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Eternal Lives, Eternal Deaths
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Chapter 5
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Chapter Five
Evolutionary Patterns in Past Life Regressions
During my study conducted with colleagues and clients into a series of past lives, we were particularly interested in finding evolutionary patterns embedded in the seriality of life. If we conducted multiple (about a dozen) sessions with the same person into their karmic past, present, and future, we were curious to find out what insights into the nature and workings of consciousness we could gain. Like archaeologists of the soul, we unearthed fragments of karmic history, not only of individuals but sometimes also of the human race as such. At first, the fragments came up scattered and seemingly at random, like bones of a prehistoric animal that were difficult to assemble before the scientists got a basic idea of the anatomy.
The anatomy of the psyche is ingrained in the human energy field, which has been known for thousands of years in schools of yoga and energy medicine. Consciousness in the human form seems to evolve in a hierarchical system that we can observe along the chakras. The chakras constitute not only energy centres (like little wheels or vortices, as their original Sanskrit name चक्र suggests), but steps on a ladder. Each of them contains spiritual life lessons we must gradually experience in order to evolve into higher levels of consciousness. The chakra system can be described as an archetypal depiction of spiritual maturation through seven distinct stages. These stages can be summarised as lessons and experiences relating to the following areas of human life:
Session after session, life after life, experiences and lessons emerged that relate to various chakras, revealing not only their pathologies but also their potentials. Naturally, neither the development of consciousness nor the remembrance of past life experiences occurred in a linear fashion. Different ‘pieces of bones’ showed up at different times. (Universal truths often revealed themselves through various sessions of multiple individuals.) The chakra system helped to put together those pieces and understand dynamics that unfold like spiralling kaleidoscopes over centuries or millennia.
It all becomes the most interesting when the cumulative experiences of not only a single individual but hundreds of sessions from many dozens of people come together. While the present study does not constitute quantitative research or statistical analysis, it brings forth a great variety of cases through which evolutionary lessons unfold. This chapter will take us through an assortment of relevant cases through which we can learn about our responsibilities as human beings and potentials for the future.
The anatomy of the psyche is ingrained in the human energy field, which has been known for thousands of years in schools of yoga and energy medicine. Consciousness in the human form seems to evolve in a hierarchical system that we can observe along the chakras. The chakras constitute not only energy centres (like little wheels or vortices, as their original Sanskrit name चक्र suggests), but steps on a ladder. Each of them contains spiritual life lessons we must gradually experience in order to evolve into higher levels of consciousness. The chakra system can be described as an archetypal depiction of spiritual maturation through seven distinct stages. These stages can be summarised as lessons and experiences relating to the following areas of human life:
- The first chakra: physical survival, belonging to nature and the tribe
- The second chakra: relationships, sexuality, procreation, and creativity
- The third chakra: personal power
- The fourth chakra: love, heartfelt intuition, compassion, and forgiveness
- The fifth chakra: authentic self-expression
- The sixth chakra: connections to non-physical dimensions, inspiration, and insights
- The seventh chakra: spirituality and universal unity.
Session after session, life after life, experiences and lessons emerged that relate to various chakras, revealing not only their pathologies but also their potentials. Naturally, neither the development of consciousness nor the remembrance of past life experiences occurred in a linear fashion. Different ‘pieces of bones’ showed up at different times. (Universal truths often revealed themselves through various sessions of multiple individuals.) The chakra system helped to put together those pieces and understand dynamics that unfold like spiralling kaleidoscopes over centuries or millennia.
It all becomes the most interesting when the cumulative experiences of not only a single individual but hundreds of sessions from many dozens of people come together. While the present study does not constitute quantitative research or statistical analysis, it brings forth a great variety of cases through which evolutionary lessons unfold. This chapter will take us through an assortment of relevant cases through which we can learn about our responsibilities as human beings and potentials for the future.
1. Chakra – Lessons Relating to Tribal Belonging
Deep inside all of us there is a longing. On the first, root chakra level we remember ancient connections that are largely lost in our modern world. We remember our Oneness with the Earth, our belonging to Nature and the Tribe. We remember that our very lives stem from the Earth: It is her gravity that gives us air to breath, food to eat, and a ground to walk. Gaia, Mother Earth, our Madre Tierra holds us all without judgement – whether we are good or bad, saints or mass murderers, winners or losers – in her lap. Hers is the primal love we all receive, all the time and everywhere, while in this life, on this planet. Hers is the true, unconditional love we are all longing for. She has never expelled us from Paradise. Oneness with her has since times immemorial been our primordial experience, main sustenance, and cohesive tribal force.
Once a woman called Adele came to me to explore her karmic past. In trance, Adele saw herself thousands of years ago as an African tribal man who maybe did not even use language yet. Instead, he had a very different faculty. He could feel himself not only within the boundaries of his physical body, but everywhere within the tribe. He had a wife and that wife, he experienced as part of himself. He had children and those children, he experienced as part of himself. The other hunters when they went on the hunt together, he experienced as part of himself also.
Even today, the San (Bushmen) in Africa, who have lived the same natural, hunter-gatherer lifestyle for thousands of years, say that they can feel when fellow hunters of the tribe were successful and are returning home from miles away. ‘We bushman have a wire here’ told one of their hunters to ethnographer van der Post, pointing to his chest. The ‘wire’ that connects the members of the Bushman tribe, allows them to feel each other as if they were feeling their own limbs.
This level of connection may seem incredible to most modern minds. Dynamic forces of history seem to have driven us in the opposite direction. Today, we seek individuality, which in its lower form manifests as egotism but in its higher form as authenticity. The impulsion to become the most authentic version of oneself – a journey to the Self that C. G. Jung called individuation – is an evolutionary force. Yet, efforts towards individual self-expression have routinely encountered resistance from society. In many ways, the history of civilisation has unfolded within the tension field between individual efforts and forces conducive to social integration. This dialectic – and often contentious – relationship between the individual and the community frequently emerges in past life regression sessions, as the following examples illustrate:
Clifford: The Barefoot Seeker
A traveller – who left his wealthy, aristocratic family to become a bare-foot seeker – wandered from village to village and helped revive crumbling communities. However, when he tried to add value to a town that was keen to maintain its facade of success, he got arrested. They frivolously charged him for inciting trouble, disturbing peace, and rape – and at the end, judicially hung him. His last thoughts were:
‘I could have changed this outcome – but only by sacrificing my principles. Integrity at this stage was much more valuable. I wasn’t prepared to sell my soul […] even though I was unacceptable from society’s point of view.’
Sandy: The 18th Century Socialite
‘We were at a party, for people with money. I fitted in well but I felt like it’s all a game which I had to play. I knew how to play it well but on some level that was not satisfying. There was a man who also knew that we were playing a game. […] But we were not quite ready to risk everything – even though we knew it was a game. The penalties were high: losing money... not having power...’
Oliver: The Dreamy Soldier
‘I see myself lying on a field. I’m looking at the soil, the clay, nothing is moving. Can’t change anything. Maybe I’m already dead. I’m only 16, a dreamy, creative, very androgynous, feminine boy. […] I’m in love with a man. One of the reasons I allowed myselfto be dragged into war, was him. He is a lieutenant. He has dark hair and a moustache; he is very confident, there’s something official, military about him. […] I want to touch him and be touched by him – but we are not allowed to be gay.’
[In the moment of death:]
‘What a pity! What a waste! […] All this potential of love and creativity got wasted. I didn’t get to live the life I wanted, aspiring for higher creativity.’
Throughout history, the collective has repeatedly appeared antagonistic towards the individual: enlisting a gay poet into the army, seducing lovers away from their dreams with money and status, executing the one who thinks differently... Hence, every artist, free-thinker, and inventor knows that they need to free themselves from societal pressure and carve out a niche for creative solitude in order to bring forth their work. Society does not tend to look favourably upon such escapades, just as artists do not hold conformism in high regard. Psychoanalyst Otto Rank calls this a ‘part-whole problem’ that leads to an ‘eternal oscillation’ between the perspectives of the individual and the collective. Will it ever be possible to balance the needs of the individual – such as freedom, self-expression, and individuation – with the needs of the collective – to provide safety and continuity within a coherent society?
The following case provides a stunning example of what would happen if we solved the individual-collective equation. This session I had with Lara – a seasoned traveller of the inner realms – felt like an initiation for both of us. Even though we weren’t sure whether this narrative came from a past, a parallel, or a future life, its energy touched us to tears and left us with a worthy vision of what it means to have true community.
Lara: All My Mothers – The Sacred Sisters’ Tribe
In this session, Lara saw herself as a priestess, dressed in a robe which ‘felt good.’ In a first scene, she was harvesting apples into baskets with other women, whom she called ‘my sisters.’ They were singing and there was so much joy, so much harmony. In the next scene, they were all waiting for ‘one of my sisters’ to be born.
Later during the session, while visiting the in-between-lives state, Lara learned that this life was ‘from another aspect of creation, from another universe.’ But she was also told that this ideal community supporting its members so they would feel full of ‘joy, purpose, and completeness’ is reachable for us, too. For that, we have to ‘wear its frequency.’
Until we are capable of doing that, here on Earth, we must continue evolving. Sometimes evolution occurs unexpectedly, through the challenges that life gives us. Our problems may appear undesirable from an everyday, limited perspective, yet they provide the necessary resistance to grow stronger, like weights used in physical training. In his book A Different Drum, US-American psychiatrist Scott Peck, describes that real community can only be built, when its members are willing to share personal problems and their own brokenness – their ‘defeats, failures, doubts, fears, inadequacies, and sins.’ Until then, the congregation remains but a pseudo-community. Only when they are willing to confront the reality of their differences, prejudices, and emotional baggage, true connection begins.
Working with another client, Liz, brought to light that our problems look different from a spiritual, multidimensional perspective and may have a unifying power we would not commonly think of. At the age of 23, during a routine immigration health screening, Liz was unexpectedly diagnosed with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). The devastating diagnosis shocked her at the time (even caused her first marriage to fall apart), but later gained new layers of meaning as her multidimensional awareness deepened. The following insight into our group evolution as humans came from visiting an in-between-life state where Liz had a chance to communicate with her non-physical guides.
Liz: HIV as a Force to Unite
‘Then I asked [the guides] about the HIV in this life. The answer was that the virus unites. It unites different people of all cultures and continents, poor and rich. It is a disease that originates from suppression (external suppression, such as by other people or the government, but also internal suppression, like suppressing one’s own feelings and needs) as well as a lack of freedom in a culture, society, and religion. All of this, including the environment, which is often unhealthy, affects and suppresses the immune system.
I saw immunity in relation to the Earth, the health of the Earth, certain cultures, especially minorities and poor or suppressed cultures and why they have HIV. It unites us for the cause of discovering the underlying problem, bringing the health of nations up to a higher level, where immune diseases will lessen. The united cause of finding a cure also helps.’
Reflecting on the session, Liz wrote: ‘In my mind and experience, HIV separates and isolates people. It was interesting to see that it’s supposed to unite us. I never thought of it this way.’
Such is the process of trauma healing. First, trauma separates us – from ourselves, from others. That’s a self-defence mechanism allowing us to dissociate and gain the necessary distance to survive the immediate impact of the traumatic event. With time, however, healing comes through reconnection: through finding those dissociated parts of ourselves and integrating them, as well as through reaching out to others. Gábor Máté studied communities of Holocaust survivors that formed around sharing experiences. He found that being witnessed by others, sharing, and belonging had immense healing power.
Liz began to heal while she authored a book, in which she shared her story with the global community and helped others to overcome their fear of death. Today, she lives happily with her new husband and daughter; her HIV is so well managed that she can lead a normal and satisfying life.
Once a woman called Adele came to me to explore her karmic past. In trance, Adele saw herself thousands of years ago as an African tribal man who maybe did not even use language yet. Instead, he had a very different faculty. He could feel himself not only within the boundaries of his physical body, but everywhere within the tribe. He had a wife and that wife, he experienced as part of himself. He had children and those children, he experienced as part of himself. The other hunters when they went on the hunt together, he experienced as part of himself also.
