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(Copyright: Fumihiko Iida & Muneo J. Yoshikawa)

この英語版は、収益をあげない限り、地球上の誰が、どのように配布なさってもかまいません。

ＣＲＥＡＴＩＮＧ　ＴＨＥ　ＶＡＬＵＥ　ＯＦ　ＬＩＦＥ

By Fumihiko Iida

( This book became best-seller in Japan

and achieved more than 600,000 copies. )

　
Translated　ｂｙ　

Muneo Yoshikawa, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Upon the Occasion of Publication

Prologue -- A Small Miracle

How This Book Was Written; Gratitude to All

Foreword

How It Began

Chapter 1

Memories of Past Lives

Section 1 Hypnotic Regression

Section 2 The Past Reborn

Swallowed By the Flood

Enveloped By Smoke

A Japanese Who Lived As a German

Memoirs of a Woman Subject

Section 3 Proof of Past Life Memories

Conformity to Historical Facts

Consistency in Different Subjects' Memories of Past Lives

Terror at Auschwitz .

Children Tell of Past Lives

Encounter With One's Own Corpse

Chapter 2

How the Process of Reincarnation Works

Section 1 Going Home to "The Other World"

Consciousness of Self As "Spirit"

View of the World After Death

Visions of Tunnels, Rivers and Gateways

The World of Light and Undulations

Meetings With Those Who Have Died

One Happy Moment

Messages From The Dead

No One Dies Alone

The Existence of "Guardian Angels"

Section 2 Memories and Recollections of Life

Panoramic Vision of Life

Self-Assessment of One's Life

How Much Did We Love Others .

Tears of Shame and Grief

A Message from the Beings of Light

Karma in Human Relationships

Section 3 One's Own Plan For Life

The Never-Ending Quest for Growth

How We Plan Our Lives

A Flow Chart of Choices

Motive is the Key

The Defeated Can Always Try Again

Self-Chosen Tests and Trials

Facing Things Head On

How Karmic Justice Works

Section 4 The Huge Drama of Karmic Justice

Big Event On Board Ship

The Man He Killed Became His Mother

The Detailed Workings of Hypnotic Regression

Conversation With His Own Kidney

Section 5 There is a Time For Everything

Deliberately Choosing a Tough Environment

Why People Die Young

Section 6 Reunion With Soul Mates

The Ties That Bind

Mysterious Family Ties

Hatred of a Son

Relationship With a Husband

Soulmates Fortify and Help Each Other

A Joint Life Plan

Grateful to Soulmates

The Mystery of Synchronism

The Art of Loving

Section 7 Revisiting the World

Our Sojourn in the Next World

Memories Hindering Self-Development are Suppressed

Birth Into This World

We Are Responsible for Everything

.

Chapter 3

Communication With The Dead

Section 1 Reunion With The Dead

Experiments Using the Apparition Booth

Conversations With Dead Relatives

Dad Asked What She Wanted

Dr. Moody's Experience

Encouragement From a Deceased Husband's Spirit

A Very Good Marriage Partner

Section 2 Messages From the Dead

The Miracle of Readings

Conversation With a Dead Son

Encouragement From the Spirit of and Aborted Fetus

I'll Marry You Every Single Time I Am Reincarnated

A Dead Wife Apologizes

The Importance of Prayer

Chapter 4

Thinking Scientifically About "Life After Death"

Section 1 The Persuasiveness of the "Life After Death Hypothesis"

Between Science and Religion

History Repeats Itself

The Humility of a Scientist

Section 2 The Superiority of "Theories of Life After Death"

It Can Never Be Proven That "There Is No Life After Death"

A Denier Will Realize His Error..But an Affirmer Will Never

Chapter 5

Theory of the Meaning of Life, Based on Reincarnation

Section 1 The Value of Belief

The Rationality of Choosing the "Non-Scientific"

What Do We Mean by "A Feeling That Life Is Meaningful?"

Scientific Knowledge as "A Source of Meaning"

Fundamental Changes in our Set of Values

Section 2 A Message from "Theories of Meaning"

For Those Who Have Lost a Close Relative

Love From Wife and Children

The Courage to Accept the Death of a Friend

The Strength to Overcome a Mother's Death

Advice From a Son's Spirit

For Those Who Have Lost a Sweetheart

For Those Stricken With Serious Illness or Handicap

Physical Pain is a Sign of Spiritual Progress

Messages From Colleagues

The Significance of Volunteer Work

For Those Who Are Soon to Die

Returning Home

Cheerful Intimacy With Death

For Those Troubled By Human Relationships

Why We Were Born in This World

Love and Forgiveness

Gratitude to Soulmates

Why We Choose Our Parents

The "Breakthrough" Created By Changing Our Set of Values

Value is Born When "Knowledge is Put into Practice"

"Positive Thinking" is a Source of Energy

Section 3 The God of Meaningful Life

Free to Believe; Free Not to Believe

Gratitude for "A God In One's Own Image"

It's Not "Painful Hard Work," But Joyous Self-Cultivation

Finding Out Who You Are

It Is Still Not Too Late To Change

We Are All Brave Travelers

Postscript

Epilogue -- The World Will Be As One

Won't You Join the "Network of Life's Meaning?"

Footnotes

UPON THE OCCASION OF PUBLICATION

- Why This Book is Being Sent Out From Japan to the World

Muneo Yoshikawa, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaii

In the latter part of March, 1996, a trusted friend sent me a copy of Professor Fumihiko Iida's article, "The Dawn of Meaning." I read it immediately and was amazed that a traditional academic journal at a major public university in Japan had published a research article on life after death and rebirth, especially since the topic is so remote from economics and management, the journal's usual genre. I was full of emotion as I realized that the new world-shaking paradigms (views of the world, of the universe, of nature, of humanity and of the corporation) have at last started to make inroads in Japan.

On the one hand, I was speechless with admiration for the bravery of Professor Iida in submitting such theories to a journal of economics and management. I have spent over thirty years in the academic environment of a public University in the U.S., and I know very well that a scholar of management must be prepared for the worst when he publishes theories such as Professor's Iida's within the discipline of management science, where they appear out of place, at least at first glance. I contacted Professor Iida immediately because I was convinced that he had some compelling reason, a reason beyond human knowledge, to act as he did. One week later I visited Professor Iida's office at Fukushima University.

As I suspected, Professor Iida did have a reason beyond human knowledge to write his article. I am unable to explain it simply, and Professor Iida has requested that I refrain from trying. However, the overwhelming response to his article made Professor Iida resolve to publish a greatly expanded version of his article as a book. As I spoke to Professor Iida, I felt very strongly that his theories were too important to be confined just to Japan; I felt that Japan must send his ideas out to the whole world. For that reason, I have been asked to write the introduction to this book, a task which I, a non-Japanese, perform with great hesitation.

