Book excerpt: Is it possible that two of the greatest men of the Norman Conquest—William the Conqueror and his son, Henry I of England—have recently reincarnated as Paramhansa Yogananda (spiritual master and author of the classic Autobiography of a Yogi) and his close disciple, Swami Kriyananda-and if so, what are the subtle connections between the Norman Conquest and modern times? How will these past lives influence our future? In Two Souls: Four Lives, Catherine Kairavi describes a society much more primitive than our own in both knowledge and consciousness, she depicts the days of William and Henry as having been far more brutal than our own, despite the much greater capacity for destruction of modern weaponry. Historians will inevitably object that mankind was the same in William’s day as it is today. For they are intellectual scholars, and there is no aspect of human consciousness more disposed to argument than the intellect. It is kept vital and alive, after all, by argument. It will probably be other historians who grow up with this new and broader perspective on their subject. Catherine Kairavi devoted ten years carefully researching for this book. For the rest, maybe Paramhansa Yogananda’s statement that he himself was William could outweigh, for many readers, any doubts and challenges that may be presented to disprove certain statements in this book. It is a completely new take on present and future trends in modern society.