History Items of a Zonian

Dear Aaron,

I was pleased to receive your letter and must compliment you on the precise and striking hand you scribe.

As background, let me note that the hypnosis for regression can be viewed two ways. First it can be considered a window into past lives or access to and proof of reincarnation. The second way is to assume that there is a racial memory in each person's brain to which the unconscious mind has access. This is a premise explored in the novel, Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel. She has written 4 or 5 books and I highly recommend all of them.

I think the second vision is the most probable in explaining regression. Basically the portions of our brain that science believes we do not use, ARE used. The memories of our ancestors are recorded there. The ability to recall is less effective the older the memory becomes. Hypnosis enables us to "look around" in these memories.

Now let me answer some of your questions. How was the regression accomplished? I went to Barbara's apartment and lay down on her living room couch. She began recording the session and hypnotized me. I was aware she was there and she asked me what I saw and suggested that I "look around" at the things I saw at the place I was in. When I said I saw something she asked me to describe it. As a point of interest, her significant other came in after a couple of hours and I heard the door open and his greeting to Barbara and simply waited patiently until Barbara continued with me. After 4-5 hours of session (five 60 min.tapes) I was "awakened". I couldn't open my eyes as they were stuck shut and I had a great thirst.

What I saw from the past life was fragmented. I had to "look around". I first found myself in a boarding house where I "felt" (somehow knew) I lived. I knew my family home was outside town. I lived temporarily in the boarding house. I knew there was a war on and the deserted streets were caused by evacuation. Barbara asked me to go out into the street. I did so and told her I had to go down narrow stairs indicatinging my room was upstairs. She asked me to look around on the street and describe it. I told her there were raised boardwalks and a dirt street.

Prompted, I looked for people and saw a "fancy dandy" across the street annoying an obviously cultured lady. At a word from me he moved on and she went her way quickly and with thanks, declining my offer to accompany her. At Barbara's urging, I went on to my place of employment where her questioning uncovered that I was part owner of an accounting partnership. I stopped at the closed barbershop along the way to the my business and saw a Richmond newspaper in the window. I was later guided West of the city to my real homestead and it was described, as were my neighbors, slaves, my son, etc. I came back for seed and went by a field hospital, traded my horse for a carriage, went to Petersburg, got seed, went home and with some Yankee intervention with my one remaining manumuted slave (I had freed them all years before the war) I began growing corn again. A Yankee Captain from the Commisary Department in Washington contracted to buy my harvest the next year and prepaid Federal money.

Later investigation of real life historical 1861-63 city directories found that one of my ancestors, James Clarke, in Richmond was a Clerk at several retail establishments during the war. Clerk was the name for accountant. Archivists for the Commonwealth told me Virginia required a different Clerk each year to avoid businesses cheating the state by "cooking the books". These accountants normally started firms that did the books for many stores. James Clarke also owned a home place on the Midlothian Turnpike, West of the city. He had manumuted over 50 slaves on his home place and in a coal mine he owned in Drewery's Bluff. James was a pillar of the community, having founded an Episcopal Church in the City of Manchester, the South side of current day Richmond. He was a known Scottish duelist who spoke once and then took action; often violent. Perhaps that’s why the dandy moved on and why the lady wanted no part of being accompanied.

I hope this helps a bit. My theory is a bit different than Buddhist beliefs, as it is ancestral in nature; containing memories of my whole family tree. Please try the Jean M. Auel books. Though they are fiction, they are very well supported vis-à-vis theory.

If you get a chance to view the movie Gettesburg, I provided and commanded about 1/2 of the Confederate troops. There are two perfect frames of me crossing behind Longstreet and the British observer (all in red) as they were having tea.

Best regards to you and yours,

Dale C. Clarke, Colonel, CSA
Chief of Staff
Confederate Military Forces