Even today, the San (Bushmen) in Africa, who have lived the same natural, hunter-gatherer lifestyle for thousands of years, say that they can feel when fellow hunters of the tribe were successful and are returning home from miles away. ‘We bushman have a wire here’ told one of their hunters to ethnographer van der Post, pointing to his chest. The ‘wire’ that connects the members of the Bushman tribe, allows them to feel each other as if they were feeling their own limbs.
This level of connection may seem incredible to most modern minds. Dynamic forces of history seem to have driven us in the opposite direction. Today, we seek individuality, which in its lower form manifests as egotism but in its higher form as authenticity. The impulsion to become the most authentic version of oneself – a journey to the Self that C. G. Jung called individuation – is an evolutionary force. Yet, efforts towards individual self-expression have routinely encountered resistance from society. In many ways, the history of civilisation has unfolded within the tension field between individual efforts and forces conducive to social integration. This dialectic – and often contentious – relationship between the individual and the community frequently emerges in past life regression sessions, as the following examples illustrate:
Clifford: The Barefoot Seeker
A traveller – who left his wealthy, aristocratic family to become a bare-foot seeker – wandered from village to village and helped revive crumbling communities. However, when he tried to add value to a town that was keen to maintain its facade of success, he got arrested. They frivolously charged him for inciting trouble, disturbing peace, and rape – and at the end, judicially hung him. His last thoughts were:
‘I could have changed this outcome – but only by sacrificing my principles. Integrity at this stage was much more valuable. I wasn’t prepared to sell my soul […] even though I was unacceptable from society’s point of view.’
Sandy: The 18th Century Socialite
‘We were at a party, for people with money. I fitted in well but I felt like it’s all a game which I had to play. I knew how to play it well but on some level that was not satisfying. There was a man who also knew that we were playing a game. […] But we were not quite ready to risk everything – even though we knew it was a game. The penalties were high: losing money... not having power...’
Oliver: The Dreamy Soldier
‘I see myself lying on a field. I’m looking at the soil, the clay, nothing is moving. Can’t change anything. Maybe I’m already dead. I’m only 16, a dreamy, creative, very androgynous, feminine boy. […] I’m in love with a man. One of the reasons I allowed myselfto be dragged into war, was him. He is a lieutenant. He has dark hair and a moustache; he is very confident, there’s something official, military about him. […] I want to touch him and be touched by him – but we are not allowed to be gay.’
[In the moment of death:]
‘What a pity! What a waste! […] All this potential of love and creativity got wasted. I didn’t get to live the life I wanted, aspiring for higher creativity.’
Throughout history, the collective has repeatedly appeared antagonistic towards the individual: enlisting a gay poet into the army, seducing lovers away from their dreams with money and status, executing the one who thinks differently... Hence, every artist, free-thinker, and inventor knows that they need to free themselves from societal pressure and carve out a niche for creative solitude in order to bring forth their work. Society does not tend to look favourably upon such escapades, just as artists do not hold conformism in high regard. Psychoanalyst Otto Rank calls this a ‘part-whole problem’ that leads to an ‘eternal oscillation’ between the perspectives of the individual and the collective. Will it ever be possible to balance the needs of the individual – such as freedom, self-expression, and individuation – with the needs of the collective – to provide safety and continuity within a coherent society?
The following case provides a stunning example of what would happen if we solved the individual-collective equation. This session I had with Lara – a seasoned traveller of the inner realms – felt like an initiation for both of us. Even though we weren’t sure whether this narrative came from a past, a parallel, or a future life, its energy touched us to tears and left us with a worthy vision of what it means to have true community.
Lara: All My Mothers – The Sacred Sisters’ Tribe
In this session, Lara saw herself as a priestess, dressed in a robe which ‘felt good.’ In a first scene, she was harvesting apples into baskets with other women, whom she called ‘my sisters.’ They were singing and there was so much joy, so much harmony. In the next scene, they were all waiting for ‘one of my sisters’ to be born.
- The child is all of ours. We’re all the mothers. We all have our own unique gifts. The child grows up with so many of us to appreciate her. It doesn’t really matter who gave birth, we are all the parents.
- Who are the fathers?
- I don’t fully know. They are not here.
- Go to a situation in which you personally encounter men…
- Oh, wow… there is playful flirtation…no fear, just joy and playful interaction. In this society, there’re no pairs. We can see what happens, explore each other’s bodies or have a child, whatever. Having my place with my sisters means no fear of meeting a man. I could invite him over to my little cone-shaped dwelling – and then he could go. (Laughs.) It’s all for mutual enjoyment. I have utter confidence in my gifts and uniqueness – and so does everyone else. We know that another person cannot hurt you. You’re already complete!
- Take some time – and explore that feeling NOWww.
- (After some time.) Ok, I got something: that feeling of having a place, trusting implicitly your place in the world. If you want something from a person, but they don’t reciprocate, you trust that the relationship is just not right. If you meet someone, like I met that man… it was so joyous… but even if he didn’t want that, it wouldn’t feel like that’s because of me, it wouldn’t be an insult, just a sign that it’s not right. There’s also this feeling of sexual equality: absolutely no need for domination, no need for games. Free will is an expression of creation. Power here means the ability to let go. […] (Emotional:) OMG, I could not have made this shit up!
Later during the session, while visiting the in-between-lives state, Lara learned that this life was ‘from another aspect of creation, from another universe.’ But she was also told that this ideal community supporting its members so they would feel full of ‘joy, purpose, and completeness’ is reachable for us, too. For that, we have to ‘wear its frequency.’
Until we are capable of doing that, here on Earth, we must continue evolving. Sometimes evolution occurs unexpectedly, through the challenges that life gives us. Our problems may appear undesirable from an everyday, limited perspective, yet they provide the necessary resistance to grow stronger, like weights used in physical training. In his book A Different Drum, US-American psychiatrist Scott Peck, describes that real community can only be built, when its members are willing to share personal problems and their own brokenness – their ‘defeats, failures, doubts, fears, inadequacies, and sins.’ Until then, the congregation remains but a pseudo-community. Only when they are willing to confront the reality of their differences, prejudices, and emotional baggage, true connection begins.
Working with another client, Liz, brought to light that our problems look different from a spiritual, multidimensional perspective and may have a unifying power we would not commonly think of. At the age of 23, during a routine immigration health screening, Liz was unexpectedly diagnosed with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). The devastating diagnosis shocked her at the time (even caused her first marriage to fall apart), but later gained new layers of meaning as her multidimensional awareness deepened. The following insight into our group evolution as humans came from visiting an in-between-life state where Liz had a chance to communicate with her non-physical guides.
Liz: HIV as a Force to Unite
‘Then I asked [the guides] about the HIV in this life. The answer was that the virus unites. It unites different people of all cultures and continents, poor and rich. It is a disease that originates from suppression (external suppression, such as by other people or the government, but also internal suppression, like suppressing one’s own feelings and needs) as well as a lack of freedom in a culture, society, and religion. All of this, including the environment, which is often unhealthy, affects and suppresses the immune system.
I saw immunity in relation to the Earth, the health of the Earth, certain cultures, especially minorities and poor or suppressed cultures and why they have HIV. It unites us for the cause of discovering the underlying problem, bringing the health of nations up to a higher level, where immune diseases will lessen. The united cause of finding a cure also helps.’
Reflecting on the session, Liz wrote: ‘In my mind and experience, HIV separates and isolates people. It was interesting to see that it’s supposed to unite us. I never thought of it this way.’
Such is the process of trauma healing. First, trauma separates us – from ourselves, from others. That’s a self-defence mechanism allowing us to dissociate and gain the necessary distance to survive the immediate impact of the traumatic event. With time, however, healing comes through reconnection: through finding those dissociated parts of ourselves and integrating them, as well as through reaching out to others. Gábor Máté studied communities of Holocaust survivors that formed around sharing experiences. He found that being witnessed by others, sharing, and belonging had immense healing power.
Liz began to heal while she authored a book, in which she shared her story with the global community and helped others to overcome their fear of death. Today, she lives happily with her new husband and daughter; her HIV is so well managed that she can lead a normal and satisfying life.
2. Chakra – The Power of Relationships
Lara’s experience with The Sacred Sisters’ Tribe demonstrated that healthy connections on the root chakra level give us confidence for our personal – including romantic – relationships. If we feel safe and supported by the tribe, it is easy to avoid or let go of unhealthy relationships and form beneficial ones instead.
In our contemporary reality, however, we are often far from that ideal. Many of our neuroses originate from insufficient support at the root level. How many of our relationship issues stem from our mother wounds and father wounds? How many of our blockages are products of transgenerational traumas? How much unhappiness stems from being surrounded by groups with pathological traits? Hungarian psychotherapist, András Feldmár, repeatedly pointed out that no amount of self-work can fully compensate for an unhealthy environment. Yet, as human beings, we can use our relationships to mirror what we need to change. The Work is to discover, through our feelings towards others, the internal states we project outward.
The following exploration of Claudia’s past and future life sessions offers insights into how relationships across multiple lifetimes can guide us towards our authentic Self.
Claudia: Finding Myself in Relationships
In her therapeutic sessions, Claudia, a 53-year-old American woman, originally from Germany, was working on aligning her values and finding out where she fits best into the world. She encountered a series of past lives during which she was gradually growing into her power. Initially, she projected that power onto others. The leitmotif of her karmic relationships was the increasing ability to find and stand in her own strength. At the beginning, she could only find strength in others; with time, however, the power became hers – not for selfish purposes but to provide strength and be of service to others. To connect with others – so has Claudia observed in her various past life recalls – is a learning process. For her, it unfolded through the following stages:
- Finding Independence. In an ancient, nomadic life, she remembered living as a female alone in a tepee. That was unusual for a woman of that time but she was the widow of a man who had this ‘special’ capacity to be part of the tribe but also standing in his own power. Something from his ability transferred to her upon his death. That gave her the energy of acceptance and let her find places that enabled a more surrendered, less violent existence.
- The Spirited Wife. In a next life, as a Russian man during the Middle Ages, he married a ‘spirited woman.’ He always felt many steps behind her. He could only have her because she accepted his marriage proposal as a way out of a fatherless pregnancy. His wife was spirited, courageous, bigger than the village; while he, the husband, remained stuck in safety and smallness. He died thinking that he could have learned to be kind, caring, and funny – but instead, he had wasted the opportunity.
- Love and Compassion to All. This was a life as a camel herder, whose wife showed ‘less intimacy than the camels.’ With the help of a wise man, the unfortunate husband learned an important lesson: how he was the cause for whatever effect he had or wanted in his life. That way, he could also accept his wife and have a warm relationship with her. Eventually, he left for the city where he became a scholar and earned a reputation as a wise philosopher. As such, he learned to extend love and compassion to all beings and reach past the concepts of good and bad, into a ‘vastness’ beyond the human form.
- No Fear. On her evolutionary journey towards better relationships, an important episode occurred on a ship, where the sea taught the sailor to live without fear. The sailor had learn to be supple, to go with the wind and waves. ‘Fear is like a blockage,’ he learned. ‘It seals us into our own limitation. Fear also isolates us. In order to connect, we must learn courage.’ And the sailor learned courage, not because he wanted to, but it was a necessity on sea.
- Follow Your Heart! The next challenge came in a life as a female in an Islamic country. The young woman – after spending a carefree childhood as a tomboy – was made to wear a hijab, soon even the burka. There was a lot of pressure on her to get married, which remained a dreadful prospect, until she met a teacher of her brother. That man was different. The way he looked at women was fundamentally different; he displayed real curiosity and openness. When he approached her parents with the intention to marry her, she was ‘super excited.’ When she was afraid on the wedding night, due to lack of any experience with men, he gave her time. The message this man brought into her life was about following the heart, not the rules and expectations of the world. Later, she became a teacher for girls with whom she could find ‘truth, love, connection, and joy.’
- Future Life. As a result of her karmic development, Claudia saw on her highest future path a relationship with a doctor based on balancing soft and hard strengths (a ‘yin-yang relationship’). She was there to learn holding her own power as well as working together on a joint cause. Together with her partner they give seminars, workshops, write books, all about preparing people for the ‘adventure of death.’ It is a relationship that takes them out of their ‘micro lives’ letting them live for a macro purpose that is assistential for others and contributes to future evolution.
