JUST WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE?
by Shari Harris
|
|
Just Who Do We Think We Are?
Dolores Cannon Says....
|
|
"You are not a body. You have a body. This is just a suit of clothes, a costume you're wearing right now to play this part, this role in this safe play that you're involved in. Everything is an illusion. Nothing is real.
You are the producer, director, and actor in your own play. You're also the script writer. But the script is being written as it goes along. You know what that means--you can change the script any time you want. You're the writer. You're the actor. You don't like the way the scene is going, change it. This is how much power we have and we don't realize it."
"Earth is nothing but a school that you signed on here to experience."
Dolores Cannon, excerpted from her video below, "Finding Your True Self"
|
|
Greetings!
My fascination with past lives is more than just loving the stories. There is a point to it. If people realize that we all live more than one life, I believe it can change how we think and how we live.
Here are some of my thoughts and beliefs about reincarnation, listed somewhat randomly.
- In exploring the literature on reincarnation, we learn that we helped to plan our current life before we were born, and we chose our parents and circumstances on purpose.
- We are not victims of haphazard circumstances.
- There is meaning and purpose for our life.
- We have lived many lives before this one, and we will live many more after we die.
- The people closest to us have most likely been in our lives before, although relationships change (mother, daughter, father, son, friend, etc.), our race and nationality can change, and even our gender from life to life.
- Death is not the end of our consciousness, which goes to "heaven" (or whatever you choose to call it) to rest, review what we learned in this life, and eventually plan our next life.
These are some questions that I think are relevant to a discussion about reincarnation.
- Why are some people born into wealth and others into poverty? Why are some healthy, or beautiful, and others are not? Why do some suffer abusive childhoods, and others are born into loving families? How can that be fair--if we live only one time? But what if we get to experience many different walks of life over many lifetimes?
- What if we get a chance to correct behaviors from a previous life? What if we can perfect talents in another life that we just began to learn in this one?
- How can we harbor prejudice against another race, religion, or nationality if we realize that we may be reborn into that race, religion, or nationality in our next life?
In this issue, I want to introduce you to Dolores Cannon. I just recently learned about her work, and I was surprised to realize that she has written 18 books about her experiences with past life regression and the information she learned from her clients under hypnosis. Reincarnation is one of my favorite topics of research and discussion, and how I missed her, I have no idea. Hopefully, you will find her as fascinating as I do.
|
|
Best wishes for the Holidays, which will be different for most of us this year! Please connect with friends and family safely! My family is celebrating via Zoom this year. We had such a good time on Thanksgiving, and I know that our Christmas will be just as much fun! |
|
Be well and enjoy your amazing life!
Sending my love,
Shari
|
|
Dolores Cannon was a pioneer in the field of past-life regression. Her interest in hypnosis goes back to the 1960s when she and her husband began to experiment with hypnosis. Her husband, Johnny, was a career Navy Air Controlman. When they were stationed in the Philippines, word got around the Naval base about Johnny's interest in hypnosis, and friends would come to him for help with weight loss, quitting smoking, and anxiety. It was basically a hobby, and he would not take any payment for his work. Dolores would help him record the sessions on an "eight-track" tape recorder.
One of their regular clients named Anita mentioned that she had heard about regressions into past lives and wondered if there was anything to the idea of reincarnation. Dolores and Johnny had heard of such things, too, but they had found only a very few books about past lives at that time for them to reference. The only ones they'd read were The Search for Bridey Murphy by Morey Bernstein and The Enigma of Reincarnation by Brad Steiger. The three of them decided to experiment with the idea.
Johnny became a very good hypnotist, but without guidance for doing past life regressions, he had to basically make up his technique as he went along. During weekly sessions over a period of several months in 1968, Anita remembered five different lives. Dolores Cannon's first book, Five Lives Remembered, written in 1980, told the story of their experiment and the lives that Anita related by answering questions posed by Johnny. However, Dolores was not able to find a publisher for her book in the 1980s. Eventually frustrated, she filed it away. It wasn't until 2009, after having published a number of other books related to her work, that she came across her first manuscript and decided to publish it. By that time, she had founded her own publishing company, Ozark Mountain Publishing, Inc.
