by Deborah Bromley, EFT

People who come for life-between-lives regression are usually very familiar with the books written by Dr. Michael Newton. It’s not surprising that reading such inspiring stories about the afterlife awakens a deep desire to seek the experience for oneself. At the time of her LBL (Life Between Life), Helen had no knowledge of Newton’s books or ideas about the structure of the spirit world, so what makes this LBL fascinating for me is not only the freshness of Helen’s spiritual journey but also the firsthand validation of the material in the books.

Sometimes the mind can construct doubts and expectations so that clients may come with a set of preconceived ideas about their life as a soul between incarnations. Fortunately, the guides have other ideas, and they gently direct the action and the energy to ensure the session is both revealing and fulfilling so the client receives the spiritual journey that meets their needs.

IT ISN’T POSSIBLE to describe the experience of LBL on the written page—it defies explanation. Your focus may be on your burning “this life” questions, but as soon as you are connected with the memory of your life as a soul, you are able to recall the limitless love that exists for you in this place—love that holds you and supports you through your incarnations, the love of your guide, the wisdom of your council, the deep connection with your soul friends—and it is overwhelming. Once you have been immersed in this love, you cannot feel alone or in doubt. It is like having your connection to the spiritual Internet opened: by recalling your LBL, you can reexperience and reconnect with your soul intelligence. Then life’s everyday struggles pale into insignificance, because you can put them into a proper perspective.

Meeting with the Council of Elders is one of the most important events for a soul to experience between lives. Thus, when clients in hypnosis recall appearing before these wise beings between lives, it is very meaningful to them. Usually, we are accompanied by our personal guides, who serve as our mentors, while the elders inquire about our progress and evaluate the results. For the still-incarnating soul, this forum appears to be as close to seeing divine beings as we get in the spirit world. What makes this case so unique in my experience is the fact that before her current life, Helen was actually invited by the elders to participate in the highest form of soul evaluation we know of in the spirit world.

Since these higher beings, whom we call the elders, have long ago finished their own incarnations, we cannot place them in hypnosis on Earth to learn their secrets. The compelling aspect of this highly unusual narrative is that Helen is probably being groomed to enter the spiritual vocation of a junior guide herself in the near future. It is possible that she was offered a brief indoctrination into the mysteries of a council meeting as a means of preparation. At the time this case fell into my lap, I was still in my first year of practicing LBL therapy. Today, I would have asked many more questions of Helen. However, even then, I realized that what Helen was describing to me was a great honor for her.

In the spirit world, an elder is above even a senior guide in development. This case illustrates what amounted to a training experience in advanced guidance counseling for a level IV or V soul who is ready to take on more management responsibilities, for lack of a better term. The essence of a soul’s existence involves problem solving during their physical incarnations. Both guides and elders who serve as counselors for souls under their jurisdiction are in the business of stimulating the gradual development of a soul’s ability to improve on their decisions toward making better choices in each new life. This story reflects the impressions of someone who briefly went behind the scenes in a council chamber meeting to actually engage in the process of evaluating others at a level not normally experienced by a still-incarnating soul. The insight we gain about the elders from Helen’s depiction of her minor role in soul assessment is illuminating, yet at the same time, she is apparently still too uninitiated as a council participant to know how indulgent the elders were in their treatment of her offerings.

Connecting with the spirit world while on Earth is called channeling by some; it’s like tuning yourself in to the right radio station so you can listen to different music. Channeling is a skill that can be learned with dedication and practice, and it is through channeling classes that Helen came to experience her life-between-lives regression, with the express purpose of making a strong connection to her own spirit guide to improve her channeling. But her session revealed far more about her own soul life than she could have anticipated.

The background to Helen’s life is that she was born of mixed-race parentage and adopted soon after birth by a Welsh family. She had a loving and secure upbringing but had always experienced problems with her weight. There followed clashes with her adopted mother and associated feelings that she was being judged for her appearance, although she knew deep down that this was not really important to her. She is a person who strongly believes it is your inner self-worth that makes you happy and fulfilled. She had been married but was now divorced, and she had one child, to whom she was devoted. However, relationships—her perceived lack of success with them and her subsequent failure to find someone to spend her life with—were a source of continuing disappointment. She had a background in personnel management and training but also had spent many years successfully working with disadvantaged children.

Helen relaxes easily into her LBL session and soon gets connected to her past-life memories, which will act as a springboard into the life-between-lives state. She finds herself in a field of tall grass in the sunshine. She is a young girl around twenty years of age named Shakira. She sees herself washing clothes in a stream with lots of other women; they are friends, they talk about their daily lives, and the atmosphere is happy, full of companionship and laughter. She lives upstairs in a small wooden hut on stilts and has a husband and a small son, Jacob.

Helen recalls:

My husband is tall with shaggy hair, a beard, and his teeth are dirty. He is not a nice person. I don’t know why I’m married to him. He shouts and drinks a lot. Jacob is frightened of him. I really want to get away from him.

