Updates

Stephen Sakellarios with the tree that owns itself

Stephen S., producer of "In Another Life," with the
"Tree that Owns Itself" in Athens, Georgia, around 1995

I have been using this Updates page increasingly as a "blog," while the "In Another Life" documentary project itself has been winding down in 2006. When I say "blog," I really mean it's more like a "column," since it's less about my personal life than about the thoughts that get triggered by events in my personal life.

In this Update I'm going to do both, by way of a wrap-up, as we leave 2006 and enter 2007.

For several weeks toward the end of 2006, I sent an e-mail, occasionally with a personal note, to literally thousands of college professors and then, to librarians, across the United States and Canada. I got half-way through Pennsylvania (in an alphabetical list) with the librarians, and then stopped, waiting to see what the results will be in my next sales report from Films Media Group, which should arrive sometime this month. If there were significant sales I'll continue with the libraries; if not, I'll probably turn my attention to other more pressing matters here with my video production business.¹

It was actually a fascinating, if sometimes depressing, journey through academia, visiting as I did each individual website or professor's listing for the religion, philosophy, psychology and sociology departments, and sometimes also anthropology or other departments. A very few of them wrote back, and the responses were almost evenly divided between sarcasm and respect. Mostly there was a thunderous silence, which is difficult to interpret. It could be the knee-jerk reaction to delete all SPAM, so that most of these people never read it; it could be the prejudiced assumption that it must be nonsense; or it could be fear. Including the fear of losing one's position in the university--which is discussed in the introduction of Australian psychology professor Peter Ramster's book, "In Search of Past Lives."

Whatever it is, the sales report will tell the story. As for other methods of outreach, I have written no articles this year (at least I think it's been over a year), and have been asked to write none; I've been invited to only one radio interview, an obscure internet show whose host has since discontinued it; and I had the opportunity to create a 6-minute spot on another radio venture launched by my former sales agent.

During 2006, I sold rights to one distributor, in Greece; but he refused to honor the contract, which required that he run the translation by me for my approval. He sent me one completed copy--which had a glitch right after the opening logo--and when I had the translation checked, there were a couple items that needed changing. He refused to even write me back. Of course there is no way I can pursue it legally. So I have no idea of whether anyone will see this in Greece or not.

Meanwhile, my sales agent, who was never very effective except as a spokesperson and negotiator (i.e., he didn't generate any sales, I had to do all of that), still wanted his hefty percentage of anything that Films Media Group sold--even though I would have generated probably 95% of the sales by putting in literally over 150 hours of work, while he put in about two phone calls when the deal was being negotiated. When I tried to renegotiate the contract accordingly, he--well, let's just say he got unreasonable. Since the contract specified that he be making "best professional efforts," and he couldn't even tell me the last time he had done anything to promote the film, I terminated the contract for failure to comply. But since I can't afford a lawyer, to be on the safe side I'm going to pay him his percentage through the end of his contract, for one more year--if there's anything to pay him, that is.

Sometimes people disappoint you, what can you say? When I tried to renegotiate the contract, he responded as though I was dishonorable. But it was all an act as far as I could tell. Sheesh.

So it certainly hasn't been a banner year, at least on the surface. I answered a few questions about reincarnation through AllExperts.com. A few other experts have joined the listing for reincarnation there, and they are now getting most of the questions, even though the listing positions rotate. I'm afraid to look at what they're telling people. Because there are levels to this thing. Someone can know about reincarnation but not have the background I have in mysticism, for example. Kind of like being able to drive a car isn't the same as knowing where and where not to drive it. But even the questions from AllExperts.com, or occasional questions directed to me directly from the website, seem to be tapering off.

Toward the end of 2006, I created my SitePal.com cyber character, Reverb. I'm not sure anybody watches him or likes him. I haven't gotten any feedback about him at all. I guess he's an indulgence--I think he's cool--kind of a new-age traveler with an attitude who can't see why people don't "get it." Is he autobiographical? You betcha! He's probably how I imagine I'd look if I didn't look the way I do--which is to say, I look like I came out of some past century where wisdom and old-fashioned qualities were a bit more appreciated. Which is fine, but I don't fit in here. The question is, whether I want to fit in here...

