More Reincarnation???
Posted on Mar 26th, 2006
by 
Jeff Mishlove
Jeff Mishlove
Today I have a house guest, James P. Driscoll, Ph.D. (photos above on the right and left), who happens to be another individual who is listed in Walter Semkiw's book, Return of the Revolutionaries, as being the present incarnation of the soul who was once the famous brother of William James, the novelist Henry James (whose photo is in the center, above). Jim and I have been good friends ever since we were college apartment-mates back in 1968 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. At the time we met, he was a graduate student studying Shakespeare and I was an undergraduate psychology major.
The possible reincarnation match is one that I myself first suspected once Walter Semkiw prompted me to start looking for individuals close to me -- who might match the characteristics of individuals close to William James. (See my blog on this subject, dated March 22, 2006.) The match was then confirmed by trance channel, Kevin Ryerson's spirit guide "Athun Re" (for what that is worth).
Henry James, Jr., was a famous novelist and literary critic with a psychological orientation. He was a world traveler. It is believed that he may have been homosexual. Like his brother, William, he had an interest in the supernatural. James Driscoll a literary critic, is probably the leading specialist in Jungian interpretations of renaissance literature. He is also an AIDS activist and served on the President's AIDS Commission. Like me, he also has an interest in areas related to mysticism and the paranormal. And, like Henry James, Driscoll is a man who travels the world.
Jim Driscoll is author of two books of renaissance literary criticism, The Unfolding God of Jung and Milton and Identity in Shakespearean Drama.
Here's an interesting fact, a point of comparison. Jim has just informed me that Henry James suffered from a disfunction of his writing hand. He had to hire an amanuensis (a scribe) to take dictation. Now, it turns out that Driscoll is currently suffering from a similar ailment in his writing hand. He is presently unable to use his computer mouse with his right hand.
As I have suggested in previous blogs, while I think that there are some interesting parallels between these lives, I would prefer to think of them in terms of "archetypal synchronistic resonance" rather than reincarnation. See the first comment, below, for Jim Driscoll's own thoughts about this possible reincarnation match.
Access: Public
athun re
September 2008 
Jim Driscoll's comments as given to me (serving as amanuensis):
“Well, it's intriguing, I'd say. Recently, I was in India. And, while I was traveling, a book on reincarnation – and also the novel by Colm Toibin about Henry James, called The Master. While reading, and thinking about reincarnation in a country where everyone believes in reincarnation, it seemed plausible that that this [the Henry James lifetime] might have been a previous experience of mine (or an archetypeal resonance.)”
“And, I began to engage in active imagination about this, while leaving India for Bangkok, flying with the Himalayans in the distance. What came to mind was that there was another lifetime, missing, between my present life and that of Henry James who died in 1916. And, that I had been a soldier, probably British, and I had died early in World War II. Something came to mind about a plane in which I was involved in Europe.”
“It could have been that I was on an ordinary cargo plane and shot down. It wasn't necessary that I was a pilot. But, it was definitely in the European front – not the North African or Asian front.”
“I remember, from my studies, that Henry James was a strong British sympathizer during World War I. He wanted the United States to enter the war in behalf of British. But, he died in 1916 before the U.S. entered the war. My reflection is that this is something that Henry James' spirit would have chosen for his next life. I thought that he finally got the chance to fight the Germans.”
“For different periods in my present life, I was very interested in World War II, reading dozens of books trying to understand it. (This could be explained by the fact that I was born in 1943, during World War II, and that this was a very meaningful event to my parents. Lots of people my age would have been interested in World War II. I've never known anyone else with my level of interest. But it wouldn't have been rare.)”
“From the active imagination, I remember that this soldier was not just drafted into the war. He was doing something he wanted to do, defending Britain.”
“I think my AIDS activism and my gay activism in my present life (I've known and worked with most of the leading figures in the gay activist movement of the last 35 years – beginning with Harvey Milk and Jim Foster) could be seen as working out themes in Henry James' life – just as being a British soldier would have been.”
“This could be viewed either as reincarnation or as archetypal resonance.”
This is fascinating! I really appreciate these follow-up comments. There is much food for thought here.
Thank you for the interesting exchange. I hope this isn't redundant, but I discovered your blog a couple of days ago and I'm pleased with the opportunity to explore your thinking on this matter.
ASR makes a degree of sense when applied to yourself, and other highly functional people, but I can't see it adequately explaining some of the more negative manifestations attributed to karma nor the intricate and rich emotional associations that people typically report as being based in past life experiences (like the relationship between yourself and Mr. Driscoll for example).
I've followed Stevenson's work for three decades, I learned of Semkiw's work less than two years ago. After I got over the novelty of Stevenson's cases, which were I think, the first substantive data that rose above the common revelatory folklore of reincarnation, I found the common themes the predominate a little disheartening. So many of the people he describe appeared to lack insight or spiritual motive in either their remembered life or in the present one. They're often more like “lost souls” homesick for situations that are gone forever or traumatically dislocated from disturbing events that still trouble them.
What I've reviewed of Semkiw's work, (both his own personal experience and the other cases he includes in his presentations) generally describe experiences from the polar opposite of the axis. Beyond the kind of cool irony of John Adams giving guided tours of Heaven with his Map of the Stars, his cases often involve complex people who appear to be using the process of reincarnation to continue personal pursuits and intellectual progression that would be beyond the span of a single lifetime. Many possess and report some degree of insight and intentionality in this regard. He describes very little longing for the past and much less traumatic dislocation than Stevenson. Many of his cases are people who appear to be much more focused on getting back to their work and spend very little time looking backward despite being aware of having a past beyond this life that is open to examination.
I'm not dogmatic about reincarnation, I consider it a hypothesis. But it's an excitingly workable one. I strongly (and very hopefully) suspect that the many personal cases reported by researchers and by the general public over the past twenty years or so eventually delineate a Rosetta Stone of the language (or processes) of karma with less of the subjectivity common in historical records on the subject and make the mastery of it much less an article of religious faith than it has typically been in the past.