IARRT, the International Association for Regression Research & Therapies Inc., is

As an interesting correlate, Emanuel Swedenborg, the subject of Rudolph Tafel’s scholarship, is featured as a reincarnation case in my book, Return of the Revolutionaries.

Stanislav Grof, MD, is a psychiatrist and one of the founders of Transpersonal Psychology. Dr. Grof is a former Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. Like Swedenborg, Dr. Grof became interested in altered states of consciousness. Dr. Grof invented Holotropic Breath Work as a way for people to access altered, spiritual states in a safe manner. Because of our common interest in consciousness and spirituality, I was curious about Grof’s past incarnations. A few years ago, I asked Ahtun Re who Stanislav Grof was in a past lifetime. Ahtun Re responded, “Swedenborg.”

Swedenborg was a scientist, philosopher and clairvoyant who lived from 1688 to 1772. Jeffrey Mishlove, Ph.D., in his book, Roots of Consciousness, described Swedenborg as “the single individual who combined within himself the most intense spiritualistic exploration with the most sophisticated scientific expertise.” Swedenborg was firmly grounded in science and made important contributions in mathematics, physics and biology. Swedenborg spent many years studying human anatomy and physiology and as a result of his work, he was the first to discover the function of the cerebellum. In addition to his scientific pursuits, Swedenborg developed clairvoyant abilities and was able to extensively explore the realms of spirit.

Swedenborg’s description of the spiritual world was compatible with the perceptions of Austrian clairvoyant, Rudolf Steiner. Swedenborg and Steiner both described the spiritual world as being made up of various spheres of light and said that souls are attracted to particular realms based on their level of evolution. Steiner, interestingly, has also recently been identified in a reincarnation case. More recently, Michael Newton, Ph.D, also advances this general picture or landscape of the spiritual world in his classic book, Journey of Souls. Newton’s work is based on hypnotic regression sessions, where the client is taken back to a point in-between lifetimes and observations of the spirit world are described from a regression state.

In his daily life, Swedenborg would communicate with spirits, sometimes talking aloud to invisible beings. Though some might have questioned his sanity, Swedenborg showed no signs of mental illness and continued to function in high strata of society.

Grof, in exploring consciousness, was an early LSD experimenter. I have heard Dr. Grof in lectures describe spiritual realms accessed through LSD in a manner that would be consistent with Swedenborg’s personal spiritual experiences. Later, Grof invented a technique called Holotropic Breath Work, which allows practitioners to achieve altered states through natural means. Stanislav Grof has written a number of books on psychology and consciousness, including The Holotropic Mind.

In conclusion, I submit that Richard Hoagland is the reincarnation of Rudolph Tafel. In addition, as indicated by Ahtun Re, Mr. Hoagland’s passion for uncovering evidence of extraterrestrial life on Mars may stem from a past lifetime in which he participated in that Martian civilization. As such, we may view the Tafel/Hoagland case as a type of “affinity case,” much like the cases of Abigail Adams/Marianne Williamson, William James/Jeffrey Mishlove, and physicists C.S Peirce/H.D. Brown. In all these cases, the contemporary individual is intuitively attracted to their own past life persona, just as Mr. Hoagland appears to have been intuitively drawn to a past lifetime on Mars. And finally, even Rudolph Tafel’s biographical subject, Emanuel Swedenborg, is with us today in the persona of Stanislav Grof, MD.