The page on which "Reverb" appears is my "News, Announcements and Comments" page (being heavy on the "Comments"). It's where I get to editorialize, and it's been the most fun. This has grown organically from a few time-sensitive announcements I needed to make, like the broadcast times for a certain television program, or an upcoming radio interview, into a platform (I was going to say "forum," but this page is my show) where I demonstrate the profound relevance of reincarnation to so many areas in life. It also demonstrates, by pulling many news stories into one web page, just how much reincarnation is a part of people's thoughts, lives, and art. The ubiquitousness of reincarnation, even here in the West where it's not supposed to be more than a far-out belief, is never appreciated because prejudice keeps it minimalized in the media. I'm going to continue to maintain this particular page, adding new stories and deleting old ones when the links expire.

Another page which shows just how pervasive reincarnation experience and belief are, is the "Personal Accounts" page (or pages, because it has now spilled onto a second page). I will continue adding to this as people send me new accounts to post.

I've made a few outrageous, unscientific speculations about past-life matches in 2006, a la Walter Semkiw. Heck, if he can do it, so can I! One of them was about myself--identifying Matthew Franklin Whittier, younger brother of American poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier, as a possible past incarnation. What do I think, now that I've had some time to study his life (as much as you can find, which is not very much)? The usual second-guessing and doubts have settled in, but I think it's probably a correct match. I'm disappointed that no memories have surfaced, meaning, no clear memories. I definitely have traces. When I looked at the image, I knew immediately that he was cold during the sitting, and that his outer coat was called a "great coat" and that it was a favorite piece of clothing. Then I was afraid that maybe I'd just made up that term, but later I found that, indeed, it was called a "great coat." That's not proof at all because I'm sure I've run across that before in the literature--and if it was a past-life recognition, it would be like remembering the word "jeans" today--everybody presumably had one. Anyway, I've discussed this at length in previous Updates.²

I also suggested that the exceptionally talented rock guitarist, Eric Johnson, may be the reincarnation of composer Georg Frederic Handel. I kept feeling it for a long time, and finally decided to have done with it and explore it--and it seems to be a match. That's all I can really say, and I've gone into that at length in a "Comment" page elsewhere in this site, as well.

Finally, I proposed Giovanni Gabrielli as a past-life incarnation of award-winning Canadian composer, Chris Dedrick (former leader of The Free Design), and I've discussed this at length in another Comment, linked from the song credit at the bottom of the home page. What degree of reliability do I assign to this guess? To the degree my intuition is functioning properly, pretty high. To the degree you ask my intellect alone, I'd just say it's just a hunch. There's a third possibility, and that is that someone on the other side prompted me on both of these. I say that because it felt that way--as though someone on the other side kept pestering me, for months, until I finally acknowledged the message. One thing that lends some credibility to this idea is that I've had ideas for this website pop into my mind upon awakening, which is just at the point when a normal, non-mediumistic person like myself might be able to hear it. Another is that I have had no other such intuitions--only these two. As though, that's enough, or, that's all they had permission to give me. Actually, as I think about it there was one more--Italian geneticist Giuseppe Sermonti as a reincarnation of evolution theorist Alfred Russel Wallace. That one I just came across by accident (or synchronicity, perhaps) and posted with comparison photos on the "News" page, but never pursued.

I did have the experience of seeing, in a dream just before waking up, a vision of a young man who I think may have been the late medium Arthur Ford. (I'd never seen a photo of Arthur Ford that I can recall before this; and when I looked him up afterwards, all I could find was older photos.) This came not long after reading his autobiography, "Nothing So Strange." Usually I maintain a mind set in which no spirits have any permission from me to contact me in any way--being the safest way to conduct oneself, I think. But in my mind, I have made an exception for Mr. Ford. If what I saw in the dream was real, and if he wants to contact me for the sake of this work, which we both share an interest in, then he has my permission.

The last such possible spirit contact I had was seeing, and clearly remembering (which I almost never do with dreams), four numbers! I did the obvious thing--I went down to the local convenience store and played the lottery with them. I never play the lottery and have no idea how to do it, so the clerk decided for me how to play them. And the result was that the two outside numbers were correct, but I didn't play them correctly so I didn't win anything. I can think of a few scenarios to explain this one, and coincidence isn't the strongest one. I'm thinking either I was being teased, or tested, or else someone else took over and changed the two inside numbers. Perhaps a spirit took pity on my perpetual poverty situation here, and decided to help out--but a spiritual master or higher entity countermanded the move, because I am supposed to be struggling financially right now. It's all just speculation on my part. All I know is that I saw four numbers, I played them, and the two outside ones were right. The odds on that can be calculated, but I don't know how to do that and I'm not interested enough to pursue it.

