MASS DREAMS OF THE FUTURE
Another past-life researcher who turned up evidence suggestive that the mind has a hand in creating one's destiny was the late San Francisco-based psychologist Dr. Helen Wambach. Wambach's approach was to hypnotize groups of people in small workshops, regress them to specified time periods, and ask them a predetermined list of questions about their sex, clothing style, occupation, utensils used in eating, and so on. Over the course of her twenty-nine-year investigation of the past-life phenomenon, she hypnotized literally thousands of individuals and amassed some impressive findings.
One criticism leveled against reincarnation is that people only seem to remember past lives as famous or historical personages. Wambach, however, found that more than 90 percent of her subjects recalled past lives as peasants, laborers, farmers, and primitive food gatherers. Less than 10 percent remembered incarnations as aristocrats, and none remembered being anyone famous, a finding that argues against the notion that past-life memories are fantasies. Her subjects were also extraordinarily accurate when it came to historical details, even obscure ones. For instance, when people remembered lives in the 1700s, they described using a three-pronged fork to eat their evening meals, but after 1790 they described most forks as having four prongs, an observation that correctly reflects the historical evolution of the fork. Subjects were equally accurate when it came to describing clothing and footwear, types of foods eaten, et cetera.
Wambach discovered she could also progress people to future lives. Indeed, her subjects' descriptions of coming centuries were so fascinating she conducted a major future-life-progression project in France and the United States. Unfortunately, she passed away before completing the study, but psychologist Chet Snow, a former colleague of Wambach's, carried on her work and recently published the results in a book entitled Mass Dreams of the Future.
When the reports of the 2,500 people who participated in the project were tallied, several interesting features emerged. First, virtually all of the respondents agreed that the population of the earth had decreased dramatically. Many did not even find themselves in physical bodies in the various future time periods specified, and those who did noted that the population was much smaller than it is today.
In addition, the respondents divided up neatly into four categories, each relating a different future. One group described a joyless and sterile future in which most people lived in space stations, wore silvery suits, and ate synthetic food. Another, the "New Agers," reported living happier and more natural lives in natural settings, in harmony with one another, and in dedication to learning and spiritual development. Type 3, the "hi-tech urbanites, " described a bleak mechanical future in which people lived in underground cities and cities enclosed in domes and bubbles. Type 4 described themselves as post-disaster survivors living in a world that had been ravaged by some global, possibly nuclear, disaster. People in this group lived in homes ranging from urban ruins to caves to isolated farms, wore plain handsewn clothing that was often made of fur, and obtained much of their food by hunting.
What is the explanation? Snow turns to the holographic model for the answer, and like Loye, believes that such findings suggest that there are several potential futures, or holoverses, forming in the gathering mists of fate. But like other past-life researchers he also believes we create our own destiny, both individually and collectively, and thus the four scenarios are really a glimpse into the various potential futures the human race is creating for itself en masse.
Consequently, Snow recommends that instead of building bomb shelters or moving to areas that won't be destroyed by the "coming Earth changes" predicted by some psychics, we should spend time believing in and visualizing a positive future. He cites the Planetary Commission—the ad hoc collection of millions of individuals around the world who have agreed to spend the hour of 12:00 to 1:00 P.M., Greenwich mean time, each December thirty-first united in prayer and meditation on world peace and healing—as a step in the right direction. "If we are continually shaping our future physical reality by today's collective thoughts and actions, then the time to wake up to the alternative we have created is now, " states Snow. "The choices between the kind of Earth represented by each of the Types are clear. Which do we want for our grandchildren? Which do we want perhaps to return to ourselves someday?"
