I borrowed this book from Dandenong library the other day. The reference no. is 133.9013 CAN. It is many years since I devoured an entire book in a single day but this one grabbed me from the first paragraph. It is a very powerful and moving book which raises a lot of disturbing questions and images.
It is written by Dolores Cannon who is an expert in regressive hypnosis and past-life therapy. I realise a lot of people are skeptical about such matters but reading this account you have to believe one of two options. One possibility is that these hypnosis sessions uncovered details of many past lives. The other possibility is that a 22 year old woman in modern day America who has had very little formal education and little or no interest in historical events has a phenomenal imagination to be able to "in vent" the stories she told under hypnosis. I suppose it's up to each individual to decide which explanantion fits best. The subject of the hypnosis is called Katie.
At first, she describes the details of a life from around 1870 as a young woman in Colorado who died in childbirth around the age of 19. Then there were a few "resting lives" as the author describes them. I had never heard of this concept before. A "resting life" is one which seems dull and uneventful to any outside observer and a life which they might describe as insignificant (if you believe any life can truly be called insignificant). Such a life is chosen as a "breather" to recover from a traumatic exp erience in the previous lifetime. One such life which Katie describes was when she was a boy who lived like a hermit in the woods around 1166 before being shot by soldiers and also dying at a young age. In each of the lives Katie describes she goes into great detail about the customs and dress and social environment of the time period they occurred in. This is the sort of detail she is highly unlikely to have learned or known of without direct experience.
Eventually the hypnosis sessions take us to Japan in 1945 and the life of a gentle man who was born just before the turn of the century, so he is now in his fifties with a wife and 2 sons and lives peacefully on a farm outside Horoshima. Many sessions are devoted to getting to know this man's personality and the events of his life and his outlook or philosophy. All goes well until the period where Japan enters the Second World War. The old man, who is known as Nogorigatu, describes the turmoil and chaos th at occurred in Japan at this time. His sons were forcibly drafted, his food and animals confiscated by the army and he and his wife were left with a daily struggle to find enough food to ward off starvation.
When Nogorigatu is asked if he harbours any bad feelings toward the U.S. he replies, "How can someone be an enemy to me if I have not seen his face? He is not an enemy of my own making. This does not make sense." Of his wife, he says "She does not say much but I have seen her crying. I know she's worried and wonders what will happen to us and to our sons. It's as if the whole world has gone insane and we are just being pulled along with it."
Dolores had grown up during the war years and had been raised on the propaganda in newspapers and movies portraying the "enemy". The enemy was the enemy - vile and monstrous - and there were no grey areas. In the years since the end of the war, she had never questioned whether the US did the right thing in dropping a bomb to end such a war. Now she was being presented with an eyewitness account of the fact that many of the population had no desire to be any part of a war and were suffering because of their own country's actions.
Approaching their final hypnosis session, Katie was all smiles as if she knew this was something she had to confront. Her traumatic death as a peaceful old man in Hiroshima in 1945. She was still nervous about going through with it but felt it would be tremendously helpful in her spiritual progress. As Nogorigatu, she described what it was like with planes flying over on a daily basis dropping bombs and the constant fear and uncertainty. he had been forced to move to Hiroshima after his wife had died and h e could no longer stay on his beloved farm.
When Dolores moved Katie forward to the date of the bomb (August 6, 1945), Katie turned as white as a sheet. She seemed to be in a state of total shock and her voice trembled. Sometimes her body would shake. Dolores said she had never heard such heart-rending emotion and pain in anyone's voice. Nogorigatu struggled to get the words out: "A blinding white light. And ... then a great ... boom. And ... and ... a giant cloud. It went up and ... and ... it went out. And then the winds rolled. They were like fir e! People are dying everywhere! Why!?" It was a cry from the depths of his soul and sent shivers down Dolores spine.
Nogorigatu continued ... "My hands are BLACK. And my face ... my face feels as if there is no ... skin." He struggled for any kind of explanation as to what had happened. Vaguely remembering seeing a plane overhead, he realised there might be a connection ... "Could they? ... They ... must have ... dropped ... some horrible ... thing! (Gasp) How could anyone do that? How? Don't they know what they have done? Do they care?" The words were like a forlorn voice crying in the wilderness.
Dolores said Katie always had the option to turn into an observer and merely relate the events to her. But apparently her subconscious mind wanted her to experience this. Or perhaps her own soul thought she needed to remember this in great detail. Nogorigatu had been a few miles form the centre of the atomic blast, so did not die immediately. He was a hardy old man and lingered on for some nine days. One can only imagine the horror of those days especially when you consider all the hospitals were destroyed in the explosion. "How could we get to the point where anyone would want to do this? Even think of doing something like this? How could anyone?"
During later sessions (Katie only relived the actual horror during that one session - I'm sure once was enough!), Dolores learned that Katie (or Nogorigatu) had entered the spirit resting-place on the other side for a while after the traumatic death at Horoshima. This is a special place that is reserved for deaths such as this. She felt she had got rid of a lot of karma by the lingering death she had experienced. (One would sure hope so!) She then attended the school on the spirit plane where the masters a nd teachers helped with the evaluation of that life. That was where she was before she entered this new body as Katie. Katie said she felt terrific after the session in which her subconscious relived the full horror of Hiroshima. A great weight had been lifted from her.
Dolores then proceeded with some research to establish the validity of some of Nogorigatu's recollections. She describes the full horror of what a nuclear explosion involves. The facts are mind boggling and almost impossible to imagine. At the centre of the blast, the heat is 1,000,000 degrees and people and buildings are literally vaporised. The wind that then spreads out from the centre is 500 miles per hour and white hot. And then there is the radiation. I'm sure most humans do not like to think e capable of such depths of horror and inhumanity to their fellow creatures. But it did happen.
Other survivors have told equally harrowing accounts - "I thought that everyone was dead. I thought this was the end of Hiroshima ... of Japan ... of humankind." Many survivors were described as "walking ghosts" and "automatons walking in the realm of dreams" so complete was their shock and dissociation from reality.
Dolores makes a good point regarding whether all this could be just imagination. If a modern, young girl were going to fantasize and invent a past life. it would be likely she would pick one about romance and excitement, not one about such absolute horror. She also says: Those who do not believe in reincarnation will no doubt have other explanations for this strange phenomenon. But does it really matter? The important thing is that it helped katie and she has grown much from the experience.
She makes many observations about war and having lived through those years herself. The "enemy" had to be portrayed in a certain light. We could not sympathise with the enemy. Enemies must be clearly defined in order for people to fight a war and kill each other. War could not exist any other way. They must be anonymous villains or heartless monsters. If you come to know the man as a person, you cannot fight him. Nogorigatu put this very well in his story.
Needles to say, I found this an extraordinary book. Very thought provoking and raising more questions than it answers which is my definition of a worthwhile read. You'll be able to find it in Dandenong Library just as soon as I take it back.
Dolores has written several other books including Five Lives Remembered, Conversations with a spirit, Jesus and the Essenes, and Keepers of the Garden.