Welcome to The Mystical Underground

For many years, Carol Bowman was a past life researcher and regressionist. She wrote two extraordinary books on the past lives of children – Children’s Past Lives and Return from Heaven. The first was inspired  by her son, Chase, who on one 4th of July spontaneously recalled a past life as a black civil war soldier. The memory apparently was triggered by the constant explosion of firecrackers.

I discovered her first book when I was in Borders one afternoon, browsing the New Age section. The book literally fell at my feet. I bought it immediately, read it in a day, and wrote her a fan letter through whatever means existed then. We eventually spoke on the phone and met in person when Rob, Megan and I were driving through the northeast on vacation. We stayed with her, husband Steve, and Chase  for several days. It  felt like I had known her forever.

By the time she was writing her second book, she needed an agent and I recommended her to my agent, Al Zuckerman, who started Writers House. He took her on. That was at least  20 years ago. We’ve seen each other several times since, either here in Florida or in Pa, where she lives. We talk regularly by phone. Since trump was voted back in, our conversations tend to be how neither of us is dealing with the chaos very well.

One of Carol’s last memories of a previous life was being in a gas chamber in Hitler’s Germany. She lived through that time of the SS, the rounding up of Jews, the gas chambers.

But today she emailed me something that literally blew me away.

Carol has since retired from her client and writing work, but people she has instructed in past life regressions stay in touch with her. One of her colleagues  sent her this story about the reincarnated soul of a young man, Jeffrey Miller (photo above)  killed at Kent State in 1970.

The story:

When my son was 2-3 years old, he described in depth for me the Kent State shooting in 1970. He told me that he was standing outside at a school. He showed me the peace sign with his fingers. He said he was worried about his black friends that they would not be safe there. Then, he told me that the men with guns started shooting and he was hit. It was a very emotional night as he was sobbing, and hard to comfort.

We used to ask him what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said that he just wanted to live long enough to be an old man.

Fast forward a few years. A friend came over with 1970s style clothing for him, a tasseled leather jacket and 1970s jeans and he broke down crying.

I had not been a history buff, but when my son was in his teens and staging demonstrations at the local university, I decided to look up the Kent State shooting. A friend of mine was over and saw the picture of Jeffrey Miller and asked me when my son had B/W photos done. The resemblance was uncanny.

I looked into it further years later. Jeffrey Miller wrote poetry. My son wrote poetry. Jeffrey Miller was an activist. My son planned and staged demonstrations about climate change and prison reform. Jeffrey Miller was Jewish. My son converted to Judaism. Jeffrey Miller worked at the college radio station and loved music. My son plays several different musical instruments and composes his own music. I am not musical, so he taught himself to play piano.

Jeffrey Miller was shot through the mouth. My son had an accident when he was 19. He had to have plastic surgery to reconstruct his mouth. At the time, I told him–I don’t care if you fight for the things you believe in, just live a long time to do it.

Apparently, Jeffrey Miller had wanted to move to Canada. My son moved to Canada and became a Canadian citizen.

These days, my son is too busy to think about past life connections. But I think about this sometimes. He and I are not especially close, so I wonder how it is that kids choose their parents.