Reincarnations - a psychological matter?

Is regression therapy - reconstruction of previous incarnations under the influence of hypnosis - a legitimate method in psychotherapy? Dr. Brian Weiss, a psychiatrist from Miami, presents in his latest book the wonderful story of Elizabeth and Pedro. His successors in Israel also have their own evidence contrary to the position of the medical establishment

11.8.2002
From: A collection of articles on reincarnation

In the photo - Prof. Tiano, director of Gaha Hospital

Souls roll on the couch

Dr. Brian Weiss, a Jewish psychiatrist from Miami, found himself faced with a professional dilemma that would have given his professional ancestors a serious headache. Weiss, 57 years old, started his career as a strictly institutional psychiatrist. He graduated with honors in medical studies at Columbia University and specialized in psychiatry at Yale University. For 11 years he served as the head of the psychiatric department at the "Mount Sinai" medical center in Miami. Most of the chances were that his professional career would continue to be conducted safely in the king's way, if it were not for the arrival at his clinic of a patient who entered the literature of psychotherapy named Catherine.

What happened during the treatment of Catherine shook Weiss' entire professional concept system and put him before a career decision. The results of this decision were published in 1988 with the publication of his first book "Roots and Lessons in Time", which marked the biggest change in his life. Weiss described in the book the way of treating Catherine, a young woman who suffered from anxiety, depression and nightmares. At some point, when he saw that the conventional treatment was not producing results, he decided to treat her with hypnosis. That's how he found out that at the age of three she was abused by her alcoholic father. But even the disclosure of the case did not make her fears disappear. Weiss decided that there must be another trauma buried in Catherine's subconscious. He continued the hypnosis and asked her to go back in time, trying to locate an earlier source of her symptoms. Then the strangest thing happened.

Catherine, who worked as a laboratory technician, did not stop at her childhood years, but began to describe herself as a young woman in an ancient culture, which seemed to belong to the Near East thousands of years ago. She told how a surge of salty, murky water drowned her, suffocated her and tore her baby from her arms. The story sounds imaginary, but what impressed Dr. Weiss was the fact that following the description in the clinic, Catherine's compulsive fear of suffocation and drowning completely disappeared. Weiss believed that imagination alone would not have freed her from such a phobia. He began to entertain the hypothesis that his patient was actually describing an experience from a previous life and that the very act of bringing it up freed her from the trauma. Weiss continued the hypnotic treatment and Catherine continued to provide detailed accounts of her past lives. All of them had explanations and signs for her current fears. At the end of the treatment, she was completely freed from all her anxieties and left

Prof. Tiano confronted the psychiatrist with a big mystery - did Catherine really live in previous incarnations?
If not, how can the precise and detailed descriptions from the past be explained? And if so, what is he going to do with it? What does this mean regarding the continuation of his professional path?

At the end of a long deliberation, Weiss decided to come out of the closet and confess to the world his new belief in the treatment method of regression - a hypnotic return to previous incarnations. The book became an international bestseller, selling two million copies, and was even translated into Hebrew (published by "Markem"). Weiss was assigned by the establishment psychiatric community, and at the same time a pilgrimage center for many from all over the world who sought regression therapy. Today there are 5,000 people on the waiting list for treatment with him.

Weiss' spiritual experiences with his hypnotized patients became more complex (or crazier, depending on the point of view). He went on to document them in another book, "Healing in the Depths of Time" (translated into Hebrew by "Merakem") and then in another one, "Only Love Is Real", which was published these days in the "Seri Derekh" series, a new partnership between "Ketar" publishing and the weekly The alternative "Other lives", which according to Chava Rimon, the editor of the series, is intended for publishing quality spiritual literature.

In this book he presents Weiss with two case studies so strange that it takes copious amounts of good will and trust to be convinced of their truth. The book follows two young and unhappy patients, Elizabeth and Pedro, who underwent therapy at the same time at Weiss's clinic, but never met. While treating the regression, Weiss discovered to his astonishment that the two separately reported on identical life incarnations, in which their paths crossed again and again, sometimes as spouses, sometimes as father and daughter, but always as two people bound together in a rare and total love bond. Dr. Weiss came to the conclusion that the two are what he defined as "twin souls", returning and reincarnating in different people who meet again and again, and that only a union between them can bring them true, deep and satisfying love. He was especially thrilled, because both patients suffered from loneliness, loss, and above all from the inability to maintain a deep and healthy relationship.