Transpersonal psychology and molecular physics, disciplines on the forefront of global knowledge, are currently dealing with such concepts as the invisible world, the realm of the unconscious and idea of life fields. In philosophy, such concepts are termed the "celestial" realm and the realm of "nothingness." The Japanese have words for these astral realms in the world of art where the concepts are called yohaku (blankness, empty space), yo'in (reverberation, lingering note) and yojo (suggestiveness, lingering charm). These realms have meaning in a psychological and emotional sense. Fellow Japanese very clearly understand and share this realm of emotion.

In the world of business as well, Japanese have a shared understanding in this astral plane of the "life-field" called the "workplace." Just as in the world of art, this realm or life-field of work can also be understood psychologically or emotionally. For that reason, the realm of work has a nature that cannot ask "why" things happen.

As someone who is not Japanese, I think that Japan got so caught up with the question of "how to" during the days of high economic growth that the nation lost sight of the question "why." Corporations fulfilled their destiny as entities with the shared understanding that the goal is the pursuit of profits. When considered from a cultural perspective, there was virtually no consciousness of purpose to generate the question "what," nor was there any consciousness of vision to generate the question "why." And then one day the hyper-inflated "bubble" economy suddenly deflated, leaving Japan finally conscious of the emptiness of a materialistic civilization. Now Japan is starting to search for real wealth and seeking to find the meaning of life and the meaning of work.

Professor Iida grapples head on with these problems as a scholar of management. The conclusion he reaches is this: it is impossible to find the meaning of life or the meaning of work unless one changes one's human consciousness and set of values in the most fundamental and basic of ways.

This book proposes a "theory about the meaning of life," through a comprehensive treatment of scientific research findings about "life after death" and "rebirth," ideas that are found throughout the world.

A course on "Death and Dying" has been part of the curriculum at the state-owned University of Hawaii for the past twenty-five years. Thinking about human life and death has become a respected academic discipline. Japan is behind the rest of the world in this regard; however, Professor Iida makes every effort in this book to elucidate the meaning of "life" and "death" in as scholarly a fashion as possible by giving specific examples, based upon the scientific research of scholars around the world.

What this book makes clear is that, "Human beings are creatures that create meaning and that create value." Dr. Victor Frankel, a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, has stated that the people who survive even the most horrible environments are those people who are able to find value in their lives even in the midst of suffering. By publishing this book, Dr. Iida also hopes to emphasize strongly the following: "People who discover value in their own existence are strong people. Discovering value in your own existence provides the most powerful reason for living."

It has been reported that the chief cause of death in the U.S. is "the loss of a sense of meaning." Japan is no exception in this respect. Japan presently has no vision (why) nor does it have clear goals (what). Japan has lost its way and is buffeted about here and there by the immediate situation. Professor Iida makes us aware of the world we cannot see (past and future lifetimes) and, by thus raising our consciousness, draws our attention to the one, unbroken chain of life that continues forever. This book is essential required reading for most Japanese people because it reveals the importance of attaching meaning anew to the "celestial" realm and the realm of "nothingness."

As the author emphasizes, we are linked to all the objects, people and living creatures that surround us. When we understand the meaning of our existence, then for the first time, our ways of perceiving, of thinking, of understanding and of interacting spring out of the boundaries of "humanity," spring out of the boundaries of "nationhood," and spring out of the boundaries of the "world." Heightened in this fashion, our very consciousness acquires a bright and shining hope in dealing with problems which face all human beings such as racial issues and environmental issues.

This book is required reading not only for Japanese but for each and every one of the many people living on this earth. I myself plan to translate this book into English shortly, so that I can spread Professor Iida's "network of meaning" throughout the world.

I fervently pray that even one more person will read this book.

PROLOGUE -- A Small Miracle

It happened one day in Autumn when their oldest son Hiro was four.

There is a family in Tokyo, composed of a cheerful husband who works for a large manufacturer, his practical wife, who is a full-time housewife, and their son. The couple are trustworthy and well-educated and not the sort who would tell a facile lie nor deceive others.

One morning, their son Hiro was absorbed, as he was every morning, in watching an 8:30 program on NHK Educational Television titled "Let's Play in English." His parents were eating their breakfast nearby.

Hiro was very quick at English. Without any formal instruction, he was able to easily remember and accurately repeat, not just words, but entire sentences of the English dialog spoken by the lady in the program.

Hiro was speaking fluently in English that morning too, and his mother casually remarked, "Hiro, you speak English so well!"

Hiro answered in a perfectly offhand manner. "Oh, that's because I used to live in the United States."

Of course, Hiro had never lived in the U.S. He had been born in Tokyo and had spent his entire four years of life in the same condominium.

His mother thought to herself, "I wonder how this child learned about the U.S. when we've never taught him anything about it. Could he have found out through T.V. or some child's magazine?" She said encouragingly, "Oh, really. And so that's why your English is so good." Hiro's parents had promised each other to always listen carefully to their child and to never make fun of what their child said.

Hiro then calmly concluded, "Yes, I used to be very happy when I was living in the U.S. That's why I decided to be reborn once more."

His mother was at a loss for words. His father, who had been eating breakfast and listening to the interchange, turned to look over in shock.

Hiro's parents were agnostics, and had never spoken of the concept of "reincarnation." In fact, they were totally uninterested in reincarnation, and knew scarcely anything about it. It seemed bizarre to them to hear their small four-year old easily using such a difficult expression as "reborn" when this was totally unlike Hiro's usual way of speaking. "How could this child, who probably doesn't even know the meaning of the word 'life' as yet, be speaking so fluently about "being reborn once more," his mother thought to herself, as she muttered non-committally to Hiro, at a complete loss for words.

Several months later, Hiro's mother was suddenly motivated to ask Hiro again about what he had said. She thought that if he answered her question the same way as before, even after several months had passed, it would prove that he had not just been speaking random nonsense before. She casually asked him, "Hiro, dear, where did you live in the past?" Hiro gave exactly the same answer as several months ago. But this time he made a surprising addition. "I used to live in the United States. I lived in the U.S. and I was very happy, so I decided to be reborn. Then someone told me to go to Japan, and so I flew here."

His mother hid her agitation, and asked, "Who was it who told you to go to Japan?"

"Um... I don't know. But I was told to go to Japan, and that's why I flew here. Then I was inside mommy's tummy."

