Reincarnation Research

Reincarnation Case of American Revolutionary, Silversmith and Artist Paul Revere | Actor and Musician Jack Black

Proposed by: ReincarnationResearch.com supporter based on Internet Look-Alike Site

Affirmed by: Spirit Being Ahtun Re in a Ryerson-Semkiw Reincarnation Research Session

Click on Images to Enlarge

Paul Revere and the American Revolution

Paul Revere was a figure in the American Revolution best known for his midnight horseback ride warning citizens of Massachusetts that the British were approaching Boston. This British advance led to the first battles of the war, which took place in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.

In addition, Revere was an artist. He was a silversmith and he created a copper engraving depicting the Boston Massacre, an incident that helped spark the American colonies to revolt against the British.

This engraving is featured to the right.

Jack Black’s Remarkable Resemblance to Paul Revere

Jack Black is also an artist, one who has focused on acting and music. Indeed, one of my favorite movies, Nacho Libre, stars Black.

Jack Black has an uncanny resemblance with Paul Revere. Image comparisons of the two have been on the Internet for a few years, as evidence of facial similarities in reincarnation cases has grown in awareness and interest.

Still, physical resemblance by itself does not validate a past life and I doubted that Black was Revere.

Nonetheless, in a session with Kevin Ryerson, who channels a spirit being named Ahtun Re, who has demonstrated the ability to make past life matches with a high degree of accuracy, I asked about this proposed case. Ahtun Re affirmed that Jack Black is the reincarnation of Paul Revere.

Evidence and Principles of Reincarnation-Understanding Past Lives

Physical Resemblance in Reincarnation Cases: There is a striking resemblance between Paul Revere and Jack Black.

Past Life Talent, Behavior and Abilities: Artists tend to continue to create art from one lifetime to another, though the form of art can change. Paul Revere was a silversmith who also did engravings, while Jack Black expresses his creative nature though film and music.

Change in Religion and Ethnic Affiliation: Paul Revere, born in the American colonies before the Revolutionary War, was Christian and of French descent. Jack Black, also born in America or the United States, was raised Jewish.

Understanding that souls can change religion and ethnic affiliation from one lifetime to another can help create a more peaceful world, as most wars and conflicts are based on differences in these cultural markers of identity.

Artist Reincarnation Cases

Movie and Television Reincarnation Cases

An Ian Stevenson, MD Childhood Past Life Memory Reincarnation Case with Physical Resemblance: Nawabsingh Reborn as Manoj Kumar

How Derived: Past Life Memories in Childhood

Researcher: Ian Stevenson, MD

From: Reincarnation and Biology by Ian Stevenson, MD (pages 1920-1921)

Article by: Walter Semkiw, MD

Ian Stevenson’s Documentation of this Past Life Story with Physical Resemblance in Reincarnation Cases

Though Ian Stevenson indicated that he researched this reincarnation case in 1971 and 1973, he provided few details of his findings. Stevenson included this case in his book, Reincarnation and Biology, as an example of how facial features can remain the same from one lifetime to another. Click on the images to enlarge them.

Nawabsingh Reincarnates as Manoj Kumar

Manoj Kumar was born on August 30, 1964 in the village of Bhaderi in Uttar Pradesh, India. When he was 5 years old, he began speaking of a prior lifetime in which his name was Nawabsingh.

Ian Stevenson was able to find information on the person Manoj claimed to have been. Nawabsingh had served in the army of India and after he was discharged, he turned to a life of crime. He was killed in February 1964, in a shootout with police.

Stevenson, in his report of this case, noted that Manoj had made numerous correct details regarding the life of Nawabsingh, though Stevenson did not elaborate. In addition, Stevenson noted that he was convinced that the families of Nawabsingh and Manoj Kumar were not related to one another, nor did the families know each other.

Evidence and Principles of Reincarnation-Understanding Past Lives

Physical Resemblance: Ian Stevenson was able to obtain photographs of Nawabsingh and Manoj, which do show similar facial features. One must keep in mind that the photo of Nawabsingh was taken in adulthood, while the photograph of Manoj was taken in his teenage years. As we age, skin loses its elasticity, so that as we become older, one’s face becomes more puffy or swollen. I believe this factor accounts for differences in facial appearance in this case, as do differences in the poses in theses images.

Split Incarnation or Parallel Lives: Manoj was born about 7 months after Nawabsingh was killed by police. If the soul is involved in the process of conception, which I believe it is, then the soul Nawabsingh | Manoj was animating two physical bodies at the same time for about 2 months, assuming that Manoj was delivered after a normal 9-month pregnancy.

Ian Stevenson termed these “Cases with Anomalous Dates,” as lifetimes overlapped in time.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Creator of the Musical Hamilton, as the Reincarnation of Aaron Burr, who Killed Alexander Hamilton in a Duel

Proposed by: Walter Semkiw, MD

Affirmed by: Spirit Guide Ahtun Re in a Ryerson-Semkiw Reincarnation Research Session

Article by Walter Semkiw, MD

Please note that there is no political motive in this article.

Lin-Manuel Miranda as the Reincarnation of Aaron Burr and Past Life Karma

When the musical Hamilton became a sensation in the United States and I learned that it was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, a composer and lyricist of Puerto Rican descent, I wondered why Miranda was motivated to create a musical celebrating the life of Alexander Hamilton.

I suspected that there was a past life and karmic connection. My immediate intuition was that Miranda was Aaron Burr in a past incarnation, as Burr had killed Hamilton in a duel fought with pistols. It made sense that if Burr ended Hamilton’s life and political career, from a karmic point of view, the soul of Burr would have the desire to resurrect Hamilton in public consciousness.

Though at the time, I did not know the appearance of Miranda, I found that the facial features of Burr and Miranda did match.

In researching Burr, the only reference I could find regarding any interest in theatre or music revealed that Burr financed his daughter, Theodosia, to be trained in music and dance.

In a session with Kevin Ryerson, Ahtun Re, the spirit guide that the Kevin channels, who has demonstrated the ability to make past life matches with a high degree of accuracy, affirmed that Lin-Manuel Miranda is the reincarnation of Aaron Burr.

Of interest, the prime narrator in the the musical Hamilton is Aaron Burr. As such, Miranda, as the reincarnation of Burr, speaks in his own voice regarding his portrayal of the protagonist of his musical, Alexander Hamilton.

Past Life Talents

Usually, souls show the same abilities and interests from lifetime to lifetime. To review reincarnation cases that demonstrate this principle, please go to:

Past Life Talents and Behaviors

As such, Aaron Burr’s career as a military and political figure is not consistent with Miranda’s career as a theatre figure. People can have secondary traits relative to their primary interests. For example, Thomas Jefferson, who was a nemesis to Burr, was a musician as well as a political figure.

On the other hand, Lin-Manuel Miranda has demonstrated political activism, meeting with United States’ politicians to urge financial relief for Puerto Rico.

Burr may have had past lives focused on music and theatre. One must keep in mind that during the American Revolution, there were few careers available in music and theater. The founding of the American nation had a Puritan heritage, in which theater was considered the “work of the devil.”

Past Life Karma

In portraying the life of Alexander Hamilton, whose image is provided to the right, in contemporary times as a hero of the American Revolution, Miranda has resurrected the persona he killed in a past lifetime, Hamilton.

There is another karmic connection involved in these cases, as President John Adams was one of Aaron Burr’s few public advocates. In addition, Adams was not a supporter of Hamilton, who wanted to start a war between the United States and France. Adams quashed Hamilton’s wish to become the Commander-In-Chief of this proposed war, as Adams perceived that financially and politically, the fledging American nation could not survive this proposed conflict.

Historians agree that John Adams’ analysis was correct, though his decision to avoid war with France led to his reelection defeat, as Hamilton, who was a member of the same political party, the Federalists, worked against Adams in an effort to elect his own political ally.

Elon Musk, Who has been Identified as the Reincarnation of Thomas Edison, Also Neutralizes Karma with Nikola Tesla

As Lin-Manuel Miranda | Aaron Burr seems to have made amends with the soul of Alexander Hamilton, the same situation has happened regarding the reincarnation of Thomas Edison. Edison was in fierce competition with Nikola Tesla regarding how to delivery electricity to the emerging, American, industrial nation.

Edison favored a system involving Direct Electrical Current (DC), while Tesla promoted his invention of Alternating Current (AC). Edison fought a bitter battle, but ultimately Tesla’s system won out.

Edison was a wealthy man at the end of his life, while Tesla died poor in a room of the New Yorker hotel.

I believe that Thomas Edison | Elon Musk named his electric car company Tesla in a karmic nod to his past life adversary.

To review the reincarnation cases of Thomas Edison | Elon Musk and past life associates such as J.P Morgan, please go to:

Thomas Edison | Elon Musk Reincarnation Case

The Reincarnation of Alexander Hamilton

By the way, in my book Return of the Revolutionaries, Alexander Hamilton is identified as reincarnating in contemporary times as the late US General Alexander Haig.

Principles of Reincarnation-Understanding Past Lives

Physical Resemblance in Reincarnation Cases: The facial architecture of Aaron Burr and Lin-Manuel Miranda is consistent. The facial features of Alexander Hamilton and Alexander Haig are also similar.

Past Life and Karmic Relationships: Alexander Hamilton was killed by Aaron Burr, who reincarnated as Lin-Manuel Miranda, who has equalized that karma by resurrecting Hamilton’s image in contemporary times.

In addition, there seem to be a past life and karmic relationships between President John Adams, Aaron Burr | Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alexander Hamilton.

Burmese Grandparents Reincarnate as their Daughter’s Fraternal Twin Girls, Demonstrating Planning of Lifetimes and Gender Change Involving the Grandfather. The Past Life Cases of Ma Khin Ma Gyi and Ma Khin Ma Nge: Muslim Reincarnation

How Derived: Past Life Memories in Childhood

Researcher: Ian Stevenson. MD

From: Reincarnation and Biology, Volume 2, by Ian Stevenson, pages 2000-2017

Article by: Walter Semkiw, MD

The Lives and Deaths of U Maung Muang and Daw Aye Hla

The name of the grandfather in this case was U Maung Maung and the grandmother was Daw Aye Hla. For simplicity, we will refer to the grandfather as Maung and the grandmother as Daw. The couple lived in Burma, which today is known as Myanmar.

Maung was ethnically an Indian, of the subcontinent of India, but he adopted a Burmese name. Burma is just east of the northern region of India. On the map of Burma featured to the right, cities involved in this story involve Mandalay, which a hotel and casino in Las Vegas is named for, Rangoon and the city of Pantanaw, which is on the large Irrawaddy River just west of Rangoon. The Irrawaddy river is marked by the blue line. Click on the image to enlarge it.

Maung Considers Himself a Muslim

Maung’s father was a Buddhist, but he died before Maung’s birth. His mother remarried a man who was Islamic, and she converted to the Muslim faith. As such, Maung was raised as a Muslim. He did not learn that his father was a Buddhist until a year before his own death at the age of 44. As such, throughout his life, Maung identified himself as a Muslim.

Maung was intelligent, obtained an education and became a Burmese governmental official. He also had mechanical skills and enjoyed repairing motor engines, cars and even watches. Maung had a gun, which he would use to hunt birds.

He was observed to be honest and straightforward, but was vulnerable to flattery. As such, he was very kind to those who praised him.

Maung raised chickens. He would tie a string to a leg of young chicks and he would tie the other end of the string to a post on his property, so that the chicks would not run away. Once the chicks identified the terrain as their home, he would free them, as they would no longer run off. He did not eat the chickens, rather, he would employ them to lay eggs, which his family ate as a source of food. As a Muslim, he ate meat.

Daw, Maung’s Wife, Condemns his Treatment of Chickens and his Hunting of Birds

Maung married Daw, who was a devout Buddhist. Daw was uneducated and illiterate, but she was headstrong and bossy.

As a Buddhist, Daw considered Maung’s killing of birds with his gun and the binding of chickens by their legs to a post as misdeeds, which would create bad karma for him. Daw told Maung that these practices would cause him punishment in a future life.