The dilemma was clear - should he intervene in the course of fate, bring the two together, and perhaps give them their chance for happiness in this life? If the connection is not successful, they may be hurt even more, and lose their trust in him as a therapist. Besides, should he play the role of God? He had to decide quickly, because the treatment for both of them was about to end and each was supposed to go to another country.

In the end, Weiss decided to interfere a little with fate and make Elizabeth and Pedro meet. In order not to reveal the end of the book, how this meeting ended and what became of the two twin souls will not be revealed here.

All in all I was open

About two years ago I came across Dr. Weiss's clinic in Miami. The soft lighting in the reception room and the sound of splashing water in a small pebble fountain set the required atmosphere. He greeted me warmly and led me to his office, where he seated me in the same beige leather armchair where Catherine, Elizabeth and Pedro were also sitting.

Weiss, an extremely busy psychiatrist, who conducts seminars all over the world, tries to keep things popular and accessible. Unlike spiritual beings of the type of Deepak Chopra, who is surrounded by a well-oiled public relations apparatus that prevents any direct access to him, Weiss tries to be available and even answers his e-mail whenever possible. His wife Carol organizes his workshops. As a Jew, he is thrilled by the fact that his books are being translated into Hebrew. His voice is quiet and gentle, his eyes are gray and inviting, and the whole thing seems like a perfect tape-casting for the role of the mesmerizing psychiatrist.

At the beginning of the session he tested my eyes, to determine how easily I could be hypnotized. The test is simple: I was asked to roll my eyes upwards, and at the same time lower my eyelids downwards. The less of the pupil that can be seen under the fluttering eyelids, the greater my potential to enter a hypnotic trance. People whose pupil has completely disappeared are perfect hypnotists. At the end of the test, Weiss determined with satisfaction that I would be an excellent hypnotist. "About 85% of people are able to be hypnotized, and between 66% and 75% remember past lives," he said.

During our conversation he repeated and emphasized again and again the main message in his teachings - the most important thing in life is love, we came into the world to love. He repeated things so much that sometimes it seemed that the source of his inspiration was not in the mystical space between life and death, but somewhere in Hollywood.

Last week, following the publication of his latest book in Hebrew, I returned to him, this time by phone.

How can you be sure your patients are experiencing past lives?

"I am sure about some of them. A famous Chinese surgeon once came to me, who had read my book in Chinese and really wanted to experience regression. She didn't speak a word of English, and came with an interpreter. I put her under hypnosis, and she came back to life in the San Francisco area 120 years ago. She had an argument with her boyfriend at the time, and she started speaking very juicy English. The interpreter got confused and started translating for me from English to Chinese. I looked at him and told him that I understand her English perfectly. He was in shock. Speaking in an unknown language is a phenomenon called xenoglossia, which really indicates a previous life."

How does your scientific education reconcile with a belief in reincarnation?

"The scientist is only an observer. He does not say that there is a soul or there is not. He is trained to observe the phenomena without introducing his own opinions, and without predetermining. Before my private observations, it exists. More and more scientists, including physicists, are finding that the soul exists after the death of the body. It is no longer an unscientific thing to say today."

How did the medical establishment accept these spiritual views?

"In the beginning there was a strong negative reaction. Someone at the South Florida Psychiatric Society even started a movement to censor me. It ended in a big debate with supporters and opponents shouting at each other. It saddens me that scientists behave like this, because they should be open to receiving new data, without prejudices. I didn't believe in these things either before I met Catherine, but I was open."

Do you think there are other therapists whose patients have spontaneous mystical experiences, like Catherine, but are afraid to report them?

"Of course it happens. People are very concerned about their reputation and career."

And you weren't afraid?

