Authors: Michael Newton
Would Hester have benefited from knowing about her past as Ross from birth rather than having to wait over thirty years and undergo hypnosis? Having no conscious memory of our former existences is called amnesia. This human condition is perplexing to people attracted to reincarnation. Why should we have to grope around in life trying to figure out who we are and what we are supposed to do and wondering if some spiritual divinity really cares about us? I closed my session with this woman by asking about her amnesia.
Dr. N: Why do you think you had no conscious memory about your life as Ross Feldon?
S: When we choose a body and make a plan before coming back to Earth, there is an agreement with our advisors.
Dr. N: An agreement about what?
S: We agree … not to remember … other lives.
Dr. N: Why?
S: Learning from a blank slate is better than knowing in advance what could happen to you because of what you did before.
Dr. N: But wouldn’t knowing about your past life mistakes be valuable in avoiding the same pitfalls in this life?
S: If people knew all about their past, many might pay too much attention to it rather than trying out new approaches to the same problem. The new life must be… taken seriously.
Dr. N: Are there any other reasons?
S: (pause) Without having old memories, our advisors say there is less preoccupation for … trying to … avenge the past … to get even for the wrongs done to you.
Dr. N: Well, it seems to me that so far this has been part of the motivation and conduct in your life as Hester.
S: (forcefully) That’s why I came to you.
Dr. N: And do you still think a total blackout of our eternal spiritual life on Earth is essential to progress?
S: Normally, yes, but it’s not a total blackout. We get flashes from dreams… during times of crisis… people have an inner knowing of what direction to take when it is necessary. And sometimes your friends can fudge a little …
Dr. N: By friends, you mean entities from the spirit world?
S: Uh-huh… they give you hints, by flashing ideas-I’ve done it.
Dr. N: Nevertheless, you had to come to me to unlock your conscious amnesia.
S: (pause) We have … the capacity to know when it is necessary. I was ready for change when I heard about you. Clodees allowed me to see the past with you because it was to my benefit.
Dr. N: Otherwise, your amnesia would have remained intact?
S: Yes, that would have meant I wasn’t supposed to know certain things yet.
In my opinion, when clients are unable to go into hypnosis at any given time, or if they have only sketchy memories in trance, there is a reason this blockage. This does not mean these people have no past memories, that they are not ready to have them exposed.
My client knew something was hindering her growth and wanted it revealed. The superconscious identity of the soul houses our continuous memory, including goals. When the time in our lives is appropriate, we must harmonize human material needs with our soul’s purpose for being ‘. I try to take a common sense approach in bringing past and present experiences into alignment.
Our eternal identity never leaves us alone in the bodies we choose, despite our current status. In reflection, meditation, or prayer, the memories of who we really are do filter down to us in selective thought each day. In small, intuitive ways-through the cloud of amnesia-we are given clues the justification of our being.
After desensitizing the source of her headaches, I completed my session with Hester by reinforcing her choice to be a woman for reasons other than intimidating men. I gave her permission to lower her defenses a little and be less aggressive. We discussed options for restructuring occupational goals toward the helping professions and the possibilities of volunteer service work. She was finally able to see her life today as a great opportunity for learning rather than a failure of gender choice.
After a case is completed, I never cease to admire the brutal honesty of souls. When a soul has lead a productive life beneficial to themselves and those around them, I notice they return to the spirit world with enthusiasm. However, when subjects like Case 13 report they wasted a past life, especially from early suicide, then they describe going back rather dejected.
When orientation is upsetting to a subject, I find an underlying reason is the abruptness with which a soul is once again in full possession of all knowledge. After physical death, unencumbered by a human body, the soul has a sudden influx of perception. The stupid things we did in life hit us hard in orientation. I see more relaxation and greater clarity of thought move my subjects further into the spirit world.
Souls are created in a positive matrix of such love and wisdom that when a soul starts to come to a planet like Earth and join the physical beings who have evolved from a primitive state, the violence is a shock. Humans have the raw, negative emotions of anger and hate as an outgrowth of their fear and pain connected with survival going back to the Stone Age.
Both positive and negative emotions are mixed between soul and host for their mutual benefit. If a soul only knew love and peace, it would gain no insight and never truly appreciate the value of these positive feelings. The test of reincarnation for a soul coming to Earth is the conquering of fear in a human body. A soul grows by trying to overcome all negative emotions connected to fear through perseverance in many lifetimes, often returning to the spirit world bruised or hurt, as Case 13 indicated. Some of this negativity can be retained, even in the spirit world, and may reappear in another life with a new body. On the other hand, there is a trade-off. It’s in joy and unabashed pleasure that the true nature of an individual soul is revealed on earth in the face of a happy human being.
Orientation conferences with our guides allow us to begin the long process of self-evaluation between lives. Soon we will have another conference, this time with more master beings in attendance. In the last chapter, I referred to the ancient Egyptian tradition of newly deceased souls being taken into a Hall of Judgement to account for their past life. In one form or another, the concept of a torturous courtroom trial awaiting us right after death has been part of the religious belief system of many cultures. Occasionally, a susceptible individual in a traumatic situation will say they had an out-of-body experience with nightmarish visions of being taken by frightening specters into an afterlife of darkness where they were sentenced in front of demonic judges. In these cases, I suspect a strong preconditioned belief system of hell.
In the quiet, relaxing state of hypnosis, with continuity on all mental levels, my subjects report that the initial orientation session with their guides prepares them to go before a panel of superior beings. However, the words courtroom and trial are not used to describe these proceedings. A number of my cases have called these wise beings, directors and even judges, but most refer to them as a Council of Masters or Elders. This board of review is generally composed of between three and seven members and since souls appear before them after arriving at their home base, I will go into this conference in more detail at the end of the next chapter.
