Abouts Books

By Henry Reed

There is a lot of public interest in the private lives of movie stars, enough to create scholarly speculation about the source of this fascination. We see these actors upon the silver screen in roles that become a part of our mythology. We must be curious about the underlying realities. What is s(he) really like? Who is s(he), really? This curiosity can take on obsessive qualities.

A common symbol for an actor is a mask, because actors play roles in the movies. Their true identities are hidden behind the disguises of their characters. There is something in us that wants to see beyond these disguises, to see the actor's true self.

Actors and their roles may be an apt analogy to the multiple lives of souls, who inhabit personalities In their various incarnations. The analogy seems to fit, except for one puzzling fact. Let me explain.

I've just finished reading the book, Return to Salem (Harrington Park Press). The author, Alex Marcoux (www.alexmarcoux.com), is a student at the Edgar Cayce Institute of Intuitive Studies. Return to Salem is her second book and it is a page-turner of a mystery story, with a past-life dimension to its plot. In the unfolding of the story, two actors are rehearsing a scene for a movie. During the rehearsal, one of them realizes their past-life connection. Playing out their respective roles in the movie drama was a stimulant to soul memories of a similar relationship in the past. Later in the novel, at a crucial dramatic moment with life-and-death implications, the pattern of tension in the situation evokes another past-life memory, just in the nick of time to avert a disaster. This lucky event in the novel's spellbinding unfolding will make you wish you could have past-life memories come just when you need them to help you avoid repeating history. I myself have had such moments, but they haven't always meant a diverting of history's gravitational pull.

Perhaps the recall of a past life doesn't necessarily release someone from its influence. Maybe it increases its impact. I don't know. Something else must be required.

Reading Return to Salem, it occurred to me that recalling a past life, even a series of past lives is not the same as awakening to the consciousness of the soul who has acted in those past lives. In fact, I found myself wondering why we don't usually think of the soul-actor, but instead focus on the personality role. For example, when Robert Redford and Paul Newman run into each other, they recognize each other as themselves. They say, "Hi Bob!" and "Hi Paul." They remember the time they had in their roles as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, but they know each other as the actors they are, not as the roles they played. They don't say. "Hi Butch" and "Hi Sundance!" Audiences have seen both actors in many roles, and they hunger to know the actors as persons. What are they really like? In the realm of past lives, however, we seem to settle for knowledge of the identity of the personalities incarnated, not the identity of the souls who reincarnate. In Return to Salem, as well as in many accounts of past-life recall between people, what is remembered are the roles played, not the souls who are playing them. If souls reincarnate together through several past lives, you'd think they'd recognize each other as the souls, not just the roles. ("Oh, Susan, I recognize you, you are the soul Hootah, and in one past life you and I were mother and son, in another past life we were siblings: do you recognize me, I'm the soul Metzpuh.")

Why do we put more emphasis upon the roles and not the soul? Is it because remembering past lives is but a small step in a longer journey of soul awakening? Or is the soul, the "entity" as Edgar Cayce would call it, actually an amalgam of past lives with nothing else at its core? I don't recall Edgar Cayce ever giving an entity a name or an identity independent of a specific incarnation. 1 wonder why our fascination with the real life of actors doesn't translate into a desire to know the real life of the soul behind the past lives we collect. Think about it: In Hollywood, there are guides who will take you to the private mansions of the movie stars. I see ads for people who will regress you to past lives, but I don't recall seeing any ads for someone who will introduce you to the soul who has played out all your past lives. It might be a good idea to create a new professional who can transform a community of people sharing past lives into a community of souls.

PS: If you are interested in the many thoughtful replies I received to my column asking about the role of free will in responding to the telepathic thoughts (prayers or curses), you may read them all, and my commentary, on the Web site of the Intuitive-Connections Network, a publication inspired by the Edgar Cayce Institute for Intuitive Studies: www.intuitive-connections.net/issue3/freedom.htm

Henry Reed, Ph.D., is on staff at Atlantic University He has been the prime designer of A.R.E.'s psychic development program, in its various aspects, for the past twenty some years. He is one of the trainers of A.R.E.'s most successful, and long running, psychic training conference, "The Edgar Cayce Legacy: Be Your Own Psychic." He developed A.R.E.'s program of evaluating psychics. He has published scientific articles on his research into intuition and psychic functioning. He is the author of Edgar Cayce on Awakening Your Psychic Powers, Edgar Cayce on Channeling Your Higher Self, and Your Intuitive Heart.