"Yes, I was afraid. It took me three or four years to write the first book. I was then the head of the psychiatric department at Mount Sinai, and I had two small children and a house with a large apartment. In the end I dared to post, because I thought it would help people. My wife also supported me, saying that it was important that I do the right thing, no matter what the cost. The result was that multitudes of patients came from all over the world to 'Mount Sinai' because of me. The hospital had very mixed feelings about my work, but on the other hand they liked the fact that lots of new patients were coming to them. Today, happily, psychiatrists accept me more and more. Now I'm already being invited to speak at medical schools, which wouldn't have happened a few years ago."

Don't you think that what spurs the establishment to recognize your therapy is the financial gain?

“Oh, yes, it happens a lot here. At first I was expelled from the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, for example. They said very negative things about my work with incarnations. But three years later they gave me all kinds of signs of appreciation and respect, because because of me a situation arose that many patients came for hypnosis treatment. But that's not what interests me. What's important to me is that it helps people, that it heals grief, fears and trauma."

You promised you wouldn't leave me

Weiss is well aware of his readers' skepticism about reincarnation and accepts it with understanding. In this sense, his books are free of missionaryism and do not try to convince the readers, beyond the factual documentation of the cases. He does insist on one thing: the effectiveness of his treatment. According to him, you don't have to believe in reincarnation to go through this treatment successfully. Those who do not believe, he says, are invited to treat the stories that emerge from his mind as imaginations, dreams or free associations, all of which express the subconscious. The main thing is that the therapeutic power of the stories to remove anguish, fears, even psychosomatic pains, is proven again and again in his clinic.

Interest in this school of therapy has recently been increasing in the world and in Israel. Since 93, two Dutch experts on the subject, Rob Buntenbool and Tinaika Nordergraf, have been coming to Israel regularly, conducting a series of workshops for the training of therapists. According to Buntenbol, about a hundred therapists have already been trained in Israel, although not all of them are active. About two years ago, the association "Atra" was founded in Israel, which brings together therapists dealing with regression. The association currently has about 50 members and 70 friends, among them clinical psychologists and social workers. These therapists agree with Weiss's professional position, that regardless of the belief in reincarnation, it is possible to achieve with the help of regression therapeutic results that are very difficult to achieve with other methods. However, they have no illusions - what will surprise them even more than conclusive proof of the survival of the soul, is the possibility that the medical establishment in Israel will recognize them.

Bontenbol, 57 years old, a serious man, tall and thin, has a degree in political science, a city planner in the past. He is surprising in his description of an exotic previous incarnation: "I was a black playboy in New York in the twenties. A guy who makes a living dancing with women in the nightclubs of Harlem."

Why use regression and not settle for conventional psychotherapy?

"In psychotherapy, you cannot claim results of more than 60-50%. Regression gives more chances. It allows patients to understand their condition not only intellectually, but also spiritually. I, for example, was a very frightened child, almost neurotic, and I suffered from a disproportionate feeling of rejection. When I learned how the life of the Negro gigolo ended, who died as a drunken homeless man in the economic depression, I realized that the feeling of rejection also stems from there, and that helped me to finish you."

Ruth Schreiber, a clinical psychologist and member of the Atara association, says that the regression technique helps her a lot. "When I get stuck in the healing process I use this, and it often helps. People get stuck in treatment not because they want to get stuck, but because something in the subconscious doesn't allow it. The reconstruction makes things very vivid in the mind, and it reflects many things to us as in a mirror, and allows us to approach the problem from a new angle."

Do you have to believe in a past life for it to work?

"Belief is not necessary for the process, as long as you accept what comes from your subconscious."

Schreiber claims that regression can help solve relationship problems. "Many times, when couples are terribly unhappy, and want to break up but can't, it's a connection from a previous life. Sometimes, when someone is about to die, we promise them that we will not leave them. This promise resonates in our subconscious when we meet him in another incarnation, even when these relationships are no longer true for us." According to her, regression is helpful even for physical problems. "I had a patient who for years suffered from vaginal problems. In reincarnation she saw herself as a woman in an Indian tribe conquered by another tribe. She became a slave who was raped by the men of the conquering tribe. When she got pregnant, a stick was stuck in her vagina until she bled to death. After the reconstruction of the reincarnations, her problems were solved."

