M.J. Rose

Welcome back to the Reincarnationist QA! Thank you to author Marie-Nicole Ryan for answering our questions. Marie-Nicole is the author of a paranormal romance dealing with reincarnation, SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS. She also the author of several other wonderful books that appeal to our audience. Please visit her at her website, here.

THE QUESTIONS:

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

Hunger. In this life I have a problem with overeating. In one of my dreams, I experienced dying of starvation in a concentration camp. I believe whatever “world” one’s life condition is in at the time of death is the dominant influence of the next life. While one may be born into one of the lower “Ten Worlds”, it is possible to elevate one’s basic life condition. But hunger relates to more than a hunger for food. There’s the hunger for love, material items. I have a great love for antiques which may be a holdover from an earlier life.

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

Insecurity and a large dose of impatience. At least, these are the defects that plague me now and presents my greatest opportunity for growth.

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

I’m so wedded to the female persona, and thus to my heroines, I’m not sure I can conceive of myself as male. But if I were to pick one of my fictional heroes, it would be Sheriff Cordero Tate, in SEDUCING THE SHERIFF. I relate more to his solid character than to the outrageous heroine of the story.  As for real life heroes, anyone involved in animal rescue is a hero to me.

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

Anya Seton, author of THE GREEN DARKNESS, Marie Antoinette (talk about some bad karma), and Gautama Buddha

What do you think happens when we die?

As a follower of Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism, I believe our consciousness (true self) goes into ku (a sort of cosmic consciousness) until time to be reborn. I believe in this state we are aware of all our past lives and have the ability to choose our next set of circumstances and the opportunities for additional growth as human beings.

When you come back next time, who (or what!) would you like to be?

I want to come back again as a creative person. Whatever form that creativity takes is fine, as long as it’s legal. In addition, and however shallow it sounds, being tall, thin, beautiful and brilliant would be okay, too.

Marie-Nicole Ryan’s links:

http://marienicoleryan.com
http://twitter.com/marienicoleryan
http://facebook.com/MarieNicoleRyan.author
http://sgi-usa.org

Buy Marie-Nicole’s new release, Love Me If You Can, here.

This week’s Reincarnationist Q&A is with author David Sakmyster.

David Sakmyster is an award-winning author and screenwriter, with over two dozen short stories and three novels in print, including THE PHAROS OBJECTIVE, book one in a series about remote-viewers and psychic archaeologists searching for ancient mystical artifacts.

The Questions:

What do you think happens when we die?

Just being a logical and fair-minded human being, I have to believe not only that there’s something more in store for our consciousness (the conservation of energy theory – it’s gotta go somewhere), but also that all this may be some sort of larger reality.  I think our time here is meant to be in sequential choice-based phases, kind of like when we played role-playing D&D type games as kids.  I didn’t want to just be a noble knight all the time; in another session I’d choose a cleric, a bard or an evil mage.  Or a thief or assassin.  Man, woman, gnome, etc.  I kind of think it’s like that – there are choices for our higher level selves and maybe we’re not done until we’re tired of the variety, bored with playing and feel we’ve experienced everything (good and bad) that we wanted to.  Now the interesting part about that, however, is for it to truly work and for us to get the full experience in each new life – we have to have this amnesia effect so we can’t recall who/what we really are.  If we can see the strings, then the dance loses its value.  (So in that sense, hypnosis and past-life recollection is cheating.)

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

I’ve always been considered the ‘odd one’ in the family because I’m always so drawn to the ancient past.  Everyone else is worked up about recent history and everything going on in the present, yet I just have always felt this massive pull from the past – especially regarding the culture, achievements and beliefs of Egypt, Sumeria and early Meso-america.  I’m not sure if that means there’s a past life in there still asserting itself or if there was something left undone that I’m perhaps pursuing through storytelling.

What do you find most intriguing about reincarnation?

Something MJ Rose has worked into her novels, and one I’m using in a separate book (where I won’t say any more to avoid spoilers) – the concept that if you gain access to these past life memories, you can in a sense, become immortal.  My idea is that maybe the early Pharaohs and mystics in Tibet with their Book of the Dead – laid out instructions on how you can condition your soul to hold on to your ‘self’ and maintain at least some parts of your consciousness in the next life (and thus maintain some sense of immortality while merely inhabiting different bodies).

You write about the psychic ability of ‘remote-viewing’.  Do you feel there’s a connection between RV and Reincarnation?

While I was writing and researching THE PHAROS OBJECTIVE, I was struck by the similarity of the RV experience and the aspect of hypnosis in bringing out past life memories.  I think the theory is similar – both can draw on Jung’s Collective Unconscious for potential explanations.  But it’s all speaking about the same thing – being able to experience something other than our personal reality.

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

My temper.  And don’t ask me more about it.  I’ll get mad…

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

Herodotus and Lao Tzu.  And then, to keep those two in line and keep it real, I’d invite Ben Franklin.

When you come back next time, who (or what!) would you like to be?

I’d like to be an eccentric inventor or scientist who lives all by himself up in the mountains coming up with crazy but potentially world-saving devices – possibly even a game-changing invention that lets us travel in time or remote-view our past…

For more about David Sakmyster and his books, including THE PHAROS OBJECTIVE, please visit his sites:
www.sakmyster.com
www.whatwouldyouview.blogspot.com

This Monday the 26th we will feature for one of our final Reincarnationist Q&As, David Sakmyster, author of THE PHAROS OBJECTIVE. Stay tuned for that. While I was working with him on his QA I took a peek at his remote viewing blog (What Would You View?) and realized that our readers here would be absolutely riveted by it (I was!).

The most recent post on David’s blog is:

Top 10 Ancient Mysteries I’d Remote View, part 2

Take a look, and become completely absorbed…