Marilyn Monroe Returns

Book gives Monroe's Reincarnation a voice on her life and death

Book gives Monroe's Reincarnation a voice on her life and death

 By Maryanne Kocis MacLeod, Macomb Daily Staff Writer

 
   Whether you believe in reincarnation or not, Marilyn Monroe fans will want to hear the bizarre similarities she shares with Canadian pop singer Sherrie Lea Laird in the new book Marilyn Returns: The Healing of a Soul (Hampton Roads Publishing, $22.95).
   Laird is the reincarnation of old Hollywood"s unforgettable, blonde bombshell, according to the book’s author and Laird’s psychiatrist, Adrian Finkelstein, M.D.
   Laird, born 11 months after Mon roe’s death, recently topped the pop charts in Canada and Europe with her sultry remake of Sade’s “No Ordinary Love.”
   Released to coincide with Monroe ’s 80th birthday, the book shares intimate details regarding the actress’s life and death, her thoughts about the Kennedy brothers — she preferred Bobby to Jack but was devastated by their mutual rejection — Joe DiMaggio and Tony Curtis, all, according to Laird.
   “Synchronicities, lot and lots of synchronicities,” Finkelstein said. “That’s what convinced me that Sherrie Lea Laird is Marilyn Monroe reincarnated.”
   Under deep hypnosis, a meditative state in which lying or acting is not possible, Finkelstein said, Laird revealed countless details about Monroe that she could not have known about otherwise.
   For example, last November Laird told Finkelstein about an affair that Monroe had with actor Tony Curtis, a story Hollywood insiders had long denied. Then in January, Curtis himself revealed the union.
   In a recent face-to-face meeting with the actor Ted Jordan, the pair reminisced about “their” love affair and friendship, and giggled over one particular romp between the sheets that left both of them surrealistically covered in red lipstick from a tube Monroe had accidentally left there.
   “Sherrie wasn’t only factually correct in recounting the details, she gave me dates and names, then backed it all up with the proper emotional response,” Finkelstein said. “For example, when I asked her: 'Who was Mrs. Swively?’ She said: ‘Oh, she didn’t like me! Mrs. Swively was my modeling teacher.’ ” “Schizophrenics are 100 percent certain,” Finkelstein continued. “Sherrie had doubts. That’s normal.” Interestingly, Laird’s daughter, Kezia was born nine months after the death of Monroe ’s mother, Gladys Baker, a schizophrenic who died at the age of 82 in a mental institution. For reasons both astrological and intuitive, Finkelstein believes Kezia is the reincarnation of Baker, returning to improve upon the poor job she did the first time around “Kezia has been very nurturing to Sherrie from a very early age,” Monroe said.
   His reasons for working with Laird, Finkelstein said, have been more benevolent than voyeuristic.
   “I wanted to help rid her of Marilyn ’s demons,” Finkelstein said.
   Like Monroe , Laird prefers older men, “daddy” figures; has had trouble with drugs and alcohol, describes herself as “scatterbrained” and “clumsy” and has attempted suicide on more than one occasion.
   “For 40 years, people have been speculating how Marilyn died, Finkelstein said. “It wasn’t a conspiracy by the mafia, the Kennedy’s or the FBI, it wasn’t her doctor killing her,” Finkelstein said. “She simply did what she always did. Mixed alcohol with narcotics, and because she was very ill at the time, her ability to withstand it was not so good.”
   Laird repeatedly relives Mon roe’s death scene.
   “Sherrie experiences this crushing pain in her chest, her voice barely rises above a whisper — Marilyn was suffocating,” Finkelstein said. “At one point Marilyn realizes she’s overdosing and wants to live. But it’s too late.”
   If readers take away nothing else, Finkelstein is hopeful they will at least become tuned into the message of reincarnation — and use it to see the world in a more forgiving light.
   “I am an Israeli, I may reincarnate as an Arab, why should we hate and kill each other,” Finkelstein said. “The races are like fingers, all nurtured by the same hand, cleansed by the same oxygen. Don’t fight with each other, share, support each other. We hope to use the notoriety of Marilyn Monroe to advance this broader, more powerful message.”

Released to coincide with Monroe ’s 80th Birthday, Marilyn Returns: The Healing of a Soul (Hampton Roads Publishing, $22.95) shares intimate details regarding the actor’s life and death, all according to Canadian pop singer Sherrie Lea Laird. According to Laird’s psychiatrist and the book’s author, Adrian Finkelstein, M.D., Laird is the reincarnation of Monroe .