Just before he had turned three, Hiro had started to show her "the way I held my body when I was in your tummy." Naturally, his parents had never taught him anything about this, and it was impossible for a two-year old to have such knowledge.

His mother asked him once more in a serious tone, "Hiro, dear, do you remember being in mommy's tummy?" Hiro answered, "Sure, I remember. I could hear daddy's voice. And I could hear mommy's voice too."

As he was speaking, Hiro pulled his legs up and rolled into a ball. "This is the way I held my body. When I was awake, I stretched out my hands." He kicked his legs and stretched out his hands.

"Do you remember when you were born."

"Yes, I remember. I was upside down, and my body was turning around and my head came out first."

Hiro's mother could no longer deny what she had seen and heard with her own eyes and ears. She had never once taught Hiro any of the kinds of things he was telling her. While it is certainly true that a baby's body rotates in his mother's birth canal as it is being born, there was no way that Hiro could have learned that.

She and her husband, who was standing nearby, were convinced that this was a true "memory" of what Hiro had actually experienced. Hiro spoke calmly, but his speechless parents were overcome by emotion.

"When I came out of mommy's tummy, it was so very very bright and cold."

Several months later, at the end of my interview with her, Hiro's mother said in conclusion, "My husband and I feel that we have learned the meaning of life from our four year old son. Our son's words taught us that we should live happily, enjoying all the things that happen in our daily lives.

Hiro's words-- "I was so very happy that I wanted to be reborn again."-- will remain forever in his parents' hearts.

HOW THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN; GRATITUDE TO ALL

In September of 1995, I published some of my research in Shogaku Ronshu, the university academic journal. My article was titled "The Dawn of 'Meaning' -- Regarding the Influence of Scientific Research on Reincarnation On Our Outlook on Life" When I published it, I was terrified that the other professors would reproach me, that other people would laugh at me and that I would lose my precious friends.

However, the things I feared have not materialized, even though over six months have passed. On the contrary, requests have soared for copies of my article in response a comment that I had written at the end of my article, "Free copies will be sent to those who request them." I was eventually sending out over one hundred copies of my article every day. There were times when letters and faxes totaled over 170 per day.

As a result, I ran out of the copies that I had prepared, and repeatedly had to make new copies at my own expense. Braced by warm support from all of you, I sent out over 7,000 articles, including copies, in six months. Many people copied their own articles to send to friends, so there must be thousands and thousands of people in Japan who have seen my article.

Naturally there were heartless materialists who made unpleasant and gloomy comments; and there were some people who began to keep their distance from me.

However, there were hundreds more strangers from all over the country who sent me warm and appreciative letters and faxes expressing their support and opinions.

This gave me great strength.

At this point, I would like to introduce some representative letters selected from the hundreds that I have received. I have been greatly strengthened by the heartfelt emotion which permeates these letters

Words cannot express my gratitude for this manuscript. I am terribly excited about it. I received the report on February 15. Just by thumbing through it, I knew instantly that what I had received was extraordinary. I felt as if the manuscript had grabbed that shining vital part of my heart, and shook it violently from side to side.

Before I had finished reading it all, I faxed seven or eight key people in my life, telling them about this report. I rejoice that your report had been published.

I now feel that I have been reborn. As I read your report, I found myself sometimes nodding in deep agreement, sometimes breaking into tears, and sometimes smiling quietly. When I read on the train, those around me would vacate their seats, leaving me pleased that I could read in peace! I can feel the dawn of a new age!

This is my first letter to you.

I lost a person I loved in an automobile accident on (date deleted). He and I had built up a very strong relationship together. I respected him very much. I wanted to learn more about him. Now it is all gone. I was unable to put my mind to anything the first four or five days after his death, and I agonized over what would become of me.

After about a week had passed, a friend gave me a report and asked me to read it. It was Professor Iida's article, "The Dawn of 'Meaning.'" I read it through the first time in about an hour. Then I slowly read it over again and again and again. I am still unable to express my feelings very well in words. The best I can do is to say, "Professor Iida saved me."

I had been secretly thinking about killing myself. But then I found Professor Iida, and learned the meaning of living. I began to think seriously about "reliving" my life. "The Dawn of 'Meaning'" is my bible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I'm sure there will be many days when I feel miserable; however, I will be able to move forward optimistically because I have "The Dawn of 'Meaning.'" I will never forget the past as I move forward with my life, and I will sometimes stop and look back at the road I have taken. But I will be able to choose my path and calmly accept all that happens around me.

I will go on living so that I may become a truly, truly good person. With your help, Professor Iida, I now want to go on living. Please forgive me for getting carried away and writing so exclusively about myself in such messy handwriting. I am so happy that I read your work. From now on, I will put my heart into living. I will put all my energies into living on. I offer you my deepest gratitude for giving me my life back.

I've just finished rereading your article. Words cannot express the overwhelming gratitude that I feel as I wonder how to incorporate into my everyday life the strong impressions that were engraved on my heart by each phrase of "The Dawn of 'Meaning.'" I am ___ years old and operate a small ___ store. I also have some young people working for me and managing the store cheerfully and happily. Still, some people leave me each year because of their inability to share the same dreams and hopes. This fills me with sadness, even though my own powerlessness and lack of education may be the cause.

However, after being exposed to Professor Iida's ideas, I have sensed my innermost feelings slowly becoming brighter. We have been placed on earth in order to perfect ourselves through discipline. His ideas have allowed me to resolve one by one many of the strange and naive doubts that I had. I see now that there is a reason for the unexpected words of others. And I now understand with painful clarity that nothing can be resolved or settled through grief and anger alone. Most important of all, I believe that I have started to understand the meaning of my own life.

I want to start now to change my own way of living. I want to spend each day consciously aware of my gratitude not only to my wife and family but also to my parents, my friends, my employees, my business connections, and most of all, my customers.

I see now that there was a reason for everything that happened. Each event was a big link to the meaning of my life.

I do not want to selfishly hoard my blessed peace of mind; I have decided to make every effort to impart this lesson to those around me.

I am a Director of a trading company. Thank you for sending me your article.

I read it right away. As the world becomes more and more virtual, there are fewer and fewer things that truly make a strong impression. For the first time in ages, I felt emotions that seemed to well up from deep inside me. Since reading "The Dawn of 'Meaning'" I have become aware of my reason for being alive in "this world," and I want to share your article with those around me in my network. Please continue your research and lectures, secure in the knowledge that you have many supporters like me.

