Lately I have had quite a few clients who have been told, by their guides, that they are to “be” instead of “do.”
These souls are at a particular stage of development on their journey through the Earth System. They have had many lifetimes of “doing,” focussing on physical survival, struggling with challenges, fighting for security, defending their identity, working or seeking work, studying and striving to get ahead or competing for attention, promotion or success. “Doing” in this sense means action that is based on fear.
When souls incarnate on earth, amnesia is part of the deal. We forget we are more than our physical bodies. We forget we are eternal beings.
As we develop through many experiences in many lives, we gradually start remembering. As we awaken, we become aware of our eternal nature. Our awareness aligns us with our true nature, gifting us with knowledge and guidance. These gifts are not of the material world. They are esoteric gifts that are part of our multidimensional self.
When we are open up and ready to receive these gifts, we are no longer driven by the fear of survival. We know that leaving our physical body is just a transition. In their current life, many have already visited the “other side,” perhaps spontaneously or during a spiritual regression. They know where they are going, and they know it is beautiful beyond description.
Without fear, these people are in a vibrational state of acceptance. They can now “be” instead of “do.”
“Being” doesn’t mean just sitting around doing nothing all the time. Certainly, you are still and contemplative at times, but the key of “being” is following your inner guidance.
This can be tricky because we humans have a busy mind, unlike other life forms on the planet. For example, bees just be, taking action according to their nature and specific role in the colony and they do this by faithfully following their inner guidance.
We rush around busily with our conscious minds, often unaware of the inner message that could guide us.
Receiving inner guidance comes in many forms. Usually it is just a knowing. It can be an inner voice, or some sense that you trust, which alerts you to your next step. Sometimes it is unconscious—you just find yourself doing or saying something without knowing where that impulse came from. It can be an epiphany where you suddenly a gain deep understanding of some issue. For many, it is a pull. You feel pulled in a particular direction that you feel compelled to follow in spite of any doubts.
At its core, “being” is surrender. You release your old agendas, your ideas about how things should be, and submit to the higher guidance coming through you.
“Being” is a state of acceptance. You know there is no point complaining or judging others. You realise that everything, and everyone, is just perfectly where it all needs to be.
In a way, “being” means trusting the ultimate plan of the high frequency beings who are running this universe. I have been told, during countless regressions, that all is unfolding as planned and we have nothing to be concerned about. The destruction of the planet is not part of the plan—although we have tumultuous times ahead. These planetary disruptions will frighten many, but annihilation is not the end game.
All those people struggling for survival will someday evolve to a state of being where they surrender their will. At this time, they are still in the process of developing their will. It seems paradoxical, but before you surrender your will and “be,” you have to first develop it. That is just part of experiencing the full curriculum of the Earth System. Earth is a learning school, designed to expand each of us with knowledge and wisdom.
If what I have written here resonates with you, perhaps you are one of those people who are called to “be” rather than “do.” There are many such folk on the planet at this time. They are here to help the system evolve into a higher frequency. Although it takes courage to surrender and trust, it is a worthwhile practice for those who are ready.
When I was in private practice as a psychologist, one of my clients sheepishly asked me if I had a policy on receiving gifts. She was holding a small parcel at the time.
“Yes,” I replied, “I do have a policy on receiving gifts.”
Her face fell. She assumed, as a professional, my policy was to not accept gifts. I continued, “My policy is that I accept all good that the universe offers.”
Her face lit up with a wide smile as she handed me her gift. It was a handmade patchwork, shopping bag. She had made it for me, choosing bright colours that she noticed I preferred.
Decades later, I still have the bag which I still enjoy using, a reminder of this generous client and my gratitude for all the good I receive.
That gift was great. But sometimes the gift we receive is not what we expected.
One day a friend of mine asked me to come to a free weekend NLP seminar. My antennae told me to avoid this free seminar. I remember being told that if you didn’t know how NLP worked you could be manipulated by unscrupulous people using it. I had studied NLP and observed its exploitative power. I kindly refused her offer to attend. My friend and her partner went along. At the free seminar, they both signed up for two, five-day seminars at the cost of $20,000. These seminars were supposed to show them how to become rich. Some years later, my friend and her partner filed for bankruptcy.
Whatever they learned at these expensive seminars did not help them fulfil their dreams. While they tried to apply their newfound knowledge, they lacked one essential ingredient—self-knowledge. As time progressed, I observed a lot of wishful thinking by my friend and her partner—the same trap evident right at the beginning when they were invited to the free seminar.
