Many Lives, Many Masters

Rating:
Summary: CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: I read this book and I honestly wish there was an option where I could give it negative stars. I am a hindu so the concept of reincarnation is by no means new to me... but not the way Dr Weiss explains it! First of all, hindu's believe that to achieve the form of a human, a soul must even go through thousands of lives in the form of animals. Catherine has no recollection of being reincarnated in any form other than that of a human. And yes, i do agree with all those who have brought up the point of how could Catherine read the dates in the form of BC?? Dr Weiss said he was noting down her words as she spoke them, and in many instances he asked her to look around for a date, so there was no way in hell she could look at a newspaper and say, "oh, its 678 BC!". There are so many flaws in the book that only a gullible fool would believe anything that it contains. Read it if you like fictional stories about healing. Don't even think about reading it if you are looking for the real meaning of life and the afterlife. Read the Bible, the Koran or the Bhagwad Gita for some real answers from some extremely reliable sources!!

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Amazing!!!
Review: Having an open mind in my search for why I am on this planet, I found this book to be convincing in its message. Truely believable and written in a way that keeps the reader wanting to keep reading. I could not put the book down. Thank you Dr. Weiss for sharing your experiences with us and thank you Catherine for being brave enough to seek help and understanding. I look forward to reading Dr. Weiss' next book. Thank you Mike for sending me this book!

Rating:
Summary: Read this book, it will change your life!
Review: Brian Weiss has written a masterpiece! I couldn't put this wonderful book down until I soaked in every last, visionary word. For anyone who has read this book, you know what I am talking about, this book will change your life but don't let some of the unbelievably closed minded people who have written a couple of negative reviews influence whether you will buy and read this incredible book. Why would a respected, extremely well educated Pyschiatrist put his reputation and his career on the line for something that in his circles in nothing short of heresy? Why? because Brian Weiss writes the truth - he believes it, his patients believe it, millions of people around the world believe it, but most importantly - you will believe it. Buy this book - you will not be sorry - I can guarantee that you will then buy the other 3 wonderful books that Brian has written.

Rating:
Summary: You've got to believe in something . . .
Review: The ideas and "truths" revealed in Many Lives, Many Masters seem as plausible to this reader as anything I've ever read in the Bible. In fact, much of the information revealed by the Masters is quite comparable to the laws most religious doctrine set forth, - do not kill, love your fellow man, do unto others, vengeance shall be mine - etc. This book provides a refreshing perspective on the notion that life is everlasting. Some may feel that Weiss, as a trained medical professional, lends an additional layer of creditability to the concept of reincarnation; but science is rarely able to explain the spiritual. You either believe or you don't. This was great read. Informative, enlightening and, depending on where you are on the journey when you read it, comforting.

Rating:
Summary: Good introduction to the concept of reincarnation
Review: Dr. Weiss as a psychiatrist, was reluctant to believe his patients were actually being regressed into a past experience. But when messages from beyond are directed toward him, he has to put away his scientific mind and listen with his heart. For those skeptical about reincarnation, this is a great book. Dr. Weiss finds the reasons for current life phobias locked deep within the soul's experience in a different time. Once the orginal incident is uncovered, the patient is able to overcome their fears, problems with relationships and many other common problems. This in itself should be seen as proof of reincarnation. If you are interested in a fictional story of karma, love, and soulmates, check out "The Destiny of Miro". Oh, and as for those that were upset at the time period of one of the lifetimes being described as a time B.C., this is possibly a translation by Dr. Weiss and not the actual words used by the patient.

Rating:
Summary: What the Soul Wants to Hear Isn't Always Reality
Review: A new way of seeing Many Lives, Many Masters. Flaws in logic: the people who lived in time before Christ was born did not say they lived in B.C., not knowing that Christ was coming at a particular time. Catherine's first trip back to a previous life was a life in 1865 B.C. How did she know that date?

Constantine may well have had something against the common concept back then of reincarnation, but, even if he did change the words in the Bible to reflect that, the Bible, as we know it today, has not changed over the years, since those who constantly translate it with all the latest knowledge we have of words and from the earliest manuscripts of the book. The earliest manuscripts date from the first century B.C for the OT in the library of a town of people commonly called the Dead Sea Scrolls, and for the NT from manuscripts dating in the first and second century A.D. Although there are later manuscripts used, some of which might well have been transcribed during Constantine's time, too many date from before his time that are used, and thus killing the concept of him changing the entire thing and we being stuck merely with his translation. Also, although Constantine may have originally been a Gnostic (which I've never heard nor read), he was not one at the end of his life. Gnosticism is a belief system considered heresy by Christians, because it denies the reality of Jesus as a real person in time and space, once more as the Redeemer. So, Dr. Weiss' concept that the Bible supported reincarnation is false, and had he studied the concepts of Christianity a bit further then reading one side, a college textbook, he would have known that.

As for what happened with Catherine, I'm not sure, however I do have a theory. It might well have been that instead of living these earlier lives, that, instead, she was/is haunted, possessed if you will, by demons, a species originating as angels who have a beginning, but no end, created outside of time and space, here to carry out there relatively easy mission, of keeping people from accepting Jesus as their Savior, and in doing so, using any means to that end, including giving a person clairvoyance, and knowledge past their biological age. There is more then one explanation of what happened between Catherine and Dr. Weiss, and without deep understanding of different religions, but being told things so personal as to know the teller did not know that information, objectivity could easily fly out the window.

