Special Edition: Reincarnation

Special Edition: Reincarnation

Wednesday, April 03, 2024

* I am so happy to introduce Shari Harris as our guest writer this month! Shari reveals how she "fell" into her fascination with reincarnation which led to the creation of her newsletter. She also offers resources we can look to to learn more!

Shari is an Infinite Possibilities Trainer and the author of the "Just Who Do We Think We Are?" newsletter. She pulls together her own thought-provoking and uplifting ideas around reincarnation, and those of others, sharing them in a truly unique and inspiring monthly publication.

JUST WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE?

This question has been my focus since the late 1970s.

One day, during a summer break from my job as a special education teacher and as a married mother with two small children, I remember feeling overwhelmed.

A thought flashed through my head, “Is this all there is?”

My despair didn’t last long, but it was enough to set me on a search for answers to questions that many have experienced, I’m sure: Is my life random or is there a purpose to it?

That summer, I visited the local library often, and I happened to come across a book by Dr. Ian Stevenson called Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation.

This was a totally new concept to me.

It was not an easy book to read, as Stevenson wrote it to convince colleagues at the University of Virginia and other researchers that reincarnation is true and a worthy subject of research, making it very academic and not especially for the general public.

Having been raised in a Christian church, with my father as the minister, I then wanted to see if the theory of reincarnation could be compatible with Christianity.

When I happened upon a book about reincarnation called Many Mansions by Gina Cerminera, I grabbed it because the title is found in the Bible.

Jesus said that there were “many mansions” in his father’s house.

That book changed my life.

It turned out to be the story of Edgar Cayce, who was called the Sleeping Prophet because for 40 years he had done readings for thousands of people while in a trance under hypnosis.

The readings were all recorded by hand and are available today. In the last 20 years of Cayce’s readings, he often told his subjects about their past lives, which Cerminera wrote about in detail.

​She included information about the concept of karma and how our many lives are designed to help us learn from past mistakes.

If we had been cruel in one life, we may be the subject of cruelty in another, for instance.

Reincarnation Made Sense to Me

From then on, I was hooked.

The concept of reincarnation just made sense to me, like I had known it all along.

I read all I could get my hands on about past lives.

​I became a member of the Association of Research and Enlightenment (ARE), the center dedicated to Edgar Cayce’s work in Virginia Beach, where his readings are stored electronically.

(The ARE in Virginia Beach)

I joined a local study group of people who followed Cayce’s readings.

At that time, however, I was “closeted.”

I was fascinated, intrigued, and even exhilarated by reading so called “New Age” concepts, but felt very inhibited about sharing the information with anyone in the “world” in which I operated.

Discussing reincarnation seemed way too taboo!

​Over the years, society has changed enough that more people accept the theory or at least don’t think we’re crazy or going to Hell if we believe it.

I have gradually made my way out of the closet over the years, and now I love to share stories about past lives and why I feel that it’s good news to know that our current life is not all there is!

There are so many wonderful and inspirational past-life stories, many of which have been documented by researching information from memories of subjects’ past-life regressions. (See recommendations at the end of this article.)

Five years ago, I began a free monthly “good-news-letter” called Just Who Do We Think We Are? in which I highlight past-life stories as well as other metaphysical topics.

​Those newsletters from the past five years are available on my website where visitors can access them and sign up to receive current issues via email. ​www.shari-harris.com​ .

Questions that Helped Me Believe that Reincarnation Makes Sense

  • Why are some people born into wealth and others into poverty?
  • Why are some healthy, or beautiful, and others are not?
  • Why do some have extraordinary talents while others seem to struggle?
  • Why do some suffer abusive childhoods, and others are born into loving families?
  • Why do some parents have handicapped children?
  • Why do some people live into their old age while others die in their prime of life or even in childhood?

How can any of that be fair—if we live only one time?

​Could it be that we all get to experience many different “walks of life” over many lifetimes?

“Could it be that we all get to experience many different 'walks of life' over many lifetimes? ”

What if we get a chance to correct behaviors (karma) from a previous life?

Could we be able to expand upon talents in our next life that we begin to learn in this one?

In exploring the literature on reincarnation, recurrent themes emerge.

We do not actually die.

Death is not the end of our consciousness, which goes to "the other side" (or “heaven” or whatever we choose to call it) to rest, review what we learned in a life, and eventually plan our next life.

We have lived many lives before this one, and we may live many more after this one.

This current life is the most important one because we are still creating it!

​There is meaning and purpose for our life which we helped to plan.

“There is meaning and purpose for our life which we helped to plan.”

We are never “victims” when we can realize that before we were born we helped choose our parents, gender, race, and nationality when planning our lives, agreeing to certain circumstances and events in order to accomplish our goals.

The people closest to us have most likely been in our lives before and agreed to their role in this one, although relationships change from life to life.

A father may be a son (or daughter) in the next life, or a good friend may become a sibling, for example.

​Any prejudice we harbor against another race, nationality, or religion may disappear when we realize that we might be reborn into that same race, nationality, or religion.

Some of My Favorite Past Life Books

There are so many wonderful authors who write about their memories of past lives.

I suggest, for starters, Looking for Carroll Beckwith which was renamed Portrait of a Past Life Skeptic by Robert Snow, Someone Else’s Yesterday by Jeffrey J. Keene, and Across Time and Death by Jenny Cockell.

There are also many memorable books about children who have remembered past lives. A must-read is Soul Survivor by Bruce and Andrea Leininger, about the two-year-old with traumatic memories of dying in a WWII plane crash.

Carol Bowman’s book, Children’s Past Lives, is remarkable! Jim B. Tucker’s book, Return to Life, has many great American cases that he has investigated.

Therapists who have written about the memories of their past-life regression clients have amazing stories, such as Dr. Brian Weiss, Many Lives, Many Masters or Same Soul, Many Bodies and Only Love is Real among others; Dolores Cannon, Five Lives Remembered and Between Death and Life; Ann C. Barham, Past Life Perspective: Discovering Your True Nature Across Many Lifetimes.

Be well and enjoy your amazing life!

Sending my love,

Shari

More about Shari Harris:

Shari is a Certified Infinite Possibilities Trainer and has been writing the "Just Who Do We Think We Are?" newsletter since 2020.

She is extremely well-read and studied on the topic of reincarnation, attending workshops and trainings.

If you want to sign up for Shari's newsletter and read ideas from both Shari and other authors on the subject, ​click here​.

​You can also find and enjoy all back issues of Shari's newsletter ​here​.

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Hi, I'm Peggy

I went from lost and desperate to feeling more joy and a sense of purpose. And all it took was a little ancient wisdom! Now my mission is to accompany you on your self-discovery path so you can unlock more happiness and self-love as well!

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