By trusting in this free gift, they opened themselves to deception. But really, they deceived themselves. They didn’t have enough knowledge to be discerning. While you might see their trust as a mistake, I do not. Bankruptcy is painful, while also presenting a perfect opportunity to learn. They stood on the threshold of gaining a deeper understanding of themselves, their motivations and actions.
Trusting and receiving are not mistakes. Opportunities are gifts from the universe.
During the regressions which I am privileged to conduct, spiritual guides give us their wisdom. They tell us there is a short cut to spiritual development that very few people are taking at this point in time.
In one regression, the client was told by the guide, “I gave you this shortcut many lifetimes ago, but you still haven’t taken it.”
The client and I both wanted to know more details about this short cut.
“Trust,” the guide replied.
At that time, the guide’s words didn’t seem to make sense. In her past lives and current life, this client had trusted, received what was offered, and had been terribly betrayed. Those betrayals had caused her great grief, and even death. Why would she want to trust?
The guides left it to us to figure it out. In the meantime, similar messages kept coming from other guides.
Gradually, I gained a deeper understanding what they meant. When we trust without discernment, we will be disappointed, but this is the fastest way to learn. Over time, we learn what not to do and who not to trust. Even though it is painful to be let down, through trusting we continually refine our ability to make better decisions.
Think about it! How do we learn if we stop trusting and say ‘no’ to new opportunities? We cannot learn without taking risks, without opening up to accept new challenges. The courageous learn quickly while the fearful develop slowly. That is fine. It is their choice. But some of us want to progress more efficiently.
Trust is the opposite of fear. It takes courage to trust even when there is fear.
Gradually I have learned an important principle. Take action motivated by desire, not fear. In other words, don’t let fear distract you from what you truly desire.
Recently, I was guiding a young friend on how to consolidate and pay off her many debts. Suddenly, she realised how much money she would be applying to debt in the next year or so. “Oh! I’m not going to have much money to spend. I love buying things. I like the freedom of having money.”
“What do you really want?” I asked. “Do you want the freedom to spend like you have in the past, or do you want your life in control? This is your choice.”
She sat quietly for several minutes, mentally comparing these two ways of living, which are mutually incompatible.
“I want my life in control,” she stated with considerable conviction.
My young friend was giving herself a gift. She had not been able to trust herself in the past. She didn’t have the wisdom. Her careless spending propelled her into financial trouble, and she didn’t feel good about it. But she was willing to look at her previous behaviour and motivations. Once she understood what she’d been doing and why, she committed to change. She is taking actions that will give her what she really wants.
She’d been naïve. In spite of her careless spending, she trusted that all would be well. It wasn’t, not in the short term anyway. But ultimately, her trust and her debts are a gift. She is learning to spend money wisely.
Trust is our short-cut spiritual path. By trusting, we are developing the greatest wealth anyone can have: Wisdom.
Dr Liara Covert is a breathworker who has recently moved to the Sunshine Coast. She frequently interviews people about their lives and posts them on her blog. Recently she contacted me and asked me to do an interview. I checked out her website and felt an energetic connection. Her approach to life resonates with mine. I agreed to her interview and she came up to Maleny to do it. We spent a pleasant day together, taking care of business and then lunching and driving around the district. Liara had never been to Maleny before and was impressed with its beauty.
In the interview I share details of my life, the regressions, my books and some of the forces that have influenced me. Here is a link to a transcript of the interview:
When I was working as a psychologist, I saw an average of twenty clients a week. Over twenty years, I must have seen thousands of clients. Even so, some stories have stayed with me. Here is one about a client suffering panic attacks.
Chrissy, aged 28, came to see me because she felt increasingly anxious. She had always been a bit anxious, but it had never stopped her from getting on with her life. I considered this a normal level of anxiety. But over the last twelve months, her anxiety had developed into panic attacks.
Her father had committed suicide six years earlier. He’d been an unhappy, sensitive man who coped by using alcohol. Before this, he’d been a loving father to her. She said she coped with his suicide by believing he was at peace. She’d hated watching his emotional turmoil over the last couple of years before he died. Her mother had left him, and he never quite recovered from this experience of loss and rejection.
Like most people, she felt like she was dying during her panic attacks. Somehow, each time they hit, she managed to pull herself out of the fear and regain her composure. This wasn’t a satisfactory solution because, sooner or later, they always returned.
