Archives: Book Reviews

Death & Personal Survival: The Evidence for Life After Death by Robert Almeder

Reviewed by Daniel Kealey, Ph.D.
In JRT Issue 12, Fall 1994

Dr. Robert Almeder, a specialist in the philosophy of science and a professor at Georgia State University, has written a sustained and rigorous defense of the belief in the soul’s survival of bodily death based on the empirical evidence. A chapter each is devoted to five kinds of empirical sources: reincarnation, apparitions of the dead, possession, out-of-body experiences, and communication from the dead. His careful analysis of the facts and thorough critiques of skeptical objections bring him to the conclusion that, while an analysis of a few particular cases or even of the whole field of only one of the empirical kinds of evidence mentioned above do leave … Read the rest

6 January 1994

Reincarnation Therapy by Ingrid Vallieres

Reviewed by Anastra L. Madden, Psy.D.
In JRT Issue 12, Fall 1994

Originally published in German, Reincarnation Therapy is an important contribution to the mounting literature on past-life therapy. Ingrid Vallieres’ work offers a brilliant and clear immersion in the finer points of therapeutically assisting a client toward liberation from traumatic dilemmas encapsulated in present and past lives. According to Vallieres, this liberation is achieved by consciously experiencing and crossing the painful boundaries of events, and of time, of an individual’s thinking, intentions, and actions. A unique feature of Vallieres’s method is that, from the onset of therapy, clients are connected to a biofeedback apparatus that registers both conscious and unconscious areas of traumatic material. The biofeedback readings offer … Read the rest

6 January 1994

Voices From the Womb by Michael Gabriel, M.A. with Marie Gabriel

Reviewed by Thelma B. Freedman, M.A.
In JRT Issue 11, Fall 1993

Voices From the Womb presents case studies from Michael Gabriel’s fifteen years of practicing prenatal and perinatal therapy and the conclusions he has drawn from this experience. Since Verny’s pioneering work, The Secret Life of the Unborn Child, was published in 1981, a more or less steady stream of evidence has developed that demonstrates the importance of pre- and perinatal experiences on the infant. The Gabriels’ book extends this evidence and is what I consider the most useful book for therapists on the subject.

The book is well organized. In his Introduction, Gabriel gives us an excellent overview of the field and of his methods … Read the rest

6 January 1993

Past Lives, Future Lives by Bruce Goldberg, D.D.S., M.S.

Reviewed by Russell C. Davis, Ph.D.
In JRT Issue 11, Fall 1993

This book has been in print and available to the general reader for over a decade. In an era of “today’s best seller and tomorrow’s marked down budget book” this, of itself, is no small accomplishment. In the opening lines in the introduction the author states:

The purpose of Past Lives, Future Lives is to present the idea of reincarnation and karma to the reader in an attempt to explain why we are here and how we can all better ourselves.

However, when reading this book, one quickly gains the understanding that Goldberg is asking—no, actually telling—readers to extend and expand their concepts of reincarnation, other … Read the rest

6 January 1993

Regression Therapy; Spirit Releasement Therapy: A Technique Manual by William Baldwin, D.D.S., Ph.D.

Reviewed by Roger J. Woolger, Ph.D.
In JRT Issue 11, Fall 1993

William Baldwin’s eagerly awaited manual Regression Therapy; Spirit Releasement Therapy is a brilliant, daring tour de force whose appearance I am delighted to celebrate. What Dr Baldwin has done in this manual is to painstakingly integrate an enormous range of techniques as well as much accumulated wisdom gleaned from Past-Life Therapy, spiritual possession syndrome, soul retrieval, inner child work, multiple personality disorder, and traditional psychotherapy.

The introduction offers a very useful and concise overview of spirit possession syndrome throughout history. Then he traces the development of early dynamic psychiatry and its concerns with multiple personality and the splitting of the psyche as it interfaces with spiritualism from … Read the rest

6 January 1993

Beyond the Ashes: Cases of Reincarnation from the Holocaust by Rabbi Yonassan Gershom

Reviewed by Amy Shapiro, M.Ed.
In JRT Issue 11, 1993

This book is an anecdotal account of personal stories told to Rabbi Gershom during his work as a spiritual director over a ten year period by hundreds of persons who described to him flashbacks, visions, dreams, and “memories” that appeared to stem from previous lives. What he found particularly interesting was that many of these recollections were made by persons who, in their present life, are not Jewish but were, nonetheless, able to provide detailed information concerning both the holocaust and Eastern European Jewish life and customs—information generally not known in the non-Jewish world.

The author has assembled a collection of these cases and has combined them with some … Read the rest

6 January 1993

Regression Therapy: A Handbook for Professionals by Winafred Blake Lucas, Ph.D.

Reviewed by Thelma B. Freedman, M.A.
In JRT Issue 11, 1993

To say that this two-volume compendium is a major contribution to our field is to ridiculously undervalue it. It is, in this reviewer’s opinion, probably the most important single contribution to our field to date. More than ten years in the making, it reflects the precision, thoughtfulness, and thoroughness that one would expect from Lucas.

Both volumes are elegantly organized. The first ten chapters of the first volume, written very sensitively by Lucas, constitute an overview of the field as it has grown and stands today. The first chapter is exactly what it should be: an excellent history of past-life therapy. In the next nine chapters, Lucas … Read the rest

6 January 1993

Hypnosis Regression Therapy by Ursula Markham

Reviewed by Thelma B. Freedman, M.A.
In JRT Issue 10, Fall 1992

As the title states, Markham, a British therapist, has written a no-nonsense book about hypnosis regression therapy, and she sticks to the point. She defines that phrase as regression to forgotten events in the present life as well as in a past life. There is no mention of spirit releasement therapy, spirit guides, or protective light circles, although she may use the last two. She is not specific about her regression techniques themselves. The book is written for the lay reader as an information manual, and for a practicing therapist there is probably no new knowledge. But it is a book that therapists might well recommend … Read the rest

22 July 1992

Out of this World by I. P. Couliano

Reviewed by Karl Schlotterbeck, M.A., C.A.S.
In JRT Issue 10, Fall 1992

Out of this World is an impressive exposition of the variety of otherworldly experiences in and conceptualizations about the netherworld. Although of tangential interest to past-life therapists, as a survey of world cultures and their beliefs about the world outside of time and space, this history is of central importance to anyone interested in the life of the soul.

Couliano concerns himself with ecstatic experiences of a shamanic nature, whether designated as such or not. His survey covers Egyptian texts, Tibetan bardo writings, legends of gods and goddesses in their otherworldly activities, Taiwanese ghost brides, Taoist priests, Islamic journeys and visions, along with Jewish, Greek, Chinese, … Read the rest

5 January 1992

Lifecycles: Reincarnation and the Web of Life by Christopher M. Bache, Ph.D.

Reviewed by Daniel Kealey, Ph.D.
In JRT Issue 10, Fall 1992

Dr. Bache, a member of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University, has written a much needed book full of stimulating insights into the contemporary philosophical implications of reincarnation. He correctly states that the belief in the theory of reincarnation is no longer just a religious question, for the impressive accumulation of evidence that has become part of the contemporary intellectual environment makes it essentially an empirical question. Bache backs up this claim with an overview of the research, focusing primarily on the work of Stevenson and the findings of past-life regression. But this is not his main purpose. He notes that as a … Read the rest

5 January 1992