Maung and Daw had a daughter, who they named Daw Mya Tin. For simplicity, we shall refer to their daughter as Tin.

Maung the Muslim and Daw the Buddhist Separate

The religious conflict between Maung and Daw became so severe that that the couple decided to separate. They both hoped to reconcile, but this never happened. They had been apart for two years when Maung died in the Burmese town of Pantanaw in 1950, at the age of 44. Pantanaw, just east of Rangoon, is near the large Irrawaddy River, which supplies locals with fish and shrimp as a source of food.

After her husband’s death, Daw started to cough up blood and it was suspected that she had tuberculosis. It was also thought that she may have contracted malaria. She died in the Burmese city of Mandalay in 1954, four years after her husband died.

Tin Receives an Announcing Dream in Which her Parents Reveal That They Would Be Reborn as Her Children.

The daughter of Maung and Daw, Tin, married a man named Thaw and they lived in the town of Ba Htu Myo.

Tin became pregnant and at 4 months of gestation, she had a dream in which her parents appeared and said that they would be reborn as her children.

Tin went into labor at 7 months of her pregnancy and on February 5, 1961, she had twin girls. The twins had different facial features and laboratory testing confirmed that they were fraternal, not identical twins. After the birth of the twins, the family moved to the Burmese city of Rangoon.

The twin girls were named Ma Khin Ma Gyi and Ma Khin Ma Nge. For simplicity, we will refer to them as Gyi and Nge.

Gyi Attributes Her Birth Defects to Her Cruelty Towards Birds in Her Past Life as Maung

Gyi was born with two birth defects. She had a major defect of her left hand in which her fingers appeared to have been amputated. She had a minor defect of her left lower leg in which there was a circular indentation, as if a rope had been forcefully tied round her lower leg which caused the defect of her leg.

Gyi started to speak when she was three years of age. Between ages four and five she began to talk about a previous life as her mother’s father, Maung. She stated that she had been born with the malformation of her left hand because in her lifetime as Maung, she used a gun to kill birds. She said that the circular indentation on her left lower leg was due to her tying chickens by their legs to a post. There was no history of birth defects in the family.

Gyi’s parents observed that she became sad and took on a ‘faraway” look whenever she talked about her past life. As a result, her father adopted a policy of suppressing her talking of a past lifetime. Though Gyi obeyed her father at home, she still spoke about her previous life with her childhood playmates.

In addition, Gyi expressed a desire to go to Pantanaw for the summer because she said there were a lot of shrimp and fish there. Pantanaw is 70 kilometers or 44 miles from Rangoon, where the family lived.

The twins and their parents had never been to Pantanaw, so Gyi could not have known this fact through normal means. Recall that Maung lived in Pantanaw at the time of his death.

Nge Tells Her Parents that She Had Been Daw, Tin’s Mother, in a Previous Life

The twin’s parents often observed their girls identifying each other from their previous lives. Gyi would tell Nge that Nge was Daw in their past lives. Nge would tell Gyi that she was had been Maung. Further, Nge, when speaking to persons outside of the family, would refer to her mother, Tin, as her daughter.

Nge would particularly talk about her previous life when she was scolded. She would object to the individual who scolded her and say that she had been Daw and that she resented being scolded. Nge continued to do so at least until 1972, when the twins were almost 12 years old.

Gyi’s Masculine Behavior and Traits that Reflected Her Past Lifetime as Maung, Her Maternal Grandfather.

Gyi strongly expressed masculine traits. She chose to wear boy’s clothes and did so whenever she could at least up to age of nine. She even asked to have a boy’s suit specially made for her, which was done. She also had her hair cut in the style of a boy.

Gyi preferred to play with toy cars and trucks, rather than dolls, which seemed to reflect Maung’s fondness for repairing engines and cars. She also preferred to play with boys, rather than other girls.

She also showed zeal in catching insects and then crushing them, reflecting Maung’s practice of shooting birds with his gun. Gyi enjoyed eating poultry and wanted to keep chickens at their home, much like Maung did. Maung was ethnically Indian and he enjoyed Indian foods, such as curries, and so did Gyi. In contrast, no one else in Gyi’s family liked Indian food.

Nge’s Feminine Behavior and Traits that Reflect Her Past Lifetime as Daw, Her Maternal Grandmother

In contrast to Gyi, Nge preferred to play with dolls, enjoyed dancing and singing, and she loved flowers. Nge preferred to play with other girls, wore her hair in the style of a girl and she was very concerned about her appearance. She kept herself cleaner than Gyi and Nge eagerly put on Thanaka paste on her face and arms, which is a cosmetic paste made from ground tree bark used by women in Burma as a beauty aid. Gyi, on the other hand, refused to use Thanaka paste.

Nge was respectful of Buddhist monks and participated in giving food to them. Recall Daw was a devout Buddhist. Gyi did not show respect to monks, which reflected Maung’s Muslim faith.

Nge was bossy, especially towards Gyi, which reflected Daw’s bossy behavior towards her husband, Maung. Gyi, in contrast, was compliant.

When the twins entered school, Nge was found to be less intelligent than Gyi, which reflected Daw’s illiteracy. Gyi, recall, was intelligent, educated and worked as a government employee. Nge would not drink coffee, only tea, which reflected Daw’s preferences. Gyi enjoyed coffee and tea, much like Maung.

The Physiques of the Twins Reflect their Past Life Appearances

At 6 years of age, Gyi was taller and had a had a heavier build than Daw. These features corresponded to Gyi’s past life as Maung, a man, and Nge’s past life as Daw, a female.

When Gyi was 13 years old, she stated that she preferred to have been a boy.

Were Gyi’s Birth Defects Due to Karma Related to Past Life Treatment of Birds?

Gyi, as a child, stated that the deformity of her left hand was a consequence of her shooting birds with a gun and that her left lower leg deformity was due to tying chickens to a post during her past life as Maung.

It is unlikely that Gyi’s deformitis were karmic in nature because if everyone who shot or mistreated birds incurred such birth defects, then there would be a large number of such deformities in the general population.

Ian Stevenson, MD speculated that thoughts in a soul’s mind can influence the development of the body during gestation. In other words, if the soul of Maung believed that he would have deformities related to his treatment of birds based on his wife’s admonitions, then these beliefs or thoughts may have been imprinted on Gyi’s developing body to create her birth defects. I too favor this explanation.

Principles of Reincarnation-Understanding of Past Lives

Physical Resemblance in Reincarnation Cases: Photographs of Maung and Daw were not provided in Dr. Stevenson’s documentation of these cases, so we do not know if the facial features of Maung | Gyi and Daw | Nge were similar. It was noted, however, that the twins’ physiques mirrored their past life builds.

Change of Gender with Gender Identity Issues: Maung, the grandfather, was a male and reincarnated as one of his daughter’s twin girls, Gyi. Gyi demonstrated masculine traits, including playing with toy cars and wearing boy’s clothing, reflecting het past life as a man. Gyi also remarked that she wished she had been born as a boy.

In the series of over 1500 validated childhood past life memory cases compiled at the University of Virginia, gender change only occurs in 10 percent of cases. When gender change does occur, the individual is often observed to demonstrate behavior typical of the previous gender. Homosexuality can also result, as demonstrated in the:

Reincarnation Case of a Japanese Soldier | Ma

Change of Religion through Reincarnation: Maung was a Muslim, while Daw was Buddhist. Dr. Stevenson did not document what religion the twin’s parents, Tin and Thaw, belonged to, but either Maung or Daw reincarnated into a different religion. To review other reincarnation cases involving Muslims, please go to:

Reincarnation in Islam and Muslim Reincarnation Cases

Relationships Renewed through Reincarnation: Maung and Daw reincarnated as the fraternal twin girls of their own daughter, Tin.

In Dr. Stevenson’s documentation of the cases involving Maung | Gyi and Daw | Nge, he cited a another set of Burmese cases in which a husband and wife reincarnated as twin boys. This case was documented by Fielding Hall in his book, The Soul of a People, which was published in 1898. Hall noted that the physiques of these twin boys also mirrored their builds in their past lives as husband and spouse.

Stevenson complied 31 sets of twins who had spontaneous past life memories in childhood that were objectively validated. In 100 percent of these cases, the twins had significant past life relationships. To learn more about loved ones who reincarnated as twins, please go to:

Ian Stevenson, MD Twin Study and Twin Cases

Spirit Being Involvement in Reincarnation Cases: Tin received an announcing dream from her parents, Maung and Daw, indicating that they would be reborn as her children, which did occur.

A Woman is Reborn to Her Own Sister: The Reincarnation Case of Kristen Grimsson | Ditta Larusdottir with a Talking Baby Announcing Dream

How Derived: Past Life Memories in Childhood

Researchers: Ian Stevenson, MD and Erlander Haraldsson, PhD

From: European Cases of the Reincarnation Type by Ian Stevenson, MD and I Saw a Light and Came Here by Erlendur Haraldsson, PhD and James G. Matlock, PhD

Article by: Walter Semkiw, MD

The Life and Death of Kristin Grimsson

Kristen was born on November 10, 1925. Her father was Olaf Loftsson and her mother was Elinborg Sigurdsdottir. Olaf and Elinborg had 15 children, all of whom were girls. Two of Kristen’s sisters, Margret and Gudrun, were involved in this reincarnation case. Kristen was Margret’s favorite sister. The family lived in Reykjavik, Iceland. Click on the image of Reykjavik to enlarge it.

When Kristen was 3 years old, she fell and struck the back of her head, causing a wound which bled. As a physician was not available, Olaf stopped the bleeding himself and dressed the wound.

As Kristen grew up, she developed an interest in acting, attended a drama school and performed in plays that were broadcast on the radio.

At 17 years of age, Kristen married Einar Grimsson. They lived in Reykjavik and in fall of 1947 they purchased a house, which had a basement where they placed their washing machine.

On November 6, 1947, Kristin’s sister, Soffia, was visiting the couple. Kristen went to use the wringer of the washing machine and experienced an electric shock. She told Einar about the incident and they decided not to use the machine until an electrician inspected it. Kristen stayed in the basement while Einar went to visit a neighbor.

Suddenly, Soffia, who was upstairs, heard Kristen call for her. Soffia found Kristen with her right arm affixed to the washing machine. Soffia ran to a neighbor to ask for help, who managed to turn the electricity to the house off, but when they went to the basement, Kristen had already died due to electrocution. She was 22 years old when she passed.

Kristen is Reincarnates as the Child of her Sister, Margret

Margret, the sister of Kristen, had a daughter who was born in Reykjavik on January 3, 1967, 19 years after Kristen had died. Margret’s husband was Larus Johannson. The couple were Christians, more specifically, Lutherans. They named their daughter Ditta.

A Reincarnation Announcing Dream with a Talking Baby

During Margret’s pregnancy, her sister Gudrun, had a dream about their deceased sister, Kristin. In this dream, the following occurred:

Margret and her husband had a newborn baby, and they asked Gudran to take care of the baby while they were out. They left and Gudrun remained alone with the baby. They baby then sat up and began to talk. She said:

“Do you know that I am born again?

Gudren replied: “No, I do not know that.”

The baby then said: “Yes, I was here before…It was difficult to be born and easy to die…”

Then Gudren asked whether she looked the same?

The baby said: “Yes, but I am darker now, darker in complexion and darker hair.”

Then the baby said that she had a scar. Gudrun asked whether the this has to do with her death.

The baby replied: “No. I was over 20 when I died, but I got that scar when I was a little girl. It will go away.”

Then the baby asked about Maria, (another of the daughters of the family, who had been a babysitter for Kristen).

Gudren, upon hearing Maria’s name spoken by the baby said: “Oh, did you know us before?”

At this, the baby laid down again and said: “I do not want to talk about it anymore.”

Gudren interpreted the dream as the baby representing her sister Kristen, as she was the only one in the family who had died.

