Roger Woolger

Roger Woolger was the second author authority on past lives and past life therapy that I discovered. His book Other Lives, Other Selves came along in my life at a perfect time (in 1983) as I was spiritually very hungry, had a lot of time on my hand, and was still too immature and ignorant to comprehend/understand Carl Jung. As a matter of fact, Other Lives, Other Selves was quite possibly my introduction into the world of Jungian thought as I remember how Roger was quite open about discussing the possibility that 'past life information' was quite possibly information that was accessed and available to us through a collective consciousness rather than as independent stories available exclusively to the individuals who experienced them.
     Recent excursions into Roger's world have lead me into two particularly fine thought-provoking ideas. One comes from a video that Roger made very near to the end of his life with regards to whether or not he believed that past lives were truly a phenomenon exclusive to individual 'souls,' that is, whether or not the individual soul exists. His explanation used an anecdote from Tibetan Buddhist monk Chunguyu Rinphche. When asked during a public Q & A how Tibetan Buddhists could adhere to a doctrine or belief in reincarnation and bardo when they do not believe in the concept or existence of "souls" the monk responded that they believed that the information that lives on, that seeks new vessels for life experience, are "our neuroses" that is, the stuck, unfinished, untransmuted energies of our lives. Were we to process and transform all of our energy into perfect, unfettered flow, we would be done: we would be ego-less and our energy would be free to flow into and dissipate within as it merges with the Unified Field of the great Universal Life Force.
     The second bit of Roger wisdom/insight that causes me food for thought has to do with Roger's look at the viability of any and all information accessible through the physical bodymind's link to memory or fantasy as equally relevant and helpful in processing and clearing stuck energy. I liken this to Neils Bohr's and Albert Einstein's valuation of imagination as a key element of creativity, creation, and a fuller human life. Thus, aspects of the human experience such as childhood, memory, imagination, fantasy, story, dream, intuition, artistic manifestation, even thought patterns can offer insights into oneself that can help one see oneself and his/her patterns--especially his/her stuck places and their origins. Creative expression (which, one could argue, encapsulates all human expression) is a means to both calcification and eradication of our patterns. Though it is always our choice whether or not we want to "like" or "dislike" our own patterns, assessment and expression would seem to give us the means to change (a process that some might call "grow").