Do you believe what she saw was real?

"As a person it intrigues me, but as a therapist it doesn't matter. The woman herself had her doubts, but in any case it helped her."

Bridget Kashtan, 48 years old, clinical psychologist, formerly a senior psychologist at Tirat HaCarmel mental hospital, veteran of regression in Israel and founder of the "Atra" association, claims that in studies done in the USA, it was found that the area where regression is most useful is phobias. "This is because phobias are usually related to the form of death in a previous incarnation. He who is afraid of suffocation - the house collapsed on him or he was buried alive. who will
who is afraid of a crowd - kill him in front of a mocking crowd. He who is afraid of fire - burn him. He who is afraid of water - drowned. These are things that even 20 years of psychoanalysis will not reveal. In most cases, when you re-experience the trauma, it releases the energy that is stuck there, and the phobia disappears."

Schreiber: "Psychology is no longer conventional as it was. People today have a search for more. They want more philosophical and spiritual understanding."

maybe you are my mother

But techniques like regression also bring unexpected ethical problems, such as the one described by Dr. Weiss, concerning the therapist-patient relationship and the boundaries between them. Shula Elsheich, a clinical psychologist who treats regression: "There is a very significant psychological education regarding the boundaries between therapist and patient. The correct distance maintained between them is critical for both. In regression, the therapist sees the patient in difficult moments. There is a possibility here to reach a much higher exposure of both parties."

Can a patient discover that in a previous incarnation you were his mother?

"Definitely, although it hasn't happened to me yet. This is really a disturbing question, what happens if a patient goes into regression, and discovers that I was a significant figure for him in a previous incarnation? This may put the relationship with the therapist in a new light, and there is a serious threat to the matter of boundaries."

At the national clinical psychological conference, which takes place every year, the members of the "Atra" association were not allowed to conduct a workshop on the subject despite their request, and this is already the second year in a row. How does the psychiatric establishment formulate its position regarding the treatment of regression?

Professor Tiano, director of Gaha Hospital, chairman of the National Mental Health Council, refrained from dismissing the unconventional technique outright. "In principle, I would say that any technique that helps people and is not harmful is good. I don't have a professional position towards regression because I don't deal with this technique."

Could there be risks?

"for sure. Not every technique is suitable for everyone. Regression combines content that can be worked with mainly with people who have sufficiently strong defense and coping mechanisms. When it comes to people whose personalities are more vulnerable, I would be very hesitant to refer them to such treatment. Such people are more likely to slip into psychotic states and lose the line between therapy and reality. It is very useful for the initial diagnosis of who to treat and who not to be made by a skilled and qualified professional."

Do you think there is a place to introduce regression into the psychology study program at the university?

"Personally, I don't think so. A university usually teaches the accepted things, which professionals agree belong to scientifically proven treatment methods, and I don't know that this technique has been scientifically proven."

But before you said it was a technique that might be useful.

"So what? There are also rabbis who do excellent work, and they also should not be taught at a university. I think that many more people are helped by rabbis and the like, than by psychiatrists. But there is still no place to cancel conventional psychiatry, because unfortunately there are too many people who need it."

Bridget Chestnut no longer gets upset about positions expressed by Professor Tiano. "I used to be angry, but now I'm not. They already let me teach a course at the Open University in Haifa. In the normal universities they are very closed, and even Jung is not taught there. They are very behind what is happening in the US and Europe. If they open up to what's happening in the wider world, and stop being so square, I hope it will reach here as well, as usual 20 years late."

The Israeli psychologists who deal with regression are not bothered that their colleagues may see them as strange birds. They take solace in the growing popularity of the method. People like Dr. Weiss pave the way, fascinate the imagination of many, and deliver simple and pleasant messages, such as "only love is real". But in Israel things cannot sound as simple as in the air-conditioned clinic in Miami.

Schreiber, do you also agree that love is the main issue in life?

