How Derived: Don Jacobs, PhD, spontaneously played a melody on a piano that Jack London sang, a melody that was only known by Becky London, the surviving daughter of Jack London
Researcher: Don Jacobs, PhD
Article by: Don Jacobs, PhD and Walter Semkiw, MD
Don Jacobs as the Reincarnation of Jack London
Don contacted me and related that he had a proposed reincarnation case in which he was the writer, novelist and social activist, Jack London, in a past lifetime. Click on images to enlarge them.
Don wrote the narrative provided below regarding his story, which involves Becky London, the younger daughter of Jack London. His older daughter was named Joan.
Don also presents this narrative in a video provided below, which also includes a conversation between Don and Becky London, in which Becky expresses her belief that Don is the reincarnation of her father, that she sees her father’s eyes in Don’s eyes and in which Becky and Don express their love for one another. Don’s narrative follows:
Becky London meets Don Jacobs, Who Sees Her Father’s Eyes in those of Don Jacobs
“’I’d rather sing one wild song and burst my heart with it, than live a thousand years watching my digestion and being afraid of the wet.’―Jack London, The Turtles of Tasman(1916)
The above quote seems an appropriate opening for my introduction to the video interview of Becky London, Jack London’s daughter, which took place when she was 85 years old. It was my playing and singing a wild song penned by Jack himself that first connected me to her.
It was 1973. For work, I played old-time piano for sing-a-longs at the Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in Jack London Square. I was in-between songs when a distinguished looking man asked if I could play a song for a group of people in the meeting hall upstairs during my next break. He told me the people were members of The Jack London Buffs Association and they were having their annual meeting.
He handed me a mimeographed copy of poetry entitled, The Abalone Song, with the names Jack London, Ambroce Bierce, George Sterling, Mary Austin and Gellet Burgess under the title. He said some of the lyrics were first published in Jack’s book, The Valley of the Moon, where one of his fictional characters teaches others the importance of singing a sacred song about abalones.
This man said Jack and these co-lyricists actually sang the song in real life while pounding the white meat of the abalone picked off the rocks on the California coast.
I felt excited in reading the lyrics. I myself was an abalone diver, but the feeling stemmed from something else. I asked him if he had the music and chords for it. He responded that no one alive knows how the song goes. Just fake it with some chords and we’ll sing along somehow.
Don Jacobs Spontaneously and Unconsciously Plays the Melody of Jack London’s Abalone Song
I sat down at the piano and looked at the words on the paper. Immediately a melody came to mind and I began. As soon as I started singing the song, I felt a vague familiarity with it. Moreover, as the group of people sang along with me unabashedly, I felt a joyfulness beyond the wonderful feeling I always felt when people joined me in song. The lyrics are:
Jack London’s Abalone Song
Oh, some folks boast of quail on toast because they think its tony. But I’m content to pay my rent and live on abalone.
Some live on hope and some on dope and some on alimony. Just give me a tub of gin and a plate of abalone.
Oh, Mission Point’s a friendly place where every crab’s a crony. But true and kind you’ll always find the clinging abalone.
And on it went. After singing the four or five verses as printed on the paper I stood up and waved to everyone as I stepped off the stage. There was an applause as I began my exit through the seated audience and several people shook my hand and thanked me along the way.
Becky London Approaches Don Jacobs and He Recites a Poem Jack London Could Have Wrote
As I was almost past the last bench of people, a woman older than most of the crowd gently reached for my hand and stopped me. Upon seeing her angelic face and snow-white hair, I again felt something familiar flooding into my consciousness.
‘How did you know that song?!’ she asked softly but with a voice that was trembling-not from age, but rather from some obvious amazement that confounded her.
‘Oh, I didn’t really know it, ma’am. They just gave me a copy of the words and told me to fake the chords because no one knew the actual melody. Apparently Jack London used to sing it when he was pounding the abalone.’
I needed to go back to work but she would not let go of my hand. I remember feeling a desire to hold her close and comfort her, and so I stayed.
