Brian Weiss: “We are souls going from one body to the next”.
El Periódico of Catalonia. Wednesday January 21st, 2009. Opinion. Page 80.
An interview with Brian Weiss, a psychiatrist specialized in regression therapy.
In the USA he has treated almost 4,000 patients who hold memories of their past lives.
Brian Weiss: «We are souls going from one body to the next.»
Gaspar Hernández.
Brian Weiss. Photograph: Joan Cortadellas.
–Many people in the scientific community reject your theories.–
–Yes, and this rejection means a challenge for me since the ‘80s of the last century. Scientists demand studies, and I work in one case after the other.–
–How can you demonstrate reincarnation scientifically?–
–In the first place, keeping an open mind. Facts should be analyzed one after the other and then a hypothesis should be developed. Many scientists have forgotten that the basis for science is to keep an open mind, instead of going about with preconceived ideas. I recommend my fellow doctors to try the regression therapy, and they will see for themselves.–
–What do you call a «past life»?–
–A memory you have of yourself, where you recognize yourself with another body, at another time, but knowing for certain that it is you. This memory may appear in many ways, even in dreams, and it may offer the explanation for a present fear.–
–Give me an example.–
–If in a past life you were drowned to death, it may be that now you have a terrible fear of water.–
–And if I am afraid of high places?–
–It may be that in the past you were pushed down from a high castle. I work with patients who come to me with such symptoms.–
–And if I have no traumas, nor great fears?–
My wife works with people like you, people whose memories of past lives are not traumatic, which are just curious. In their other lives, these people have suffered no trauma. She calls them «the tourists of past lives».–
–Only tourists? They didn’t do anything profitable?–
–Even for a tourist it is very important to have a memory of a past life. It means that we are not just a physical body, but a soul which travels from one body to the other.–
–And what about death?–
–Being a soul implies that we must not be so much afraid of death. And we shouldn’t either keep such long mourning periods as we do in our societies, because we are actually immortal, and we will always meet again our loved ones.–
–It is beautiful. It is like a fairy tale.–
–Yes, it is beautiful. However, that an idea is comforting does not mean that it is true. In any case, this one I can assure you that it is. Many religious traditions believe in reincarnation. Even the Christians accepted reincarnation long after Christ died. In the Bible there were also many references to reincarnation in the past.–
–You say that we are a soul which keeps reincarnating in different bodies. But the world population is increasing. Then, there is a lack of souls, perhaps?–
–Why should we consider that the Earth is the only place where there are souls?–
–Oh well, I had not thought about it…–
–Souls exist in many dimensions and in many universes. The Earth is only a small planet among millions of universes.–
–And why should souls come here?–
–They feel attracted here because we live in physical bodies, and feel and live in a given way through our senses. But the number of souls on Earth is small as compared with what is to be found in the whole universe. And there are also souls which split and have more than one experience at a time.–
–You practice regression therapy through hypnosis, but there are other ways.–
–There are many other ways, for example meditation, yoga, or dreams.–
–And the déjà vu…–
–Yes, some people have a déjà vu experience. Actually they are remembering a past life. They visit a town for the first time and they realise they can find the streets: they have been there in a past life. Many people have had a past life experience, or out-of-body experience, and they are not mad. But if they have not read about it, they don’t know what is happening. Informing through your newspaper may help many people not to feel strange.–
–What do your masters from the beyond tell you?–
–It is always the same, because it is an ancient wisdom. I have two sources to receive information from my masters: through my hypnotized patients and through my own meditation. The messages are about the wish for more peace and less violence on this planet. We must remember that we are spiritual beings, that this is our true nature. We are here to learn about love and compassion. We are all interrelated. When we hurt somebody, we are hurting ourselves.–
Let us meditate first.
Dr. Brian Weiss (New York, 1944) supervised the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at Yale, and now is an honorary president of the Department of Psychiatry of Mount Sinai in Miami. In his consultation he has visited 4,000 patients who think they have reincarnated. He is in Barcelona invited by the Forum of Excellence. His outward appearance is frail, dreamy, with jet lag. The first thing he did in his hotel was to meditate. To him meditating is «like sleeping or eating».
Translation: Loto Perrella.