We are at a party, everyone is dancing. There is loud music but we are in a horrible smelly street, it’s like a market square. My husband is off drinking somewhere, and Jacob is playing with his friends nearby. I’m carrying some fruit—pomegranates, I think—and talking to a friend, telling her I want to get away. My husband is really angry, though, because he suspects I want to leave him.

I see him, he’s coming for me, having a go at me, shouting and hurting me. He’s yelling that I wasted money on the fruit. I’m running and crying, hiding in the corner of one of the buildings. Jacob and I are holding each other and crying—I have to tell him it will be all right. But it isn’t—he has found us, and he’s pulling me away to give me a beating—Jacob is watching him. He’s hurting me really badly now, choking me. I tell Jacob to run. I’m finished now; I feel like I’m floating backwards, there are colors, floaty colors. It’s such a relief.

DEBBIE: Any regrets as you think about your life and how it ended?

HELEN: I shouldn’t have accepted what was going on, I should have moved away, followed my intuition, but I stayed. I cared, and I don’t like to let people down. My husband hurt me, because he thought nobody loved him.

I’m in spirit form now and moving fast. Some people are coming to greet me—it’s Melanie (daughter today), Sam and Ellie (close friends today). Oh! Mum’s (mother today) coming too—she’s puffing, running late as usual. That’s just like her. They are clapping and laughing, they are all standing up—“You done well, girl.”

I feel so happy and light—it’s such a relief. Now I have to go to a place of restoration—that’s what I call it. I go and relax in this other light. It’s yellow/orange colored, and it just comes up and makes you glow, it fills you up.

D: What is this for?

H: Well, it feels like putting your fingers in a socket. It’s amazing. It recharges you after you have been away—I only need a little bit because I was young, but I didn’t enjoy that last life, it was hard, so this energy is doing me good.

D: What happens to you after you have recharged your energy?

H: I’m going into this huge space, like a floating coliseum—there are loads of spirits here. It’s like we are all waiting for something to start, for someone to come. It’s like a seminar or conference. Understanding life purposes, that’s what it’s about. My group is over there to the side. I go and join them.

Helen sees familiar souls whom she calls by the names they have in her life now-Melanie, her beloved daughter; her mum, and many friends. Gradually, she starts to describe them more in soul terms by their energy qualities. She knows their soul names too, and when I ask her, she says she is called Simene.

H: I can see Mum, Jason, and Melanie, these are the ones I work with the most. Mum—she has balance; Melanie has compassion; Jason—he has strength; me (Simene)—I understand unconditional love.

We like to meet and talk in outdoor settings. I see us in a field. There is a feeling of freshness. We can be free here to laugh and say exactly what we feel. I can see that we are planning a strategy, putting a game plan in place. We have to do this together, because when we go off and have lives on Earth, we might be split up. So when we are together in the spirit world, we plan many lives ahead. That is how we accomplish our goals.

I can see us sitting around a square stone table, and in the center is a little bowl of golden nuggets—that’s what we call them. Golden things like peanuts.

D: What are they for?

H: Well, we eat them but we don’t, if you know what I mean. They’re to help us when we are back on Earth—to give us recognition. We take in the little golden nuggets at key points in our plan; then when we are on Earth we get a feeling of recognition at that key point. It tells us we are on the right track or have met the right person. It makes sure we meet who we are meant to meet—to keep tabs on the plan.

D: Like the feeling of déjà vu?

H: Yes, that’s it. It makes you stop for a moment and realize something important is happening.

D: What happens next?

H: I’m in another nice field now. There are two of them—my guides, that is. Sirus—he is close to me, he is young and good looking, dark skinned. (laughs) I sense he is a more junior guide. He’s got a lovely smile and deep blue twinkly eyes, he can be a bit naughty sometimes—we do laugh a lot.

In the distance, I see an older female in a floaty frock—she is senior—Opas is her name. She appears to me like an orange light over Sirus’s shoulder.

I feel so at home, they know me so well. I need to feel the laughter but keep myself on track; that’s what Opas is for. She knows all my weaknesses and reminds Sirus not to let me get too carried away. That’s my trouble, I’m always looking for the love—the unconditional love, it’s my main attribute—I don’t see the bad stuff coming for me. Like my husband in that last life. It got me into trouble.

The feeling of being bound by their care and knowledge of me—it’s amazing. So I get a little warning if I’m going too far, like an orange light in my mind reminding me that I should take care. Sirus has been told he must be stricter with me. He winks, though. He is showing me something important now—something that’s going to happen to me.

D: In this life?

H: Yes, it’s going to happen to Helen. He shows me where we are going to live, my business, my work and how it will continue—I am definitely on the right track.

A child will come and tell me I’ve made a difference to them. Because of that—I get recognition, something like an award—an OBE? I get an apology and respect. It’s a long time before it comes, but I’m doing all the right things now. The orange light in the background shows me there is a new guide for me to work with, because I’m starting a faster pace in this life as Helen.

D: Where do you go next?