A Past Life Birthmark

When Ditta was two weeks old, Margret noticed a prominent birthmark at the back of her head above and behind her right ear. This was the same place where Kristen incurred the wound to her head in a fall. Margret and Larus divorced when Diita was a small child.

A Past Life Husband

When Ditta was two years old, Margret noticed that Ditta was playing as an actress. Margret asked her daughter what she wanted to do when she grew up. Ditta replied that she wanted to be an actress. When Ditta was about two and a half years old, Ditta noticed a ring on Margret’s finger.

Ditta asked: “Who gave you that ring?

Margaret replied: “My first husband.”

Ditta then said: “I had a husband too.”

Margret replied: “Little girls do not have husbands.”

Ditta then said: “Well, I have one.”

Margret asked: “Ok. So what is his name.”

Ditta: “Einar.”

Ian Stevenson noted that Margret did not believe that Ditta had ever heard the name Einar, which was the name of Kristen’s husband, as it was over 20 years after Kristen’s death. Einar had remarried and he had no contact with Margret’s family after Kristen’s death. In telling Margret that her husband was Einar, Ditta was conveying that she was the reincarnation of Kristen.

Past Life Talent: Ditta Could Spontaneously Read

An astonishing aspect of this case is that Ditta was able to read without being taught. At the age of six she was better at reading than other children who had been taught to read. Ditta herself was puzzled by this ability. This phenomenon is akin to xenoglossy, where an individual can speak a language which was not learned.

As Ditta grew up, the family noticed that Ditta bore a striking resemblance to Kristen. Both had unusually light blue eyes, though Ditta had darker hair and skin, much as the baby in Gudren’s dream had predicted.

Principles of Reincarnation-Understanding Past Lives

Physical Resemblance: As mentioned above, Ditta looked very much like Kristen.

Past Life Birthmark: Ditta had a birthmark that corresponded to Kristen’s head wound.

Planning Lifetimes and Relationships Renewed through Reincarnation: Kristen reincarnated as the daughter of her sister, Margret. Kristen had been Margret’s favorite sister.

Past Life Talent and Behavior: Ditta was able to read without being taught. She also played at being an actress, replicating Kristen’s affinity for acting.

Spirit Beings in Reincarnation Cases: From the spirit world, the soul of Kristen | Ditta sent an announcing dream to Kristen’s sister, Gruden, indicating that she was born again. Since this dream occurred during Margret’s pregnancy, Kristen was not yet born, but was predicting that she would be. In Gruden’s dream, the talking baby even knew that she would physically resemble Kristen, except for having darker hair and skin.

Physical Resemblance in Reincarnation Cases-Introduction

Evidence that appearance can be consistent across lifetimes and a theory on how this occurs. The symbol for physical resemblance in reincarnation cases is one face reflected in another.

Article by: Walter Semkiw, MD

Facial architecture, the shape and proportions of the face, can be consistent from lifetime to lifetime. For men, facial hair, such as beards and mustaches, can be maintained from one incarnation to another. Physical habits, such as postures and hand gestures, can also be consistent from lifetime to lifetime. Even poses struck in portraits and photographs are often uncannily similar from one lifetime to another.

Two key Ian Stevenson cases with image comparisons, which show that facial features can remain the same from one lifetime to another, are those of Suzanne Ghanem and Daniel Jurdi.

The Soul’s Energy Template or Hologram
How can physical appearance remain the same from one lifetime to another? The answer to this question is unknown, but it may be that the soul projects an energy template or hologram into the developing fetus, which tissue is shape around.

The principle is similar to how orthopedic surgeons use electrical current to shape bone in severe fractures. This energy structure not only helps create physical appearance, but it also can be used to download information and talent into the developing body and mind, which can
explain child prodigies.

Of course genetics does play a part and it is the interaction of the soul’s energy template with one’s genetic inheritance which results in appearance. An individual who incarnates into a different race will have physical features that are consistent with that race, though proportions of the face, the bone structure, will still be consistent from one incarnation to another. Family resemblances also occur due to genetics. The soul’s energy template interacts with racial and genetic factors to determine one’s appearance. As such, physical resemblance across lifetimes can vary based on these influences.

The symbol for physical resemblance in reincarnation cases is one face reflected in another.

Physical Resemblance Reincarnation Cases

Reincarnation Research Home Page

Past Life Story of Louise Vanderbilt | Wayne Peterson-Spirit Being or Soul Guidance in a Reincarnation Case with Psychokenisis

In childhood, Wayne Peterson had vivid memories of a lifetime in which women wore nineteenth century clothing and where parties were held in a large sandstone, mansion-like house. Decades later, while working as a US Diplomat and and Director of the Fulbright Scholarship Program, through guidance from the spirit world and an episode of psychokinesis, Wayne was able to identify his past life as Louis Vanderbilt, wife of Frederick Vanderbilt, a member of the American Vanderbilt dynasty which includes CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

How Case Derived: Past Life Memories in Childhood and Spirit Being Guidance

Researcher: Wayne Peterson

Article by Walter Semkiw, MD from Born Again

Little Wayne remembers a Past Lifetime with Women in Billowing Gowns and a Man named Fred: A Past Life Vision of the Vanderbilt Mansion

Wayne Peterson has experienced memories of a past lifetime in which he was Louise Vanderbilt, wife of Frederick Vanderbilt, a member of the American Vanderbilt dynasty. Through marriage, Louise was a relative of Gloria Vanderbilt, who is the mother of CNN’s Anderson Cooper. Click on facial comparison images to enlarge them.

In contrast to the childhood remembrances regarding his Francesco Foscari past lifetime, Wayne’s memories of the Vanderbilt lifetime were more direct and visual. Wayne narrates the turn of events:

“My earliest memories in childhood included detailed images of a time when women wore long billowing gowns and people still used horse drawn carriages. I remembered specifically a large sandstone house, a man named Fred, friends arriving for social gatherings, a large reception area with a high ceiling and floors of white stone.

Central to all this I remembered most a woman that was the center of all related activity. The mystery lady was the center of several scenes that were repeated again and again during my earliest years and continued even to this day. I used to wonder who these people were and wondered why they appeared so real to me.

As a young child I believed these people were part of my current life. Why they never visited our home I could never explain. I actually believed they would arrive one day and they would remember me and unexplainably, I would be very happy. I assumed that in my earlier years as an infant I had perhaps experienced these people with my parents and had now forgotten most of those intimate experiences. It was the only way I had as a child to explain the vividness of these people I visited in my dreams. However, these people never did appear in this current life and I remained at a loss to explain their appearance in my mind. I had no knowledge of reincarnation at that early preschool stage of my life.”

Wayne, who was born in 1942, reflects that these memories were especially odd since in the 1940’s, there was no television, nor did he any see motion pictures, that might have fueled his imagination. He reflects that nothing in his real time experience of a small town in central Wisconsin correlated to his visions. Clothing, houses and social manners were entirely different in Wisconsin than what he experienced in his memories.

Yet a man named Fred, women in billowing gowns transported in horse drawn carriages and the large sandstone house, were very real to little Wayne. Perplexed, Wayne asked his mother about these people and the house that he remembered. He asked if he had been ever taken to such a place as an infant. The answer was always no. Though he could not explain the source of his memories, these memories continued to be a source of comfort, and he maintained a nostalgic emotion for a person named Fred.

A Flashback of a Past Lifetime on Fifth Avenue in New York City in Front of the Old Vanderbilt House

As a young adult, Wayne Peterson joined the Peace Corps and was on route to Brazil. His flight to Rio de Janeiro was via New York City. Since Wayne had never been to this big city before, he arranged to have a few days in NYC, to take in the sights of the Big Apple. On his second day in NYC, at about noon, Wayne was walking down Fifth Avenue. He was impressed by the crush of people. Let us now allow Wayne to narrate the scene, as he stood on the sidewalk of Fifth Avenue:

“Suddenly a woman with a hat and white gloves across the wide sidewalk waved her hands in my direction and shouted, ‘Louise, Louise, over here, it’s me.’ She kept shouting Louise and I froze. I instantly believed she was calling me. For whatever reason, I suddenly believed I was Louise.

All my attention focused on this strange woman moving in my direction through the crowd. In my mind I was someone else, someone named Louise. I believed the woman moving toward me was an old friend, but the face did not look familiar.

Nevertheless, there was a great relief within my mind, I thought that finally someone recognized the real me. Not the young man from Wisconsin, but a woman named Louise. It was as if I had been a victim of amnesia and suddenly someone shocked me into reality. Unfortunately, the moment of intense excitement passed when the woman in the hat and gloves brushed past me and grabbed an elderly woman standing directly behind me.

Instantly, my mind was on overload and I could not move or think. I was still having a moment as Louise and I looked at these two women and thought, you fools, why don’t you remember me? I am the real Louis. How long I stood and stared at these two women enjoying their renewed acquaintance I do not know, but eventually my logical mind returned and I was forced to question my actions and thinking.

Embarrassed and bewildered, I returned to my hotel room. In the hotel I relaxed on the bed and for some hours pondered what had just happened. Why, I kept wondering, did I think I was Louise? Why was it so real to me and so important that I be Louise? I pondered this strange experience during my entire stay in New York, but found no answer until years later. Nonetheless, I was content that I was Louise in a past life about the turn of the century and that Fred was my husband.”

Wayne feels Past Life Frustration due to Fred’s Shyness

“What I knew of Louise and Fred was not only a few visions from this presumed past life, but I could feel emotions that were from Louise. I intuitively knew she was often frustrated with Frederick at social events. Louise would be in the huge reception area of the house greeting guests. She wore several dresses that I could remember in great detail. I always envisioned Fred in white tie and jacket with tails. He appeared to be perfectly comfortable dressed in that attire. but whenever possible he escaped to the small office/library. I can vividly remember the library door. Inside the library it would be quiet and Fred would be seated in the high backed sofa that hid him from the view of anyone at the doorway exit. Eventually, Louise grew tired of making excuses to the guests about Fred’s absence.”

Wayne Unexpectedly refers to his Vanderbilt Past Life Relatives

In these past life reminiscences experienced when he was a very young man, Wayne Peterson still did not know who Fred and Louise were specifically. Decades later, in the 1990’s, a hint came when Wayne was visiting an upper class friend in New York City, whose name was Mary. This upper class friend insisted that Wayne join her on a vacation at her Irish house on the South coast of Ireland. Mary said that they would have a wonderful time and added that her friend Gloria would be joining them also.

Wayne asked, “Gloria who?” Mary replied, “It’s my friend Gloria Vanderbilt.” Let us allow Wayne describe his reaction to this statement regarding Gloria Vanderbilt, whose photo is provided to the right:

“Instantly my logical mind was again paralyzed just as it had been years before when in New York City that elderly woman shouted the name Louise. Another personality or another identity took over my consciousness and I said, ‘Great, Gloria and I can chat and gossip about our family relatives.’

There was a silence from my friend Mary and I began to realize what I had just said. Mary asked what I meant by common family relatives and I babbled nervously about something while trying to think up any good excuse for my ridiculous statement.

Eventually, I explained that I thought Gloria had an interesting family tree. After terminating that conversation I realized that for a few moments I was transported into another life. It was so total that I really believed I was a relative of Gloria Vanderbilt and we could indeed gossip about family members. Why, I kept wondering again, why did I say such a stupid thing with such conviction?”

Spirit Being, Spiritual or Soul Guidance: A Book Magically Moves and Attaches Itself to Wayne’s Hand-A Case of Psychokinesis

“In the days that followed my conversation with Mary I began to wonder if there ever could have been a Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt. No, I reasoned the odds against it were simply too remote to even bother to explore. Nevertheless, some weeks later while wandering in my favorite bookstore, my attention was attracted to a book on the wealthy families of the 1800’s and early 1900’s. I noticed the book only because it was on the lowest shelf and protruding into the aisle by some 4 to 5 inches.

Although I pushed the book into its proper alignment several times with my foot, the book continued to spring forward multiple times before I finally picked it up and read its cover. I even explored on my hands and knees what was in the shelf which forced the book out into the isle. There was nothing but an empty space behind the book.

