St. Antoninus… at your service
This is one of those stories that come from the “Flipside” files. There’s a chapter in the book ARCHITECTURE OF THE AFTERLIFE called “The Saint” where I shared the transcript from a hypnotherapy session.
People will argue (sometimes until they’re literally turning blue) that life does not go on, that people cannot recall previous lifetimes, that any discussion of such is not worth discussing.
Too bad.
In his book BEFORE, Dr. Jim Tucker references the 1500 historically accurate reincarnation case studies that he’s done while at the University of Virginia Medical school program DOPS (Department of Perceptual Studies)
I met Dr. Tucker when I visited DOPS at the behest of Dr. Bruce Greyson, where I shared some of the dozen filmed interviews with people recalling not only previous lifetimes, but the “journey between lives.” As Dr. Greyson noted in that meeting, “Hypnosis is not considered something science can study.” That’s partially based on bias: the patient wants to remember a past life, the doctor wants to provide the service. “Who knows who made what up?”
However, in Dr. Greyson’s book AFTER (Highly recommended detailed data of his decades of research studying NDE’s) he points out “We can get objective data from subjective experiences if we ask the subjects the same questions.” It’s the source of NDE data — that is, they named the NDE scale for him, as he devised a way that people could report about their experience. For exampled “70% of people who have an NDE have an experience they can recall, 30% do not. 1–3% have a negative experience initially, 15% see Jesus whether they believe in him or not. 85% meet or see “Source” or “God” during the event, reporting experiences of “indescribable joy” “unconditional love” or “non judgmental acceptance.”
That’s from Dr. Greyson’s recent talk about what he left out of the book AFTER. The point is — data doesn’t care if we like it or not, as long as it’s consistent and reproducible, it becomes data. Or in my case; footage.
While meeting with the DOPS folks at UVA, I pointed out that the “inherent bias of hypnosis” didn’t explain why people across the globe were reporting the identical hallmarks. “Guides, teachers, classmates, council members” — and the role they play in incarnation. That the thousands of reports from people trained by Michael Newton included the same hallmarks which were contrary to personal belief systems. At the very least “it should be studied.”
(DOPS has demonstrated that consciousness is not confined to the brain. Dr. Greysons work, Dr. Tucker’s research, Dr. Kelly’s CONSCIOUSNESS UNBOUND or IRREDUCIBLE MIND with 100’s of peer reviewed studies that show consciousness is not confined to the brain.)
But that allowed me to focus on near death experiencers, as it was something science considered worthy of note, and in my subsequent books (After FLIPSIDE; “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife” books one and two, “Hacking the Afterlife”) I focused on hypnotherapy sessions that included near death experiencers who revisited the event with hypnosis.
But that also allowed me to see if a simple guided meditation would do the same. And that became the books ARCHITECTURE OF THE AFTERLIFE and DIVINE COUNCILS IN THE AFTERLIFE where people did a simple guided meditation and got the same results.
In “Divine Councils” I had 20 scientists (two neuroscientists, one from Harvard) clergy, doctors do a simple guided meditation. All had meditation in their background, none had spoken to, learned new information from their teachers, guides, council members — yet all did.
Over zoom in one hour sessions with each. I assumed the average would be like NDE’s — like a percentage would be able to, and some would not.
All could. All did.
A few years ago, I was invited to film a workshop with Scott De Tamble, my pal at lightbetweenlives.com — he’s a hypnotherapist who has been taught by a number of hypnotherapists, Dick Sutpin, Michael Newton and others, and while filming his class, they ran out of volunteers.
So Scott asked me to help. And I sat down with a hypnotherapist from Arizona who was honing her skills. And we did a session from Scott’s workbook. She asked me to relax, then allow whatever previous lifetime to come to mind.
This was my 6th hypnotherapy session, so I was used to the questions. What I was startled by was the person that I saw myself as. 14th century monk in Florence. I’ve been to Florence many many times, wrote a miniseries for HBO about the DeMedicis some years ago — and here I was in the midst of these same characters and players; Cosimo De Medici and others.
I saw myself as a young man who wanted to join the monkhood, becoming a monk at 16, what that was like. Then later, having a vision (which I said was brought out by eating the ergot or moldy rye bread (LSD) ) which included a vision of Jesus. I noted how that experience altered that lifetime, how it made me more insightful, introspective — and less concerned with the outer world. (There’s no record of Antoninus having such a vision, it’s just what came to mind.)
Later, I saw myself as bishop lying in his robes on his deathbed.
I recalled my name, “Antoninus” and recalled the order “Dominican” and the outfit I had worn (black robes) and the outfit I was buried in (white robes.) I later jotted down the notes of that session and took to the internet for a search… and found his tomb in Florence.
Surprise!
But I gathered up that information, then did a session with Jennifer Shaffer — whom I’ve been doing a weekly podcast for the past two years, but six more prior to that podcast. I started off our session saying “I had this weird experience the other day” and she interrupted me to say “He’s you.”
