Jenny Cockell retained memories of a former life. In these memories, she died young and left children behind. Across Time and Death documents her acceptance of the memories and her search to find her previous family.
In childhood, my dreams were swamped by memories of Mary’s death. … All this, however, seemed inconsequential beside my fear for the children I was leaving behind.” pg 1.
In the religion of my childhood, reincarnation was neither taught nor accepted. But, as I’ve read different books, I’ve come to believe that it’s true.
I was so curious about it, in fact, that I participated in a past-life regression therapy session. The recording of it is mildly interesting, but mainly traumatic. I saw abuse, a lifetime of servitude and then a death that was penniless and alone in the dark.
The therapist can be heard on the recording, murmuring niceties about being “safe and secure.” There was a lot of, “let it go into the light” and “breathe in and out, slowly.”
Still, I walked out of that session and haven’t gone to another one since. I most likely never will.
If we do indeed live again and again, perhaps there’s a reason that we retain no memory of it. That’s my two cents. Back to Across Time and Death.
As a child, Jenny understood her past life memories more clearly than when she was an adult. “I had no cause to doubt that these memories were real. I assumed that memories of this kind were normal, and I expected everyone else to have them too.”pg 12.
Culture has such power to shape our worldview. Isn’t it true that part of the process for choosing the next Dalai Lama is that the candidate has to recognize the previous Lama’s belongings?
Jenny’s experience with regression through hypnosis seemed to echo mine. “Hypnosis is a strange experience even without the element of regression. All sorts of memories which have been hidden deep within the subconscious and cannot ordinarily be reached can be brought to the surface. This is double edged – both a wonderful and a disturbing experience at the same time.” pg 34. Yes.
When Jenny is finally able to overcome all of her doubts and fears, she then has to consider what the, now grown, children are going to think of her. “I needed to ask for help because I was beginning to panic. I wondered if I had any right to disturb Mary’s children or, conversely, if I had the right to keep my story from them.” pg 107. Which is a legitimate concern.
I’d recommend this book for people who are on the fence or just curious about reincarnation. If your mind is completely made up one way or another, I don’t know that Jenny’s testimony will mean as much to you.
A ground breaking work into the mystery that is the out-of-body experience by a leading researcher in the field.
Ultimately, Journeys Out of the Body left me with more questions than answers, but, for the most part, I enjoyed the ride.
Charles Tart’s introduction is excellent: “… OOBE’s are a universal human experience, not in the sense that they happen to large numbers of people, but in that they have happened all through recorded history, and there are marked similarities in the experience among people who are otherwise extremely different in terms of cultural background. One can find reports of OOBEs by housewives in Kansas which closely resemble accounts of OOBEs from ancient Egyptian or oriental sources.” pg 8.
Munroe points out a curious habit of society that I’ve noticed:“Many (in spiritual and occult circles) have deep professional jealousy for each other, and often are inclined to be suspicious of techniques and theories propounded outside their particular activity. They may even subtly deride or look with tolerant, superior amusement at results unrelated to their specialty.“ pg 37.
Why can’t we all just get along? I bet we’d learn more that way.
Munroe’s thoughts on the “natural” home for what he calls the “second body”, astral body, or body of light: “The Second Body is basically not of this physical world. To apply it to visits to George’s house or other physical destinations is like asking a diver to swim down to the ocean bed without scuba gear or pressure suit. He can do it, but not for long, and not too many times.” pg 75-76.
That was why Munroe believes that out of body experiences are so hard to substantiate. When explorers are looking for evidence from the physical world, it isn’t the natural place for that consciousness to be.
Munroe talks about going to an alternate dimension in his explorations. He quotes a college professor about the possibility of this: “Dr. Leon M. Lederman, professor of physics at Columbia University, has stated: “Basic physics is completely consistent with the cosmological conception of a literal antiworld of stars and planets composed of atoms of antimatter, which is to say negative nuclei surrounded by positive electrons. We can now entertain the intriguing idea that these antiworlds are populated by antipeople, who antiscientists are perhaps even now excited by the discovery of matter.” pg 100
I think that would make a great science fiction novel. Has anybody written anything like that?