"Love is a very important thing, but it is not a cure-all. Children need it, couples need it, nations need it, but life is more extreme and complex. Sometimes you have to be bad to protect yourself. You need to know how to be versatile and versatile. It is true that love is a very important thing, but whoever lives only on the concept of love, then he lacks something in life." *

* Hagar Yanai, Haaretz, News and Walla!
The science website was at the time part of IOL

A new-old blow: reincarnations in the lectures of Mahbatim *

Syberdine

introduction

The idea of ​​reincarnation stems, as far as I know, from Eastern philosophy. The concept of "karma" is too complex to discuss in this article, but it is the basis of the idea of ​​reincarnation. In general, it can be said that there is a way to solve the problem of reward and punishment (or, if you like, the problem of the "righteous and the evil one") that does not require the assumption of the existence of the next world. A person who behaves in an immoral way can prosper and flourish, but upon his death his soul will move to another body - in this world! - and she can suffer there justly. And vice versa. It is a fascinating method because as long as everyone believes in it, it preserves social order better than almost any other method; And this is an idea that even the biggest fools cannot fail to understand. In fact, it is enough for the ruling class to believe in the system, and everyone will be satisfied. But enough of sociology.

Monotheistic religions also believe in souls. The idea of ​​existence-beyond-matter is essential for the justice and order of the world, as the religious see it, to be preserved. The difference between Eastern and Western religions on this issue is that in the West the reward and punishment are not given in this world (well, not only in this world) but in a kind of separate spiritual world. In India, for example, the souls are kept within the territorial sphere of India - inside cows, rats, other Indians, etc. In Israel, on the other hand, souls leap up or fall, depending on the specific case.

Souls can, theoretically, return to this world if some bureaucratic error caused their premature departure, or if they are particularly tough. We all remember the famous possession of that poor innocent woman, who stuck a shofar in her ear until she didn't even know what was going on. We were also all amazed at the possessed's ability to speak from her throat exactly in the voice of a woman impersonating a man. But it is still not reincarnation. Judaism is very strict about personal responsibility. Man is the one who chooses good or bad, and what happens to him, happens to him following his personal and free choice. The idea that you are being punished for something that is not actually your responsibility is more appropriate for Christians (original sin). But nevertheless, the reincarnation also made its way to awakening nights of various kinds. why?

Very simple. Judaism says there are souls? Yes. Do the Indians "prove" that there are souls? Yes. So please, Judaism is right. It doesn't matter that it's not about the same "soul" at all, and it doesn't matter that these proofs can actually be a justification for conversion to Hinduism, and not conversion. The main thing is that there are souls. In general, this whole topic of the supernatural excites many people today and it is easy to get carried away by such stories.

Scientific evidence

Recently, so I was told, Chaim Ziegler began using the studies of Dr. Ian Stevenson, a psychiatrist, which apparently prove in a fascinating way that reincarnation does exist. Even before we get into the thick of it, we should ask the honorable Mr. Haim Ziegler, if in his opinion the fact that Dr. Stevenson is a scientist serves as a good enough reference for his claims, and if so, then why does he (Ziegler) not believe what other scientists say - for example in the field of biology. But enough of the trouble at the time. It seems simple that his criterion for the truth of scientific claims is the agreement with his opinions.

Dr. Stevenson is one of the editors of the "Journal of Scientific Exploration," a monthly that claims to publish articles that are not appreciated in the mainstream of science. Just to remind you, other super-revolutionary theories, such as the theory of evolution, relativity, even psychoanalysis (which is wrong) - all these not only entered the mainstream in their time, we can even say that the mainstream entered them. But there are other revolutionary theories that for some reason fail to enter... and they find expression in dubious magazines such as this one. Just for example; One of the articles published in this monthly proves that chicks can control, telekinetically, the movement of a robot. That's how it is
I will be fine. It is even more interesting to note, in view of the fact that there are no shortage of sky-worshipers who believe in astrology, that another article there actually showed that astrology does not work... Why did Ziegler not mention this? Short of time, of course. But let's not throw the baby out with the water and focus on Dr. Stevenson.

