Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives [Paperback]

Many Lives, Many Masters is easy and entertaining to read. In this book, Dr. Weiss, describes the past life explorations of a patient he referred to as Catherine. Catherine suffered from a wide-range of fears and after unsuccessful treatment using his standard psychiatric techniques, Dr. Weiss decided to experiment with hypnotherapy and ask Catherine to return to the time when the problems originated. The entire book goes back and forth over Catherine's various lifetimes - she apparently had 86 lifetimes, but only several seemed significant for helping Catherine deal with issues she was facing at a time when she visited Dr. Weiss.

At times in this book Dr. Weiss sounded as if he were trying to convince either himself or the readers of the validity of experiences presented in this book. From therapeutic standpoint though, while historical details of past life regressions may be debatable, past life regression is considered one of many useful tools in hypnotherapy for clearing inner obstacles and perplexing issues. And in this book, through this lengthy process of exploring Catherine's different experiences, not only did her current fears clear spontaneously, but some spiritual powers started to emerge.

Apart from Catherine's account of her experiences, in the interlude between her lives, other spiritual beings to whom Dr. Weiss refers to as "masters" would come true and offer tidbits of spiritual wisdom. Some of the wisdom came from Catherine's higher level of awareness, like:

"We all have abilities far beyond what we use. Some of us find this out sooner than others."

"You should check your vices. If you do not, you carry them over with you to another life. Only we can rid ourselves of the bad habits that we accumulate we we are in the physical state. ... And only when you decide that you are strong enough to master the external problems, then you no longer have them in your next life."

"Some of us possess greater powers than others, because they have been accrued from other times ... People are born with talents, abilities, and powers accrued fro other lifetimes."

"We choose when we will come into our physical state and when we will leave. We know when we have accomplished what we were sent down here to accomplish. We know when the time is up, and you will accept your death for you know that you can get nothing more out of this lifetime. When you have time, when you have had the time to rest, and re-energize your soul, you are allowed to choose your re-entry back into the physical state."

"People who are in comas ... are in a state of suspension. They are not ready yet to cross into the other plane ... until they have decided whether they want to cross or not. Only they can decide this. If they feel they have no more learning in physical state, then they are allowed to cross over. But if they have more learning, then they must come back, even if they do not want to. That is a rest period for them, a time when their mental powers can rest."

"Everybody's path is basically the same. We all must learn certain attitudes while we're in physical state. Some of us are quicker to accept them than others. Charity, hope, faith, love ... we must all know these things and know them well."

"You will be guided in time. When you accomplish what you have been sent here to accomplish, then your life will be ended. But not before then."

"You must eradicate fears from your minds. It is a waste of energy when fear is present. It stifles you from fulfilling what you were sent to fulfill."

"Learning in the spiritual state is much faster, far accelerated from that in the physical state. But we choose what we need to learn. If we need to come back to work through a relationship, we come back. If we are finished with that, we go on. In spiritual form you can always contact those that are in physical state if you choose to. But only if there is importance there ... if you have to tell them something that they must know."

"Coexistence and harmony ... Everything must be balanced. Nature is balanced. The beasts live in harmony. Humans have not learned to do that. They continue to destroy themselves. There is no harmony, no plan to what they do. It's so different in nature. Nature is balanced. Nature is energy and life ... and restoration. And humans just destroy . They destroy nature. They destroy other humans. They will eventually destroy themselves."

"We have debts that must be paid. If we have not paid out these debts, then we must take them into another life ... in order that they may be worked through. You progress by paying your debts. Some souls progress faster than others. "

"You can renew yourself through light ... through light. You must be very relaxed so you no longer are expending energy, but you are renewing yours."

And while this book explores lives of one person, the book like Mind Probe Hypnosis by Irene Hickman explores cases of many different people, and other books like Journey of Souls, explore life between lives, and is also very interesting to read.

I found the book very interesting and intellectually stimulating. It raises points and ideas that deserve consideration and make excellent good sense.

This book is absolutely fascinating and a must read. I did not believe in reincarnation but after reading this book, I do now.