Incidentally, the first thing I did with those four numbers was not to play the lottery with them, but to "Google" them. The link that came up was a title to a book--something spiritual-sounding like "The Realm of Light"--which turned out to actually be a book about political history, and not spiritual at all. I don't remember the numbers or the actual title now. I have no idea if this had significance or not. The reason it came up in the search was that it corresponded to an archiving number assigned by a large online archive.

Another thing I did on the In Another Life website was to come out of the closet a bit more about my discipleship to Avatar Meher Baba. A couple years ago, in 2005, when I was getting more radio interviews, I asked an elder in my spiritual community what I should say about Meher Baba if that subject came up in the course of the interview (which it did on rare occasions). He said, in his laid-back way, that I might want to consider mentioning that Meher Baba is the Christ. Of course this is the kiss of death in terms of being taken seriously for anything, but I decided I would follow his advice. And whether for this reason or some other reason, website hits went down from an average of 120/day (on the home page), to the current level, last I was checking, of about 40 per day--as low as 20 per day for the holidays. Radio interview requests stopped. I suspect that some major websites stopped linking to me, and my search engine ranking dropped from on the top or near the top, to the second or third page. It may also be a result of pulling my reciprocal links to a large number of online "spiritual directories". I had wanted the hits, but I hadn't really wanted to refer people back to these directories, because they contain a mixture of sources and the entire thrust of my website was giving people the best information. So I had compromised by creating a catch-all category--essentially, a "garbage" category--at the tail-end of my Links page. That decision kept bothering me until I finally decided to remove it altogether, and the hits began to plummet.

There are other possible reasons--changes in website coding, making changes too frequently on the "News and Announcements" page, etc. Again, I can only speculate. All I know is that the project appears to have played itself out, and I'm going to maintain the site and turn my attention to my video business. I hope that someone has gotten something out of it. As I used to feel about my still photography (which was displayed in a local art gallery for a year), I know it's good whether anyone else sees anything in it, or not. The whole thing was a personal project, and at some point I began to conceive of it as an educational service. At that point I felt I had to do my 100% best. At the end of 2006, having started this in 1998, I feel I have done that now.

One more thought before I close this Update. There have been side-themes I've tried to press home, other than reincarnation, in the website, the articles, and the interviews. The chief themes among them have been discernment; the quality of spiritual energy; explaining reductionism; and trying to set straight certain popular misconceptions about reincarnation. I also took it upon myself to try to clear up some misconceptions about Meher Baba. Finally, I clarified the purpose of the website, and tried to make a clear path for someone to find their way to my original sources, the genuine spiritual Masters.

What this website and documentary really is, is a cleared path in the jungle, leading to the doorsteps of the real Masters. In this jungle there are a number of nearly insurmountable obstacles. My "Knots" article addresses this theme most directly. But the obstacles I've tried to clear away--or, more precisely, tried to show the visitor how one might begin clearing them away--have to do with reincarnation, materialism, fundamentalist religion, the reductionistic fallacy, and the inability to discern the quality of energy in a thing. Beyond that, not even understanding or valuing the principle itself. Because purity has been relegated to the trash pile of ideas in this modern society, being associated with religion, which science tells us is just a matter of myth and belief. Purity now seems to have no connection with reality.

So I have tried to address this issue, either in a humorous way, as on the Ansel Adams spoof page, or by using the world of music as an example, focusing not on the negative, but on positive examples like the work of Eric Johnson and Chris Dedrick. I've avoided even using the "P" word (purity), because it immediately conjures up images of archaic prudishness and judgementalism, instead risking being categorized as "new age" by opting to refer to "energy" or "vibes."

It's really diet and ecology, but taken to the inner sphere of life. When you put crap into your body, you get sick. When you put crap into the environment, you get pollution. When you put crap music or television programs into your mind, you get mentally and spiritually sick. When you put this crap into society, you get a deranged society. It's no wonder that some other cultures have mixed feelings about receiving our brand of "freedom," if all that crap has to come with it. You know, I spent some time inadvertently studying the Mexican culture, because I spent two years listening to Mexican radio in the car trying to learn Spanish. (Comprendo un poco solamente.) And just recently I was watching some Bollywood (Indian) music videos. And do you know what occurred to me? They are trying to be "Western," but their imitation is relatively innocent compared to our version. They still are not as morally degraded as we are (go into any video store and look at the jacket covers, and imagine what the people who founded this country would have thought). I understand that freedom is precious; and that people don't initially understand the difference between "freedom" and "license"; and that if you are to make a society free, you have to expect a certain percentage of people to abuse that freedom until they learn better.

