Twenty years ago I learned how to do Past Life Regression Therapy from Brian Weiss. And this morning,there was Brian's face, on FB in an ad.

This is a picture of Dr. Brian Weiss
for an advertisement.

I was on Facebook this morning and looked over at the adverts.   I hate that they have ads, but since no one has yet asked me, I assume they will continue.

In any event I was a bit surprised to see Brian whom I know. Or at least did about 20 years ago.

 

BACKSTORY ON GETTING TO KNOW ABOUT BRIAN'S WORK

 

A colleague of mine had lost his mom and I went to pay a Shiva call. (That's what Jewish people do instead of a wake)

 

While I was there I told my friend that I was heading off to Barnes' & Nobel.  He asked what book I was looking for. I told him it was kind of a joke to me. I had gotten a new age catalog and a book had been listed called, "Blame it on your past life" by Dick Sutfin ( I think). I said that it was hard enough to get one's patients to take responsibility for their issues at all, and for someone to write a book about it being your fault before you were living was absolutely ridiculous. (YOU should know by now, I like that adjective).  Phil asked if I had ever heard of Brian Weiss. I said no.

He told me that he had read two of his books, one "Many Lives, Many Masters" and the other, "Through Time into Healing".

They were about reincarnation and it's use in psychotherapy. I really respected Phil, so when I looked in the store and wasn't able to find the book I had come for, I found the one I hadn't known about.

Of course, I read the back cover and was intrigued. Dr. Weiss had graduated from Columbia University and Yale Medical School and was the Chairman Emeritus of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Center in Miami.

 

Those were some pretty heavy credentials so I bought the book.  I read it in the course of a day and a half. In some ways, it change my life.

 

BACKSTORY ON ME

 

I was brought up in an atheistic home, so God was not a concept that I could wrap my head around. However, the spirituality he discussed, and the story he told made me believe there had to be more than this.

 

I knew I would want to lend my friends this book, so the next morning, a Sunday, I went to a different B & N to buy two more copies.

The New Age section was in a different part of the store. After I found it the section, which was in a corner, all the New Age books were on  the top shelves.  So, being vertically challenged, I had to pull a stool over to stand on to read the titles.  I was having trouble finding his, and when I glanced down to get off the stool,  there were two copies at the bottom by my feet.  Woe. I had just walked past this spot and there  were no books on the floor. I was in a corner, alone,  and the store had just opened.  It was all neat and tidy. How did they get there?

 

Just wonderin.

 

MEETING DR. WEISS

 

The first time I saw him was at a weekend workshop at the Omega Institute in Reinhardt, New York. I found out about the weekend and really wanted to go, but it was last minute and I didn't know if there would be any room.

I happened to speaking to my friend Leslie, also a psychologist, also single and I mentioned the Brian weekend.  She was like. "OH Wow" " I have two tickets and a room for two, but my son just told me he doesn't want to go.  Do you want to?"  "Hell yes" I replied.

I asked if she knew about Brian, but she didn't. (I found that really weird, but....) She was going because she had gone there to a summer camp when she was a child, before it became Omega; and they were having a basketball weekend [I think with Phil Jackson] and she was hoping to meet some men.

 

She came to the sessions, but wasn't impressed like I was. I started reading more.  The following summer Brian was giving a five day workshop in how to do past life therapy for professionals. I asked Leslie if she wanted to go, but she didn't.  So I went by myself. There were only 120 of us so, I was able to get to know Brian fairly well. He was totally accessible as was his lovely wife Carol.

 

It was an awesome experience. My roommate was a wonderful woman, originally from South Africa, but living in Cincinnati.  There were two other women in the next cabin from Long Island and one man and another woman, also from Long Island.

  We all bonded and stayed connected for many years.

 

As I was licensed in New York at the time, I was able to be on Brian's referral list and  got many calls treated many people that he referred.

When I first moved to Florida and got my license I was also able to get referrals.

 

We all received a letter telling us that he would no longer be able to give referrals due to some legality.

 

Brian has traveled around the world doing his thing. I've seen him on TV and when he would come to NY we would go to see him.

It's been many years, but he has a spot in my heart.

 

WHAT I RECEIVED

 

Without his books I would have no faith.  It's not easy to develop when you were told much of your life that such things do not exist.

There is of course much much more that I could write. I think this will do.

 

THEORY

 

I now do not believe in coincidence. Things happen for a reason.

There is probably one why you stumbled upon my blog.

And here we were. I'm sorry I cut off my friend, but I don't know if anyone would want their picture up without permission. That was probably around 1998. No glasses and no hair.