Then she spoke again, ‘Oh no, that was the melody for sure. I was 14 years old when Daddy died and I heard the song often when I was allowed to join him and his pals when they brought the abalone home and started pounded it.’
There was a gleam in her eye as she seemed to remember an obvious but rare joyfulness in her life. I stood there, a young man of 27, holding the hand of Becky London, 72, the surviving daughter of her famous father. Apparently she was the guest of honor. Then, oblivious to everything and everyone besides this lady, I reached for her other hand with my other hand and squatted down before her and for some unexplainable reason I asked:
‘Can I share a poem I wrote about 6 years ago when I was still in the Marine Corps,’
Becky replied in a whisper with childlike enthusiasm, ‘Oh I would love to hear it.’ I began:
That I may die upon the morrow,
The probability is high.
And though my love may weep in sorrow,
Still I know that I must try.
That I must try to dare it all
In spite of fear or danger-
That I must answer every call,
So life won’t be a stranger.
Oh is it courage that makes me challenge dying?
Or merely the belief that death is timed by fate?
Should I try and keep on trying?
Or merely sleep and eat and wait?
For many life is mere survival,
But I was blessed with strength and wealth
So I must search for the answers vital
For helping bring us back to health.
So let this poem be my epitaph.
I merely wondered and I tried.
I fought and loved
And laughed and cried,
But while living life I died!
Gently pulling her hands out of mine and placing them on her face she looked into my eyes and said:
‘That sounds like something Daddy would have written.’
Her words resonate all these years later and I find myself shuddering as I wrote them down.
Don Jacobs visits Becky London in Glen Ellen, California, where Jack London Built his Ranch. A 20 Year Relationship Ensues
I don’t remember if I asked her or she asked me for the visit, but the next day I drove from the marina where I was living on a my sailboat in Alameda, California, to see Becky in Glen Ellen. She lived in a room next to a book store owned by Russ Kingman, who was a well-known biographer of Jack London. Because Becky had not inherited any money from the estate of her father, Kingman had generously provided her with lodging.
I don’t recall what we talked about during my second meeting with Becky, but it began a close relationship that lasted for 20 years until she passed away in 1992. Becky spend many holidays with me and my family and I took her on her first sailboat ride and got her on her first horse. (I have photos for the book I plan to write about our story.) Becky London had a sparse relationship with her father, but it seemed that our relationship filled that past life void.
Our most important activity, the one she enjoyed the most, was when she was with me while I played the piano at various venues. Apparently many of the songs I played were favorites of Jack London, including Alabamy Bound, After You’ve Gone, Ace in the Hold, Won’t You Come Home Bill Baily, Shine on Harvest Moon and Ragtime Cowboy Joe.
I recall that I played and sang Daddy’s Little Girl with Becky at my side at a venue in Sonoma, California, where my wife Bea and I played regularly (Bea played the banjo).
During this performance, Becky cried. This song came out in 1906 when Becky was four years old, and she remembered her father and singing it to her.
Becky London’s Unhappy Life and Jack London’s Wish to become a Piano Man, if He Reincarnates
Becky was a mercurial, humorous rebel just like her father. Unfortunately, she had an unhappy life. Owing to a bitter divorce between Jack London and his wife, Jack was denied custody of his two daughters. As such, Becky rarely got to be with her father.
Becky’s mother later remarried and Becky told me squarely that she resented her mother and disliked her new husband, who had caused her mother to live an unhappy life as well. Becky related that she did not want to capitalize in any way on being a daughter of Jack London.
Becky told me that one of the few times (or perhaps the only time) she ever spent an evening alone with her father was one of the best days of her life. She was eight or nine, I think she told me. She said he took her out to eat and then to a vaudeville show at the Orpheum in Oakland, California.
Becky said Jack’s favorite act at the show was a fellow who played some ragtime and popular tunes of the day on a piano. While playing a particularly lively song, one she said I play often (I wish I could remember which one!), Jack leaned over and whispered in her ear that if he gets to ‘come back,’ after he leaves this world, he wants to be able to do ‘that’ and he pointed at the piano man.
