Walter Semkiw MD discussed his work on reincarnation, and past lives, featured on the new IISIS.net website. IISIS is a nonprofit dedicated to reincarnation research and in particular, to disseminating the work of Dr. Ian Stevenson, who spent 40 years traveling around the world, documenting children who had spontaneous memories of previous lives. One of Stevenson's case studies involved a girl named Uttara Huddar from central India, whose past life personality was a woman named Sharada who at times would take over Uttara's consciousness and speak in Bengali, while Uttara only spoke Marathi. The phenomenon of people speaking in a language entirely unknown to them is called xenoglossy, and was present in a number of Stevenson's cases, Semkiw detailed.

One of Stevenson's intriguing findings was that if someone had a stab or bullet wound in a previous incarnation, they might have a birthmark or scar in that same spot. Semkiw described the fascinating case of a skeptical police Captain named Robert Snow who underwent a past life regression on a dare, and uncovered startling memories of being a portrait painter in the 19th century. By coincidence, he ran across one of the paintings he specifically recalled of a hunchback woman, at an art gallery in New Orleans, and found out the name of the artist was Carroll Beckwith. Further details on the case here.

Semkiw has spent nearly a decade working with a spiritual entity channeled by Kevin Ryerson named Atun-Re, who claims to be an ancient Egyptian priest. Atun-Re has confirmed various reincarnational matches to him, including David Rittenhouse as Carl Sagan, Charles Thomson as Ralph Nader, Rev. William Walter as Neale Donald Walsch, and Laurel & Hardy as the Bacher brothers. Semkiw contends that in many cases of reincarnation, the two parties share a strong resemblance in their facial features. According to Atun-Re, "the soul projects an energy template or hologram into the developing body and...the physical body shapes around it," he explained.

Near Earth Asteroids

First hour guest, planetary scientist Daniel Durda talked about Near Earth asteroids. Spaceguard (UK) and NASA's Near Earth Object Program are involved in identifying objects that are a potential threat to our planet. The asteroid Apophis which passes close to Earth in 2029 will be closely watched, as on its "resonant return" in 2036, there is a slim chance it could impact Earth. With enough warning, we could actually nudge an asteroid out of our path, he said, noting that one possible method is using a "gravity tracker," which would hover near the surface of the object, and alter its course.

News segment guests: Lauren Weinstein, Catherine Austin Fitts