M.J. Rose

Welcome to the Reincarnationist Blog’s series of interviews using the infamous Proust Questionnaire. Today’s subject is Leora Skolkin-Smith…

THE QUESTIONS:

Title of your latest book as of Sept 1, 2007 – “Edges, O Israel, O Palestine”

Do you believe — even a little bit that reincarnation is possible?

Answer: No, I do not.

Have you ever read anything books the subject that made an impression on you?

Answer: I read excerpts from an analysis of early Jewish Kaballah, but ultimately I did not believe the faith in the end. Though the Kaballah made a lasting impression on me.

What is your most marked characteristic that you believe could be a hold over from a past life?

Answer: My belief that thinking, intellect is important, and gives one an enlightened perspective full of paradox and complexity vs. a religious fundamentalism and political absolutism or sentimentality about the human condition? We live at a time when intellectuals are despised and suspected and ridiculed. But I would still want to come back as Spinoza, a Jewish exile who lived among enlightened intellectuals in Europe, regardless of his own Jewishness.. He called himself a “Spiritual atheist”. I yearn for a second historical time of Enlightenment and the Renaissance, to counteract our religiosity and capitalistic era where only the strong, the most sentimental and and the most aggressive rule.

What is your principle defect that you believe might be inherited from a previous incarnation?

Answer: Hypersensitivity, a sense of inferiority, timidity to speak up for what I believe for fear of ridicule and censure.

We would love to hear your responses to these questions. Please feel free to copy and paste the Questionnaire with your answers into a Comment for this post.

Welcome to the Reincarnationist Blog’s series of interviews using the infamous Proust Questionnaire. Today’s subject is Caroline Leavitt…

THE QUESTIONS:

Title of your latest book as of Sept 1, 2007 – Girls in Trouble, St. Martin’s Press

Do you believe — even a little bit that reincarnation is possible?

Yes, I do. I’ve had premonitions of things that happened (to my astonishment), and a few times, there has been that strange feeling of absolute connection with someone the moment we meet.

Have you ever read anything books the subject that made an impression on you?

I love the books that deal with doubt–doubt is smart! When I was ten, my father gave me all these Edgar Cayce books and I was haunted and fascinated. I loved it that here was this deeply religious, simple man who was horrified at the information he would give while in trance about reincarnation and healing and the future. I also loved the Jane Roberts books, because here was a college educated woman (I think it was Swarthmore) who was somehow channeling all this info on reincarnation and the future, who refused to believe it, and who in fact, went to doctors to try and stop it. She never stopped questioning, even in her later acceptance.

What is your most marked characteristic that you believe could be a hold over from a past life?

I know this sounds irrational, but because I have nearly died three different times, and I am always almost miraculously healed by doctors or saved, I believe I’m here for a purpose, that I have to complete something that wasn’t completed before.

What is your principle defect that you believe might be inherited from a previous incarnation?

Breathing problems, which can translate into “holding my breath” instead of acting and taking control.

Which of your favorite heroes do you think you actually could have been and why?

I don’t, for some reason, think I was anyone famous, but for some reason I do think I was a Victorian woman with a lot of children. If I was someone, I would want to see some growth so I wish I had been Isadora Duncan because of her reckless passion for life (tamed a bit in this lifetime) or maybe Emily Dickinson because of her need for privacy and her reclusive nature (which has made me much more outgoing and adventurous in this lifetime.) .

What three people from history would you like to have over to dinner for a discussion about reincarnation?

Jesus Christ, Jane Roberts and Edgar Cayce!

What do you think happens when we die?

I take a quantum physics point of view. I’ve been reading a lot of quantum physics, and many scientists say that the universe is far stranger than anything we could imagine. I’m not certain, and while I don’t believe in a heaven or hell, I do believe that energy and matter are not destroyed and that there is something else out there. Maybe an alternate universe. Maybe we do reincarnate. How can love ever be destroyed?

When you come back next time, who would you like to be?

I would love to again be a woman who has an adoring marriage with a fabulous child and a career she loves and health. To me, that’s more important than anything else and it feels somewhat greedy to ask for wealth, which would certainly be fun and helpful. But I would love to be in a world that is saner and more compassionate and I would like to be able to help achieve those ends.

We would love to hear your responses to these questions. Please feel free to copy and paste the Questionnaire with your answers into a Comment for this post.

Welcome to the Reincarnationist Blog’s series of interviews using the infamous Proust Questionnaire. Today’s subject is Victoria Zackheim…

THE QUESTIONS:

Title of your latest book as of Sept 1, 2007: The Other Woman

Do you believe — even a little bit that reincarnation is possible? I sometimes wonder, yes.

Have you ever read anything books the subject that made an impression on you? No

What is your most marked characteristic that you believe could be a hold over from a past life? Coming from eastern European Jews, perhaps I carry their overpowering will to survive.

What is your principle defect that you believe might be inherited from a previous incarnation? If it’s possible to inherit from a previous incarnation, it would be my unrelenting tenacity.

Which of your favorite heroes do you think you actually could have been and why? I’ve never considered this a possibility.

What three people from history would you like to have over to dinner for a discussion about reincarnation? Shakespeare, Jesus Christ, one of the early French kings.

What do you think happens when we die? We cease to exist, which is why what we do in this life is so important.

When you come back next time, who would you like to be?

Beverly Sills

We would love to hear your responses to these questions. Please feel free to copy and paste the Questionnaire with your answers into a Comment for this post.