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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Profound and Uniquely Personal Perspective..., March 5, 2008
This review is from: The Soul Genome: Science and Reincarnation (Paperback)
In The Soul Genome, Paul Von Ward focuses on developing and exploring a theoretical model, genomic constructs, and new technology (instruments and methods) for fathoming the phenomena of reincarnation as evidenced in a select number of adult lives, past and present. He surveys a variety of unexplained phenomena and developments in frontier science in order to establish the matrix upon which he grows his ideas and thinking. He probes such phenomena as prodigies, precocity, anomalous (unsourced) knowledge, and unbidded images in dreams, visions, déjà vu, 'doppelgangers' (look-alikes), and mimiced life events. He examines emerging theory and research in such fields as natural philosophy, physics, biology, genetics, psychiatry, psychology, biocommunications, and consciousness (e.g., Ervin Laszlo, Rupert Sheldrake, Savely Savva, Cleve Backster, Carl Jung, Dean Radin, Gary and Stephan Schwartz). These provide the nutrients for his theory, hypothesis, and constructs of a soul genome. Then Von Ward plunges into the realm of theorizing, hypothesizing, measuring, and testing an explanatory, Integral Model for reincarnation. The Integral Model consists of an 'apparent reincarnation package.' For the package Von Ward coins the term psychoplasm--the soul-genome--which is similar to Stevenson's hypothesized psychophore construct. Specifically, Von Ward's psychoplasm is 'a genome-like, energetic and information biofield that embodies a single being's knowledge, feelings, and behavior patterns that transcend space-time.' Five factors constitute this soul/psychoplasm which Von Ward labels Physical Phenotypes, Cognitive Cerebrotypes, Emotional Egotypes, Social Personatypes, and Creative Performatypes. Each factor is subject to illustration, illumination, investigation, and assessment by a set of instruments which Von Ward has developed and applied to profile the dimensions of and evidence for specific cases of reincarnation. He examines in some detail the similarities in the lives of pairs of individuals, offering the evidence found along the factorial dimensions of the psychoplasm. In some cases the 'subjects' are historically recognized figures; i.e., James and Dolley Madison, Paul Gauguin, Marilyn Monroe, and John Denver, while the persons with which their psychoplasms are associated are either not generally known or anonymous. Photos, biometric data, historical and personal facts and coincidentals, ratings on the scales developed by Von Ward to quantify the five factors, and analyses of the findings, are included to illustrate the evidence and support his hypothesis and Integral Model. Von Ward has undertaken an ambitious and challenging project, venturing into a domain of inquiry fraught with controversial issues and challenging problems. With The Soul Genome, he presents a profound and uniquely personal perspective of the soul and reincarnation.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Author Comments, March 16, 2008
This review is from: The Soul Genome: Science and Reincarnation (Paperback)
This book came from seeking insight into the forces that shape my (and your) mental, emotional, interpersonal, and creative development. As a graduate student at Florida State University and Harvard, and a scholar of human consciousness, I could find no neurological, genetic, psychological or educational theory that could account for many mysteries of the human personality. What accounts for prodigies in special fields? What are the origins of precocity (knowledge exhibited before it has been learned) in all of us? Why do many of us know what we want to be, or already are, before we have experience? Why do some of our dreams, visions, and unbidden thoughts about the past prove to be true? Why do we have psychosomatic symptoms that prove to be healed by so-called past-life memories? These and many other unexplained anomalies in human behavior led me to explore the millennia-old concept of reincarnation. I decided that where there is so much "smoke" there had to be some "fire" that science could evaluate. I did a meta-analysis of many persuasive accounts of possible past-life connections and found they had much in common. I examined the work of the few other scientific researchers in the field and discovered they possessed pieces of what seemed to be a potential model for testing the theory of linear reincarnation as a part of human reproduction and the evolution of human consciousness. This book is the story of that research and the ongoing experiment that seeks to validate the theoretical model (the psychoplasm) of the "soul genome" that came from the meta-analysis and a number of independent cases. You may be surprised to learn that many verified life histories cannot be as logically explained by other theories as they can by a "general reincarnation hypothesis." You may also be amazed to know that if it is real for people like the Dalai Lama, it is equally likely that you and all other humans are reincarnations of people who have lived before. Even giving consideration to the possibility of reincarnation may change the way you think about human behavior. Just to contemplate that most of what you are today might have come from knowledge and experience gained in many lifetimes may shock you. Consider that whom you marry, or not, what you study in school or college, where you live and work, how you spend your free time, who your friends are, and what you feel about it may reflect the influence of events in centuries past. What difference would it make if you learned that how you interpret global, national, neighborhood, and family affairs may be based on more than what you have learned since birth? Much thought-provoking evidence suggests that your physical appearance, the way you think, how you react emotionally to life events, the way you interact with other people, and the creative activities and vocations you choose may be predisposed by the experiences of one or more humans who lived in the past. Even if you don't know who they were, you may find what appears to be their "soulprints" in the person you are today and the manner in which you live.
