Updates

2/12/05
Last Sunday I had the opportunity to describe the "In Another Life" project to about 50 people at a Unity church here in Marietta, Georgia. I was graciously given 15 minutes by the organizer, Dr. Walter Semkiw, author of "Return of the Revolutionaries." The talk went well, especially considering I'd never spoken in front of that many people before. Not much in the way of nerves, and I held the audience and got my points across, though I'm not a polished speaker by any means.

A big draw at this event, and probably the reason that 50 people paid $30 each, was Kevin Ryerson, psychic to Shirley Maclaine, who purportedly channels the Egyptian spirit entity Ahtun Re. I am simply going to say that in my best objective assessment, when I watched the demonstration, I felt that Kevin was acting the entire time he was supposed to be in trance and going into trance. If my assessment is correct, this is sobering, given that Ms. Maclaine and Dr. Semkiw have both relied on him in popularizing reincarnation. Under the circumstances, I think it's wise not to editorialize further.

I will also say that I found Dr. Semkiw to be sincere, intelligent, and possessing a marked degree of energy and surety of purpose. At the pre-reception, he played a videotaped interview of Barbro Karlen, who believes that she is a reincarnation of Anne Frank. I had been somewhat skeptical of this case, but after watching the interview I think she is definitely sincere, and that the case is quite possibly genuine. It has depth and many of the attributes found in the strongest cases studied by Dr. Ian Stevenson and colleagues, including early childhood knowledge (which was recorded and published by someone else while she was still a child, as I recall from the interview--would have to check on this) and some "evidentials."

"In Another Life" is still set to open the "US Docu Films Festival" portion of the "Voicing Silence" festival in Bangalore, India sometime this month. The organizers asked me to film an on-camera personal introduction to the film, which I did in one take and sent to them on DVD. In it, I commented on the irony that Eastern teachers had brought these ideas to the materialistic West starting some 100+ years ago (i.e., Swami Vivekananda, whose story is included in the film), and now a recipient of that teaching is bringing it back to a Westernized India. A bit grandiose of me, but I don't mean that I'm a fraction of the man Swami Vivekananda was. I was responding to the Westernized tone of the festival itself, heavily into politics and such. In fact, I gather the title, "Voicing Silence," actually is more like Simon and Garfunkle's "Sound of Silence" than the Eastern mystical interpretation of silence. So the irony deepens.

About 70 people visit this website on weekdays, and about 50 on the weekends. I'm studying HTML, and as I learn something I incorporate it into the site. I also continue to fine-tune and add to the content as new ideas occur to me, or as I learn something new. One thing I've learned is that people are quoting the early Church father Origen both for and against reincarnation. I am asking a professor who purchased "In Another Life" for his class to help me resolve this issue, and he in turn is asking a colleague who is an expert in this area.* The water is quite muddy with regard to Origen's teaching on this subject. Clearly, he taught the pre-existence of souls. He appeared to be of the opinion that souls that incarnate on earth are fallen from a higher state, and have to keep on taking bodies appropriate to their spiritual need until they can return to their original condition. There appears to be no mention by him of the Eastern idea that souls move through the evolutionary process from the lower kingdoms to humans.

Sometimes a leading figure in a field becomes prominent, I believe, precisely because he or she is on the fence about something. Their work is embraced by the masses because the masses, also, are "in the same space." This has happened to a number of writers in our modern day who have been on the cusp, waivering between materialism and mysticism. Prof. Joseph Campbell and pychotherapy pioneer Carl Jung come immediately to mind (my apologies to readers who consider that they were wholly convinced of the mystical point of view).

When it comes to someone like this, you will be able to find quotes supporting each perspective. At times, for example, Joseph Campbell sounds as though he believes that religion is myth, created by man and society. At other times, however, he sounds as though it has an independent non-material basis, something that is intuitively picked up on by society and translated into myth. Similarly, sometimes Carl Jung sounds as though the "collective unconscious" is a social phenomenon, and sometimes a non-material one.

So, it is conceivable that this was also the case for Origen as regards reincarnation, or what is translated in his case as "transmigration."

This brings up another issue. On a Catholic page which addresses reincarnation, there are quotes by early Church fathers against transmigration, if by transmigration is meant the reincarnation of human souls into animal bodies. However, most teachers of reincarnation do not support this idea. I have written forcefully against it myself. If one of my quotes on this subject were taken out of context, and no distinction between transmigration and reincarnation was made, it would appear that I was writing against reincarnation also! I tried to politely point this out to the writer a few months ago, to no avail. Certainly, an objective presentation of Origen's work would include both sides, and I have to admit that most reincarnationists, citing Origen, don't cite these quotes against reincarnation. The first thing is to determine whether the quotes themselves are genuine, and this may be nearly impossible. Even when you go to scholars who specialize in the subject, you find that generally they have an axe to grind and are not objective. So we may never know Origen's actual position on reincarnation.

There isn't much else on the immediate horizon with regard to the "In Another Life" project. I've backed off my promotional efforts a bit, concentrating lately on my freelance video production work and fine-tuning my editing system. My distributor is working to get the film aired on television again (including abroad). I'm open to doing more radio interviews or presentations, but I'll let them come to me rather than soliciting that kind of thing. One person has signed up for my online class through Universalclass.com this month, and seems quite enthusiastic.

Some very intelligent, dedicated people have been trying to get this idea of reincarnation back into a position of respect in Western society for many years. Most of them have done their work in obscurity, and died in obscurity. And I think that was okay with them, but what must have frustrated many of them was how little progress they seemed to be making. This is a tough challenge. One writer suggests that acceptance of reincarnation is, itself, cyclical--in effect, that reincarnation, as an idea, itself "reincarnates." I am not so naive as to believe that acceptance of reincarnation will solve all social ills.** For one thing, it is subject to distortion, intentional and unintentional. I try to clarify distortions according to my best understanding. I fight them with a certain sense of detachment. It's more a matter of creating sign-posts than trying to be the "thought police," as the Church tried to do with Origen. You know, on a trail in the forest, if you discover that one path leads over a cliff, you are obligated to put up a sign. Anyone with sense will pay attention and at least exercise caution when checking it out for themselves, if not avoiding it altogether.

Best regards,

Stephen S., Producer

*The expert wasn't especially helpful, but in researching the subject I came across some new websites which address the issue. See the first main reincarnation portion of the "Links" page on this website.
**Dr. Semkiw expresses the opinion that if reincarnation were known, the Holocaust couldn't have happened. Hitler had studied a distorted esoterica, and was no-doubt aware of the concept. If anything he probably used it to justify what he did, one excuse being as good as another to accomplish his power agenda. Reincarnation can be "hijacked" and twisted just like any other world view. Perhaps Dr. Semkiw means that if an accurate understanding of reincarnation had been prevalent in German society, Hitler could not have advanced his policies. Here we get into the issue of whether any understanding can be really accurate if the heart is not cleansed, i.e., if human nature isn't transformed; and whether cruelty can be averted by intellectual understanding alone. I think it's an integrated process--as a person's character develops, their heart is cleansed and their vision clears. That being said, removing something true from society's awareness, as Emperor Justinian appears to have done in 553 AD, leaves a gaping hole. Just as some important fact, when denied by an individual or by a family, creates a particular type of dysfunction around the gap, so an important truth denied by a society creates a particular type of dysfunction in that society. So I see reincarnation education as a necessary step, but not sufficient in and of itself to bring about the new social order.

Previous Updates
1/6/05
11/20/04
8/2/04
3/8/04
3/6/04
2/4/04
11/24/03
10/6/03
7/23/03
3/23/03