Reading List · Lisanne Swart
Authors Like
By Lisanne Swart · 6 authors · Past Lives & Consciousness · Updated July 2026
Brian Weiss was a conventionally trained Yale-educated psychiatrist when a patient under hypnosis began describing what appeared to be memories from past lives, and Many Lives, Many Masters documents his own reluctant, skeptical journey toward taking those experiences seriously as clinically useful, whatever their ultimate metaphysical status. His work sits at an unusual intersection of clinical psychiatric credibility and genuinely mystical subject matter. The writers below share his interest in consciousness, memory, and identity extending beyond what conventional materialist psychology assumes.
Readers who enjoy Brian Weiss often turn to Michael Newton for a similarly clinically-framed approach to past-life and between-life regression, Deepak Chopra for consciousness and healing examined through a blend of medicine and Eastern spirituality, Eckhart Tolle for the nature of consciousness and identity explored through a contemporary, secular lens, Dolores Cannon for hypnotic regression work covering similarly expansive metaphysical territory, Wayne Dyer for accessible spiritual writing bridging psychology and metaphysics, and Ramana Maharshi for the older non-dual tradition asking who is actually having these experiences of self and memory.
Similar Voice & Approach
Michael Newton
Newton, like Weiss, brought a clinical hypnotherapy background to past-life and between-life regression work, compiling patient case reports into a systematic account of what people describe experiencing between incarnations, extending Weiss's own methodology into a more comprehensive framework.
Read Newton for a similarly clinically-framed approach to regression work, extended into the between-life state specifically. Journey of Souls is essential.
Deepak Chopra
Chopra, also a conventionally trained physician, shares Weiss's project of bridging medical credibility with genuinely mystical claims about consciousness, mind-body healing, and identity extending beyond materialist assumptions.
Read Chopra for a similar physician's bridge between medical training and mystical claims about consciousness and healing. Quantum Healing is essential.
Eckhart Tolle
Tolle addresses questions of consciousness and identity closely related to Weiss's own work, though through a secular, present-moment framework rather than past-life regression, both writers ultimately arguing that ordinary assumptions about a fixed, bounded self are incomplete.
Read Tolle for questions of consciousness and identity approached through a contemporary, secular lens rather than past-life memory. The Power of Now is essential.
→ See all books written by Eckhart TolleDolores Cannon
Cannon developed her own hypnotic regression method covering similarly expansive metaphysical territory to Weiss's work, compiling decades of client sessions into an even more elaborate cosmology of past lives, other dimensions, and the nature of the soul.
Read Cannon for regression work covering even more expansive and elaborate metaphysical territory than Weiss's own clinical case studies. Between Death and Life is a strong entry point.
Wayne Dyer
Dyer, a psychologist by training, shares Weiss's project of bridging conventional psychological credibility with genuinely spiritual and metaphysical claims, writing accessible books that move fluidly between practical self-help and broader questions about consciousness and intention.
Read Dyer for accessible spiritual writing bridging psychology and metaphysics in a similarly credentialed, approachable voice. The Power of Intention is essential.
Ramana Maharshi
Maharshi's non-dual teaching approaches the same fundamental question underneath Weiss's past-life work from a completely different angle: not what happened in previous incarnations, but who or what is actually having any experience of self and memory at all.
Read Maharshi for the older non-dual tradition questioning the very nature of the self that Weiss's regression work assumes persists across lifetimes. Who Am I? is a short, essential entry point.
→ Read more about Ramana MaharshiMore from the shelf
Frequently asked questions about authors like Brian Weiss
Who should I read if I like Brian Weiss?
Readers who enjoy Brian Weiss often turn to Michael Newton for a similarly clinically-framed approach to past-life and between-life regression, Deepak Chopra for consciousness and healing examined through a blend of medicine and Eastern spirituality, Eckhart Tolle for the nature of consciousness and identity explored through a contemporary, secular lens, Dolores Cannon for hypnotic regression work covering similarly expansive metaphysical territory, Wayne Dyer for accessible spiritual writing bridging psychology and metaphysics, and Ramana Maharshi for the older non-dual tradition asking who is actually having these experiences of self and memory.
Is Michael Newton similar to Brian Weiss?
Yes, both brought a clinical hypnotherapy background to past-life and between-life regression work. Newton compiled patient case reports into a systematic account of what people describe experiencing between incarnations, extending Weiss's own methodology, established in Many Lives, Many Masters, into a more comprehensive framework focused specifically on the between-life state.
What should I read after Many Lives, Many Masters?
Michael Newton's Journey of Souls extends similar clinical regression work into the between-life state specifically. Dolores Cannon's Between Death and Life covers even more expansive metaphysical territory. For a completely different angle on the same question of who is having these experiences, Ramana Maharshi's Who Am I? offers the non-dual perspective.
Was Brian Weiss a conventionally trained psychiatrist?
Yes, Weiss was a Yale-educated psychiatrist working within conventional psychiatric practice when a patient under hypnosis began describing what appeared to be memories from past lives. Many Lives, Many Masters documents his own reluctant, initially skeptical journey toward taking those experiences seriously as clinically useful, regardless of their ultimate metaphysical status.
