16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Therapeutic Value Trumps Literal Truth or Falsity, August 12, 2007
Having respect for Raymond Moody, based on my prior readings of his work on near-death experiences ("Life After Life") and grief ("Life After Loss", with co-author Dianne Arcangel), I wondered what he would have to say about past-life regression. Aimed at the general reader, Coming Back provides a readable, informative overview that reviews a variety of perspectives on past-life regressions and comes down on the side of their therapeutic value regardless of their literal truth or falsity. His citing "The Journal of Regression Therapy" (including contributors Irene Hickman, Hazel Denning, and Chet Snow) throughout "Coming Back" provided helpful continuity with my previously reading Winafred Blake Lucas' "Regression Therapy" volumes.
Although trained in hypnosis, Moody had viewed it as "a way to deep relaxation, easy sleep, and nothing more" (p. 5) until a psychologist friend facilitated a regression for him that took him through a series of nine purported past lives. That he was "essentially an average person in each . . . shot down the theory that everyone who goes into a past life sees himself as . . . some . . . glamorous historical figure" (p. 27). This is congruent with Helen Wambach's findings, outlined in her 1978 "Reliving Past Lives: The Evidence Under Hypnosis." Through his subsequent research, Moody identified twelve traits of past life regressions, at least several of which one could expect to encounter in any genuine regression experience. These include an uncanny feeling of familiarity (p. 36) and the fact that these experiences often mirror present issues in the subject's life (p. 39).
Throughout the book Moody maintains an attitude of ambivalence bordering on skepticism toward past-life regressions as evidence of reincarnation. He attributes this (on p. 112) to his Christian upbringing and scientific training. (On this point it is worth noting that Episcopal priest William V. Rauscher, in his 1975 "The Spiritual Frontier", entertains reincarnation as a possibility without viewing belief in it as necessary for salvation. His view then modifies Moody's assertion (on p. 112) that belief in reincarnation is the "antithesis of Christian thought"). However, Moody also sees great therapeutic value in the use of past-life regression regardless of one's acceptance or rejection of the theory of reincarnation. This puts him in the same company as several contributors to "Regression Therapy", Volume I: Reynolds, Woolger, Fiore, Jue, and Snow (see Lucas, vol. I, p. 558) and psychoanalytically-oriented hypnotherapist M. Gerald Edelstein (author of the 1981, "Trauma, Trance, and Transformation"), all of whom stress the therapeutic value of regression experiences over belief in reincarnation as such.
Moody is perhaps more scientific in his approach than many so-called "skeptics" who would reject past life regressions on ideological grounds. Moody recognizes that attributing all purported past-life recall to cryptomnesia is not "a sufficient explanation for the images in all regressions" (p. 148). His position regarding the risks and contraindications of past-life regressions seems most sensible. He cautions against contentious use of regression to "prove" reincarnation, or using regressions to stroke or inflate the ego. He discusses the value of regression in healing phobias which, in a passage entitled "Symbols for Symbols," he describes as "themselves . . . symbolic illnesses. Usually the object . . . is just representative of a neurotic condition [and] not to be taken literally" (p. 75). Such symbolic thinking is also evident in Chapter 8, "Do Past Lives Tap Our Personal Myths"? Inspired by the work of Joseph Campbell (whom Moody quotes as calling myths the public dreams and dreams the private myths), Moody identifies mythological or archetypal themes that emerge in regression scenarios. He concludes, "By successfully tapping these myths through past-life regressions, it is possible to understand and even alter the psychological truths that may be hidden or repressed in the unconscious" (p. 175).
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
revealed 9 past lives, October 31, 2005
Despites Moody's research in NDEs, he was a "non-believer" in
Reincarnation until the late 1980's. A single regression session with a
hypnotist revealed 9 past lives to him at that time.
By the time he wrote this book he had performed over 200 regressions on
others. Relatively unique and special to his method is the use
of "scrying" or crystal ball gazing to gain access to past-life images
for himself and others.
Though it doesn't include an index, there seems to be a very excellent
recordable self-regression scripts at the end that, from an outloud
reading, appears to be very effective! :cool
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Scientific exploration of past lives by open minded skeptic, January 15, 2007
A very easy read, considering the subject matter. Almost like sitting and talking with the author. Scientists and laymen will learn a lot and enjoy this book, and if either group reads only one book on this subject, this would be a good choice. Thorough examination of the subject including all the usual arguments against the reality of past-life regressions (I as the reviewer have never had one). Four stars because since its publication, the vast addition of information by the translation of texts of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as the science done on Tibetan Buddhism and altered states of consciousness could add to this work immeasurably.
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