All soul evaluation conferences, be they with our guides, peers, or a panel of masters have one thing in common. The feedback and past life analyses we receive in terms of judgement is based upon the original intent of our choices as much as the actions of a lifetime. Our motivations are questioned and criticized, but not condemned in such a way as to make us suffer. As I explained in Chapter Four, this does not mean souls are exonerated for their acts which harmed others simply because they are sorry. Karmic payment will come in a future life. I have been told that our spiritual masters constantly remind us that because the human brain does not have an innate moral sense of ethics, conscience is the soul’s responsibility. Nevertheless, there is overwhelming forgiveness in the spirit world. This world is ageless and so too are our learning tasks. We will be given other chances in our struggle for growth.
When the initial conference with our guide is over, we leave the place of orientation and join a coordinated flow of activity involving the transit of enormous numbers of other souls into a kind of central receiving station.
ALL souls, regardless of experience, eventually arrive at a central port in the spirit world which I call the staging area. I have said there are variations in the speed of soul movement right after death, depending upon spiritual maturity. Once past the orientation station there seems to be no further travel detours for anyone entering this space of the spirit world. Apparently, large numbers of returning souls are conveyed in a spiritual form of mass transit.
Sometimes souls are escorted by their guides to this area. I find this practice is especially true for the younger souls. Others are directed through by an unseen force which pulls them into the staging area and then beyond to waiting entities. From what I am able to determine, accompaniment by other entities depends upon the volition of one’s guide. In most cases haste is not an issue, but souls do not dawdle along on this leg of their journey. The feelings we have along this path depend on our state of mind after each life.
The assembly and transfer of souls really involves two phases. The staging area is not an encampment space. Spirits are brought in, collected, and then projected out to their proper final destinations. When I hear accounts of this particular junction, I visualize myself walking with large numbers of travelers through the central terminal of a metropolitan airport which has the capacity to fly all of us out in any direction. One of my clients described the staging area as resembling the hub of a great wagon wheel, where we are transported from a center along the spokes to our designated places.”
My subjects say this region appears to them as having a large number of unacquainted spirits moving in and out of the hub in an efficient manner with no congestion. Another person called this area “the Los Angeles freeway without gridlock.” There may be other similar wheel hubs with freeway-type on and off ramps in the spirit world, but each client considers their own route to and from this center to be the only one.
The observations I hear about the nature of the spirit world when entering the staging area have definitely changed from those first impressions of layering and foggy stratification. It is as if the soul is now traveling through the loosely-wound arms of a mighty galactic cloud into a more unified celestial field. While their spirits hover in the open arena of the staging area preparing for further transport out to prescribed spaces, I enjoy listening to the excitement in the voices of my subjects. They are dazzled by an eternal world spread out before them and believe that somewhere within lies the nucleus of creation.
When they look at the fully opened canopy around them, subjects will state that the spirit world appears to be of varied luminescence. I hear nothing about the inky blackness we associate with deep space. The gatherings of souls that clients see in the foreground in this amphitheater appear as myriads of sharp star lights all going in different directions. Some move fast while others drift. The more distant energy concentrations have been pictured as “islands of misty veils.” I am told the most outstanding characteristic of the spirit world is a continuous feeling of a powerful mental force directing everything in uncanny harmony. People say this is a place of pure thought.
Thought takes many forms. It is at this vantage point in their return that souls begin to anticipate meeting others who wait for them. A few of these companions may have already been seen at the gateway, but most have not. Without exception, souls who wish to contact each other, especially when on the move, do so by just thinking of the entity they want. Suddenly, the individual called will appear in the soul mind of the traveler. These telepathic communications by the energy of all spiritual entities allow for a non-visual affinity, while two energy forms who actually come near one another provide a more direct connection. There is uniformity in the accounts of my subjects as to their manner of spiritual travel, routes, and destinations, although what they see along the way is distinctive with each person.
I searched through my case files to find a subject whose experiences along this route to an ultimate spiritual destination was both descriptive and yet representative of what many others have told me. I selected an insightful, forty-one-year-old graphic designer with a mature soul. This man’s soul had traveled over this course many times between a long span of lives.
Case 14
Dr. N: You are now ready to begin the final portion of your homeward journey toward the place where your soul belongs in the spirit world. On the count of three, all the details of this final leg of your travels will become clear to you. It will be easy for you to report on everything you see because you are familiar with the route. Are you ready?
S: Yes.
Dr. N: (raising my voice to a commanding tone) One-we are getting started. Two-your soul has now moved out of the area of orientation. Three! Quickly, what is your first impression?
S: Distances are … unlimited … endless space … forever …
Dr. N: So, are you telling me the spirit world is endless?
S: (long pause) To be honest-from where I am floating-it looks endless. But when I begin to really move it changes.
Dr. N: Changes how?
S: Well … everything remains … formless … but when I am … gliding faster … I see I’m moving around inside a gigantic bowl-turned upside down. I don’t know where the rims of the bowl are, or even if any exist.
Dr. N: Then movement gives you the sense of a spherical spirit world?
S: Yes, but it’s only a feeling of… enclosed uniformity … when I am moving rapidly.
Dr. N: Why does rapid movement-your speed-give you the feeling of being in a bowl?
S: (long pause) It’s strange. Although everything appears to go on straight when my soul is drifting-that changes to … a feeling of roundness when I am moving fast on a line of contact.