Claudia concluded that our work ‘opened her heart’ but also opened her sensibility to the ‘agony of the world.’ This is natural as consciousness is breaking out of the ‘skin-encapsulated ego’ state (or the ‘small puppy state’ as Claudia called it). Previously, blending in seemed the safest option but now Claudia was ready to soar out into the ‘vastness.’ We anchored her vision of a soaring, flying Eagle (her SOFE energy) into her current body, to ensure that she remains on her highest path in life.
Claudia’s journey and vision mark the emergence of a new type of relationship, Gary Zukav calls spiritual partnerships. Historically, all types of human relationships, from business partnerships to marriage, had a practical, economic purpose – even marriage, which has mostly been centred around bringing up children together. In contrast, spiritual partnerships are created for mutually fostering conscious evolution. They may take various outer forms – romantic couples, soul friends, or win-win business partners – but ultimately, their purpose is to bring out each partner’s highest potential, especially creative potential which is the true power of the second chakra.
In our contemporary reality, however, we are often far from that ideal. Many of our neuroses originate from insufficient support at the root level. How many of our relationship issues stem from our mother wounds and father wounds? How many of our blockages are products of transgenerational traumas? How much unhappiness stems from being surrounded by groups with pathological traits? Hungarian psychotherapist, András Feldmár, repeatedly pointed out that no amount of self-work can fully compensate for an unhealthy environment. Yet, as human beings, we can use our relationships to mirror what we need to change. The Work is to discover, through our feelings towards others, the internal states we project outward.
The following exploration of Claudia’s past and future life sessions offers insights into how relationships across multiple lifetimes can guide us towards our authentic Self.
Claudia: Finding Myself in Relationships
In her therapeutic sessions, Claudia, a 53-year-old American woman, originally from Germany, was working on aligning her values and finding out where she fits best into the world. She encountered a series of past lives during which she was gradually growing into her power. Initially, she projected that power onto others. The leitmotif of her karmic relationships was the increasing ability to find and stand in her own strength. At the beginning, she could only find strength in others; with time, however, the power became hers – not for selfish purposes but to provide strength and be of service to others. To connect with others – so has Claudia observed in her various past life recalls – is a learning process. For her, it unfolded through the following stages:
- Finding Independence. In an ancient, nomadic life, she remembered living as a female alone in a tepee. That was unusual for a woman of that time but she was the widow of a man who had this ‘special’ capacity to be part of the tribe but also standing in his own power. Something from his ability transferred to her upon his death. That gave her the energy of acceptance and let her find places that enabled a more surrendered, less violent existence.
- The Spirited Wife. In a next life, as a Russian man during the Middle Ages, he married a ‘spirited woman.’ He always felt many steps behind her. He could only have her because she accepted his marriage proposal as a way out of a fatherless pregnancy. His wife was spirited, courageous, bigger than the village; while he, the husband, remained stuck in safety and smallness. He died thinking that he could have learned to be kind, caring, and funny – but instead, he had wasted the opportunity.
- Love and Compassion to All. This was a life as a camel herder, whose wife showed ‘less intimacy than the camels.’ With the help of a wise man, the unfortunate husband learned an important lesson: how he was the cause for whatever effect he had or wanted in his life. That way, he could also accept his wife and have a warm relationship with her. Eventually, he left for the city where he became a scholar and earned a reputation as a wise philosopher. As such, he learned to extend love and compassion to all beings and reach past the concepts of good and bad, into a ‘vastness’ beyond the human form.
- No Fear. On her evolutionary journey towards better relationships, an important episode occurred on a ship, where the sea taught the sailor to live without fear. The sailor had learn to be supple, to go with the wind and waves. ‘Fear is like a blockage,’ he learned. ‘It seals us into our own limitation. Fear also isolates us. In order to connect, we must learn courage.’ And the sailor learned courage, not because he wanted to, but it was a necessity on sea.
- Follow Your Heart! The next challenge came in a life as a female in an Islamic country. The young woman – after spending a carefree childhood as a tomboy – was made to wear a hijab, soon even the burka. There was a lot of pressure on her to get married, which remained a dreadful prospect, until she met a teacher of her brother. That man was different. The way he looked at women was fundamentally different; he displayed real curiosity and openness. When he approached her parents with the intention to marry her, she was ‘super excited.’ When she was afraid on the wedding night, due to lack of any experience with men, he gave her time. The message this man brought into her life was about following the heart, not the rules and expectations of the world. Later, she became a teacher for girls with whom she could find ‘truth, love, connection, and joy.’
- Future Life. As a result of her karmic development, Claudia saw on her highest future path a relationship with a doctor based on balancing soft and hard strengths (a ‘yin-yang relationship’). She was there to learn holding her own power as well as working together on a joint cause. Together with her partner they give seminars, workshops, write books, all about preparing people for the ‘adventure of death.’ It is a relationship that takes them out of their ‘micro lives’ letting them live for a macro purpose that is assistential for others and contributes to future evolution.
Claudia concluded that our work ‘opened her heart’ but also opened her sensibility to the ‘agony of the world.’ This is natural as consciousness is breaking out of the ‘skin-encapsulated ego’ state (or the ‘small puppy state’ as Claudia called it). Previously, blending in seemed the safest option but now Claudia was ready to soar out into the ‘vastness.’ We anchored her vision of a soaring, flying Eagle (her SOFE energy) into her current body, to ensure that she remains on her highest path in life.
Claudia’s journey and vision mark the emergence of a new type of relationship, Gary Zukav calls spiritual partnerships. Historically, all types of human relationships, from business partnerships to marriage, had a practical, economic purpose – even marriage, which has mostly been centred around bringing up children together. In contrast, spiritual partnerships are created for mutually fostering conscious evolution. They may take various outer forms – romantic couples, soul friends, or win-win business partners – but ultimately, their purpose is to bring out each partner’s highest potential, especially creative potential which is the true power of the second chakra.
3. Chakra – Personal Power
Somewhere, in the furnace of relationships – sometimes friendly, sometimes of antagonistic nature – the authentic Self is being forged. Somewhere, in the tension field between the individual and the collective, we learn to utilize our strength and transform our weakness into noble traits, like the alchemists would turn lead into gold.
The following is the story of Isha, a dentist turned yoga teacher, who has been living her current life at the liminality between two cultures. Born in India but living in the UK, she faced the challenge of finding her true calling amid various social expectations and relationship entanglements. Hers is a story of building personal power, an attribute of the third chakra located at the core of the body.
Isha: Believe in Yourself!
The past and the future came together for Isha in a dramatic way: Being born in the traditional culture of India, she lived the reality of an arranged marriage, as well as experienced modern Western culture with its strong emphasis on self-realisation. This tension field, in which she tried to balance her everyday life, became more challenging in certain situations, for instance, when her in-laws came for a visit and overstayed their welcome – or when she had an affair with a man she intrinsically felt attracted to. She also wanted to know where her current fear of having her back exposed may come from.
When we looked at her karmic trajectory to uncover the life task inherent in her situation, we found the following elements:
- Mediocre Life. We found that Isha’s fear of having her back exposed goes back to a life in which he was dragged away from the love of his life by a rich enemy who wounded him and forced him into an unhappy, mediocre life. He died sad about a wasted life, ‘not having made a big impact, not having touched many people’s lives.’
- Watched by the In-Laws. In another monotonous life, she lived as a mother who raised her five children, after their father died, under the critical eyes of her in-laws, who just ‘sat there in the corner, watching.’
- Magical Child. In a ‘resource life’ she saw herself as a 7-8 year-old child, who – like a little Lord Krishna – went around the woods playing the flute and dancing around. The happiness he was spreading attracted even adults as his followers. When he grew up, he became a great advisor and protector of people in times both of war and peace.
- Establishing the Yogic Lifestyle. In the future, Isha saw herself making yoga available in various contexts, like mental health institutes, prisons, and for people with disabilities, while having her own yoga school, including mindfulness, spiritual growth, and hypnotherapy. She got ‘goosebumps’ while seeing herself offering yoga-nidra sessions and dreaming of getting everyone in the world to practice yoga (like the Microsoft vision of getting a ‘PC on every desk’) – and to build a community around it.
All these karmic elements enabled us to see Isha’s existential program. She had to get out of the ‘trance of unworthiness’ imposed upon her by overly tight family and cultural ties. For that, as her Higher Self put it, she had to start ‘believing in herself’ and do her work: starting classes for yoga and yoga-nidra. As a result of this inner work, Isha set up stronger boundaries with her in-laws, separated from her husband (with the option of getting back together on an authentic basis), kickstarted her blog, and drew in a growing number of students for yoga.
By learning how to believe in herself, Isha could give up the people-pleasing attitude she was brought up with and she could begin to build her authentic life. Three years later, in a follow-up session, she revealed that her yoga business was growing strong; she also obtained a hypnotherapist qualification, and managed to live as an independent woman in India.
The third chakra, centred on personal power, marks the culmination of establishing oneself in the material world. Rising higher requires taking an evolutionary leap by transcending self-centred goals and attuning to higher, spiritual realities. In today’s world, it’s still only a minority of us who set their centre of gravitas at higher chakra levels, where fostering compassion, a sense of interconnectedness, and being of greater service become ruling values. It can be seen as the holy grail of spiritual development to understand what prompts an individual to aspire higher beyond safety, wealth, and power for themselves and their associates.
In reincarnation therapy, we sometimes find these moments of great turning. Like Prince Siddhartha, incited by seeing sickness, old age, and death to leave his father’s palace and become an ascetic in search for enlightenment – sometime, somewhere, someone makes a spiritual shift in life. We don’t know – any more than physicists know how gravity comes into being – what causes these qualitative transformations, but we can observe them reverberating through time.
We already met Liz, who looked HIV in the eye, overcame her fear, and shared her spiritual insights about death with the world through the book she wrote and published. Another session with her revealed a striking precursor from a past life to her current endeavour. This memory is extraordinary, not only because it shows that remarkable achievements in a current life – such as publishing a book about intimate personal experiences – are rooted in past efforts, but also because it features a near-death experience from a bygone life. This experience steered the soul’s trajectory away from the mundane towards the spiritual – not only in the past but also for the future.
Liz: The Renaissance Cliff Fall
In an 18th century Mediterranean life, a Renaissance nobleman suffered a fall from a cliff. ying on the ground, with head and neck bleeding, he has a deeply spiritual experience.
‘I see the light and the energy. I feel at peace, there is no pain. I understand. I am fascinated and overjoyed to see this, which no one else (in my mind) has seen and nobody knows about. Later, someone with a donkey takes my body to the village. I get nurtured back to health. I am in awe and I look at people. I see auras, energies, feel their thoughts, feelings, and energies. I feel the connection between everything. I am fascinated, in awe, alive, in peace and joy… I take in the feeling of light.
I need to write this down and share it with people. I feel like I’ve become very soft. Especially as a male to become so compassionate, loving, soft, happy and smiling all the time, is very unusual for the people around me. I keep my manuscripts. Maybe I don’t publish them because I fear a bit of how they react.’
Even though the Renaissance man could not pluck up the courage to publish his manuscript about his otherworldly experiences, he paved the ground for his later incarnation Liz to share boldly her fears, hopes, and close encounters with death, allowing for the opening of the heart.
The following is the story of Isha, a dentist turned yoga teacher, who has been living her current life at the liminality between two cultures. Born in India but living in the UK, she faced the challenge of finding her true calling amid various social expectations and relationship entanglements. Hers is a story of building personal power, an attribute of the third chakra located at the core of the body.
Isha: Believe in Yourself!
The past and the future came together for Isha in a dramatic way: Being born in the traditional culture of India, she lived the reality of an arranged marriage, as well as experienced modern Western culture with its strong emphasis on self-realisation. This tension field, in which she tried to balance her everyday life, became more challenging in certain situations, for instance, when her in-laws came for a visit and overstayed their welcome – or when she had an affair with a man she intrinsically felt attracted to. She also wanted to know where her current fear of having her back exposed may come from.
