India, July 31 -- It was autumn, dry multi-hued leaves lined the city roads sitting in neat heaped piles till the wind would pick them up and scatter them around. Always a voracious bibliophile, eclectic reading thrilled me no end. Nowadays I was heavily into Brian Weiss, reading his books and everything I could about past life regression (PLR) therapy. As I walked about in the twilight, I would gaze at the leaves and they would transform and change shapes and hues. I understood I was being sucked into the romanticism only books like "Many Lives, Many Masters' could conjure! For the uninitiated, Weiss is an American psychologist renowned for his research on reincarnation, PLR and survival of the human soul after death.

After a particular...