Dutch regression and reincarnation therapist and writer.
From an early age Marianne had spontaneous memories of previous lives of “her” person and that of others. As a toddler, she enthusiastically told her parents about those previous lives. When seeing a picture of the pyramids in Egypt, she shouted: “Look, I lived there, in the desert, a long time ago!” Her parents did not refute her stories, asked a little bit about past circumstances and concluded that Marianne had a rich imagination.
After Marianne prematurely watched at age 7 the pictures of a WW2 history book, and saw the staples of death bodies in a concentration camp, she realised that her vivid memories (or imagination) were not funny any more. Gradually she stopped talking about the past. Toddler time was gone; it was time to grow up, become serious and socialise at the primary school. She wrote under the heading “Later als ik groot ben” (Later when I’m bigger) about her third house experiences:
“Het gewone dagelijkse leven nam ’t over. Ouders, thuis, ruziën met mijn broertje, lagere school, huiswerk, middelbare school, VWO. Ik las alles wat los en vast zat van tijdschriften tot wetenschappelijke boeken en dacht na over later. Wat zou ik gaan studeren of worden? Archeologe, cultureel antropologe, bibliotheekmedewerker, Nederlands studeren? Soms dacht ik: ‘Later als ik groot ben, word ik gewoon schrijfster’, om het daarna weer te vergeten.” (Ordinary daily life took it over. Parents, being at home, arguing with my brother, primary school, homework, high school, VWO. I read everything that was loose and stuck from magazines to scientific books and thought about later. What would I study or become? Archaeologist, cultural anthropologist, library employee, studying Dutch? Sometimes I thought: “Later when I grow up, I will become a writer,” and then forget it again.)
Marianne started her career as an executive secretary of Philips, the bulb and electronics factory in Eindhoven. She called this service her secure way, as it combined study and work. She had a talent for languages, and learned to speak and write in shorthand four of them. She helped with the organization of art exhibitions, courses for goldsmiths, ceramics and drawing and painting and worked for a theatre and music department. At the same time she did excellent secretarial work, especially at hectic moments when things had to be assessed quickly. She knew who to call, which appointment would just fall out, which meeting folders were suddenly needed, etc.
In 1990 a major reorganization took place under Philips ceo Jan Timmer. She suddenly suddenly realised that she had to get out. At that time she received a leaflet about a multi-year vocational training as a reincarnation therapist at the Foundation Reincarnation Therapy Netherlands (SRN) in Utrecht. She was surprised: did such a thing exist? Could you study something weird as reincarnation? Could you make a profession of it? Something in her awoke.
The first year of the training (1991/1992) went smooth until she met her first practical exam candidate. She had read a lot about reincarnation and past lives and expected that all the explanation was logical. Her secretarial experience was useful when working out session reports. She enjoyed it, felt great and felt that she had arrived at the right place. Instead of using all the step-by-step plans in accordance with what she had learned, she immediately ‘saw’ and ‘knew’ what kind of life she had to work with when she first met the exam client.
She expected that the examiner also immediately saw which previous life belonged to a particular problem. But that was not the case. She was shocked. She was so out of balance that in the second year (1992/1993) of the course she went into therapy herself. To (re) discover and (learn) to work with the experience that she saw / knew things that others did not see yet. She was relieved that she did not have major problems, but she was stuck with a paranormal problem. It took her at least four years of work in her own practice regression / reincarnation therapy before she consciously used word’s like paranormal, gifted and clairvoyant.