by Irene Hickman

Introduction

There is a growing awareness among health professionals that it has become imperative to look beyond the traditional views of main-line psychology and medicine.

With a rapidly expanding body of evidence supporting the concept of personal survival of bodily death, we must now look beyond the narrow views of behavioral psychology and the chemical approach to health and disease.

This approach is not new. Alexis Carrel, M.D., discussed the need for better knowledge of man in 1935 in his book, Man, the Unknown.

“Men cannot follow modern civilization along its present course, because it is degenerating. They have been fascinated by the beauty of the sciences of inert matter. They have not understood that their body and consciousness are subjected to natural laws, more obscure than, but as inexorable as, the laws of the sidereal world. Neither have they understood that they cannot transgress these laws without being punished.

“They must, therefore, learn the necessary relations of the cosmic universe, of their fellow men, of their inner selves and also their tissues and their minds. Humanity’s attention must turn from the machine and the world of inanimate matter to the body and the soul of man….”

Dr. Carrel goes on to expose the tragic consequences resulting from our persistent ignorance about our basic nature. This book (full book download below) is not intended to provide the kind of proof customarily demanded by orthodox science. I have evidence to satisfy my requirement of proof.

The strict limitations of science precludes experimental study of human subjects. Since no experiment using human subjects can be repeated exactly, perhaps it will become necessary for science to postulate a new paradigm. Lacking this wider view, science excludes research that could reveal the true nature of the human mind, the nature of consciousness and answer the question of survival after physical death.

I am convinced that as humans we consist of an eternal indestructible soul-spirit living in a physical body. The present body is only one of many we have inhabited through the centuries and which we will subsequently inhabit until we learn our lessons sufficiently well to qualify for a permanent home in a non-physical Paradise.

This conviction arises out of my own memory—going all the way back to creation—and the reports of past-life memories of patients, trainees and colleagues. These memories include past lives in other bodies, past deaths and vivid memories of the experience between one death and the next entry into a physical body through birth. I have treated this matter at length in my book, Mind Probe—Hypnosis.

This evidence has largely been gathered using hypnosis as the tool for exploration. Other evidence includes near-death, out-of-the body, dreams and meditation as well as mystical and psychedelic experiences.

Perhaps the largest single body of evidence is the work of Edgar Cayce, the American mystic who produced over ten million words during “readings” between 1900 and 1945 while deeply hypnotized. This material has been preserved by The Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and is now available on a CD Rom disk.

The material in this present book comprises a new approach to human problems that has proved to be effective when other methods of treatment have failed. It presumes that we each consist of an immortal soul-spirit dwelling in a physical body. When the body dies, the indwelling entity leaves and has choices to make. It may go to the resting, learning place called “The Light.” It may choose to stay near the dead body’s burial place. It may stay around a familiar place or object or may attach to a living person.

Those who fail to go to “The Light” miss the opportunity to review past experiences, to learn from them and to prepare for a new beginning again by rebirth into an infant body.

The natural laws spoken of by Dr. Alexis Carrel are particularly applicable in reference to our multiple lives, deaths and rebirths. The laws of Karma determine the effects of choices made. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Galations 6:7 The result may be either pleasant or unpleasant. Karma need not be thought of as punishment only.

Rather it is best thought of as the result of our own past choices or at times the result of a need to be persuaded to learn when we are resisting the learning.

I am convinced that all past experiences are permanently recorded in our memory and are retrievable using a variety of methods. All that is required to retrieve these early memories is the desire to recall them, simple techniques for quieting the usual mental “noise,” looking within and asking appropriate questions. Hypnosis is an aid for such retrieval.

There is absolutely no need for anyone to be kept in ignorance of their immortality—in both directions, past and future—of the nature of death and all available options following the death of the physical body.

The universe has provided a place for our soul-spirit to go for a between-life sojourn. Unfortunately, few people have become aware while in the body that such a place exists. Few people have sought these answers and therefore have only a limited understanding of what the dying experience will be like. At the death of the body, many are surprised and confused by the sudden realization that they are not “dead” although their body has ceased to function. Some even fail to realize that their body has died. This confusion appears to be the chief reason for the so-called dead to remain Earthbound or to attach to a living person.

Those that do attach to a living person often have a profound effect on their host, and may cause physical, emotional, behavioral or mental changes. These changes can include serious illness, addiction to drugs or alcohol, personality changes, phobias, inability to succeed at a chosen career, suicidal thoughts or a myriad of other problems.

The idea that spirits of the so-called dead might be around us, attached to us or even interfering with our performance or behavior is felt by many to be repugnant, frightening or even terrifying. I was recently visited by a couple who were troubled and frightened because the wife’s sister who had died some months earlier had repeatedly appeared in their apartment. My initial response to their story was, “Let’s suppose that instead of your sister’s dying, you had died. Then you wanted to go visit her. How would you feel if she acted the way you are acting? She is no more to be feared than when she was wearing her body. She is not there to frighten or confuse you. She apparently does not know the proper place to go.” Dr. Edith Fiore’s book, The Unquiet Dead, has the exact instructions to be given to those spirits who hang around familiar places or people instead of going to “The Light.”

The couple recorded the Fiore instructions on tape and played the tape during the night. The “dead” sister did not appear again.

If this book does nothing more than help people to know what to expect at death, then it will have served a useful and very badly needed purpose. Each of us must face death. Knowing what it will be like and what choices are most appropriate when the body dies can save so much unnecessary pain and suffering.

Various theologies have told us what the afterlife will be like. There seems to be little observable evidence to support common theology. Such ideas as that at death we enter into eternal rest, or wait patiently in our grave for the resurrection, or go immediately to the feet of Jesus or perhaps to everlasting punishment in Hell are not substantiated by experience.

I have treated hundreds of my patients using non-directive hypnotherapy. When they are guided into past time to locate a cause of their illness or problem, they may regress to an event in their childhood in the present life. However, most of them go much further back to re-experience incidents in former lives often including vivid details of earlier deaths. Intense emotions are common. The descriptions they give of these earlier experiences have all been consistent with each other and with the philosophical comments contained in the Edgar Cayce “readings.” My reasoning is that if these reports were not illustrative of the way the universe is actually organized, surely someone of the hundreds of cases would contradict, deny or refute. The patients that I have worked with tell me that at the end of a former life they can view their dead body from above, can choose to stay around loved ones or a beloved place, can move on to a beautiful place or may decide to attach to the body of a living person. I am both impatient and saddened that so few people are willing to test theological doctrine by actual experience.

A general assumption exists that a belief in reincarnation and karma is un-Christian. Until 543 A.D., when the Emperor Justinian attacked the reincarnation concept, it was part of early Christian understanding. Origen, an early Christian writer stated in his work, De Principiis:

“The soul has neither beginning nor end….Every soul comes to this world strengthened by the victories or weakened by the defects of its previous life. Its place in this world as a vessel appointed to honor or dishonor is determined by its previous merits or demerits. Its work in this world determines its place in the world which is to follow this.”

Excerpt from Remote Depossession

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