Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives

Catherine returns for a session a week later rejuvenated and with improved symptoms, despite some concern about how this regression therapy might clash with her Catholic “upbringing and beliefs” (35). Weiss tells readers that reincarnation might not seem like such a heresy if they read the writings of some of the early Christian theologians.

Weiss outlines his own upbringing as the oldest of four children with a devoutly religious father and a loving but manipulative mother. He discusses his retreat into books, his “interest in science and [his] fascination with the workings of the human mind” (37), his entry to Columbia University, and the first meeting with his future wife Carole, including their subsequent engagement during his junior year. Having gone through medical school and securing a residency at Yale, Weiss “joined the new breed of biological psychiatrists, those merging the traditional psychiatric theories and techniques with the new science of brain chemistry” (38).

Under trance, Catherine discusses her life and duties as a servant in a royal household before moving on to a more ancient, wretched lifetime in a smelly cave. Next comes a lifetime circa 1536 BCE in which Edward, the pediatrician who demanded she visit Weiss, is her father, Perseus. She talks about her peaceful death and describes an experience of “floating” (39) after death.

Weiss becomes obsessed with reading the established literature on reincarnation and finds work published by people like Ian Stevenson M.D., who wrote about children’s experiences with xenoglossy, a phenomenon in which somebody can fluently speak a foreign language they’ve never been exposed to before. Weiss finds the evidence hard to ignore and is encouraged by how hypnotic regression is drastically improving Catherine’s quality of life.

Catherine works through more past lives during the next session. Of particular interest is a lifetime in which she takes part in a First Nations scouting party and is killed by somebody who is Stuart in the present. Weiss asks Catherine to focus on people in these lives who seem familiar, as many writers indicate that souls often reincarnate together to “[work] out their karma […] over the span of many lifetimes” (43). Catherine’s own psychic abilities increase as their sessions continue; her intuitions and precognitions serve as a kind of proof to Weiss that her experiences under hypnotic regression are authentic.

Finally, after working through yet another lifetime, Catherine floats out of her body and becomes aware of an energy-bestowing “bright light” (46) in a mysterious in-between space between lifetimes. Her voice changes, and she starts explaining that a person’s mission on Earth is to gain knowledge and help others. Weiss wonders about the source of this knowledge, which he later realizes comes from “the Masters, highly evolved souls not presently in body” (46) who speak to Weiss through Catherine.

Upon awakening, Catherine is unable to remember anything she said while in the in-between place, and Weiss finds himself wishing for even “more facts” in the face of his own persistent skepticism.