I had imagined that learning about out of body experiences would be empowering and uplifting but parts of Munroe’s account didn’t really leave me feeling that way.
Take this journal entry in which he describes aliens and the loss of his belief system: “Then they seemed to soar up into the sky, while I called after them, pleading… By this time, it was getting light, and I sat down and cried, great deep sobs as I have never cried before, because then I knew without any qualification or future hope of change that the God of my childhood, of the churches, of religion throughout the world was not as we worshiped him to be- that for the rest of my life, I would “suffer” the loss of this illusion. Are we, then, just leftover laboratory animals? Or perhaps the experiment is still “in process.” pg 262.
Very, very bleak and, it just didn’t feel right to me. However, Munroe believes this is true and I felt very sad for him.
If you are interested in more information about OBEs, you may want to read Soul Traveler: A Guide to Out-of-Body Experiences and the Wonders Beyond by Albert Taylor or Multidimensional Man by Jurgen Ziewe.
If you want more one-on-one experiences with aliens, try The Key: A True Encounter by Whitley Shrieber.
An extraordinary book by Penny Sartori who was a nurse, now doctor, and worked for years in the NHS.
She realized that with end life issues, there are many categories of experiences that are not discussed in medical educations but that happen often enough to be tacitly understood by practicing medical staff. Dr. Sartori compiled this book with the aim of helping other medical professionals understand near-death experiences and their potential effects on recovering patients.
Refreshingly, Dr. Sartori writes simply enough for a lay-person (like me) to completely understand the text and I found first-hand account after account fascinating, uplifting, and educational.
I’ve read about many near-death experiences and I’ve always gotten the feeling that there was something more there. As if, in reading the account, I was viewing a light behind a veil. Dr. Sartori calls this, “Ineffability.” “Ineffability: When people try to make sense of the (near-death) experience or try to verbalize it they find that words fail them. They have experienced something with which they have nothing to compare, and to try to find words to describe it is impossible.” pg 9
It’s nice to be able to put a word to that feeling.
At the end of the chapter about international near-death experiences, she has this to say: “It is evident that NDEs are worldwide phenomena and it has therefore been suggested that they are merely the effects of a dying brain. However, some cultures report components that are not present in other cultures, which would rule out materialist explanations. As some components are interpreted according to culture then it is reasonable to construe that the components may be interpreted symbolically through each individual’s cultural filter. This could suggest an underlying collective consciousness, as discussed by Carl Jung.” pg 83.
Most of the books I’ve read on this topic have had little to say about the commonality of NDEs among the world’s population. This is a good introduction to it.
About the power of love: “Hospice and palliative-care consultant Dr. John Lerma has reported that 70 to 80 percent of his patients waited for loved ones to leave the room before dying. He also remarked that he had witnessed patients who had been certified dead return to life as the pain of their loved ones had pulled them back from a place of peace and love.” pg 103 Mind blown.
Love literally brought people back from the dead.
About the science of spirituality and how that relates to religious texts: “Texts such as the Books of the Dead have many similarities to NDEs. For many thousands of years these have been reduced to myths but now they appear to be ‘maps of the inner territories of the psyche encountered in profound non-ordinary states of consciousness’. Maybe this is what is needed to reintegrate our spiritual roots with our huge advances in technology.“pg 191 I think that this may be true too.
And finally: “One thing I’ve come to realize over the past few years is that heaven is not a location – it is a state of mind and is within us all. We just have to go within and find it.” pg 191 Absolutely, Dr. Sartori.
If you enjoyed The Wisdom of Near-Death Experiences, I would suggest reading, The Map of Heaven by Eben Alexander. You may also enjoy Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives by Michael Newton- a hypnotherapist explores between life/past life consciousness with his patients to heal current issues.
Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki shares meditations which she calls pathworkings as a method of self actualization.
I understand that directed pathworkings are an actual technique that has been used by mystery schools for centuries to explore consciousness. I just don’t see its usefulness beyond a sort of tourist trip through what “may” be in your mind rather than what “is”.
Let’s compare it to riding a bike. Directed pathworkings are like watching a video of someone riding a bike. Passive pathworkings are like hopping on that bike and riding it all over your neighborhood. You get the visceral experience of being there.
If you’ve never ridden a bike before, watching the video might be safer, but it certainly isn’t more fun.
If we look at the Initiate’s Book of Pathworking as a journal of an adept’s inner work, it feels rather rehearsed and stilted as opposed to the out of body work that was chronicled in Multidimensional Man by Jurgen Ziewe.
If we consider the different approaches between Ashcroft-Nowicki and Ziewe, it also makes more sense that these pathworkings have a clear beginning, middle, and end as opposed to Ziewe’s offerings which are more like real life: random and, at times, nonsensical.
Because (I’m assuming) an adept from The Servants of Light School created these pathworkings through actual experiences on the inner planes, it has the curious side effect of unfolding like a structured lesson plan.
In Nick Ferrell’s book, Magical Pathworking, he discusses the importance of writing pathworkings like a story with a beginning, middle, and end for its consciousness shaping potential, but he never talks about how naturally occurring pathworkings or passive pathworkings, present themselves in that manner, organically. At least, that has been my experience.
I suspect that mystery schools experienced some pathworkings through their consciousness research, recorded the patterns that occur, and then sought to imitate that inner perfection by scripting pathworkings like the ones found in this book.
There is value to be found in this book as it provides a nice introduction to pathworking in general: “What is a pathworking? It is similar to a virtual reality trip. Pathworkings are perfectly natural and can occur spontaneously in the form of daydreams. Used as a structured series of visualizations, they hold many possibilities for the student.” Introduction, pg x
I found some of this book silly like the Healing Spring (Women only) pathworking on page 61. Women only? We’re dealing with consciousness here which is neither male or female, but pure being. If a guy wants to run the Healing Spring pathworking, I’m not going to be the one to say no.
Some of the poetry in the pathworkings is very beautiful and felt authentic, which again made me wonder who wrote these for the SOL. W.E. Butler? Dion Fortune? So curious:
“Forest Lord, with twelve-tined crown, Now we come to bed thee down. Rest content when sleeping deep, Leave the Summer Queen to weep.
Rest thee well till comes the Spring When harebells in the wood do ring; Then rouse thee up the maid to wed And seek the joy of the greenwood bed.
Hunter, blessed be thy sleep; Choose a maid thy bed to keep. Dreams of silver, dreams of gold Will guard against the winter’s cold.” pg 190
To give you a comparison, here is a chant from some pixies in a passive pathworking that I experienced a couple of months ago:
“Awake the trees, awake the night, awake the shining moon. Feed the plants, free the life that dwells within the bloom. To keep the forest growing tall, the pixie people sing, We bring the song and dance the call to wake the Forest King.
Awake the night, awake the moon, awake the powers old, We’re the ones that call upon the Spirit of the fold. Dance the dance, sing the songs, make the forest wake, In our stead, these plants have fed the thirst that never slakes.
Feels very similar, yes? That’s the fascinating thing about consciousness research to me. It feels so familiar but, at the same time, infinitely unknown.
It’s just my opinion but, I think, in addition to space, our own minds are the next frontier of human exploration.
“These “serial” workings will grow with you as you explore them, and can bring about many strange events, both in your astral life and in your physical existence. They are more potent than they seem, so take them slowly.” pg 214. One a week has worked pretty well for me. I feel like I’m learning and growing but not being overwhelmed by the changes.