Curious, I briefly looked at the price of the book, which was expensive, and I immediately wanted to place it back on the shelf. For whatever reasons, I could not give up the book although my mind wanted to place it back on the shelf. As I could not get my hand to release the book, I reasoned I had to buy it in order to leave the store. When I tried to give the book to the cashier so that he could make the sale, the cashier had to pull with both of his hands to dislodge the book from my grasp, despite my desire to let go of it. After paying for the book, I was angry with myself for having no self-control over purchasing a book I did not want. I took the book home and placed it on my own bookshelf thinking that this is one book that I will probably never read, and therefore it was a total waste of money.”

Wayne identifies his Past Life Home with Women in Billowing Skirts and a Man named Fred Vanderbilt

“However, later that night I had a dream that I must read this new book. Unable to sleep because of this nagging notion, I went downstairs and opened the book. At first nothing captured my imagination but soon I opened a page that totally took me by surprise.

There in full color was a photo of the very room I had always envisioned as a child. The distinctive ceiling, the fireplace and white marble floor and the very same sofas I so clearly remembered. It was all there as if only yesterday I had stepped out of that room.

The next page was even more revealing. Again, in a color photo, was the library/office I knew so well. The pale green sofa that Fred would hide in during social events and the two beautiful desks that were part of a his and hers arrangement. Transfixed in wonderment, I thought about the strange attachment I had to this scene and what I might learn from this extraordinary experience.

I began to read the article that went with the photos. The room was part of the Vanderbilt Mansion, which was built by Frederick Vanderbilt in Hyde Park, New York in the late 1800’s. Wouldn’t it be a strange coincidence, I thought, if this Fred Vanderbilt had a wife named Louise? As I read down the page, I was overwhelmed when I read that Frederick was married to Louise H. Anthony. The following pages were most revealing, especially when I saw the color photos that followed…The photos brought to life the rooms that I remembered from my earliest memories as a child. I realized that I had opened a book that revealed all the secrets of a past life.”

Spiritual or Soul Guidance: Reincarnation Geographic Memory on Fifth Avenue

Wayne also read that though their sandstone Hyde Park mansion (pictured near the top of this page) was their favorite, their main home was on Fifth Avenue, in New York City. Though this home in NYC was torn down, the location that Wayne had his “Louise” experience on Park Avenue as a young man indeed the location where the Vanderbilt home had been located on Fifth Avenue. The fact that Louise Vanderbilt lived on Fifth Avenue sheds further light on young Wayne’s experience on Fifth Avenue, when the elderly woman in white gloves called out “Louise,” and Wayne was transported to his past incarnation as Louise.

I term this phenomenon of a geographic setting triggering past life experiences as Geographic Memory, which is also observed in the: Reincarnation Case of John B. Gordon | Jeff Keene

Wayne Peterson & Louise Vanderbilt have a Common Interest in Metaphysics

Wayne also learned that Louise and Frederick were very interested in metaphysics, including Theosophy, as is Wayne in contemporary times. In his current incarnation, Wayne is a scholar of the work of Alice Bailey. Louise was also a great fan of the grand ladies of 18th century France, especially Marie Antoinette. Louise Vanderbilt had even filled her bedroom with French reproduction furniture.

This has significance in relation to another past lifetime that has been identified for Wayne, that of Claude Ledoux, who was an artist and architect associated in the Court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The Claude Ledoux | Wayne Peterson reincarnation case is featured in Born Again. Louise died in 1926, in Paris, which was one of her favorite cities. Frederick lived out his remaining years largely in seclusion, passing away in 1938.

Reincarnated Fredrick Vanderbilt in Contemporary Times

Frederick, by the way, has also been identified in contemporary times. Fred turns out to be a friend who Wayne Peterson has known for years, who shares with Wayne an interest in metaphysics. Though Wayne had known this person for a period of time, his identity as Frederick Vanderbilt was not determined until the year 2004. At that time, Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt were consciously reunited, 78 years after they were separated by death.

Summary & Reincarnation Case Analysis

Key elements of this case include Wayne’s vivid memories in childhood of a lifetime in which women wore nineteenth century clothing and where parties were held in a large sandstone, mansion-like house. Later, in adulthood, Wayne had memories of being a woman name Louise, which were triggered by standing at the very spot where Louise and Fredrick Vanderbilt lived on Fifth Avenue in NYC. Though this event initially seems coincidental, it is likely that this event was orchestrated by spirit beings, or perhaps Wayne’s own soul.

Guidance to a past life geographic location, which triggered discovery of a past lifetime, also occurred in the case of Reincarnation Case of John B. Gordon | Jeff Keene.

Guidance by spirit beings was even more evident in the scene at the bookstore, where a book was magically pushed out of a bookshelf repeatedly. When Wayne grasped this book, he was unable to release it, which led to him purchasing this book on nineteenth century homes against his conscious will. In this book, Wayne found the house and rooms that he so vividly saw in his memories as a child. The home was owned by Fred and Louise Vanderbilt, which allowed Wayne to solve the past life puzzle that he had struggled with since childhood.

Of note, this case, if accepted, demonstrates that gender can change from one incarnation to another, though facial features, bone structure of the face, remains consistent.

Principles of Reincarnation & Understanding Past Lives

If this reincarnation case demonstrates the following features:

Physical Resemblance in Reincarnation Cases: Wayne’s facial features are consistent with those of Louise Vanderbilt, despite the change in gender.

Reincarnation & Change of Gender: Louise was a woman, who reincarnated as Wayne, a male.

Reincarnation & Geographic Memory: Wayne had a past life flashback at the spot on Fifth Avenue where Fred and Louise Vanderbilt had a home.

Spirit Being & Soul Guidance in Reincarnation Cases: The architectural book that featured the Vanderbilt Hyde Park home, which allowed Wayne to solve this reincarnation case, magically moved from a bookshelf and then attached itself to Wayne’s hand, which forced Wayne to purchase it. This represents psychokinesis, where an physical object is moved by psychic means, in this case apparently by a spirit guide. Psychokinesis is prominent in the reincarnation case of Daniel D. Home | Uri Geller, which is featured in Born Again. A dream then prompted Wayne to read the book in the middle of the night.

In addition, the incident on Fifth Avenue where Wayne had a past life flashback was likely orchestrated by a spirit being, or perhaps by Wayne’s own soul.

Reincarnation, Innate Talent & Past Life Behavior: Louise Vanderbilt studied astrology and Theosophical literature. Wayne has continued this interest by becoming a scholar of the Alice Bailey material. In addition, Wayne is a published author on spirit beings with his book, Extraordinary Times, Extraordinary Beings.

Renewal of Relationships through Reincarnation: Louise and Frederick Vanderbilt appear to have been reunited through reincarnation. In contemporary times, they are both heterosexual men, who are friends without any romantic involvement.

Soul Planning from Spirit Realm: Past Life Story of Bessie Gordon | Jenny McLeod

Jenny McLeod was born on November 7, 1949 in Aberdeen, Scotland but prior to that she planned her reincarnation. She was Bessie Gordon. the mother of Margaret, Janet’s mother in her past life, a good proof of same family reincarnation.

How Derived: Memories in Childhood

Researchers: Reverend H.W.S. Muir and Ian Stevenson, MD

From: European Cases of the Reincarnation Type, by Ian Stevenson

Article by Walter Semkiw, MD

In a Past Life, Little Jenny Remembers Feeding her Grandma, the Lump and Little Dogs

Jenny McLeod was born on November 7, 1949 in Aberdeen, Scotland. Her parents were Hamish and Margaret McLeod and the family soon settled in Tore, near Inverness.

Jenny was able to speak by the time she was one year old. When she was two, Jenny made statements about a previous lifetime. She was being fed by her grandmother, whose name was Mary Gordon. With her mother, Margaret, sitting nearby, Jenny said to her grandmother:

“Do you remember when I used to feed you, Grannie?” (1)

Let us let Ian Stevenson, MD, describe what happened next:

“Apparently, by association, Jenny then mentioned a hill called The Lump at Portree. She spoke about a house there, which had a little pier of its own. She referred to some steps which provided a shorter way of reaching the house by going over the hill, rather than using the road that went around the The Lump. She talked about ‘nice little dogs’ that she had had. (The McLeods had no dogs of their own, large or small.}” (2)

Her mother, Margaret, related that Jenny then became sleepy, as she had just finished her lunch. Due to her drowsiness, Jenny stopped talking and she never spoke about this past lifetime again.

Validation of Jenny’s Past Life Memories

The McLeods told their minister, Reverend H.M.S Muir, about Jenny’s statements, who wrote a summary of the case. The summary was sent to a colleague of Ian Stevenson in Edinburgh, who forwarded the summary to Stevenson.

In 1967, Stevenson traveled to Tore, Scotland, to research the case himself. Stevenson interviewed family members and he confirmed that Jenny did not learn details of this proposed past lifetime through normal means.

Margaret McLeod told the researchers that Jenny’s statements corresponded to the life of Bessie Gordon, Jenny’s maternal great-grandmother.

Bessie was born in 1865 in Portree of the Isle of Skye, where she lived her entire life. She lived near the sea and indeed, she had a house with a pier, which was the only pier in the area. Her house was also next to a hill called The Lump, which is pictured above.

There were steps or stepping-stones on this hill, which provided a shortcut to reaching the nearby town of Seafield. This shortcut could be used instead of walking around the Lump.

Of interest, Bessie raised West Highland Terriers. Recall that Jenny made a statement about the “nice little dogs” that she had.

Soul Planning from the Spirit Realm: Bessie Plans her Future Incarnation

Bessie had nine children, one of whom was Mary Gordon, who was Margaret’s mother and Jenny’s grandmother. Recall that it was Mary Gordon who was feeding Jenny when she made her past life statements.

Bessie was very fond of her granddaughter Margaret, Jenny’s mother. As such, it appears that Bessie, from the spirit world, made arrangements to reincarnate and be born to one of her favorite granddaughters, Margaret McLeod.

Bessie died at the age of 83, in 1948. As Jenny was born in 1949, Bessie reincarnated only one year after her death.

Principles of Reincarnation & Understanding Past Lives

Physical Resemblance: Margaret, Jenny’s mother, thought that Jenny resembled her grandmother, Bessie, in build or overall physique. Margaret noted that Bessie and Jenny’s builds were very unique relative to other family members. There was no mention of whether a facial resemblance existed. Of course, the resemblance in build could be due to genetic factors, as this represents a case of same family reincarnation.

Innate Talent: Margaret noted that Jenny was similar to Bessie “in their ways of speaking and her manner of going about things.” (3)

In addition, Jenny and Bessie both enjoyed home-made soup and highland dancing, though Margaret admitted that her other daughters had these traits also.

More significantly, Jenny and Bessie were unique from other family members in that they both loved to read and they both had good singing voices. As such, it appears that a talent for singing was brought across from one incarnation to another.

Soul Planning & Same Family Reincarnation: As noted, Bessie appears to have planned her reincarnation so that she would be born to one of her favorite granddaughters, Jenny McLeod.

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Footnotes

1. Stevenson, Ian: European Cases of the Reincarnation Type, McFarland & Company, Inc., 2003, p 56
2. Stevenson, Ian: European Cases of the Reincarnation Type, McFarland & Company, Inc., 2003, p 56
3. Stevenson, Ian: European Cases of the Reincarnation Type, McFarland & Company, Inc., 2003, p 58

Split Incarnation or Parallel Lives: The Reincarnation Cases of Charles Parkhurst | Alice Cary | Penney Peirce: Spiritual Communication in Past Life Cases

Through series of three lifetimes as Penney Peirce, Charles Parkhurst and Alice Cary, similarities in physical appearance, writing talent, interests and passions are observed. Change in gender and the phenonmenon of split incarnation or parallel lives are evident, as Penney’s past lives as Alice Cary and Charles Parkhursrt overlapped by 29 years, showing how a soul can animate more that one physical body at a time.