Becky and I shared many experiences over many years prior to the video interview presented below. I hope it inspires an understanding of the great mysterious connections we have throughout our many lifetimes. Perhaps some day I will write a book about this and about how Jack London and I both share a strong American Indian past lifetime as well.
Notes by Walter Semkiw, MD regarding Don Jacobs as the Reincarnation of Jack London
This reincarnation case is compelling, based on Becky London’s recognition of Don as her father reborn, as well as how Don Jacobs unconsciously and spontaneously reproduced the melody of Jack London’s Abalone Song. Many reincarnation cases show that talent and artistic development can be replicated from one lifetime to another.
For example, in the reincarnation case of Paul Gauguin | Peter Teekamp, Peter, in childhood, unconsciously replicated sketches that Paul Gauguin produced. In the Anne Frank | Barbro Karlen case, Barbro was a childhood writing prodigy, much like Anne. To learn more, please go to:
Paul Gauguin | Peter Teekamp Past Life Case
Anne Frank | Barbro Karlen Reincarnation Case
Past Life Parallels Between Jack London and Don Jacobs
Jack London told his daughter, Becky, as they were enjoying a performance of an “Old Time” American piano player, that if he reincarnates, he would like to become a piano player. Don Jacobs started to play the piano at the age of 4 and went on to become a world champion of “Old Time” piano playing. Don Jacobs had never took a piano lesson in his life. The image to the right features Don performing.
View: Don Jacobs at 2016 Old Time Piano Championship
This Don Jacobs being able to play piano without any instruction indicates that souls can learn abilities in the spirit world, which they will express in physical life.
Further, the piano songs that Don mastered were the compositions of Jack London’s era. In fact, Becky London told Don that the piano pieces that he spontaneously played were the favorites of her father, Jack London.
Jack London was a socialist who promoted unionization of American workers. Don Jacobs relates that he was born into a strong labor union family. Don’s grandfather was first International Labor Union (ILO) representative under the administration of US President Harry Truman. Don’s grandfather was also the Vice-President of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). Don has also been a pro-labor activist.
This sort of association or correspondence can occur because people plan lifetimes to be reunited with loved ones from past incarnations. Though we don’t know who Don’s relatives were in the lifetime of Jack London, they were likely London’s associates, perhaps even people Jack sang the Abalone Song with. To learn more, please go to:
Planning Lifetimes and Relationships Renewed
Jack London became a pioneer of writing fiction that was successful financially. Many of his stories involved adventures in nature. London is considered one of the most successful novel writers of all time.
Don Jacobs has written over 20 books and hundreds of peer-reviewed journal articles. Don reflects that the topics of his articles are the same as the ones that Jack London had written about.
Jack London’s last book, Star Rover, is about past life memories. Don Jacobs became an expert in hypnosis and past life regression, and even taught a master’s degree program in hypnosis at the University of California, Berkeley.
Jack London succumbed to early death at the age of 40, in part due to tobacco smoking and alcohol abuse. Don Jacobs has been a health advocate and has had multiple books published on physical fitness and substance abuse.
Jack London was an accomplished sailor who honed his skills on the San Francisco Bay. He also sailed around the Channel Islands in Southern California, near Los Angeles.
When Don retired from the US Marines with the rank of Captain, he bought a sailboat that he lived on and he replicated the sailing journeys of London, before Don learned that Jack had also done these same water journeys. Other athletic endeavors that Jack and Don have shared include surfing and boxing.
Jack London was an expert horseman. Don Jacobs also became a champion horseman who was selected first alternative for the 1996 Olympic Equestrian Endurance Team. Of interest, the first biography of Jack London was written by Irving Stone and was entitled, Sailor on Horseback.
Another mutual passion that Jack London and Don Jacobs have shared is diving to harvest abalone on the California coast. Don, for 20 years, dived every Sunday to pluck abalone from underwater rocks.