In September of 1968, Johnny was in a horrific car accident and was permanently disabled. He spent over a year in the hospital and was finally discharged from the Navy as a disabled veteran with 21 years of service. He passed away in 1994, having spent much of his life after that in a wheel chair, although he was eventually able to walk with a brace.
After his accident and recovery, Johnny was no longer interested in practicing hypnosis, but Dolores continued to be fascinated with the topic and almost 11 years later, she began specializing in past-life therapy in the late 1970s. Over time, she developed her own technique, founded the Quantum Healing Hypnosis Academy, and traveled all over the world teaching her unique healing method to hypnotherapists, training over 4,000 students since 2002.
Dolores Cannon has appeared on numerous TV shows and documentaries throughout the United States and the world, and she hosted a radio show, "The Metaphysical Hour," on BBS Radio for nine years. She wrote 18 books about her research in hypnosis and related topics, which have been translated into over 20 languages. She died on October 18, 2014.
|
|
In 1992, Dolores Cannon founded Ozark Mountain Publishing Company, which has published books by over 50 authors. https://ozarkmt.com/
|
|
Five Lives Remembered by Dolores Cannon
|
|
In Five Lives Remembered, Dolores Cannon writes, "...[T]his book is the story of my beginning in this fascinating field. It all began through the work and curiosity of my husband. I was merely an observer holding the microphone for the entranced subject and making numerous notes. But if it hadn't been for this innocent and naïve beginning I would never have been led to seek out the path that has led to numerous journeys down the road to the unknown. Without this strange and unusual event occurring in my life during 1968, I would probably be a "normal" housewife and grandmother, and none of these adventures would have ever been recorded. Such are the laws of chance and... coincidence?" (p. 234)
|
|
What follows is a brief description of the five lives that Anita remembered during weekly hypnotic regressions over a period of about six months in 1968. Earlier, Johnny had worked with Anita over many weeks giving her suggestions for relaxing and losing weight. He found that she was an unusual person who could go immediately into a deep trance. Subjects who do this will usually remember past lives as if they are actually reliving them.
Dolores details how she wrote many letters during that time to historical agencies trying to verify statements that Anita made about the various time periods. Dolores was able to verify some facts, but many she could not. She also described much checking and cross-checking in Johnny's questions to see if Anita would return to the same locations and refer to the same people each time. There were also attempts to confuse Anita, but none were successful. She knew who and where she was at all times in each lifetime explored.
|
|
A Woman Living in Chicago in the 1920s
As a young girl of 16 living on a farm in Illinois, Carol was forced by her father to marry an older farmer, a friend of his, who lived nearby. She didn't want to marry this man, but obeyed her father. She planned from the beginning to leave as soon as she could. She hated that life, but it wasn't until she was 22 that she met "Al" when he stopped at a general store en route to Chicago. He spotted her, thought she was pretty, and asked her name. After talking with her, he brazenly offered her an extravagant life in Chicago, and she jumped at the chance to leave her husband and the hard work on the farm. Al turned out to be a member of Al Capone's gang and was already married, but he treated Carol well. He called her June to hide her identity, and she lived the rest of her life in a big house that he built for her. She threw large parties at the house for his colleagues and didn't ask questions about his business, as he insisted. Al actually loved her, and when she died 20 years later in 1927 of pneumonia, he had her buried in his family plot with his last name, Gagiliano, on her gravestone, much to the chagrin of his wife.
|
|
Jane Rockford in Memphis in 1860
Eighteen year old Jane lived on a cotton plantation with her parents outside of Memphis in 1860. Through her answers to Johnny's questioning, it was discovered that Jane had gone to "finishing" school for several years in New Orleans and was engaged to marry Gerald Allbee the next summer. Gerald lived on the adjacent plantation, and their marriage had been planned by their parents when they were both 16. Jane was happy because she said he was the one she would have picked anyway. Jane's father had 50 slave families living on the plantation, and Jane had a "Mammy" named Sukey, who had been her wet nurse and lived in a room next to Jane's in the big house.
