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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast am on iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: And welcome back to Coast to Coast George Norrie with you.

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Speaker 2: Dina Merriam is with us. Began working in the interfaith

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Speaker 2: movement back in the late nineteen nineties. He founded the

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Speaker 2: Global Peace Initiative of Women back in two thousand and two,

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Speaker 2: an organization chaired by a multi faith group of women's

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Speaker 2: spiritual leaders. In two thousand and eight, she was one

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Speaker 2: of the founding members of the Contemplative of Alliance, which

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Speaker 2: later became a program of GPIW. Dean is a longtime

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Speaker 2: student of the Great Text of the Vedic tradition, currently

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Speaker 2: the chairperson of the International Advisory Council of the Aurville

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Speaker 2: Foundation based in India. Dina, welcome back.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, it's nice to be back.

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Speaker 2: What have you been doing in these five years.

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Speaker 3: Well, I've been writing books, I've been giving talk, I've

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Speaker 3: been organizing programs. You know, of course, we have the

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Speaker 3: COVID epidemic, so a lot of the work has been

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Speaker 3: on zoom. We're just beginning to have in person meetings again.

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Speaker 3: But there's no end to the need for people to

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Speaker 3: come together and talk and share thoughts here ideas.

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Speaker 2: And you've written at least four books since you were

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Speaker 2: on with me in twenty eighteen, haven't you.

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Speaker 3: That's right. Yeah, I've just published my fifth book and

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Speaker 3: I'm working on a new one.

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Speaker 2: Well, good for you. Now. This one that I've got

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Speaker 2: holding in my hand is called to Dance with the Dakantas.

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Speaker 2: Is that how you pronounce them?

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Speaker 3: Bikinis?

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Speaker 2: Bikinis? Who are? What are the kinis?

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Speaker 3: What theikinis?

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Speaker 2: Is that?

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Speaker 3: An? I guess you would say a Buddhist word, although

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Speaker 3: it's maybe also in the Hindu edition. It's really a

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Speaker 3: celestial female figure. So you might call them angels. In

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Speaker 3: the West, we would call them angels.

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Speaker 2: Okay, I like that. And those they're based out of India.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, the book is based partly in India and partially Tibet.

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Speaker 3: It goes back to the twelfth century. You know. My

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Speaker 3: interest has been I think the essential human question is

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Speaker 3: what happens when you die? There's no humans that can

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Speaker 3: escape that question, and it's an age old issue. But

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Speaker 3: I think that we're dead is like the last frontiers,

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Speaker 3: and I think that we're the science community at some

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Speaker 3: point will help us provide some answers to that question.

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Speaker 2: And I think it's a question that everybody eventually will

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Speaker 2: face or ask themselves at that moment, won't they exactly?

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Speaker 3: Because everybody. I mean, as you grow older, you know,

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Speaker 3: you lose parents, so many people. I mean, I've lost

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Speaker 3: my parents in the last year, and they were old,

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Speaker 3: you know, it was a very natural time the way

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Speaker 3: for them to go. But my relationship didn't end with them.

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Speaker 3: I still feel in contact with them. And I think

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Speaker 3: that's an experience more common than we realize. That people

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Speaker 3: don't feel it's the end. That they feel there's ongoing

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Speaker 3: relationships and ongoing life. What is that life?

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Speaker 2: That's the question exactly. And you weren't searching for your

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Speaker 2: past reincarnated lives, didn't you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, just as we ask what happens after, the

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Speaker 3: next question is, well what happens before? If we know

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Speaker 3: ourselves to be an eternal soul and that death is

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Speaker 3: not the end. I mean, there are two ways of

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Speaker 3: looking at the universe. The materialistic view, which is it's

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Speaker 3: just everything is materialistic, It comes by accident and then finishes.

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Speaker 3: If you don't hold to that view, if you know

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Speaker 3: there's a soul and you believe in the eternality of

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Speaker 3: the soul. Well, then the question is the soul existed

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Speaker 3: before we came into the body, if it exists after,

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Speaker 3: it existed before, and the body is just a vehicle

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Speaker 3: for that soul to experience the physical world world, And

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Speaker 3: so yes, so I wouldn't say I went looking. I

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Speaker 3: said my past came looking for me. I began to

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Speaker 3: have memories, and I think it's not uncommon. There are

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Speaker 3: many people who have written to me that reading my

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Speaker 3: books has helped them recover their own past. And I

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Speaker 3: think that's the point. I mean, I share my own

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Speaker 3: experiences because I think that if you realize that this

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Speaker 3: is not your first time around, it changes your whole

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Speaker 3: experience of death. You know, the fear, you can you

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Speaker 3: can really get over that fear. I mean, yes, there's

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Speaker 3: always going to be a sense of loss because you're

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Speaker 3: you're moving into a different reality, which means you know

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Speaker 3: you won't have the same body, you won't have the

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Speaker 3: same house, your friends might look different, but you know

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Speaker 3: that you're ongoing and it's not the end.

