Many Lives Many Times

In Many Lives Many Times, Nguyen Phong uses a dialogue between the astronaut Edgar Mitchell and the Buddhist Master Sheng Yen as a springboard to explore how the concepts of reincarnation and causality might inform us about human history. While these two concepts are not new, as many scientists had done much work in trying to validate them, this book also touches upon the current state of humanity, and many warning signs present in today's society.  More importantly, the author is trying to help us avoid repeating the decline and fall of our society—a story that has been repeated many times in human history.

This book takes the reader through intriguing stories, from lifetimes in ancient Atlantis and Egypt to the modern United States. This book is fun to read while provides deep exploration of these civilizations via their key cultural beliefs. Most importantly, the book provides not-too-subtle hints about shortcomings of our current society as well as clear guidance for its improvement via our individual and collective actions!

One of the best assets this book has to offer is a four-letter word: HOPE. As individuals, when we pit ourselves against huge problems such as the pandemic or ever-increasing natural catastrophes, we feel like David fighting Goliath. After all, what can one person do in the face of a category four hurricane? Not much. But what if the following two factors were true?

1. What comes around goes around (i.e., the good we do for others comes back to us)

2. We have access to the results of the acts of goodness we performed in past lives

Through the stories of the narrator, Thomas, who can remember his past lives, the book explores the idea that the consciousness is permanent and lasting, beyond the death of the physical body. In addition, the "seeds of goodness" (or good acts) performed in one life are stored and kept as the consciousness travels from lifetime to lifetime, and "sprout" when the conditions are "ripe". If these two factors are true, they give us access to much more actively positive power to affect the world than if we did not reincarnate complete with the seeds of our past lives. Of course, the same principles are true of negative acts, so we may have to "pay" for our actions that negatively affected others in our past lives.

This wonderful book takes readers on a journey not just through time, but through different ways of looking at the world – the world as it is today, and the world as it could be if we each became that butterfly in the Amazon, flapping our wings to create a storm of unimaginable positive change.