How Derived: Past Life Identifications made by a Spirit Being

Researcher: Penny Peirce

Article by Walter Semkiw, MD From: Born Again and Return of the Revolutionaries

Introducing Penney Peirce

In 1999, I joined an e-mail discussion group called Inpresence, which is made up of published authors whose works focus on the development of intuition and related topics. At one point, I sent an e-mail describing the reincarnation research that I was doing and I asked if anyone in the group knew of other cases that I could study. One person who responded was Penney Peirce, who related that she had a past-life story.

Penney is a professional intuitive, counselor, perceptual skills trainer and lecturer who works throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. She is the author of Frequency, The Intuitive Way: A Guide to Living from Inner Wisdom, The Present Moment: A Daybook of Clarity and Intuition and Dreams for Dummies. I met with Penney in her Novato, California home, north of San Francisco, to learn more about her case. Let me share her story with you.

Penney moved all over the country growing up, with much time spent in the Midwest and some on the East Coast. She moved from New York City to California in the early 1970s. She worked as a corporate art director and graphic designer, but pursued meditation and clairvoyance development in her spare time, in California’s then-burgeoning self-help movement.

Penney has a Session with a Trance Medium, Bobby Jo, and receives Past Life Information from a Spirit Being or Spirit Guide

During that period in the 1970’s, a medium, who I will call Bobby Jo, regularly visited the San Francisco Bay area. In her work as a medium, Bobby Jo let non-physical spiritual beings speak through her to provide clients with information about past lives.

Bobby Jo, who remained in a meditative state during this process, would have no memory of the information conveyed. This type of channeling of spirit beings is typical of how a trance medium works. I myself have worked with a trance medium, Kevin Ryerson, since 2001. Kevin channels a spirit being named Ahtun Re, who has demonstrated the ability to make past life matches with a high degree of accuracy.

Past-life information is reportedly accessed from the Akashic Records, a set of memory banks or a library of the planet’s history, found in the spirit realm. Peirce describes Bobby Jo as a dramatic character, with a jovial nature and a naïve faith. Bobby Jo knew nothing about Penney when they met, nor did Penney reveal information about herself at the time of their private session.

Given this background, Penney was shocked when in her reading, Bobby Jo started to rattle off facts regarding a past lifetime as if she were reading out of an encyclopedia.

Spiritual Communication: With Startlingly Specific Information, Penney Peirce is told by a Spirit Guide that She is the Reincarnation of Charles Parkhurst

Bobby Jo related that in a past era, Penney’s name was Charles H. Parkhurst, that he had been born on April 17, 1842, in Framingham, Massachusetts, had lived on a farm and then become a prominent minister. Parkhurst enjoyed mountain climbing and used the pulpit to fight crime.

Bobby Jo then reported that Parkhurst had written many books, among them: The Sunny Side of Christianity; A Little Lower than the Angels; Analysis of the Latin Verb Illustrated by the Sanskrit; What Would the World Be Without Religion?; The Blind Man’s Creed and Other Sermons; The Pattern in the Mount; The Pulpit and the Pew; Talks to Young Men; Talks to Young Women; and My Forty Years in New York.

Bobby Jo told Penney that Parkhurst had died on September 8, 1933, at the age of 91, and Bobby Jo then exclaimed in a drawl, “And honey, you died sleepwalking off a roof!”

Given this degree of specific information, Penney tried to verify the past-life detailed by Bobby Jo. In her investigation, she found that there was a record of Charles Parkhurst and that Bobby Jo’s description of him was accurate in every detail, including the long list of books Parkhurst had written.

Reincarnation and Personality Traits: Similarities Between Charles Parkhurst and Penney Peirce

Penney realized that there were many similar personality attributes between Parkhurst and herself, and that there was even a physical resemblance. In assessing this proposed past-life match, Penney reflected that there was no way that Bobby Jo could have memorized all that data on Parkhurst. Further, in Parkhurst, Bobby Jo had identified an individual with character features that matched closely with her own. Penney reflected that this was particularly impressive, given that Bobby Jo knew next to nothing her. Further, this session with conducted in the 1970’s, long before the Internet was in place. Let us review some of these common traits.

Past Life Writing Talent

First of all, Parkhurst and Penney share the distinction of being published authors. Penney, as a writer, demonstrated talent at an early age, winning a National Scholastic Magazine award for a short story.

Peirce has had three books published, as noted above, and in addition she has contributed to a number of other titles, such as The Celestine Prophecy and Tenth Insight Experiential Guides by Carol Adrienne and James Redfield; The Purpose of Your Life by Carol Adrienne; Intuiting the Future by William Kautz; and Channeling: The Intuitive Connection, also by Kautz.

In addition to his scholarly works, Parkhurst also wrote for young people. Similarly, Penney has been writing children’s books since college, incorporating spiritual themes into these stories.

Past Life Traits of Spirituality and Service

Parkhurst and Penney have shared an interest in spirituality and providing service through the ministry. Parkhurst earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Amherst College, then studied theology in Halle, Leipzig, and Bonn. He returned to teach at Williston Seminary, in Massachusetts, and went on to become a Congregational Minister in Lenox, Massachusetts, where he spent six years. He then became the pastor at Madison Square Presbyterian Church in New York City and earned a Ph.D. and a doctorate in divinity (DD) from New York University and Columbia.

Penney Peirce also has had a lifelong affinity for spiritual studies. Ever since she can remember, Penney says that “Why” was the word that motivated her behavior. She voraciously read books on world religions, psychic phenomena, and philosophy. Penney was in search of the core truths contained in all religions and became a licensed minister as a result of this interest. She has even served as a substitute minister at a Unity Church.

Past Life Talent in Latin

Like Parkhurst, Penny has had a natural affinity for ancient languages. Parkhurst taught Greek and Latin and wrote a book called Analysis of the Latin Verb Illustrated by the Sanskrit. Peirce took advanced Latin in high school and scored highly in a state Latin competition. She has also had a fascination with Sanskrit and Egyptian hieroglyphs. Peirce relates that she once had a series of dreams that featured ancient Greek words, words that she had no knowledge of in her waking consciousness.

Past Life Social Activism: Tammany Hall and Whistle Blowing

Charles Parkhurst used his pulpit to right social and spiritual wrongs. Parkhurst lived in New York City at a time when political corruption was a major issue. Tammany Hall, the political regime that held power in the late 1800s, was in collusion with crime bosses. Tammany Hall police officials routinely took bribes, while the general populace stuck their heads in the sand and said nothing.

Parkhurst, who served as President of the Society for the Prevention of Crime, preached perhaps one of the most famous sermons in American history in which he denounced the corruption.

Parkhurst described New York City as “hell with the lid off” and challenged the public to do something about it. A roving reporter happened to be in the audience and the story made the news, arousing much public excitement and a vehement backlash from officials. Parkhurst was attacked and challenged to prove his accusations. He launched his own investigation and soon appeared before a grand jury with facts in hand.

As a result, there ensued the Lexow Investigation and the election of a reform government, the Strong Administration. The appointment of Teddy Roosevelt as the new Police Commissioner followed.

Like Parkhurst, Peirce also has the inclination to act as a whistle-blower and reformer. In her college newspaper, Penney published articles protesting departmental and curriculum changes that she thought were to the detriment of students. When she worked for a large corporation, she launched a letter-writing campaign to warn of unethical practices she observed taking place in her department.

Reincarnation & Love of the Land

Charles Parkhurst and Penney Peirce both grew up on farms and have shared a love for agriculture. Parkhurst, in his autobiography, wrote: “Agriculture is the physical basis of all civilization. It stands to civilization as the body stands to the soul.” (1) Parkhurst went on to say that, “working the soil is the great original art.” (2)

Penney began keeping a journal at age seven and much of her inspiration stemmed from nature and the farm. Further, the National Scholastic Magazine award she won was for a short story about the wheat fields of Kansas. Penney has also loved “working the soil” and has planted a vegetable garden every year since she was twenty.

Past Life Love of Climbing

Parkhurst and Peirce also have shared a love of climbing. Parkhurst was an avid mountaineer, who vacationed annually in the Alps, climbing the Matterhorn, Weisshorn, and other great peaks.

Peirce demonstrated an early affinity for climbing also. At the age of three, she climbed a cedar tree adjacent to her home and peered into the family’s second story bathroom, where her mother was applying makeup. When Penney’s mother looked outside and witnessed her three-year old daughter waving to her from a tree, she almost had a stroke!

The Sleepwalking Death of Charles Parkhurst & Penney’s Nightmares of Falling

In a tragic incident, Parkhurst’s demise was associated with his love of heights. At the age of 91, Parkhurst had an episode of sleepwalking during which he strode off the roof of his porch, falling to his death.

In what appears to be a residual effect of this traumatic event. Penney Peirce relates that for years she experienced recurring nightmares of driving off cliffs, falling in elevators, and falling out of trees. At the end of every dream, when she realized that she would die, Peirce would wake up in an agitated condition.

When Penney had her session with Bobby Jo and learned that Parkhurst had died by falling off a roof, her nightmares abated. She had one last dream in which she fell out of a tree in “super slow motion,” consciously reviewing the stages one goes through in dying by falling. After that dream, the nightmares stopped entirely.

Penney believes she had these nocturnal images of falling because Parkhurst was asleep and confused when he died, and that the experience had never been processed in a conscious manner.

Peirce also feels that Parkhurst’s death by sleepwalking out a window and off a roof might be related to her own subliminal desire to leap off high places and fly like a bird. Perhaps Parkhurst had the same urge and found a way to let himself fly that fateful night.

Paradoxically, Penney notes that to this day she still has an attraction, rather than an aversion, to elevated locations, to heights. Fortunately, in this lifetime Peirce lives in a one-story, ranch-style house.

Spiritual Communication: Another Past Life for Penney Peirce as Alice Cary is Revealed

In her session with the Bobby Jo, Penney was also told about an even earlier incarnation. Bobby Jo conveyed that Penney’s name in that lifetime was Alice Cary, that she was born on a farm near Cincinnati, Ohio on April 26, 1820 and that she died on February 12, 1871.

As in the Parkhurst case, Bobby Jo rattled off a series of books that Alice Cary had written, which included the following titles: Poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary; Clovernook: Recollections of Our Neighborhood in the West; Hagar: A Story for Today; Lyra and Other Poems; Clovernook Children; Married, Not Mated; Adopted Daughter and Other Tales; The Josephine Gallery; Pictures of Country Life; Ballads, Lyrics and Hymns; The Bishop’s Son, A Lover’s Diary; The Born Thrall; Snow-Berries: A Book for Young Folks; and Ballads for Little Folks.

Once again, Bobby Jo appeared to have access to an incredible amount of detailed information on spontaneous basis. Bobby Jo also told Penney that Alice Cary had been inseparable from her younger sister, Phoebe, in that lifetime. Bobby Jo related that Phoebe reincarnated as Penney’s younger sister, Paula.

Like with the Parkhurst case, it seemed impossible for Bobby Jo to have memorized all this information about the relatively obscure Cary, especially when validation of the information revealed consistent facial features, personality traits and consistent published works.

Past Life Identity of Penney Peirce as Alice Cary is Validated

As with the Charles Parkhurst past lifetime, even though Penney had never heard of Alice Cary before her session with Bobby Jo, she was able to find Alice Cary in historical records. Once again, as in the past life match regarding Parkhurst, all the detailed information that the spirit guide had conveyed to Penney regarding Cary was correct, including the specific titles of books that Cary had written, the date of birth and the date of death. In addition, the facial features of Cary and Penney are consistent.

Sisters Reunited through Reincarnation

The case of Alice Cary | Penney Peirce features a karmic relationship that seems to have persisted from one lifetime to another. Recall that Bobby Jo told Penney that Alice Cary had a sister named Phoebe and that in this lifetime, Phoebe is Paula, Penny’s contemporary sister.

