Over the years, I’ve read several books featuring people’s stories of past lives. None, however, were like Looking for Carroll Beckwith: The True Story of a Detective’s Search for His Past Life by Captain Robert L. Snow. Previously read books on past lives told interesting and sometimes very detailed stories. None of them, however, included the element of a seasoned police detective using his finely honed forensic skills to investigate the veracity of the story.
Captain Snow tells of accepting a dare to be hypnotized to learn of his past lives. Since he thinks it is a preposterous idea, he procrastinates. Finally, though, he makes it to the session. He describes the session in great detail. The first two lives he relives concern a prehistoric man and a lady in Greece. Nice stories, but nothing to write home about.
Then Captain tells about his experience as an artist. It was special because the artist was someone who could be investigated. Captain Snow vacillates between pooh-poohing the whole experience and wanting to investigate. He wonders if he has learned of the artist through reading about him or seeing some of his artwork somewhere and storing that information in his subconscious. Or could he only have learned the information he saw in the hypnotic state when he previously “lived” his life as the artist? Finally Captain Snow’s curiosity gets the best of him and he sets out on an investigation of the artist’s life as if it were one of his homicide cases.
The rest of the book details Captain Snow’s investigation into the life of the artist and how it compared to what he experienced in his hypnotic trance. This is fascinating in two regards. First, the description of his investigative process intrigued me. It started with general questions. Then he listed a number of details to check to determine the veracity of the experience. He found an incredible number of details considering the short experience. Finally he left no stone unturned in searching for answers to his questions. The lengths he went to in the investigation astounded me. Now I understand why he was such a successful homicide investigator.
Read the book to learn the conclusion. It is available at Bookmamas, 9 S. Johnson Avenue.