Along with letters like this one, many strangers wrote to say, "I want my loved ones to read your article, but the bookstores don't carry academic works. In any event, your style and wording are too difficult and scholarly. Please create a more readable book, and have the bookstores carry it." I was grateful for their chastisements and entreaties. To tell you the truth, their reprimands were completely unexpected, but welcome.

That is how this book was born.

The true parents of this book are those many letter-writers with their words of encouragement.

Thank you all very much.

FOREWORD

This book is a simplified, readable presentation of the results of scientific research on reincarnation and the afterlife. It is a book about the "meaning of life," written from a new perspective, which shows how wonderful our everyday lives will become and how our views of human nature will change when we apply the knowledge gained from this research. This book does not aim to prove the existence of "reincarnation" and the "afterlife." No one could possibly provide sufficient proof and no method would suffice to convince 100% of the people of these truths, not in a world where some people say, "I doubt; therefore, I am."

To give an example, suppose a dead soul came back to this world as a ghost and gave a press conference on television for all the people of the world to see. Those who do not wish to believe could use circuitous logic to deny the phenomena that they saw before their very eyes. They could refuse to believe to the very end, explaining away what they see as a collective hallucination or as an illusion caused by some mental mischief or as a trick played by the television station or as something that is impossible by the laws of physics. They are perfectly free to deny what they see, and, in fact, it is their right to do so if they wish.

For that reason, when I am asked whether "reincarnation" and "the afterlife" are "real" or not, all I can answer is, "Well, you'll find out for sure after you die." However, regardless of what is true, as a researcher into "the meaning of life," I find it tremendously worthwhile that the results of my research on various phenomena have greatly strengthened and revitalized many people.

Consequently, my interests lie not in "truth," but rather in those "phenomena" that heighten the feeling that life is worthwhile. This is because I am not a psychologist nor am I a philosopher nor am I a physicist; I am instead a results-oriented teacher of management, whose role is much like that of a physician, in the sense that I "heal the heart." For this reason especially, this book is not about the unusual themes of "reincarnation" and "rebirth," but really about "the meaning of life."

There is a big difference between "believing" and "confirming." To "believe," one does not need any evidence or basis for belief, but only the will to believe. Until now, this has been the province of "religion." In order to "confirm" something, however, one must have sufficient evidence to be convinced, and one must investigate, thus entering into the realm of science.

In that sense, this book first will explain in easily understandable terms the results of scientific research on "reincarnation" and "the afterlife." Whether or not these scientific results will be enough to elevate a "desire to believe" to the level of "a confirmation" will be at the discretion of each reader. I am sure that there some who will deny it, saying that there is insufficient proof, but there are others who will say in astonishment, "There's so much evidence, that I'm convinced."

At this point, what I want each of you to ask yourself, based on the research results presented in this book, is the following, "How would my life change if I started to believe in reincarnation and an afterlife?" I am not stubbornly insisting that you recognize these as truths. This book is not intended to convince the disbelievers. Instead, it is intended to encourage those who are in doubt about what to believe, and to provide scientific information to those who already "believe," in order to encourage and support them in their lives.

Furthermore, this book never quotes without very good reason writings by psychics or religious figures, nor private therapists nor journalists, nor those who term themselves social commentators and entertainers. Of course, I do not deny that their numerous publications include several excellent works; however, in order to maintain a scholarly and objective viewpoint, the quotations used in this book are chiefly from the research of renowned university professors, of researchers who hold Ph.D. degrees and of clinical physicians.

In addition, my family and I do not belong to any religious group, but instead follow the typical Japanese religious hodgepodge, visiting Shinto shrines during the big Shinto New Year's festivals, visiting Buddhist temples during the Buddhist festival of the dead, and putting up a Christmas tree at Christmas. It is true that once I had a paranormal experience that convinced me concretely of the existence of "spirits;" it is also true that I was aided in writing this book by the strong encouragement of the "spirits." However, I wish to stress strongly once again that neither the contents of this book nor I have any connection with any religious group.

If you are a person who "will never accept" the existence of "reincarnation" or of "the afterlife," please go ahead and enjoy this book as an ornate and colorful fantasy.

If you are a person who "is in doubt" about acceptance, please open up this book with excitement.

If you are a person who is already a fervent believer, please nod your head deeply in agreement as you read, as you confirm what you already know.

Let us begin the narrative.

HOW IT BEGAN

I am a professor of management. For my research in "human resource management," I constantly think about the questions of "what makes work fulfilling," of "what makes life worthwhile," and of "what brings feelings of happiness."

These days in particular, I have been getting an increasing number of requests from all over for speeches on the theme of "Managing the Meaning of Life," and I have become more and more keenly aware of the importance of this theme.

Originally, I did research in what is called, in technical parlance, "organizational culture," or "communal group values." I pursued my theories within the rubric of traditional "management science," from the viewpoint of "increasing work fulfillment by changing value systems." In other words, managers and superiors were to reform the organization, using the rallying call "human values" as a means to attain a type of "desirable mind control."2

However, I have recently noticed that managers and supervisory personnel share an awareness of a common problem. What worries them is this: "We tried various methods to increase employee motivation; however, these were no more than superficial fixes. At best we were temporarily able to trick the employees into thinking that they liked work." Therefore, these managers and supervisory personnel want to know how to affect their employees' value systems at the deepest of levels, in order to make profound changes in the employees' ways of thinking, so that "increased work motivation" will no longer be a superficial and temporary phenomena.

I was inspired to try to relate the special information that I gained through a personal paranormal experience. When I did so, those people who learned of the information listened with great intensity, widening their eyes in astonishment, and sometimes breaking into tears.

One manager nodded in agreement, saying, "That is exactly what I have been seeking. I was mistaken. I have remembered what is really at issue here: the issue is not what I can make my employees do for me, but what I can do for my employees." Another administrator said with great enthusiasm, "I want my families and friends to learn about this, not just my employees." One student was full of joy, "Now I am no longer afraid of anything. From now on when I go home to my single room, I will not be lonely at all."

This special information mentioned above, the topic of this book, is a discussion of the results of recent scientific research on "reincarnation" and "the afterlife." I was astonished at the tremendous results that occurred when I conveyed this information to others. Eliminating the listener's preconceptions and imparting this information accurately created an impact that went far beyond producing greater motivation in the workplace -- it made people start asking fundamental questions about the "meaning of life" and about what comprises "happiness."

I could not help but feel the immense power working whenever I saw the same people who had adamantly resisted change no matter what the inducement, start casting off and discarding the hard shells of their ego. This made me realize that the world is full of people who are searching in their hearts for this information. I finally understood that people who are undergoing an ordeal, those who have been visited by a sudden tragedy, and those who have had a major setback find a great spiritual comfort in the ideas of "reincarnation" and "the afterlife."

