Otherworldly Past Life Regressions

I often jokingly refer to my former work as an attorney for the Department of Defense as a “past life.” But there are in fact those who espouse that, buried deep inside of our subconscious minds dwell memories—cognitive remnants—of actual past lives. As in, we were once someone else, perhaps even hundreds of years ago.

This brings to mind a scene in a favorite movie, Bull Durham, wherein Kevin Costner’s Crash Davis asks, how come people always think they were someone famous in a past life? This after Susan Sarandon’s Annie Savoy posits how she thinks she just might have once been Catherine the Great, or Saint Francis of Assisi.

I actually attended a past life regression seminar in the mid-90s—in Southern California, of course. Wherein, one attempts to recall memories through a form of meditation or hypnosis. The aim being to revisit potential past lives.

And I did, kind of sort of, have a close encounter in my mind, a very specific vision of what I thought was a past life. Except I was male, huge, muscular—and Scottish. A kilted warrior in the Highlands of auld. Not a famous historical figure, and not in any way what I was expecting.

Some say such past life memories lurking in our psyches can continue to exert influence over present-day realities, perhaps evoking strong emotion. There’s also a belief that you may be drawn to certain people, places, or objects because of who you once were in a past life. Indeed, one might be fascinated by a particular period in history, or a specific locale, or a person who seems strangely familiar for that very reason.

This resonates with me, because I’ve always been drawn to Scotland and somewhat obsessed with the fantastical idea of a Brigadoon from the movie musical. Scottish as well as English resides in my genetic makeup, but it’s always felt like more than that. So much so I was compelled to attend a comparative law studies program in Aberdeen in the summer after my first year of law school in Baltimore, where I also witnessed a modern-day version of a Highland Games competition not unlike that occurring in my past life regression.

In my Other Worldly series, I have some fun with that, and with this concept of past lives, beginning with Being Alien, the fourth novel set primarily in Scotland. In particular I address another Earthly phenomenon, that of actual young children who remember past lives in great detail with uncanny accuracy—and seeming impossibility.

The young child in my novels who has vivid recurrences of past lives is not human, but instead a member of a species known as Red Orbiters from the planet we know as Jupiter, but they call Cumulus (yes, as in clouds).

There are other adult Red Orbiters who have had past lives, one in particular being several hundred years into his current life, but he isn’t plagued with recurring memories. Though he and others like him are drawn to familiar people who may be related to their past life ancestors, so much so they become honorary relatives of Red Orbiters in their current existence.

As for the young Red Orbiter, Ferus is his name, which means wild in Latin, and fitting it is. He is one of nine precocious kiddies, all redheaded Red Orbiters from a group of triplets and sextuplets, but Ferus is the only who was actually born into his current life having had past lives.

One of those past lives is clearly as a knight’s squire, because Ferus’s first words as a fast-growing toddler are “Lady Rowan,” spoken in a Gaelic accent to my Other Worldly series protagonist Rowan Layne.

Ferus has a highly developed—plus boisterous and noisy—sense of chivalry. He also is obsessed with warning Lady Rowan to “beware the kraken.”

So much so his sister Janus has about had it with him and the kraken.  Here’s one of my fav giggle-inducing encounters in Altogether Alien, sixth novel coming soon:

“Forsooth! But of course she will attend! Lady Rowan must be present so we can guard her from the kraken!” said Ferus, rushing up and plowing into me.

“Not the flipping kraken again, Ferus!” Janus belted, not in her indoor voice. “And you almost knocked down Aunt Rowan!”

Actually, he pretty much had knocked me down. Doug caught me before I hit the floor.

“I am too old to be Aunt Rowan,” I muttered to Red, who helped Doug put me back on my feet.

Little Ferus and Janus, now roughly the human age of ten after only two years in this life, are also at it again in Scotland:

Ferus bowed elaborately. “Sir Colin Skye MacLeod, I am at your service.”

Janus scowled. “Ferus, maybe you could live in this life for a hot ten minutes?”

For me as an author, having a kid character who occasionally reverts to a past feudal-knight life at the most awkward of times is great fodder for hilarity and lighthearted silliness that makes my writing so very cathartic.

But be warned, because Altogether Alien isn’t all past lives of sweetness and light. There are those lurking about Earth who play sinister and maniacal mind games. As one particularly yummy Labyrinthian from Mars who can actually read minds says, “The mind can be a strange, unfathomable thing,” wherein evil might have taken full control.

There’s also aliens who can be more than one entity in this life, presenting quite the challenge for Rowan Layne, who has enough trouble keeping her alien suitors straight as it is. Some of them she might have even known when she was a lawyer for the Department of Defense. Just like me and my “past life.”

Altogether Alien, coming in a few short weeks…in this life.