THE REINCARNATION EXPERIENCE AS A BRIDGE TO HIGHER SPIRITUAL TRUTH by KAREN LYNNE FRAZIER to The Department of Graduate Studies of the University of Metaphysics in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF METAPHYSICAL SCIENCE This Thesis Has Been Accepted for the University of Metaphysics by: _________________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor __________________________________________________ Dean __________________________________________________ President July 2, 2014 Acknowledgements When my son, Tanner, was three years old, I asked him a question. “Tell me about before I was your mom,” I said to him one night as we snuggled in his bed after story time. His eyes widened and his entire face lit up. “Ohhhhhhhhhh!” he exclaimed happily, as if he had been waiting for me to ask him that question for years. “I was a doctor on a boat to Africa!” “Really?” I said. “Tell me about it.” For the next ten minutes, he did. He talked in a matter of fact tone about sailing routes and patients. He discussed feeling good about the people he could help, as well as his frustration and sadness in the cases he wasn’t able to help. Hearing the thoughts and feelings of a mature man in the high-pitched and enthusiastic voice of a three-year-old boy was surreal. It seemed he had a story to tell, and he’d just been waiting for someone to ask. Tanner is now an 18-year-old college freshman. While he has heard the story of this conversation over the years, he has little to no recollection of participating in it. I don’t know what led me to ask that question, but I believe Tanner answered as he did for a very specific reason. At the time, I wasn’t so sure humans had souls. In fact, I’d characterized my entire life up until that point as a struggle to find faith, something I always seemed to lack in spite of my traditional Christian upbringing. i This conversation opened up a glimmer of possibility in my mind and heart that humans had souls. My son was the catalyst that brought me to where I am today, and for that I am very grateful. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................................ i I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1 II. Review of Research ............................................................................................................................... 3 III. Findings .................................................................................................................................................. 12 IV. Discussion .............................................................................................................................................. 19 V. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 23 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................................... 25 iii I. Introduction Reincarnation tales flow through many different cultures and faiths, raising questions about what happens to human consciousness after death, as well as from whence human consciousness arises before birth. Metaphysics, at its heart, seeks to explain the experience of humanity from a spiritual standpoint. It is an exploration of human consciousness and the soul as we seek to learn who we are, who we have been, and who we will become. Likewise, past-life recall can provide insight to some of the biggest questions we have regarding our ultimate purpose, as well as explaining the karmic nature of our lives. The study of reincarnation can help us begin to answer some of the foundational questions that underlie metaphysical science by exploring the indestructible nature of the human soul. Reincarnation memories can prove to us that we are much more than the shells we carry around as bodies. Most importantly, they can remind us we are eternal souls who not only arise from God Consciousness, but also have the Divine as a critical part of our makeup. In this way, the reincarnation experience can serve as a conduit to higher spiritual truth. When we open our hearts and minds to understanding past-life experiences, we can enjoy a rapid expansion of consciousness as we begin to grasp our own Divinity. A number of researchers have studied reincarnation. Such research begins with past-life recall, which is gleaned from various types of experiences including spontaneous waking recall, past-life regression hypnotherapy, psychic information, meditation, and dream visions. 2 Such information, while often profound to the one who experiences it, is not considered hard science because the information is anecdotal. However, careful researchers can then verify specific details in these anecdotal stories of past-life recall in order to create hard data that builds a scientific case for reincarnation. For many, scientific verification is essential before one is willing to expand beyond humanism to matters of the soul. While such data is invaluable in helping people recognize their Divinity, ultimately what is metaphysically important in past-life recall lies in each individual’s interpretation of it. It becomes a bridge from agnosticism to spiritual truth. Once someone realizes he or she has lived before, then the mind opens to the implications of being an eternal soul. In the following pages, I will outline the work of several past-life researchers. I will also introduce a number of people who have experienced past-life recall and share the important metaphysical insights they have gained as a result of their discoveries. Finally, I will show how past-life recall can be utilized in metaphysical science to help create a conduit through which metaphysical teachings can flow. 3 II. Review of Research Dr. Paul Leon Masters notes that two-thirds of the world’s population believes in reincarnation, although the idea receives less support in the Western world than in the East (Master’s Lessons 2:44). Many researchers have sought to prove the validity of reincarnation, and many have reached the same conclusions as more than 66 percent of the global population: Reincarnation is a reality. It is not unusual for very young children to share information that sounds suspiciously like past-life recall. For researchers seeking information about reincarnation, it is advantageous to talk to these young children, who seem to be more able to spontaneously recall details of past lives than adults. One of the well-respected researchers into past-life recall in children was Dr. Ian Stevenson, who investigated more than 3,000 cases around the world into children’s spontaneous past-life recall, writing books including Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation and Life before Life. In his research, Dr. Stevenson interviewed thousands of children who made statements that suggested past-life recall. He then followed up with meticulous research, verifying names of the alleged previous incarnation, interviewing family members from the alleged past life, visiting places, and even discovering physical birthmarks on the children that matched scars or other markings from their previous incarnations. In many cases, Dr. Stevenson took the children to visit their former incarnations’ homes, and they identified critical landmarks, people, and events during these visits. 4 In his book Life before Life, Dr. Stevenson noted that the children he researched who were making past-life statements did so when they were very young. “Most who talk about a past life begin doing so between the ages of two and four,” Stevenson stated. “The children almost always stop talking about the past life around the age of six to seven” (Loc. 232). With children so young providing information about people and places they had never experienced, Dr. Stevenson reached the conclusion that the children’s cases strongly suggested they were, indeed, relaying information from past lives. One of Dr. Stevenson’s colleagues, Dr. Jim B. Tucker, continued with his own research into children’s spontaneous past-life recall after Dr. Stevenson’s death in 2007. In his book Return to Life, Dr. Tucker described the conclusions at which he arrived as a result of his comprehensive reincarnation research. Like Dr. Stevenson, Dr. Tucker found the evidence of spontaneous past-life recall in children compelling. However, Dr. Tucker also offered insight onto why reincarnation experiences may occur. “Our attitudes in this life may affect what we experience after we die and perhaps even whether we come back here for another life at all,” he stated (Loc. 2744). Carol Bowman has also dedicated her life to reincarnation work. She has practiced as a past-life regression hypnotherapist for adults since 1989. Likewise, she has spent many years studying children’s spontaneous past-life recall, which she wrote about in her books, Children’s Past Lives and Return from Heaven. What’s unique about Carol Bowman is that her research has focused on children’s spontaneous past-life recall in the West, while Dr. Stevenson and Dr. Tucker predominately focused on cases in places in the East where the culture is more accepting of reincarnation. 5 Carol Bowman’s work tells of numerous Western parents whose children have come to them with uncanny stories suggesting they were