Have you lived before this life? it is an unusual book. Not because it is reporting past life type phenomena. Past lives have been reported by people for thousands of years around the world. Many religions are based on this phenomenon. Where we go after death has been the subject of debate on dinner tables, in hallways, and in print newspaper columns. It is unusual because it contains so many past life case histories of ordinary people.

This book by L. Ron Hubbard was first published in 1959 after he gave a conference of many lectures in London on the subject. Here the subject of past lives came up again and again. Here the students were learning to hone their technical advice, called auditing. For the audit to work effectively, it appears that the receiver must be made to access memory of past lives. It would also seem that one’s problems in this life do not begin at the beginning of this life, but go earlier and earlier, much earlier. This concept only differs from the Indian concept of reincarnation in that, according to Scientology experience, man does not cross species from man to another species.

Scientologists are helped with the electronic e-meter that measures thought. The counselor can then quantify and measure the trauma, either in this life or in a previous one. Also, the meter can find thoughts that would otherwise be hidden from view. Furthermore, when a person being counseled talks about the experience that he is seeing in memory, the accusation follows. This looks as good as it is measured. The meter finally shows when the charge has been depleted and the counseling session is over.

The book Have you lived before this life?? has 42 case histories of people who experienced previous lives during the audit. This is the only thing about this book. The counseling sessions were written down and the problems the person had before the sessions, as well as the details of the session and what was handled by reviewing past memory, are all in the book. The case histories of what was revealed in the sessions can go back hundreds of years or even thousands. It is a fascinating read.

The book has no problems and the stories it contains are those told by those who went through the experience. Scientology counselors do not tell a person what to think or what to find, so what comes to mind for the person being counseled is exactly what is discussed in the session. The book reads like a very interesting read as a result of this approach.

The book also has some excellent essays by L. Ron Hubbard on the subject of past lives and is recommended for those who have audited Dianetics and been in contact with past lives.

The dust jacket says: “Is death an end or a new beginning?”