Archives: Book Reviews

Return of the Revolutionaries: The Case for Reincarnation and Soul Groups Reunited by Walter Semkiw

Reviewed by Sydney S. Heflin, Ed.D.
In JRT Issue 19, 2004

 

Dr. Walter Semkiw is currently Chief of Occupational Medicine at Kaiser, San Francisco. Dr. Walter Semkiw’s new book, Return of the Revolutionaries, is an impressively extensive examination of the history and current literature on reincarnation; in just the first 86 pages. If only these first seven chapters were the entire book, this work would be a very valuable addition to the literature. However, those chapters are just an introduction to a new avenue of research, which will surely be met with delight, as well as controversy, in the field of reincarnation study. Frankly, this researcher/reviewer inclines toward the delighted end of that spectrum.

Cutting edge research is … Read the rest

13 January 2004

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Reincarnation by David Hammerman and Lisa Lenard

Reviewed by Janet Cunningham, Ph.D.
In JRT Issue 18, 2001

 

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Reincarnation is a book that should be in the waiting room of every past-life therapist…and in the hands of anyone who has ever wondered if they have lived a previous incarnation.

According to Carol Bowman, who wrote the forward, [this book] is the most comprehensive practical guide to reincarnation I’ve seen…It gives you the tools to distinguish real past-life memories from fantasy.

Using the “Idiot’s Book” format of simple, to-the-point language and eye-catching icons, Hammerman and Lenard have created an up-to-date informative and extensive volume that covers the questions most asked by clients (and even practitioners!).

Just a few of the important themes include:… Read the rest

12 January 2001

Shadows on My Mind: A Psychologist Explores Reincarnation and PSI by Marie Gates

Reviewed by Janet Cunningham, Ph.D.
In JRT Issue 18, 2001

 

Marie Gates’ earliest memory in this life was of her death as an adult woman in a Catholic hospital. Her book describes her search to understand the memories and to verify, if possible, some of the details that she learned through past-life regressions. She describes several paranormal experiences she had such as synchronistic events, vivid dreams, and precognitive knowing.

There are elements that are confusing in the reading of Gates’ book. One example is when she becomes obsessed over a being called Mohari. The experience comes in a dream, which she later attempts to understand through past-life regression. In sharing the overlapping in her mind between her lifetime as … Read the rest

12 January 2001

Soul Samples: Personal Exploration in Reincarnation and UFO Experience by R. Leo Sprinkle

Reviewed by Barbara Lamb, M.S., M.F.C.C.
In JRT Issue 17, 1999

 

Leo Sprinkle has written a thoughtful, inspiring book from his long years as a university professor, a scientific researcher of unusual human experiences, a philosopher, and a helper/healer of thousands of persons.

The objective of the book, in Leo’s words, is “to offer one person’s views of the journey of the soul, the significance of UFO activity, and the role of the individual person in human evolution…Thus I share with any reader these personal events that have helped me to learn to love myself, others, and life itself, to become aware, and to acknowledge the interactions of humans, Extraterrestrial beings and higher beings.”

The book shows his own … Read the rest

11 January 1999

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 … Read the rest

11 January 1999

Life Without Guilt by Hazel Denning, Ph.D.

Reviewed by Thelma B. Freedman, Ph.D.
In JRT Issue 17, 1999

 

“Most people carry a burden of guilt. If it’s deep seated enough, it can be like an insidious virus that infiltrates every aspect of your life, so that all of your responses to life and others are filtered through the guilty feelings. Many people have been able to eliminate their guilt through the technique of past-life regression, discovering that there are spiritual lessons to be learned in all past experiences. You will read their stories here, in Life Without Guilt.”

So begins Dr. Hazel Denning’s inspired analysis of pervasive guilt in all its destructive forms: its sources, its effects on lifetime after lifetime, and how it can … Read the rest

11 January 1999

Old Souls: The Scientific Evidence for Past Lives by Tom Shroder

Reviewed by Thomas G. Shafer, M.D.
In JRT Issue 17, 1999

 

Old Souls is an interesting volume which details an investigative reporter’s first hand experience with the work of Ian Stevenson. I found it to be well written in a narrative style more like a novel or quality newspaper feature piece than the usual “kiss and tell” personal experience book or dry recital of facts and theories. The author paints very vivid word pictures of Lebanon and especially India and also develops his “characters” with good description and a marked sense of their inner motives and conflicts much more typical of quality fiction. In short, it is a very readable book.

The content, a review of Dr. Ian Stevenson’s … Read the rest

11 January 1999

Freeing the Captives by Louise Ireland-Frey, M.D.

Reviewed by Hazel M. Denning, Ph.D.
In JRT Issue 17, 1999

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Everyone who is interested in hauntings and the spirit world will be excited about this new book, which has just been authored and published by Dr. Louise Ireland-Frey. It is a truly comprehensive work, covering the field in a well-defined and detailed manner.

When I get a new book I always start reading with the Foreword and the Introduction. In Dr. Ireland-Frey’s book the Foreword is a masterpiece of condensed historical facts in this field. Great figures such as Zoroaster, King Solomon, and the mother of Gotama Buddha are credited with practicing exorcism.

The conflicts between demonology and the scientific approach to mental illness are briefly outlined. … Read the rest

11 January 1999

CE-VI: Close Encounters of the Possession Kind: Interference from the Extraterrestrials Among us by William Baldwin

Reviewed by Barbara Lamb, M.S., M.F.C.C., C.Ht.
In JRT Issue 16, 1998

 

Once again, Dr. William Baldwin has introduced further startling, groundbreaking concepts and therapeutic modalities for use by therapeutic practitioners. In this most recent book, he reviews the main concepts of spirit attachments and Dark Force Entity (DFE) attachments that he first presented in his 1992 book, Spirit Releasement Therapy: A Technique Manual. But in this new book he goes beyond to focus more closely on attachments and takeovers by extraterrestrial beings (ETs) and DFEs. Even for therapists who have been working with various types of spirit attachments, this book adds new perspectives, newly realized phenomena, and new possibilities for treating people with unwanted influences.

Baldwin acknowledges that … Read the rest

10 January 1998

Across Time and Death by Jenny Cockell

Reviewed by Robert T. James, J.D.
In JRT Issue 16, 1998

 

A fascinating book recounting the author’s successful search for her past-life children. The author today is married, has two children, and lives in Northampton shire, a County in Central England.

Throughout her childhood, Jenny Cockell had recurring dreams of a woman named Mary, who died in childbirth with her eighth child. Growing up, she had continuing memories of Mary’s life: Her children, a cottage near a small hamlet, roads, woodlands, boggy meadows, a stream, the local church, a butcher’s shop, a railway station, and other landmarks where Mary and her family lived, all of which later proved to be accurate.

She remembered Mary as a church-going Catholic; she … Read the rest

10 January 1998