FWIW, when Barry first announced on alt.m.t that he was leaving the U.S. to live in Europe some years ago (2004? 2003? can't remember), he told us he was taking this step so he could write (or finish?) his novel about the Cathars.
We haven't heard anything about that novel since, as far as I can recall. Seraphita wrote: Re "I'm in the same room of a castle, or in the courtyard of a large city like Carcassonne . . " and "Papal Palace in Avignon, realizing that I had not only been there before but been tortured (probably to death) there.": Aha! So you are claiming you were a Cathar in a previous life. As in "The Cathars & Reincarnation" by Arthur Guirdham (first edition 1970) up to "Labyrinth" by Kate Mosse set both in the Middle Ages and present-day France and published in 2005. Two possibilities: 1) your imagination has been hyper-activated by reading too much on this popular theme. 2) you really were a Cathar and your present incarnation is a continuation of the spiritual life you led back then. So your interest in FFL. ---In fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, s3raphita wrote: > > I was going to say this: If I was to find myself suddenly in a past-life - let's say in Elizabethan London - I'd take careful note of what clothes the people around me wore, what food they ate, what the houses looked like, etc. and then when I returned I'd check against the best-available historical evidence. Here's the thing though: if you were to have a past-life recall can you alter what you're thinking or doing? If it's a far-memory of "you" in a previous life is the you that's "you in the 21st century having the recall" able to change anything? I cannot speak to hypothetical situations like yours. I can only say what it was like for me. For me it was *not* like lucid dreaming, which I have practiced and gotten good enough at that I could change things in the dream to suit myself. The flashes I've had were all short-lived -- thirty seconds to at most a couple of minutes -- during which I was completely immersed in the scene. I *did* seem to have some volition, in that I could decide to try to talk to someone, and pull that off, but it was not the "I'm in control of this vision" kinda thang one experiences with lucid dreaming. I never sought any of these flashes, nor am I interested in doing so now. They just happened, almost always when I was in the physical location where the original events took place. That's the part that's so much FUN about whatever it is. I'm in the same room of a castle, or in the courtyard of a large city like Carcassonne, and one moment I'm "here and now" and the next I'm "here and then." The overall scene doesn't change, just the details -- like what people are wearing, eating, etc. I guess I could have been more Sherlock Holmes-y about it, but frankly each time it's happened it's come as such a surprise and been so thoroughly entertaining that I just allowed myself to be entertained.