A dated portion of this book that I found rather amusing, especially since the recent kerfluffle over the year 2012: “As the year 2000 comes ever closer, speculation as to the future of the world gets wilder. Exactly the same kind of hysteria hit the known world in the year 1000… The year 2000 will usher in a time of adventure, opportunity, and yes, a lot of changes. But we will survive. Things may be very different a hundred years from now, but we have survived big changes before and will do so again.” pg 231 Amen.
“One of the things an initiate learns is that every man and woman is essentially a “multi-versal” being. That is, we exist simultaneously in many dimensions and parallel universes. We have a consciousness in each one, a life in each one, a purpose and destiny in each one. But each is minutely different. With every passing moment in time, we change our future in each universe by constantly making decisions that affect the course of that future.” pg 240. I don’t know that I agree with everything in that passage, but isn’t it a beautiful view of reality? Layers within layers of truth, all interacting and changing each other, eternally.
If you liked the guided pathworkings in this book, you may want to read: Magical Pathworking: Techniques of Active Imagination by Nick Farrell, Pathworking and the Tree of Life: A Qabala Guide to Empowerment & Initiation by Ted Andrews, or the second half of A Garden of Pomegranates: Skrying on the Tree of Life by Israel Regardie. If you want examples of (mostly) passive, out of body experiences, read: Multidimensional Man by Jurgen Ziewe or Psychic Warrior: The True Story of America’s Foremost Psychic Spy and the Cover-Up of the CIA’s Top-Secret Stargate Program by David Morehouse.
Bringing the Tarot to Life is a unique tarot manual that invites the reader to use her own imagination in assimilating and interpreting the cards. I’ve never read anything quite like it.
Scott Martin was an actor and theater teacher for many years. “It struck me that just as an actor delves into his character, so a student of the tarot can explore the archetypes that are represented in the seventy-eight cards in the tarot. He can develop his intuitive abilities by participating in the written and performance exercises an actor uses to hone his talent and to create his role in a play.” loc 112-128, ebook.
He based the first two sections of the book on that idea and created a series of theater-inspired games and exploratory exercises to be played in groups or alone.
The last portion of the book consists of Martin’s interpretations of the cards. I found that section to be the least interesting, but there could be descriptions in those pages that others may not have heard. So, don’t let me deter you.
There was also some trivia included for tarot enthusiasts. Something that I didn’t know was that before Paul Foster Case helped to form The Golden Dawn, he was in theater.
Paul Foster Case became interested in tarot in 1900 when someone asked him where he thought playing cards came from. … Prior to that, he was actively involved in the theater. He was the musical director on a showboat and later worked in musical theater and vaudeville.” loc 128, ebook. But old man river, he just keeps rolling along…
I agreed with Martin’s thoughts on improving your intuition: “How does one develop his intuition? One obvious answer is to expose the mind to more creative and imaginative ways to thinking and looking at the world. Creativity and intuition are inextricably linked.” loc 164. Indeed.
My favorite of the exercises presented in this book is “I Am What I Do” loc 231, ebook. It encourages readers to assign jobs to the different cards.
“Many people in life, as well as characters in plays, define themselves to a great extent in terms of what they do. … the possibilities are virtually limitless: The Ten of Pentacles- a family counselor. The Five of Swords- a crooked hedge fund manager. The Knight of Cups- a poet.” loc 231.
I thought that was hilarious. And, I was looking at the cards in ways that I never had before. Talk about ‘Bringing the Tarot to Life’!
Recommended for beginners or advanced practitioners of tarot cards. Every reader will most likely find an exercise or two to their liking because of the huge variety Martin offers.
Thank you to NetGalley and Llewellyn publishing for a free digital advance reader’s copy of this book. Reminder: the brief quotations that I cited in this review may change slightly in the final published version.
The Last Lecture is Randy Pausch’s last hurrah- a final note to the world and his family about how to live, love and let go. It is beautiful.