I use the technique of supported exposure to deal with panic attacks. I consider panic attacks to be a type of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Some specific experience, perhaps too fleeting to be noticed, brings a past trauma suddenly and vividly to life.
Supported exposure gently takes the client back into the experience of panic, while letting her know she is safe and supported. Usually the client receives more information about the trauma by staying with the feelings of panic until they gradually subside.
I asked Chrissy to describe her panic attack and, within a few moments, she was back in it. I encouraged her to be brave and stay with her feelings, breathing slowly and deeply. She followed my instructions and soon started reporting her impressions.
She sensed the presence of her father. I accepted this as her truth and began to explore it. I asked if he knew he was dead. She felt a strong sense of confusion and fear.
I have many clients who have sensed the presence of the dead, especially those they had loved who have passed on. Their presence often stirs up feelings of confusion. I used the same technique with Chrissy as I had used with them, as it had always worked.
I suggested she tell her father he has died. He committed suicide many years ago thinking that would free him from pain, but the pain remains. This may sound counter-intuitive, especially if you believe death to be the end. But even though our body falls away, our soul-self continues. Chrissy’s father is clutching onto her because he does not know what else to do.
I explained this to her. “You love him, but his pain is too great for you to bear. It is time for him to go. Are you willing to let him go, Chrissy?”
Chrissy started crying. She admitted it was difficult to let him go. Since his death, she had been aware of his presence from time to time, especially if she felt down or alone. This had been a comfort to her.
I explained it was time to release him. He had things to do on the other side and she needed to learn how to cope without him. I continued to reassure her, giving her time to weep quietly until she decided to let him go.
She suddenly saw a bright light, even though her eyes were closed. Then she said, “He’s gone.” She reported feeling calm.
As she opened her eyes, she explained that she now understood what had happened. He had attached to her after he died. She had never completely grieved her loss because she had never fully felt he’d gone. She wondered if he had sensed some need in her and hung around to help her cope.
It wasn’t only her father who’d felt lost. She had too. After five years with her, he wanted to leave, but every time he started to let go, she went into a panic. This took her back to the moment she learned of his suicide and all her feelings of helplessness. Now she realised she’d been hanging onto him, holding him back from getting on with his life on the other side. The tears she shed during the session expressed the loss she was finally feeling.
After this session, Chrissy had no more panic attacks and her anxiety subsided. She came to see me several times, building her inner strength and developing the confidence to cope as an adult in the world. As well, she soon felt connected to her spiritual guide who was there to help her.
Chrissy was one of the early clients I encountered who was hanging onto a deceased loved one. I have met many more since, on my journey as a healer, some when I was a psychologist and some as a spiritual practitioner. Not all involve panic attacks. There can be other symptoms, such as depression, sadness or feelings of helplessness. Some people know they are hanging onto a loved one but don’t know how to let go. Others, like Chrissy, don’t want to let go.
Panic attacks have many causes. They are all discoverable if the practitioner and the client are willing to explore deeply with an expansive view of what is possible.
Today it is two years (22nd Sept. 2016) since Michael Newton departed for his life between lives. I thought it fitting to let you know about a new book with which he was involved.
The Book is “Llwellyn’s Little Book Of Life Between Lives” which is to be launched in the USA on the 1st of October 2018.
This is a great book for anyone interested in past life or life between lives regression. By using relevant and absorbing cases, it explains the process in detail, including the preparation, the hypnotic process, what the past life is like and “places” you can access in the life between lives. Because it is a small book with an attractive hard cover, it is a great gift.
I am a member of the Research Committee of the Michael Newton Institute, There are four of us and we are the authors of this book. Many of the cases in the book come from my clients (with permission of course)..
Ann Clark, the Director of the Research Committee, spoke to Michael Newton a few months before he passed. He had been asked by Llewellyn, the publisher of his books, to write this book. Because he trusted the work the Research Committee had already done, he asked Ann if she could take on the writing of the book. He was not in the best of health at the time. She promised him the Research Committee members would write the book. Sadly, Michael passed over before it was finished.
You can pre-order the book now, either with your local bookstore or the link below. If you have any problems getting it, please let me know.
How do I know, in a session, whether I am recalling a past life or remembering something I have learned in this life?
During the session, you don’t know. Most people feel they are making it up. Because of the way the Earth system is set up, we sort of “trick” ourselves into accessing these past lives and life between lives. Let me explain.
