim boy recalled a past lifetime, in detail, in which he was a Christian merchant. In the case of Barbro Karlen, Anne Frank, who was persecuted and died in the Holocaust as a Jew reincarnated into a Christian family. Similarly, a Shiite in one lifetime can reincarnate as a Sunni or a Kurd. The next step in human evolution is to realize that we are universal souls that can incarnate in any cultural and religious setting. With this understanding, let us stop the violence. Earth is our school that we attend to develop and grow so that eventually we may become closer to God. Let us stop the destruction of the infrastructure of our civilizations and ourselves.
Bodhisattvas
In Tibetan Buddhism a Bodhisattva is a person who has completed cycles of earth incarnation and has the option to stay in the spirit world, in heaven, but who elects to reincarnate again out of compassion for humanity, to help other human beings evolve and reach a state of enlightenment. I always thought that the number of Bodhisattva’s on planet earth was very small at any one time. When I asked Ahtun Re, Kevin Ryerson’s spirit guide, the question of what percentage of earth’s population has voluntarily returned, I was surprised that he estimated that 20 percent of earth’s population has developed to the point where these individuals did not have to return to earth incarnation, but did so as a service to humanity.
After I reflected on this, it made more sense, as I do know many very good people who work hard to better the lives of their fellow men and women. I have often wondered what more do they have to do to attain heaven? I will address the issues of soul evolution separately, but I wanted to share this bit of information for I find it comforting that so many souls return out of compassion.
I believe that this is the situation with the reincarnation of the Apostles Thomas and Paul, and Saints Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. If I were a member of the Christian Church, I would wonder why saints would have to return to the challenging circumstances of earth existence. I think the answer is that they reincarnated for me and you, to help us evolve. Let us thank and bless them for their efforts.