When we looked at her karmic trajectory to uncover the life task inherent in her situation, we found the following elements:
- Mediocre Life. We found that Isha’s fear of having her back exposed goes back to a life in which he was dragged away from the love of his life by a rich enemy who wounded him and forced him into an unhappy, mediocre life. He died sad about a wasted life, ‘not having made a big impact, not having touched many people’s lives.’
- Watched by the In-Laws. In another monotonous life, she lived as a mother who raised her five children, after their father died, under the critical eyes of her in-laws, who just ‘sat there in the corner, watching.’
- Magical Child. In a ‘resource life’ she saw herself as a 7-8 year-old child, who – like a little Lord Krishna – went around the woods playing the flute and dancing around. The happiness he was spreading attracted even adults as his followers. When he grew up, he became a great advisor and protector of people in times both of war and peace.
- Establishing the Yogic Lifestyle. In the future, Isha saw herself making yoga available in various contexts, like mental health institutes, prisons, and for people with disabilities, while having her own yoga school, including mindfulness, spiritual growth, and hypnotherapy. She got ‘goosebumps’ while seeing herself offering yoga-nidra sessions and dreaming of getting everyone in the world to practice yoga (like the Microsoft vision of getting a ‘PC on every desk’) – and to build a community around it.
All these karmic elements enabled us to see Isha’s existential program. She had to get out of the ‘trance of unworthiness’ imposed upon her by overly tight family and cultural ties. For that, as her Higher Self put it, she had to start ‘believing in herself’ and do her work: starting classes for yoga and yoga-nidra. As a result of this inner work, Isha set up stronger boundaries with her in-laws, separated from her husband (with the option of getting back together on an authentic basis), kickstarted her blog, and drew in a growing number of students for yoga.
By learning how to believe in herself, Isha could give up the people-pleasing attitude she was brought up with and she could begin to build her authentic life. Three years later, in a follow-up session, she revealed that her yoga business was growing strong; she also obtained a hypnotherapist qualification, and managed to live as an independent woman in India.
The third chakra, centred on personal power, marks the culmination of establishing oneself in the material world. Rising higher requires taking an evolutionary leap by transcending self-centred goals and attuning to higher, spiritual realities. In today’s world, it’s still only a minority of us who set their centre of gravitas at higher chakra levels, where fostering compassion, a sense of interconnectedness, and being of greater service become ruling values. It can be seen as the holy grail of spiritual development to understand what prompts an individual to aspire higher beyond safety, wealth, and power for themselves and their associates.
In reincarnation therapy, we sometimes find these moments of great turning. Like Prince Siddhartha, incited by seeing sickness, old age, and death to leave his father’s palace and become an ascetic in search for enlightenment – sometime, somewhere, someone makes a spiritual shift in life. We don’t know – any more than physicists know how gravity comes into being – what causes these qualitative transformations, but we can observe them reverberating through time.
We already met Liz, who looked HIV in the eye, overcame her fear, and shared her spiritual insights about death with the world through the book she wrote and published. Another session with her revealed a striking precursor from a past life to her current endeavour. This memory is extraordinary, not only because it shows that remarkable achievements in a current life – such as publishing a book about intimate personal experiences – are rooted in past efforts, but also because it features a near-death experience from a bygone life. This experience steered the soul’s trajectory away from the mundane towards the spiritual – not only in the past but also for the future.
Liz: The Renaissance Cliff Fall
In an 18th century Mediterranean life, a Renaissance nobleman suffered a fall from a cliff. ying on the ground, with head and neck bleeding, he has a deeply spiritual experience.
‘I see the light and the energy. I feel at peace, there is no pain. I understand. I am fascinated and overjoyed to see this, which no one else (in my mind) has seen and nobody knows about. Later, someone with a donkey takes my body to the village. I get nurtured back to health. I am in awe and I look at people. I see auras, energies, feel their thoughts, feelings, and energies. I feel the connection between everything. I am fascinated, in awe, alive, in peace and joy… I take in the feeling of light.
I need to write this down and share it with people. I feel like I’ve become very soft. Especially as a male to become so compassionate, loving, soft, happy and smiling all the time, is very unusual for the people around me. I keep my manuscripts. Maybe I don’t publish them because I fear a bit of how they react.’
Even though the Renaissance man could not pluck up the courage to publish his manuscript about his otherworldly experiences, he paved the ground for his later incarnation Liz to share boldly her fears, hopes, and close encounters with death, allowing for the opening of the heart.
4. Chakra – Opening of the Heart
The heart, perhaps the most mysterious of all chakras in the human realm, is found at the exact middle of the chakra system, where the lower (Earthy, physical) and higher (Upper Worldly, spiritual) energies link. This is of high significance. At this meeting point much of the human transformational turning occurs: the great evolutionary moment where the Ego can be transcended, where one’s centre of gravity can be shifted to the Self, governed by a personal purpose that would serve the benefit of all sentient beings. This unique purpose – which James Hillman describes in his acorn theory – is a once-in-an-eternity chance to grow into something the world has never seen before and cannot unfold but through the person born for it. While everyone in the world has their own acorn, only a relatively small minority of us ever attempts, let alone succeeds in growing it fully into a majestic tree. Yet, it is our destiny to try, over and over again, lifetime upon lifetime until we succeed.
I first met Dylan at a conference, where he already exuded the charisma that later served as a foundation to establish his own mystery school. At that time, however, he still felt controversial around the issue of power, harbouring a deep level of vulnerability and trauma, especially in his body (manifesting as various illnesses and ailments). His story is a beautiful example of gathering pieces of the past – challenges as well as resources – to step up to the requirements of the present life. Dylan had to (re-)experience and learn how to unite rock-hard personal power with the softness of love in order to take on the role of a heart-centred, contemporary spiritual leader: non-authoritarian, inspirational, and inquisitive.
Dylan: Power and Vulnerability
On a soul level, Dylan had a strong presence, sense of Oneness, and knowing ‘who I am.’ Yet, in his body he carried deep fear and trauma, which he suspected came from issues relating to power (perhaps misuse of power) and vulnerability. Our enquiries into his past lives revealed a spectacular journey of the heart during which he developed an evolved balance between feminine and masculine qualities, soft and hard, love and power – as his ability to positively impact the world increased dramatically.
- The Egyptian Initiate. As a young trainee in an Egyptian temple – fully dedicated to the spiritual path, at the same time convinced of his superiority – he was thrown into a pit inside a temple and left alone for days. The ordeal was meant to teach him humility and learn about interdependency; instead, it installed a deep terror in his body and hardened him into never trusting anyone ever again. With that life, the centuries-long process of ‘softening and resting into love’ began.
- The Crusader. His proud and fiery dedication to the spiritual ‘cause’ manifested in another life as a Christian Knights Templars crusader, with a Masonic-mystical dimension to his beliefs. During this hard life, he spent so much time on horrifying battle-fields and even bloody rituals (where every knight cut the arm of another knight and they ate bread together) that he was essentially sacrificing his body for his principles. In the life-review his honourable warriorship was acknowledged but lamented that in his ‘small-mindedness, dogmatism, and anger’ he did not live with love. After Repair-lives in Tibet, where he focused on the purest love and compassion, and Japan, where he learned about the simplicity and beauty of life, he will need to establish a love-relationship with his body.
- The Greek Priestess. As a Greek temple priestess, who worked sexually with men to give them a deep transmission of life-force energy, she learned that our bodies were portals to divinity, to the Goddess. In this life, she experienced a shift in identity by returning to feminine incarnations and understood her/himself as an androgynous (hermaphroditic) soul.
- Mother in Africa. As a mother and midwife in an African life, she recognised the woman’s body as an extension of the Earth, part of the mysteries of life and death. The African midwife died with a sense of fulfilment of her life’s mission ‘to be in flow with the expression of life.’
- Successful Governance. A life well balanced between the masculine and feminine qualities of power and love occurred somewhere in India around the 16th century, as a municipal ruler. He had a wife he had such a deep connection with that they both could read each other and shared a powerful love. They both could tune into power; they understood it as ‘the electric current of life’ and the ‘will of god’ acting through them. The result was a very successful contribution to a society of high culture.
After bringing the energy of this balance into his present life, Dylan stepped up as a spiritual leader of his own spiritual school – which he saw in his future life progression. He also had his first child born from a loving relationship within a polyamorous setting, which also allowed him to keep ties with his once upon a time Indian wife.
In one of the earlier books that popularised past life regressions, Only Love is Real, Brian Weiss shares the astonishing story of two patients who initially came to his office separately, unaware of each other’s existence. During their individual therapy sessions, Dr. Weiss gradually became aware that the two were describing shared experiences from past lives. In the present, they only exchanged fleeting glances in the waiting room. Eventually, however, a series of synchronistic events brought them to the same airport, taking the same flight. On board, they recognised and sat next to each other. When the airplane hit turbulence, he instinctively grabbed her hand, and in that moment, echoes of their deep, timeless connection began to awaken.
This notion of a soulmate – that we all have a ‘soul companion across centuries’ we are meant to reunite with – has become the most popular, romantic idea from past life regressions. Dylan’s case illustrates the power of meeting an old soulmate: Once he got reunited with his former Indian wife, his heart could open up in this life, too. However, past life work shows that our connections are multifaceted and pluralistic. Dylan experienced multiple deep relations, like many of us forming bonds with a broader soul family we evolve with. Moreover, not everyone we feel magnetically attracted to will necessarily turn out to be a supportive and loving presence in our lives. The following two cases show the difference between partnerships that are rooted in mutual cooperation in the past versus karmic ties that contain challenges and destabilising forces within the relationship.
Betty and Tony: The Coconut Couple
Betty thinks of the relationship with her husband Tony as ‘very easy’ compared to others that were like ‘breaking stones in a mine.’ She describes him as emotionally intelligent, even the ‘most evolved man’ she ever met, with whom they are ‘building things together.’ In a session, she discovered some roots of their fulfilling and satisfying union:
‘We used to live together in a tropical forest, with plenty of trees, many of them coconut trees. We had a tree house with a ladder. We don’t hunt, as we don’t kill animals. We walk around barefoot and pick fruits: mangoes and coconuts. We both were orphaned as children and watched out for each other our whole life. We never left one another and we promised to meet again.’
Betty recalls that she met her husband in her current life while ‘drinking coconut on the sidewalk.’ She figured, they were recreating what was familiar to them. They often talk about moving into the forest together, as well as enjoy being barefoot and naked around their house. The love and balance they’ve experienced in the past, is growing stronger still...
Tia and Kai: Heart Sacrifice
In contrast, when Tia and Kai – who also felt mutual attraction towards each other – conducted a past life regression session together, they saw something quite different. This was particularly interesting because it’s rare that two individuals enter a past life journey together, like they did – and found themselves in the same scene. While she felt herself lying on a [Aztec or Mayan] sacrificial stone to have her heart ripped out, he saw himself holding the knife. As they perceived, the priests were doing quite an elaborate energetic misappropriation here. They invited young volunteers for the sacrifice who wanted to gain spiritual merits, only to have their energy of enthusiasm taken at the moment of death, for selfish magical purposes.
In another life Kai visited – this time in the Roman Empire – he saw her as an elemental being of the forest. He was in love with her but when he was drawn into the military, he gave in to social pressure and left her. The elemental, lacking attention and affection, perished from the human realm.
These past visions could have prepared both of them to watch out for the tension inherent in their relationship. Unfortunately, when Tia’s magical enthusiasm and artistic expressions clashed with Kai’s rationality, he abandoned her yet again, repeating their inherent pattern of ‘sacrificing the heart.’
Sometimes happy, sometimes sad, yet, it is our relationships that move us towards higher levels of self-awareness. As Eckhart Tolle said, if we accept that our relationships are here to make us conscious instead of simply happy, we will find their evolutionary value to find our authentic voice and will.
I first met Dylan at a conference, where he already exuded the charisma that later served as a foundation to establish his own mystery school. At that time, however, he still felt controversial around the issue of power, harbouring a deep level of vulnerability and trauma, especially in his body (manifesting as various illnesses and ailments). His story is a beautiful example of gathering pieces of the past – challenges as well as resources – to step up to the requirements of the present life. Dylan had to (re-)experience and learn how to unite rock-hard personal power with the softness of love in order to take on the role of a heart-centred, contemporary spiritual leader: non-authoritarian, inspirational, and inquisitive.
