written by Rod Keller (c) 1999
Have You Lived Before This Life
by L. Ron Hubbard
(c) 1958
"Author" L. Ron Hubbard? Not really. This book is composed of 43 stories of past lives, written by other Scientologists. The stories are either Preclear Reports written by the person remembering the past life, or Scientologist Reports, written by the auditor(s). I have the 1968 edition, which lists names for many of the stories. I understand more modern editions have removed the names. It seems that the names are not those of the preclear, but of the auditor, regardless of who is telling the story.
The study is claimed to be scientific, and that each of the subjects remembered past lives without prompting from the auditor. Hubbard says in the introduction that "They were asked only to 'enter' the Dianetic engram (or trauma) 'necessary to resolve the case.'" Several of the stories contradict this statement of the methodology. For example, Case #30. "The incident was found by asking the preclear for the date of a past death and snapping my fingers." Clearly, past lives were suggested to the preclears as a place to find these incidents.
Here is a summary of the 43 cases.
The brother of the king didn't like him very much. He was tricked into challenging the king to a duel, but another man was switched at the last minute. The duel ended when the brother was stabbed with a sword in the elbow. He was sentenced to exile, but was kidnapped and tortured to death with thumb screws, whippings and the rack.
One death. Betrayal and torture.
A chinese boy steals silk scarves, and his secret girlfriend is executed for the crime. Years later he is a beggar, and is rounded up with dozens of others in a search for some bandits. They are all beheaded.
Thirty five to forty deaths.
A roman soldier in Greece is poisoned by his mistress. He hallucinates that his wife and friends have all been murdered, and in his delirium, commits suicide.
One death. Suicide, betrayal and drugs.
A man has has three mothers who are killed. Later he kills his father. He finds his wife in bed with another officer on his space ship, and kills both of them, then kills their baby. He attempts a mutiny, and is killed by his gay space ship crew.
Eight deaths. Patricide, murder.
A robot works in a factory in space, which has gold animals hanging around it. It grinds up discs to make small animals for shipment to other planets. A planet blows up, and the robot is to blame. He is drugged and forced to work the grinder.
One dead planet, population unknown. Drugs.
An engineer works in a power plant which beams energy to food machines. The machine breaks, the engineer is blamed, and he is sent to a space station which breaks apart because it doesn't get enough energy.
One dead space station, population unknown.
A statesman in England is being pressured to kill a humane law. His daughter is killed and her body thrown into his house as a warning. He hangs himself in the woods out of grief.
Two deaths. Suicide.
The commander of a large portion of the Roman Empire is in North Africa was on a trip to see why one of a series of message relaying baskets had gone down. A cave was nearby, and three men who went in the cave never came out. A nearby village was deserted. He inhaled some white powder that was near the cave, and his body burned to a crisp.
Four deaths, plus one village. Drugs.
A cat-person was given to a woman to take away on her spaceship, as a pet. She died from a drug overdose and the cat-person was thrown off the ship. Later, on a dome on a planet without an atmosphere, a meteorite crashed into the dome and everybody was sucked away into space.
Two deaths, plus one space station. Drugs.
A man had to do outside repairs on a space ship. He got radiation burns and fell off, plunging into an ocean on the planet below. A manta ray kills him and he in turn inhabits the manta ray.
One death.
A Babylonian carpenter has a wife and three children. He takes a mistress, who then threatens to expose him to his wife if he doesn't pay her some money. The carpenter agrees to steal some documents to raise money, and kills a courier. The people who wanted the documents refuse to pay. His mistress informs on him, and he is captured for the murder. His wife and children are killed before he is put on a rack, his eyes are burned out, and he is killed.
Five deaths. Infidelity, betrayal, murder and torture.
The French aristocrat parents of a boy die, and his uncle sends him off to the navy as a cabin boy. His chest is crushed and he is killed when he trips and falls behind a cannon just as it is firing.
One death.
A free thetan on Mars was causing trouble, destroying buildings and a bridge. He tries to inhabit a doll, but he is captured and beaten up. The doll is zapped with a ray guy, and run over by a car and a steamroller. He is frozen in an ice cube and dropped on Planet ZX 432, where he takes another robot body, where he zaps and kills another robot. He takes off in a flying saucer, and dies when it explodes.
Two dead robots. Murder.
A web footed woman is shot with a ray gun by a green humanoid with an elephant's trunk.
