The idea that we have past lives is becoming more widespread and an increasing number of people are having their own experiences. The majority of therapists who offer past life regression frequently use hypnotic trance which enables past life memories to quickly surface into conscious awareness, and often with amazing clarity. A considerable number of independently investigated cases have been published in which people have recalled information that has been subsequently verified. Often this information is obscure and so detailed about the period of the past life that it is unlikely to have been obtained by normal means. Also the circumstances of many of these cases have been fully investigated without any signs of deliberate deception. An example is the work of Dr. Ian Stevenson and his team at the University of Virginia who have investigated and documented thousands of cases in which children’s reports of past lives have been subsequently verified. One five-year old child reported 49 specific details of a past-life experience that were later verified by at least two independent witnesses who knew the past-life person. This research together with other evidence provides a compelling case that past lives are to be taken seriously.
The obvious question is what happens between lives? When clients are taken to a deeper level of hypnosis than used for past life recall, what appears to be soul memories comes to their conscious awareness following a past life death. If the death has been traumatic such as from a battle, execution or accident, many of the associated harsh emotions are still present. Healing and rest is offered and at some point a review of the past life takes place. The narrative moves to meeting a soul group, who are souls that help each other and often jointly reincarnate on some meaningful work. A highlight at some point is to meet ‘elders’, who are souls who have attained a level of experience and wisdom that not does require them to physically reincarnate. They review the progress of the soul before them and what is expected for the next life. Achieved with love, compassion and the participation of the soul, it leads to the next physical incarnation having a purpose.
Immediately after a past life death most clients report floating out of their physical body and usually express a sudden sense of lightness and freedom, and sometimes the death scene is observed for a while with an air of detachment. A transcript to illustrate this is from a client I’ll call Ben Cook who found himself in a past life of a First World War British soldier dressed in khaki and waiting in a trench. It was a cold damp morning and he could hear gunfire and bombs going off all around him. At exactly 7 o’clock, a voice shouted ‘fix bayonets’. He could see grim faces around him as he found himself climbing up a ladder out of the trench and advancing. Suddenly he felt a pain in the chest:
I feel as though I’m lifting.
Are you able to look down and see the body?
God, it’s in a mess.
Just describe what you can see.
It’s just lying in the mud, where it was hit.
Are there any other bodies around you?
Oh yes. Oh yes. Just a massacre.
Do you feel drawn to stay or do you move on?
Oh, I can’t move on yet. I’m just taking in all this carnage. It’s terrible. What purpose? The pain’s stopped though. Thank goodness. No pain. No pain!
What other things are happening?
I’m just the stillness. Just quiet. It’s quite a pleasant feeling really. I can see little dots of light.
Do you feel a pull, or desire to go towards these lights?
A little bit. It’s not tremendous, and I know I can’t stop here. I just want to watch what they do with the body. It’s put on a stretcher. Somebody’s fiddling around with it and they take it away. This big trench, and they are throwing us all in. Half a dozen of us, and they just bury us. It’s the end, isn’t it? That’s it.
Are you able to leave now?
Um … I just see little lights in the distance.
Go to the end of this journey and describe where you are.
It’s just like a big church, a big building and it just sort of cuddles you in.
What is happening to you in this place?
I’m just getting energized. It’s like someone plugging me into the electricity. Plugging me into some energy! It’s a nice feeling. I don’t want to leave.
Do you know what’s happening to you?
They’re just putting that energy back in my body. A rest they call it, but this can’t be rest. It’s lovely!
Have they taken away any energy?
There’s like some dirty energy. I feel lovely now.
The purpose of Ben’s healing was to remove the negative emotions from his traumatic death so his soul energy can return to its normal vibration. The description of the surroundings being like a ‘big church’ requires some explanation. In the spirit realms we can give our surroundings varying amounts of semi-physical form. This is achieved simply because energy follows thought. It often happens during the initial transition particularly for less experienced souls who need physical characteristics that will make them feel more comfortable and at home. Soul memories often contain various reports of huge crystalline castles, or green meadows and flowers.
