Some Considerations about the Dynamics of Biology in Reincarnation
© Richard Stammler, Ph.D. 2011All rights reserved.
If intuitive healer Caroline Myss is right and “biology is biography,” meaning that the
body encodes not only early life physical events but also significant psychological events, then
for many transpersonalists, the body encodes significant other life (past, present, and future)
events that have been brought into the present life for a reason. Once we accept that in some
form reincarnation is a reality, then the question arises, what really is transferred from life to life
or, put another way, what are the common features between existences of the soul? There is
considerable evidence that biological information may transfer from one reincarnational body to
another. Not only is this interesting in its own right but has been used as supporting evidence for
the fact of reincarnation.
Many transpersonalists, particularly past life regressionists, are familiar with the transfer
of the dynamics of a past life issue into a symbolic biological representation in the current life.
For example,
• The case of someone who falsely accused another in a previous life, which lead to dire
consequences for the accused. The accuser may have a deformed arm in the present life which
symbolically hinders that person from pointing out another.
• In the same example and if the accusation was done vocally, there can sometimes be a
problem with speaking such as stuttering and the like so it is symbolically difficult to do that in
the present life.
• Therapist Thomas Paul reports a client who had problems with premature ejaculation and
another with impotence issues. Both reported a past lives as a black male slave who were
selected for a breeding program. Because the slave master’s did not want them to have pleasure
during the act, they were routinely whipped and forced to finish fast, “You've got to come quick
if you want to stay alive.”1 In these cases the biology may or may not be directly impacted but
personality and personality dynamics certainly are.
Occasionally, the transfer from previous trauma is much more literal. Therapist Gayla
Reiter shared the case of Reggie who manifested a life threatening illness.2 During therapy he
revealed under regression no less than four lives where he died from head trauma. Reiter says,
one involved his death when his current life father (and an enemy soldier in the recalled
lifetime) threw a spear which entered his eye and exited the base of the skull. That was
where the tumor was....wrapped around his left optic nerve and extending to the base of
his skull.
Reiter states that Reggie had “not released trauma to his head (left side) in prior lives resulted in his manifesting a tumor in the same spot as the physical injuries/traumas in past lives.”3
In this case it is not so much biology that seems to transfer to the current life, but specific
There are some who argue that the biology of reincarnation is much more literal. Walter Semkiw is a medical doctor and trained regressionist who has dedicated his transpersonal career to establishing this linkage. In his book, Return of the Revolutionaries,4 Semkiw describes in great detail and with many examples, cases he feels demonstrate that not only is the morphology of the face a template for further reincarnations but, “Facial architecture, the shape and proportions of the face, appears to be consistent from lifetime to lifetime.” Physical habits such as postures, hand gestures, and the type of jewelry worn can also be consistent from lifetime to lifetime. Personality traits also appear to persist, including writing style, and Semkiw asserts that “spiritually and intellectually, we seem to pick up where we have left of” from the previous life.
Psychiatrist Adrian Finkelstein, onetime Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and Los Angles health practitioner, has done extensive research on reincarnation cases of prominent personalities such as Canadian pop singer, Sherrie Lee Laird, who he believes is the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe.6 The evidence is remarkable and is laid out in his book entitled, Marilyn. In that book, he records extensive data on the similarities of Laird and Monroe, which could only be known by those closest to the deceased actress. The evidence for the eincarnation in Laird of Marilyn Monroe is compelling, but also persuasive are the similarities of the two in facial structure and other aspects of their lives, which support Semkiw’s thesis. The photos reveal a strong similarity on the facial characteristics of the two.7
1 Past Life Therapy Center. (2006). Male Sexual Problems resolved w/ Past Life Therapy. Retrieved 5 Jul 2009 from http://www.pastlifetherapycenter.com/releases/release/4460447/12926.htm 2 Gayla Reiter published aspects of this case and conducted a television interview of it. She can be reached at gayla@mindspring.com.
3 Personal communication 17 January 2011. Trauma that appears to be replicated in the current life.Go to sources for further information.