It appears that Bobby Jo’s statement is valid. Penney learned that Alice Cary did indeed have a sister named Phoebe. Further, Penney was able to locate images of Phoebe, whose facial features are consistent with those of Penney’s sister, Paula. Phoebe was considered to be one of the wittiest women in America, known for her ability to see the ludicrous in the glamorous, and for her great ability for parody.

Penney has observed that these personality traits are consistent with Paula, who is also described as witty, like Phoebe. Penney once wrote that Paula is characterized by a “dry wit and cheerful, diplomatic disposition.” Paula is also very intelligent, like Phoebe, as demonstrated by her having earned a PhD. In a more mundane similarity, Phoebe was known to have an aversion to housework. In this lifetime, Paula has the same aversion. Paula sets money aside so that she can utilize a maid service, rather than do housework herself.

Past Life Relationship of Alice and Phoebe is Continued in the Lives of Penney and Paula

Another significant parallel is observed in the relationships between the sisters, Alice and Phoebe and Penney and Paula. Both sets of sisters are approximately the same number of years apart in age, and both have had incredibly close relationships with each other.

Regarding Alice and Phoebe Cary, a biographer wrote: “The connection between the sisters, who had always treated one another with the utmost consideration and delicacy, was one of the most charming things about their unique dwelling.” (3)

The emotional bond between the sisters was so great, in fact, that they practically died together. After Alice succumbed to tuberculosis, Phoebe was so drained with grief that she passed away six months later. This close connection between the sisters persists in contemporary times. Peirce has noted, “Throughout my life, my younger sister Paula has been my best friend.”

A Past Life Relationship Reflected in the Name Phoebe

The bond between the sisters was rekindled early, as Penney recalls that when Paula was born, she had no feelings of jealousy or sibling rivalry; rather, Penney wanted to be close to her little sister. Later in life, Penney seems to have unconsciously intuited the past-life identity of her sister. Penney relates that as a young woman, she fantasized about a list of names that she would give to her children someday. Interestingly, her favorite name was Phoebe, which she learned meant “shining and bright.”

Penney Peirce as Reincarnated Feminist Leader Alice Cary

In addition to her literary pursuits, Alice Cary was a social activist, like Parkhurst and Penney. Alice was a firm believer in the abolition of slavery and a proponent of women’s rights. She became the first president of first women’s club in America, the Sorority of Sisters (Sorosis), and was friends with Jane Croly, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony.

In a similar way, Penney became involved with the feminist movement in New York and California. She also became the art director for a feminist magazine. Alice Cary hated human repression or coercion in any form. Penney Peirce started a nonprofit organization in college to study the harmful brainwashing effects of the mass media and advertising on the general public.

Past Life Talent: Clairvoyance and Similarities in the Spiritual Beliefs of Alice Cary and Penney Peirce

Spiritually, Alice was attached to the Universalist Church and accepted its doctrines, including the belief in reincarnation and that spirits of the deceased could communicate with the living. She wrote:

“Laugh, you who never had

Your dead come back; but do not take from me
…my foolish dream:

That these our mortal eyes

Which outwardly reflect the earth and skies,
Do introvert upon eternity.” (4)

Cary’s biographer noted that Alice also had an interest in prophecy. Alice’s sister and friends related that she would “tell us each our fortune anew, casting our horoscope afresh in her teacup each morning.”

Similarly, Penney pursued parapsychology and clairvoyance development very early in her career. She has made her living as a professional intuitive. Also, Penney has served as a substitute minister for the Unity Church, which has a very similar theology to the Universalist Church.

Reincarnation & Replication of Writing Talent

Parallels between Cary, Parkhurst and Peirce are apparent from their list of book titles alone. All three have been accomplished writers and all three have written children’s books. Alice Cary was a prolific author of poetry, as well as a writer of nonfiction, just like Penney. In an interesting synchronicity, Alice Cary wrote under the pen name “Patty Lee,” which corresponds to the rhythm and initials of Peirce’s first and middle names, “Penney Lee.”

Reincarnation & Love of Nature

Alice Cary had an early quest for knowledge, even reading at night by the light of burning lard when candles were not available to her. Cary loved nature and wrote prolifically about scenes from rural life.

Penney also has a love for nature, as did Parkhurst, and she lives in a setting of rolling farmland. Penney began keeping a journal at age seven and much of her inspiration stemmed from nature, animals, and the farm. Like Alice Cary, Penney published articles and poems in her teens. The National Scholastic Magazine award she won, we recall, was for a short story about Kansas wheat fields.

Reincarnation & Practice of Spirituality in Daily Life

Another parallel Penney has noticed between her own writings and those of Alice Cary and Charles Parkhurst is that all three focused on the need to demonstrate spiritual values in everyday life, in intention and through small actions, and that the practice, the process, and the experience itself is more important than just talking about lofty goals. Peirce has selected the following quotes from their books to illustrate this point. Please note that Penney’s quote was written before she learn of her proposed past lives as Cary and Parkhurst.

Cary: “True worth is in being, not seeming—in doing, each day that goes by, some little good.” (5)

Parkhurst: “Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.” (6)

Peirce: “The process, not necessarily the answers, is the sacred thing.” (7)

Reincarnation & Prose On Truth

Parkhurst wrote: “Truth, of course, is from everlasting and has its existence in the being of God, while an idea is only an attempt at truth and comes and goes with the mind that develops it.” (8)

Peirce wrote in her journal: “Information is of the mind. Knowledge is truth, the result of the direct experience of being or Soul. Information is facts, the mere description of knowledge.” (9)

Cary wrote: “For sometimes, keen, and cold, and pitiless truth,/In spite of us, will press to open light/The naked angularities of things,/And from the steep ideal the soul drop/In wild and sorrowful beauty, like a star/From the blue heights of heaven into the sea.” (10)

Reincarnation and Prose on Gratitude

Parkhurst wrote: “We have enough to make us all happy and thankful if we will be quiet long enough to take an affectionate inventory of our commonplace mercies, and let our hearts feel of them and mix themselves with them till we become saturated with their comfort and awaken into a loving sense of the patient goodness of their Giver.” (11)

Penney wrote: “Slow down enough to describe in simple terms the things you feel, as though you’re taking inventory. By noticing things, you connect with your world. The ‘feminine mind’ brings you into a sense of beneficence and providence, and as you experience this fully, you may weep, or overflow with praises, or beam with feelings of ecstasy.” (12)

Alice Cary wrote: When I think of the gifts that have honored Love’s shrine—/Heart, hope, soul, and body, all the mortal can give—/For the sake of a passion superbly divine,/I am glad, nay, and more, I am proud that I live!” (13)

Please note that in the Anne Frank | Barbro Karlen reincarnation case, a similarity in content in published writings across lifetimes was also observed.

Reincarnation & Gender Change: Despite Masculine and Feminine Sides of the Soul, Content Stays the Same

Penney notes that she seems to be an interesting link between the masculine, more intellectual, minister, Charles Parkhurst, and the emotional, feminine poet, Alice Cary. In her writings, Penney combines elements of both. It is interesting to observe that in Penney’s reincarnation cases, though the styles of rhetoric may vary with changes in gender and era, core ideas stay the same.

This phenomenon also was observed in the reincarnation case of Paul Gauguin | Peter Teekamp, as Peter replicated ideas and subject matter in his art from the Gauguin lifetime, but he did so in a much more surrealistic way. This is clearly seen in comparing Gauguin’s “Yellow Christ” and Peter’s painting, “Presentation of the Christ.”

Reincarnation & Geographic Correspondences in the Lives of Cary, Parkhurst and Peirce

There are also geographical correspondences between the three lives. Past-life regression therapists have noted that souls often like to retrace their steps, from one lifetime to another. It is almost as if the soul is nostalgic for familiar places and settings of past lives. As such, it appears that prior to incarnating, the soul engineers a life path that will take it to these familiar locations. Planning lifetimes and destiny is discussed in: Principles of Reincarnation

Retracing Past Life Locations in Cincinnati and New York

As an example, Penney went to college at the University of Cincinnati, in Ohio, only a few miles from where Alice was born. Here, like Cary, Penney began writing poetry in earnest. Also in college, Penney had a boyfriend who wrote poems to and drew portraits of a fictitious woman. Her boyfriend referred to this woman as his muse and he called her “Alice,” as if he were intuiting Penney’s past life as Cary.

Interestingly, Alice Cary had been jilted by a boyfriend when living in Ohio, which prompted her to suddenly move to New York City. Penney wonders whether her college boyfriend might have been the same man who jilted Cary.

After Alice Cary moved to New York, her sister Phoebe soon followed. The women had moved to the city with the intention of making their living from literature—a very adventurous thing to do.

Together, they wrote and published many books of poetry and fiction. In New York, Alice and Phoebe Cary were fondly known as “The Sisters of the West,” as Ohio was still considered the western edge of adolescent America at that time.

The Cary sisters became beloved by the intelligentsia and other types as they hosted a popular literary salon in their home for over fifteen years. Attendees included thinkers, philosophers, early feminists, writers and prominent personalities of the time, such as Horace Greeley, Edgar Allan Poe, John Greenleaf Whittier, and PT Barnum.

In what appears to be a parallel path, Penney also left Ohio abruptly, before graduating from college, and moved to New York City. In New York, Penney, like Alice Cary, soon became involved with a group of feminist writers and other authors. In another geographic correspondence, Penney’s job was situated near Gramercy Park, only blocks from where Alice and Phoebe Cary had lived. In New York, the life of Charles Parkhurst also becomes intertwined with theirs.

Penny’s apartment on West 80th Street was only blocks from where Charles Parkhurst resided on West 74th. She attended night school at New York University and Columbia, which Parkhurst also attended. In time, Penney moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn, close to where Alice and Phoebe are buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

Retracing Past Life Paths to Los Angeles and Framingham, Massachusetts

In another odd parallel, Parkhurst, late in life, traveled from New York to Los Angeles to marry a second time. Similarly, Penney left New York City for Los Angeles to complete her degree in design at the California Institute of the Arts. She also notes that in the year after her session with Bobby Jo, her parents moved near Framingham, Massachusetts, the birthplace and childhood home of Charles Parkhurst. In visiting her parents, Penney has been able to revisit Parkhurst’s old stomping grounds.

Split Incarnation or Parallel Lives

The compelling reincarnation cases of Charles Parkhurst | Penney Peirce and Alice Cary | Penny Peirce demonstrate a very interesting and important phenomenon, that a soul can animate two different bodies at the same time. I have termed this split incarnation, as it appears that the soul can split itself, or project itself, into different physical bodies at the same time, This phenomenon has also been called parallel lives.

Alice Cary, the earliest incarnation in this series of lives, was born in 1820 and died in 1871. Charles Parkhurst was born in 1842, at a time when Alice Cary was 22 years old. Alice Cary died in 1871 at the age of 51, at time when Parkhurst was 29 years old. As such, the lifetimes of Cary and Parkhurst overlapped by 29 years.

Parkhurst died 52 years after the death of Alice Cary, in 1933. Penney Peirce was born in 1949, 16 years after Parkhurst’s death, 50 miles from the location where Parkhurst died.

A very compelling Ian Stevenson, MD past life case involving split incarnation is: The Reincarnation Case of Helmut Kohler | Ruprecht Schultz

Did Cary and Parkhurst Ever Meet?

It is of interest to wonder if Alice Cary and Charles Parkhurst ever crossed paths. Though there is no evidence to support that Cary and Parkhurst ever met, it appears that they did come in close proximity to each other. In 1850, Alice, at 30 years of age, journeyed from Ohio to visit John Greenleaf Whittier at his Massachusetts home, not far from where Parkhurst was living on his family’s farm in Framingham. Parkhurst was as an 8-year-old boy at the time.

The two people had another episode of geographic proximity 20 years later, in the summer of 1870 when Alice Cary made her last foray out of New York City to visit friends in Northampton, Massachusetts. Cary was 50 years old at the time. Parkhurst, who was now 28 years of age, was living nearby in Massachusetts and was married in Northhampton 8 months later.

