Publisher: Blue Feather Books
In the Now is about past life regression,
reincarnation and the irresponsible behavior that scientists can sometimes
engage in when they follow the challenge to see if they can do something
instead of considering the consequences.
Psychiatrist
Carla Turner is asked by a close friend to help his drug company test a new
unapproved medication on one of her patients.
The medicine is intended for people with substance abuse problems and it’s
supposed to make it easier to hypnotize the patient so that a suggestion can be
planted in his subconscious to help him overcome the addiction. Carla chooses her favorite patient Amy Duran
to experiment on and there is a startling resolution to the session. Amy is regressed to a past life where she was
Isao Watanabe, a Japanese World War II veteran, and, when she comes out of the
hypnosis, Amy is dormant and Isao is living in her body. That leads to a scramble by the drug company
and the doctors to find a way to bring Amy back. Instead the two personalities merge and an
entirely different person is created.
Imagine a drug that would let you visit your previous lives and pick the
personality you would like to live as.
Carla is horrified by the idea and only hopes to regain Amy, who was
always very important to her. The drug
company however sees a chance to make a fortune on an opportunity and doesn’t
want anyone standing in its way.
If
In
the Now doesn’t have you evaluating your personal beliefs as you read
it, you’re not reading it correctly.
Sinclair questions society’s preconceived ideas about religion, reincarnation,
and the roles of men and women. Ethical
problems abound in this book. There are
the doctors and scientists who irresponsibly pursue this drug as a puzzle to be
solved without considering the consequences.
There is the drug company which wants to make a risky product available
to make money. The biggest dilemma however
concerns the rights of the individual.
How do you regulate what someone may find out about his previous life
and deal with the reaction? Suppose you
regress and discover that you were Attila the Hun, the Marquis de Sade or Adolf
Hitler? Suppose you spend this life with
a prejudice against another religion or race or gender and then discover that
you were a member of that group in a past life?
What is the ethical situation of erasing one life to substitute it with
another or of blending lives together to create a new entity?
It
should be clear by now that Kelly Sinclair does more than simply tell a
story. The story is there, of two women
who are attracted to each other, haven’t acted on that attraction because of
professional reasons and then find the opportunity taken away from them by an
unintended consequence. The most
interesting part of the story is when Isao emerges and recounts the experiences
of his life, which is then followed by a Japanese man and an American woman
from different generations trying to find a way to coexist in the same body. The twists and turns all of the characters go
through to attempt to resolve these issues will keep the reader’s mind
challenged and entertained.
The
one fault in the book is the head-hopping that it does. At times it can be difficult to tell which
character’s head the reader is inside and this gets worse towards the end of
the book. Some sections could have been
expanded a bit to allow for development, but unlike figuring out which
character you’re listening to, the gaps in the characters and plot aren’t a
serious issue.
In the Now is a different type of
book. Those who have read Kelly Sinclair’s
other books expect a story that is entertaining and that makes your brain work
considering new possibilities. They won’t
be disappointed in this story. Don’t be
afraid to have to work a little with this book.
It’s worth it.
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