Marilyn Monroe Returns

Bay Windows Review

Marilyn Monroe Returns: The Healing of a Soul
Adrian Finkelstein, M.D. (Hampton Roads)

A little back story would be good here: Adrian Finkelstein is a world-renowned psychiatrist and regression therapy expert who has written two previous works, one being Your Past Lives and the Healing Process: A Psychiatrist Looks at Reincarnation. Sherrie Lea Laird is a somewhat well known Canadian pop star who, out of desperation, contacted Finkelstein after years of feeling she wasn't the person everyone thought she was. Or rather, she was more than they thought: she was the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe (yes, that Marilyn Monroe). While I can"t say if she is or she isn’t, Returns spends the better part of 300 pages trying to convince you she is. Finkelstein is smart. He doesn’t talk your ear off about why he’s convinced; he uses documentation and transcripts from his many therapy sessions with Laird as evidence. In fact, the smallest section is one that explains regression therapy as a practice and Finkelstein’s own history in the field. Physical similarities, impossible to know memories and Laird’s own feelings (a difficult enough thing to capture on paper) are all accounted for. At times Finkelstein tries to make himself too much a part of the story, for the real draw is Laird and this truly unbelievable story.