As a university professor I frequently counsel people. However, as an individual I can only suggest a very limited number of alternatives to help, for example, the woman whose boyfriend has thrown her over, the student who has failed to get into the college of his choice and the senior who was not offered a job by his dream company. How then can my very limited strength possibly encourage and hearten a handicapped individual or his parents, a young person maimed by an accident, a grieving young widow or a patient suffering from an incurable disease?

Of course, it is easy to say encouragingly, "Cheer up and do your best!" However, so many people who have lost meaning in their lives have lost the very "source of strength to live." They are in the same situation as a piece of equipment with dead batteries. Nothing will move even if you press the on switch. You can shout all you want, "Don't leave the switch off; turn it on," but you cannot hope for any results.

So many people surround us who have lost "the source of strength to live." We can find them in our companies, among students, among our families and relatives. And the friend who is full of hopes today could very well lose everything and sink under misfortune tomorrow.

If misfortune occurs, how can we possibly recreate "the source of meaning" for the victims of misfortune?

If we assume temporarily that "reincarnation" and "the afterlife" are true, then all of our small daily discontents will cease to matter, and our misfortunes and setbacks which had seemed so meaningless, could instead take on a very significant meaning.

Such knowledge might work better as a powerful "source of life's meaning" than all the words of encouragement in the world.

That is precisely the reason why I developed an interest in research on "reincarnation" and "the afterlife" while I was still a young management researcher, just starting out. It is because both "reincarnation" and "the afterlife" are components of "theories of the meaning of life" essential to basic humanity.

By so doing, I broke out of the traditional boundary of "management science" and recklessly ran into the broad research jungle of "human studies.

CHAPTER 1

MEMORIES OF PAST LIVES

The evidence for reincarnation, although mostly circumstantial, is now so compelling that intellectual assent is natural... The reader....I hope, will arrive at the same conclusion as I have: that we've lived before in past lives and will likely live again in future lives--that our current life is but a small link in a long unbroken chain.3

The above quotation is from Dr. Joel L. Whitton, who is Chair of the Psychology Department of the Medical School of the University of Toronto.

Dr. Robert Almeder, a professor at Georgia University, analyzed various recent stories and examples of life after death, and objectively researched the claims of both supporters and deniers and came to the following conclusion in 1992:4-A

For the first time in human history we have a body of factual evidence strongly supporting belief in some form of life after death... The results of this examination are philosophically striking and constitute, I believe, strong evidence for belief in some form of personal survival after death...So, not only is belief in personal survival verifiable by appeal to public evidence, it has been verified by evidence that is public and repeatable. 4-B

We can broadly divide scientific research into human life after death into two types.

The first type conducts research under the following premise: "Even after we lose our physical bodies, we continue to exist as a consciousness (or, in other words, as a spirit)."

The second type starts with the premise, "We exist as a consciousness (a spirit) after death, and take on physical form again when we are reborn."

The first type is research on "life after death," and the second type is research on "rebirth," or borrowing Buddhist ideas, research on what is called "the transmigration of souls."

Research of this nature was carried out prior to the nineteenth century under the form of the study of "Apparitions" or "communications with the deceased." While some writings are persuasive, in general they are inspired by religious impulses or popular interests.5

From what I have seen, pure academic theorizing and research using the scientific method of collecting and analyzing data began in the field of clinical medicine. We can trace its beginnings to the end of the nineteenth century; however, it has only been in the last ten or twenty years that interest in the topic has spread to many researchers, and that corroboration of results has increased.

The majority of the people interested in this theme are serious researchers who are highly regarded in various other disciplines. Generally, they report that initially they disbelieved in an "afterlife" and in "reincarnation," and, in fact, had never felt any interest in these topics. Furthermore, many of these researchers refuse to believe in "reincarnation" even now. Since they are believers in Christianity, a religion that does not deal with "reincarnation" they have to be very courageous to publish the results of their research because those results do not square with the beliefs that they have learned since childhood.

The issue is not whether Christ Himself was correct or mistaken. There were ancient Christian sects that recognized "reincarnation."6 At one time, many Christian sects, in the process of explaining "the world of the afterlife" in plain language, stressed the difference between the glory of Heaven and the horrors of Hell, and decided, as religious bodies, not to recognize "reincarnation."

Currently researchers of these themes are no longer interested in proving the existence of an "afterlife" and of "reincarnation." Instead their interest has shifted to studying the actual way these concepts operate and in methods of communicating with disembodied spirits.

Most of these researchers are actual physicians or clinical doctors. Consequently, they do not consider that their mission is to convince old-type physicists or materialists who are hopelessly locked into their old value systems. Instead, these researchers put their emphasis on unlocking practical knowledge that they can use in counseling the suffering, and in comforting those who are trembling with fear at imminent death.

This book aims at organizing and synthesizing "practical knowledge for living" discovered by these researchers, and in exploring it from the perspective of "meaningful life theories." Well then, let us begin by looking at various research results about memories of previous lives.

SECTION 1

HYPNOTIC REGRESSION

The reason that we know that we humans have lived "past lives" on this earth, and that we have the potential to be reborn any number of times is because of the introduction of the psychological therapy known as hypnotic regression about twenty years ago. (In this book, I will use the term "past lives" to refer to all the lives we have lived until now; I will use the term "previous life" to refer to our immediately prior life.)

People frequently fail to understand that "hypnotism" is not a spell or magic, but is merely the focusing of consciousness on one specific point. Induced by a trained physician, the body of the test subject (the person agreeing to be experimented upon) or of the subject being hypnotized relaxes completely, and forgotten memories surface with prompting or suggestion. The act of remembering enables floating anxieties to be alleviated and phobias to be eliminated.7

For example, a subject who is terrified of "water" may remember under hypnotic regression that he nearly drowned as a child while playing in the water. Another subject who has an abnormal phobia about the dark may recover a childhood memory of being attacked in the dark.

In this connection, Dr. David Chamberlain, Vice Chairman of the Pre-Birth and Neonatal Psychology Association, has regressed many of his subjects back to memories of their birth or to their time in the uterus. He has discovered that a fetus can distinguish his mother's voice, and a newborn baby can understand the emotions of his parents.8

He relates that infants read their parents' emotions very perceptively. For example, he says that if a new parent says, "Oh, what a disappointment. I wanted a boy," the infant can be deeply wounded, and this pain can take form later as a mental or physical ailment, as, for example, a male complex. (Readers, please be careful what you say around your pregnant wives and infants!)

