Have we lived before

[Simon Marshland]

Have we lived before, do we all have other life experiences we no longer remember. It is certainly a compelling possibility and one that I have chosen as the theme in my new book Private Lives.

The concept of reincarnation, that of an individual dying and then being reborn into another body, has existed in various religions for at least 3,000 years. It has now spread to the point that there are probably more people alive who believe in reincarnation than do not. Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism are all believers, as was Christianity until Emperor Constantine converted to that religion with far reaching results. Culminating in 2nd Council of Constantinople of 553 A. D. which declared reincarnation a heresy and the doctrine of reincarnation was officially banished by the Christian Church.

But despite their heavenly aspirations religions are apt to restrict themselves to dogma and an earthly view, while the real enigma confronting us has to be the mysteries of the Cosmos and the prospect of possible universes beyond. Mankind as an early specie has been around for a maximum of five million years, less than a second in universal terms. But then does time even exist. It is said we can’t see time, only experience it. We can’t measure time, only define it. According to Einstein if an object travelling at the speed of light leaves and returns to Earth five years later, fifteen thousand years would have passed in the interim period. Similarly though we live in a three dimensional world why should that preclude the possibility of four, ten or a hundred further dimensions, all existing in the same space but vibrating at different speeds and levels to be invisible to one another. When confronted by such tantalizing possibilities together with an ocean of the unknown stretching to an horizon too distant to be seen is the prospect of previous lives so hard to accept.

Caesar, Napoleon and General Patton believed in reincarnation. As did Goethe, Mark Twain, Wordsworth and Tolstoy. Not forgetting Benjamin Franklin, Albert Schweitzer, Carl Jung, Voltaire, Henry Ford, Gandhi and many more. I am certainly tempted in that direction hence the book. I hope you enjoy it.

[Mike O'Hare & Elfreda Pretorius]

Our first comment was written before we realized that you have explained your story on your profile page. So it's fiction just like ours, but who is to say that fiction can only be based on fact -- experiences and knowledge gained on a multi-dimensional level. Emma Hardinge Britten once said that we can only think God's thoughts after God. Think about that.

[Mike O'Hare & Elfreda Pretorius]

I believe that you can include the name of Abraham Lincoln in that last group of names you mention. You are probably near the mark (as near as we can get as human beings) when you refer to the possibility of many dimensions. Hasn't quantum theory already pointed us in that direction? There is no time or space outside of the third dimension, at least not as we recognize or understand it. Therefore what we perceive as previous or past lives could be the culmination of all the aspects that make us who and what we really are -- living simultaneously and experiencing life as it was meant to be on many different dimensional levels.

Your book sounds interesting. How coincidental that we too have recently finished a novel which covers the same subject. The expression of the main characters in the book is focused toward demonstrating the interconnectedness of the universe. It is a story about undying and eternal love seen through the eyes of two people who strive to find each other through many different lives covering thousands of years. It is called The Meadow and it would be interesting to see how many comparisons can be made, although your book sounds more like non-fiction.

Our book is definitely geared toward the coming age where folk are more than ready to escape into a world that does not remind them of the present-day problems that face us today. Perhaps you have family and friends who are leaning toward the more esoteric aspects of our being.

Let's hope that Private Lives and The Meadow each have something to give to the world and help relieve the suffering and, more importantly, bring hope to those who are beginning to wake up and realize that worldly matters can change and that they have the power to do something about it. And that only requires one simple seed -- the seed of curiosity.

Our publication date will happen in a few weeks. We believe the timing is perfect.