Thank you to author Kate Maryon for answering this week’s Reincarnationist Q&A! Kate is the author of ‘Shine’ (HarperCollins) – her second book, ‘Glitter’ comes out in September and ‘Sparkle’ in March 2011…

THE QUESTIONS:

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

Mmm, I would say a sense of peace. Friends have often said that they like spending time with me because I’m calm and peaceful, my internal experience of it is a feeling of serenity/spaciousness. Although I don’t practice any religion I’m always very at home in monasteries, temples, churches etc. When I was in India once I heard some chanting drifting out onto the street and just had to follow it. The sound lead me to this huge tent, which was full of about a thousand Hari Krishna, I felt totally at home. I lay down in the middle of the space and just soaked it all in. It would have been an okay place to die. I also have an attraction to the sound of bells, any sort of bells, I love them.

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

Fear of snakes, definitely.

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

Mmmm, tricky, I don’t really have any heroes but if I were to pick someone I think it would have to be Mother Theresa. I really resonate with her ability to be touched by suffering.

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

Ooooh, I’d like to bring my mum back from the dead (she died 14 years ago) and get the inside goss on the subject, then I’d have Doris Stokes and Jesus and of course a wonderful feast.

What do you think happens when we die?

MMmm, lovely question, I often wonder about this. I imagine there to be a sensation of allowing all the holding on to life to slip away, which I guess might feel like a sense of deep relaxation and peace, a kind of settling back and back and back and back and so far back into yourself that you’re just here, no longer attached to your physical body, but with a strong sense of the vastness that is the hugeness of consciousness. I imagine there must be some force, stronger than the life force, that invites you, kind of pulls you closer. And maybe a sense of lightness and an experience of merging back into truth.

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

Someone who was born into love – I’d love to experience what it might be to have a safe, held and wonderfully carefree childhood. That’s something I missed.

For more information about Kate and her books, please visit her website:

www.katemaryon.co.uk

Thank you Silver James for answering this week’s Reincarnationist Q&A! Silver is the author of a series of books based on a Celtic concept of reincarnation and binding vows that enable a couple to meet again lifetime after lifetime…

THE QUESTIONS:

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

Without sounding all noble and full of BS, that characteristic would be my sense of duty and loyalty. I am slow to befriend people, and not very trusting, but once I give my friendship, I stick by that person through thick and thin. Along with that, comes the belief a person owes the world a certain amount of payback for the good that comes our way, to return the favor as it were. I’ve always volunteered or worked in public service. I’m not sure which previous life that might have come from, but I felt that way as a small child and remain so well into my life.

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

After a great deal of reflection, I think my quick temper. I flash to white-hot anger in a heartbeat, especially when confronted with stupid people. I’ve fought my temper all my life. When I lose the battle, I lash out, my words meant to wound. I think maybe that’s why I’m a writer this time around—I need to use words to heal, to uplift, to transport, rather than hurt.

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

Am I strange to say none of them? Two women in history have always fascinated me—Anne Boleyn and her daughter, Elizabeth. I believe I’ve met Anne’s reincarnation this lifetime. While I don’t think I lived either of their lives, I suspect I was there, serving in the court of both. When asked for a name in a past-life regression hypnosis session I participated in, I mentioned Elizabeth Plantagenet, daughter of Lord Lisle.

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

Arthur Conan Doyle

Albert Einstein

Katherine Hepburn

The first two are fairly self-explanatory, I would think. The last one? I just want to talk to her about anything and everything. I suspect she would have some interesting ideas about the subject.

What do you think happens when we die?

How many hours do we have to discuss this today? I was raised with the Christian concept of heaven and achieving peace everlasting once you die—and that you get one shot at “this life.” Through the years, my belief system has evolved and melded into an eclectic blend from the tenets of Celtic Druidism, Christianity, and Buddhism. Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), a Christian religious philosopher, believed that a person passed “whole” from the natural state to the spiritual state—that thoughts and memories are retained, leaving behind only the physical body. A close friend, brilliant and far more philosophical than I, believes God, (or the Universe, the One, whatever label you wish to use) created a collective consciousness that is a blending of all souls. To stay, one must give up all sense of self and the soul bathes in the river of…well…everything. All the love, all the pain—everything that God feels, thinks, does. The soul truly becomes one with God. Not every soul is ready for this complete surrender, hence they reincarnate. I believe the soul remains intact and when “presented” to the Universe, it can either seek a time of rest and peace, or it can return to the natural state, born again into a new body, with a new set of trials to face.

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

Anybody rich. Or skinny. Just kidding—sort of. I look at my dogs and the lolcat who rules us all and think they have a terrific life, but then I see all the abandoned critters in shelters. What a sad life that is. Would it be trite to say I want to be “me”? I want to keep my imagination. Wild, warped, and wacky as it may be, my imagination has saved me in ways I cannot begin to innumerate. I want to be an honorable person, one who cares for the world beyond the four walls of her personal existence. (And being rich would be okay…really. I wouldn’t gritch much. <wink>)

You can find Silver James hanging around the internet at www.silverjames.com.

Silver’s book, FAERIE FATE, the story of a woman sent back in time by the faeries to relive a former life and get love right, is available in both paperback and ebook from:

The Wild Rose Press

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

And in ebook only from: All Romance ebooks and Fictionwise

The second book in this series, FAERIE FIRE, will be available September 17, 2010.

Mary Regan

 

M.J. Rose is the author of the best-selling Reincarnationist series and the founder AuthorBuzz.com, a marketing company for authors.

“It’s all a game of what can we do — what on earth can we do — to make books more noticed and stand out from the crowd,” she says.

After 11 novels and multiple book contracts, Rose still works tirelessly to promote her books.

It’s midday in New York and suspense novelist M.J. Rose has spent much of her morning dropping in on area bookstores to promote and autograph copies of her new book, The Hypnotist.

For the complete post and to listen to the story, click here to go to All Things Considered.