One death.
A man killed a girl, and tried to forget it happened by landing in a theta trap, which jumbled his memory. Then he went into a robot body, which burned out.
One death and one burned robot. Murder.
The son of a ruler goes to visit his secret mistress and their son. When he returned he killed the brother of his mistress, a volcano erupted and the son was killed by a big boulder. Then the volcano killed everything in the town.
Two deaths, plus one dead town. Murder.
A doctor lives in Somalia, West Africa. His brother and mother murder somebody. The doctor goes to the hospital to deliver his own child. His baby is stillborn. He accidentally sniffs some ether, falls over and stabs his wife, killing her. He is framed for the murder his brother and mother committed. Later, he marries again, but goes mad, raping and killing her. Then he kills a pet lion kept nearby, and the owner of the lion. He gets sick and is killed by a larger lion.
Six dead people, one lion. Murder, betrayal, drugs.
A spirit without a body was tormenting a man and his pregnant wife. It forced them to have sex so many times that the woman and baby were injured. When the baby girl was born, it inhabited the baby body. When she grew up, she became afraid of having children of her own, and intentionally killed herself by recklessly riding a horse. Riding side-saddle during a fox hunt, she jumped a rocky gully, fell off, and was killed.
One death.
The son of a Tibetan politician is sent on an important mission to Nepal. Opponents of the mission send three riders out with spears to stop him. Trying to evade them, his horse trips and breaks a leg. He pushes the horse off a cliff, hides in the rocks, and dies from the extreme cold.
One death. Treachery.
The daughter of a wealthy merchant is taken to a house where she is held captive. She is asked questions about a document in her father's writing, and is beaten when she says she doesn't know anything about it. Her clothes are ripped off, and a knife is used to cut her genitalia. She dies from the wound.
One death. Torture.
The son of a middle-eastern general has a knife fight, and is wounded in the neck. He recovers, but a growth forms over the wound. A foreign visitor offers his surgeon to remove the growth. The surgeon hypnotizes the son, and implants the suggestion that he should steal and deliver military secrets. The growth is then removed. When he returns home, he realizes that he's been hypnotized, and the arrest of the foreign visitor and his surgeon are planned. The son kills the visitor in a knife fight, gets some soldiers, arrest and executes the surgeon.
Two deaths. Treachery and hypnosis.
A boy and his brother live in London, and are raised by their grandmother, who beats them. He returns from a trip to find his lover has fallen in love with his brother, whom she marries. He kills his brother with a sword, and that night is killed while sleeping by his former lover.
Two deaths. Treachery, murder and infidelity.
An aristocratic man is in love with a woman of an opposite political group. He goes on a secret mission to get a document. On the way back his is thrown from his horse and borrows another horse. An uncle of his lover realizes his political beliefs, and the man kills the uncle in a duel. He rides away, and is pursued by two brothers of the family. His horse fails to clear a fence, and he is injured badly in the fall. The two brothers torture him to death with hit irons.
Two deaths. Torture and murder.
A boy is sent on a long journey to Greece. He is attacked by thieves and almost dies. When he recovers he goes to a castle and tries to find a secret entrance. He is captured by some monks, who either torture him or kill him in surgery.
One death. Torture.
A person is tortured to death in a medieval iron maiden, which can deliver electric shocks.
One death. Torture and electric shock.
A housekeeper wants a young girl out of the way. She is drugged with a liquid that is supposed to be medicine. Then the girl is stabbed in the heart with a kitchen knife.
One death. Drugs.
A Norwegian mother tries to abort her baby. The boy lives, but is blinded in the right eye. After seven years have passed, he has a fight with his father, who pushes him off a cliff while his mother watches. He lives, and goes to sea. He gets drunk and goes crazy. The crew blind him in the other eye with a hot instrument, and dump him overboard. He is swallowed by a whale, where he dies.
One death.
An Egyptian member of the royal household joins the priesthood. The initiation ceremony involves drugs, hypnosis, and inserting a gem in his forehead. The gem gives him mental powers over others. Later, he is mauled by a lion he is hunting and his spirit is taken out of his body and placed in a bottle. He stays there for 4,800 years until the bottle explodes and he is released.
One death. Drugs, hypnosis.
A person was taken to a stone post, and a blacksmith put his eyes out with a hot iron. He left his body, then the body ran down to a lake and washed the eye sockets.