Dylan: Power and Vulnerability
On a soul level, Dylan had a strong presence, sense of Oneness, and knowing ‘who I am.’ Yet, in his body he carried deep fear and trauma, which he suspected came from issues relating to power (perhaps misuse of power) and vulnerability. Our enquiries into his past lives revealed a spectacular journey of the heart during which he developed an evolved balance between feminine and masculine qualities, soft and hard, love and power – as his ability to positively impact the world increased dramatically.
- The Egyptian Initiate. As a young trainee in an Egyptian temple – fully dedicated to the spiritual path, at the same time convinced of his superiority – he was thrown into a pit inside a temple and left alone for days. The ordeal was meant to teach him humility and learn about interdependency; instead, it installed a deep terror in his body and hardened him into never trusting anyone ever again. With that life, the centuries-long process of ‘softening and resting into love’ began.
- The Crusader. His proud and fiery dedication to the spiritual ‘cause’ manifested in another life as a Christian Knights Templars crusader, with a Masonic-mystical dimension to his beliefs. During this hard life, he spent so much time on horrifying battle-fields and even bloody rituals (where every knight cut the arm of another knight and they ate bread together) that he was essentially sacrificing his body for his principles. In the life-review his honourable warriorship was acknowledged but lamented that in his ‘small-mindedness, dogmatism, and anger’ he did not live with love. After Repair-lives in Tibet, where he focused on the purest love and compassion, and Japan, where he learned about the simplicity and beauty of life, he will need to establish a love-relationship with his body.
- The Greek Priestess. As a Greek temple priestess, who worked sexually with men to give them a deep transmission of life-force energy, she learned that our bodies were portals to divinity, to the Goddess. In this life, she experienced a shift in identity by returning to feminine incarnations and understood her/himself as an androgynous (hermaphroditic) soul.
- Mother in Africa. As a mother and midwife in an African life, she recognised the woman’s body as an extension of the Earth, part of the mysteries of life and death. The African midwife died with a sense of fulfilment of her life’s mission ‘to be in flow with the expression of life.’
- Successful Governance. A life well balanced between the masculine and feminine qualities of power and love occurred somewhere in India around the 16th century, as a municipal ruler. He had a wife he had such a deep connection with that they both could read each other and shared a powerful love. They both could tune into power; they understood it as ‘the electric current of life’ and the ‘will of god’ acting through them. The result was a very successful contribution to a society of high culture.
After bringing the energy of this balance into his present life, Dylan stepped up as a spiritual leader of his own spiritual school – which he saw in his future life progression. He also had his first child born from a loving relationship within a polyamorous setting, which also allowed him to keep ties with his once upon a time Indian wife.
In one of the earlier books that popularised past life regressions, Only Love is Real, Brian Weiss shares the astonishing story of two patients who initially came to his office separately, unaware of each other’s existence. During their individual therapy sessions, Dr. Weiss gradually became aware that the two were describing shared experiences from past lives. In the present, they only exchanged fleeting glances in the waiting room. Eventually, however, a series of synchronistic events brought them to the same airport, taking the same flight. On board, they recognised and sat next to each other. When the airplane hit turbulence, he instinctively grabbed her hand, and in that moment, echoes of their deep, timeless connection began to awaken.
This notion of a soulmate – that we all have a ‘soul companion across centuries’ we are meant to reunite with – has become the most popular, romantic idea from past life regressions. Dylan’s case illustrates the power of meeting an old soulmate: Once he got reunited with his former Indian wife, his heart could open up in this life, too. However, past life work shows that our connections are multifaceted and pluralistic. Dylan experienced multiple deep relations, like many of us forming bonds with a broader soul family we evolve with. Moreover, not everyone we feel magnetically attracted to will necessarily turn out to be a supportive and loving presence in our lives. The following two cases show the difference between partnerships that are rooted in mutual cooperation in the past versus karmic ties that contain challenges and destabilising forces within the relationship.
Betty and Tony: The Coconut Couple
Betty thinks of the relationship with her husband Tony as ‘very easy’ compared to others that were like ‘breaking stones in a mine.’ She describes him as emotionally intelligent, even the ‘most evolved man’ she ever met, with whom they are ‘building things together.’ In a session, she discovered some roots of their fulfilling and satisfying union:
‘We used to live together in a tropical forest, with plenty of trees, many of them coconut trees. We had a tree house with a ladder. We don’t hunt, as we don’t kill animals. We walk around barefoot and pick fruits: mangoes and coconuts. We both were orphaned as children and watched out for each other our whole life. We never left one another and we promised to meet again.’
Betty recalls that she met her husband in her current life while ‘drinking coconut on the sidewalk.’ She figured, they were recreating what was familiar to them. They often talk about moving into the forest together, as well as enjoy being barefoot and naked around their house. The love and balance they’ve experienced in the past, is growing stronger still...
Tia and Kai: Heart Sacrifice
In contrast, when Tia and Kai – who also felt mutual attraction towards each other – conducted a past life regression session together, they saw something quite different. This was particularly interesting because it’s rare that two individuals enter a past life journey together, like they did – and found themselves in the same scene. While she felt herself lying on a [Aztec or Mayan] sacrificial stone to have her heart ripped out, he saw himself holding the knife. As they perceived, the priests were doing quite an elaborate energetic misappropriation here. They invited young volunteers for the sacrifice who wanted to gain spiritual merits, only to have their energy of enthusiasm taken at the moment of death, for selfish magical purposes.
In another life Kai visited – this time in the Roman Empire – he saw her as an elemental being of the forest. He was in love with her but when he was drawn into the military, he gave in to social pressure and left her. The elemental, lacking attention and affection, perished from the human realm.
These past visions could have prepared both of them to watch out for the tension inherent in their relationship. Unfortunately, when Tia’s magical enthusiasm and artistic expressions clashed with Kai’s rationality, he abandoned her yet again, repeating their inherent pattern of ‘sacrificing the heart.’
Sometimes happy, sometimes sad, yet, it is our relationships that move us towards higher levels of self-awareness. As Eckhart Tolle said, if we accept that our relationships are here to make us conscious instead of simply happy, we will find their evolutionary value to find our authentic voice and will.
5. Chakra – Self-Expression
Above the heart, we can find the throat chakra. We may think of the throat as a tunnel that connects the heart with the mind – a kind of birth canal for our truth and will coming forth through our authentic voice. This voice has been silenced throughout the centuries, often through violent social sanctions. Tongues of heretics torn out, dissenters strangulated, women forced to wear the witch’s bridle if they dared to speak out, all these systematic attacks on the throat left many of us in terror of speaking our true will.
Joanne, a Taiwanese-American woman in her early 40s, is a thyroid cancer survivor, whose illness and recovery was like a near-death experience that reset her values in life. From wanting title, power, and money, she went in search of meaning. During her quest, she noticed that parental expectations still hindered her. They kept her in a job that became ‘unbearable’ for her as well as compelled her to keep her relationship status hidden. In a series of past lives we traced her journey from socially compliant self-sabotage to developing independence. Her physical healing went parallel to her spiritual healing: The cancer that physically attacked her throat chakra region corresponded with karmic issues relating to self-expression and living her authentic Self.
Joanne: Learning to Learn
- The Elephant Abuser. In a life in Thailand, he grew up as a little boy with a familiar elephant who was his friend. However, as he grew older, he used the animal for monetary gains and when the elephant grew too old for commercial use, he got rid of him. In a follow-up session, Joanne remarked that the elephant might be symbolic for herself, for she felt that ‘nothing in this world can hurt me more than I do.’
- The Dream Romance. This recall felt like from a ‘very familiar dream state’ in which she was waiting for her lover to come with whom she had a great relationship. The remembrance made her cry, perhaps because this was a longing for something she did not have in her current life. More tears were flowing, when the past romance was cut short by her sudden and untimely death. ‘I don’t want to go’ was her thought in the moment of death. Afterwards, that life became repetitive. The two lovers were going over this kind of experience again and again.
- The Monk Herbalist. A monk, who loved to grow his herbs, was always visited by many people – who came ‘more for his enthusiasm than his healing knowledge.’ He had a powerful connection with plants that allowed him to live a simple yet thoroughly satisfactory life. He did not need to worry about making ends meet, as he was doing what he loved, which gave him a powerful spiritual protection that ‘felt like magic.’
- The Military Sailor. A soldier, who wanted to be a teacher, was enlisted in the army and sent to sea. He spent his spare time reading and when he finally went home, he took care of his elderly parents. He died with the wish to do ‘something else, too.’ All throughout this time he felt guilty, for he had been kind of waiting for his parents to die so that he can have his life back. But even after their demise, he did not do anything more with his life. Through the life-review, he learned that even though he had good intentions, that was not enough. He needed more knowledge.
- The Current Boyfriend. In her current life, Joanna developed a long-distance relationship with a younger man from her home country. While she was collecting the courage to tell her family about this romance, the boyfriend broke up with her. She felt, he was teaching her about something important she had to learn in this life: to gain independence and learn courage. Eventually, as she travelled to see him and have a proper closure in person, she began to experience life independently in a way that seemed ‘so exciting.’
- The Contradictory Future. In her first future life progression, Joanne saw herself being back in her home town, where her family needed her, working a job in the banking business which she did not enjoy but was ‘capable of doing well.’ Her Higher Self pointed out the contradiction in this vision, how she was living a life for validation which was not fully authentic. (Note that The Military Sailor was also sacrificing his authentic life for the homeland and for his parents: There was a danger of repeating the same mistaken pattern in this life, also.)
- The Best Future. In her second future life progression – that we conducted after working with her problem part seeking her parent’s validation – Joanne saw her best future. She was being both married and having mastered nursing skills, she took part in an interdisciplinary project on holistic medicine.
Joanne’s trajectory showed her main karmic challenge as it unfolded life after life, layer upon layer. In order to be of meaningful service to others, she first has to find her authentic expression and life’s work.
In the process of our spiritual awakening, many of us come to the understanding that helping and servicing others with love is part of our work. However, a poorly understood sense of obligation or half-hearted engagement can do more harm than good. If outdated social obligations (like Isha) or family ties that linger on even after the death of the parents (like the Military Sailor in Joanne’s past) hold one back from doing their own work, only resentment arises. ‘Good intention is not enough’ Joanne commented at one point ‘you really have to mean it. Only if you really mean it, can you help others. Because to do so on the surface is really not enough… just wanting to be a good daughter or something. Actually, for me this time around, it is not about helping others, but to gain knowledge, work on my skills, and work in a team.’ When Joanne reflected on her experience, she said a part of her just wished her dying mother to go, liberating her from the debilitating family situation she found herself in. This wasn’t a sentiment she welcomed but accepting it brought her closer to understanding the importance of her own calling, which at this point was to become a skilled and learned nurse.
Pursuing one’s calling requires the setting of healthy boundaries, sometimes towards those who are closest to us. Martial artist Ian Abernethy, who applies lessons from karate training to personal development, talks about friendly foes.i These subtle enemies are often well-meaning family members or friends who want the best for us (and themselves) but do not understand our mission and all the risks, sacrifices, and bravery it requires. They may say something like: ‘Oh, yes, go for it: start your yoga business. You are so smart and well-educated, even if it doesn’t work out, you’ll definitely find a job later.’ Such statements may sound supportive, yet they sow the seeds of doubt and hence constitute attacks that can potentially be just as harmful as a karate punch to the face. The more we rise on the chakra ladder and the more we become attuned, the more we need to defend ourselves and the less we can allow others – and weaker parts within ourselves – to sidetrack us.
Joanne, as she liberated herself from social and family expectation, finally quit her draining job, studied, and went into nursing. ‘I’m happy’ she reflected. ‘Really happy. Lot of things have happened since we started. Before, my environment swallowed me in, I needed change. Since, it has been a great adventure.’
The human soul is in search of adventure. It is not to be satisfied with mere comfort, convenience, and safety – but wants to break out to find the majesty and mystery of life. At the level of the higher chakras, the individual becomes ready to disengage from socially conditioned behaviours, old patterns, and the need for external validation; instead, it becomes intrinsically motivated. This internal power is strengthened through the connection of the sixth chakra, traditionally known as the third eye.