On Earth we have a physical body that is vulnerable to damage and death. Naturally we want to protect it and that includes our emotional health too. Therefore, our focus is on our safety. We don’t want to waste our time or our money, and we certainly don’t want to be duped. These are all threats to our welfare.
But to go into our past lives and our life between lives, we need to shift our focus away from the physical world and into the spiritual world. How do we do this and still stay safe?
First, we practitioners use hypnosis to help the body relax so you can feel physically safe.
Second, you have a trusted practitioner by your side, looking out for you and guiding you. The level of trust you have in the practitioner is important. You need to feel emotionally safe.
Now you need to trust the process and go along with the instructions. When doubts come into your mind, you put them aside. If your doubts are strong or intrusive, you share them with the practitioner. She will reassure you, asking you to go along with the first thing that comes into your mind. You don’t consider the questions she asks, instead you allow the response to pop into your mind. You will probably believe you thought it, and it is a thought, but the first thought is the one you want. You don’t censor your first impression.
Sometimes people are blocked and struggle to receive. They are actually blocking themselves.
The answers cannot come if you are not open to them. For example, the information cannot flow in if you think you need proof. That is a block. That is protective thinking. You are unsure, not wanting to be duped. You need to let go and trust. It is better if you don’t t care at all whether it is true or not. You need to accept what comes to keep the information flowing.
In summary, you need to trust enough to open the door, then keep going, still trusting.
Now, we come back to your question. How do you know if what you experienced is true or not?
For some people the experience was so real and compelling they trust it. For others, the information they received makes so much sense, they are convinced it is right. But some come out of the trance, wondering if it was true. What happens if that is you?
Obviously, while you were in the trance, you needed to accept what was coming to you. Now you have a choice. You can stay open to the possibility that what you received is true or you can doubt it. If you stay curious and open, you are likely to find evidence of the veracity of your experience. Many do.
Clients often write to me after the session telling me what they discovered. Recently one wrote to me and said she found an exact picture of the strange hat a man was wearing during her past life. It matched with other details she noted during the session, including the place and timeframe. When you find corroborating evidence, you feel more confident in the information you received during the session.
Even I sometimes doubt the accuracy of what the client is receiving. In one past life, my client was an Indian man. While looking at some movement in a bush, a huge snake came up behind the man and wound around him, killing him. Several aspects of this scene were strange. Why did the snake attack him when he had his back to him? India has many dangerous snakes, but does this include constrictors? Why couldn’t he get away?
Later investigation answered these questions. India does have constrictor pythons and, though it is rare, they can grow to six metres and are capable of killing a man. These pylons are loners and not particularly active during the day except in the mating season when they can be aggressive. They have poor eyesight but a good sense of smell. The movement the man was looking at in the bush was another snake, the snake’s intended mate. The man was simply in the way. He had no knife so he could not save himself from being suffocated.
You will meet this client in a later video post when she will explain why she came for a regression, what happened during the regression and how it changed her.
Is a past life real or is it just symbolic?
In either case, something quite amazing is going on here as these regressions change people’s lives in positive ways. In the above case, the client was convinced the past life was real but ultimately each of us has to make up our own mind.
The past life is always related to the client’s current life, and this relationship is often expressed in an unusual and interesting ways. Each regression is unique, often portraying situations one could not easily imagine.
Some people think they are making it up from their imagination. The word “imagination” includes the idea of experiencing images. When confronted with this, I always ask, “Why did you specifically imagine that situation out of countless possibilities?”
To do a regression, you need to trust. You need to trust the practitioner, the process, your spiritual guides and your own ability to trust and open to receive. Once you have experienced the session, you make up your own mind whether it was worthwhile, useful or genuine.
Special offer – continued
I have been impressed with the results from my special package to clients who would like to do a past life regression and a life between lives regression. So far those clients who took up this offer have had great experiences. For example, one said, “Thank you for the regressions. I feel so lighter and I am now looking forward to the future.” Another said, “I have noticed a difference already, especially in my relationships. I am actually enjoying my mother’s company, when before I was stressed and tense.”
Because it worked so well I have decided to extend this special offer, at this stage, until the end of December 2018.
The special offer is 2 three-hour regressions for $500
The regressions are taken on separate days and you will receive notes of the sessions and the audio recordings.
Recently I watched a TED talk about treating depression with the active chemical in magic mushrooms, psilocybin. Rosalind Watts, a psychologist who is part of a research term at the Imperial College London, gave the talk.