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Speaker 2: And at all, how did you end up?

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Speaker 3: That's a good question. I mean, I I, you know,

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Speaker 3: have worked globally and I've worked with people in conflict

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Speaker 3: areas all over the world. So one of the sort

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Speaker 3: of like the conflict areas that's not in the headlines

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Speaker 3: now is this China Tibet situation. Tibet was occupied by

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Speaker 3: China after World War Two and is still under occupation.

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Speaker 3: And I didn't know much about Tibetan though I've worked

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Speaker 3: in my interface work, I've met with different Tibetan leaders

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Speaker 3: as a part of the whole Buddhist community. But I

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Speaker 3: had a grandson born, and he began to at a

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Speaker 3: very young age. If you watch children when they're young,

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Speaker 3: often they reveal things about their past. And this grandson

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Speaker 3: started talking about Tibet and how he was killed in

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Speaker 3: the invasion.

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Speaker 2: Oh my god, how old was he when he started

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Speaker 2: talking about that?

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Speaker 3: At four years old?

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Speaker 2: Geez?

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Speaker 3: And I couldn't discount it because he said, you know,

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Speaker 3: he was so drawn to Tibet when he was going

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Speaker 3: to bed to listen to the chanting of Tibetan monks.

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Speaker 3: He knew the chance, he knew some of the deities.

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Speaker 3: I mean, he just knew so much. Of course, you know,

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Speaker 3: he began to outgrow that, and he still remembers that,

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Speaker 3: but he sort of moved. Now he's much older, but

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Speaker 3: I've seen that if you watch kids, you can see

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Speaker 3: something about the past. Till anyhow, he began talking to

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Speaker 3: me a lot about Tibet, and eventually I began to

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Speaker 3: remember a birth a long time ago, was not a

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Speaker 3: recent birth in Tibet that had a great impact on

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Speaker 3: me because it was also a part of my search

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Speaker 3: for the higher truths and to learn about, you know,

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Speaker 3: my search for what is real? You know, what is

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Speaker 3: this life about? I think so many lifetimes I've been

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Speaker 3: asking that question, what is this life about? What comes after?

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Speaker 3: And how can we how can we come to know

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Speaker 3: things about the universe? And I always come back, you know,

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Speaker 3: spiritual practice, prayer and meditation, listening to the counsel of

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Speaker 3: the wise ones. There are many ways that you can

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Speaker 3: grow in your understanding of what this life is about.

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Speaker 2: Well, there's no question the Tibetans are very spiritual people.

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Speaker 2: Did you find that to be the case?

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Speaker 3: The Tibetans are very spiritual people, and they have a

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Speaker 3: long history, and surprisingly there was a time when they

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Speaker 3: were a very powerful empire. They had a great king

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Speaker 3: in the eighth century, and they have a very large,

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Speaker 3: very important empire was the center of trading between China

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Speaker 3: and the Eastern world east of Tibetan you know, India,

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Speaker 3: and then the steps that were north of it. So

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Speaker 3: it was a very important and wealthy kingdom. But gradually

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Speaker 3: their attention turned from the material to the spiritual, and

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Speaker 3: so more and more of them entered monasteries when Buddhism

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Speaker 3: came in, because they had a pre Buddhist religion which

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Speaker 3: was very much nature based, like not so different from

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Speaker 3: our Native American traditions where people are commune with the

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Speaker 3: spirits of the earth and the spirits of the water.

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Speaker 3: They saw spirits everywhere, and so a lot of their

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Speaker 3: earlier traditions, a lot of the earlier traditions everywhere around

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Speaker 3: the world was nature based. And that was very interesting

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Speaker 3: to me because I think that's something that we need

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Speaker 3: to sort of regain, our sense of harmony with nature,

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Speaker 3: our sense of seeing nature as alive, and so of

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Speaker 3: gaining a much deeper respect and appreciation for nature what

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Speaker 3: nature has to offer. That was ingrained and all the

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Speaker 3: early cultures, you know, way back, and over time we've

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Speaker 3: lost that. So now we just abuse you know, the

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Speaker 3: rivers and the oceans and our soil and forests without

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Speaker 3: realizing the repercussions.

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Speaker 2: Deana. In the book, you talk about three successive lives.

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Speaker 2: How did you come across them?

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Speaker 3: So? Yeah, So during my exploration of this life in Tibet,

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Speaker 3: I was faced with a great problem and I wanted

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Speaker 3: to I couldn't get to the source of that problem.

