Updates

2/9/07

This won't be a full-fledged "update," since I pretty-much said it all in the previous, year-end wrap-up. I just want to report an update specifically on my theory that I might have had a past life as Matthew Franklin Whittier, younger brother of poet John Greenleaf Whittier.

There have been a lot of indications on the "pro" side, including the synchronous way I stumbled upon the match in the first place. There are elements which go back to my childhood--felt affinities with the Romantic poets, and New England; as well as abilities, character traits and karmic patterns too numerous to mention. Two people I know in this life seem plausible as figuring in that past life; and both, when I questioned them about it, told me they had very strong ties to New England, which I didn't know beforehand. Both of them look physically somewhat like the person I was tentatively matching them up with*; and I, myself, look somewhat like the only portrait of Matthew Whittier I'd been able to find.

On the "con" side, the only images I'd seen that I felt a strong connection or inner affirmation about were Matthew's, and John Greenleaf Whittier. But Whittier was so famous that anyone could have been familiar with his face. That I didn't feel any sense of particular recognition for the family, or the homestead, or anything else, was disappointing. I did feel a strong attraction to New England, to the coastline (since childhood), to the New England accent (though I can't imitate it). I felt I recognized the name "Sara Orne Jewett" (though she was famous, also). My handwriting is totally different from Matthew's--although his is the handwriting I've always wished I had. In fact, where his face is different, it's the face I always felt I should have. Strange. I did have a sense of recognition for "Peak's Island," an island which I gather lies near the port at Portsmouth, Maine, which Matthew liked to get away to. My feeling was that it was almost a sacred spot of nature. Another thing on the "con" side was that, according to one biographer anyway, Matthew actually went by the name "Frank" or "Franklin" within his family. This didn't feel familiar at all--or if it did, it felt as though he didn't actually like this name and vastly preferred "Matthew."

Some of Matthew's writing seemed very familiar; and some didn't. Strangely, the "Ethan Spike" letters he was best known for, seemed the least familiar (though the attitude and humor behind them was quite familiar). The letters not specifically dealing with Ethan Spike seemed very familiar indeed. I also had the feeling that he did more serious work, but that he allowed it to be published by other authors under their names. I have no idea if this was done at the time or not, though I think after acknowledging this feeling within myself, I did find some historical indications that things were "faster and looser" as regards copyright then, than they are today.

And there I had to leave the matter, feeling strangely in-between belief and skepticism, until I finally was able to contact, by phone, caretakers of the original papers of the Whittier family, both at the Haverhill Public Library and at the family home/museum at Amesbury. As I write this, today, I received copies of a portrait of Matthew as a younger man, around age 38; and of his second wife, Jane Vaughn. Neither struck me as feeling familiar. I can see, in the eyes of Matthew, something of what my attitude was as a young man, the intellectual firebrand; but I don't get the sense of it being me.

So, I have to report that, as of this date, I think I probably was not Matthew Franklin Whittier in a previous life. If I wasn't, there is a huge amount of synchronicity in stumbling upon his life, because he would then be an amazingly parallel character. Even the events in his life are similar--his quirks, the whole pattern. And I do mean the whole pattern, down to some amazing details. Even the more problematic side of his character--he was the "black sheep" of the Whittier family--dovetails with traits that came up strongly in my adolescence, which I've struggled to transmute in my adult life. So if I have not stumbled upon a past life, I have stumbled upon a kind of "parallel universe," a person with a karmic pattern so similar that everything in it reflects my own--not perfectly, but consistently.

The important point I want to make is that there is an assumption made by skeptics, that a person who thinks he has a famous (or quasi-famous) past life is certain to be ego-invested in it, trying to convince himself and others. They don't imagine for a minute that such a person could be rational about it--that he could be fairly weighing the evidence. If he finds evidence sufficiently strong to the contrary, they assume he will distort the evidence or go into denial, and continue to press his claim.

Well, sorry to disappoint any skeptics out there, but it's not necessarily the case. (It requires the same commitment to truth that is required of skeptics--the kind that can rise above ego-defenses.) I've said on this website that if I find out something is not true I'll say so. Well, I've said so.

More material may be coming from the Whittier homestead museum in Amesbury. If that material changes my tentative negative conclusion here one way or the other, I'll post another Update accordingly. Meanwhile, as Dr. Stevenson suggested with his tennis analogy, if the balls are "in" I will continue to call them "in," and if they are "out" I will continue to call them "out."

Best regards,

Stephen S., Producer

*Both also share marked talents, personal characteristics and karmic patterns with the historical personage. Both reacted to my suggestion the same way--they expressed only mild interest with no strong feeling of recognition, although both accept reincarnation and have studied Eastern mysticism (as had their proposed counterparts). In one sense, it could be said that all three of these proposed matches thus appear to have more external corroboration, in the sense of synchronicities and parallels, than they do internal corroboration in the sense of felt recognition or memories.

As of 3/7/07, I am not so sure either way. As happened when I first gazed on the older portrait of Matthew, a few days after gazing on the younger portrait, I began to feel dim stirrings in my subconsious. I can't describe it, except that it seems to have triggered something. No flashbacks, no dreams--just a feeling of something I used to be and no longer am, by-and-large, stirring. Lessons I've already learned and thought I had resolved, stimulated ever-so-slightly. A tendency to judge, to have a quick temper, to be afraid of running out of money, to notice other women--things like that. The shadow side of Matthew, who was the "black sheep" of the Whittier family. It's no proof, to me or anyone else. But it simply should be noted. Again, if this isn't a past-life incarnation, it's a very close match in terms of personality type and karmic pattern.

Previous Updates
1/5/07
12/21/06
11/10/06
11/1/06
8/11/06
8/2/06
7/16/06
6/9/06
5/31/06
4/26/06
1/23/06
11/20/05
10/18/05
7/13/05
6/6/05
2/12/05
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

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.