Looking for Carroll Beckwith: A True Story of a Detective’s Search for his Past-Life by Robert L. Snow

Reviewed by Linda Adler, L.C.S.W.
In JRT Issue 17, 1999

 

Police Detective Robert L. Snow had never given much thought to reincarnation and past lives; it wasn’t within his frame of reference. His life was concrete and dealt with only what could be proven. However, a friend challenged him to test his beliefs and recommended a psychologist for regressive hypnosis.

When Snow regressed to his life as the painter, J. Carroll Beckwith, he found the experience so vivid and realistic he began to question what it was. Convinced it was all his imagination, Snow was determined to find a “logical” explanation for what he had experienced. Using police investigative techniques, he embarked on a quest to disprove the evidence in his regressions. However, he was unable to ignore the fact that he may have “experienced something tremendously profound and important.”

Carroll Beckwith was a moderately known late 19th to early 20th century painter who lived in New York and Paris. Snow’s search for Beckwith’s paintings and information on his life was long and tedious as there is no central registry of paintings in the U.S. and Beckwith’s work had not been exhibited since 1911. His step by step investigation took him thousands of miles away from home and through reams of papers and books, including 15,000 pages of Beckwith’s diaries. Instead of disproving his experience, Snow verified 26 of 28 facts in his regressions.

Snow says: “I have recently accomplished something no one has ever accomplished before. I have uncovered evidence that proves beyond a doubt the existence of a past life. The evidence I have uncovered in this two year investigation is so overwhelming that if it had been a criminal case there would be no plea bargaining. A conviction would be assured.”

Snow’s irrefutable credentials and thorough use of police investigative techniques lend credibility to the validity of soul continuation, our ability to access past-life memories, and the value of regression therapy. I highly recommend this book to all those interested in past lives. It is not only a fascinating detective story as Snow goes “looking for Carroll Beckwith,” it is also an important contribution to past-life research and therapy.