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Speaker 3: And there was a so called spiritual leader who was

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Speaker 3: really a cult leader. You know, we have such people today,

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Speaker 3: and he held a great sway over my mind and

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Speaker 3: I ended up giving him all my resources. My husband

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Speaker 3: had recently died, so I gave him everything. And it's

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Speaker 3: the question of this happens, you know, it happened then,

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Speaker 3: it happens today where people gained control of others' minds

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Speaker 3: and you don't question. And so I had to get

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Speaker 3: I was driven to find out the cause. Why Why

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Speaker 3: does this man have such a hold on me? So

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Speaker 3: I had to go back to a previous birth where

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Speaker 3: I saw this man also pursuing me, and I came

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Speaker 3: to understand a lot, but it wasn't the source. I

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Speaker 3: had to go back even earlier to a previous birth

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Speaker 3: to see that this man was a son that I

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Speaker 3: had abandoned and that had grown to hate me. Really,

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Speaker 3: he pursued me until he took his revenge. But in

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Speaker 3: seeing all that in that life in Tibet, having gone

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Speaker 3: back into the past and finding the cause of his hostility,

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Speaker 3: I was able to resolve the relationship and finish it,

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Speaker 3: because you know, relationships follow us from one life to another.

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Speaker 3: And it made me look at my current life and say, Okay,

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Speaker 3: who do I have problems with? Where are there things unresolved? Well,

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Speaker 3: I want to finish them now. I don't want to

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Speaker 3: have to face this challenge again because with me, don't

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Speaker 3: resolve a challenge, we can know it's going to come

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Speaker 3: back to us in the end. We have to resolve

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Speaker 3: all the difficult these that we face, and we do

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Speaker 3: it now or we do it later.

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Speaker 2: What procedures you know did you use to uncover these

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Speaker 2: three past lives?

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Speaker 3: Was the question.

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Speaker 2: What procedures did you use to uncover life?

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Speaker 3: I didn't use any procedures. My memories just come naturally,

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Speaker 3: often in meditation and introspection. I know there are people

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Speaker 3: who go to something called past life regression. Yes, I

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Speaker 3: don't encourage that because I think whatever comes naturally it's

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Speaker 3: for a purpose, and whatever doesn't come naturally you don't

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Speaker 3: really need to know, so I just trust sort of

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Speaker 3: like you know, I think a lot of people have

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Speaker 3: sort of vague glimpses. Oh, I must have known that

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Speaker 3: person before, or I must have been there before. In

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Speaker 3: my case, for some reason, I have very clear memories,

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Speaker 3: so I remember conversations, I remember scenes, and I watch

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Speaker 3: it like a movie. So often when I'm sitting meditation,

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Speaker 3: I'm in the middle of a movie and I'm watching

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Speaker 3: the scenes unfold and there's nothing I do. It just happens.

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Speaker 2: Must you be in meditation mode in order to pull

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Speaker 2: out those past lives?

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Speaker 3: Not? No, I mean it often happens that way because

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Speaker 3: the mind is stilled, you know, if the mind's busy

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Speaker 3: doing if you're working or whatever, the mind is occupied.

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Speaker 3: But it can be, you know, when I'm taking a

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Speaker 3: walk in the woods or whenever, the mind is kind

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Speaker 3: of spilled. When I'm sitting outside, just sitting outside, reflecting,

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Speaker 3: it's usually when the mind is quiet. Sometimes it's when

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Speaker 3: I'm embedded mind, And I find that I keep pads

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Speaker 3: in pencil around my house, by my meditation seat, by

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Speaker 3: my bed, just so when things come to me, I

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Speaker 3: can record them, because you know, then the mind gets

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Speaker 3: busy and you forget, and often an important scene that

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Speaker 3: fills in a piece of a post. I mean, to me,

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Speaker 3: life is like a grand puzzle, and with each life

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Speaker 3: is like a different part of the puzzle that you

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Speaker 3: fit in and you say, ah, this is what that

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Speaker 3: looks like. Now that makes sense because that part of

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Speaker 3: the puzzle is related to that part of the puzzle.

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Speaker 3: And so it's actually amazing when you can see you

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Speaker 3: if you can step by back and see as God

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Speaker 3: would see all of our lives, it all would make sense.

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Speaker 3: It makes perfect sense. And it's very hard to judge

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Speaker 3: without knowing who somebody has been in the past, you know.

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Speaker 3: I mean you see somebody who's had a lot of suffering,

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Speaker 3: well you don't know who they've been in the past.

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Speaker 3: You know, we're brought about that suffering. I mean, life

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Speaker 3: doesn't make sense unless you can see the whole picture.

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Speaker 2: Well, you had mentioned that these past lives had an

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Speaker 2: effect on your current life, and has it changed you?