Twenty people who had long-term, treatment-resistant depression were given a high dose of psilocybin in a therapeutic setting. Each individual listened to music while being with a therapist who was there mainly for safety. The sessions were not structured by the therapist and lasted for about six hours.
Of the twenty people, six were completely cured of their depression, three experienced no change and eleven had their depression lift for two months before it started returning.
Using brain-imagining techniques, the researchers identified those areas of the brain affected by the psilocybin. Their conclusions? That the drug increased flexibility and neural connectivity, effectively unlocking the brain.
The results were positive but the real mystery to the researchers was: What did these people actually experience? Each individual was interviewed six months later. This is what the researchers found:
Most surfaced unconscious memories and past traumas.
They received insight into their negative patterns of behaviour.
They were liberated emotionally. Most had been numb or shut down emotionally. During the session many cried and released emotions.
They now felt connected when before they were isolated. Some reported feeling closely connected to friends and family. Others felt connected to nature. Many experienced a spiritual awakening with a sense of harmony and unity.
Their experience was perfectly structured and unfolded in a way that was optimal for their personal transformation.
Several of them, the researchers claimed, experienced six years of therapy in six hours. Some of these described their experience as “my brain being defragged,” “the fog lifting” and “the lights being turned on in a dark house.”
After these results, the researchers wondered if psilocybin could cure depression. They decided that the chemical only created conditions for the individual to cure him or herself.
It seemed the psilocybin was the magic that created the conditions, which appeared to be a special state of mind. In any case, that is what the researchers concluded.
But that wasn’t true either. You don’t need a chemical to reach that state.
People who come for a past life regression or a life between lives regression, don’t need magic mushrooms or psilocybin to create a state of mind where they transform. They revisit lost memories, resolve past trauma, gain insights, experience a sense of harmony and unity that we call the Oneness without ingesting any pharmaceutical. And they experience it all unfolding perfectly for their optimal learning. This state can easily be achieved with an experienced practitioner of life between lives hypnosis.
The sessions I facilitate with my clients mirror what was described in the psilocybin research. As soon as the client reaches a special state of hypnosis, I hand over to their guides who take them on the journey that is perfect for them. This journey and their experiences are beautifully designed for them by their guides.
A psychologist recently sent me a client who was suicidal after being depressed for two years. He had been in and out of hospital and was not able to work. He did two sessions with me and, according to his psychologist, his depression was gone. This is what he wrote a few months after his session:
You have been such a big part in my recovery and I am looking forward to the next time to see you. The Guides have been very active in my life and the more I accept them, the more I succeed. Thank you for opening this door…for me to breathe and dream of the doorway beyond and that it has come to complete fruition. You might remember that I was given the motivation and wisdom to “open a door and expect a doorway”!
Of course, it is not only depressed people who benefit from these experiences, others do too.
Many people are helped, including those who want to understand:
the challenges they are facing in their lives,
whether they are on track with their life purpose,
where their loved ones are and why they were taken,
how to lift the fog of confusion or the distress of anxiety, and
how to heal or manage their physical problems.
As the researchers discovered, the real magic of the process that so helped their depressed patients isn’t in the mushrooms and isn’t in the chemical. The real magic is everyone’s ability to access a special state of consciousness. This state of consciousness allows us to address our issues in the most powerful way possible, assisted by high-level spiritual guides who are focussed on our greatest good.
Special offer.
For a limited time, I recently decided to offer a special package to clients who would like to do a past life regression and a life between lives regression. I have noticed my clients go into their hypnotic state very easily and quickly since I moved up to Maleny. From here the energies are clear greatly conducive to going into trance. I am offering two regressions, each of a duration of at least three hours, and at a special price. These regressions are taken on different days so you stay fresh and alert and can easily maintain your connection to your guides during your journeys. This offer also applies to Skype regressions.
The special offer includes 2 three-hour regressions for $500
taken on separate days, including notes of the sessions and audio recordings.
We all overreact at times. Something triggers us, and BANG! We erupt. We lose it—literally. It’s like we have no control over our behaviour. What’s going on?
Over millions of years of evolution, we have developed a number of survival strategies. They’re unconscious. It’s as though a protective part of our psyche has developed a computer program. The moment we feel threatened, the program kicks in, and runs automatically. This explains why we are often anxious or angry, and why we frequently overreact. But how does the program work? And can we override it?
