Exploring past lives is an excellent process to help you understand current life patterns and spiritual work (karma).
Past life regression through hypnotherapy with a trained and knowledgeable hypnotherapist is the most common and trusted way to explore past lives.
You can also research past lives using kinesiology (muscle testing) and work with a psychic, especially one who can tap into the Akashic records.
Reincarnation and past lives
The investigation of past lives depends on the idea that our souls continuously reincarnate, life after life. Rarely do we naturally remember these lives, but they form the continuity of our soul and help us grow into the fullness of human experience that we cannot comprehend in a single, limited lifetime, even as we grow very old.
Reincarnation is a central belief in many cultures, especially Eastern and Middle Eastern cultures, and is part of their long history. Reincarnation is gaining popularity in the West, partly due to immigration, but mostly thanks to psychology, especially the branch known as hypnotherapy.
Michael Newton, Ph.D. (1931 to 2016) pioneered regression hypnotherapy through a series of books, beginning with his first bestseller, Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives (Llewellyn, 1994). In his work, he found that under hypnosis, people could recall precise details about past lives and past locations that they had never studied or visited in their current lives.
More and more detailed research has been done, especially with children, who could remember details that they wouldn’t be able to explain at their current age. Perhaps the best books to read are Children’s Past Lives by Carol Bowman and Children Who Remember by Dr. Ian Stevenson. Other excellent books on the subject include:
- Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss
- You’ve Been Here Before by Dr. Edith Fiore
- Past Lives, Future Lives by Dick Sutphen
- Reliving Past Lives by Helen Wambach
- Life Between Lives: Hypnotherapy for Spiritual Regression by Michael Newton
Why Explore Past Lives?
There could be several reasons why researching a past life or many of your past lives could be helpful. The two most prominent reasons usually have to do with understanding an issue or relationship in the current life that cannot be explained with just the knowledge and experience of your current life.
Irrational phobias, which go beyond a normal range of fear or worry and appear to have no basis in a traumatic current life experience, may be an example of a past life psychological or spiritual trauma.
And the other major reason is to seek and understand your soul’s purpose, in this lifetime, and often as the common purpose of several previous lifetimes as well.
I began my career journey in this life with great dedication to the teaching profession; it “made sense” to me and I found it very easy to do the work at a very high level (earning a PhD in English and teaching at the university level for almost 17 years).
Through two very specific regressions to past lives in different eras and cultures, I discovered that my role as a teacher was important and recurring. I also learned that I’ve tried other roles that didn’t “fit me” at all.
How to explore past lives
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is the most common and profound way to explore a past life. At the deepest level, the hypnotherapist and technique can “take you back to the past life.” You can ‘be there again’. As you might guess, for some events and experiences such a profound journey can be more than you want to face or relive.
Don’t worry: a regression can be guided and allowed at different levels of involvement. It is a common misconception and misrepresentation that a hypnotherapist can take control of you and make you do things that you would not do under hypnosis. Hypnosis opens doors, but you must choose whether to go through them or not.
In a very powerful session, I tried to return to one of my deaths, more than 1500 years ago in India, where I committed suicide by swimming into the Indian Ocean and drowning myself. This session dealt with two major issues: my irrational fear of the ocean and my relationship with my daughter.
As we worked towards the moment I swam into the ocean, the therapist asked when I wanted to leave and how I wanted to experience the moment. I could go all the way down and experience the actual drowning again, or I could observe myself from above, or I could just know I did the deed and then pull back. I chose to observe, but not relive the experience.
After the work was done, I no longer had the irrational fear of the ocean, but I also didn’t want to be a sailor. And I understood the profound connection I have with my daughter’s soul in this life, because it was her soul, as my daughter, that was with me in that life.
We got separated due to a plague that sent me into a state of despair which led to my choice to end my life. Powerful and important shifts took place for me during that session that day, many years ago.
Kinesiology (muscle testing)
Another way to explore past lives is through muscle testing. There are countless techniques; here is a site explaining different ways to perform self-tests: https://www.healing-with-eft.com/self-muscle-testing.html. You can also take the test with someone else’s help, usually by holding your arm out to the side and having the other person push it down after asking you a question or making a statement.
If the answer is true or helpful, keep your arm straight. If the answer is false or unfavorable, the other person can push your arm down with little effort, even if you “think you’re resisting.”
Exploring past lives in this way keeps you fully aware and outside of the past life experience that you need or want to explore. I was still able to get information about the past life I was going through during the hypnotherapy session I wrote about above, I just didn’t want to ‘go there’ – back to India, that body, that location, and have that experience.
However, I could get the same information: where I was, when I was, who/what I was (a man who was a priest) and what happened to me.
Visit a psychic
Perhaps the most important voice, and most recognized, is Ainslie MacCleod, who has appeared on Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations: https://www.oprah.com/own-podcasts/ainslie-macleod-living-the-life-your-soul-intended.
He believes that “past lives explain everything. That’s why he researches past lives to help you get the best out of this life.’ (https://ainsliemacleod.com/). He uses his ability to tap into past life information for his clients to help with current life issues.
Some psychics specialize in accessing the Akashic Records, which are “a compendium of all universal events, thoughts, words, emotions, and intentions ever past, present, or future in terms of all entities and life forms.” , not just human.” (Wikipedia).
These individuals can help you access past life information and explain the current life thread and future life direction, depending on how you choose to handle the issue in this life.
So if you don’t want to go that deep into hypnotherapy, and you don’t want to do the work alone, with self muscle testing, you can get someone with professional muscle testing experience and spiritual training/expertise or contact a psychic who specializes in past life information or access to Akashic records. Regardless of how you approach past life research, you will find the experience enlightening, interesting, and revealing.
