Q3. The Rebbe responded to this question from the perspective of his past life as a
child but also as a believer in reincarnation, and his REAL past lives ... when I go
back in time ... I go back to another incarnation. My strongest power vision, I lived
in all those times in other lives; in Egypt, in the Middle Ages, with the Baal Shem
Tov in Eastern Europe. Secularists call this fantasy but it is not ... it is very real and
more than just imagination. And when I tell the stories, I actually go back to the
energy of that time.
The Rebbe explained that in his present incarnation he had a very isolated
childhood and that my mother was not very loving ... was very verbally and
physically abusive and that he had to learn very early to rely on myself and not on
people around me for emotional support ... so I became somebody else when I was
alone ... but I think this was also the beginning of my creativity and spirituality.
Q4. Yes, setting is important. Storytelling happens around the Sabbath table
(‘tish’) ... which is a whole ceremony ... a ritual setting. A Hasidic Rebbe goes into
an altered state of consciousness when he holds tish. The Hasidim sing and
rhythmically pound on the table, and the Rebbe begins to close his eyes and sway
his head back and forth, and makes an ascent of the soul to another realm, where
he hears the songs and stories he will tell.
Q6. Rebbe said that in Hasidism, making ‘I ’ statements is considered egotistical,
one does not disclose private things and that this is why Hasidic mysticism does not
get studied the way some other mysticisms and shamanism do ... and that he felt
uncomfortable talking in ‘me’ consciousness.
Q7. Yes, all the time.
Q8. Reading ... allows me to go completely into the world of the book ...I get hyper
and frantic if there is too much fast sound around and I cannot read or write ... I
can’t go into myself ... So on the Sabbath, I can travel back to the Hasidic world I
once knew and be there as a sort of respite from the rest of the week.
Q9. I t was very early ... I fantasized myself out of a really bad family situation and
a total lack of social stability ... when things get too pressured, I withdraw into my
own world.
Q10. At age six I almost died of scarlet fever. This was also when I had my near-
death experience and after that I was not afraid of death.
Q11. Yes to all.
Q12. A Hasidic Rebbe does not write for personal satisfaction, he writes for God
and the healing of the People ... So what am I healing? The sadness of the
ron
(Ron)
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