But I would say it is high time for us to learn better. Note that Eric Johnson has specifically addressed this issue in one of the tunes on his latest album, "Bloom." Needless to say, it doesn't get much airtime. Back in the 1970's, in their very first album, the Free Design sang: "Honesty and purity, beauty and sincerity. Doesn't that sound corny? Wish that I were corny!" (That single expression of moral defiance probably sealed their fate in terms of their popularity.)

This brings us to another aspect of the "In Another Life" project, trying to support other workers in the field. When I've identified someone who I feel is working toward the same goals, or some of the same goals, as I am, and when I feel their presentation is well-motivated, the energy is right and it is relatively free from distortion, then I will do everything in my (admittedly limited) power to support them. I've written glowingly (and honestly) about Eric Johnson and announced his concert tours, and I've done the same with Chris Dedrick's work, especially his early work in The Free Design (he got a bit abstract later on for my tastes, as did the Yellowjackets). I started by presenting a number of key people in the documentary, such as Carol Bowman and Roger Woolger. I arranged for Carol to join me on a radio show, and made clear to the host that she was a "heavier hitter" than I was, which resulted in me being basically left out of the portion where she was on! But that was fine, the work was getting done--really. This is not about me.

I have a standing agreement with Dr. Jim Tucker, successor to Dr. Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia, to send along to him any "xenoglossy" cases that come my way. I have a similar agreement with Bruce Joel Rubin, writer of the movie, "Ghost," to send him info about any novels, plays, movies or personal accounts which include a reincarnation theme, especially love stories. I've contacted Dr. Peter Ramster and offered to interview him for the website and take him to lunch if he's ever in the Atlanta area. I was contacted by Dr. Anil Singhal and his wife, who are disciples of Swami Rama--the yogi who proved, in a laboratory setting, that it is possible to control autonomic functions. When they were in Atlanta, I met with them, and during their week-long stay here, they came over and watched video I'd taped of Dr. Woolger lecturing, and conducting a session (the same session which is seen briefly in "In Another Life"). They talked about having me come to India to film regression sessions there, but you know how such plans are, it probably won't materialize. In the meantime, at his request, I gave him copies of several reincarnation documentaries, including my own, to take back to India with him.

I send links to articles about afterlife studies occasionally to Australian attorney Victor Zammit. I put in a good word for people who have genuine reincarnation cases, like Jeff Keene. I also created and maintain Jeff's website, and have done some editing for him recently. I actually helped launch Jeff's public reincarnation education career, and I introduced Angela Grubb's case to the public (I found her posting on Carol Bowman's forum, and discovered she was local--yet another bit of the synchronicity which has characterized this entire project). Angela's case, in particular, is very strong, with almost no natural explanations that cover it sufficiently. It's been all but ignored by the general public, of course.

Note that all of this is honest, and none is a matter of political "back scratching." One of the most difficult things I've had to do was not reciprocate when Prof. Chris Bache, one of the few religion professors specializing in reincarnation, sang the praises of my documentary, spontaneously, to no less than 75 of his colleagues in an e-mail blast! He later broached the subject of whether I could endorse or support his work in a general way, something like he'd appreciate it if I'd "put in a good word," or "review" it. I'd read about half way through his book, and decided to give it another "go". I still got hung up on two points. First, he advocates, and uses, psychedelic methods to personally explore reincarnation themes in his own experience--working as understudy to researcher Stanislov Grof. I cannot promote a book which would encourage the use of psychedelic drugs, when my own Master, Meher Baba, said that drugs are harmful physically, mentally and spiritually, and that people should stop taking them. (He did admit that they had some therapeutic value in treating certain mental conditions, such as alcoholism.) Secondly, Dr. Bache's book suggests that some events are not covered by the law of karma--that some are random, meaningless events. Specifically, he cannot accept that mass tragedies can have a purpose or can be within the law of karma. At least, this is the impression I got from two readings of the book. This is misleading, and I can't support the book on this count as well. The problem is that Dr. Bache is brilliant--really, one of the brightest minds I've run across in this field (the other that comes to mind is Dr. Woolger). But he is drawing from a lesser source than I am. I have the ability to see deeply into things, but I do not have the intellectual "horsepower" of some of these people. But I am using more accurate sources, and I have been studying those sources carefully for some 33 years now. So I may not have a Ph.D. (I do have a masters) and I may not be a college professor, and I may have published only primarily on the internet--but I have 33 years of studying God-Realized and illumined teachers--the genuine ones--under my belt. So that's how a nobody like me dares evaluate the work of a brilliant, published professor. Anyway, I knew that scratching his back in return would be a way for "In Another Life" to gain some attention. And I couldn't do it.