I think that we’re all here for a reason and have stories to tell. How fortunate for us all that Randy had the time and ability to tell his particular story.
I recommend this book for fans of memoirs, computer engineering and heart-felt narratives. I listened to the audiobook and it was excellent.
Then, once I finished the book, I looked up Randy’s actual last lecture on YouTube. Bring your kleenexes, friends.
I’d recommend The Keys to the Temple for mid-level to advanced students of the Qabalah. As simple as the authors have made it, they still assume that you know the worlds, paths and general theory. If you haven’t studied The Mystical Qabalah, this won’t make any sense at all.
If you have the background and the interest, The Keys to the Temple may be of great interest to you. This book contains one of the clearest explanations of the path of the spiritual journey that I have ever read.
Let’s start from the top. What is the Qabalah? “The Qabalah is a spiritual system that has been practiced secretly in Europe since at least the 12th century though it draws on deep roots within Judeo Christian tradition. loc 3117.
I have read criticisms of the books, that they’re too cerebral or dry theory. “However when most people encounter the book they are confronted by a dense-seeming text with long lists of apparently unrelated facts: the idea that this is linked with the vivid imagery and dynamism of the novels can be difficult to understand.” loc 172. I agree that it is “dense” but since it was my introduction to the stuff, I didn’t know any better.
Dion Fortune went a step further and wrote fictional novels to put Qabalistic theory into the real world. The Keys to the Temple takes these books apart by plot, character, theory and then gives practical exercises for personal meditation on the works.
That last part, the practical exercises, is the most important in my mind. It’s like learning to ride a bike. You can read books about it and watch other people riding bikes or talk about riding bikes. But, it’s not until you ride yourself that you get the experience and thrill of it.
With this book, the authors have handed you a bike and shown you the door of the garage. It’s just up to you to ride out there. “Anyone can read this book, but only those who do the work will gain anything from it. The secret of magic is that it is experiential.” loc 2374.
Fortune was also deep into Jungian psychology. “She came to significant conclusions when contrasting psychological and magical approaches in prompting change. Fortune was a forward thinker, and the first to acknowledge that ideas and theories could develop for the better. Her stories seem almost to anticipate the direction psychology would travel, into area that might now be described as spiritual psychology.” loc 3117. And this was in the early part of the 19th century. She truly was a woman ahead of her time.
I’m excited about this book and its potential. The Western Mystery tradition never gets its own shelf in the book stores. The new textbooks, what few there are, are mixed in with the New Age/New Thought works. But, that’s not quite right. It’s truly a category all of its own.
I think the time has come for these practices to be re-introduced to the world. The Keys to the Temple is a step in the right direction.
Thank you to NetGalley and Llewellyn Publications for a free digital copy of this book.
I picked up The Alchemy of Freedom because I was looking for an accessible book about alchemy. Unfortunately, it wasn’t actually about alchemy nor was it accessible in my opinion.
But, everybody is ready at different times for different manners of spiritual teachings. Don’t let my incomprehension deter you if you find the description intriguing.
I’m neither a genius nor a guru, just someone who studies religions and spirituality in a comparative, curious, meandering way. This could be the book that opens a door for you.
It simply wasn’t that for me.
There are some gems hidden in these pages but I found it mainly to be a labyrinth of words. I’ve had a similar feeling when listening or reading the works of Eckhart Tolle.
I feel like what Almaas is saying is worthwhile, so I made my way through it. But I just didn’t get the majority of it. Puzzling my way through this book was like grasping a cloud.
I had finished this book last week in preparation for writing a review the day it came out, but when I sat down to write yesterday, the words wouldn’t come. Rarely does reading a book leave me speechless.
I’ll pull some highlights to give you a feel for it. Reminder: this was a digital advance reader’s copy so the final published version could be slightly different.
