How I Got Started
I've decided to launch this website to help with the release of my forthcoming Past Lives Denied trilogy and to address several issues. Firstly, I've had several unusual life events that have challenged my beliefs about God that l’m sure most of my readers will find to be fundamentally and dynamically similar to their own experiences. If not, then l’m sure that you’ve been very curious about souls, eternity and at the very least the topic of past/post life experiences that people share in books and on the news. The topic of past life regression is not accepted let alone acknowledged in mainstream society with any seriousness and I have often commented that the stares and snickers are still ever present to your face or behind your back. In this website, I want to create a shared safe space within which readers can share their experiences without criticism or judgement. We certainly have several research based books in which personal narratives and experiences are documented but there needs to be more social dialogue in mainstream society to create an ongoing conversation for people to "come out" and share their experiences more freely so that we can begin to see how common these experiences are and which aspects of past life experiences are universal and which are culturally determined. People around the world need to feel safe to share with the result that therapists and clinicians then have an opportunity to analyze these narratives in a systematic and scientific manner to move the field of past life regression from the world of the impossibly possible to at least the world of the possibly possible. Many of us have had an unexplainable experience either with a therapist or a life event that is difficult to explain. Right now all we have as an industry or field of study is a handful of stories which will never move us where we want to go into the realm of the "real" and the "acceptable." Let's stop and think methodologically about finally getting to another level by trying to come together as a more formalized international group dedicated to scientific inquiry in the area of past life clinical regression. What do you think?
Secondly, it's important to see that many of the specialists in the field of past life regression are clinically trained certified and licensed professionals. The notion that practitioners are all "whackos" is a holdover from the last century and something that continues to be propagated by the media. We need to change our image and establish some legitimacy to what we are doing as therapists and even as writers. I can't tell you how many agents sent back the Past Lives Denied manuscript with the comment: "Sorry, I do not handle the genre for your book - the occult or science fiction." Past Life regression is a clinical method and a tool that is used by therapists to address trauma and pain in this life. It has become so acceptable to see the relationship between adult based problems in terms of childhood issues that we do not give this relationship a second thought. Why not go back further if you can to see if the genesis of the emotional issue is in a past life? Why is that thought and possibility "weird?" Well, we will talk about it and see how weird it really is given what we know now about clinical practice and even religion. So at this point, this may all seem "weird" but when we see how common past life experience are, some of us may have a shift in thinking and that's all I'm looking for at this point. Have an open mind about the topic and the issue. Do not dismiss us all as "whackos" as my character Ashford Connor was wont to do.
I've been involved with traditional formal schooling since I was 5 years old. I always wanted to be a University Professor so I went from Brooklyn College undergraduate programming into the graduate school to get my Master degree in Speech Language Pathology to the City University of New York doctoral program in Speech Language Pathology where I specialized in child language disorders specifically in the area of autism spectrum disorders. I started teaching formally as an Assistant Professor at Adelphi University in Garden City and while I was teaching in the Departments of Communication Disorders and Psychology I studied for 2 additional Master degrees in Special Education and Social Work. While all of this was going on I decided to start a special education school for children with developmental disabilities: Tiegerman Schools and Community Services in 1985 which has grown to serve 600 children and adults from New York City and Long Island. Just to give you something to think about for the future, my colleague Greg McHugh has indicated that "all children have past lives."
Over the years, I had a near death experience (NDE) and a mesmerizing memory experience similar to my central character Caitlyn Morrys in Past Lives Denied but these experiences were always in the background of my life. But while on vacation one year my husband suggested that I write a murder mystery novel based on my experiences on the Adelphi University Personnel Committee. I thought the idea was ridiculous given everything else that I was doing but I couldn't get it out of my head so I finally sat down and wrote a novel which collected dust in my closet and time just moved ahead. Several years later I attended a training seminar for therapists at the Omni Center in Rhinebeck, New York with the famous psychiatrist and past life regression therapist, Dr Brian Weiss. At that seminar I had an amazing reading with a psychic and a series of observations of past life regression experiences from participants and my novel all of a sudden came to life again. It now had my commitment and its theme with Caitlyn Morrys, the Coronado University Psychology Professor and Chairperson of the University Personnel Committee struggling with past life memories. Writing Past Lives Denied as a past life mystery novel has given me the opportunity to seriously revisit the issue of past life memories and experiences as well as the opportunity to move into and explore with all of you the wondrous world of past life mysteries and experiences.