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You Have Been Here Before: A Psychologist Looks at Past Lives

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We're all looking for answers to why we feel certain ways. When there seems to be no clear explaination, we are without direction in seeking relief. This book gives answers to finding the keys to our fears, anxieties, and emotional pain. It is helpful to find solutions to everyday problems by exploring past lives. An eye-opener!

I found "You Have Been Here Before" in a used book shop, while on a weekend trip... Upon returning home I couldn't put the book down! Having read almost the entire thing in one sitting, I must say it was an enjoyable piece of literature. I have read many books on past lives, but this one was different. The author's focus is on how events in our past lives influence our behaviors (even mental health!) in THIS lifetime. It was fascinating to learn of real cases of people being overly affected by traumas in an entirely other lifetime... and thouroughly different from the usual focus of books on reincarnation.

There isn't much exploration of the afterlife, but only of the effects of past events on our present lifetimes. That is what makes this book unique... to view the metaphysical world through its influence of the world of psychology.

Dr. Fiore's writing style is very casual, making the reader feel as if she is TELLING the stories, and logically arranged. She even renders the transcripts of her hypnotic regression sessions easy to follow... that's no small feat, as all to often such material can leave a reader confused. In all, it is not a challenging book, but one that is easily understood, yet thought- provoking.

The cases were obviously well researched, seeing as she personally obtained the material from her patients... and verified it through the effects upon their lives and mental states. Therefore, there is no need to bog down the readers with tireless historical data, as some authors do, since the focus is on verification through the psychological effects on her patient.

Dr. Fiore is a psychologist trained in traditional treatment methods and later in hypnosis. She began to use hypnosis to treat clients and one day she asked a client to go back in time to the origin of his crippling sexual problems. To her surprise, the client jumped back into a life as a seventeenth century priest. The patient and Dr. Fiore explored this lifetime, released the sexual issues and the patient made a startling recovery that traditional therapy had not given him. Dr. Fiore does not try to disprove or prove the theory of reincarnation in this book. She merely tells the fascinating stories of her patients and their recovery using past life therapy.

For anyone who may assume that past-life exploration is all fun and games, this book will be an eye-opener. The patients that Dr. Fiore regresses in You Have Been Here Before have all had traumatic and sometimes horrendous experiences. This book gives us an inkling as to why a veil passes over our minds, hiding our former lifetimes. Nearly everyone, at some point in their lives, knows pain or fear or negative emotions. Dr. Fiore courageously guides her clients through their past-life traumas, with an eye toward releasing them and moving forward, especially in their interpersonal relationships. A thoughtful and intriguing book.

Richard Salva--author of Soul Journey from Lincoln to Lindbergh [UNABRIDGED]

Dr. Edith Fiore, a San Francisco area psychologist, wrote this book back in the 1970's, and while it comes off as less groundbreaking now than I bet it did 30 years ago, it is still an engrossing read.

The concept is this: Fiore induced a trance state within a number of her (willing) patients, who then claimed to discover the root cause for their present-day phobias, difficulties and assorted issues. A woman afraid of men and relationships related details of a past incarnation in which she endured disgusting abuse at the hands of a man. Another patient suffered from a crippling fear of heights and saw himself dying after a fall while working on the roof of a Medieval church. Still another among the dozen or so patients whose case histories Dr. Fiore details here, felt his modern-day indecision could be traced to having suffered the consequences of making poor personal choices in several past lives.

This book covers a subject I've always found deeply absorbing and does a good job of describing both the process of regressing a patient to what may be a past life remembered in the subconscious, and also the effects of past life incidents on the present life.

Have we all lived other lives on this earth? I wish I knew. It's certainly an attractive concept. (And in its implications a daunting one.)

This was a wonderful book. If you are unsure of reincarnation and are looking to learn more go with this book. There are real life accounts of Ediths patients in dialog form. Easy to read and get into. This book made me a firm believer. Even if you don't believe in reincarnation is a great book to read to gain insight in to these beliefs.