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Speaker 3: It has changed me dramatically, I would say, because it's

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Speaker 3: changed my whole relationship with Yes, and it's also made

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Speaker 3: me realize that there's no saying goodbye. I mean people

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Speaker 3: that you love, you meet again and again, and even

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Speaker 3: though your soul recognizes them, even though you look different,

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Speaker 3: they look different, your soul recognizes them. So in this book,

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Speaker 3: this woman is married. She's a wonderful marriage, a man

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Speaker 3: who she just adores. It's after her it's after his

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Speaker 3: death that she kind of falls into this very dark

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Speaker 3: place and comes unto the sway of this man. But

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Speaker 3: when she goes back into the past, she realizes that

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Speaker 3: she had known this man her husband, in her past birth,

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Speaker 3: but they couldn't get together. He was a monk and

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Speaker 3: committed to his vows, and she fell in love with him,

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Speaker 3: but they couldn't fulfill their love. And that was one

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Speaker 3: of these sort of difficult things for her, is that

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Speaker 3: they couldn't come together. But in her current life they

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Speaker 3: marry and she has the perfect fulfillment of that relationship.

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Speaker 3: And so I think that's really the way it works,

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Speaker 3: you know, is if whatever desires can't be fulfilled in

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Speaker 3: one life, it might not be the next life. It

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Speaker 3: could be the life after that, but eventually all the

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Speaker 3: desires are fulfilled.

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Speaker 2: Who makes that happen like that? Do you know?

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Speaker 3: You know, there's this thing called karma, which is a

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Speaker 3: law of cause and effect. And I don't consider that

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Speaker 3: to be a system of reward and punishment. I see

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Speaker 3: it as an energy system, just like there's the law

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Speaker 3: of gravity. If you throw something up, it's going to

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Speaker 3: come down, and it always happens that way. That's the

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Speaker 3: law of the physical universe. So whatever you put out,

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Speaker 3: your thoughts, thought of energy, your thoughts, your desires, your actions,

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Speaker 3: they have a rebound. I mean, they eventually produce an effect.

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Speaker 3: And so I see the law of causing effect as

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Speaker 3: a learning you know, where this whole, this whole universe

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Speaker 3: is designed for our learning, our learning to become more loving,

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Speaker 3: more compassionate, more giving, more understanding, a better person. And

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Speaker 3: it's a slow process life to lifetime. If we hurt somebody,

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Speaker 3: well we have an opportunity in the future to make

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Speaker 3: amends for that. And that's something that we want. I mean,

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Speaker 3: there's nobody punishing us. We ourselves do it to ourselves

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Speaker 3: because we want to learn and grow. We hurt somebody,

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Speaker 3: you know, you know, we leave a marriage in a

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Speaker 3: bad way, we abandoned somebody, whatever it is, well, deep

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Speaker 3: inside we want to make amends for that, even if

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Speaker 3: we're not conscious of it. And we'll give ourselves an

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Speaker 3: opportunity in the future to make amends.

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Speaker 2: I was always told that we don't remember our past

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Speaker 2: lives in our current life because of would play havoc

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Speaker 2: with us, and listening to you, that doesn't seem to

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Speaker 2: be the case.

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Speaker 3: Well, I think it could play havoc with us. You know.

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Speaker 3: For example, I heard a story of a great teacher

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Speaker 3: and one of his students came to him with a

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Speaker 3: newborn child, and he said he almost dropped the child

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Speaker 3: because he saw that the child was a murderer in

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Speaker 3: his last life. Now, I suppose the mother looked knew

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Speaker 3: that that would be a terrible thing. Each time you're

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Speaker 3: given a fresh opportunity, you know, what are you going

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Speaker 3: to make of your life? You're not consciously burdened by

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Speaker 3: your memories. And I think also when I first had

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Speaker 3: my experience, I wrote my first book, My Journey through Time,

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Speaker 3: and I began to remember my birth just previous, which

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Speaker 3: took place in the early part of the twentieth century.

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Speaker 1: I died in.

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Speaker 3: Europe during World War Two. I was a single mom

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Speaker 3: at that time, raising two teenage sons. I held the

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Speaker 3: job he was to stabilize, and I couldn't talk to anybody.

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Speaker 3: Had one friend I could talk to about it, but

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Speaker 3: you know, there weren't many people I could talk to.

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Speaker 3: And yet I was seeing scenes from World War two

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Speaker 3: and here I was in, you know, being a meeting

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Speaker 3: at work and hearing sirens from World War two. It

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Speaker 3: was very destabilizing, and thank god I had a meditation practice,

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Speaker 3: which you know, calms one and helps one ground oneself.

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Speaker 2: I would think you'd go wacky sometimes knowing this, but.

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Speaker 1: You could listen to more Coast to Coast AM every

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Speaker 1: weeknight at one a m. Eastern and go to Coast

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Speaker 1: to coastam dot com for more