Book reviews: Many Lives, Many Masters by Dr. Brian Weiss
“Many Lives, Many Masters” is written by Dr. Brian Weiss and was first published in 1988 and went mainly unheralded by the general public until his recent appearance on the Oprah show this year. This 221 page journey through metaphysical psychology is a fast and entertaining read for believers and skeptics alike.
The book chronicles how the relationship between Dr. Weiss and patient named Catherine leads the doctor to a point where he must grow, professionally and spiritually. While undergoing a routine childhood regression hypnosis session the Catholic (and completely uninformed about all things reincarnate) Catherine begins detailing events which happened hundreds of years, centuries, ago.
Dr. Weiss, being a scientist, is a very logical and highly trained and respected man in his field with no previous belief in reincarnation. However, when during one their hypnotic regression sessions together, Catherine’s own voice is superseded by that of a being more eloquent and knowledgeable than herself. It is during his conversation with this being (who Dr. Weiss refers to as a Master) that secrets about his own relationships and life are revealed to him. These particulars are things which no one could know save for Dr. Weiss and the others involved. The things revealed quickly and succinctly by the Master to Dr. Weiss pertain directly to situations in his life with touch his heart and life deeply. He can not ignore nor dismiss this experience as something coming from Catherine’s subconscious or even an odd coincidental phenomena.
From this point on, while Dr. Weiss continues to regress Catherine for her own psychiatric improvement (because remembering happenings in these past lives seem to be freeing her in her present life) he is really just waiting, like a dog under the table, for a scrap of something good to fall from one of the Masters.
This book, as I have mentioned, is highly readable whether you believe in what Dr. Weiss is proposing or not. Its not so much the stories of past lives which are of interest here, in fact they are not even central to the story. It is the vast changes that come in both Catherine and the doctor through their mutual encounter. This book isn’t trying to sell you a new metaphysical doodad. It is telling a story; a man’s memoir of his own realization that there may be more than he can fathom or explain.
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