Soul Survivor Book Review - A Child Remembers Past Life as a Pilot

For all my life, books about reincarnation have intrigued me. My mother was shocked by the interest of her young child in the subject. My grandmother was not. A couple of months ago,  my daughter Allison noticed Soul Survivor on the Amazon page with my reincarnation novel, Hearts Across Forever, listed as bought along with it. She ordered a copy for me.

Because Bruce Leininger, like my mother, was not a believer in reincarnation, I found this story compelling. Imagine a two-year-old, just learning to talk, with screaming nightmares saying, "Plane on fire! Little man can't get out!" James' mother was terrified for her child, yet captivated as she discovered more unusual things her child "knew" that he couldn't know. His parents were surprised by James' fascination with World War II aircraft, especially the Corsair.

Using the Internet, Bruce started investigating the word James mentioned, Natoma, and eventually found a World War II aircraft carrier by that name. When he discovered a group of World War II veterans from the ship who held annual reunions, Bruce wound up attending some of them under the guise that he was writing a book about the Natoma Bay. In his at first skeptical investigations, he discovered many things that James actually knew including the name of the pilot whose life James remembers that was killed at Chichi-Jima.

There are photographs of drawings James created of airplane battles as a three-year-old that he signed "James 3." Bruce tracked down the family of James Huston, Jr., the pilot who died the day he was expected to return home, including his sister Anne who was still alive. What little James remembered and told Anne amazed her--things no one else could possibly know.

I've read about cases suggestive of reincarnation before, but these children lived in India and other countries in that part of the world where the belief is prevalent. This is the first book I've encountered in the United States about a case of a child recalling a past life.

If you've ever wondered about the possibility of reincarnation, you'll want to read this book. I would love to see the ABC Primetime show that aired in April 2004. Perhaps the TV show will run a repeat or even follow up on what James is doing now.

Reincarnation Conventions and More

"Road Once Traveled" MM Sikes

Reincarnation conventions have become popular in our country, according to a segment on CBS Sunday morning. Dr. Brian Weiss, a specialist in hypnotic regression, was one of the speakers at a recent convention in New York. I have read about Dr. Weiss and learned that he was skeptical about reincarnation when he regressed one of his patients who instead of going back to an earlier age went back to a previous lifetime. He is said to have lost his skepticism when the patient began channeling about the space between lives.

According to the CBS segment, 18% of Americans believe in reincarnation. Those who believe in reincarnation think we are spiritual beings having a human experience. The theory dates back nearly 4000 years.

 Dr. Jim Tucker at the University of Virginia doesn't trust past-life regression. He believes the results of that therapy are unreliable. However, his research at the university is on reincarnation and focuses on children. Many of the children he has interviewed remember past lives that ended violently. These children often have scars or birth defects featuring an injury from the prior life they recall. Photographs of these children's scars were part of the program.

Some of the research I studied for my novel, Hearts Across Forever, was done by the late Dr. Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia.

Google Changes Everything for a Novelist

Parking Lot at Sunset - MMSikes

How quickly things change. An ordinary parking lot turns into magic at sunset. And a novel you think is going one way suddenly takes a U-turn in the opposite direction. That change in my novel happened because of Google.

When I first started writing books, as the Passenger to Paradise, I spent a lot of time at the local library using various reference materials to enhance what I already knew about the destination I was visiting. For my first novel, Hearts Across Forever, set in Jamaica, I not only researched that island nation, but I learned more about subjects such as hypnotic regression and reincarnation because my characters were involved in both.

For my current project, Jungle Jeopardy, I planned to have my characters get involved in a kidnapping and much more in Costa Rica. But then Google and my characters took over. I remembered my own adventures in the Maya ruins and started reading and Googling the ruins of Central America. What I've learned has been compelling, and my characters are out of control having a wild adventure in the jungles of Guatemala. While in the past the Passenger to Paradise has always written from personal experience, now I've discovered a journey so dangerous only Google can handle it for me.

Because so much is available at the touch of a key, Google changes everything for the novelist. Have you changed the way you research and write. Do you still spend hours at the library researching? Or do you have your own system.

"V" Is For Vienna, Austria

Right before my senior year in college, I spent a summer working on building a kindergarten for a church in Linz, Austria. During that summer we took a side trip to the city of Vienna (Wien). As soon as I saw the ornate building facades, the church spires, and the art I felt at home. The streets seemed familiar to me as well. This was my first experience with deja vu.

