seventh world of chan buddhism - Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu Yun

At the turn of the century, a famous French psychic, Catherine Elise Muller (known as
Helene Smith), stunned Europe by her ability to recall her past lives as an Indian princess,
Simandini, as Queen Marie Antoinette of France, and as the Virgin Mary, among others.
Helene Smith had also been a frequent tourist to Mars and was easily able to converse
with contemporary friends who formerly were natives of that planet.
Possessed of a high degree of entranced literacy, she recorded in detail the Martian
alphabet and wrote many messages in that language. The French, who had long regarded
their language as the best in the world, were delighted to discover that in its grammar and
syntax French was the best in two worlds. For Martian, they observed, was structured
identically to French, Mlle. Smith's native language.
Further, for the benefit of Parisian couturiers, she sketched the current fashions on
Mars. Unisex styling was in vogue; everyone wore blousey pants and a long, decorated shirt
that was cinched at the waist.
Smith as the `incarnating medium' or `channel' of Marie Antoinette also wrote letters
and it troubled none of the believers that her handwriting in no way resembled the Queen's
documented hand. Neither was anyone disturbed by Marie Antoinette's references to
telephones, steamships, and so on.
Smith soon met Theodore Flournoy, professor of psychology at the University of
Geneva, who assiduously chronicled her trances.
Flournoy concluded that all of her personalities and their utterances were products of
her own mind; although, having determined that she clearly was not feigning the trances, he
never doubted her sincerity.
Despite the fact that she had identified Flournoy as her loving husband in her previous
life as the Princess Simandini, she became so angry with him for his refusal to acknowledge
her reincarnated personae, that she divorced him, in a manner of speaking, and never spoke to
him again.
She retreated more and more into her imaginary worlds and by the end of her life was
living full-time in the character of the Virgin Mary.
More recently, but as well-documented, is the case of Bridey Murphy which
captivated the U.S. during the l950s. Morey Bernstein, a businessman and amateur
hypnotist, used a trance regression technique on a friend of his, Virginia Tighe. Asked to go
farther and farther back into her own life, Tighe suddenly began to speak strangely, confiding
finally that she was eight years old, that the year was l806, and that her name was Bridey
Murphy of Cork, Ireland. During subsequent sessions, Bridey dictated her autobiography.
CHAPTER 11 RIGHT UNDERSTANDING
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