Joanne, a Taiwanese-American woman in her early 40s, is a thyroid cancer survivor, whose illness and recovery was like a near-death experience that reset her values in life. From wanting title, power, and money, she went in search of meaning. During her quest, she noticed that parental expectations still hindered her. They kept her in a job that became ‘unbearable’ for her as well as compelled her to keep her relationship status hidden. In a series of past lives we traced her journey from socially compliant self-sabotage to developing independence. Her physical healing went parallel to her spiritual healing: The cancer that physically attacked her throat chakra region corresponded with karmic issues relating to self-expression and living her authentic Self.
Joanne: Learning to Learn
- The Elephant Abuser. In a life in Thailand, he grew up as a little boy with a familiar elephant who was his friend. However, as he grew older, he used the animal for monetary gains and when the elephant grew too old for commercial use, he got rid of him. In a follow-up session, Joanne remarked that the elephant might be symbolic for herself, for she felt that ‘nothing in this world can hurt me more than I do.’
- The Dream Romance. This recall felt like from a ‘very familiar dream state’ in which she was waiting for her lover to come with whom she had a great relationship. The remembrance made her cry, perhaps because this was a longing for something she did not have in her current life. More tears were flowing, when the past romance was cut short by her sudden and untimely death. ‘I don’t want to go’ was her thought in the moment of death. Afterwards, that life became repetitive. The two lovers were going over this kind of experience again and again.
- The Monk Herbalist. A monk, who loved to grow his herbs, was always visited by many people – who came ‘more for his enthusiasm than his healing knowledge.’ He had a powerful connection with plants that allowed him to live a simple yet thoroughly satisfactory life. He did not need to worry about making ends meet, as he was doing what he loved, which gave him a powerful spiritual protection that ‘felt like magic.’
- The Military Sailor. A soldier, who wanted to be a teacher, was enlisted in the army and sent to sea. He spent his spare time reading and when he finally went home, he took care of his elderly parents. He died with the wish to do ‘something else, too.’ All throughout this time he felt guilty, for he had been kind of waiting for his parents to die so that he can have his life back. But even after their demise, he did not do anything more with his life. Through the life-review, he learned that even though he had good intentions, that was not enough. He needed more knowledge.
- The Current Boyfriend. In her current life, Joanna developed a long-distance relationship with a younger man from her home country. While she was collecting the courage to tell her family about this romance, the boyfriend broke up with her. She felt, he was teaching her about something important she had to learn in this life: to gain independence and learn courage. Eventually, as she travelled to see him and have a proper closure in person, she began to experience life independently in a way that seemed ‘so exciting.’
- The Contradictory Future. In her first future life progression, Joanne saw herself being back in her home town, where her family needed her, working a job in the banking business which she did not enjoy but was ‘capable of doing well.’ Her Higher Self pointed out the contradiction in this vision, how she was living a life for validation which was not fully authentic. (Note that The Military Sailor was also sacrificing his authentic life for the homeland and for his parents: There was a danger of repeating the same mistaken pattern in this life, also.)
- The Best Future. In her second future life progression – that we conducted after working with her problem part seeking her parent’s validation – Joanne saw her best future. She was being both married and having mastered nursing skills, she took part in an interdisciplinary project on holistic medicine.
Joanne’s trajectory showed her main karmic challenge as it unfolded life after life, layer upon layer. In order to be of meaningful service to others, she first has to find her authentic expression and life’s work.
In the process of our spiritual awakening, many of us come to the understanding that helping and servicing others with love is part of our work. However, a poorly understood sense of obligation or half-hearted engagement can do more harm than good. If outdated social obligations (like Isha) or family ties that linger on even after the death of the parents (like the Military Sailor in Joanne’s past) hold one back from doing their own work, only resentment arises. ‘Good intention is not enough’ Joanne commented at one point ‘you really have to mean it. Only if you really mean it, can you help others. Because to do so on the surface is really not enough… just wanting to be a good daughter or something. Actually, for me this time around, it is not about helping others, but to gain knowledge, work on my skills, and work in a team.’ When Joanne reflected on her experience, she said a part of her just wished her dying mother to go, liberating her from the debilitating family situation she found herself in. This wasn’t a sentiment she welcomed but accepting it brought her closer to understanding the importance of her own calling, which at this point was to become a skilled and learned nurse.
Pursuing one’s calling requires the setting of healthy boundaries, sometimes towards those who are closest to us. Martial artist Ian Abernethy, who applies lessons from karate training to personal development, talks about friendly foes.i These subtle enemies are often well-meaning family members or friends who want the best for us (and themselves) but do not understand our mission and all the risks, sacrifices, and bravery it requires. They may say something like: ‘Oh, yes, go for it: start your yoga business. You are so smart and well-educated, even if it doesn’t work out, you’ll definitely find a job later.’ Such statements may sound supportive, yet they sow the seeds of doubt and hence constitute attacks that can potentially be just as harmful as a karate punch to the face. The more we rise on the chakra ladder and the more we become attuned, the more we need to defend ourselves and the less we can allow others – and weaker parts within ourselves – to sidetrack us.
Joanne, as she liberated herself from social and family expectation, finally quit her draining job, studied, and went into nursing. ‘I’m happy’ she reflected. ‘Really happy. Lot of things have happened since we started. Before, my environment swallowed me in, I needed change. Since, it has been a great adventure.’
The human soul is in search of adventure. It is not to be satisfied with mere comfort, convenience, and safety – but wants to break out to find the majesty and mystery of life. At the level of the higher chakras, the individual becomes ready to disengage from socially conditioned behaviours, old patterns, and the need for external validation; instead, it becomes intrinsically motivated. This internal power is strengthened through the connection of the sixth chakra, traditionally known as the third eye.
6. Chakra – The Third Eye: Connecting to Mystery
Once I conducted a series of regression sessions with a woman who remembered being a maid in a castle. She spent most of her time sweeping the kitchen floor. When I asked her to go forward in time to the next significant event in that life, she reported a change in the floor pattern. This dull existence continued not only until death but for multiple lifetimes afterwards. Hers was a case of existential repetition, with the same pattern repeated on loop over lifetimes – so dull that it was painful to listen to: kitchen, floor, sweeping, next kitchen, next floor, more sweeping. At last, I asked her to move her awareness to a life where something actually changed this routine. The memory of a modern life came up. Even though that life began the same way, something changed her path forever. It did not seem to be a big event: One day, while she went out shopping, someone handed her a flyer for a meditation event. She decided to go and that became the turning point for her to move away from the mundane and search for the mystery of life.
These days, we are all living in a modern, as Charles Taylor called it, ‘disenchanted world of matter and mechanism’ where the leading paradigm prompts us to believe that the search for the magic and mystery of life is a luxury at best, an illusion and insanity at worst. However, there are courageous souls out there, who know that this shall not be the ultimate truth. Modern psychology came a long way from forefathers who based their approaches on Cartesian rationalism and sometimes declared the entire interior world as non-existent (like Skinner). In current, transpersonal psychology and beyond, we consider encountering the mystery psychologically essential because – as Bill Plotkin said – ‘it draws us beyond the narrow confines of the ego and into the realm of greater possibilities and connection with soul.’
The search for the mystery and miracle of life is an unfolding process that spans over multitudes of lives. The legendary opening of the third eye – the sixth chakra located in between the eyebrows – relates to perceptions outside of the ordinary physical world. An active third eye connects to the intuitive, inspirational worlds of higher dimensions. It gives the individual powers of real magic, i.e. when changes made within (in the internal, invisible world) are creating changes without (in the material world).
Rosinda in her current life is a journalist and writer from Switzerland, whose interest is in the occult, hidden forces that govern our existence. Her entire life, she harboured the elusive feeling that she has not only lived before but possessed a type of knowledge that she currently cannot access. Her novels tap into this potential, hence she wanted to know about the deeper meaning of writing her books and find new access to the old magic. Her first regression session took us back to rural 14th century. She saw herself as a 12-year-old, naive girl, in a white dress.
Rosinda: On the Way to Magic
Meeting a person who exudes magic – who has internal mastery over thoughts, sentiments, and energies – frequently serves as an initiatory event on the path of conscious evolution. (For example, we remember the maid with the dull routine of cleaning kitchen floors until she encountered a meditation teacher. In lives to follow, her consciousness became aware of environmental issues and she began to help ‘clean up’ the whole planet.)
In Rosinda’s case, the little girl in the white dress, after having met the magician, stayed in tune with the ‘deeper knowledge about life.’ In subsequent incarnations, she had two different kinds of experiences. At times, she gained access to deeper knowledge (sometimes forgotten and fragmented), at other time, her consciousness suffered an inhibition to practising this knowledge. We shall now have a look at both types of lives.
- Fragments of a Forgotten Knowledge. In one session, Rosinda remembered the life of a man travelling in leather boots and riding trousers to an 18th century German city. There, he was to study music with an old Italian master. He already knew music, what he learned from him was something very special:
‘It’s a sacred kind of knowledge about the combination of sound and rhythm that creates joy. People who can get into this state, can ask for anything (healing of the body, creating changes in their lives etc). It is something very deep that goes into the cells, a kind of magnetism.’
Later, he got employed by a prince and became Kapellmeister in his castle. The wife (or daughter?) of the prince understood this magic and felt much better through it. The two become lovers until he needed to return to Italy. But he could feel that a mission was fulfilled: He has found this magic again.
- Memories of a Sacred Past. In this ancient life, going back to mythological times, Rosinda saw herself as a woman of around 40 years of age, wearing robes and going to an important meeting. People were worried, as there was a change – a change of energy.
- Fear of Magic. Rosinda’s past lives shed light on how some of these blockages came into being. In the next session, she remembered a life as a reluctant young monk, who was sent to the monastery by his parents. In his childhood, he had been in contact with a forest hermit who practised natural magic and had quite an influence on reality (like making rain, calling animals, and causing flowers to bloom). Once in the monastery, the monk had no one to talk to about such things – until one day, a rich, married woman came to visit the convent who knew about magic. First shy and fearful, she gradually opened up to him. Even though they remained ‘just friends,’ they had to be very careful – and it all went really wrong at the end.
- The Knights Templar. In another past life, we found further events that lead to inhibitions of magic. A young man, who came from a rich and powerful family, got easy admission into the Catholic military order. Like so many, he was too quickly initiated as power and prestige has become more important than proper preparation and deeper understandings about the nature of reality and all matter being energy. Instead of receiving deep teachings, he witnessed political upheaval, important members were being arrested, and finally, the pope abolished the order. Being warned by an important family member, he escaped but was made to promise not to say anything to the others when they were persecuted. Eventually, he died feeling that he had betrayed his friends. This is what came to him after death:
‘I still feel that failure. I can see the other members who were tortured and killed. I’m afraid to look at them, as they look at me in a reproachful way. I feel I’ll have to pay…’
- The Selfless Disciple. In a next life, in which he was no longer rich and powerful. He was sent by his peasant father to a castle as a servant. He grew up very ignorant, yet retained a feeling of being different. He was attracted to books and knowledge which his master found amusing – but he still wouldn’t teach him anything. Still, when the master contracted a contagious illness, the boy was fearless enough to stay with him. Eventually, he also got sick and died – but through his sacrifice a certain knowledge came through:
‘I understand something – something beyond logic. At times before, I learned this theoretically, now it’s real. It is related to compassion. It is the understanding that if you relate occult knowledge to vanity and ambition, you can’t continue with it. It is spiritual knowledge: Only if you relate to it with compassion, can it unfold – and that requires the strength and courage of a warrior as well as the sacred commitment of a monk.’
- The Boy Who Saw. After the servant died, as a result of his selflessness, his consciousness experienced a new kind of freedom during the in-between-life state, having paid the debt of betraying his friends before. He was reborn with new opportunities opening up: He became a boy with energetic sensitivities who could see spirits and ghosts, even feel the secret feelings of people. Later, however, he lost his abilities due to the influence of a teacher and his parents’ wish for him to study law. At the end of the session, his Higher Self revealed that his inability to stand up for what he perceived and believed in was connected to his unwillingness to look at his dark (shadow) side.