Someone under hypnosis is not sleeping, and is fully conscious of all his experiences. In response to the doctor's words, he may express his views, make criticisms or investigate his own memories. Hypnotism does not force someone to speak of his hidden secrets, nor does it create memories against one's will.9

I have learned that when one remembers past lives, sometimes one observes them as if watching a movie, and sometimes one responds emotionally as if thrust once again into the past. There are times when one can actually hear sounds and smell odors.

Unless the doctor indicates that the memories induced under hypnosis must be forgotten, the subject will remember all that he experienced under hypnosis after awakening. If the subject wishes to stop, he can emerge from the hypnotic state at any time through his own volition.

Consequently, the subject is able to respond to the doctor's question, to speak in his usual fashion and to know where and when the events happened that he is remembering, even while he is remembering past events under a deep hypnotic trance. As a result, a subject who discovers that he was a farmer fighting a war during the Middle Ages in Europe may sometimes recognize a contemporary friend appearing also in his past life (they were acquaintances in a past life), may compare the primitive weapons he was using in his past life to modern weapons, or may tell what the date was in the part of his past life he is remembering. In other words, the subject in a hypnotic regression, "is the movie's observer and its critic and usually its star at the same time."10

Hypnotic regression began in the 1890s with the work of Albert de Rochas, whose research involved using hypnosis to make his subjects remember past lives. The subjects gave what seemed to be convincing evidence of past lives, such as telling where they had lived and what their family name had been; however, there was no way to prove whether such a person had actually existed. De Rochas was groping blindly in the dark, as one always is when confronted with a the birth of a new science. The psychologists and psychiatrists of de Rochas' day dismissed the results of his startling experimental research, saying that his subjects' memories of past lives were due to mental derangement.11

However, Dr. Alexander Cannon began scientific experiments on reincarnation once again around the middle of the twentieth century. Dr. Cannon was successful in regressing his over 1,300 subjects back to memories of events that had occurred even thousands of years before the birth of Christ.

For years the theory of reincarnation was a nightmare to me and I did my best to disprove it and even argued with my trance subjects to the effect that they were talking nonsense. Yet as the years went by one subject after another told me the same story in spite of different and various beliefs. Now well over a thousand cases have been so investigated and I have to admit that there is such a thing as reincarnation.12

Dr. Cannon treated thousands of subjects with phobias in the 1970s and 1980s. His methods became known as "regression therapy." Dr. Edith Fiore, a clinical psychologist, supported the reincarnation hypothesis, stating:

If someone's phobia is eliminated instantly and permanently by the remembrance of an event from the past, it seems to make logical sense that that event must have happened.13

Other researchers also gradually began to recognize the authenticity of reincarnation.

All human minds have a subconscious area, which is beyond conscious access. When a person endures some mental trauma, this trauma can be suppressed and stored in their subconscious, with the trauma appearing on the surface disguised as a neurotic symptom. Psychological analysis, using free association and dream analysis, has been a useful treatment in unlocking long-repressed childhood memories in the unconscious mind; however, regression therapy carries this one step further, using hypnosis to find reasons going back to past lives.

A very high level of skill at hypnosis is necessary to regress subjects to their past lives. Not all subjects are able to enter a trance deep enough to recall memories of their past lives. Therefore, regression therapy is not yet for general use since it cannot be used easily on everyone everywhere.

There are popular practitioners using hypnotism therapy in the United States; however, some are charlatans who are out to make money and cannot be trusted. Just using the words "past lives" in Japan can frequently lead to misunderstandings. Japan is still at the stage where only a very small numbers of practicing doctors are researching this topic, and there are only a few therapists who are experimenting with it.

SECTION 2

THE PAST REBORN

In what form exactly do the subjects of regression hypnosis remember the past? I will discuss several simple examples.

SWALLOWED BY THE FLOOD

In 1982, Dr. Brian L. Weiss, Chairman of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami, used regression therapy on a subject named Catherine. Dr. Weiss was a serious researcher who had published copious research in the traditional scientific areas. At the time, he totally disbelieved in reincarnation and in the afterlife, and he had absolutely no interest in those topics. Catherine, who was a Christian, also appeared not to believe in the principles of reincarnation.

Dr. Weiss had not been able to discover the reason for Catherine's terror of water, even after he regressed her to her childhood memories, so he gave her a deliberately vague suggestion, "Go back to the time from which your symptoms came." Dr. Weiss describes what happened then as follows.

''Go back to the time from which your symptoms arise." I was totally unprepared for what came next.

"I see white steps leading up to a building, a big white building with pillars, open in front. There are no doorways. I'm wearing a long dress...a sack made of rough material. My hair is braided, long blond hair."

I was confused. I wasn't sure what was happening. I asked her what the year was, what her name was. "Aronda...I am eighteen. I see a marketplace in front of the building. There are baskets... You carry the baskets on your shoulders. We live in a valley....There is no water. The year is 1863 B.C. The area is barren, hot and sandy. There is a well, no rivers. Water comes into the valley from the mountains...

...I'm wearing...sandals. I am twenty-five. I have a girl child whose name is Cleastra...She's Rachel. (Rachel is presently her niece; they have always had an extremely close relationship.)

I was startled. My stomach knotted, and the room felt cold. Her visualizations and recall seemed so definite. She was not at all tentative. Names, dates, clothes, trees--all seen vividly! What was going on here? How could the child she had then be her niece now? I was even more confused. I had examined thousands of psychiatric patients, many under hypnosis, and I had never come across fantasies like this before--not even in dreams. I instructed her to go forward to the time of her death. I wasn't sure how to interview someone in the middle of such an explicit fantasy (or memory?), but I was on the lookout for traumatic events that might underlie current fears or symptoms...

..."There are big waves knocking down trees. There's no place to run. It's cold; the water is cold. I have to save my baby, but I cannot...just have to hold her tight. I drown; the water chokes me. I can't breathe, can't swallow...salty water. My baby is torn out of my arms." Catherine was gasping and having difficulty breathing. Suddenly her body relaxed completely, and her breathing became deep and even.

"I see clouds...My baby is with me. And others from my village. I see my brother."

She was resting; this lifetime had ended. She was still in a deep trance. I was stunned! Previous lifetimes? Reincarnation? My clinical mind told me that she was not fantasizing this material, that she was not making this up... The whole gamut of possible psychiatric diagnoses flashed through my mind., but her psychiatric state and her character structure did not explain these revelations...

...These were memories of some sort, but from where? My gut reaction was that I had stumbled upon something I knew very little about--reincarnation and past-life memories. It couldn't be, I told myself; my scientifically trained mind resisted it. Yet here it was, happening right before my eyes. I couldn't explain it, but I couldn't deny the reality of it either.

