Catherine returns for a session a week later rejuvenated and with improved symptoms, despite some concern about how this regression therapy might clash with her Catholic “upbringing and beliefs” (35). Weiss tells readers that reincarnation might not seem like such a heresy if they read the writings of some of the early Christian theologians.

Weiss outlines his own upbringing as the oldest of four children with a devoutly religious father and a loving but manipulative mother. He discusses his retreat into books, his “interest in science and [his] fascination with the workings of the human mind” (37), his entry to Columbia University, and the first meeting with his future wife Carole, including their subsequent engagement during his junior year. Having gone through medical school and securing a residency at Yale, Weiss “joined the new breed of biological psychiatrists, those merging the traditional psychiatric theories and techniques with the new science of brain chemistry” (38).

Under trance, Catherine discusses her life and duties as a servant in a royal household before moving on to a more ancient, wretched lifetime in a smelly cave. Next comes a lifetime circa 1536 BCE in which Edward, the pediatrician who demanded she visit Weiss, is her father, Perseus.