Coming Back

by Raymond A. Moody Jr. and Paul Perry

Book Overview

The author of the multi-million copy landmark bestseller Life After Life explores another aspect of death and the cycle of life: reincarnation, or life before life. Based on hundreds of case studies as well as Moody's own past life regressions under hypnosis, Coming Back provides a blueprint for exploring one's past lives.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553070592
• ISBN13: 9780553070590
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Bantam
• Length: 217 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Therapeutic Value Trumps Literal Truth or Falsity

Having respect for Raymond Moody, based on my prior readings of his work on near-death experiences ("Life After Life") and grief ("Life After Loss", with co-author Dianne Arcangel), I wondered what he would have to say about past-life regression. Aimed at the general reader, Coming Back provides a readable, informative overview that reviews a variety of perspectives on past-life regressions and comes down on the side of their therapeutic value regardless of their literal truth or falsity. His citing "The Journal of Regression Therapy" (including contributors Irene Hickman, Hazel Denning, and Chet Snow) throughout "Coming Back" provided helpful continuity with my previously reading Winafred Blake Lucas' "Regression Therapy" volumes. Although trained in hypnosis, Moody had viewed it as "a way to deep relaxation, easy sleep, and nothing more" (p. 5) until a psychologist friend facilitated a regression for him that took him through a series of nine purported past lives. That he was "essentially an average person in each . . . shot down the theory that everyone who goes into a past life sees himself as . . . some . . . glamorous historical figure" (p. 27). This is congruent with Helen Wambach's findings, outlined in her 1978 "Reliving Past Lives: The Evidence Under Hypnosis." Through his subsequent research, Moody identified twelve traits of past life regressions, at least several of which one could expect to encounter in any genuine regression experience. These include an uncanny feeling of familiarity (p. 36) and the fact that these experiences often mirror present issues in the subject's life (p. 39). Throughout the book Moody maintains an attitude of ambivalence bordering on skepticism toward past-life regressions as evidence of reincarnation. He attributes this (on p. 112) to his Christian upbringing and scientific training. (On this point it is worth noting that Episcopal priest William V. Rauscher, in his 1975 "The Spiritual Frontier", entertains reincarnation as a possibility without viewing belief in it as necessary for salvation. His view then modifies Moody's assertion (on p. 112) that belief in reincarnation is the "antithesis of Christian thought"). However, Moody also sees great therapeutic value in the use of past-life regression regardless of one's acceptance or rejection of the theory of reincarnation. This puts him in the same company as several contributors to "Regression Therapy", Volume I: Reynolds, Woolger, Fiore, Jue, and Snow (see Lucas, vol. I, p. 558) and psychoanalytically-oriented hypnotherapist M. Gerald Edelstein (author of the 1981, "Trauma, Trance, and Transformation"), all of whom stress the therapeutic value of regression experiences over belief in reincarnation as such. Moody is perhaps more scientific in his approach than many so-called "skeptics" who would reject past life regressions on ideological grounds. Moody recognizes that attributing all purported past-life recall to cryptomnesia is not "a sufficien

Scientific exploration of past lives by open minded skeptic

A very easy read, considering the subject matter. Almost like sitting and talking with the author. Scientists and laymen will learn a lot and enjoy this book, and if either group reads only one book on this subject, this would be a good choice. Thorough examination of the subject including all the usual arguments against the reality of past-life regressions (I as the reviewer have never had one). Four stars because since its publication, the vast addition of information by the translation of texts of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as the science done on Tibetan Buddhism and altered states of consciousness could add to this work immeasurably.

A Clinical Study of Past-Life Regressions

Here, Dr. Raymond Moody--author of the classic Life After Life, which virtually started the Near Death Experience movement--has turned his scientific and analytic mind to the study of past-life regressions. While discussing NDEs with people, he found many bringing up other subjects, including reincarnation. Having long considered past-life regressions a lot of hogwash, he changed his mind after having his own regression done and experiencing for himself the power of past-life impressions and the immediacy of their effect on the mind. (He notes, for instance, how he himself felt a deep sense of familiarity and nostalgia while watching the dramatic scenes of his own former lifetimes. The experience was extraordinarily real to him.) In Coming Back, Dr. Moody uses his standard clinical approach, listing and classifying the various effects of past-life regressions and questioning their validity. He livens his discussions with glimpses into the hundreds of regressions he has lead. An interesting and important book. Richard Salva--author of Soul Journey from Lincoln to Lindbergh [UNABRIDGED]

revealed 9 past lives

Despites Moody's research in NDEs, he was a "non-believer" in Reincarnation until the late 1980's. A single regression session with a hypnotist revealed 9 past lives to him at that time. By the time he wrote this book he had performed over 200 regressions on others. Relatively unique and special to his method is the use of "scrying" or crystal ball gazing to gain access to past-life images for himself and others. Though it doesn't include an index, there seems to be a very excellent recordable self-regression scripts at the end that, from an outloud reading, appears to be very effective! :cool