M.J. Rose

Here is a fellow who has researched both UFOs and reincarnation…I’d love to have coffee with this guy!

By RUFFIN PREVOST
Gazette Wyoming Bureau

CODY – While a robotic lander digs in the Martian soil in an effort to detect traces of ancient primitive life, a Wyoming psychologist will speak here Saturday about his belief that intelligent aliens have often visited Earth.

R. Leo Sprinkle, a counselor in private practice in Laramie, has spent 45 years researching sightings of unidentified flying objects and speaking with people who claim to have had encounters with extraterrestrials.

Sprinkle acknowledges that his research seems at odds with the mainstream scientific pursuit of life on other worlds – like NASA’s Mars Phoenix lander, a $450 million mission aimed at detecting water and organic matter on the red planet.

“I tried to get my colleagues involved, but that didn’t go over too well,” Sprinkle said of his years doing research as a professor of psychology at the University of Wyoming.

Sprinkle, who has a doctoral degree in psychology, arrived at UW in 1964 and did research into hypnosis and reincarnation as well as UFOs.

He left the university in 1989 after being pressured to do so by administrators, who feared that his work cast the school in a negative light, Sprinkle said.

His research since the early 1960s has consistently shown that people who report alien encounters or UFO sightings are generally psychologically well adjusted and have strong educational backgrounds, Sprinkle said.

Skeptics point out that no physical evidence exists to support claims of alien visitors or advanced spacecraft.

“There has been a long history of people in the know who say the government has known for 60 years that flying saucers are here and that we’ve had some crashed disks and bodies recovered, but the information has been hidden,” Sprinkle said.

Though he has been a frequent speaker in the past at UFO conferences around the world, Sprinkle, 78, said he now gives presentations only once or twice a year.

More than 40 people are expected to attend a dinner, slide show and discussion Saturday by Sprinkle scheduled at the Thomas the Apostle Center in Cody, said Connie Moody, a director of the retreat owned by the Wyoming Episcopal Diocese.

“We’ve had a tremendous response to this, so we’re really excited,” Moody said.

The center is open to all denominations and also hosts private events focused on a variety of topics not necessarily endorsed by the Episcopal Church, Moody said.

She said that Sprinkle’s talk is part of a planned “out of the box” series of lectures to be scheduled at the retreat.

Sprinkle said his presentation Saturday will “speculate on the possibility that ETs are here to help us raise our level of awareness,” and will explore connections between the concepts of reincarnation, immortality and souls.

“Technology and science are coming together with ancient religious stories,” he said, adding that the world of quantum physics may have connections to UFO sightings and related phenomena.

Sprinkle said he was invited to speak by the Rev. Warren Murphy, an associate clergyman at Cody’s Christ Episcopal Church, who had heard Sprinkle lecture on reincarnation…

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A friendly review from Booking Mama:

Summary: A bomb in Rome, a flash of bluish-white light, and photojournalist Josh Ryder’s world exploded. From that instant nothing would ever be the same.

As Josh recovers, his mind is increasingly invaded with thoughts that have the emotion, the intensity, the intimacy of memories. But they are not his memories. They are ancient—and violent. A battery of medical and psychological tests can’t explain Josh’s baffling symptoms. And the memories have an urgency he can’t ignore—pulling him to save a woman named Sabina—and the treasures she is protecting.

But who is Sabina?

Desperate for answers, Josh turns to the world-renowned Phoenix Foundation—a research facility that scientifically documents cases of past life experiences. His findings there lead him to an archaeological dig and to Professor Gabriella Chase, who has discovered an ancient tomb—a tomb with a powerful secret that threatens to merge the past with the present. Here, the dead call out to the living, and murders of the past become murders of the present. — Mira Books

A few months ago, I was contacted by M.J. Rose asking if I would be interested in reading her latest novel THE REINCARNATIONIST. (On top of that, she graciously offered to do an interview with me and speak with my book club.) Of course, I jumped at the opportunity! I had seen this book on many websites; and it was also selected as a Booksense Pick Highlight of 2007. While I didn’t get around to reading it right when it first came out, my sister did; and she actually recommended it to me as a book that I should read.

