M.J. Rose

Welcome to the first installment of the Reincarnationist Blog’s series of interviews with reincarnationists, authors, celebrities, bloggers and the like. Our first subject is M.J. Rose herself. M.J. Rose is an international bestselling author and writer of the book The Reincarnationist. This book, which is Rose’s ninth novel, is also her first foray into historical fiction.

Vanity Fair is uses a simple and yet revealing questionnaire called the Proust Questionnaire to interview celebrity subjects. The history of the origin of the questionnaire itself is rather fascinating. Click here and here for background on the questionnaire and on Proust himself. We’ve reworked the Proust QA for our own purposes here.

Tune in regularly to read new QAs as we publish them!

From M.J. Rose: I’ve spent the last few years studying reincarnation from the sublime to the ridiculous, the religious to the metaphysical. Along the way, I’ve read 60 books on the subject and have a shelf of at least 30 more to tackle.

When I started I had no idea how popular a subject it is. Not only is there a Reincarnation for Dummies, there’s also The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Reincarnation. Turns out more than 26 million people in America believe in it.

So I thought it would be interesting to alter and abridge Proust’s ubiquitous questionnaire and find out what my favorite authors and fellow reincarnationists think about the subject. I also invite you to fill out the questionnaire and send it in to us here at the blog and if we have time, we’ll post your answers too. (Post your QA to Comments).

To get started, I answered my own questions.

THE QUESTIONS:

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

Yes.

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

I’ve read about 60 books to date on the subject while doing research for this new novel. I’d say that Deepak Chopra’s book Life After Death is one of the most important books I read on the subject along with everything I’ve read written by and written about Dr. Ian Stevenson who studied over 3000 cases of reincarnation in his lifetime.

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

A fear of medical procedures. I’ve never had any reason to be as fearful of even the most simple procedure as I am.

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

An attachment to certain people and places that have made me unhappy.

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

I don’t think I’ve ever been any one famous.

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

This is such a hard question. I’ve written about ten answers to it and keep changing who I want to invite. So screw it. This is my blog and my question so I’m going to have a big dinner party and invite: Edgar Cayce, Bridey Murphy, Dr. Ian Stevenson, Carl Jung, Buddha, as many Dali Lama’s as are free, Benjamin Franklin, William Wordsworth, Pythagoras, Ayna Seton, Baal Shem Tov and the Grand Duchess Anastasia.

What do you think happens when we die?

I think our souls break apart into thousands of pieces of light and we rejoin the collective consciousness.

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

Someone wise.

Welcome back to planet Every Day Life! I hope everyone’s holidays were sane and nourishing in some form or another.

So, everyone seems to have resolutions for the New Year and it’s this week that we are expected to actually act on those pledges. My promise to myself is always the same: To live more in the present and to somehow find the key to calming that incessant debilitating chatter in my head – you know, that radio station in your brain that tells you constantly how you need to do this or that, or how misunderstood you are, or how your house is the dirtiest house in the western world, or your parenting is suspect, or how sad and unhealthy your cats must be because you don’t feed them Science Diet anymore…

The Zen Buddhists call it monkey mind. Writer Anne Lamott calls it Radio Station KFKD. Whatever you may call it, here’s some good advice for calming it the heck down, linked to from the aptly named Monkey Mind blog:

Controlling the Monkey Mind

A Lecture by Shunryu Suzuki Rosh

This lecture is reprinted from the October 2001 Berkeley Zen Center Newsletter.

The purpose of sesshin is to be completely one with our practice. We use two Chinese characters for “sesshin.” “Ses” means to treat something the way one treats a guest or the way a student treats a teacher. Another meaning of “ses” is to control or arrange things in order. “Shin” means mind or heart. So sesshin means to have proper functioning of mind. When we say “control,” it is our five senses and our will, or small monkey mind which should be controlled. We control our monkey mind in order to resume our true Big Mind. When monkey mind is always taking over the activity of Big Mind, we naturally become a monkey. So monkey mind must have his boss, which is Big Mind.

However, when we practice zazen, it does not mean that Big Mind is controlling small mind, but simply that when small mind becomes calm, Big Mind starts its true activity. Most of the time in our everyday life, we are involved in the activity of small mind. That is why we should practice zazen and be completely involved in resuming Big Mind…

For the complete lecture, click here.

Biocentrism is is one of the most compelling new philosophies of existence that I’ve encountered and I’ve spent a lot of time imagining how it could work and what it all must mean.

A recent article in the Huffington Post gives a great explanation of the biocentric theory that death does not exist…

Many of us fear death. We believe in death because we have been told we will die. We associate with the body, and we know that bodies die. But a new scientific theory suggests death is not the end.

One well-known aspect of quantum physics is that certain observations cannot be predicted absolutely. Instead, there is a range of possible observations each with a different probability. One mainstream explanation, the “many-worlds” interpretation, states that each of these possible observations corresponds to a different universe (the ‘multiverse’). A new scientific theory – called biocentrism – refines these ideas. There are an infinite number of universes, and everything that could possibly happen occurs in some universe. Death does not exist in any real sense in these scenarios…

Photojournalist, Josh Ryder is someone who understands biocentrism in a very real way because it isn’t a metaphysical theory for him, but rather, it’s his conscious reality. Ryder doesn’t just remember his past life in ancient Rome, he experiences the sights and sounds and feelings of that previous life in real-time as he moves through his 21st century existence. Living simultaneously in two worlds, Ryder has the metaphysically unique perspective that allows him to connect the dots that are separated by sixteen centuries of time in order to solve a present-day crime with past-life clues and evidence.

Read an excerpt of “The Reincarnationist”

But Josh Ryder isn’t someone we can talk to about it. He’s the biocentric lead character in “The Reincarnationist,” the first in my series of fictional thrillers centered around the theme of reincarnation. (“The Reincarnationist” is also the inspiration behind the new Fox crime drama, “Past Life,” which is also centered around reincarnation.)

I think if you read the book you’ll see how Ryder’s “many worlds” experiences bring the theory of biocentrism to life. Click here to get a 100-page free sampler with excerpts from “The Reincarnationist” as well as two other books in the Reincarnationist series. Then have some fun experiencing biocentrism for yourself.

More…

• Find out more about the Fox “Past Life” TV series premiering February 9^th after American Idol.
• Read the full Huffington Post article about biocentrism
• Learn more about reincarnation

M.J. Rose is the international bestselling author of 11 novels, and a self-taught expert in reincarnation.