Parkhurst moved to New York in 1880, nine years after Cary died. Though it appears that the two never met, it is likely that Parkhurst knew of Cary. When Parkhurst was a young man, Cary was in her prime as an author, contributing to many popular magazines of the time. It is possible that Parkhurst read articles written by his split, Alice Cary.

Principles of Reincarnation & Understanding Past Lives

Physical Resemblance: The facial features of Alice Cary, Charles Parkhurst and Penney /principles-of-reincarnationPeirce are consistent.

Past Life Talent: Alice Cary, Charles Parkhurst and Penney Peirce have all been published authors, whose focus has been on spirituality.

Relationships Renewed through Reincarnation: Alice Cary was very close to her sister Phoebe, who appears to have reincarnated as Penney’s sister Paula.

Reincarnation and Gender Change: In these series of cases, Penney had a past lifetime as a male, Charles Parkhurst, and a past lifetime as a female, Alice Cary.

Split Incarnation or Parallel Lives: The lives of Alice Cary and Charles Parkhurst overlapped by 29 years.

Spirit Being or Spirit Guide Involvement: Penny Peirce’s past life identities were revealed by a spirit guide channeled through a medium.

Footnotes:

1. Charles H. Parkhurst, My Forty Years in New York, MacMillian, New York, NY, 1923, p. 20.
2. Charles H. Parkhurst, My Forty Years in New York, MacMillian, New York, NY, 1923, p. 20.

3. National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol 1, White and Co., p. 535.

4. Mary Clemmer Ames: Alice and Phoebe Cary, Hurd and Houghton, New York, NY, 1873, p. 93.

5. Quote provided by Penney Peirce from an Alice Cary website, source not identified.

6. Quote provided by Penney Peirce from a Charles Parkhurst website, source not identified.

7. Penney Peirce:The Intuitive Way, Beyond Words Publishing, Hillsboro, OR, 1997, p. 10.

8. Charles H. Parkhurst: My Forty Years in New York, p. 230.

9. Penney Peirce, from personal unpublished journal.

10. The Ladies’ Repository, Sept. 1855, “Literary Women of America; Number VI, Some Notice of the Writing Genius of Alice Cary,” editor, Rev. D. W. Clark.

11. Charles H. Parkhurst, A Thanksgiving Message from Dr. Parkhurst, the Foremost Patriotic Preacher in America,” Amherst Library.

12. Penney Peirce: The Intuitive Way, Beyond Words Publishing, Hillsboro, OR, 1997, p. 82.

13 .From “God is Love, “ by Alice Cary, reprinted in: Mary Clemmer Ames, Alice and Phoebe Cary, p. 263.

Reincarnation Case of Elsagene | Tikvah Dobsch with Past Life Phobias, Nightmares and a Near Death Experience

Reflections on Reincarnation and a Child’s Life Cut Short was influenced by flashes of memories of a past life that recurs as nightmares on Tikvah Feinstein. She hears about Elsagene, but then she searched for concrete proof that indeed she, Tikvah is Elsagene’s reincarnation.

Case Proposed by: Ruth Dobsch, Tikvah’s Mother

Researched by: Tikvah Dobsch

Narrative by: Tikvah Dobsch

Tikvah Dobsch, her Childhood Past Life Phobias & Fear of Dying Young

My name is Tikvah Feinstein. I was born Tikvah Dobsch in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1944. We were a family of eight siblings. I am the sixth child born alive to the late Ruth and Rudolph Dobsch. My father emigrated from Sudeten, on the German border with Czechoslovakia as a youth. He worked in the steel mills. My mother, a US native, was a homemaker. My parents were raised Christian, but my mother, Ruth, converted to Judaism at about the time of my birth. I was raised Jewish. Neither of my parents graduated from high school, but that was not unusual for the time.

As a child, I had displayed acute phobias. I could not bear having anything around my throat, especially anything that was tied like a scarf. I could not swallow pills. I would panic immediately if a door was stuck or would not open. I absolutely avoided the dark.

As a toddler I refused to go to sleep due to my fear of the dark. Mother had to rock me, hold me while I sobbed until I fell asleep each evening before darkness set in. I had terrifying nightmares and would wake in cold sweats. The nightmares were about being held down and I could not call out for help, though I knew there were people in other rooms nearby, who would hear me if only I could scream to them for help. In the dream, my mouth is clamped shut and I can only moan through my teeth. I awoke to my own deep throaty awful sounds. The nightmares intensified during adolescence and continued into adulthood.

Death was a horror to me, a dreadful condition. I was acutely aware of death and instinctively feared dying young.

Tikvah’s First Grade School Photo and a Young Girl Found Dead in a Bathroom

My life became happier when I became old enough to go to school. I was excited about learning and thrilled by every new thing in my life. In first grade, we were having school pictures taken. To get me ready for the photo shoot, my mother cut, washed and combed my hair in a shorter than usual style.

It was at that time, in 1950, while getting me ready for my first grade photo, perhaps stimulated by a physical resemblance made clear by my new haircut, my mother shared a story regarding a girl who died 6 years before I was born. I remember the conversation with my mother vividly. It would be hard not to remember. The death of a child can never be an easy conversation.

The girl, Elsagene, my mother continued, was found dead one evening in the bathroom of the boarding house where she lived with her mother, whose name was Etta. The door was locked, my mother quickly added, as if that provided an explanation. My mother added that Etta ran a brothel.

The Sexual Abuse of Elsagene and her Desire to have Ruth as her Mother

Prior to Elsagene’s death, my mother said Elsagene had complained that she was very unhappy about intense physical tickling to the point of making her cry that she often endured from her mother’s boyfriend. Elsagene pleaded to be able to stay with my mother. Elsagene begged her, “Please, let me stay with you. Why can’t you be my mother?”

My mother, Ruth, explained that she had pity for Elsagene and wanted to help her, but my mother at the time was only a teenager herself, an orphan who lived with her deceased mother’s sister, Elsie and her husband, Eugene.

Ruth Believes Tikvah is the Reincarnation of Elsagene

My mother then shared that she thought that I was Elsagene reborn. She was serious, but I’m not sure I even then understood or believed her.

To hear this story so young I was shocked, and at five or six years of age too immature to understand. At that young age, I had already been introduced to death. I knew of twin brothers, my parents’ premature first-born babies, who had died at birth. I also knew of the deaths of two neighbor children, one by drowning and one of disease, but it disturbed me greatly that a child can die alone in the bathroom!

Further, how could I be the dead girl? I wasn’t dead. I was living.

Life Goes On but Past Life Nightmares Increase

Aside from being present during several conversations concerning Elsagene that took place between my mother and her sister, that is all I knew about the little girl who was found dead in the bathroom of the boarding house where she lived. I let it go. What else could I do? Elsagene’s death remained a mystery for over 60 years of my life.

As an adolescent, though, my terrifying nightmares increased, nightmares of being held down, of something pressing down on me, of something clenching my jaw shut so that I was unable to open my mouth to call for help, all the while knowing that there were people in other rooms who would help me if I could just scream. I would wake up still paralyzed, terrified in a cold sweat. I was trapped in a body that would not move. I would not be able to move for some time after waking. I wouldn’t dare to go back to sleep for fear that I would have another nightmare.

Sometimes the nightmares began as a dream that suddenly became terrifying, always with a similar theme. One began with (I find this strange) a bird, high in a tree, staring at me, always the angry dark eyes, but I was not afraid at first. I saw the bird’s interest or anger, but I was aware in my dream that I was not doing anything to provoke the bird so I felt no threat. Until, that is, the bird with the angry eyes took off flying, dove suddenly at me and bit me, sank his beak into the skin of my hand. I could not shake him off as he hung on until he had bitten completely through the skin between my thumb and finger. He had clasped tight, until the flesh was cut completely through and there was nothing to hang onto. So released, the bird flew away, as it did it split into two birds. An identical bird of a gray color rose up from the body of the black bird. The dream is a metaphor of a violent death, as I see it now, taking into account the absolute terror and confusion I felt during and after the dream. In the dream, there is an attack, a struggle, and following a piercing injury, a spirit body is released, symbolizing death. I believe our spirits survive death. This belief is supported by an experience of a cardiac arrest in 2007, when I retained consciousness from above the chaos as the paramedics worked on my body.

In another nightmare that also began as a dream, an angry bull is staring at me with threatening eyes, pacing back and forth, glaring at me from within a corral. As he was penned, I wasn’t concerned. That is until the huge bull escaped the fence and rushed toward me.

Dreams like those immediately became the same nightmare. Always the same terrifying nightmare, with me being held down, unable to scream for help, knowing if only I could call out I would be helped. Waking in a cold sweat, I would be afraid to go back to sleep, anxious for weeks following. There were many such nightmares.

I also always had a persistent fear of dying young. I desperately wanted to live a long lifetime, like everyone, I suppose, but the possibility of early death was always in the back of my mind. It was an instinctual thing. I lived through a number of close calls in my life, but somehow I survived.

A Memoir and Discovery of a Photograph of Elsagene: A Past Life Physical Resemblance

In 2011, I began writing a memoir of my life and was in the process of asking family members for old photos. I had earlier received my first grade school photo. It was from among the possessions of my mother’s late sister. She had saved that photo of me all these years. If she hadn’t, I would not have seen it with my adult eyes.

At about that time, out of the blue, my sister arranged a meeting with a long-lost family contact, a relative of an in-law, who had boxes of old photos to share. She asked me to come along.

During the lunch meeting I asked the woman if she knew about a girl named Elsagene. I was curious to see a photo because of what my mother had told me as a child. I was surprised that my sister did not know of Elsagene. I find it revealing that this sister who arranged the meeting is about five years older than I, yet our mother Ruth never mentioned Elsagene to her.

I was stunned when the woman said yes, that she had heard of Elsagene, a daughter of her relative Etta. The woman related that when Etta became elderly, she lived with this woman’s family. She didn’t have a photo of Elsagene with her, but a few days later, she forwarded an image of Elsagene to me. When I saw it, I was startled, as I saw myself in the image of Elsagene. She looked like I did in my first grade school photo.

The photo of Elsagene made me reflect on what my mother said more than 60 years before, that she thought that I am the reincarnation of this girl who was found dead in a bathroom. It was at that point, in the year 2011, that I decided to research the life of Elsagene.

Who was Elsagene?

I learned that Etta, Elsagene’s mother, as a teenager had been hit by a trolley, which resulted in a life long disability which made it difficult for her to walk. Etta’s husband, John, had died at the onset of the Great Depression when their youngest child, Elsagene, was just three years old. After John’s death, their older children, a son and a daughter, began living on their own.

Etta and her daughter, Elsagene, moved into the boarding house, near where Etta’s brother, Eugene, and his wife, Elsie, lived. Recall that Elsie raised my mother, Ruth, after Ruth’s mother died. Elsie and Ruth’s mother were sisters.

As such, Elsagene and I are related not by blood, but through marriage. In fact, merging the names of Elsie, Etta’s sister-in-law, and Eugene, Etta’s brother, was how the name Elsagene was created.

The Sexual Abuse of Elsagene

To make ends meet after her husband John died, Etta worked for people who ran a Speakeasy and brothel on the North Side of Pittsburgh during Prohibition and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Etta met a man through her employment who became a boyfriend. Recall that my mother shared that Elsagene complained that her mother’s boyfriend tickled her to the point of making her cry. Etta’s boyfriend was apparently sexually abusing Elsagene.

Children don’t leave a lot of footprints of their lives. It had seemed, while researching, for so long, that she just disappeared. But I did find out some information through census and other records. Through my research, I obtained Elsagene’s death certificate, which, coincidentally, I was able to obtain even though I am not related by family, when in 2010 it had been enacted to law that death records become public 50 years after the death of a resident of Pennsylvania.

Elsagene’s Autopsy Findings are Consistent with Tikvah’s Past Life Nightmares of being Strangled

I found her name in the indices and that she died on October 25, 1938. Although it was widely known that she died at home, the death record has recorded that it occurred at Allegheny General Hospital.