In August of 1861 when Jane and Gerald were married, a war was brewing between the North and South. He was in the militia and was called to fight just two days after the wedding. Gerald was away fighting for two years before dying in battle. During that time an epidemic of yellow fever plagued the South, and Jane and her parents all died from the fever. The big house was eventually burned by the Yankee soldiers.
|
|
Sarah Breadwell Near Boston in the 1700s
Sixty year old Sarah Breadwell is met when Johnny asked Anita, under hypnosis, to go to the year 1770. Sarah, who was born in England and later moved to America with her parents, had been married since the age of 14. She had "birthed" ten children but only two had lived to adulthood. She and her husband, Bruce, who was a doctor and a farmer, lived about two days' ride from Boston. Sarah told about building their six room house "one room at a time" over the years. This day she was churning buttermilk to make butter.
When directed to the year 1777, Sarah spoke of a war, saying they're "fightin' and tales a flying." About England she said, "We'll get rid of them yet. We're going to be free." When regressed to a young girl in 1720, she was asked about Indians. She said that they stayed mostly in the woods, but if they came to the door, her mother would give them food. Her father said they were friends, but the family should be on guard, having heard stories of children being taken by the Indians. When progressed forward to 1790, Sarah was very sick and died at the age of 80.
|
|
Mary in England in the 16th or 17th Century
Johnny and Dolores first met Mary as an old woman with a delightful Irish brogue who lived in England near the Scottish border. When directed to her childhood, she spoke in a childlike voice and told of riding in a carriage with her parents who were moving to a city called Loch. Her father planned to set up shop as a cobbler. Mary wanted to go to school, but her father told her, "'Tis not fitting for women to know too much. They become discontent. It's against nature. A woman needs to make a proper home."
Later, they found Mary at age 40, married for many years and still living in Loch. Her husband made shoes and boots, and she had one daughter also named Mary, for whom she was planning a 10th birthday party. She was a good cook and had made scones for her husband for breakfast that morning.
Although Mary could not say what year it was, she did know that the Queen was named Mary. Dolores's research found that "bloody" Queen Mary ruled from 1553-1558 and that William and Mary II ruled from 1689-1694, so this lady could have lived during either of those rules. At age 70, Mary's husband had been gone 20 years, and she knitted shawls to sell for a living. She now had two grandchildren whom she called "brownies." She had lived a happy life.
|
|
Strong Gretchen, 1300s Germany
In the 1300s, Gretchen, who was about 18, lived in a large castle in the area which would become Germany with about 100 family members and servants. The men were away fighting the men from another castle because those men had been attempting to take Gretchen's family's land. The women were preparing venison for a great feast to be held when the men returned. Their castle was known as the Strong Muller Family castle. Gretchen said "We will win! We are strong!" However, their enemies were able to breach the walls looking for the Muller men. Gretchen thought she knew where her father and uncles were hiding and tried to sneak out through a break in the walls to warn them, but she was caught and killed.
There is so much more to these stories in Five Lives Remembered, as well as amazing conversations with Anita while she is still in trance between lives. It is a very fascinating book. I encourage anyone interested in metaphysical topics to familiarize yourself with Dolores Cannon's other books, as well. They are available as new books on Amazon.com and on Ozark Mountain Publishing website and as used books on Abe Books.com, as well as other used book sites.
|
|
"Finding Your True Self"
27:30 Minutes
|
|
If you have the time and interest, I think you'll enjoy watching these videos! Dolores Cannon reminds me of a typical grandmother, but the words she speaks are far from what most grandmothers would teach! |
|
Some Other Authors' Views on Reincarnation |
|
James Van Praagh
"The belief in reincarnation is found in almost every religion and civilization known to man. It was certainly part of Roman times and referred to by several ancient Greek philosophers, most notably Plato. The Egyptians' ancient religion shared a form of it as well. The belief in 'coming back' and returning to this earth is just as strong today and is gaining ever more acceptance in mainstream thought."