Dr. Stevenson has been engaged in research on reincarnation for many years (since the early 70s). The phenomenon he focuses on is children telling about experiences that happened to them in their previous lives. Such things happen here and there, rumor has it that it happens spontaneously and without the parents' encouragement (so what? Children also invent imaginary friends without the parents' encouragement). But beyond that, sometimes the children give enough details to go to the place where the child lived (in his previous life), and compare. And see it's a miracle, the details match. The child describes, for example, a family he has never met (not in this lifetime) - and indeed it is there. Buildings are also described, secret events, names, etc.

I am not so petty as to assume that in most cases these are conspiracies of people who are looking for some attention and maybe also receive some money from the investigators in exchange for their assistance in the investigation. It is known that a lot of knowledge can be transmitted in unconscious but still completely natural ways. In the 19th century, many researchers dealt with spiritualism - seeing the occult, crystal balls, automatic writing, reading cards, trances (not the music), etc. - and in many cases came to the conclusion that this was knowledge that existed in man in a completely natural way, but was expressed only in this way . Again, we will not go into the subject in depth, but what is certain is that there is no real supernatural phenomenon here, only the amazing complexity of the human mind. You can also mention the phenomenon of communication with autistic people, using computer keyboards and what not.
The callers wholeheartedly believed that the autistics were communicating with them (and only God knows what the autistics themselves thought), but in a controlled study it was repeatedly discovered that what the caller did not know, the autistic did not know either and vice versa...

It is not easy to plant all kinds of ideas in a child's head and make him believe that he discovered them himself - or on the contrary, to convince him that his original ideas came from outside. It can also be done for adults, and easily (Manufactured Memories). And if all those involved in the issue are people who are strangers to the ways of science, it is clear that what we will discover in the end is that everyone believes in something supernatural and presents evidence for it. Just like all the soothsayers who go to a fortune teller and say to themselves "I will sit completely frozen, I won't give her any hint of what is true and what is not" and do not know at all that the more tense the person is and tries to hide the more, the more clearly it comes out. And then they are surprised to find out everything about them. Try hiding your feelings from a really good poker player and you'll see what I'm talking about. So much for general reliability
of the stories of the incarnations.

Dr. Stevenson travels around the world (mainly in the East) and locates children who tell about past life experiences (that's not how you do a sample. It's not random, it's not supervised...), and he also verifies the children's stories. He interrogates all the people involved in the case, so they say, as in a court of law (but he is not a lawyer, remember) and makes sure that there is no mistake or cheating. This should be enough to establish a belief in reincarnation, but there is more. Sometimes, such children also tell about the way they died in the past. This can be a very violent way - let's say a bullet to the head. The doctor, if he finds them, checks the medical files of the deceased, whose soul was (allegedly) reincarnated in the child's body, and cross-checks these two pathological reports. And the truly amazing thing is that sometimes these children have birthmarks or physical defects in exactly the place and in the form that correspond to the nature of death!

As far as I know, the doctor himself does not offer a mechanism that enables this phenomenon or even explains why it exists. But who needs a mechanism, what is this here, science? Well, we'll stick with these testimonies. You know the saying that if a pregnant woman wants to eat something and doesn't get it, the offspring will have a birthmark in the shape of that food? Careful observation will reveal that most of the mothers wanted a steak, or a patty, or something else of indeterminate shape. But it should be noted that Dr. Stevenson does not claim that all birthmarks are related to the previous incarnation, only some.

Ahhh... how fascinating! Almost every child in the world has birthmarks, and they appear everywhere and in every form. Many people in the world have died in violent ways. It will always be possible to find a link between someone who died and some birthmark of another child. This is how I think it really happens:
A rainbow family in India, father and mother believe in karma, a relative of theirs (or just someone they knew or heard of) was murdered by a shot in the head. Their child has a birthmark on his head. They begin to whisper; Maybe this is the soul of the loved one who died? The child hears (children hear everything) and begins to believe in himself. He begins to tell them that he is the nearest. They ask him, "Was it true that you were in such-and-such a place at such-and-such a time?" (Unconscious suggestion: it works wonders on children) and he says "yes" and also believes it himself, absorbing information as he goes. And one day the happy family hears about the famous researcher who is looking for cases just like theirs. The rest is known. They believe in themselves, and he believes in them... There are also cases outside the family, but there is no control over the information that may pass from village to village in India, and the doctor is forced to rely on testimonies.