One death. Torture.
A Roman soldier returns from a border patrol to find that his wife is living with another man. He spears the man, strangles his wife, and stabs a servant with a sword. He is caught by some passing soldiers, and is tried for the murders. He is sentenced to die, and is fed to a lion, who tears his head off.
Four deaths. Infidelity.
A stagecoach driver is having an affair with the landlady of an inn. He tries to steal money from her, and when discovered in the act, he kills her with a candlestick. Later, somebody is holding money from a bank robbery he performed. The man refuses to give the money. Angrily, he takes his horse and carriage to the barn, where he finds a young boy having sex with his daughter. He accidentally kills the girl by throwing a pitchfork at her. He then blames the boy, who is hanged with a chain. His wife then kills him by shooting him in the back.
Four deaths. Murder.
The son of a military leader in England was carrying an important message. He is grabbed from behind by a group of men who want the message he was trying to take to his father. He is put on a rack and tortured. He refuses to give up the message.
One death. Torture.
A boy is hit with a belt buckle for using some purple hair dye that is reserved for court functions. Later, he stabs his step-father to death. Later, when his mother dresses up for an event at which she hopes to meet a new rich man, he beats his mother to death in a crazed haze. He is sentenced to electroshock therapy, and eventually joins the space corps. His wife sleeps with another man, and he kills her. He remarries a woman who likes to tease him, and he kills her. He marries again, and has three children. He gets drunk and finds her kissing another man, so he strangles her and stabs her in the genitals. Then he kills the children. As punishment he is implanted with electronic circuits by psychiatrists and sent to blow up a building. He is caught and electoshocked, then turned into a human bomb and sent back to his implanters.
Excerpt:
"He walked in an emotional hell towards Melanie, she turned and smiled, and then his hands had caught her throat, and, berserk, he was smashing her head against the wall, blood was running from her nostrils, and foaming at her mouth, when with savage rage he ran his spare knife into her vagina and ripped her up to her chest, while the blood ran, and the body collapsed. He tore her insides out, and raging mad, stuffed her womb in her mouth, scattering her entrails around the room. His daughter ran in screaming and he cut her throat with one deft slash, and as the boys came in their frightened white faces disappeared into bloody mash as he pulverised them with a metal stand. He careered around the room, hacking the bodies, till blood spattered and physically exhausted, the ampline-generated rage faded."
Nine deaths, plus one building. Electroshock, murder, implanting, infidelity, patricide, matricide.
The son of a squire is brought to his grandmother's deathbed. Later he injures himself and gets his good clothes dirty falling from a tree. He joins the army, and sees a cannon crew killed by an explosion. He is later killed by riding an ill-tempered horse who runs him into a tree branch. On his death bed he realizes the doctor tending him is really his father.
About six deaths.
A being landed on a planet with a lot of other beings. Their identity discs were stolen by robots. They were forced to work on new robot bodies so they could get the discs back. 64,000,000 years later, the beings were still working for the robots, but they were now robots too. They were enslaved and hypnotized. The being was taken to another planet. On the way, they used a lamp to radiate her and motivate her to become pregnant. But the motivation was stronger than intended, and she woke somewhat from the hypnosis. When they got to the planet she took over a walrus body for a while. The robots were getting suspicious of her, and she was tricked into revealing her awareness when a gas was used to make all the robots start coughing. She was shot with a ray gun, and the robot body was dumped into space.
One death. Hypnosis.
A being mocked up a pyramid, then decided to show the pyramid to other beings. They didn't appreciate the pyramid, so he made another one with a distortion sphere. When he looked inside the sphere, he saw himself in the pyramid. The other beings didn't like this one either. After two trillion years, he went back to the original pyramid, ejected it and tried to explode it.
A being goes to a planet where the forces of good are fighting the evil, black magic forces. After 74,000 years of battle, implants and hallucinations, he loses the fight, and joins the black magic side. He goes to another planet on a space ship, where he marries a beautiful girl. After 50 years, he discovers the girl was really a robot, and she completes the implants.
One death. Treachery, implants.
A man leaves his family to join the space corps in battle. He is assigned to destroy an enemy ship. His one man ship is damaged, and he fails in his mission. When he returns home, the city where his family lived has been destroyed by the very space ship he was assigned. Later, he finds his girlfriend in bed with another man. He kills the man, and his girlfriend hits him from behind with a vase. He scars her face with the broken glass. He goes to the temple of an old religion, where they insert needles in his brain through the eyes. He is trapped in a glass jar, but free of his body, which goes off without him. He is dumped on earth and becomes a Hittite in Anatolia.
