ãMany Lives, Many Mastersä
By: Brian L. Weiss, M.D
Book Review by: Maryam Tabibzadeh

Dr. Weiss is the author of several best-selling books, based on his experience as a psychiatrist and healer. In his first book, ãMany Lives, Many Mastersä, he vividly describes the remarkable story that forever changed his career path as a prominent and respected psychiatrist. This true story recounts the insights of a young, complex patient under hypnotherapy. The book is a fascinating account of how his patient's past life journey began to unfold before his very eyes.

The book begins by Dr. Weiss introducing us to Catherine, a lab technician whose life was fraught with recurring nightmares, panic attacks, anxiety, phobias, and unhappiness.  The therapy sessions Catherine initially underwent involved a year and a half of intensive weekly psychotherapy.  The patient's feelings, dreams and thoughts were deeply explored--as unpleasant memories and experiences from the past were discovered.  While it is normal for patients to improve with this kind of treatment, Catherine did not. Her nighttime sleep was fragmented; her nightmares continued, her phobias (of choking, darkness and water) still remained, while she also experienced extreme heart palpitations.  Afraid of choking on pills, Catherine also refused to ingest any sort of medication.

The story unfolds with Dr. Weiss putting the young patient under hypnosis, in order to help her recover long forgotten incidents and heal from them.  Hypnosis, deemed "a state of focused concentration," is a routine method used to help patients remember repressed thoughts and alleviate anxiety and phobias.

The story quickly progresses into detailed account after account of past life experiences, where the patient could recall traumatizing and intriguing events--with precise detail and clarity.  Through the hypnotherapy, she came to important realizations about the circumstances of her current life situation, and the intricate thread of her previous soul incarnations.  As a traditional psychotherapist, Dr. Brian Weiss was astonished and skeptical at first, but became persuaded when she began to channel messages from "the space between livesä.  These sessions contained remarkable revelations about his own family and his deceased son.

This poignant story shows us an unassuming doctor trained in traditional western Medicine, who receives life-altering messages about his own role in the universe, various spiritual planes, soul mates, and karmic connections.  The messages of the Masters--spiritually evolved beings and guides who exist on different, non-physical planes, and who are channeled by Catherine to speak ro Dr. Weiss--are of the most mystifying and thought-provoking parts of the book.  Presented in a true and persuasive manner, the messages offer readers beautiful ideals about love, the human spirit, and our purpose in life.   Any spiritual seeker will gradually surrender him/herself to this captivating story.

ãMany Lives, Many Mastersä is a refreshing and intriguing perspective of a deep, personal spiritual faith not grounded in organized religion.  It will perhaps make you see your life as part of an ongoing learning process, where we connect and reconnect with a small band of souls.  It could also spark your own interest in trying past life therapy as certain questions are posed to yourself.  Are you drawn to a specific time or culture?  Have you visited a place and felt you had been there before?  Have you found yourself immediately connecting with certain persons with no plausible explanation?  Even the biggest skeptics will find this book to be a splendid and insightful read.  Those who are more open-minded may even change their perspective of the concepts of life and death altogether.