Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives

Weiss believes that psychic experiences such as Catherine’s should be verified using the scientific method. Propose a research study to verify the authenticity of a psychic experience or phenomenon of your choice. What is your hypothesis? How will you design your study? Remember that it must be able to be reproduced by other researchers who might want to try and replicate the results. What are the criteria by which your hypothesis could be falsified?

Choose another book that describes in detail the bond between a doctor and patient. How does Weiss and Catherine’s relationship compare? What are the benefits and pitfalls of a sustained doctor-patient relationship?

Is it possible to reconcile traditional science and the study of psychic phenomena and the paranormal? What about these pursuits of knowledge are compatible? In what ways are they incompatible?

Take on the role of a skeptical columnist and write an op-ed trying to disprove or discredit the story that this book tells. In the column, demonstrate that you have clearly understood the text and what Weiss believes, but respond to his account and his opinions in a skeptical manner.

Does it matter whether Weiss is correct about the reality of past lives and about the spiritual cosmology hinted at in this book if the therapy still works? Is it possible to be skeptical about the absolute truth of reincarnation but buy into the practice of hypnotic regression if it shows positive benefits as it did with Catherine? Argue why or why not the literal truth of past lives matter when it comes to the possible benefits of this therapy.

Do you think Weiss is inventing a new cosmology or drawing from established theologies? How do the views described in Many Lives Many Masters relate to other religious traditions?

Why does Weiss believe that hypnotic regression is more effective than traditional psychotherapy? What can it do that regular therapy cannot? What does Weiss consider to be the best aspects of traditional psychotherapy and what positive aspects does he want to retain from the practice of psychiatry?

Describe Weiss’s journey from skeptic to practitioner of hypnotic regression and believer in reincarnation. What are the critical events along the journey? What could have happened to accelerate the process? What kinds of roadblocks could have derailed the journey or even ensured that Weiss remained a skeptic his whole life?