This book is a re-issue of the third in this author’s series about the Cathars in Languedoc, France.

Originally published in 1974, it details the psychic impressions that Dr. Guirdham and a group of people close to him experienced.

This volume records the manifestation of the evidence for a group reincarnation of Cathars from thirteenth century Languedoc.

Dr. Guirdham was not a person normally associated with things psychic nor would he allow himself to be easily drawn into these matters. In fact, he wrote under a pseudonym.

He was an active psychiatrist with a busy practice and a personality that always led him to research every single piece of information presented.

Over decades from the 1950s to the 1970s, he became a focus for many people. Some were patients who had nightmares, migraines and phobias that were not easily explained by everyday diagnosis. He himself suffered from migraines and what he thought to be Menières disease, manifesting itself immediately prior to intense psychic episodes.

In this volume he recounts his research prompted by the nocturnal automatic writings, dreams and visions of a very ordinary, hale and hearty woman, Miss Mills and others who emerge later in the tale.

It reveals much about a group of eight people living in and near Bristol in the UK and how Dr. Guirdham was able to identify them exactly as a group living and working together in the 13th century at the time of the persecutions by the Inquisition.

As the doctor presents the evidence, he cannot avoid discussion of Cathar history, beliefs and the course of their persecution.

It is agreed that some of the Cathar’s Christian Gnostic beliefs included aspects of dualism that reached back to Classical Greece. The dualism may have had its origins as far back as the worship of Mithras and Zoroastrianism. A connection to the Bogomils of Bulgaria in the Byzantine empire has been established by scholarship.

The lynchpin of the Cathar belief is the indwelling of the spirit from the beginning. The basic Christian texts used by the Cathars are the Gospel of John and First Corinthians.

Dr. Guirdham has meticulously pieced together the evidence from the psychic sources, as well as historical records to shape a story and journal of revelation.

The revelation is that a group of people known to each other in 13th century Languedoc reincarnated in 20th century UK in or near Somerset.

The doctor became the focus, scribe and trusted historian of this group. His need to research every detail that was transmitted enabled a clear record and journal to be kept.

The significant themes of this work are the massacre of the inquisitors at Avignonet and the last sacrament – or Consolamentum – at the stronghold of Montségur immediately prior to the Cathars being burned at the stake.

The motifs transmitted are the religion, culture, philosophy and healing methods of the Cathars. Much time was spent with the description of apparel of the various members of the Cathar hierarchy.

Miss Mills was also given instruction on healing, and natural remedies. At times she actually used a ‘hands on’ healing method which is far more powerful than anything of which I have heard before now.

At other times Miss Mills, the doctor and another of the group actually took on illness symptoms of other members to combat the illness, in a type of ‘psychic fusion’ from a distance.

Many synchronicities occurred when the doctor was checking known facts against psychic transmissions. Obscure books would present the exact material sought in a very surprising way, not once but many times.

For the reader a huge question arises. If there is group reincarnation, why did these events happen to this group and not to ‘me and mine’?

One vision stated that this was happening all over the world. In the Western world people are naturally reticent to make public things that may be ridiculed. Psychic experiences, although widely believed, are not generally accepted. Dr. Guirdham suggests that a group may reincarnate for a specific purpose. He speaks only for his own group.

I would also suggest that for the high mystic path which the Cathars trod, their untimely and horrific deaths left karmic tasks unfinished. Many fears, phobias and unexplained physical manifestations in this life also reflected the trials that they underwent in the 13th century.

It is open for speculation and many readers will enjoy the journey into their own, awakening thoughts.

This work is written in a very down-to-earth style and is quite accessible. It is in journal form and compresses psychic and scholarly research over a four year period from 1968 to 1972.

Dr. Guirdham became more accepting of his own psychic experiences and his writing reflects this. He writes in a lucid and sensible style on material that is not easy to grasp. He occasionally expresses doubts over information that surprisingly is later confirmed by historical record.

In the latter part of the book he states what he thinks is the reason for this particular group incarnation.

The Cathar beliefs need to be disseminated. Their pivotal belief that good and evil are separate means that the battle against evil must carry on. The natural ways must be taught to those who have a call to healing. There has never been a greater need for this information.

This book will surprise and inform readers on many levels. If you are interested in early Christian dualism, the Inquisition, medieval history, types of psychic experiences, group reincarnation, healing, philosophy, there will be much to interest you here.

I recommend this as a timely re-issue of Dr. Guirdham’s works.

To unfairly tempt you to read this most interesting work, I offer this from the book: “We are not of this world and this world is not of us.”

– Reviewed by Jennifer Hoskins in New Dawn No. 89