Consider the story of Dolly and Marty, two German Shepherds. Their owner left them in the car while he popped into a nearby shop. He left the windows partially open. Marty, an adventurous dog, wriggled out to follow his master. Dolly tried to copy him but she lost control and fell, suffering a badly damaged leg.
Her leg eventually healed but her personality changed. While Marty leapt into the car the moment his master opened the door, Dolly baulked. Falling out of the window and smashing her leg had made her wary. For her, the car meant danger. Instinctively, she tried to avoid it. If forced into the car, she became unsettled and anxious.
If you tried to coax Dolly into the car without knowing her history, her reluctance would confuse you. You’d wonder why she was overreacting.
Wild animals rely on this program. Their survival depends on it. But sometimes, the triggers can be mixed. Imagine a doe walking through a forest. The air is thick with juniper pollen. Suddenly, the doe catches another scent, and a pack of wolves bursts from the undergrowth, lunging at her heels. She springs into action, fleeing to safety through the woods.
This experience creates a new program for the doe. Instinctively, she associates the pollen with the wolf attack. The next time she catches a pungent whiff of juniper pollen she’ll hesitate, and move quickly away from the danger she senses.
We are not the same as animals. Often, we react instinctively to protect ourselves. Other times, we try to override the program. Imagine a young girl working in a café. Her boss follows her into the cold room, brushing closely past her. She feels uncomfortable but decides it must have been an accident. Even though she puts it out of her mind, her protective psyche doesn’t miss it. The program is set. The cold room and the boss signify danger. If she was a wild animal, she would never return. But she needs to pay her rent, she needs to put food on her table. So she overrides her instincts, making excuses for her anxiety. She doesn’t like the cold and she prefers working alone, when the boss isn’t around.
As time goes on, her anxiety increases. Each time she enters the cold room, she checks to see if the boss is following. Perhaps the tension becomes too much, and she finds another job. But the program follows her. Maybe her new boss is heavyset, unconsciously reminding her of her old boss. Or he asks her to fetch some milk from the cold room. Suddenly, her old anxieties flood back, and she has no idea why.
Unless this problem is addressed, she could easily accumulate more and more triggers. Her genuine fears of being sexually assaulted by her original boss could evolve into a generalised fear of overweight older men, or of workplaces. She could spend much of her life feeling afraid and anxious—because she has tried to override the program her psyche set up to protect her.
To complicate matters, I have discovered that these programs can be carried over from past lives. Out of the blue, something triggers us, and we explode. Having regained our composure, we feel embarrassed, and resolve to release that trigger. No matter how deeply we search, we cannot identify its source. In such cases, a past life regression can help.
Other times, an incident in our current life can bring old wounds, carried over from previous incarnations, to the surface. One of my clients suffered claustrophobia, a fear of being in confined small spaces. She remembered a cousin locking her in a cupboard during a game of hide and seek when she was only four. Back then, she was terrified, banging on the door and screaming to be released.
Many psychologists would assume that this childhood incident was the source of her phobia. But remembering this incident didn’t solve her problem. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, which challenges irrational thinking, had no effect. The terror she experienced when locked in a cupboard may seem excessive—but only if you don’t know her past life history.
I took my client back to a past life. She had lived several hundred years ago as a man, who had behaved badly. As punishment, he is locked in a standing wooden box, and left to die. There is a small hole in the front of the box. He looks out at the world, hoping someone will come and rescue him.
During her regression, my client re-experiences this life directly. When I ask the man if he is dead, he replies that he doesn’t know. He believes he is still alive, waiting to be rescued. I explain that he has died. He weeps, pleading that he is too young to die. After giving him time to grieve this loss, I suggest someone is waiting to take him to a pleasant place. He sees a light approaching, which turns into an angel. The angel takes his hand and he moves upwards.
With the help of her guides, my client then analyses that experience. That man had been stuck for hundreds of years, waiting to be saved. Although he had died, he did not realise this. He was trapped in a netherworld between life and death.
Releasing that man from his torment released my client from her claustrophobia. She still has to deal with any new triggers that she encounters in her current life. Anytime she feels claustrophobic, she can free herself. She just needs to sense the congruity between her present anxiety and the original experience.
Some people are easy to anger. Because they are constantly alert for danger, they find their reactions difficult to control. That’s because they are out of control. The program snaps them into a trance, and they react instinctively. Later, when they compose themselves, they may have no memory of how they have behaved.