I was able to comprehend Almaas’ thoughts about our “true nature” and most of the passages I highlighted talk about it: “Whether we recognize it as presence or awareness or emptiness, true nature is crucial to the process of awakening, realization, enlightenment, and liberation. It is the source of all spiritual experiences, insights, and transformations.” loc 116-133.
The bits of alchemy that Almaas did discuss were illuminating: “When we are experiencing ourselves as true nature, we realize that a human being is really the alchemical laboratory. The human being, the human consciousness, the human mind, the human heart are the instruments through which the magician works.” loc 186.
Most books that discuss alchemy are symbols heaped upon symbols. Perhaps it’s just the nature of the topic, but it’s frustrating.
About the philosophers’ stone: “The alchemists spent millennia trying to find it. They considered it the final result of the magnum opus, the great work of spiritual and material transmutation. Some alchemists thought they could make it, others believed it had to be discovered. … I am not teaching anything about alchemy here; I am borrowing the idea because it fits with what I am trying to say about true nature. … We can only experience true nature in the manifold ways it presents itself, and yet it is always one thing.” loc 666
I felt like this next quotation encompassed my experience of this book: “Sometimes we can rapidly absorb a teaching, and other times we can’t get very far with it for a long time. But we don’t need to get into a mental struggle with the ideas and the notions. Although understanding is an important part of awakening, it need not happen immediately.” loc 922.
So, that’s a relief. Perhaps my awakening is still on its way. Until then, I’ll just chill where I am.
The Zen of You and Me takes on conflict mediation through zen philosophy. I learned a lot about managing conflict but more about myself and why, perhaps, I tend to avoid it. Hamilton is never preachy, but gently guides the reader through the dark woods of differences into the clear fields of appreciation and inclusion.
“It is a very freeing experience to suddenly realize that a difference between us is not only OK- it is stimulating and worthwhile. This realization heights our confidence to bring them out directly and openly.” loc 180.
Hamilton talks about leading classes through difficult discussions about race and privilege. The group only manages to make their way through it when one of the members expresses his desire to be heard and the others in the group allow themselves to listen.
But it isn’t easy to listen. You might be angry or otherwise triggered by what you’re listening to. Hamilton addresses that: “Threat provokes such intense sensations in our body and mind that sitting still seems wildly counter intuitive and impossible. But the first step is to learn to sit still and simply pay attention.” loc 310. Mindfulness provides the way out.
I also learned that I’m not as good a listener as I could potentially be. Hamilton provides some excellent advice for improving your skills: “Listening has a lot in common with meditation. Both involve a clear intention of bringing attention to this moment, receiving input, and letting go of the preoccupations of the self. … My first impulse was to tell her it was OK; everything would be all right. Then it occurred to me that she didn’t want to hear that. … I distinctly remember the warm sensation of letting go move through me.” loc 377.
I’ve started practicing not listening to answer but listening to listen. I surprised myself with how often my mind was racing away somewhere else as soon as another person opened her mouth. But, now that I know I do that, I can focus on changing that behavior. Thanks Diane Musho Hamilton!
I expect that now I’ll experience my loved ones in wholly new ways. “Anytime we express our real thoughts and feelings, it creates more truth and reveals a bigger perspective. And anytime someone else shares their truth with us, we should be grateful that we are given the opportunity to see and feel more than we did before. It is a privilege to feel.” loc 511. It is a privilege, isn’t it.
Hamilton talks about one of her students who set an intention to not lose her temper but was then hijacked by her emotions: “Her conditioned patterns are her suffering, like mine are mine, and yours are yours. I invited her to include them, to love them, because this practice is love.” loc 1331. So, it’s not about banging yourself into shape or forcing yourself to become something you’re not. It is more like becoming who you naturally are- which is freedom, joy, love and boundlessness.
Recommended for those who struggle with conflict within themselves or between themselves and others. The Zen of You and Me is helpful, succinct, beautiful and very zen.
Thank you to NetGalley and Shambhala Publishing for a free digital copy of this book. And thank you for reading!
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