Years later, when I returned to Vienna, I had a similar sense of great familiarity with the old city that I was visiting with two of my daughters. While one of them flew an airplane between Vienna and Istanbul, Turkey and the other recovered from a cold, I explored the streets alone. Although I was by myself, I felt comfortable and secure. From that experience, my interest in reincarnation grew, and I eventually used that interest as I developed the plot of Hearts Across Forever.

For me, "V" must be for Vienna, Austria. Perhaps the spark of the wanderlust for the Passenger to Paradise was born there.

What do you think about deja vu? Ever had any experiences with it?

Exotic Spots Make Sweet Book Settings

Hyatt Regency Union Station - Sikes art

Last week, I presented a program, "From Exotic Destinations to Book Settings" to the Richmond Branch, National League of American Pen Women. During my talk I told them that my fascination with exotic book settings began years ago when I traveled in Europe just prior to my senior year in college. 

Part of my trip was spent in Vienna, Austria where I had some incredible deja vu experiences. All the buildings and even the feel of the city was familiar to me. I felt like I was coming home.

In more recent years, I spent another week in Vienna and once again experienced a familiar feeling with the old city surroundings. I even felt secure walking alone along the ancient streets. That was when I began to wonder, "Why do we have vu experiences?"

I told the group about my research into the subject of reincarnation that followed. That research encouraged me to use that subject as the theme of my first novel, Hearts Across Forever. 

Trips by car and by bus across America led to “wanderlust” and a desire to put some of the thousands of photographs I was taking into a coffee table book that became Hotels to Remember. To my surprise, I discovered that the design for St. Louis Union Station (the Hyatt Regency Union Station) was based on Carcassone, a fortified town in the south of France that has stood in some form for about 20 centuries. Since I had just returned from France and had taken photographs of the fortified town, I put two of them into my book. 

Sedona, AZ, the Grand Canyon, and Bell Rock became part of that book as well as part of the setting for my novel, Eagle Rising. Photographs taken in those areas of Arizona also inspired a series of my large acrylic paintings, I explained to the group. 

I talked about the Caribbean islands as settings that inspired more books, including Secrets by the Sea and Night Watch my latest mystery/suspense novel. More books will be set in the Caribbean, especially on the island of Guadeloupe where I've had some frightening and exciting experiences.

The island settings inspire me, but I haven't had other deja vu experiences as dramatic as my visits to Vienna brought on. And I haven't yet set a book in Vienna.

I love to travel and I enjoy sharing my experiences with other writers and artists. It's always fun to think, "What if?" And I continue to wonder what inspires other writers to choose a setting...

Past Life Regressions

Past Life is the name of the new series on Fox. I realized the title mistake as I watched a preview for another episode. In the last program that aired February 11, the word regression was used often to describe what happened when the girl in the story experienced a flash back into the previous life.

Past life regression is the term I associate with the hypnotic regression a hypnotherapist does with a client to help him/her uncover the source of a problem that may be associated with a past life. In the TV program, it appears the regression depicted is of the spontaneous type since no hypnotherapist is involved. In regressions with a hypnotherapist, the individual is taken back to a point in time associated with a current life situation. I have not read the latest research on hypnotic regression nor anything written recently about spontaneous regressions. I'd like to know more about scientific research into the subject. I'd also like to know of documented cases of actual spontaneous regression. Is there such a thing?

I used regression in my reincarnation story, Hearts Across Foreverhttp://www.amazon.com/Hearts-Across-Forever-Montague-Sikes/dp/1892343207/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=126611. It works in fiction. I'll be watching and maybe taking notes during the next episode of Past Life.

Mary Montague Sikes
www.marymontaguesikes.com

Past Lives

Last night, we watched the first show in the new series, "Past Lives" on Fox TV. Since I've been fascinated by reincarnation for as long as I can remember, I was excited to discover that network television is interested as well.

The first program featured the story of a 14-year-old boy who starts having memories of the traumatic kidnapping and drowning death of an eight-year-old girl. His memories, pieced together with the work of the two paranormal investigators who star in the show, result in the discovery of the girl's four-year-old sister who is now 18. She is reunited with her parents who had no idea she might still be alive.

My fascination with reincarnation inspired my first novel, Hearts Across Forever. I wondered what would happen if my heroine saw a painting of Rose Hall Great House (in Jamaica) and that event began to trigger a series of memories. In my book, Kathryn visits the famous old plantation house where she has a vision of people from her past life in 19th Century Jamaica dancing on the portico. She remembers a life as the star-crossed niece of Annie Palmer, known as the White Witch of Rose Hall.

I look forward to seeing more of the "Past Lives" television dramas. Hopefully, this show will spark renewed interest in my book which is still available on Amazon.