- The Sensitive Soldier. In a life during the first world war, he was a student of literature and an aspiring writer but taken as a soldier. On the battlefield, he got severely wounded and died, away from his beloved home and grandmother. In the bardo state it was revealed that this life ended early – almost in a way of spiritual suicide – because his entanglement with the Nazi party was so strong that had he produced any writing, it could have never been free from that harmful ideology.
Journeying through Rosinda’s karmic past, coupled with a few sessions exploring her future potential, gave us some key ideas how her past mistakes and weaknesses can be turned into strengths. Her Higher Self advised her to take time alone in nature, so that she develop deeper bonds with spiritual guides, instead of losing contact with the invisible world, as she did in the past. Her writing will be aided by non-physical helpers, so that it does not become ‘too intellectual’ but a magical tool to spread the knowledge about the ultimate nature of reality. (To write in fiction format is important, as her books will contain potentially shocking revelations people might not believe if given directly, for instance about subtle energies or recognising and changing energy fields.) Further, she was encouraged not to allow others to influence her (like teachers and parents have done in the past), rather have more independence from external judgement.
Rosinda’s past and future life sessions brought to light a wealth of knowledge about the magic and mystery in life. Using magic for selfish purposes or for power and prestige will inhibit it, as would one’s entanglement in harmful ideologies (such as Nazism) or the inability to stand up (even against teachers and family) for one’s own perception and truth. Selfless compassion, however, will fertilise the soil from which the acorn will grow into a majestic tree.
Thus, magic – the ability to create changes within to effect changes without – does not unfold in a linear, objective way, like physical events, but responds to changes in thoughts, sentiments, and attitudes. The German writer Michael Ende, known for his philosophical storytelling, put this into beautiful words when he said that the great secrets of the universe have their own way to protect themselves: They appear only to those who are willing to be transformed by them. This transformation occurs ultimately when the individual connects itself to the divine.
These days, we are all living in a modern, as Charles Taylor called it, ‘disenchanted world of matter and mechanism’ where the leading paradigm prompts us to believe that the search for the magic and mystery of life is a luxury at best, an illusion and insanity at worst. However, there are courageous souls out there, who know that this shall not be the ultimate truth. Modern psychology came a long way from forefathers who based their approaches on Cartesian rationalism and sometimes declared the entire interior world as non-existent (like Skinner). In current, transpersonal psychology and beyond, we consider encountering the mystery psychologically essential because – as Bill Plotkin said – ‘it draws us beyond the narrow confines of the ego and into the realm of greater possibilities and connection with soul.’
The search for the mystery and miracle of life is an unfolding process that spans over multitudes of lives. The legendary opening of the third eye – the sixth chakra located in between the eyebrows – relates to perceptions outside of the ordinary physical world. An active third eye connects to the intuitive, inspirational worlds of higher dimensions. It gives the individual powers of real magic, i.e. when changes made within (in the internal, invisible world) are creating changes without (in the material world).
Rosinda in her current life is a journalist and writer from Switzerland, whose interest is in the occult, hidden forces that govern our existence. Her entire life, she harboured the elusive feeling that she has not only lived before but possessed a type of knowledge that she currently cannot access. Her novels tap into this potential, hence she wanted to know about the deeper meaning of writing her books and find new access to the old magic. Her first regression session took us back to rural 14th century. She saw herself as a 12-year-old, naive girl, in a white dress.
Rosinda: On the Way to Magic
- There’s a house, in the forest. The forest is full of animals, full of life, full of secrets. A black bird gives me advice and shows me a very clear path through the mountains. Eventually I go into the valley. There are people. I change my dress to look more normal but I’m not really one of them. My relationships are very superficial as most people are talking about normal things which is very boring to me.
- Do you ever find anyone with whom you can have a relationship that is not superficial?
- I see someone. A kind of magician.
- How did you meet this magician?
- In town. The streets there are very narrow and the houses dark, with very small windows. This wasn’t a planned meeting. I just saw the magician sitting in front of his house. He talked to me. He was wise and knowledgeable. He said that life was not about what my parents and other people said about. It wasn’t pre-determined or random. He told me that life is eternal and we make our own lives. I learned a lot from him but I had to be cautious and keep it all in secret, as he had a bad reputation.
- What happened at the end?
- Soldiers were coming. They killed me but in a way I was happy, as I knew now that there will be another life. Of course, I was afraid and felt pain but I didn’t find it so unfair and I didn’t become desperate.
- What was your prevalent thought or feeling in the moment of your death?
- I had the feeling of coming back to the forest. It was a familiar thing and a happy return, as now I am no longer so naive and have a purpose: to spread that deeper knowledge about life.
Meeting a person who exudes magic – who has internal mastery over thoughts, sentiments, and energies – frequently serves as an initiatory event on the path of conscious evolution. (For example, we remember the maid with the dull routine of cleaning kitchen floors until she encountered a meditation teacher. In lives to follow, her consciousness became aware of environmental issues and she began to help ‘clean up’ the whole planet.)
In Rosinda’s case, the little girl in the white dress, after having met the magician, stayed in tune with the ‘deeper knowledge about life.’ In subsequent incarnations, she had two different kinds of experiences. At times, she gained access to deeper knowledge (sometimes forgotten and fragmented), at other time, her consciousness suffered an inhibition to practising this knowledge. We shall now have a look at both types of lives.
- Fragments of a Forgotten Knowledge. In one session, Rosinda remembered the life of a man travelling in leather boots and riding trousers to an 18th century German city. There, he was to study music with an old Italian master. He already knew music, what he learned from him was something very special:
‘It’s a sacred kind of knowledge about the combination of sound and rhythm that creates joy. People who can get into this state, can ask for anything (healing of the body, creating changes in their lives etc). It is something very deep that goes into the cells, a kind of magnetism.’
Later, he got employed by a prince and became Kapellmeister in his castle. The wife (or daughter?) of the prince understood this magic and felt much better through it. The two become lovers until he needed to return to Italy. But he could feel that a mission was fulfilled: He has found this magic again.
- Memories of a Sacred Past. In this ancient life, going back to mythological times, Rosinda saw herself as a woman of around 40 years of age, wearing robes and going to an important meeting. People were worried, as there was a change – a change of energy.
- How would you describe it?
- Magic doesn’t work any more. There is a shifting of planes occurring. We can no longer reach the planes we were used to. Before the change, people had access to a dimension in which they could see the future, travel in time, and people were immortal. Now, supreme forces have decided to restrict that access and all society is falling apart. People are lost, some go insane or die. Before the change, there was magical technology to spread joy through sounds, chanting, and repeating of mantras.
- [Calling the Higher Self.] Can this ancient sacred knowledge be accessed today?
- Now it is difficult to attune, as there is a lot of interference people would have to bypass first – layers of guilt, sorrow, anger, a lot of negativity. We need a lot of courage, positivity, and faith to remove the blockages.
- Fear of Magic. Rosinda’s past lives shed light on how some of these blockages came into being. In the next session, she remembered a life as a reluctant young monk, who was sent to the monastery by his parents. In his childhood, he had been in contact with a forest hermit who practised natural magic and had quite an influence on reality (like making rain, calling animals, and causing flowers to bloom). Once in the monastery, the monk had no one to talk to about such things – until one day, a rich, married woman came to visit the convent who knew about magic. First shy and fearful, she gradually opened up to him. Even though they remained ‘just friends,’ they had to be very careful – and it all went really wrong at the end.
- I thought I could make something happen to change our lives but it went wrong and we were caught by the church. Magic is not meant to be used for egotistical reasons but I wanted it just for her and me. There was a trial and we were burnt. It was horrible, especially my feeling of guilt, as I felt responsible for her death, too.
- What was your thought in the moment of your death?
- That I would never again do magic!
- The Knights Templar. In another past life, we found further events that lead to inhibitions of magic. A young man, who came from a rich and powerful family, got easy admission into the Catholic military order. Like so many, he was too quickly initiated as power and prestige has become more important than proper preparation and deeper understandings about the nature of reality and all matter being energy. Instead of receiving deep teachings, he witnessed political upheaval, important members were being arrested, and finally, the pope abolished the order. Being warned by an important family member, he escaped but was made to promise not to say anything to the others when they were persecuted. Eventually, he died feeling that he had betrayed his friends. This is what came to him after death:
‘I still feel that failure. I can see the other members who were tortured and killed. I’m afraid to look at them, as they look at me in a reproachful way. I feel I’ll have to pay…’
- The Selfless Disciple. In a next life, in which he was no longer rich and powerful. He was sent by his peasant father to a castle as a servant. He grew up very ignorant, yet retained a feeling of being different. He was attracted to books and knowledge which his master found amusing – but he still wouldn’t teach him anything. Still, when the master contracted a contagious illness, the boy was fearless enough to stay with him. Eventually, he also got sick and died – but through his sacrifice a certain knowledge came through:
‘I understand something – something beyond logic. At times before, I learned this theoretically, now it’s real. It is related to compassion. It is the understanding that if you relate occult knowledge to vanity and ambition, you can’t continue with it. It is spiritual knowledge: Only if you relate to it with compassion, can it unfold – and that requires the strength and courage of a warrior as well as the sacred commitment of a monk.’
- The Boy Who Saw. After the servant died, as a result of his selflessness, his consciousness experienced a new kind of freedom during the in-between-life state, having paid the debt of betraying his friends before. He was reborn with new opportunities opening up: He became a boy with energetic sensitivities who could see spirits and ghosts, even feel the secret feelings of people. Later, however, he lost his abilities due to the influence of a teacher and his parents’ wish for him to study law. At the end of the session, his Higher Self revealed that his inability to stand up for what he perceived and believed in was connected to his unwillingness to look at his dark (shadow) side.
- The Sensitive Soldier. In a life during the first world war, he was a student of literature and an aspiring writer but taken as a soldier. On the battlefield, he got severely wounded and died, away from his beloved home and grandmother. In the bardo state it was revealed that this life ended early – almost in a way of spiritual suicide – because his entanglement with the Nazi party was so strong that had he produced any writing, it could have never been free from that harmful ideology.
Journeying through Rosinda’s karmic past, coupled with a few sessions exploring her future potential, gave us some key ideas how her past mistakes and weaknesses can be turned into strengths. Her Higher Self advised her to take time alone in nature, so that she develop deeper bonds with spiritual guides, instead of losing contact with the invisible world, as she did in the past. Her writing will be aided by non-physical helpers, so that it does not become ‘too intellectual’ but a magical tool to spread the knowledge about the ultimate nature of reality. (To write in fiction format is important, as her books will contain potentially shocking revelations people might not believe if given directly, for instance about subtle energies or recognising and changing energy fields.) Further, she was encouraged not to allow others to influence her (like teachers and parents have done in the past), rather have more independence from external judgement.
Rosinda’s past and future life sessions brought to light a wealth of knowledge about the magic and mystery in life. Using magic for selfish purposes or for power and prestige will inhibit it, as would one’s entanglement in harmful ideologies (such as Nazism) or the inability to stand up (even against teachers and family) for one’s own perception and truth. Selfless compassion, however, will fertilise the soil from which the acorn will grow into a majestic tree.
Thus, magic – the ability to create changes within to effect changes without – does not unfold in a linear, objective way, like physical events, but responds to changes in thoughts, sentiments, and attitudes. The German writer Michael Ende, known for his philosophical storytelling, put this into beautiful words when he said that the great secrets of the universe have their own way to protect themselves: They appear only to those who are willing to be transformed by them. This transformation occurs ultimately when the individual connects itself to the divine.
7. Chakra – Connecting to the Divine
Once the obstacles to the magic and mystery of life have largely been cleared out, energy can rise to the seventh of the chakras, located at the top of the head. This chakra is the entry point to the divine, whether we call it God, the Tao, or Cosmic Energy – there is something from higher worlds that can flow from above into the human energy system.i Those (rare) humans who have permanently opened this portal live from a very different reality than the rest of us. They are the true initiates of the Soul who have consciously renounced their worldly ego-identity and transplanted their true home into the realm of eternity. They live what Bill Plotkin, psychologist and wilderness guide, calls their mythopoetic identity. This identity is no longer determined by any worldly role, status, or job title but the unique ecological niche that person is meant to fill in order to best serve not only the human but the entire living community of the world.iThis identity is a personal energy pattern that cannot be directly described by words rather through symbolic and artistic language, like poetry, music, and dance.