There are a few more things to find out. Why is there no child with a ring-shaped birthmark on his neck? After all, many people were hanged or strangled over the years. Or, if a person is burned to death, not on us, will the child be all one big birthmark? What are the reincarnations of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - after all, we would expect to see hundreds of thousands of children with a birthmark in the shape of an atomic mushroom; How come they haven't been found yet? Where are the birthmarks on the wrist veins? Or that suicides are not allowed to roll over (by the way, the doctor says it is allowed)? And why are the reincarnations limited to the family or the country of the child's rebirth?
If we think about the entire population of the world, I assure you that for every birthmark there is some poor person who died from an injury in that place. You just have to dub the boy a little and he will also tell you everything you want. By the way, in a recently published book dealing with the reincarnation phenomenon in general, it is written that the children's fear of the monster under the bed is sometimes explained by their experiences in the previous incarnation. I mean, the next time your child complains about a monster in the closet, you should run away too.

And here we come, of course, to Amnon Yitzchak. The souls of the Gentiles, according to him, are less than the soul of the beast. So if they are reincarnated, surely and surely the souls of animals are reincarnated as well. So where are all the chickens and cows with the birthmark on their necks? And who can even imagine what a chicken that in its previous incarnation was made into an omelet will look like. And where are all the Gentiles with the mark of the donkey's cheek on them? And speaking of Amnon Yitzchak, let's see what Doctor Stevenson himself has to say:

""There is no evidence for the idea of ​​retributive Karma
(There is no evidence of the idea of ​​karma-retribution)

This is taken from an interview with him. This means that the idea that in your next life you pay - or receive - according to what you did in this life (remember? A child who was murdered because in a previous incarnation he was a murderer?), has no proof. Well Amnon, you have to catch a conversation with Ziegler, it's impossible that way.

And another surprising confession from the interview:

"All the cases I've investigated so far have shortcomings. Even taken together, they do
".not offer anything like proof
(In all the cases I have investigated so far there have been problems. Even if we take them all together, there is no proof in them)

That's how I'll be good! The doctor also shields us from "proofs" of a different kind of reincarnation:

"In my experience, almost all so-called previous personalities evoked through
hypnotism are entirely imaginary and a result of the patient's eagerness to obey the
"Hypnotist's suggestion
(In my experience, almost every "past personality" brought up through hypnosis is completely imaginary, a product of desire
the patient to obey the hypnotist's suggestion)

Like music to the ears! And you will hear this:

"Western psychiatrists and psychologists do not have a satisfactory explanation for
this, whereas in Southeast Asian cultures, gender-identity confusion is considered one
result of reincarnation and taken calmly. Reincarnation ought to be considered as a
". possible explanation at least some of the time
(Western psychiatrists and psychologists have no satisfactory explanation for this, while in South Asian cultures,
Problems with sexual identity are considered one of the results of reincarnation, and are treated calmly. The roll should
be considered a possible explanation, at least some of the time)

So what do you want from the homosexuals and the transsexuals, my fellows? You are the ones who believe in the Doctor! Or do you only take what you see here?

In short, whoever buys these stories, should not be surprised if in the next incarnation he will be some kind of microbe or stir up a puddle. Those who still want to delve into the subject of souls are encouraged to look at the following books, if they can find them (yes, Ziegler, you too). Those who know translations of them into Hebrew will be blessed.

1. Reincarnation: A Critical Examination by Paul Edwards
(This book specifically deals with - and refutes - the studies of Dr. Ian Stevenson)

2. The Astonishing Hypothesis by Francis Crick
3. Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett

(Book information courtesy of Atheist from New Zealand)

They knew mysticism and its dangers

*Mahbat = one who repents