"Go on," I said, a little unnerved but fascinated by what was happening. "Do you remember anything else?" She remembered fragments of two other lifetimes.14

Dr. Weiss had experienced for the first time the moment when hypnotic regression makes a subject recall "memories of past lives. As a scientist, Dr. Weiss did not want to believe in reincarnation and life after death; however, as the hypnotism therapy sessions continued, Catherine demonstrated repeatedly when in a trance she was aware of many of Dr. Weiss' personal secrets, secrets which no outsider could have known.

What is more, as you will see below, Catherine indicated that those secrets had been related to her by her "master," as she termed the guiding spirit from beyond.

My arms were gooseflesh. Catherine could not possibly know this information. There was no place even to look it up. My father's Hebrew name, that I had a son who died in infancy from a one-in-ten million heart defect, my brooding about medicine, my father's death, and my daughter's naming--it was too much, too specific, too true. This unsophisticated laboratory technician was a conduit for transcendental knowledge. And if she could reveal these truths, what else was there? I needed to know more.

"Who," I sputtered, "who is there? Who tells you these things?"

"The Masters," she whispered, "the Master Spirits tell me. They tell me I have lived eighty-six times in physical state.15

Thereafter, the "guiding spirits" from the world beyond would directly answer Dr. Weiss' questions, using Catherine's voice. Some of the interesting things that were relayed by the spirits will be introduced in other parts of this book, together with the findings of other researchers.

Dr. Weiss took every possible approach to debunking this strange phenomena, but, at last, he had no choice but to accept the truth of what he had seen with his very own eyes. He experimented with many other subjects using hypnotic regression, to have them remember past lives.

He discovered that about 60% of the subjects who needed hypnotic regression as a therapy were cured of their ailments just by remembering their childhood experiences in this life, without needing regression to previous lives. However, the remaining 40% of the subjects could not discover the cause of their emotional wounds unless they remembered their past lives.

The best therapist working within the classically accepted limits of the single lifetime will not be able to effect a complete cure for the patient whose symptoms were caused by a trauma that occurred in a previous lifetime...16

Dr. Weiss performed regressive therapy individually on hundreds of persons, from all walks of life -- medical doctors, company directors, lawyers, therapists, housewives, factory workers, salesmen -- with every type of socioeconomic, religious and educational background. He also hypnotized many times that number of subjects in group hypnotic regressive sessions, and almost all of the subjects remembered past lives. Dr. Weiss reported that these subjects were cured of myriad and sundry unexplained ailments, including fear complexes, panic attacks, bad dreams, obesity, anthropophobia, physical pains and so on.17

ENVELOPED BY SMOKE

Doctors other than Dr. Weiss have also reported several examples of subjects who were freed from serious disease by reliving memories of past lives. For example, a physician from New Jersey, Dr. Robert Jarmon related an example of hypnotic regression.

The patient, Elizabeth, was a fifty-one year old executive who suffered from respiratory disease. She came to Dr. Jarmon for hypnotic regression, thinking that the real cause of her ailment lay in her past lives.

"Now I want you to go to an old scene," Dr. Jarmon instructed Elizabeth. "I want you to go back to the first time you had that problem where you couldn't breathe, the feeling you couldn't catch your breath. As you see that scene, describe what you see."

Elizabeth began to tremble. She grimaced.

"There it is," Dr. Jarmon said. "I want you to look down at your feet. What are you wearing on your feet?"

"Dark shoes," she reported, in a child's voice. "Old lady's shoes."

The doctor probed further. "Where are you? What are you doing?"

"Where are you? What are you doing?"

"Sewing. But I know what's going to happen. There's going to be a fire." Elizabeth stammered and began coughing. Her breathing became rapid and shallow. "Smouldering...the rags over there in the corner."

Elizabeth described herself as a sixteen-year-old girl named Nora who lived in Sterling, Massachusetts, in 1879. Nora worked in a shirt factory. She was deaf, could not speak, and wore braces on her legs. She had been working in this factory since age twelve.

"Smoke...Flames!" she coughed. "They are trying to put it out...they are hitting it. They're beating it. Someone threw water on it, but there's not enough water," she cried. Her breathing became very labored.

"Everyone's trying to get out," she sputtered.

"How about you? Are you trying to get out?" Dr. Jarmon asked.

"I can't. They won't help me."

"Why do you need help?"

"I can't walk...I have braces on my legs," Elizabeth cried, gasping for air.

"They don't even see me. I'm there. I can't breathe. I can't stand it any more," she gulped.

Suddenly, she went limp. After several silent and tense minutes, Dr. Jarmon asked her to describe the scene.

"Is the fire still raging?"

"Yes..but I am resting.... I'm dead...still sick...have to rest. Some need more rest than others. But it's okay. Now it's peaceful."

Elizabeth's respiratory problems disappeared after she reexperienced her death in the fire. She lost her lifelong fear of suffocating. Her values and her life Changed dramatically.18

In the course of conducting hypnotic regression on literally thousands of subjects, Dr. Weiss discovered a phenomena that spans many lifetimes.

Many of my patients have recalled different traumatic patterns under hypnosis that repeat in various forms in lifetime after lifetime. These patterns include abuse between father and daughter that has been recurring over centuries only to surface once again in the current life. They also include an abusive husband in a past life who has resurfaced in the present as a violent father. Alcoholism is a condition that has ruined several lifetimes, and one warring couple discovered they had been homicidally connected in four previous lives together. 19

Later on in this book, I will explain in detail this karma or fate that stretches across several lifetimes as I discuss other researchers' discoveries of the same phenomena.

A JAPANESE WHO LIVED AS A GERMAN

Now I will discuss the case of a Japanese male who underwent hypnotic regression with a Japanese doctor who has kindly granted his permission for me to discuss it. The doctor is a neurosurgeon who was trained at New York University and is a member of the U.S. Hypnotherapists' Association (check name). I have interviewed him, and can guarantee that he is a sincere, cool-headed, trustworthy source.

This doctor uses hypnotherapy as just one treatment method, and does not want his real name used for fear that he would be inundated with people curious about their past lives, so we shall call him Dr. S. Since hypnotic regression takes a long time for each patient, Dr. S. says he prefers to use other therapies except when the patient can only be cured by the use of hypnotic regression.

At a later point, I shall discuss several other cases, but let us start for now with the case of a twenty-eight year old Japanese woman. Doctors and their patients make progress by asking and answering single questions, but in the interests of clarity, I have chosen here to combine and condense their dialogue in a narrative fashion. 20

After Dr. S. induced a hypnotic state, the Japanese woman remembered several childhood scenes from her present life before she started remembering her past lives.

