M.J. Rose

Here’s a new book on reincarnation that looks incredible – New Clothes for Old Souls: Worldwide Evidence for Reincarnation . Author Guy Lyon Playfair draws on many conversations he has had with Erlendur Haraldsson, who can now be regarded as the late Dr. Ian Stevenson’s successor, his background in psychology being the perfect complement to Ian’s medical and psychiatric background.

Dear Readers,

Remember the first book that meant something to you? For me it was THE SECRET GARDEN by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was more than magical; it was deeply mysterious with a garden locked up and hidden behind a stone wall with overgrown trees that reached for the sky. I loved the suspense that coursed through the storyline and kept me turning the pages.

THE SECRET GARDEN also was the first book that made me think about writing a book of my own. One night as my mother read it to me I stopped her and asked if we could go to see the garden the next day. She explained it was make believe. Before this moment, I’d never connected the concept of make believe to books. That night I told my mother that when I grew up I was going to write books about discovering a secret garden.

Writing a suspense novel is very much like uncovering gardens that have been hidden and secreted away. The secrets in my newest novel, THE REINCARNATIONIST, revolve around a subject that has deep significance for many people — reincarnation. My fascination with this topic began when I was a child and it’s a book that I’ve been working on for more than nine years.

In my research I discovered I was in good company: Believers in Reincarnation throughout history include Carl Jung, Rudyard Kipling, Einstein, Ben Franklin, Napoleon, Mark Twain, General George Patton, Louisa May Alcott, Tolstoy, Henry Ford, Goethe, the Baal Shem Tov, Nietzsche, Gandhi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Schweitzer, Walt Whitman, Wordsworth, Levi ibn Habib (the Ralbah), Rumi, Thoreau, Socrates, Jesus Christ in the Gnostic Gospels, Voltaire, Josephus, Balzac, Gauguin, Pythagoras, Kabbalists, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians.

I’ve learned that there currently are over 26 million people who are believers in reincarnation — and I’ve created this blog as a hub for “reincarnationists” – a place to find news related to reincarnation, read reviews of books on the subject, and discover links to other blogs and websites on reincarnation and related intriguing topics.

I love reading page turners that give you something to think about, something that resonates and matters. I hope that’s what this novel does for you.

I hope you visit the book’s website to watch an interview or a booktrailer or to tune in to a discussion about the novel and its fascinating subject matter. I look forward to hearing what you have to say about the book.

— M.J.

The esteemed Dr. Ian Stevenson on birthmarks as they relate to past lives –

“…In cases in which a deceased person was identified the details of whose life unmistakably matched the child’s statements, a close correspondence was nearly always found between the birthmarks and/or birth defects on the child and the wounds on the deceased person. In 43 of 49 cases in which a medical document (usually a postmortem report) was obtained, it confirmed the correspondence between wounds: and birthmarks (or birth defects). There is little evidence that parents and other informants imposed a false identity on the child in order to explain the child’s birthmark or birth defect. Some paranormal process seems required to account for at least some of the details of these cases, including the birthmarks and birth defects…”

Read the complete article here.