Death-Related Experiences Record Type: Review   ID: 32
A Tribe Returned (2d ed.). Cunningham, Janet
The subject of this book is a most unusual EHE. It is unusual because it is a group EHE involving 32-44 lives recalled (thus far) by 32 persons living today and associated in one way or another with Janet Cunningham, Ph.D., a hypnotherapist. This group were members of a small tribe of the Oglala Sioux headed by Silver Chief, father of Falling Star (Janet Cunningham). The tribe was highly evolved spiritually, as is very evident from the recollections. They were cruelly murdered by white soldiers, who hung Silver Chief, his wife, and his daughter Falling Star, who was in training as the tribe's future leader. The women were drawn and quartered while Silver Chief could only watch, and then he was killed the same way. The initial EE that brought this group of scattered people together was their past-life recollections, singly or two or more together, from 1986-1991, of being members of this tribe. These memories were kindled through past-life regressions (a prominent part of Cunningham's therapy), channeling, bodywork, spontaneous memories, and initially, a painting of Silver Eagle commissioned by Janet's husband for Janet and painted by a woman who was channeled as Silver Eagle's mother, though no one had consciously remembered the earlier life when the painting was commissioned. In this life Silver Eagle was not alive but was a communicator. He felt so strongly that it was his fault that his tribe was killed and their lands taken that he exiled himself in darkness. However, as the members of the former tribe became aware they occasionally find he is present or "receive messages from him related to the continued healing and integrity of the tribe" (p. xviii). As is the case with many EHEs, synchronicities also played a role in keeping the recollections coming. It is an EHE because as a result of the tribe members' recollections of that past life their current lives are being transformed. Cunningham does not have hard and fast proof that the tribe existed. She says, speaking for anyone who has had an EHE: "All that I can do is share my story in the way that it actually happened in my life. Our memories have been strong. The experience of my own regression ... touched my soul. If we were, indeed, a tribe of 'highly spiritual people attuned to the land and Great Spirit,' it is also true of these people today in this life. By bringing these memories back, we have been able to free our spirits from the pain of unconscious memories that held us back. We each have a deeper understanding of who we are-and that we are so much more than our physical bodies" (p. 215). It is also an EHE became the stories of these people, told as an aspect of what in effect is Cunningham's partial EHE autobiography, is profoundly moving for the reader. One is not likely to be the same person after reading the book. The striking contrast between Janet's recollections of her wise father's wisdom teachings which are built on a connection with all things and the tribe members' empathic awareness of the hatred permeating the whites is unforgettable. For certain the message related reflected the Experiential Paradigm. And now we are trying to turn all indigenous peoples into clones of ourselves. Whether or not this book convinces anyone of reincarnation, it should wake many people up. There is no question in my mind that it is a very genuine, powerful, moving, transforming group EHE, which is still reverberating in several lives and now in this reader's as well.
Publisher Information:	Crest Park, CA: Deep Forest Press, 1994. xviii, 217p. Chap. notes: 216-217; 8 illus

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