Despite his desire to be objective, Dr. Weiss and Catherine fell for the oldest desire of mankind, getting what we want without guilt. They found out how wonderful they are. Skip the truth, it is an easy thing to believe.

Nice dream. Not reality, as this book is not reality, even if the author and his poor patient believe it is.

Rating:
Summary: Why can't I select 0 stars.
Review: I generally don't read this kind of books but I have been urged by afriend to read this one. "You can't keep ignoring thefacts", he told me. "Here is this serious scientist whowrites about facts and you just ignore them because your mind is notopen and you want to preserve your old beliefs". So, reluctantly,I made the effort and started reading this book.

The authordescribes his experience with a patient he calls Catherine. When, onpage eleven, I encountered the sentence "I have slightly changedCatherine's identity to ensure confidentiality" I said to myself"here it starts, the well known pattern of these books, makingcriticism impossible by making the facts the theory relies uponinaccessible to others". I almost stopped reading the book sinceI knew that through this sentence it declared itself as unscientificand I would have no way to find out whether or not the facts my friendsaid I was ignoring were, indeed, facts.

But, a couple of days laterI decided to go on reading, at least some pages, and see if I findsomething I could relate to. I'm glad I did!

On page 27, the authordescribes his first encounter with a previous life cycle Catherine wasable to recall under hypnosis. I'll cite only a few sentences from hertestimony: "We live in the Valley... There is no water. The yearis 1863 B.C. The area is barren, hot, and sandy"

See what Imean? I don't believe I am the only person who read this book with amind open enough to understand that people in this time could not usethe term B.C. to designate dates! Even if she really wanted totranslate some other date representation to the terms we use today,how could she do it? No way!

I only had to read 27 pages to find astatement that, logically, cannot be true. There are many suchstatements in the sequel.

In short, the story in the book cannot betrue. One cannot believe it and be rational at the same time. This isthe most significant fact one can be sure to know about this book. Itwas, hence, my friend who was ignoring the facts, not me.

And whatabout reincarnation in general?

All the reported reincarnationevents are about persons claiming to recall events in past lives. Thisis natural, since how else could one prove that one has the soul ofsomebody else?

Now, these stories assume something that we know fora fact not to be true: they assume that the memories are in the souland not in the body (how else would the reincarnation of the soulcause the new person know about the old one?).

How do we know thisis wrong? Simple! We know that we can loose our memory or parts of itthrough an injury or malfunction of our brain. This is a commonphenomenon we encounter in car accidents. This is also the basis forsome diseases like Alzheimer. Now, in all these cases, it is only ourbrain that is damaged. We don't loose our soul. If the memories werepart of the soul, we would not have lost them!

Hence, the memoriesare not in the soul and all the stories of recollection of events inpast lives cannot be true.

"Well", you might be sayingnow, "you may have proved that the testimonies of reincarnationcannot be true, but you haven't said anything about reincarnationitself".

Not quite! I've shown that if there is a soul that canbe reincarnated which is not part of the body, this soul cannotcontain our memories.

To me, the reincarnation of a soul with nomemory is as meaningless as the reincarnation of some of the atomscomposing my body in the body of the worms that eat it. After all,what are we but our memories? What is it that makes us"us"?

Have I deprived you of your hopes for reincarnation?Look at the bright side. At least I gave you a good advice for freeand not a bunch of lies for money. I hope I have also encouraged youto make the most of your current (and only) incarnation and (interalia) not waste it on pseudo science nonsense.

One last request:...please buy a book about science instead. I'd recommend you startwith "Unweaving the Rainbow" by Richard Dawkins.

Rating:
Summary: A good introductory book to the subject
Review: This book used to be one of my favorites, however the more educated I became on the subject of reincarnation and past lives, the less I enjoyed this book. I re-read it and it seemed juvenile compared to others. It was almost as if Weiss spends half of his time writing about his intelligence level and how many degrees he has. It is a decent book to start with though, and it at one time did prove valuable reading. There are some lessons to be learned from the book, for example, patience. Any book that teaches lessons, in my opinion, is worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Wow, Riveting book, I want to read more
Review: This is a book that chronicles the psychotherapy sessions of one patient of Dr. Weiss.

He is a noted psychotherapist that through a session of hypnosis with one of his clients found something he was not looking for. While using tradition regression hypnosis to find past traumas responsible for a patients psychiatric symptoms, he stumbled in to a concept (Reincarnation) that he was unprepared for.

His patient "Catherine" while under hypnosis recalled that she had lived 86 prior lives. She recounted during multiple sessions about 15 of these lives.

Additionally while her spirit was in transition, between these lives, she "channeled" the voices of the "Masters". These "Masters" startled Dr. Weiss by addressing personal information about him, as well as messages to him.

This is a must read for anyone interested in the concept of Reincarnation. Skeptics as well.

It is well-written and easy to read and riveting.

Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal
Review: I never bought the idea of reincarnation or past-life experiences. Growing up Catholic, I didn't accept the religion, but never could understand why. I found this book lying around at a friend's house and picked it up, and I couldn't put it down. When I was done I didn't feel so disconnected. A lot of my questions about life (and death) were answered all at once. In short, it changed my life. I can't exactly say I am no longer a skeptic, but I've been introduced to a whole new arena that I never would have explored if I hadn't come across this book. I'm sending it to my dad now, knowing it will help him deal with my mother's death 11 years ago. It is that powerful.