Another transition account comes from a client I’ll call Helen Piece who found herself in the past life of a young woman in Victorian England whose job was to pick up rags and stitch them into cheap coverings. Her boyfriend had left her and she found herself at the age of 28 having difficulty breathing with the dying thought, ‘What a waste, I didn’t achieve anything’:
Go to the point when your heart stops beating. Do you stay with the body or do you leave the body?
I’m still in my body.
What do you experience, as you realize your body is dead?
I’m just tumbling, I’m rolling. I’m not sure which direction I’m going in.
Are you able to look back and see your body?
I can, yes.
What is it you can see?
Just lying, crumpled. I look asleep.
Do you feel drawn to stay there or can you move on?
I can move away. I don’t really want to stay there. I’m moving and things are looking smaller.
What else do you become aware of?
Lots of lights in the distance. Big clumps in some areas and then odd lights. There’s not really color, it’s just light… pulsing light… sometimes it’s darker. There’s one light brighter than the others, but it’s not coming near me, it’s just hovering. I feel drawn there. I feel as if I should go there.
Do you recognize who it is?
I don’t see who the light is, but I know it’s Ethel [from the past life]. Aunty Ethel.
And is she showing herself in energy or in human form?
Energy, but I know it’s her, I recognize her.
Just describe the colors of the energy that she’s showing herself in.
Two shades of yellow and it seems to have a glow on the edge with white light. Mainly two shades, moving yellow and mixing with each other.
Has she come to welcome you?
She’s there to wait for me, but there is somebody else.
Do you get a sense of who this is?
It’s a man, but I don’t see that it’s a man, I just know it’s a man. Ah, I can see a face… it’s a distorted face… droopy face on one side.
Well just look a little closer and describe all the features of the face.
It’s like an Indian face, an old crabby Indian face. It’s drooping at the mouth on one side, and it’s smiling. It’s someone I know.
Is this your spirit guide or teacher?
Yes! Yes. When I look at his face I can see he has brown features, but if I concentrate too hard, it goes back to the colors of blue and light blue.
And how does it feel being with him?
Oh, it’s comfortable. I just feel as though I want to smile.
And does he review that past life with you that you’ve just had?
Yes.
And how does he go about doing that?
I don’t see anything, it’s just there flashing in my head. He’s just given it to me in my head.
Does he stop at any point?
There is a point that he’s telling me I shouldn’t be disappointed. I’ve helped a lot of people without looking after myself.
How did you help lots of people?
I was a listener. I just listened.
And what was special about listening?
I could keep things to myself, and although I thought I hadn’t achieved anything, I have. I’ve achieved what I was meant to achieve.
What is it you were meant to achieve?
To help people to understand how they feel. I took a lot of people’s problems and listened to problems. They were able to look at them differently.
What are your thoughts about the past life now that you’ve had this pointed out to you?
I still feel a little disappointed. I think I could have done better. I could have achieved more for myself. I could have looked after myself more. I was too busy looking after other people and not looking after myself.
What does your guide say about that?
I shouldn’t be too proud to ask for help. I’ve not allowed people to help me, so I’ve not helped them in return. I didn’t realize that.
Is there anything else?
I was not meant to be with John, my boyfriend. He was a distraction and a bad influence. I feel he was oppressive and I allowed that to happen. It was a distraction.
What does your guide say about that?
‘Let it go. Don’t worry. You’ll learn. We all learn things. Just don’t make the same mistake again.’ I feel quite comforted by it.
Is this past life review just about finished now?
I’m happy. He’s happy.
This raises another interesting aspect of the initial transition. Meeting lights on closer examination always turns out to be one or more souls. For Helen it was a close family member, an aunt, that comes to meet her and draw her to the spirit realms. Often it can be a husband, wife or parents from that life who are the welcoming party. Helen also meets her spirit guide. These are evolved souls that will have been involved in the client’s life plan and oversee it from the spirit realms. Their normal form is in energy but the perceived view can change simply by the projection of thoughts into the energy. If a human form is shown, it’s for the benefit of the incoming soul. Helen then finds herself reviewing the past life with her spirit guide. Although at the point of death she does not understand its purpose, notice the compassionate way she is helped to understand it.
The narrative now moves to a later point and follows Helen meeting with elders accompanied by her spirit guide to start preparations for the next life:
Whereabouts is your guide in relation to you?