A similar thing happened when my friend Jeff Keene, who had joined forces with Dr. Walter Semkiw, said they would be presenting at a Unity Church here in Atlanta, and would I like to join them? Dr. Semkiw generously agreed to give me 15 minutes--though I'm sure he wouldn't have if it hadn't been for my friendship with Jeff. At that seminar, I saw the famous psychic he has been relying on give a mediumistic reading, slipping into two disincarnate personalities. And I wasn't convinced. I saw him use the same idiosyncratic mannerism (I forget what it was now--pausing dramatically, or throat-clearing, or something like that) for both personalities--what was supposed to be an ancient Egyptian, and then an Irishman. That reinforced my general impression that it was all an act. If my evaluation is correct, that would mean that Walter Semkiw has verified most of his past-life matches, in his landmark book, "Return of the Revolutionaries," by a phony medium. This person was the personal medium for actress Shirley Maclaine (who was my first interview host). I don't see how a professional actress of her calibre could be fooled by acting. Anyway, I gave my very terse conclusion in the "Forum" on the Children's Past Lives website--where this medium also was participating for awhile, and where Dr. Semkiw also has posted--and I've mentioned it a few times in passing on this website. Otherwise I just kept quiet about it. There's no point in saying more. But the point is, had I gotten wholeheartedly and enthusiastically on the Semkiw bandwagon, as I had an opportunity to do, I could have leveraged some real public exposure for "In Another Life." In fact, when I was interviewed by Shirley Maclaine, I dared to actually disagree with her about a few things. She had agreed to post my documentary on her website, but they never included the graphic image of the VHS tape jacket. My listing, sans graphic, kept getting pushed to the bottom under a variety of alien and UFO videos, and her assistant wouldn't answer my e-mails, so finally I asked that they remove it, and they did. Imagine--if I'd played my cards right, I could have had some real publicity there!

But I can't do it. I've been observing strict honesty now for 33 years. And this is the only way I can be effective, if I'm going to be telling the public something they don't believe and don't want to hear. All I have is my credibility and personal integrity. If I fudge--even a little bit--then why should anyone believe anything I have to say? If there are errors in this project, then they are well-intentioned errors. And the visitor can judge for himself my degree of intelligence, intellectual rigor and open-mindedness. And I will tell you that I have applied the same qualities to my evaluation and subsequent acceptance of Meher Baba as the Christ of this age.

Now, to the matter of that. Last night I watched a program on the History Channel about dangerous cult leaders. There were some superficial similarities between such dangerous false teachers, and genuine spiritual Masters. And there were some distinct differences. But those distinctions might be lost on the general public. A genuine master, for example, requires strict obedience.³ He may or may not accept his followers' worldly goods when offered. But he will elevate the person concerned, rather than using them, abusing them, or degrading them. He will not use anything given to him for selfish gain. And the acid test, he will not sexually abuse anyone. In fact, the genuine Masters, the most advanced ones, are generally celibate. Even if they are married, like Sri Ramakrishna and his wife Sarada Devi, or have a significant other, as with St. Francis and his Clare, it will probably be a chaste love (unless there is a reason why he needs to demonstrate an ideal family life for posterity, perhaps). Those are just some of the distinctions. In the end, the followers will become exemplary persons, if they obey the master and remain under his guidance. There may be defections from the genuine master, but as near as I can tell, they are always cases where the person was clinging to some outmoded idea and was not able to let go of it. Several early followers of Meher Baba got quite disillusioned when he would repeatedly promise to break his silence on a certain date and then postpone it. But in historical hindsight there was clearly some deeper meaning to it (I address this in my historical article in the Articles page). The example is given in the biography of Swami Vivekananda (who Meher Baba said was on the fifth plane of consciousness), that there was a Christian follower of his who would occasionally get so offended by something he said, that she would leave--only to come back later. Once, he said, "Every worm is a brother to the Nazarene!" She left. But, before long she was back. She hadn't understood what he had said--she had misinterpreted it according to her set ideas. It was her paradigm, and her clinging to that paradigm, which caused her to leave and to misinterpret. So, defections from genuine spiritual Masters will be along this line.⁴ Defections from false masters, on the other hand, will be because the followers have uncovered the false teacher's surreptitious behavior and discerned his real motives.