I hate to even put this is writing, but my sister was right. I really enjoyed reading THE REINCARNATIONIST! I was a little worried that a book about reincarnation could very easily become a little too “out there” for me, but I have to say that wasn’t a problem with this story. I thought the plot of the book was intriguing, and the story was fast-paced and held my interest the entire time. I thoroughly liked the characters of Josh and Gabriella, and I think that part of the reason that I was drawn into their story was because I cared about what happened to them.

This book is definitely full of suspense — there were a few plot twists and turns in this story as well as a mystery or two. While I pretty much figured out who the “bad guy” was about half way through the book, I don’t think it affected my enjoyment of the novel. One of the main reasons that I wasn’t disappointed with knowing that part of the story was that there was another big surprise at the end of the book that really shocked me! (That’s all I can say without spoiling the ending.)

I found Ms. Rose’s writing style to be very easy to read. Her dialogue between the characters seemed natural, and her desciptions were very vivid. It is apparent that she did a great deal of research on many topics including ancient Rome, archaeology, and reincarnation. I thought she did a wonderful job of incorporating all this knowledge into the story. While I’m not sure exactly how I feel about reincarnation (except to say that I don’t rule it out), Ms. Rose made the aspects of the story pertaining to reincarnation very believable. At the very least, I think she definitely leaves the reader considering the possibility of reincarnation.

If you think you might be interesting in reading this book, you can read an excerpt here. There are also discussion questions available if you are considering this for your book club pick. I personally can’t wait to talk about THE REINCARNATIONIST with my friends and get their opinions on the subject matter. In addition to her website which features the book, Ms. Rose has another website devoted entirely to the reincarnation. I spent a little time browsing around on it, and there are lots of interesting concepts and stories.

Stay tuned for more about THE REINCARNATIONIST. I will be posting an interview with M.J. Rose tomorrow as well as a wrap up of our author chat/book club meeting in the very near future.

Here is some interesting reading on reincarnation as discussed in the amazing Edgar Cayce material. Enjoy!

Edgar Cayce and Reincarnation: Past Life Readings as Religious Symbology

J. Gordon Melton

J. Gordon Melton is the author of numerous scholarly articles and books on New Religious Movements (NRM’s), and is the editor of several standard reference works including the Encyclopedia of American Religions. Dr. Melton heads the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara, and is frequently approached by the media for his perspective on alternative religious movements. He earned his Ph.D. in religion from Northwestern University, and is a United Methodist minister. This article originally appeared in Syzygy: Journal of Alternative Religion and Culture (vol. 3 no. 1-2, 1994), and is based on a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion at Virginia Beach, Virginia on Nov. 9-11, 1990.

When Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) died, he left behind a unique resource, complete transcripts of over 1600 readings he had given in the last decades of his life to the hundreds of people who came to him for help and advice. Subsequently, under the leadership of his son Hugh Lynn Cayce, the Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE) and the Edgar Cayce Foundation mobilized thousands of people to explore and study the transcripts which were cross-indexed and proved the inspiration for numerous books which have attempted systematically to present the information and teachings scattered in bits and pieces haphazardly through the readings. Thus by compiling the many life readings on Atlantis, ARE writers developed a coherent picture of what Cayce taught about that lost continent.

In more recent years, the publication and spread of the Cayce literature became a major factor in the emergence of what is loosely termed the New Age Movement. For example, one can trace the speculation on crystal power which has emerged as such a prominent teaching among New Age groups directly to the compilation into a booklet of Cayce’s rather meager and scattered references to crystals in the readings.

Among the major themes in the readings are several other key New Age concerns including alternative health (possibly the most explored material in the Cayce readings), astrology (the least explored in relation to the significant amount of attention Cayce devoted to it), and reincarnation. Reincarnation, as developed in the hundreds of past-life readings given by Cayce, could be seen as the single most prominent concern of the Cayce materials. For over thirty years, Cayce went into trance and offered people information on “previous lives lived in planet earth” while interpreting their significance for present existence. These life readings, along with readings which specifically asked for elaboration on the material given in the life readings, presented a cosmic metaphysics which many have accepted and used for guidance in their lives. (1) The importance of the reincarnation theme in the Cayce readings has taken on added dimensions in this present generation with over 20 percent of the American public now professing a belief in reincarnation.

The emergence of reincarnation and Cayce’s past life readings

The idea of reincarnation and the possibility of exploring past lives did not just suddenly emerge in the Cayce readings…

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