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Today I was puttering around on Facebook as I tend to do when I have a day off from doing readings and working on my book, and I came across a photo of a room in a French chateau that tickled my memory from that life I spent there. It certainly was not a literal memory but more like a deja vu moment, so I did what I always do — I stashed it away in the photo album of other images that strike me as familiar from that life. Facebook tends to post albums automatically whenever you add to them, which is convenient, but I barely posted the picture before this comment appeared:

“In my past life I was Major B.S. Storee…..jes sayin.”

My first reaction was to heave a weary sigh and ask myself the rhetorical question, “Are we still here in this judgmental, closed-minded phase of society that makes grown men speak so ignorantly?” Obviously the answer was yes, we are still mired down by antiquated ideas in this allegedly modern society. He basically admitted that he was making fun of me, so I removed him from my list. The part that I found the most disheartening is he is significantly older than me. It just goes to show you that wisdom, kindness, compassion, and yes, maturity do not come with age.

I was not always an open reincarnationist, as most of you know, and I certainly was not born with the belief in or exposed to the concept of reincarnation through most of my life. My experiences with spontaneous past life memories were painful, frightening, confusing and sent me into periods of deep depression for thinking I was crazy for more than half of my life. Even when I understood that the things I was going through were indeed spontaneous past life memories, I still refused to accept it and I went to great lengths to hide it from every single person in my life for the longest time. I was ashamed. I thought I was a freak. Shame gave way to further depression. When I met Jeffrey Keene, everything changed and the spark of confidence ignited. I came out about my story and began writing the book in order to try and help other people. Click here for the book.

Incidences like Major B.S. Storee are not isolated, unfortunately. Reincarnation is like the redheaded stepchild of the paranormal community in Western society. People who are adamant that ghosts and UFOs exist are not necessarily going to greet reincarnation with positivity or enthusiasm. It really is more prevalent in Eastern philosophies but that doesn’t make it any less worthy of study and consideration. Since I have come out as a reincarnationist in the last several years, I have gotten horrible hate mail almost on a weekly basis from people telling me I’m going to hell, or I’m crazy, or whatever they choose to spit at me. It used to hurt me a lot at first but then I came to understand that it really is impossible to comprehend this situation until you go through it. I used to laugh at reincarnation too and I thought people talking about it on television were mentally ill, all the while denying that it was happening to me too.

This is the thing of it, though. There are a lot of things people say and do that I don’t agree with or that make me uncomfortable. Very, very rarely do I say anything in those situations because I know what it’s like to feel judged unfairly about things that people don’t understand. So I find myself asking why grown adults who are supposed to be equipped with tolerance and compassion are so intolerant and judgmental? How do they justify being rude and cruel in their own minds? At what point does a human being lose the ability to understand that we are all different with our own experiences and feelings? What gives people the right to say, “I’m right and you’re an idiot.”?

There are a lot — I mean a LOT — of people in the reenacting community who believe in reincarnation but they hide it. I’ve met a lot of them who have had their own experiences with it but they speak about it in secret terms out of fear and sometimes shame. Sometimes I feel like a punching bag, taking all the hits for the people who sit in the shadows unwilling to say, “I have experienced past lives too,” but I will never tell a person to come out if they’re not ready. If I have to take the punches from intolerant people for the rest of my life, then I will. I knew what I was getting into when I came out but that doesn’t mean I can’t do my part to inspire some tolerance in people. If you are one of those intolerant people, chances are when you throw a dagger at me, several of your other friends are reincarnationists too but they’re not speaking up about it. Throwing a dagger at me hits a lot of other people you probably care about too.

I will not be dragged into that black place again where I feel like it’s me against the world just because there are people out there who try to tear me down. My advice to all of you is the next time you express your disagreement over anything, ask yourself if the things you’re saying are constructive or if you’re just throwing daggers at a person’s heart. Not living a certain lifestyle gives you no justification for tearing someone else down because they live the way they choose. Example: I’m not what people term a “Bible thumper” but many of my friends are and I absolutely refuse to make them feel bad about it just because it’s not something I do. People are who they are and there is no reason why we can’t all coexist with our differences.

Chances are some of the people you admire believed in reincarnation too. To name a few: Benjamin Franklin, Jack London, Napoleon, Mark Twain, Leo Tolstoy, Henry Ford, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Mahatma Ghandi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, George S. Patton, Albert Schweitzer, William Wordsworth, Henry David Thoreau, Carl Jung, Socrates, Voltaire, Paul Gauguin, George Harrison, Shirley MacLaine etc., etc., etc. Are all of these people crazy? No. They were peacemakers, soldiers, inventors, artists, philosophers, businessmen, authors, actors, musicians and world leaders. Reincarnationists come from all walks of life and we are all right under your nose.

I’m not asking you to believe. I’m asking you to think before you speak and be tolerant of what we believe if you expect us to be tolerant of what you believe.

“Judge not lest ye be judged.” -Matthew 7:1.

“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” -Matthew 7:12.