Top positive review
4.0 out of 5 starsso many inconsistencies
Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on 26 December 2018
I give the book 2 stars because being a worldwide bestseller, it introduces westerners to the concepts of reincarnation and in between planes. For us Indians, however that itself is not groundbreaking in any way and I felt somewhere that the author is making things up somewhere for the following reasons. There are so many inconsistencies in the book. Like when Catherine goes back to 1578 BC something, how can she know the year as BC?
And then let's assume that somehow her "superconscious" mind could connect the dates and tally them with the current calendars, why couldnt she even name the years in many of her other regressions?
In several past lives, she says she cant tell the date as there're no newspapers around. Such glaring inconsistency.
And Dr Weiss keeps on reiterating how his logical scientific mind is refusing to believe and how he's got such a rational mind and yet he doesnt even once try to verify any of her past life stories. Like Eric, the fighter pilot from Germany was a recent incarnation so it should've been easy to locate his records if Dr Weiss wanted. But he doesnt even try. And yet he espouses the logical attributes of his own scientific and cynical mind every so often in lieu of any real research.
It is my belief that Dr Weiss decided to use his expertise of the human mind to see if he could get away with deceiving millions of people and make money at the same time. Let me clarify...I very much believe that past life regression therapy works and i am also sure that Dr Weiss has had experience on it with his patients. But was there a singular real person who experienced all these past lives in her regressions...that I seriously doubt. All the information about karmic debts, people seeing light when they have near death experiences, different planes, dimensions etc is already well documented.
I had a baby cousin sister who could remember a past life. So we took her to the place and she had died young in that life so her parents, siblings etc were still alive and she was able to name all of them. That's the way past lives are verified for real. If a 3 year old can recall that kind of information why cant many of Catherine's past lives? Dr Weiss doesnt apply any serious scientific rigour to verify and investigate at least recent past lives at all. Why is that? I've absolutely no idea.
However do not let me dissuade you from reading this book. The book is really gripping as far as narrative goes and the subject matter will be revelatory fir those who've never dabbled in metaphysics before. And even for seasoned outliers the book does sort of put things into perspective. Reading about the subject's past lives and "her" imediate concerns pertaining to the circumstances of the scene in that particular past life.......It feels odd......ridiculous even....so we keep coming back again and again feeling the same way, repeating the same patterns, wishing and hoping, struggling and coping...... The ego seems shattered even if only for a moment. And one feels less combative, less demanding, less "me me me" actually and more considerate of others. I'm changing my rating....I give the book 4 stars now as I always wanted people to read this book after all. Only the author's insistence on his scientific cred sufficing for lack of any serious inquiry had bothered me. The book is great..... trancendental even. Frankly I...well I have always been obsessed with past lives and such. My favourite movie is Kudrat that I watch a few minutes of every now and then (deals with past life and regression)..........
Another thing.....Dr Weiss never once mentioned how his "research" was received. Here I should add, I'm reviewing my review in 2020 and have had a bit more experience of life since and have a bit more of a handle on how things are....frankly I never though I would get this many upvotes......but here's what I think now. That thing that I wrote about deceiving....I don't think that was correct not entirely anyway...but it made for interesting reading didn't it.. haha? Here's the thing....there are big powers/ Institutions that deny the truth of rebirth and reincarnation. If Dr Weiss had applied scientific rigour to his research...I mean he must have countless case studies....then the truth of rebirth and reincarnation would be accepted fact. But as of now it's still in the realm of conjecture and here he could have really revolutionised the world. Did the powerful institutions that deny rebirth have a hand in this? Who knows?