I hadn’t even gotten to the details. She said “I’m seeing that he’s you — and you’re him.” And then she launched into the story of this fellow’s life — just as I’d learned it to be. It’s on film.
So for the book ARCHITECTURE OF THE AFTERLIFE, I included it.
Then a close friend of mine told me that her son was about to be ordained as a Dominican monk. She said she was really thrilled about it, but the night of his ordination she had this “vivid dream” where she saw me — her old friend from college — dressed as the Bishop.
I laughed. She had not read my book, nor had any clue as to the weird possibility that it might be accurate. I told her about the past life regression and the subsequent comments by Jennifer Shaffer. She was floored.
Yesterday I got some photos from a former Dominican monk who lives in London. He had been to visit San Marco and Antoninus in Florence, and took some photos of him. He wrote that while sitting there, he did a meditation where he saw me “as the Bishop conferring ordination on Dominican monks.”
At that point — he didn’t know that Antoninus was a Dominican until I told him. He thought he was “just a Bishop in Florence” while sitting in front of his tomb.
About that Saint thing…
Antoninus was an author. Wrote a number of books, and none have been translated into English from Latin. He’s considered a progressive and liberal thinker, as he was known for being inclusive; he recommended divorced women should be allowed to have Communion.
But when there was a heretical priest in Florence who advocated overthrowing the Vatican, Antoninus didn’t hesitate in putting him to the torch. (Some years before his fellow Dominican from San Marco Savanarola was put to the torch.)
So today I’m writing this former Dominican monk in London, telling him the story of who I might have been. In his email he asked me to “say a prayer for him, as he’s out of work and is looking for employment.” He asked for a blessing from yours truly, and instead of that, I’m writing this. Hope it helps someone.
“Ciao !
These photos are fabulous, thank you! All the ones I’ve seen are lifeless — these are great. I had no idea you were a Dominican friar! Congratulations to you! And now you are in London? How did that happen?
To be fair, it’s not like I resonate with Antoninus on a daily basis — it’s just that there were a number of unusual connections between us — starting with hearing someone speaking to me in Latin, later having a hypnosis session where I recalled being a Dominican friar named Antoninus, the dates matched, I saw that later in life, I was buried in white clothing — seeing the “last day on the planet.” But then I took that information to a session with Jennifer Shaffer, the medium whom I work with and before I could say anything she said “He’s you.”
Since then have had other confirmations… but what does that mean, “He’s you?”
We bring only a portion of our conscious energy to the planet. The majority is offstage, back home. Somewhere between 20 and 40% is what we operate with. So even as “me” — it’s kind of having a leg in the swimming pool so to speak. I have done some research since then, learned more about the Dominican order from the 1200’s on — and how they were in San Marco.
Those doors in your vision sound like the kinds of doors that were designed for churches… if you look at the front doors to the museum of San Marco (the old front door) the doors were like that — two large wooden doors with an arch at the top. Usually architects put the arch in stone…
I can tell you a bit of Antoninus’ story; he was raised by a stern father and loving mother, decided that he wanted to be monk but was rejected because he was too young. (15) The head of the monastery said “memorize this” and handed him a difficult book — which he memorized, came back and was allowed to join the Dominicans at the young age of 16. He was friends with Fra’ Angelico in those days, as they were both monks in San Marco. Later on, his friend was hired by the Vatican, and it was Fra Angelico who talked the Pope into elevating him to a bishop.
As the story goes, he refused, because he didn’t want to be elevated in any way (simple, humble fellow, more like St. Francis who also was a Dominican until they named their order after him — the Franciscans.)
According to legend (history?) he was ordered to become Archbishop of Florence upon threat of excommunication… instead of the pomp and circumstance surrounding his ordination as Bishop of Florence, he walked during his ceremony (didn’t ride in the traditional carriage.)
He had been the one in charge of a church in Rome, and he was known for helping get projects together to help people. He helped bring fresh water to Florence reportedly. He wrote at least five books that are still in print — they’re like the books by St. Thomas of Aquinas (another Dominican from a century before), talking about what a person should focus on in life. There’s one book that speaks directly to wealthy patrons in Florence, about their being charitable (he was an influence on Cosimo de Medici, the grandfather of Lorenzo and Giuliano (whose sons went on to become Popes), specific ways for wealthy women to pray and be of service. He apparently was able to work with, talk to all the classes of Florence. The most amazing thing I’ve learned; he convinced Cosimo de Medici to purchase libraries from monasteries in Greece and Latin, talked him into having scribes translation the Greek and Latin texts to Italian… and opened the first public library in History.
I realize now — that the premise of the DeMedicis story that I wrote for HBO was how furious the Vatican was for Florentines to surpass their censorship and open a public library. Blasphemy! As it turned out the church didn’t know what to do with Plato and Socrates or the Latin writers — because they were born after Jesus, then that meant they were suffering in hell because they had not been baptized. “Never mind!” so they invented limbo to hold all of those “innocent souls.”