Maya: In Search of the Miraculous
Maya, a mystical theatre writer and performer in her current life, remembered a series of past lives, in which – like Rosinda – she went in search of the miraculous. During her karmic pilgrimage, various symbols, animals, and nature energies guided her path.
- The Serpentine Ring. A boy, born in a forested region in Middle-Europe, inherited a family ring featuring the head of a serpent. The family, though carried the ring, did not know about its power and the boy himself only discovered it later. During a hike, the earth tore open underneath him and he slid down into a subterranean system of passages and corridors. Eventually, he found a kind of altar, featuring a Raven whose eyes could see everything. He felt the Raven observing him and intuitively knew that from now on nothing would remain hidden. After ascending pyramid-like stairs, back into the forest through an iron gate, he became a hermit monk. Like Francis of Assisi, he lived in nature and remained in a state of grace. He loved this contemplative life but as a young man he also had plenty of second chakra (sexual) energy, which he eventually learned to channel through his energy body upwards. This orgasmic energy could fertilise all of his environment – not just a woman but all life around him. Later in this life, he went into a city where he observed the lives of common men and contemplated the futility of everything they were doing, like bad actors fooling around on a stage. This confirmed to him that the real world was out there in the forest. At the end, he felt grateful that he followed his inner voice and went to live in the wilderness. He died peacefully, with no regrets.
- Order of the Raven. In continuation of the hermit monk’s sacred life, during a next incarnation as a young man renouncing married life, he founded the Order of the Raven [which Maya identifies as the Pálos Order]. Here, he underwent the rigorous initiation of being buried alive in a coffin for many days. After waves of pain and suffering from both physical and etheric torments, he began to have visions of being connected to the wisdom of various heavenly bodies, most notably Uranus, who shared with him the state of boundlessness.
- Camino de San Salvador. During a pilgrimage in her present life, Maya was caught in a frightening storm atop a high mountain in Northern Spain. It was there that she ‘learned to pray’ wholeheartedly ‘Thy will be done.’ This was a powerful momentum, moving her towards Soul. In this state of surrender, she embraced the protection of the Universe, with all its nourishing as well as destructive energies. By releasing the Ego’s illusion of control, Maya could become a transcendental medium-actress, serving as a channel through which higher messages flow to her audience through her. In that way, her words carry more than their meaning. They become seeds for future creations.
Maya moved beyond life as dictated by social expectations and listened instead to the call of her Soul. Those who have ascended along the human energy ladder, gain access to a world that is larger-than-human. Their primary perception of themselves is often not a human identity, more a form of energy that connects to a greater web of life. The following quotes come from clients who have perceived themselves in energetic terms during sessions. As we’ll see, this energetic perception helps to channel higher (divine) essence into one’s Self. It can also be relevant when connecting to the future. If we believe that the future can be fundamentally different from the past, it makes little sense to visualise the future in exact pictures. (That would limit the scope of the future to whatever is thought possible today.) Instead, it can be invaluable to connect to the energy of one’s highest possible future.
Maria: Connecting to the Energy of the Stars
‘The stars have taken me home. Here I see my true essence. I’m energy wrapped in a ball of light. Beings of light surround me: a cat of light, a dragon of bright yellow. I’m at Jupiter. Floating, levitating, I’m happy here.’
[Later on reflection:]
‘This was a profound experience. Now I’m looking at things completely differently. I’m placing more value on loving and loving deeply. Also, I have more energy. I have access to ‘őserő’ (primordial power), no longer thinking: oh no, I gotta do this, rather how amazing that I gotta do this.’
Oliver: Voice from the Heart
‘My voice needs to come from the deepest heart, the spiritual heart… where the heart meets the energetic channel that goes through the spine and where divinity enters the lower dimensions. That’s where the resonance comes from… to a deeper, bigger truth that can be delivered by the human mind. The resonance that comes from the heart is less about words, more about sounds. Sometimes it comes in the form of gibberish, a particular dialect of gibberish spoken by Oliver.’
Kai: Getting into the ‘Dancing Energy’
‘When you connect to your highest possible future, let go of any particular idea what life should exactly look like. Details don’t matter as much as the energetic experience. Twenty years ago you couldn’t imagine your life now, so you shouldn’t imagine exactly your life twenty years from now, that would limit your possibilities to your current awareness. Focus on the energetic experience when you have the words and presence that creates real connection to people. Get into your dancing energy – with it, the experience of life itself changes.’
At this high chakra level – at the transpersonal and transcendental level of human perception – cognitive, conceptual identities of oneself and reality tend to fall away. Instead, primary awareness shifts to the energies that make up people, events, and processes. Cecilia, who has a long karmic history of finding God, used to experience her existence in a recurring dream as a wave.
Cecilia – The Wave
In many lives before, she felt that ‘God called her’ to ‘follow and serve others.’ To be a role model, by sharing divine love with others. ‘Through heart and heaven’ so she was instructed ‘you can connect to strength. The more you love, the more love you’ll perceive.’ The state of love she achieved in one of her lives she described as follows:
‘I felt 5000% love. That’s so much that you can hardly contain it in your body. You just want to run out and shout to everyone: ‘Just choose love and see how happy everything will be!’ […] But many could not do it. They had a fear to love. A hardness. They held themselves back. They could not let go of controlling themselves. We humans are guilty of… limiting God.’
Cecilia’s overall experience of how much love we could perceive and share, yet how much we limit that flow of love, sums up the counter-force that seemingly resists our evolution. Psychologically speaking, these are the shadow forces that are just as inherent in our existence as our development is. Understanding them is just as important as building our resources, for in the shadow hides our hidden potential.
Therefore, to the understanding of the shadow, we shall dedicate our next chapter.
Maya: In Search of the Miraculous
Maya, a mystical theatre writer and performer in her current life, remembered a series of past lives, in which – like Rosinda – she went in search of the miraculous. During her karmic pilgrimage, various symbols, animals, and nature energies guided her path.
- The Serpentine Ring. A boy, born in a forested region in Middle-Europe, inherited a family ring featuring the head of a serpent. The family, though carried the ring, did not know about its power and the boy himself only discovered it later. During a hike, the earth tore open underneath him and he slid down into a subterranean system of passages and corridors. Eventually, he found a kind of altar, featuring a Raven whose eyes could see everything. He felt the Raven observing him and intuitively knew that from now on nothing would remain hidden. After ascending pyramid-like stairs, back into the forest through an iron gate, he became a hermit monk. Like Francis of Assisi, he lived in nature and remained in a state of grace. He loved this contemplative life but as a young man he also had plenty of second chakra (sexual) energy, which he eventually learned to channel through his energy body upwards. This orgasmic energy could fertilise all of his environment – not just a woman but all life around him. Later in this life, he went into a city where he observed the lives of common men and contemplated the futility of everything they were doing, like bad actors fooling around on a stage. This confirmed to him that the real world was out there in the forest. At the end, he felt grateful that he followed his inner voice and went to live in the wilderness. He died peacefully, with no regrets.
- Order of the Raven. In continuation of the hermit monk’s sacred life, during a next incarnation as a young man renouncing married life, he founded the Order of the Raven [which Maya identifies as the Pálos Order]. Here, he underwent the rigorous initiation of being buried alive in a coffin for many days. After waves of pain and suffering from both physical and etheric torments, he began to have visions of being connected to the wisdom of various heavenly bodies, most notably Uranus, who shared with him the state of boundlessness.
- Camino de San Salvador. During a pilgrimage in her present life, Maya was caught in a frightening storm atop a high mountain in Northern Spain. It was there that she ‘learned to pray’ wholeheartedly ‘Thy will be done.’ This was a powerful momentum, moving her towards Soul. In this state of surrender, she embraced the protection of the Universe, with all its nourishing as well as destructive energies. By releasing the Ego’s illusion of control, Maya could become a transcendental medium-actress, serving as a channel through which higher messages flow to her audience through her. In that way, her words carry more than their meaning. They become seeds for future creations.
Maya moved beyond life as dictated by social expectations and listened instead to the call of her Soul. Those who have ascended along the human energy ladder, gain access to a world that is larger-than-human. Their primary perception of themselves is often not a human identity, more a form of energy that connects to a greater web of life. The following quotes come from clients who have perceived themselves in energetic terms during sessions. As we’ll see, this energetic perception helps to channel higher (divine) essence into one’s Self. It can also be relevant when connecting to the future. If we believe that the future can be fundamentally different from the past, it makes little sense to visualise the future in exact pictures. (That would limit the scope of the future to whatever is thought possible today.) Instead, it can be invaluable to connect to the energy of one’s highest possible future.
Maria: Connecting to the Energy of the Stars
‘The stars have taken me home. Here I see my true essence. I’m energy wrapped in a ball of light. Beings of light surround me: a cat of light, a dragon of bright yellow. I’m at Jupiter. Floating, levitating, I’m happy here.’
[Later on reflection:]
‘This was a profound experience. Now I’m looking at things completely differently. I’m placing more value on loving and loving deeply. Also, I have more energy. I have access to ‘őserő’ (primordial power), no longer thinking: oh no, I gotta do this, rather how amazing that I gotta do this.’
Oliver: Voice from the Heart
‘My voice needs to come from the deepest heart, the spiritual heart… where the heart meets the energetic channel that goes through the spine and where divinity enters the lower dimensions. That’s where the resonance comes from… to a deeper, bigger truth that can be delivered by the human mind. The resonance that comes from the heart is less about words, more about sounds. Sometimes it comes in the form of gibberish, a particular dialect of gibberish spoken by Oliver.’
Kai: Getting into the ‘Dancing Energy’
‘When you connect to your highest possible future, let go of any particular idea what life should exactly look like. Details don’t matter as much as the energetic experience. Twenty years ago you couldn’t imagine your life now, so you shouldn’t imagine exactly your life twenty years from now, that would limit your possibilities to your current awareness. Focus on the energetic experience when you have the words and presence that creates real connection to people. Get into your dancing energy – with it, the experience of life itself changes.’
At this high chakra level – at the transpersonal and transcendental level of human perception – cognitive, conceptual identities of oneself and reality tend to fall away. Instead, primary awareness shifts to the energies that make up people, events, and processes. Cecilia, who has a long karmic history of finding God, used to experience her existence in a recurring dream as a wave.
Cecilia – The Wave
- I am in the world – not any one place. I see as far as I can see – dark blue – looking as far as you can see, all coming towards you, like a wave, a dark blue wave. Coming up and towards me, but I do not get wet. There’s another wave and another. With it comes the knowledge and the energy. It’s all very peaceful, nobody is here, this is not a physical experience. I have no size, I’m more like a particle. I forced myself out [of this dream], because I was about to receive something – but I wasn’t ready yet.
- What was stopping the energy from coming in?
- I’m getting the hints, it’s society’s expectations, not being able to let go of material things, my son, my mum being unhappy (‘My husband died, I’m so alone’), others stuck in anger, surrounded by people like that in my life, loneliness...
In many lives before, she felt that ‘God called her’ to ‘follow and serve others.’ To be a role model, by sharing divine love with others. ‘Through heart and heaven’ so she was instructed ‘you can connect to strength. The more you love, the more love you’ll perceive.’ The state of love she achieved in one of her lives she described as follows:
‘I felt 5000% love. That’s so much that you can hardly contain it in your body. You just want to run out and shout to everyone: ‘Just choose love and see how happy everything will be!’ […] But many could not do it. They had a fear to love. A hardness. They held themselves back. They could not let go of controlling themselves. We humans are guilty of… limiting God.’
Cecilia’s overall experience of how much love we could perceive and share, yet how much we limit that flow of love, sums up the counter-force that seemingly resists our evolution. Psychologically speaking, these are the shadow forces that are just as inherent in our existence as our development is. Understanding them is just as important as building our resources, for in the shadow hides our hidden potential.
Therefore, to the understanding of the shadow, we shall dedicate our next chapter.