There was an autopsy. A subarachnoid hemorrhage was found at the base of her brain. Essentially, a blood vessel ruptured in her neck under her brain and bled into the space where spinal fluid bathes the brain and spinal cord, causing a dangerous increase in pressure on the brain. According to articles I read about the condition, this is a common injury found in shaken baby syndrome. Also, it can be brought on by choking and other violence to the head and neck, or extremely rarely can be spontaneous if a defect is present. Either way the result is a thunder-clap headache, weakness, paralysis and death.

Reflections on Reincarnation and a Child’s Life Cut Short

After seeing the photo of Elsagene in 2011, I understood the nightmares of my childhood and adolescence. I have gathered a snapshot from Elsagene’s life. I have not solved the mystery of why, only what she died from and when she died.

For my part in this I have given voice to the girl who was silenced, who by her haunting reached out to me, to herself, through time and space to inhabit the world again within these pages of written words. I will share one last dream.

Tikvah’s Past Life Death Dream

In a dream I am lying on a bed. It is evening and a man, who is familiar to me, is sitting on the bed. We are both above the blankets. It feels safe and natural, like we have been together like this many times. I am on my back at the bottom, just small enough to fit with my legs bent slightly across the width of the full bed. I turn to my side. The room is bright and warm. The man makes a stiff figure sitting on the bed toward the head, reading something, intensely reading a page that is spread open, a neat fold in the center, it is shaped like, looks like a letter. I can only guess.

He is studying the information, numbers or a report or something with words on a page. He holds the letter up in his shaking hand and I see the sides of the folded paper bounce and tremble. That’s an odd reaction to a letter taken out of an envelope, I think. I don’t pay much attention. I am busy with reading a comic book. Even though I know he is upset about what he is reading, I don’t feel threatened. His eyes are glued on figures or something, impressing me that he has to somehow change the news he is reading. He is reading it over and over. It is important to him, but I am not aware of the disclosures and don’t believe I am involved in it, except for seeing how upset the man is. I do not feel I can do anything except remain quiet. I am not afraid. Even when the distressed man turns his attention to me.

Even when he makes a groan and says something I can’t make out in a low steady voice and moves towards me. Even when he reaches rather slowly up to my throat and gently wraps both hands around my neck. I am stunned. I am familiar with his touching, but not on my neck. I turn to face him. His eyes are scary. His pupils gone big and black as night. I jerk away from his hands. He tightens his lips, grimaces, hisses, and squeezes my neck with both large hands that surround my ears and neck completely. Again and again in bursts of great strength and what seems like anger, he squeezes. I hear the trapped air, as it rushes out of my ears, each time he moans, and grips his hands tighter around my neck, shaking my head back, like a whip, harder with each grasp.

There is extreme pain in my neck and head, an overwhelming terror and confusion take me over until I am consumed by a heaviness. My arms fall away from my body, my legs are exploding with electric shocks and I find I can’t lift them. My jaw becomes tight, then lax, like a seizure. My back arches and then my entire body goes limp. The pain in my head feels like thunder, like my brain has exploded. I think of my mother. I desperately want my mother. But she is not there. The last thing I see is his face, the expression of hate or something like it, his eyes gleaming, his breaths rapid. I am like a chicken gone limp, all the air is pushed out of me. He keeps pressing. I can’t breathe in. I am terrified, but can’t scream out. I know there are people in the other rooms; if I could cry out they would hear and help me. The world goes black. I wake up with a start. I am thinking of Elsagene.

That was my last nightmare. I am happy to share that I have not had nightmares since 2008 or so. It seems that the integration of my phobias and nocturnal fears with her life and death have brought peace to my soul.

What Happened to Elsagene?

What happened to Elsagene? If Etta knew, she never told. She died an old woman and is buried beside her husband in United Cemetery, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. I was told during a phone contact with United Cemetery that there is no record of Elsagene McCormick being buried there, although it is stated on her death record she was taken there.

If Elsagene has another life as me, she wasn’t a lonely child. Born into a large family, the sixth of eight children, she spent a childhood in many locations where she would discover and enjoy the outdoors enormously. She had early talents of art and writing, played the violin and guitar and wrote songs as a teen, would grow up to marry and divorce, learn empathy for Etta’s struggles by becoming a single mother of a daughter herself. She would become a nurse, earn a degree in English Writing from the University of Pittsburgh, work as a reporter, creative writer and editor, author several books, display her art, and by an astounding coincidence, she would be guided to rediscover her former self. I am telling you the story of Elsagene. That’s amazing enough, either reincarnation or coincidence. And this time she or I or we are leaving this record of a life or two. We will rediscover ourselves when or if we will live again.

“We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers.”-Abraham Joshua Heschel

“The opposite of good is not evil, it is indifference.” – Abraham Joshua Heschel

Postscript by Walter Semkiw, MD

Though Tikvah’s story is very compelling and stands on its own, I did review it in session with Kevin Ryerson. Ahtun Re, the spirit guide channeled through Kevin who has demonstrated an ability to make past life matches with a high degree of accuracy, agrees or affirms that Tikvah Dobsch is the reincarnation of Elsagene. The work I have done with Kevin can be reviewed at: Ryerson-Semkiw Reincarnation Research

Principles of Reincarnation & Understanding Past Lives

Physical Resemblance in Reincarnation Cases: There is a similarity in facial archtecture or bone structure observed in the images of Elsagene and Tikvah, which apparently was observed by Ruth, Tikvah’s mother, which prompted Ruth to disclose to Tikvah that Ruth believed that Tikvah is the reincarnation of Elsagene. Physical resemblance would be appreciated better if the photos were taken with similar expressions. Tikvah in her first grade photo has a wide grin, whereas Elsagene is captured with a smile.

Relationships Renewed through Reincarnation and Planning of Lifetimes: Prior to her death, Elsagene shared with Ruth the sexual abuse that she was enduring. Elsagene expressed unhappiness regarding her living situation and asked whether Ruth could be her mother. Six years after her death, Elsagene indeed appears to have been born to Ruth as Tikvah, which shows how souls can plan their lives and choose their parents.

Past Life Phobias & Nightmares: Tikvah had phobias as a child which seem to reflect being trapped in a room and being strangled to death in a past lifetime, which appears to have been the manner in which Elsagene died.

It is important that these phobias started before Ruth, Tikvah’s mother, told Tikvah at 5 years of age that she believed Tikvah is the reincarnation of Elsagene. If the phobias started after Ruth shared her belief that Tikvah is Elsagene reborn, the phobias could be attributed to suggestion.

Note: An earlier brief version of this reincarnation story and the photos are published in Music From a Broken Violin: A Memoir by Tikvah Feinstein, Taproot Press, 2011. Some part of the story of Elsagene will appear in Taproot Literary Review Edition 25 in 2014.

Paul Revere and the American Revolution

Jack Black’s Remarkable Resemblance to Paul Revere

Ian Stevenson’s Documentation of this Past Life Story with Physical Resemblance in Reincarnation Cases

Nawabsingh Reincarnates as Manoj Kumar

Lin-Manuel Miranda as the Reincarnation of Aaron Burr and Past Life Karma

Past Life Talents

Past Life Karma

Elon Musk, Who has been Identified as the Reincarnation of Thomas Edison, Also Neutralizes Karma with Nikola Tesla

The Reincarnation of Alexander Hamilton

The Lives and Deaths of U Maung Muang and Daw Aye Hla

Maung Considers Himself a Muslim

Daw, Maung’s Wife, Condemns his Treatment of Chickens and his Hunting of Birds

Maung the Muslim and Daw the Buddhist Separate

Tin Receives an Announcing Dream in Which her Parents Reveal That They Would Be Reborn as Her Children.

Gyi Attributes Her Birth Defects to Her Cruelty Towards Birds in Her Past Life as Maung

Nge Tells Her Parents that She Had Been Daw, Tin’s Mother, in a Previous Life

Gyi’s Masculine Behavior and Traits that Reflected Her Past Lifetime as Maung, Her Maternal Grandfather.

Nge’s Feminine Behavior and Traits that Reflect Her Past Lifetime as Daw, Her Maternal Grandmother

The Physiques of the Twins Reflect their Past Life Appearances

Were Gyi’s Birth Defects Due to Karma Related to Past Life Treatment of Birds?

The Life and Death of Kristin Grimsson

Kristen is Reincarnates as the Child of her Sister, Margret

A Reincarnation Announcing Dream with a Talking Baby

A Past Life Birthmark

A Past Life Husband

Past Life Talent: Ditta Could Spontaneously Read

Little Wayne remembers a Past Lifetime with Women in Billowing Gowns and a Man named Fred: A Past Life Vision of the Vanderbilt Mansion

A Flashback of a Past Lifetime on Fifth Avenue in New York City in Front of the Old Vanderbilt House

Wayne feels Past Life Frustration due to Fred’s Shyness

Wayne Unexpectedly refers to his Vanderbilt Past Life Relatives

Spirit Being, Spiritual or Soul Guidance: A Book Magically Moves and Attaches Itself to Wayne’s Hand-A Case of Psychokinesis

Wayne identifies his Past Life Home with Women in Billowing Skirts and a Man named Fred Vanderbilt

Spiritual or Soul Guidance: Reincarnation Geographic Memory on Fifth Avenue

Reincarnated Fredrick Vanderbilt in Contemporary Times

Summary & Reincarnation Case Analysis

In a Past Life, Little Jenny Remembers Feeding her Grandma, the Lump and Little Dogs

Validation of Jenny’s Past Life Memories

Soul Planning from the Spirit Realm: Bessie Plans her Future Incarnation

Introducing Penney Peirce

Penney has a Session with a Trance Medium, Bobby Jo, and receives Past Life Information from a Spirit Being or Spirit Guide

Spiritual Communication: With Startlingly Specific Information, Penney Peirce is told by a Spirit Guide that She is the Reincarnation of Charles Parkhurst

Reincarnation and Personality Traits: Similarities Between Charles Parkhurst and Penney Peirce

Past Life Writing Talent

Past Life Traits of Spirituality and Service

Past Life Talent in Latin

Past Life Social Activism: Tammany Hall and Whistle Blowing

Reincarnation & Love of the Land

Past Life Love of Climbing

The Sleepwalking Death of Charles Parkhurst & Penney’s Nightmares of Falling

Spiritual Communication: Another Past Life for Penney Peirce as Alice Cary is Revealed

Past Life Identity of Penney Peirce as Alice Cary is Validated

Sisters Reunited through Reincarnation

Past Life Relationship of Alice and Phoebe is Continued in the Lives of Penney and Paula

A Past Life Relationship Reflected in the Name Phoebe

Penney Peirce as Reincarnated Feminist Leader Alice Cary

Past Life Talent: Clairvoyance and Similarities in the Spiritual Beliefs of Alice Cary and Penney Peirce

Reincarnation & Replication of Writing Talent

Reincarnation & Love of Nature

Reincarnation & Practice of Spirituality in Daily Life

Reincarnation & Prose On Truth

Reincarnation and Prose on Gratitude

Reincarnation & Gender Change: Despite Masculine and Feminine Sides of the Soul, Content Stays the Same

Reincarnation & Geographic Correspondences in the Lives of Cary, Parkhurst and Peirce

Retracing Past Life Locations in Cincinnati and New York

Retracing Past Life Paths to Los Angeles and Framingham, Massachusetts

Split Incarnation or Parallel Lives

Tikvah Dobsch, her Childhood Past Life Phobias & Fear of Dying Young

Ruth Believes Tikvah is the Reincarnation of Elsagene

Life Goes On but Past Life Nightmares Increase

A Memoir and Discovery of a Photograph of Elsagene: A Past Life Physical Resemblance

Elsagene’s Autopsy Findings are Consistent with Tikvah’s Past Life Nightmares of being Strangled

Reflections on Reincarnation and a Child’s Life Cut Short

Tikvah’s Past Life Death Dream

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