I had no idea it was Antoninus who oversaw the library, as it was in the monastery of San Marco. Further — Cosimo hired a legion of scribes, and they worked 24–7 in shifts to translate all of these books. Imagine, a factory of translators and scribes, overseen by Antoninus translating every author they could get their hands on. When I visited the Laurentian Library in Florence, I asked to merely “hold one of those books” they had translated to be read at the Platonic Academy in the Medici home.
The head librarian said “No, you cannot. You are not an accredited scholar.” I said “Hang on, this library was created for humanity. These books were meant to be seen and read by everyone! It’s not something that is supposed to be locked away for the wealthy or powerful!”
Weird thing for me to say to her — but somehow the argument worked. And she let me spend a couple of hours with one of the original tomes, with pen work, things scribbled in the margins — a book they would read from “Plato’s Republic” at the Platonic Academy events held in Lorenzo de Medici’s home — with members that included the poet Poliziano, the architect Alberti, and a very young sculptor named… Michelangelo.
One could argue Antoninus was a “humanist” bishop — because his books speak of tolerance, of allowing divorced women to take communion for example, a more inclusive version of the religion. However, he did put a priest to the torch because of his blatant haranguing from the pulpit that the Vatican was Satanic. Like Savanorola some decades later, this fellow was tortured and burnt at the stake in the public square. Antoninus seemed to have no remorse , no liberal filter that kept him from dispatching this fellow.
After he passed, he was not revered. He was considered Saintly, but the Archbishop of Florence. (In a few short years the Pazzi conspiracy would sweep the city, turn the Vatican and Pope Sixtus IV against Florence, but that was to come.
Some time after those tragic events, a movement started to make him a saint (politics?) after a new Pope was in Rome. (1523, Adrian VI) People were brought forward who had prayed to him and were cured (those are always problematic to examine) and they dug him up to move him to another tomb — and lo and behold they saw he had not deteriorated… as we see him now in these photos.
I don’t know if they put any kind of restorative on him then, but he was dug up a long time after he passed, and was then made a saint.
A long way of saying he wasn’t a Saint in life, but he was a humble, intelligent, well read fellow — and his writing is fun to read. I reached out to a Yale scholar about translating some of his writing — there are no translations of his books I’m aware of — one in French, but nothing comprehensive, just books (one can find them on Academia.edu or on the Gutenberg project website.) and he recommended I used ChatGPT to translate — and I’m startled how simple that is.
I just picked up a copy of “The Chronicles of Saint Antoninus” by James Walker — I haven’t read it yet, but your email and photos will make me do so. I’m saying I don’t feel connected to him — but I do have to consider that he was “one of the roles that I’ve played on the planet.” I’m kind of startled to notice that the day he was made an Archbishop was the same day I came to the planet.
And yes — the vision you had was accurate — and just like my friend here in Los Angeles had… She and I went to school together in Rome, (when the plane landed I had the feeling of being “home”) her son has become a Dominican friar all these years later, and the night of his ordination, she said she had this powerful dream where she was in a cathedral, seeing the monks get their blessing from the Dominican Bishop. She saw who was giving them their ordination.. And that was me. Dressed as a bishop.
She had no idea that I had a previous life memory of being Antoninus — but she clearly saw me as a bishop. We both thought it was funny.
It is funny.
Pax dominum. (It came to mind, I had to look it up now to see what it meant.)
Anyways, I have nowhere else to share this unusual email exchange.
Allow me to say that the answer to the question; “Were you once Hamlet?” is to examine all of the roles we performed onstage.
“Apparently in one of the stage performances in the past I did play that role.” But I’ve played other roles, different roles, and that isn’t who I am — it’s not like cards in a deck, exchanging the King for the Joker for example — because it’s only a portion of who we are or were.
In this weeks podcast HACKING THE AFTERLIFE, I asked my old friend Fred Roos if he was aware of the “reincarnation of James Dean.” It’s someone that Jennifer and I know about, that Fred knew in his lifetime, and so therefore, I assumed he would know who I’m referring to.
And he said he was. But he added “it’s a percentage or portion of who we are.” Meaning each lifetime isn’t just us — it’s a portion of us of our conscious energy. It’s part of the journey of who we are onstage, who we are as an actor, as a director, as a playwright, as a set designer, as a person trying to learn or teach lessons.
Oh, by the way, looking up the life of St. Thomas Aquinas, “he was influenced by Plato, Aristotle, Socrates” - his writing influenced not only Antoninus — but Descartes, Kant, Umberto Ecco, Marshall McLuhan and Meister Eckhart.”
On his death bed, here are Thomas’ last words: (the first words one says on the flipside) December 6, 1273, “Such secrets have been revealed to me that all I have written now appears as so much straw.”