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
INTERESTING, IF NOT TOTALLY CONVINCING, April 14, 2008
This review is from: The Soul Genome: Science and Reincarnation (Paperback)
I remember reading about a young man years back who so identified with the fictional character of Mr. Spock from "Star Trek" that he had his name legally changed to that of the Vulcan....and went so far as to have his ears surgically altered to look like those of the Leonard Nimoy character! Now...does this mean that the fellow is a reincarnation of Mr. Spock? Hardly. It just means that with so very many folks, personality is so elusive or fragile that they need to anchor it on someone whom they admire or love for whatever reason (one reason being that a multitude of others cherishes the same personage, fictional or otherwise...and thus to emulate the emulated may - to the self-delusional - bring them some of that esteem and worship, however unwarranted in the imitator's case). The cases Paul Von Ward presents in his book "The Soul Genome" are not all that convincing, although I am open-minded enough to accept his basic theory as rather probable. But it is the examples used in the book that seem forced. For example, the book's cover is reproduced on page 40 and is used to illustrate a potential reincarnation of our fourth President James Madison in the form of an anonymous man (how convenient!) of whom - instead of a photo - we are presented with a painting done of him in 1972. Later in the book (page 127) we are shown a painting of the aged James Madison and James-II - but NOW we are shown a photograph of the aged contemporary politician...but with the eyes (windows of the soul) blocked out! These pictures are all shown to illustrate the facial similarity of the two men, both when younger and older. The trouble is - they look nothing alike! Nor does the living artist Peter Teekamp look anything at all like his supposed pre-incarnated self of Paul Gauguin. The same is so for almost everyone else in the book, with the exception of General Gordan and his alleged present-day incarnation as Jeff Keene. The Marilyn Monroe example in the form of Sherri Laird is also unconvincing. I mean...there are Marilyn Monroe imitators in the gazillions! And the past-life memories (whether consciously or hypnotically derived) of the folks used as examples reveal nothing startlingly new about their prior lives, nothing that cannot be gleaned from a good biography of the person they think themselves to be. And the world is, sadly, so full of wannabes that absolute scrutiny is necessitated in some of the more extreme claims-to-past-fame. Having said all of this, the basic premise of the book is quite sound. It tries to account for many of the mysteries surrounding personality, prodigy, deja vu, etc. The notion of "soul" DNA being transmitted from a transcendant dimension into the physical realm we inhabit is a logical progression from contemplating the mysterious and magical transfer of actual parental DNA that combines to make us much of what we are. The book will make you think about yourself, your origins, your destinies, your purpose - and that is a wonderful thing for a book to do! People too easily take themselves - and existence - for granted, never questioning the big Why and How of it all. As carbon-based life-forms, the fact that we are composed of exploded stars and bits of carbon that has been recycled time and again (even having bits of dinosaur carbon in ourselves!) is mind-boggling. We so easily think we know who we are - simply because we have the government papers to prove it! In truth, we really know next-to-nothing, living in a house with so many locked doors. "The Soul Genome" is a refreshing door-opener. After reading it....you will never look in the mirror again in quite the same way!
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