The next instant, she saw before her eyes a broad plain.

Doctor: What is your name?

Woman: Father is calling me from far away. I hear him calling "Cathy."

Doctor: What do you see.

Woman: I am so happy. I am standing barefoot in a beautiful natural

setting. I can feel nature with my whole body.

There a chain of mountains in the distance. I am surrounded by a field of flowers. My father is a farmer and we have one cow and one horse. We are a family of three, my mother, my father and me. We used to have a dog, but it died when I was five. My father and I are talking and laughing while my mother is cooking.

The woman remembered several other previous lives. One time she mentioned a place name.

Woman: I am eleven years old and I am at Bodensee Lake with my family.

According to Dr. S., when he brought this woman out of her hypnotic trance and asked her about "Bodensee Lake," she replied that she had never heard of the lake and had no idea where it is. Bodensee Lake is close to the border between Germany and Switzerland, and is a tributary of the Rhine.

This Japanese women recalled places that had impressed her in the past life that she was recalling.

Woman: My mother is calling my father, "Franz." We are on a train.

Finally the woman related how her past life had become embroiled in war.

Woman: My father was killed fighting in the war when I was thirteen years

When I was fourteen years old, some German troops broke into our home. The German soldiers beat up my mother. My mother hated the Germans. After that happened, my mother never again spoke of the war.

Finally the war ended. Her life became happy again, once she had overcome the death of her father.

Woman: I am twenty years old now. My mother and I work in a bakery in

Vienna. We love our work. I do not know what the date is.

Thereafter, she was married and became a mother.

Woman: I can't remember my husband's name exactly. It was Roy or Rodieu

-- something like that. We were married in the church. Eventually we had a daughter, and I became a mother.

Unfortunately, her hard-won happiness was not to last. While still young, she developed lung disease.

Woman: Now I am thirty years old. My chest hurts terribly sometimes.

There are many days when I can't even get out of bed. I think I am going to die. What will become of my daughter after I am gone? It's getting so hard to breathe.

Her memories of this past life stop here. She died, survived by her husband and her only child. Hers was not an extraordinary life. Yes, her life had its ups and downs, its tragedies and its triumphs, but millions of people have lived similar lives.

In addition to Dr. S., there are a number of other Japanese therapists who have

used hypnotic regression and meditation in past life therapy.

The "Live for Now Society," (Ima o Ikiru Kai), headed by Mr. M., includes many Japanese who experienced "healing" by reliving their past lives. One housewife, who had past life therapy from Mr. N and also had hypnotic regression with Dr. S., related her experiences as follows.

The past life that I remember most clearly was when I was a Tibetan. In that lifetime, I was male, and lived with my parents and many brothers and sisters. We were very poor, so when I was just a small boy, my parents sent me to the Temple to be trained as a monk so that there would be one less mouth to feed. I relived my lifetime memories from when I was a one year old infant until I died at fifty. I spent my whole life as a monk.

In my other lifetimes, I was a European knight clad in armor who was beheaded in battle. I also lived as a Japanese in the Meiji Period (1868 - 1912); I was born into a poor family. No one cared for me as I spent my last moments of life alone, shivering with cold in a thin, old blanket.

Some mercenary individuals may abuse this book and take unscrupulous advantage of human curiosity by claiming they can reveal the secrets of their customers' past lives. In return for an exorbitant sum, they may manufacture some fictitious tales of alleged past lives. I want to stress that, as the author, I am fearful that publishing this book may have such as undesirable effect.

MEMOIRS OF A WOMAN SUBJECT

I want to acquaint readers with the memoirs of a thirty-year old Japanese woman who experienced hypnotic regression under the care of Dr. S. This first-hand experience of a subject, written in her own words, will bring the experience of hypnotic regression very close to the reader.21

I am following the directions of the therapist and returning to my past. I am going back and back to my previous life. I see a yellow vision before my eyes.

"What do you see? How old are you"

My consciousness was responding to the doctor's questions and showing these things to me.

I see a weapon like a hatchet or a pick, and I know that it is a tool used in field work.

I am a fifteen-year old boy, an only child, and my parents are out working in the fields in this scene I remember. I am not really seeing it, but speaking about what comes out of the world of sensation, and so it takes me time to express it. I get confused about the vision I see and it takes me time to reply.

"Some foreign country."

"What's the name of the country?"

"Argentina."

My answers seem to arise spontaneously in response to the questions. What a strange feeling!

..In my heart I wondered what he was talking about, and whether it was all right to talk about such strange things, but I heard myself saying, "Pedro," or some such difficult to pronounce name. In a few moments I realized that my name in that life was "Peter."

The scenery around me was like one of Millet's paintings in atmosphere and coloration.

I was lonely. I felt that my parents didn't love me very much. I remembered that I had fallen from a cliff when I was fifteen, and that no one had found me (for a long time). I remembered being caught on a tree, hovering between life and death. I also saw myself at thirty-two when my eldest daughter was born.

When the doctor suggested I go to the moment of death, I saw myself at eighty-five, breathing my last surrounded by grand-children.

When the doctor asked me to move forward in time, I saw myself after my death floating slowly towards a 'big, white light,' that was bright as the sun, but not hot at all. I knew I would become one with the light. After overcoming a few obstacles, I merged into the light in the next instant.

I felt a great sense of security and peace. Inside the light was a presence like a mother, a friend who would always be on my side. I wanted to stay there forever, but my fate was to be born unto the earth once more.

The doctor asked why I had to be reborn again.

I replied that there were things I had left undone.

What was it that I had left undone? That is the theme of my present life. What is my destiny? What will happen to me when I finish doing this thing left undone?

The doctor asked what I had left undone.

With that, I saw my ideal self unfold before my eyes.

Since I had not yet accomplished my mission, it was somewhat fuzzy, but I saw myself shining with love and making other people shine with me, my neighbors, their neighbors, everyone reflected that brightness and made it brighter and bigger. That was the image I saw.

Once it had been decided that I would be reborn, I saw the earth coming closer.

In my previous life, I had been from Argentina. I am embarrassed to say that I don't know where Argentina is. I don't know why the name Argentina came so readily to my lips, and I find it very mysterious. In the vision I saw while hypnotized, the poor farmers were harvesting an abundant fields of ripe grain.

I felt the dreams of a young man wanting to go to the big city and do work which would draw people's attention. According to Dr. O, who knows about my present work as well as about the dreams I had in my past life, it is all very convincing.

As you see, hyp