There's one principle I'd like to leave you with, that is, the two or three of you who have read this impromptu tome all the way through to this point! The false implies the existence of the real. This is colloquially stated as, "Where there's smoke, there's sure to be fire." There is no such thing as a falsehood not based to some degree on a truth. Otherwise the falsehood would have no existence whatsoever--precisely because falsehood is defined in its relationship to truth. Imagine a falsehood without any bearing on any truth. You can't do it. Science fiction writers have tried, for the entire time that the genre has existed, to come up with an alien so alien, that it has no relation to anything in our world. And what have they come up with? Reptilian aliens, insect-like aliens, aliens that look like deep-sea fish, cat-like aliens, and so-on. They can't do it. Blobs--well, there are jellyfish and protozoa and masses of plankton. Crystalline forms--well, there are crystals in nature. This is one of the great frustrations of sci-fi.

So when you see a false teacher, of course he will resemble a genuine spiritual Master in some respects. If you can't discern the difference, the problem lies in your capacity to discern, not in the Master himself. On the surface they may look identical, at least to the general public. As Jesus said, "By their fruits you shall know them." When the leader is caught sexually abusing his followers, or when he arranges for their murder or the murder of others, chances are he was a false teacher. But some of the side-effects are more subtle, such as leaving people with slightly, but significantly, distorted beliefs (many of which are variations on the theme of how to indulge in worldliness while still rationalizing that you are being spiritual--needless to say, they become quite popular).

Even the teachings of the genuine Masters can be distorted, either by false teachers, or by popular usage. Meher Baba told his followers not to worry, to be happy, that he would help them. I have since learned the route by which this saying got into the public, though I won't go into that here. In any case, at the end of this train, we have singer Bobby McFerrin, having seen a poster of Meher Baba that said "Don't Worry, Be Happy," writing a song based on this phrase, which became a world-wide hit. And what message did the song convey? It was sung in an island accent, suggesting someone who smoked marijuana or who had a pollyannaish attitude toward life. It was essentially a satire on people who don't worry. It had as much of Alfred E. Newman's "What Me, Worry?" in it as Meher Baba's message. I have heard that Meher Baba's sister, Mani Irani, wrote to Bobby McFerrin to thank him for spreading Meher Baba's message, but that he never responded. So, I set this whole thing right in my article, being extremely careful how I worded it, sticking just to the facts without editorializing, and backing it up with references. I got a copy of the original article directly from the writer, so there was no question that Bobby McFerrin got the idea from Meher Baba.

So the point is that when you see distortions, it could be the original teacher was at fault--or it could be that the message has been distorted by others. Either way, a distortion does not require that you throw the baby out with the bath water. If you see your image in the funhouse mirror, you know that there is a real you that is not distorted, right? Same thing applies to spiritual masters and spiritual teachings.

What does it matter? Who cares? Well, in a sense, you can trace a large percentage of the world's ills to distorted assumptions. A dictator has convinced himself that his policies are justified. Somewhere, deep down in his psyche, lies an assumptive error. It actually comes from past lives, when some intense experience, misunderstood, caused him to come to some slightly twisted conclusion, to strongly adopt some resolution or philosophy of life. (This is known in modern psychology as an early childhood decision and is reworked at that level in psychotherapy, but the power in these decisions actually goes back to past lives.) And this dictator has followed this conclusion, this now-unconscious assumption and world-view, until it has led him to his current situation. This is also the case with violent revolutionaries--and it can also be true for certain government officials in democratic societies. In fact, it's true of everybody to one degree or another. It's the way things are, and it's a necessary part of evolution. But if you want to grow, you have to re-examine these things and shed them like a snake or cicada sheds its skin.