Six deaths, plus one city. Implants, murder, infidelity.
A man in the Space Command went to Mars on a secret mission. He was found out by the robots who lived there, and was taken away. They bombarded him with particles that cause confusion. Then they put him in a robot body, and sent him off to an outpost station in space. It was boring, so he started making his reports into jokes. So they came to take him away, ripped out his circuits and threw him on the scrap heap.
One death. Implants.
A soldier breaks up with his girlfriend. Then he goes to a briefing room where beams are shot at his solar plexus and genitals, which implant his orders. Needles are pushed behind his eyes and into his ears. He is sent down to kill everybody in a town. He deliberately crashes his space ship to get rid of his highly implanted body.
One death, plus one town. Implants, suicide.
The commander of a sector of space destroys everything in the sector. He goes in a flying saucer where he is trapped, then to anther place where there are lots of television screens. He goes to another saucer which is a storage place for bodies and parts.
One dead space sector.
The son of a leader of the Pythagorean Order lives in Krotona in southern Italy. A mob seizes his father and ties him to a tree to be burned alive. He gathers members of the order to save him. A battle takes place, but the son is unable to save his father. He is stabbed with a spear and dies.
Two deaths.
At least 123 Deaths
One building
Four municipalities
Two space stations
One planet
One space sector
Eleven cases involving murder,
Seven cases of torture,
Seven cases involving drugs,
Five cases of infidelity,
Five cases of implanting,
Four cases of betrayal,
Four cases of treachery,
Three cases involving hypnosis,
Three cases of suicide,
Two cases of patricide,
Two case of electroshock,
One case of matricide.
This is a difficult book to read, even for a short 169 pages. I found the writing to be among the worst I have ever read. The first person accounts are mostly straight narrative, but the auditor reports remind me of a psychic's patter. They use indefinite words, and accounts of the laborious process by which the story was concocted. In a few stories the length of time spent auditing is recorded. One case took over 50 hours of auditing, and another over 40.
Case #33 is a crowning jewel of bad writing. It is eight pages long, about 4 times the average story. A small section should illustrate:
"What was this peculiar numbness and heaviness in my stomach, this haunting memory as the crystal flashed 'Lift your right hand and touch the ship.' This inexorable command closed on my vagrant thoughts, with vague uneasiness my body obeyed, the last futile spark of resistance faded, contact occurred, a condenser discharged a flaming pulse, my stomach, body, ship, and sand disappeared in the white hot heart of an atomic blast, and I knew."
But besides the writing are the repetitions. Everybody is the son of some famous or wealthy person. There is not a single farmer in the entire book. And there seems to be a preoccupation with eyes. Eyes are gouged out, burned out, needles are stuck into eyes, into the brain behind the eyes. I'm tempted to think there was a lecture not long before the experiment that mentioned eye removal.
I was struck with the conclusions reached by Hubbard as a result of this "test".
"Now what do you think?"Seventy conservative, well-trained Scientologists, the most effective practitioners on today's world mental improvement have gone through these experiences. Seventy sane people have some evidence that they have lived before.
"What about the rest of the human race?
"Verify the matter yourself. Contact your local Scientology Church as listed on page 181.
"These Churches are only interested in clearing people. They have no real interest in fads and crazes. They exist only for public service. But they have had to view past lives with more than ridicule. Past lives come up too often in auditing to be ignored.
"Will they come up in you?"
I came up with a different conclusion. A majority of the stories mention that they are sure the past life experience is true because it mirrors aspects of their current life. I would draw a different conclusion, that the past life experiences were created from their imaginations, using elements of their current lives to fill in the details. I'm sure Occam would agree.
I'd appreciate anybody who knew the people listed above. What happened to them? Did they blow, were they declared, are they dead, are they still Scientologists? And some technical questions, what is the big difference between Dianetic and Scientology processing. This study is supposed to be only Dianetics, not Scientology. One auditor mentions that he could have gone further if he were allowed to use methods that were not authorized for this test. Has the distinction become moot now that Scientology is a religion? Also, what is the "finger snapping" method? Several stories mention it, but it is unexplained.