Just behind, to my right.
How many spirits of light can you see?
With the exception of myself and my guide? It appears to be twelve, could be thirteen.
Okay, and is one of them more significant than the others?
Yes. The one in the middle.
Okay, well look at the one in the middle. Is it in energy form or human form?
Energy form.
Describe that energy form for me.
It’s dark purple and fluid.
And what does this spirit of light say to you?
I feel as though I’m beckoned forward. I’m being urged to go forward. I’m a little bit apprehensive.
How are you feeling at the moment?
A bit worried. I don’t feel ready to be here.
And what does the spirit of light say to you?
‘Don’t resist, the time is right’. I feel as though I’ve done this before many times and I have the same feeling every time. I know it’ll be okay, but I still get apprehensive. It’s a mixture of apprehension and excitement. But as I move forward, my guide seems to be moving forward to encourage me, which makes things easy.
Who is it that starts the communication?
My guide.
What does your guide say?
That Carla [Helen’s spirit name] is ready.
Ready for the next life?
Yes.
And are they discussing what sort of life that’s going to be?
They’re asking me what I think.
And what do you say?
I’m ready but I’m saying I want an easy life. I want an easy life [laughs]. Which makes me uncertain, am I doing the right thing?
And what are they saying to you?
There’s still some things to sort out. Don’t rely on anybody. Don’t expect anybody to be there. Those that want to be there, I have to allow them to be there.
Oh, this is a life where you’ve got to do more things by yourself, is that right?
Yes. I need to remember what’s important.
And do they discuss what aspects of learning you’re going to be working with in this life?
I need to be more aware of the effect that I have on other people. I may think I have no effect but I can be really forceful with people. I think I’m supposed to encourage people to think and not do their thinking for them. Let them explore more.
And is there anything else you’re going to be working on in this life?
I need to be more focused.
And what does being more focused mean?
Avoid distractions. I need to put my foot down sometimes. Don’t let people influence the way I should be reacting spiritually.
On things that are spiritually important?
Yes. I allow people to change my thinking, but I don’t necessarily agree with the change, but I allow it happen. I need to be more forceful and focused. I’m easily influenced.
This review forms the basis of further more detailed planning Helen makes next with soul group members and in the selection of the next life body and life situation. These life plans are not remembered consciously while we are incarnate because to do so would massively reduce our learning potential. Obviously making some or all of this information available midway through a person’s life is only done when it can be spiritually helpful. These plans cover the major life events and we have free will to respond to the situation, to learn and spiritually grow, or find the situation repeating until its mastered.
So how reliable is the information? This kind of regression has been progressively developed over the last 20 years, but particularly over the last decade. Some of the pioneers include Joel Whitton, Helen Wambach, Dolores Cannon, Peter Ramsden and Michael Newton. Many of them stumbled upon the interlife by issuing imprecise commands to a client during a past life, and amazingly found them talking about soul memories between lives. Thousands of people have had their own interlife experiences guided by these pioneers or other therapists trained by them. The reports show a remarkable consistency, but what is particularly important is that many of the people in these regressions had no prior knowledge. They also had beliefs from atheism through all the world’s major religions. This is an important point to note, that the client’s previous belief seems to make no difference in the nature of their interlife soul memories.
An area that needs further discussion concerns subjective leading by therapists. The narrative in these transcripts; however, shows only open types of questions that were used. In deep hypnosis clients respond to questions extremely literally, much like a computer program. In other words, the client will only answer the question given. Deliberate falsification of information is virtually impossible, unless the client is not really in deep trance and a skilled therapist can tell when that is the case. A person in a regression cannot just be directed to experience something unless they have the information to respond with. Most importantly much of the information is entirely new to the client yet relevant to their current life context.
Interlife soul memory testimonies are consistent with many people from all walks of life. The strength of these revelations are based on the fact that they come from many countless ordinary men and women. Many people feel that this is one of the most profound sources of spiritual knowledge that is currently available to humanity.
Andy Tomlinson is a psychologist, psychotherapist, Training Director of the Past Life Regression Academy and has been a regression therapist for twenty years. You can find out more about how past lives heal in his book Healing the Eternal Soul or his Training.