When such people come for a regression, we often find the source of the trigger in a past life. Soon they start making connections between past life traumas and triggers they’ve experienced in their current life. Awareness of these connections defuses the trigger, and they can begin the process of deleting or modifying the program. The program may have been useful in earlier ages when life was more dangerous. In modern times, most of these programs are obsolete.
Awareness is the answer to our overreactions. Accessing and resolving past life traumas gives us great power. Knowing this, I am in awe of our evolutionary programs. It seems like the whole Earth system has been set up to increase our awareness, and our continued spiritual growth.
Two decades ago Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now was published. It was a best seller and many people, including myself, saw wisdom in what he wrote. Eckhart suggests we stop identifying with our mind and our past, because the stories we tell ourselves about our past are just perspectives. Instead he suggests we live in the present and not worry about the past.
After thinking about this topic for ten years or more, I do not agree with Eckhart that the past and the stories we tell ourselves are unimportant. After many years as a psychologist, I learned that the past is relevant to our life journey.
Humans love stories. The books we read, the movies we watch all contain stories. Little children like nothing more than hearing a story. When we get together with friends, we share stories. Stories are woven into the fabric of our lives.
What is more important is whether the stories serve us or not. The stories we create about our past are greatly influenced by the perspectives of our culture, our families and our peers. Their perspectives might align with our true self or they might not. If they don’t, we will suffer. Let me give you an example.
Lucas came to see me because he felt lost and alone. He had a wife and three children who loved him, but he didn’t feel connected to them in a meaningful way. I counselled both Lucas and his wife. She wanted more attention from him, claiming he was habitually secretive. He admitted he did make plans without consulting her.
We discovered this habit was related to his childhood. His mother was neurotic and controlling. She felt abandoned by her busy husband and used Lucas as her companion. She became jealous if Lucas wanted to see his friends, and forbade him from visiting them. He managed her oppression by becoming strongly independent, doing what he wanted and lying to his mother about it.
Lucas believed that to be safe he had to be secretive. He believed others would stifle him. He carried his habit of secrecy into his marriage. For example, he would organise trips or activities for himself without consulting his wife. When his wife discovered he’d made these plans, she would become angry, just like his mother. I helped them see the origin of their problems and they agreed to change their behaviour.
As a psychologist, I thought the new understanding of their behavioural patterns would solve their marriage problems. I was wrong. Their beliefs were much more deeply ingrained than any of us realised. Past life experiences had also played a role in the formation of Lucas’s beliefs.
When I became a practitioner of past life regression, Lucas wanted to explore his past lives. We asked his guides to take him to the origin of his problems, and he re-experienced several past lives.
He is taken to a life as a monk. This is where his troubles begin. As a child, he basks in the love of his family. He is very happy. But he does not realise that tradition demands he be taken away to a monastery at the age of nine. Once separated from his loving family, he is overwhelmed by grief. To cope, he hardens himself emotionally, cutting off his deep feelings of sadness. In doing this, he changes his perspective. He tells himself he has to be tough and strong, rather than open and loving.
While Lucas pushes away his feelings of sadness, they do not disappear. They remain deeply buried in his soul during subsequent lifetimes.
After his life as a monk, Lucas is reborn as a pirate. He and his fellow pirates mercilessly plunder other vessels on the high seas. He feels completely isolated in this band of murderous criminals as not one of them can be trusted. During a mutiny he is thrown overboard, and dies alone in the sea.
Lucas realises that the hardness of the pirate is still within him. The pirate shut down emotionally to hide his fear and Lucas still does the same, feeling isolated and empty.
When he came into my consulting room years ago, Lucas was carrying this deep history within him. He didn’t know that and neither did I. We just knew his patterns of behaviour were controlling him, and he was not able to change them by a conscious act of will.
Lucas could only change after we mined deeply down into his psyche and released the deep grief and fear he had buried there. He wept. He felt completely exposed and vulnerable. And gradually he came to see that feeling vulnerable, hurting and weeping, are a part of life.
Lucas was learning a new story that changed his belief about avoiding pain and vulnerability. He learnt that running away from his feelings means running away from himself. When we disown our feelings, we disconnect from our true self, and from others.
The Power of Now can help us reconnect with our true self. We need to be present, in the now, to relive our past experiences and to shift our perspective. Rather than going back into the past, we bring the past into the present. The present is always pregnant with the past. We need to reconnect with our past to fully understand it and free ourselves from it.
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