Don has shared that Jack London was extremely critical of education and saw it as a creating “collective stupidity.” Apparently, in an effort to remedy this problem, Don has written many books on education and he serves as a Professor at Fielding Graduate University.
Jack London was admitted to the prestigious University of California, Berkeley, but had to drop out after one semester due to financial problems. Don shares that he taught for a time at UC, Berkeley and that at that time, he remembers “a vague feeling of a sort of redemption.”
Don also related that London admired Mexican people. Don has maintained a home in Mexico for 20 years and is a permanent resident of that country, though he lives in other parts of North America as well.
As described above, the way the reincarnation case of Jack London | Don Jacobs was derived when Don was asked to play a piano accompaniment for the London’s Abalone Song, so that Jack’s daughter, Becky London, and her friends could sing along. Don unconsciously replicated the melody for this song that Jack and his buddies sang. Over time, Becky became certain that Don is the reincarnation of her father and the end of her videotaped discussion with Don, provided below, her last words are: “I know it because I see him in your eyes.”
Don Jacobs is the Affirmed as the Reincarnation of Jack London and Don’s Affinity for American Indian Culture is Explained
Though Don Jacobs himself learned of his past life as Jack London though his relationship with Becky London, in such reincarnation cases I seek the assessment of a spirit guide named Ahtun Re, who is channeled through the world-famous trance medium Kevin Ryerson. I have worked with Kevin on a monthly basis since 2001 and have found that Ahtun Re has the ability to make past life matches with a high degree of accuracy.
In a session with Kevin that took place in 2019, I asked if Don Jacobs is the reincarnation of Jack London. Ahtun Re replied that this is true. Jack London, by the way died on November 22, 1916, while Don was born on June 13, 1946, about 30 years after London’s death.
Don has had an intense affinity for American Indian culture and even uses the formal name of “Don Jacobs (Four Arrows).” Ethnically, Don is Cherokee and Irish, so he does have Native American blood. Don explained that the Lakota tribe gave him the name “Four Arrows” after he had a vision that was past of ceremony. In this vision he saw four arrows shooting up from the middle of a lake, each going in a different direction. When the arrows landed, they turned each turned into a different animal, specifically a horse, wolf, cougar and fawn. The Lakota subsequently gave him the name Wahinkpe Topa, which means Four Arrows.
In my session with Kevin, I asked Ahtun Re if Don also had a Native American past life that could account for his extraordinary attachment to Native American culture.
Ahtun Re responded that Don, prior to his lifetime as Jack London, was an Indian Chief named Four Bears, of the Mandan North Dakota Tribe. He received this name as in a particular battle, his tribe observed that he fought with the strength of four bears. Four Bears died on July 30, 1837, while Jack London was January 12, 1876.
When I wrote to Don to inform him of this revelation, after researching Four Bears, Don related that he completely identifies with this Indian leader, in regards to intellect, physical attributes and temperament. Don wrote:
“I’ve been up for hours studying Four Bears. Even more than his facial features, his body type is identical to mine and I ‘felt’ deep connections when reading both his heroic and his tragic history. It is surely not a coincidence that during one of my four ‘tours of duty’ protesting pipeline construction at Standing Rock, I bunked with a Mandan Indian and learned of the horrible contemporary injustices done on and off the reservation there in North Dakota.
Four Bears many writings on the primal awareness of Indigenous People have a natural flow in my life.”
Note that in two lifetimes, Don has had Native American names involving animals and the number four. Psychically gifted people can unconsciously become aware of past lives, which can lead to repetition of patterns.
Principles of Reincarnation-Understanding Past Lives
Physical Resemblance: The are similarities in facial features between Don Jacobs, Jack London and Four Bears. In the image provided above and to the right, Don Jacobs is 72 years of age. Jack London died when he was 40 years old.
Past Life Talent and Behavior: The correspondences between Don, Jack and Four Bears are detailed above.