We in the West are at this point of molting. We will have to shed the materialism skin, the fundamentalism skin, the "license masquerading as freedom" skin, and we will also have to shed the disrespect for spirituality skin. That will include shedding the disrespect for genuine spiritual masters skin. At present, scientists are our priests. But they are inadequate priests. The best ones will tell you they are inadequate priests. Science has its place and, as Meher Baba makes clear, can, and must, be spiritualized along with everything else. But not only does it not provide a moral basis, it does not provide an adequate understanding of reality. Because materialistic science has been able to perform a few relatively minor miracles, we are sufficiently impressed to bow down before it in our hearts. But many false masters can perform minor miracles. There are yogis who can do basically anything science can do. The truly advanced spiritual Masters could do any of these things but never do except when there is a real need for it--and then, they do it in such a way that nobody knows they've done anything. We think this is all a fairy-tale. I'm telling you, it isn't.

Even for me this is a long "Update". It's really a "goodbye," unless renewed interest in the project comes from some unexpected quarter. I fully expect that the documentary will be rediscovered, but I think I probably will either be an old man, or be gone by that time. Which is fine. I wanted to be able to say that I had given it my 100% best shot, and I have.

1) Sales report shows 10 copies sold in the second half of 2006, plus one online access sale. This is after writing a personalized e-mail to every professor teaching in a relevant area in the United States and Canada; and half the libraries in the United States. I won't be bothering with the other half. Although the online version that Films Media Group created for their website is substandard and I can't get them to acknowledge it, the listing in their catalog under "Philosophy of Religion" is prominent and well-worded. Swami Vivekananda and Meher Baba are mentioned in the description, so it would be difficult to tell the extent to which professors are reacting against reincarnation per se, or those sources in particular, but I would have to say that modern academia has spoken. It also means that ten more classes across the country are going to be exposed to some radical information which challenges the very root assumptions of what they're learning in most of their other classes. I should mention also that when I got positive responses to my e-mails from professors at small colleges, they often mentioned budget constraints.

2) As of 2/16/07, I've been able to obtain copies of a younger portrait of Matthew Whittier, and a portrait of his second wife, Jane Vaughn, courtesy of the special collections dept. of the Haverhill Public Library. I have to say that neither seem familiar, and the likeness of the younger portrait is not as strong a match as the older one seemed to be. As of this date I would have to say that I've been mistaken. If I was mistaken, it leaves the synchronicities and extremely strong similarities unexplained except by coincidence. But it is more important to report the truth as I see it than to try to make the facts fit what I want them to be. More material may be forthcoming from the Whittier house in Amesbury, and that may tell me more. I will say that looking into the eys of the younger portrait, I very much recognize a kindred spirit, especially as I extrapolate I must have been in the past, i.e., rather an intellectual firebrand. It is also possible that I expect too much of myself in terms of conscious past-life memory in the waking state. Many of Stevenson's subjects could remember nothing of their past lives once they reached adulthood, including not recognizing photographs or even actual people, but clearly they were substantiated matches based on statements they'd made as younger children. So I find myself betwixt and between--too much synchronicity to completely dismiss it, but too little conscious recognition not to be skeptical of it.

3) The genuine spiritual master's requirement of obedience is for the disciples' own safety, much as one is expected to obey one's surgeon or deep-sea diving instructor. Obviously, it is only as safe as the master is genuine. Meher Baba commented, with his characteristic sense of humor, "Surrendering to a false master is like letting a monkey sit on your chest with a razor."

4) Presumably, this same dynamic occurs when someone like myself tries to present ideas based on the teachings of such genuine masters, which probably accounts for much of the lukewarm and ambivalent reactions to this project. It's not so bad that it gets rejected, it's so good that it gets rejected. If that wasn't the case, one of the foremost professors specializing in reincarnation wouldn't have written 75 of his colleagues that "In Another Life" is, in terms of content, "...the best video I have seen on the subject. Better than anything done by the major networks." Logically, you can't get an expert to do that if the presentation merits the kind of rejection this one has had due to its being substandard. You can only get that kind of praise for a project which is so completely rejected as this one, if it is being rejected because it is so advanced that it is challenging people's beliefs at a deep level. I mention such things not so much to gripe (though admittedly I fall into that at times), or to brag (while I do my best to keep my ego on a leash, I certainly have one) as to illustrate the principle.

Music opening this page: "High Landrons," Eric Johnson (Ah Via Musicom album)
All I can say is, if you have a chance to see Eric in concert, don't pass it up...
sell the car and hitch to the concert if you have to.