H: I see myself in this light space. It’s like marble but it’s not, it’s transparent. Ah! I see I am on a council, that’s it—I am part of it, advising on the council for others.

D: What does this involve?

H: It’s like being on a board of directors. I’m just one of those people who are on it at the moment. I show unconditional love—that’s part of my character. When we are discussing different persons (souls) that are saying this and saying that, putting across lots of different views on that person and what they need, how we can advise them without actually telling them what to do, I find myself saying, “Can they learn this lesson in a different way?”

You see, this council is a bit keen on tough lessons. If the souls have to go through probing questioning, I want them to have an alternative way to learn what they need to learn. I want them to have more love; that’s how I see my role, if you like.

D: Tell me how it works.

H: Well, there are nine of us. I’m on the far right-hand side. I’m a bright golden-yellow color. I can’t really see over to the other side except when they are speaking, that’s when the energy color or feeling of the speaker sort of lights up. I put in my view if things get a bit heated.

D: I can’t imagine souls getting heated.

H: Perhaps heated is a bit simplistic. There tends to be a collective feeling of agreement about taking a firm stance with certain souls. I hear and feel the energy growing—that’s when I have to chime in with my opposite view (to be fully engaged by recommending a softer stance and forgiveness). Then the energy sort of subsides and questions itself (a review and summation). I get commended for my view. I have to show alternative scenes (of a soul’s life), like passing diagrams or drawings to the chairman—he is in the center.  I pass these tablets of stone with swirly golden writing on them, and everyone examines them as they are passed around. When we meet before a soul comes in, we always discuss everything that has happened in the soul’s life in great detail. We review how our advice (before the last past life) has been heeded and note how each soul has reacted to our advice. Sometimes it is very hard when souls have severe troubles, which is evidence they have not remembered or heeded our words. At first, my impression is that the elders are always rather stern-looking with such souls who come before them. It is tempting to put my points to the council in favor of compassion and love, and even though I am right on the outside (of the forum), I have to make myself heard (telepathically). I am now being recognized more fully about the way I think is best. I feel I am providing balance and making a difference. It’s all a question of getting the right balance for each individual case (between firmness and gentleness). That is why we spend so much time reviewing all the evidence (the council draws out about each soul). I have to speak up in favor of compassion and love, even though I am not placed close to the chairman. I think I am now being recognized more fully, and my view carries weight. The leader (chairman) is a very strong soul with an imposing energy.

Helen then indicates she is moving away from this scene. She goes back to the field with her guides.

H: They are there together now, telling me what I need to concentrate on. They say, “You nearly got it; you’ve got more to learn, though.”

As Helen has connected again with her guides, I ask them if they will answer the questions she has brought with her about her life now. Sometimes it’s not in the soul’s best interest to have easy answers, but in this case, they agree. Helen is able to see and hear what they say and report back to me. I ask her personal questions about her life, her work, her  laughter, and relationships. She gives these answers:

H: I need to act more on my intuition. If something is wrong, I must accept it and act on it. I must have more faith in myself, in the things I can’t see or touch. I must remember I’m not on my own, and they are there for me.

I thought I had to learn to trust people more (she has been very mistrusting of men in this life), but that is not so. I have to learn to have faith and not be mistrusting. Have faith and trust people until proven otherwise. I must not be suspicious. I can see now that I have gone too far the other way in this life, and it is stopping me from getting close to people. Not everyone is out to get me! I should now connect more with them (my guides) in my everyday life. If I have a question, I can just put it out there and they will reply, so when I get a feeling or idea, I must go with it. If I get a thought about what do, how to sort something out, I should go with it instead of analyzing things and pushing that original thought out of my head. That’s because if I go wrong, he (Sirus) only has to come and get me anyway, usually by making something bigger or worse happen. If I listen with my heart, then everything will be okay.

Helen considers her temporary exposure to the Council of Elders and eventually says goodbye to her guides. There is a quiet time with them when she doesn’t speak, and I know she is having a very deep and profound experience as they prepare to leave.

I remind her about keeping their images close in her mind and how they have advised her to connect with them. This was her goal for our regression—to know her guides, to be able to visualize them in her mind, to know how to call them and feel their energy. By having this experience, she will be able to lock the connection in her mind and recall it whenever she wants to have their support and reassurance. Her unique association with the elders has provided firsthand knowledge of spiritual counseling at the highest level.

She was very happy with her session and as a result is now able to fulfill her objective—to have a channel of communication, both for herself and to gain advice and wisdom for others, mainly friends and family. The knowledge of her guides, their unique personalities, the way they use their skills to help her and how this is perfectly matched with her own needs has allowed her to develop and grow toward a life that is more in line with her true purpose. I noticed she quickly made changes to parts of her life (career, business interests, and colleagues) without any regrets, and she made her daughter the focus of her energy. As that time is coming to an end and her daughter is going to university, now Helen is to realize a personal dream and relocate back to her native Wales. In doing so, she has listened to her heart and had the courage to follow the advice she hears without a backward glance.

Excerpt from Memories Of The Afterlife