Reincarnation—for Research, of course! by Andrea Downing

Reincarnation has been on my mind recently.  Maybe it’s the fact I have a story in a paranormal western historical anthology, or maybe it’s just that Hallowe’en is not too far off.  Or maybe it’s that I’m sitting here in Jackson, WY, looking out at the beautiful mountains, and wondering about getting back to the book I started writing two years ago, which centered on reincarnation. 

Reincarnation is an element that most western religions have left behind, and I’ll leave that part of the discussion there.  For me, reincarnation is a comforting thought to hang on to.  You know: if I didn’t get it right the first time, maybe I get a second try.  Or, closer to home, why am I, a girl brought up in the New York suburbs, who has spent most of her life in the U.K., so dang involved with the American West?  With that question on my mind, I started to write the above-mentioned book based on the premise, but, as any author knows, research was required.  Enter ‘Past Life Regression’ therapy.

Now let me make this clear:  I’m not a bell-ringing, incense-burning, crystal-toting sort of gal.  My years as a hippie are long gone---looooonnnnng gone. But this question was nagging me as regards my love for the west, and I wanted to get to the bottom of it.  My googling brought up a former nurse and qualified psychotherapist who lived not too far away, in one of the more staid areas of the city. I made my appointment and went off in some trepidation. 

The apartment was comfortably decorated in Salvation Army chic, and I found the woman friendly and straightforward.  She put me at ease, had me stretch out on her sofa and get comfy, and then hypnotized me.  Now, I have to say here, this was not the first time someone attempted to hypnotize me and claim they had.  I have my doubts and no proof.  The thing is, she asked me to go back in time, and things started to float into my mind I had never considered:  a small girl who was adopted; a young woman meeting her beau in the pergola outside her home before he went off to WWI; back further there was a young girl kidnapped by Indians.  And, finally, a young wife standing on the porch of her cabin home, saying good-bye to her ‘cowboy’ husband.  At that point, I was crying slightly.  So my question to her, when I ‘woke’ from this spell, was: maybe the fact that I write western historical romance had put that into my head.  Her reply?  Maybe the fact that I had lived that life had put the stories into my head.

There was a bit more to our discussion I won’t relate here, but her reply was as sensible, I suppose, as my question.  The final answer is, who knows?  When we write sad scenes or highly emotional scenes, as authors we feel those emotions, so it is quite possible that that same instinct brought on my tears.  But, for now, I’m sticking with reincarnation.
And what do you think?  Do you believe in reincarnation?

 

And reincarnation plays a role in my story, Long a Ghost, and Far Away available with seven other spooky stories, all connected by one ghost-hunting agency, in the anthology The Good, The Bad and The Ghostly—perfect Hallowe’en reading at only 99¢ and available at http://mybook.to/GoodBadGhostly