Joan Grant was born in England in 1907. Her dad was a scientist (a mosquito expert); her mom was a self-described witch; guests ranged from HG Wells to Aleister Crowley! These clashing worldviews perhaps gave Grant room to think for herself. She did. Through the 1930s & 40s Grant published seven books describing past lives she recalled (starting with Winged Pharaoh, plus two about this life, Far Memory and Many Lifetimes, with a broader spectrum of paranormal experience than the titles suggest--predictive, clairvoyant and telepathic dreams and flashes, psychometry (reading the history of objects), even (when trapped in a sandstorm) rainmaking. I find her fascinating because unlike the psychics of her time (mediums working themselves into trances, or pretending to) her ordinary life blended five normal senses and... others. That's my experience too, and one I find difficult to convey to those with five senses (actually, it's easier for those with three or four to get it; they know the stigma and frustration of dealing with normals who insist their sensory world is simple reality). Plus, she's just a good writer. Here's Grant on her childhood:

...until I was eleven I presumed that other peoples' reticence about their own long-history [past lives] was only another of the incomprehensible taboos that complicated an Edwardian childhood. I also thought that everyone else had second sight; for as grownups pretended not to see each other if they met while scuttling in dressing-gowns to the bathroom, it seemed no more, and no less, illogical that they pretended to ignore anyone who did not happen to be conventionally clothed in a physical body.

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	THE ROOF: by Blanche Marshall, 1909, a lifesaving predictive flash, as told by Joan Grant My father and I watched the thirty men on ladders finishing the walls of our new roofed tennis court. My mother Blanche came in, shouting "Out, all of you! The roof is going to fall in!" She was so insistent, they all took five... CAUTION: WILL UPSET E.S.P. SKEPTICS
	DARBY: by Joan Grant, c.1910 (age 3); a betrayal shaping her worldview I loved my dog Darby. Laval the gardener hated him. One day Laval attacked me; Darby protected me, tearing Laval's shirt. Furious, he told my father Darby'd turned savage...
	BLOODY: by Joan Grant, Aug. 1911 (age 4), a child's experiment Told that God would smite her for swearing, Joan sneaks down to the beach on a clear night (so God can see and hear), strips, and screams "BLOODY!" And joyfully concludes "I needn't believe other people about God"... CAUTION: CONVINCING LOGIC
	TITANIC & LUSITANIA: by Blanche Marshall, 1912/4/10 & 1915/4/9, lifesaving prophecies as told by Joan Grant 1912: we watched the Titanic sail by. Mother yelled "She's going to sink!" We were skeptics--until the news came. 1915: she refused to sail on the Lusitania. Shaken by her previous foresight, Father changed our tickets, and... CAUTION: THOUSANDS KILLED. JUST NOT THE MARSHALLS.
	FRENCH GIRL: by Joan Grant; summer 1914, a child's recurring (past-life?) dreams I keep dreaming of a French girl living quietly in the country, not even allowed into the village. We must hide! At last I get to see Paris--on the way to the guillotine... CAUTION: FIRST-PERSON BEHEADING
	SUBWAY: by Joan Grant; Sept. 1914, a child's shamanic dream. DAY: Age 7, touring New York, I ask to ride the subway. Father and I see blood, severed feet--a suicide. DREAM: I coax the dead man to reattach his feet, grow young again, and meet his beloved daughter... CAUTION: GRISLY SUICIDE
	A HUMAN TOAD: by Joan Grant; c.1914, a psychic child sees a shamanic duel Among our house guests was the wizard Aleister Crowley. I loathed him on sight. When Mother left the room, he jabbed my big sister with a pin, saying "With your blood and hair, I have you in my power." Mother burst in... CAUTION: REALLY BAD ROLE MODEL
	TITANIC & LUSITANIA: by Blanche Marshall, 1912/4/10 & 1915/4/9, lifesaving prophecies as told by Joan Grant 1912: we watched the Titanic sail by. Mother yelled "She's going to sink!" We were skeptics--until the news came. 1915: she refused to sail on the Lusitania. Shaken by her previous foresight, Father changed our tickets, and... CAUTION: THOUSANDS KILLED. JUST NOT THE MARSHALLS.
	MCANDREW: by Joan Grant; 1916-1918, a child's recurring psychic nightmares At age 9-11, I dreamed nightly I had to lead the souls of casualties to the light, or (worse) back to the trenches, doomed to live on. At last I blurted McAndrew's case to a grown-up...
	JENNIE'S MUSIC by Joan Grant, c. 1921, age 13-14 My father's friend C.G. Lamb was open-minded; to him I confessed "My grandmother Jennie teaches me music." He had known her, before her death. I played him a stormy piece. His hands shook as he told me its history... CAUTION: CRYPTOMNESIA, ESP, OR SOUL-SURVIVAL?
	JOAN GRANT GETS SOME ADVICE: by HG Wells, c.1923, as reported by Joan Grant Writer Joan Grant, who was a psychic and trance channeler, got a sort of reading herself, from H.G. Wells...
	GRAHAM VS. GHOSTS: by Joan Grant; Oct. 1926, a psychic dream with consequences My fiancé Graham finds my second sight an awkwardness to suppress. When I dream his cousin's home is haunted, and it turns out to be true... CAUTION: PSYCHIC, YET BLIND TO INCOMPATIBILITY
	ESMOND: by Joan Grant, Jan.1927 & several months later; recurrent (psychic?) dreams Joan learns her fiancé is dead. No details. She dreams he stands disconcerted over his own corpse--a gun accident. Soon she learns it's true. Months later, she dreams he's pioneering on a low-gravity world... CAUTION: STUPID GUN DEATH; ESP?
	ATLANTIQUE: by Joan Grant; 1933/1/4, a psychic shamanic dream. I'm a sailor on an ocean liner. She catches fire. I'm forced to jump--and I can't swim. As Joan, I see him land on a tropical island. I have to prove to him that he's dead... CAUTION: FIRST-HAND DROWNING
	TEL ASMAR: by Joan Grant, late Feb. 1935, first-hand account of rainmaking--and its risks I was sketching our archeological finds at Tel Asmar when a deadly dust storm settled in. Trapped, feverish, I summoned rain. We lived when many in Baghdad died, but the dig... CAUTION: DUST KILLS 100 IN BAGHDAD
	VIEWPOINT: by Wayan; 1991/6/9, a dream on pastlife amnesia. I ask to see my past lives, and dream of a viewpoint where I can--but this Mormon ranger...

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