James Van Praagh in the Foreword to Return From Heaven by Carol Bowman
|
|
Walter Semkiw
"It is my belief that evidence of reincarnation will lead to a science of spirituality, which in turn will help humanity evolve much more quickly and peacefully.... It is [my] sincere hope and expectation that as [my] research is disseminated, conflicts based on differences in religion, race, nationality and ethnic origin will be mitigated.
To create a more peaceful world, evidence of reincarnation must be available to people of all cultures and in multiple languages. [My] website is equipped with Google Translate, which means that [the] case studies are available in 104 languages. Participate in making the world a better place by letting your friends and associates know about our site:" www.ReincarnationResearch.com
Quoted from Origin of the Soul and the Purpose of Reincarnation
by Walter Semkiw, p. 4, 5
|
|
Ann C. Barham
"There really is nothing to fear from the concept of reincarnation. Today over half the world's population espouses this belief -- for good reason. There is a great sense of serenity that comes from knowing that the deepest parts of ourselves will always exist, that we are much more than just our current physical bodies, and that we have many opportunities to master human existence and learn the lessons we are here to learn. For many people, the idea just makes sense.
Many Early Christians Embraced Reincarnation. Why is it that Christian religions appear to be so opposed to the concept of reincarnation? As it turns out, this attitude is a departure from the origins of Christianity. Nowhere in the Bible is reincarnation repudiated; in fact, it appears to be a concept that Jesus and his followers took pretty much for granted. Jesus himself speaks of John the Baptist as the return of Elias (Matthew 11:14 and 17:11, Mark 9:11-13)."
|
|
William Buhlman
"If people really knew what they were, there'd be no wars, there'd be no poverty, there'd be none of the ills that face humanity today."
William Buhlmann
|
|
Just Who Do We Think We Are?
Shari Says...
|
|
I believe we are eternal spiritual beings who are currently
living one of our many lives on Earth and who are the co-creators
of our experiences through our thoughts and beliefs.
Shari Harris
|
|
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to friends who may be interested!
Others are welcome to sign up.
|
|
Previous Issues of "Just Who Do We Think We Are?" are available on
#1 February 15, 2020, Dr. Brian Weiss
#2 March 1, 2020, Edgar Cayce
#3 March 26, 2020, Abraham (Esther Hicks), Part 1
#4 April 7, 2020, Abraham (Esther Hicks), Part 2
#5 April 22, 2020, Past Life Story Series: Robert Snow/Carroll Beckwith
#6 May 5, 2020, Past Life Story Series: Jenny Cockell/Mary Sutton
#7 May 20, 2020, We Are Not Here By Accident
#8 June 1, 2020, Children's Past Lives (Carol Bowman)
#9 June 22, 2020, More Children's Past Lives (Ian Stevenson and Jim B. Tucker)
#10 July 2, 2020, Four Stories of Children Who Remembered a Past Life
#11 July 23, 2020, Near Death Experiences/Raymond Moody
#12 August 9, 2020, Near Death Experiences/Anita Moorjani
#13 August 28, 2020, We Are Co-Creators
#14 September 20, 2020, Past Life Series: John B. Gordon/Jeff Keene
#15 October 4, 2020, Answers About the Afterlife/Bob Olson
#16 October 25, 2020, Messages From Loved Ones Lost on 9/11
#17 November 22, 2020, Soulmates/Dr. Brian Weiss
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
