How I Got Started

I’ve decided to launch the website for Tenure Denied to address several issues.

Firstly, I’ve had several unusual life events that have challenged my beliefs about God that I’m sure most of my readers will find to be fundamentally and dynamically similar to their own experiences. If not, then I’m sure that you’ve been very curious about souls, eternity, and at the very least the topic of past/post-life experiences that people share in books and on the news. The topic of past life regression is not accepted, let alone acknowledged in mainstream society with any seriousness, and I have often

commented that the stares and snickers are still ever-present to your face or behind your back.

In this website, I want to create a shared safe space within which readers can describe their experiences without criticism or judgment. We certainly have several research-based books in which personal narratives and experiences are documented. Still, there needs to be more social dialogue in mainstream society to create an ongoing conversation for people to “come out” and share their experiences more freely so that we can begin to see how common these experiences are and which aspects of past life experiences are universal and which are culturally determined. People worldwide need to feel safe to share with the result that therapists and clinicians then have an opportunity to analyze these narratives in a systematic and scientific manner.

Many of us have had an unexplainable experience with a therapist or a life event that is difficult to articulate, let alone explain. Right now, all we have as an industry or field of study is a handful of stories hat will never move us where we want to go into the realm of the “real” and the “acceptable.” We will talk about the “real” and see how “weird” our ideas are in the framework of clinical practice and even religion. At this point, it may all seem “weird” but when we see how common past life experiences are, some of us may have a shift in thinking and that’s all I’m looking for at this point in time. At the very least, let us agree to have an open mind about the topic and the issue. Do not dismiss this and us as “whackos” as Professor Ashford Connor in Tenure Denied was wont to do. Let’s stop and think methodologically about finally getting to another level by trying to come together as a more formalized international group dedicated to scientific inquiry in the area of past life clinical regression. Let’s move the field of past life regression from the world of the impossibly possible to at least the world of the possibly possible.

Secondly, it's important to see that many of the specialists in the field of past life regression are clinically trained, certified, and licensed professionals. The notion that practitioners are all "whackos" is a holdover from the last century and continues to be propagated by the media. We need to change our image and establish legitimacy to what we are doing as therapists and even as writers.

I can't tell you how many agents sent back the Tenure Denied manuscript with the comment, "Sorry, I

do not handle the genre for your book – the occult or science fiction." Past Life regression is a clinical method and a tool that therapists use to address trauma and pain in this life. It has become so acceptable to see the relationship between adult-based problems in terms of childhood issues that we do not give this relationship a second thought. Why not go back further if you can to see if the genesis

of the emotional problem is in a past life? Why is that thought and possibility "weird?"

Let’s begin a process of self-discovery and self-inquiry in which we each evaluate whether we, too, have had unusual experiences or events in life, and rather than dismissing them out of hand, we analyze them more critically as possible past life events. In order to accomplish this endeavor, I’ve asked my friend and colleague Greg McHugh, a past life regression therapist, to contribute his knowledge and expertise to our discussions on the website as well. To begin this process, I would like us all to share how we got started with past lives. So now that you know what this website is all about, let me share something about myself.

I've been involved with traditional formal schooling since I was five years old. I always wanted to be a University Professor, so I went from Brooklyn College undergraduate programming to graduate school to get my first Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology. I then applied to the City University of New York’s doctoral program in Speech-Language Pathology, where I specialized in child language disorders, specifically in the area of autism spectrum disorders. I achieved my dream when I started teaching formally as an Assistant Professor at Adelphi University in Garden City. While I was teaching in the Departments of Communication Disorders and Psychology, I studied for two additional Master's degrees in Special Education and Social Work. While all of this was going on, I met an extraordinary parent Toya Davis at the Adelphi University Preschool Program and decided to start a special education school for children with developmental disabilities in 1985. Over the past 30 years, Tiegerman Schools and Community Services have grown to serve 600 children and adults from New York City and Long Island. Just to give you something to think about for future discussions, my colleague Greg McHugh has indicated that "all children have past lives."

Over the years, I had a near-death experience (NDE) and a mesmerizing memory experience similar to

my central character Caitlyn Morrys in Tenure Denied, but these experiences were always in the background of my life. It’s also important to note that our souls “travel” in groups and that we have soulmates. So while on vacation one year, my husband and soulmate suggested that I write a murder mystery novel based on my experiences on the Adelphi University Personnel Committee. I thought the idea was ridiculous given everything else that I was doing, but I couldn’t get it out of my head, so I finally sat down and wrote a novel that collected dust in my closet, and time just moved ahead.

Several years later, I attended a training seminar for therapists at the Omni Center in Rhinebeck, New York, with the famous psychiatrist and past life regression therapist, Dr. Brian Weiss. At that seminar, I had an amazing reading with a psychic and a series of observations of past life regression experiences from participants and my novel all of a sudden came to life again. It now had my commitment and its theme with Caitlyn Morrys, the Coronado University Psychology Professor and Chairperson of the University Personnel Committee struggling with past life memories. Writing Tenure Denied as a past life mystery novel has given me the opportunity to seriously revisit the issue of past life memories and experiences, as well as the opportunity to move into and explore with all of you the wondrous world of past life mysteries and adventures.